All Categories - PRISCILLA CL RAJ

Favor in Connections

1/17/2019

www.joelosteen.com/Pages/WatchOnline.aspx
Joel Osteen discusses the importance of finding favor in our connections
How do you feel when you hear- Erika just got a promotion, she has two beautiful children, she drives a Mercedes, and lives in a beautiful house.

It's easy to feed into discouragement, self-pity, and jealousy BUT
we need to get INSPIRED! We need to think, "Wow look at her blessed life. My life can be like that too if I keep the faith."

It is so easy to feed into negativity, but God is telling you that you need to feed into positivity! You need to think "Why was this person placed in my life at this time?"
"Am I suppose to get depressed that this person is successful and I'm not?"
Or "Am I suppose to learn from this opportunity?"

We have so much to learn from others success and while it may not make perfect sense we still need to respect the favor God places on other people. The annointing you respect is the annointing you will attract in your future.

When you think about your life and wonder, "Why is my life not like her?" "Why is she so successful and so blessed?" Just remember that YOUR TIME IS COMING. You are going to be just as successful as them as long as you keep on praying, believing, and demonstrating genuine happiness for other people. Maybe now is not your time, but it will be soon....it will soon be your time. Just be patient, be thankful for what you have, and look forward to what you have coming in your future.

Hello 2019!!!

1/10/2019

Hello 2019 and hello subscribers!
It has been a loooong time since I posted on this website and my apologies for not being present. I started my other website www.comeflywithpris.com and it has not been my greatest success. Wordpress is not really a good friend of my mine and I have had lot of difficulty with my blog and how things are getting posted. I have a tech guy who works on the site, but things get fixed and then go back to the same issues. Bigger, better, more expensive is not always the best!

Anyways, I'm working on what to do with that website this year and thought I would say "hello" to my Weebly site all created by myself that I am really proud of! I am proud of my little website that I made quite a few years ago.

How are you? How is the start to your New Year?? Wishing everyone Love, peace, happiness and of course a PURPOSEFUL year of self-growth, self-exploration, and giving back-helping others, being present, reading, traveling, listening to the needs/wants of others, volunteering, believing in something greater than yourself:)

Since I have been missing from this blog, I thought I would highlight my last year.

JANUARY 2018
Went to my hometown Buenos Aires, Argentina to pick up the belongings I left there with my amazing friend Rodrigo. I met him in Necochea- a beach city south of Buenos Aires. I had the most incredible New Years and first week of 2018 with him, his family, and friends. It was so peaceful, lovely, and I don't even know it it's possible to find a cuter family to live with....yeah not possible.
After this lovely time, I went to Mar del plata for 2 weeks and met a huge group of friends to spend my days with, going to the beach, going out at night, eating pizza, having a coffee, playing volleyball-another incredible 2 weeks.
It was beginning of February where I went to Pina Mar-another beach city in Argentina and I stayed with another lovely family.(I guess I'm addicted to that feeling of family). She was Indian(so we realllly got along well) and her husband was an Argentinian tennis player, and there son... well he was exactly what I would like my future son to look like-1 year old and the cutest. Their lifestyle was going to his family summer home, which was stunnning in this forest near the beach and then during the year he would travel to tennis tournaments in Europe and Asia with their little son as a family. A life I kind of picture for myself one day-it was quiet nice to see(not to mention they were both super good looking- I know, I know just saying.)

FEBRUARY 2018
Next, I went back to Buenos Aires, which was a ghost town because all the locals were on holiday and I started working on my visa to Bolivia, which took a whole lot longer than anticipated. My plan was to go to Bolivia and work on a social work project or with an NGO-there were quiet a few to choose from in Sucre, Bolivia so that was where I was going and that is where I ended up loving.

