Articles (2)

Unemployed  By Carol Kappes

Boy, that’s got to be a hard word to take.  I bet you can remember the day they gave you the pink slip!  I bet your heart just sank like a ship does on a stormy night at sea. In your mind, you knew the economy was slipping, and the company was losing demand for its products.  So it was only a matter of time that “someone” had to leave. And you were wondering if it was going to be you or your co-worker next to you. Remember, you are not the only one in this world to hear about this devastating news. YOU know what, this has happened to me, too, once in my life.

But you know what I did to make me feel better?  I still did “things” to occupy my mind.  Now you don’t want to lose your mind, do you? And you don’t want to make yourself saddened by this.  Because in life, there are moments like these.  And they are beyond our control. Just take it in as this is another part of life. I know it’s not always easy, you will feel easily frustrated at times.  But never the less, we  just have to continue making forward steps and strive for something better to come along.  Maybe the next offer will be a dream come true; or a position that you have always dreamed about.  And it couldn’t have made you feel more proud!

So, you are wondering what “things.”  Well, to begin with, you have to update your resume.   Now you are going to add your last job into your resume and print out a few copies. After you have some copies, now you must search once again for another job.   Check out all the sources for employment positions.  Take a look at all the many online sources like Monster.com, Linkedin.com, Job Fairs, or local newspapers, etc.  There are many sources in which to choose and work with.  Don’t forget to ask others if they know of any leads.  Let them know you are looking for a job.  Sometimes word of mouth is all it takes to land a job.

 And remember, too, to not get yourself down.  Cause if you do, you will show that insecurity in your interview.  And you don’t want that to happen.  Always keep your mind busy with activity—the reason is because it had been that way in your job.  And also when the mind stays busy, you’re more apt to stay confident and free from distractions of other areas that could potentionally destroy your image and character. You can look up articles about how to prepare for your next interview process.  It is always good to look up online and read about the company or know firsthand information if you can.  This is called doing a little “homework” before the interview.  You can also practice what you will talk about in the interview, have ready your best skills and projects that you had previously done and what positive opportunities were in your success from the previous job.  They will also ask you how you see yourself helping them out in the company and to try to get feedback on the type of person you are for their success.  So learn as much as you can to let your interview stand out from the other applicants.  Knowing how to dress for the interview also helps you out because the first impressions are the lasting ones that are remembered.

In the meantime between your interviews, you can volunteer at some organization or charity—this gives you a great feeling that you are helping out in some way.  This keeps your tasks and skills updated.  There are many choices such as food shelves, visiting or helping the elderly, reading or helping out students in the  schools, donate your used clothing that you never wear, donate your blood to the blood bank. etc.  In this way not only are you keeping busy, but you have a great  sense of helping out others; and they will appreciate you for taking the time out of your life to help them.  Many of those people that you have helped out will remember your kind acts and they in turn someday will do it once again to someone else. Or they may give you a recommendation for you to have to place on your resume and/or profile.

  Along with this, you may want to do a course in continuing education or re-educating yourself once again.  There are so many night classes or online courses to do this.  I have taken a computer class when I had been unemployed for a while. Or you may want to advance your career and get credentials or a higher degree.
It’s always good to learn easier ways to do things, or to stay abreast with the new developments in your career.  For some jobs, it is mandatory for staying abreast to the knowledge in new materials, new techniques, new procedures, etc.  As with any healthcare worker; it is essential for them.  This is a requirement to hold and keep their license to practice.  And you would want to be able to trust them for any needs and concerns that you have.  Your life just might depend on it someday!

 Another thing you can do is to do your favorite hobby; or start one if you never had one.  It gives you a sense in accomplishing something in the end.  My favorite one was crocheting afghans—and I have many that decorate my home. Or you may enjoy baking, and you can find the time to bake once again and make some to freeze and then have it at a later time. Maybe you have a project that needed to be fixed in the home, or some rooms in the house needs painting, you can work on those things that were put on the list for another time and deal with it now—since you have the time.

