Episodes
Tuesday Sep 15, 2015
Humanism in Medicine - Decision Making
Tuesday Sep 15, 2015
Tuesday Sep 15, 2015
My husband recently had heart stents put in.
He’s had warning signs for years that he ignored: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and in the past year – increasing fatigue.
He finally ended up in the emergency room with chest pains.
We are fortunate that he’s ok and no damage was done.
Lots of people aren’t so lucky. Some have no warning at all.
The reason I want to share this is because we put my husband’s life at risk by not following the advice of his doctor.
This is partly because we couldn’t afford the medicine required, but also because we were in denial about his condition.
We didn’t want to believe that his health was really deteriorating or that there was anything we could do to improve it.
We should have paid attention to the science.
We should have allowed the experts to inform our decision making and instead, we ignored them out of fear and irrational hope.
Humanism in medicine isn’t just about making sure that care providers treat patients as fully human.
It’s also about using the best knowledge we have to treat people.
We are Humanists and we ignored the best information there was.
When it comes to your health, trust the experts and the science and don’t ignore the reality of your health out of fear.
We got lucky. We aren’t going to make that mistake again.
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
How to Love Someone.
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
Tuesday Jul 14, 2015
I was watching Star Talk the other day and a scientist, Helen Fisher, was on talking about the love.
Turns out that there are areas of the brain that activate when the brain is experiencing love and affection.
In fact, there are 3 systems that combine to create love.
The sex drive – the drive to reproduce with someone with compatible genes.
The romantic love system – which focuses our attention on 1 person at a time, which presumably helps us figure out how to satisfy the sex drive.
And attachment, which helps us feel secure in the relationship. We all need this.
Love is a combination of sexual drive, romantic focused attention and attachment.
What apparently makes love different from lust is that your attention is focused on one person!
Want to love someone? Focus your attention on them.
Help them feel secure in your presence by being a good ethical person who supports them.
And get with the sexy sexy.
Wednesday May 13, 2015
My Mom
Wednesday May 13, 2015
Wednesday May 13, 2015
This past weekend was mother’s day.
My mom had a tremendous impact on me.
She taught me to be fearless.
How to take responsibility for my contribution to any argument.
How to be an activist and to advocate for what is right.
And how to love unconditionally, even people I don’t necessarily agree with.
As a mom myself, I try to instill these same lessons in my son.
Am I succeeding? I hope so.
My son is only 9 so he still has a lot of learning and living to do.
As hard as it is, I think being a mom is one of the most important things I have ever done.
So to all you fellow moms out there – thank you.
Thank you for being part of the sisterhood of moms which I get to share with and commiserate with and learn from.
Wednesday Apr 15, 2015
Stress Awareness and Meditation
Wednesday Apr 15, 2015
Wednesday Apr 15, 2015
How stressed are you?
A lot? A little? Do you even know?
Stress is one of those double edged swords.
A little bit – the sweet spot – and we are prodded into action – to get things accomplished.
Too much and we overload and shut down and possibly freak out.
To me, part of growing up is learning how to harness and manage stress and how to reduce stress when needed.
That’s one of the reasons I meditate.
And yes, many Humanists meditate.
Learning how to consciously calm your mind is a really useful life skill, especially if you are stressed out a lot.
So stop stressing and take the time to learn about Humanist Meditation.
Go to HumanistLearning.com and check out our online courses in Humanist meditation.
Tuesday Mar 24, 2015
I’ve got a confession to make
Tuesday Mar 24, 2015
Tuesday Mar 24, 2015
God makes no difference to my morality.
This should come as no surprise since I’m a Humanist.
But I thought it was worth saying.
Here’s why.
If a god or gods exist or don’t exist, it doesn’t matter.
I will feel the same way about what is right or wrong.
My morality won’t change.
The only question is whether this god, whoever or whatever it turns out to be, agrees with my morality or not.
If we agree – then it’s all good and god won’t care if I don’t worship it as long as I am a good person.
If not, then that’s not a god I would consider worthy of worship.
Soooo, yeah, I guess that makes me officially apatheistic.
Now you know.
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