MARCH, APRIL, MAY 2018
After the month it took to get a visa, I ended up in Bolivia in March where I immediately started working with the San Juan de Dios hospital as a Occupational therapist with those with severe and persistent Mental illness.
For some who don't know, this population is my passion and I have several years experience working with this youth and adults so this was right up my alley.
I really cant emphasize how much I love South America and the type of people are so special, so beautiful, and so alive. It really was a magical experience as I was immersed into the country- staying with a Bolivian family, eating Bolivian food everyday, speaking Spanish, and spending time with my staff that were 100 percent local Bolivians.
San Juan de dios is ranked as the best hospital in Bolivia so it was great to be a part of the religious aspect(masses, festivals, and holidays) and the dance parties we had every Wednesday with all my clients. It was so great I didn't want to leave, but I had to go back to Chicago to earn some income because this was a 3.5 month volunteer job. I didn't earn money, but I earned an amazing experience that replaces any dollar one can earn.

JUNE 2018
Back to Chicago where I work until August

AUGUST, SEPTEMBER 2018
It is very rare for me to spend my birthday in the states. I try to travel to a new country every year and this year was time to revisit Europe and head to Portugal for my first time. August 4 to September 10 was a purely fun vacation from various cities in Portugal to Prague to Budapest to Krakow to Slovakia and back to Portugal. The beaches, the new friends, the food, the coffee, the nature, the sights, the history-it was all wonderful! I will definitely share some photos and pictures on this site someday in the near future!

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2018
Back to work in Chicago-not much to report as the holidays were spent working and I did not take any trips to the East coast:( I was invited for Thanksgiving and for my cousin's baby shower, but planning on visiting in February 2019.

90 MInutes In Heaven

3/2/2016

"90 Minutes in Heaven" is a best selling book, but it was also turned into a movie. A movie that being based around a religious Pastor who has an accident that changes his life.

It's a movie being based around pain-unimaginable pain and car wreck that shocked everyone he actually made it out alive. The movie is quite graphic basing it on his physical pain along with his emotional journey with his self and God.

But the pain was the main focus as most of the movie was based on him being in a hospital bed. The hardest part of this book and movie was reading and visually seeing the pain. 1 year of pain and positive moments of recovery, but going through moments of misery. What did this religious man do or say to put him in such excruciating pain?

Of course, the title "90 minutes in Heaven" indicates that he spent that time in heaven. There was meaning and purpose behind it to spend 90 divine moments in heaven with our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Seeing the long lost souls he lost connection with and unexpectedly never got to see again.

When or if we get the chance to see heaven, who would want to come back after witnessing a place so glorious? It's unreal to be able to experience such a place and then come back to earth singing and praising God in the back of a totaled and demolished car with a priest praying for him. Donald said that someone was holding his hand through this transition and who was holding his hand? Who was comforting and telling him don't worry you are going to live. It's not your time. You have a life of knowledge, experience and preaching to share.
When Donald crashed he was reading his notes to preach and listening to Christian music. He was alive at that time and praising God and in a split second God entered him into heaven and then the worst pain he will ever know.

He was 38 years old with three beautiful children and a loving and supporting wife. He had just discussed plans to start his own church before he entered the Kingdom of God in heaven.
When it comes to my thoughts, it's always hard to witness Gods people go through such pain and suffering. The learning experience to gain insight and share the experience with purpose is there, but why the worst pain?

Why does the woman get cancer?
The young preacher have a sudden heart attack?
The Sunday Christian school teacher and dedicated woman to charity and volunteering die from a sudden robbery or shooting?

Bad things happen to good people for the learning, but why such extremity? All I can say is that they all have, not just 90 minutes in heaven, but a lifetime. And from what Donald says we should know that speaking for all of us that are religious and committed to Jesus, we can reach heaven and it will be glorious a experience to share with our friends and loved ones in heaven.

A Mother's Reckoning

2/18/2016

"A Mother's Reckoning A Sunday Book Review by Sue Kebold The New York Times

This post is continued on from the previous post.

It is an article from The New York Times where you hear the voice of Susan and what she has personally experienced and potentially triumphed over the years.

A Mother's Burden

2/18/2016

After watching the 20/20 interview with Sue Klebold, I felt deeply saddened for all the human pain she had endured over the past 15 years since her son's passing. Her son committed suicide along with his friend Eric Harris who went on a shooting rampage in Colombine high school killing 13 and injuring 21 students.

After this incident, it was Sue who received most of the blame for her 17 years old actions as she was the mother and "she should have seen the warning signs. She should have been a better parent. She should have had better communication."
The Colombine community and the world had hundreds of "shoulds" for Sue and even Diane Sawyer(interviewer) had clear judgment on her face for the mother openly and honestly crying before her. The reality is that Sue didn't know a shooting would result from what seemed like your normal teenage behavior.

Being a religious woman Sue prayed and prayed for forgiveness over years and years contemplating her own suicide. Sue felt responsible for her the killings of her son and continued to dwell in the loss of these people and what she could have done.

When listening to her speak, this was a genuine person, a believer, a woman with good intention, faith, and love for her children. Her eyes were open, providing advice, discipline, asking questions, and providing her unconditional love. A secretive teenager living a separate life behind closed doors is not something a mother can always control or know. A teenager who presents with normal behavior, positive academic achievements and happy in his present self. Mental illness was not discussed in classrooms, hidden behind closed doors, and people dismissed strange behavior as a kid just going through the motions. How could this mother know?

While she endured extreme grief, sadness, pain, and scrutiny from others over the years, it was her present self that was the saddest part. She wrote a book, which served as a great cathartic release and education for mothers. Although, over all the time, the prayers, the solitude-she still didn't truly forgive herself. There were ounces of anger and disappointment and sadness that were present in her demeanor, her words, expression, and verbal language. It was a woman who couldn't let go, forgive, and move on and she was torn apart my grief-torn apart by a crime her son made the decision to commit with an extremely mentally troubled boy- Eric Harris.

This woman, Sue Klebold, deserves to authentically start over rather than still live in memories and pain. While healing may take a lifetime, there is a big step to forgiveness that can help lift her spirit to happiness rather than a dark cloud taking over her days.

Today, my thoughts are with this woman and I pray for her as she deserves to get her life back and find joy. She said her joy was taken away, but.....it can be found again.

Keep the faith and live life with a positive hope for a better tomorrow. PCR

Always Believe

2/4/2016

Don't Put your Passion on Hold

2/2/2016

Our passion is something of pure beauty. It sits inside our soul waiting minutes and hours of our days to be unleashed, to be acknowledged, to be released. It's not something people think about on a daily basis-how to unleash their life's passions rather people are thinking about walking the dog, meeting a deadline, making it on time to a spinning class. While there is nothing wrong with our every routine-is their passion making its way into our daily lives?

Do we feel passionate about work? Passionate about our interpersonal relationships? Passionate about a hobby? A new form of exercise? Trying to cook new foods? Trying out new experiences and facing fears?
Passion is defined as, "strong and barley controllable emotion."
This definition indicates that a person doesn't have to experience it every moment of everyday, but there is a passion inside all of us to release. It can drive us to commit to our lives tasks, our friends, our work, our hobby's with a bit more spark. It can unleash opportunity within ourselves to grow, to live, to love.

Passion should never be underestimated rather one should submit to emotion, to feeling something authentic, and to following passion to positive self-growth.

Find Something You are Passionate About Unleash it and Run with It PCR

Can Science Become Enlightened?

2/1/2016

Deepak Chopra
https://www.deepakchopra.com

'Science goes where reality leads it, but what happens when reality itself comes under question? Since the quantum revolution over a century ago, the solid, tangible nature of reality has been undermined. Scientists were faced with three linked mysteries that are only now being seen as inseparably linked:
What is the nature of the universe?
What is the nature of consciousness?
What is the origin of both the universe and consciousness?

The era has ended when consciousness and the universe could be treated as separate and unrelated. Once accepted as independent, material reality depends on observation – the “measurement problem” in quantum mechanics. At the same time, mind/consciousness/awareness can no longer be considered epiphenomenal, a complex product of brain processes having no bearing on reality.

On the way to making the case for “consciousness first,” the following issues will be considered:

Can exploring consciousness through spiritual methodologies lead to some of the same insights as science?

Can the conscious observer and ‘self’ be understood through introspection - self awareness, self reflection, transcendence, and conscious choice making and intentional self - observation?

Is there a difference between perceptual experience and fundamental reality?

Where do consciousness and conscious experience occur?

In Vedanta, reality changes as consciousness expands. What brain states in neuroscience correlate with different states of consciousness?

Enlightenment or nondual awareness also referred to as liberation (moksha), has been the ultimate goal of life in Vedanta. How does this state of unity bear upon modern science?'

http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Online

1/25/2016

Online cognitive behavioral therapy: The latest trend in mental health care

Posted November 04, 2015, 12:10 pm
James Cartreine, PhD, Contributing Editor
Harvard Health

What if you could get what a psychologist offers without actually having to see one? Many people enjoy the warm, caring relationship provided by a mental health clinician, but others simply want to get better. Many people would rather not open up to another person about their problems — at least, not in person. Plus, seeing a mental health clinician can be inconvenient and expensive — and there might not even be any nearby.

One of the new frontiers in psychotherapy is using the Internet to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression, anxiety, and other behavioral health problems in a way that reduces — or sometimes eliminates — the amount of time spent with clinicians in person. This novel delivery method allows treatments that have traditionally been provided one-on-one to be scaled up so they can reach far more people. After all, it doesn’t matter if a good treatment exists if people don’t have access to it.

What are these online therapies?The field is new, so the data about these online programs are sparse — but a team of British researchers recently conducted a review of the available literature. For the review, they scoured medical journals looking for “John Henry” studies — that is, comparisons of live cognitive behavioral therapy against websites or computer programs that deliver treatments for anxiety or depression.

What did the researchers find? They used a high bar of scientific rigor and found only five online mental health interventions that had been directly compared with live clinicians providing the same treatment, for working-age adults. Two of the interventions were Australian and three were Swedish, and all of them were for social anxiety or panic disorder.

Most online interventions studied by the researchers were divided into sessions, mirroring the way in-person CBT is delivered on a weekly basis. All of the online therapies delivered treatment via written content, also known as “bibliotherapy.” This was combined with communication with a mental health clinician, usually a psychologist, over email or private messaging systems. In one study, psychologists were limited to spending only 10 minutes per week on each participant. Some programs added text messaging and discussion forums, and most included homework — things that participants did between sessions — just as in-person CBT involves between-session practice.

All treatment groups, for both in-person and online CBT, significantly improved in symptoms. One study found better outcomes for the online treatment, and the others found equal results between the two types. The online treatments required much less clinician time, making them more cost-effective.

The downside? All of the online treatment participants needed to do a lot of reading, which can be a limiting factor for some people. Also, written interaction with a psychologist or other clinician was part of every online intervention in this review. This means that to some extent, the effectiveness of the intervention still depends on the clinician who’s on the other end. Plus, requiring clinicians to be involved at all creates a hurdle to scaling up treatments to reach massive numbers of people.

The newest innovations in a very new fieldNew online programs and mobile apps are emerging that minimize the amount of reading, use video and audio to deliver treatments, and require no clinician involvement at all. These simulate live CBT but can be delivered to huge numbers of people. Head-to-head comparisons of these newer programs against traditional therapy (the kind of comparison that would meet the criteria of the British team) have not yet been published. So stay tuned for developments in this next generation of treatment delivery.

Overcompensating Diagnosis

1/24/2016

Mental Health Advocate Speaker

In the field of Mental health, there will often be speakers to speak about healthcare, policy, living with the disorder, families impacted by illness, how to cope etc. It has been a long term observation of mine that there seems to be a few types of professional speakers with illness: those who inspire and empower the patient, those who educate/provide research, and those who speak to the professional audience of clinicians.

Of course there can be overlap between the speakers with some utilizing all three. Although, I observe a distinct separation between speaking to those with Mental illness and those who are purely sharing success, professional achievements, and research. For instance, we have Doug-Doug is a leading physician who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and shares passion for stigma on the Mental health population and shows images and stats and more images. His accomplishments are highlighted. He shares his diagnosis in the middle with mild emotion and a bit about the past difficulties he faced. You feel something and then you hear about the award he won for at a famous Mental health event in Germany. The symptoms are being briefly being addressed and then masked by the accomplishment.

Also, it seems to be targeting colleagues rather than patients. Do his fellow attendees with Mental illness who are functioning on an "average" level need to hear about all the awards and accomplishment. Is it necessary to prove that he overcome illness times 100 rather than just 10?
It's also important to note a lack of emotion. When speaking briefly about the illness in between the success, where was the emotion? It was clearly repressed as the event of illness was placed behind him.

A great example of utilizing emotion would be the "Ted Talks." The Ted Talks consist of some of the greatest minds in the world. The number one most important factor is "emotion" according to Carmine Gallo of "Talk like Ted." These speakers have a choice to give emotion or to focus on everything else, but emotion. It does not come easily to everyone and it is normal for people to utilize their strengths and fear their weaknesses. A speech needs to be humanized and the greatest researcher or psychologist may not be able to nail that component rather it takes removing the layers of achievements to get down to the skin and the heart.

Let's continue on with our speaker Doug. He is lacking emotion, but he wins over a large majority of the audience. Are they clapping because achievements or are they clapping because of his story or both?

Speakers usually have their name and profession on a pamphlet or a description can be found on the internet. If you are an educated speaker with BP disorder-is it necessary to emphasize your accomplishments? The average person with Bipolar disorder is not over the top successful. "Successful" meaning multiple degrees, educator, world leader, medical doctor, and author. That would be the National definition of successful. If the average person is just holding onto a job or living off public assistance-how does he feel? Is this inspiring or discouraging to one with BP disorder?

Many people who are speaking to clinicians, politicians, and advocators they may be overcompensating on their need to convey success with consideration of these people to impress. It's important to note that speakers with illness do need to speak about certain issues in regards to policy, updates in research, and relative material. But what percentage of that needs to be present in comparison just spending ten minutes on symptom management and how illness is currently impacting the speaker.

A common name one may know is the author Kay Redfield Jamison. A psychiatrist who was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder in her early twenties. The book is fantastically written and a bestseller, but the woman overcome her sickness to keep rising to the top of the ladder. In all fairness, she is speaking the language of clinicians and to patients. For the average patient of mine reading that book or relating to her speech-not happening.

Eleanor Roosevelt says, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
In all honesty, I believe that the Bipolar population in under privileged areas would feel inferior. "If she keeps moving up the mountain, how come I keep slipping down?"
Those words I just hear ringing through my ears as it's a bit of a pill to swallow-have a disorder and professionally soar to the top. Do symptoms just disappear after a certain age? Dr. Jamison went through symptoms of her early adulthood, but then it just all turned into professional growth.

Carmine Gallo says and I say, the human component and "meeting someone where they are" is important rather than a race to have the most credentials and achievements mentioned in one speech. How about a speech with no credentials or professional achievements made? Only family and illness improvements or developments. You just walk out your door and you leave it all behind you to speak as an advocate and a great doctor with knowledge and expertise, but you use it in the most effective way to relate to both clients and professionals. This is the skill to inspire and touch the clinician while making the Bipolar patient feel included.

Lastly, it is recommended to utilize realistic symptoms and connect them to difficulties. There is a difference between saying, "I got divorced and now I am happily remarried" to "The Bipolar interfered with my interpersonal relationships including my marriage. I am married now, but I still difficulties with friendships. I take a note book to write good my wife and friends." Make the disorder practical and be creative when making the choice to speak. While it is normal to repeat a speech, the past incidents of experiencing bipolar disorder just seem typical and rehearsed.

In comparison to stigma, it is quite different because stigma is encouraging emphasize on the self. Speaking with achievement is about making more direct comparisons between diagnosis and achievement. If a person knows how to get to the top spanning twenty years, not a five year, bad few years-that would be helpful.

There is recognition that it is still painful for a professional to open up about their diagnosis and it is common to overcompensate. It could be easier to brush over the emotional component and real "you" underneath the gold stars or it could be easier with easy to identify with your illness first and the accomplishments are just great additions.