Another item of importance could be to join some membership groups.  There are various organizations such as Toastmasters, Reading clubs, New mothers group, various support groups, etc.  These also bring on added skills that you can include in your resume.  It’s all about improving yourself and having a better outlook on life and seeing it in another perspective.  Each one of us as we grow into our career, we should always strive for many opportunities to make ourselves more knowledgeable and productive.  It all makes life go a lot smoother and everyone then has a less amount of stress to deal with.  And that, is another good thing.  By taking away our stress, we remain happier, staying positive and enjoying life.

It has been a few months that have passed, and still no word about a new job coming your way. I’m sure you are feeling inadequate by now. I know what you are feeling.  Remember many others are in the same boat as you are.  Never give up on some hope to pull you thru these rough waters.   Sometimes you just might have to take any job to keep some income coming in, in the meantime keep waiting and to keep searching for the right opportunity to come your way.  Life is like the sea- it has waves of high and low spots-but you’ll eventually get somewhere.

More than ever—these times are not going into smooth transitions from those going into retirement and the younger generation taking their place.  There is a setback due to Baby Boomers still working in their jobs, economic instability, and then those that have finished college, the job openings are not quite there yet.  This is causing lots of frustration, change of events, and not only that, but they have yet to be able to pay down the loans that they acquired for attending college. And a few others are having families to support with lots of limited ventures for them.  This is not an ideal situation for the Generation Y workers and will be adding more stress in a world of unknowns.  What can one do about this situation?  For starters, new jobs must be created.  Look deeper and see what needs to be strengthened to get back to employing workers.  Try to vision ahead and I can see that as the baby boomers age, we will be needing more healthcare workers to compensate an aging population.   There may be new diseases approaching ahead that we will have to learn to eradicate.  We may be needing more science workers for the future to keep up with the demanding studies into the human body, nature and discoveries still yet to be seen.  The world keeps changing, and when it does, our thinking will have to accommodate with the demands of what is yet to be seen.

Take a look at the history of unemployment and what was happening during those times.  One of the first beginnings was an estimated recordings in 1890.  As you can see in the graph, The Great Wall Street Crash of 1929, we had high unemployment after that.  Then when we look at the actual recorded unemployment in the  1940’s; this is the years of World War II, the same thing has been continuous high levels of people wanting to find work and jobs to support their families. There was food rationed at the time also for everyone to have their share.  So in looking at the graph, there is a long span of 15 years when things were in a recession and things were not to the best economic years in which people were just making and getting by.  I found this to be quite interesting and knowing that tough times do come around as history sometimes repeats itself.  Now as for me, when I had finished my dental assistant training, it was hard for me to land a job opportunity at that time.  USA had 9% unemployment rate then.  And I remember those times too that I was ready to venture and work, but my opportunity had been stalled for a little bit.  So then we just have to sometimes deal with what comes our way.  

 What you don’t want to do is to just sit and do nothing—because that will only set you into depression and remember that we are keeping the mind sharp! Another little thing is to once again be with your family.  Spend your free moments in the quality of family time.  It’s there now, so take advantage of it. You will have the opportunity to know and understand your children in ways that you may not have had the chance before.  You get to venture in the outdoors and visit parks, learn about things together, stay emotionally connected, etc.  This is what makes family life fun and enjoyable.

In this article, I have given you an idea of how we can deal with things that are not always in our control.  As in our world, we all just have to do the best we can in all areas in our life--things are never the same and we have to accept the problems that we must face in any uncertain years of our life.  We can learn to “save” in our good years and then learn to “sacrifice” in our bad years.  And to live one day at a time!

Right now the statistics are as follows of the unemployment rates in countries:

10.4%   France                                   5.1%   Germany
  8.5%   India                                      7.3 %   Netherlands
  6.7%   United States                         6.0%   Australia
  7.1%   United Kingdom                    3.9 %  Japan
  6.9%   Canada                                     4.1%  China

I agree, this is not always a pretty sight.  We all want it to get better, believe me, I once was there myself; and countless many others.  So, remember, there are many in the same boat as YOU.  We just have to find the smooth wave and sail back to shore! 



Weight Gain/Obesity by Carol Kappes

It is time once again for the annual or every 2 year physical medical exam.  I had always believed in preventive medicine.  Catch any problem before it became a bigger problem that you couldn’t help with.  Or catch the problem early with your health so that you are aware of any steps to treat the condition before it gets worse.  You want to treat things early so that you can have a better quality of life.  You would like to feel healthy and still do the fun things in your retirement years.

There was at one time that I had gone for a physical; and I knew the doctor would tell me that I had gained weight.  Every time you see the doctor, they like to check many things.  They like to check your weight; to see if you have lost or gained, measure your height, take your blood pressure, etc.  All these tests are done to keep you healthy.  This is very important in providing information to the doctor.  So when the doctor comes in to review your progress, he will tell you what he recommends for you to stay within your healthy lifestyle.  We all want that good feeling as we go about doing our daily activities.

Well, it happened at one point in my life that I knew what he was going to say. He told me that I had begun gaining weight. And I knew that I had begun to gain weight due to stress in my life and probably feeling depressed.  Now that was a blow to my ego.  I knew it, and it still left me feeling sad.  So he instructed me with a valuable hand-out sheet of particular foods and meals that I should be eating  and  to stay within the guidelines to get myself back to my normal weight for my body. Also included was to stay active with physical activity. So I knew then to be working on following his instructions.

Why do we want to follow his instructions?  Well for starters, we paid him money in the exchange that we are taking care of our health. We expect to get his expertise information to keep us healthy and strong. I want to continue my duration of life like my grandparents did.  They had lived a long and happy life well into the mid 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.  I really enjoyed being with them at times, because I learned a lot of valuable information from them. I had seen them live a vigorous life with lots of enjoyment.  They had the Christian spirit in them, even though their body had aged.   And we all know that someday it’s going to be every one of us going through the same aging process.

But my concern is that many of us don’t take the proper care.  I am going to follow his guidelines in keeping my weight at the ideal weight for my age and height.  There are many reasons to listen to my doctor.  I will explain to you how we could go about doing something for yourself.  And when you accomplish this goal, you will feel better than ever.

The very first thing you should consider is how you value yourself.  Maybe you hadn’t even thought of this.  Picture yourself  being thin and being able to wear more fashionable designs with a few more details on them. I had thought about this when I had noticed that the skirt I had been wearing when I was heavy, just didn’t look that pretty on me.  I just looked like a drab of a person, and I no longer wanted to remain this way. So, in order for me to get out of this picture, I decided to purchase some magazines to help me with this goal.  One of the magazines was about beauty and the other one was about health and fitness.  They sure helped me in my goals.  It was good to hear about others’ lives and how they deal with what matters to them. I was able to hear their stories and then as I was working on my weight plan I felt really motivated to get started with myself. And I’m glad that I did. To me the effort was worth more than gold.  I feel really good about myself; I’m right where I want to be. I was in the healthcare industry, so I should stay within my weight so that I would look well in helping others. And so I concentrated to get this effect for me. Maybe you’ve seen actresses, singers, TV personalities, fitness experts, etc enjoying their life and feeling happy and full of energy.  They have that energy because their body is active and full of life.  They spend a lot of time at the gym, walking, exercising, etc and maintaining their looks. They also are aware to eat smaller portions as to not exceed in the calorie amount. They know what feels right.  So keep this perspective in mind.

Take the next look at your physique of your body.  You know that it is overweight, but how does it look to your overall height?  This is what they measure.  Each person’s proportional size varies considerably.  The doctor can tell you at what weight your goal should be reached at.  So keep this picture in your mind. Make every attempt to know your goal and to meet it. Do you really want the weight gain or would you rather have a muscular toned one?  All you need to do is to exercise more and have a set of barbells in your home.  I have a set that I use every day and tone my arms.  It gives them a sort of muscular tone to them that helps in your overall arm strength.  And I am happy with the results to this simple exercise. You can always start small and work yourself up to a more enduring exercise routine.

Now we are going to take you to the selection of foods that you are to consume to make your diet work towards losing the weight.  Make good choices of fruits and vegetables, and limit your portions of them along with the meat product.  When you start to diet and have these smaller portion meals; you will feel hungry.  But don’t be alarmed.  You know what I did?  I drank water to curb that extra feeling that you are still hungry.  Water does wonders to your body.  It not only is good for you, but it rehydrates your body and also makes you feel full.  And another thing that I did was to cut out the sugar drinks.  So then I would pour myself a glass of water and I placed either lime or lemon juice directly into the water; just a small amount to flavor the water.  In your mind that drink is flavorful and tastes really great.  This definitely will help in your losing weight fairly fast.

It is also advisable to not frequent those restaurants as often as you might have been.  I love to go out and have a good time every so often; but I don’t make it into a habit.  The reason being is that the foods have more calories as they enhance all the flavors of the food they are serving in the restaurant.  And then you are more apt to order more drinks while you are there eating and talking with someone that you admire.

Now we are going to talk about our lifestyle.  What style do we live our life?  Are we getting outside and taking daily walks?  Are we enjoying seeing the sights of nature?  Do we get to see the warmth of the sun on our faces and enjoy having a little tan?  These are great adventure moments.  Take in the breath of the air and treasure the atmosphere.  Not only is this exercise, but it also helps your mind to relax.  It keeps it free from stress and this opportunity relieves any depressed thoughts you could be having.  Sometimes in these thoughts, we want to run for some snack foods.  And when you have too many snacks, you are once again gaining weight. This sort of pattern can continue if you are not following guidelines towards a better future.

Or, is your lifestyle on the slower side?  So you spend lots of time at a desk or live a more sedentary life?  If this is the case, what you will have to do is to get up and move.  I know this will sound a little bit difficult at first, but just start with your breaks.  Leave the area and walk around.  Take in that glass of water, too.  Then for your lunch break, what I do is I get out of the office area and take a walk.  It helps to get freshened up for the afternoon.  I get things out of my mind for a little while, too.   It helps re-energize me for the next few hours of work.  Remember too that our body was made for physical activity during our day.  With this incentive, we would make all the difference to our lives.

When there is overweight, it is known as obesity. It is an excessive amount of body fat on a person.  They measure this by the body mass index.  This is the figure that your healthcare provider will tell you. Now let’s discuss what happens when you are not in control of your weight.  It’s one of those things where you would want to avoid if at all possible.  For our skeleton was not designed to carry a heavy load. Why is that, you ask?  I will tell you.  When you begin to have obesity, you are at a risk of various health problems and an earlier death.
The many health problems associated with it can be diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and an increase to certain types of cancer, lung, and bone problems.  Of course, each is individualized so it varies from person to person.  At this point, the doctors can’t stress it enough for you to seriously redirect your entire lifestyle.  It is now extremely up to you.  You are the one in control of your body and also your life. It is now time for you to think of how you view yourself and see where your future is heading.  Do you want the added disease that may come in the direction to you?  How would you feel about it?  It could weaken your zest to life, and you will have something different to learn to contend with. You will have to be taking something to keep yourself healthy.  Or with the excessive weight, your bone structure at the knees are becoming weakened from the heavy load.  Then your ease at walking has been limited.  All these kind of things are what can happen in the likely hood that you don’t take better care to your health.  And I would not want your spirits to become lower than they already are in your life.

Think of the many possibilities in your future.  Maybe you have children, and you would love to see your grandchildren someday.  You’d like to see them grow up and maybe read a story or two to them.  You can play games with them, and talk about all the things in life. Not only that, but you will experience life in a new perspective.  You can finally get to have your dream vacation that you had always wanted to. Maybe you have family and friends that you can share the time with during your scenic vacation.  All this is an incentive to a satisfying, retirement lifestyle.

 I have been noticing a trend of some of my classmates that have had an early death within the ages of 45-55 years old.  And it saddens me to hear this. We live where we have access to good care, yet many are not using it as preventive medicine.  This is the wrong idea. Look how much healthier our lifestyles would be if we only listened to the doctors information. Take his word seriously.  And start early in your life. Can you imagine the sky high costs in healthcare for all these problems that could have been prevented if people were more health conscious?  This is the reason our healthcare tends to go up as many people are in need of ongoing treatment to these conditions that very well could have been prevented.  Remember, it’s all about preventing the problems that could occur from obesity.









  

No comments: