When we think of spring cleaning, we often think of our homes — getting rid of what we no longer need or what doesn’t work, and making room for what does. Procovery is all about activating change, moving forward and creating the life of our dreams. We can, in essence, spring clean our lives by getting rid of what doesn’t work, and beginning, today, to make room for (and welcome!) what does.
Creating Change is one of twelve Procovery strategies and below is a Procovery Note found on Page 110 of The Power of Procovery in Healing.
Move forward in small ways or big ways. You decide how you want to begin the process of change. Remember that sometimes the smallest change is the biggest step.
“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.”
–Bruce Barton
What change will you create today?
Blog
There is a lot of talk about how we can no longer afford to keep doing the same thing – that individuals, counties, states, and the nation, are in debt. That we are living beyond our means, spending money we don’t have, with no end in sight. But there can’t be an end in sight if we just keep doing the same thing and wishing for different results.
So…let’s begin doing something differently – not just wishing, or hoping, for different results.
Let’s begin CONTRACTING for different results. Let’s begin DEMANDING outcomes, contractually, that are therapeutically AND economically a win.
For so long it seemed that people felt they couldn’t measure what really mattered. So, what did they do?
Measure what didn’t.
Let’s begin measuring, expecting and contracting for healing outcomes.
And then?
Let’s hold agencies and people ACCOUNTABLE.
We don’t need to utilize a “tear down” or replacement approach to do this.
We can, in essence, retrain and rebuild and re-inspire current agencies and workforce. Remind them of what they set out to do in the first place. Remind them of the passion and vision that set them on their path and then provide the tools for them to do what they set out to do.
To quote Joseph Parks, MD.*
“In institutionalizing a program across diverse stakeholders, agencies, and settings, we must not just ask providers to implement programs. We must also provide tools to enable them to ensure fidelity and, ultimately, accountability to those they are seeking to serve.”
*Click here for the full Behavioral Healthcare Magazine article, available on amazon.com!
*Click here for the full Behavioral Healthcare Magazine article, available on amazon.com!
We recently wrote about regret (in the March 29th blog post What Can We Do About the Past?) and how so many feelings can be tied to regret. One thing that is often associated is an inability, or unwillingness, to forgive……….ourselves.
We might regret things we did do, and often equally or more so, we might regret things we
didn’t do. It’s so easy to find ourselves looking back, not liking what we see and feeling uncomfortable – about ourselves, our lives, etc.And yet, in the context of the Procovery program, regrets can be seen as “wishing backwards” which is passive rather than active, because we
cannot change one thing that has ever happened in the past.But… what we
can change is how we view the past. And one path for doing this is forgiveness.We can learn to look at our past, learn from our past, but not get stuck in, or
live in, our past.AND if we can begin to find a way to forgive ourselves, we can sometimes make room, and find a way, to begin forgiving others…
–Beatrice Wood
Recently one of the heartfelt comments on one of our blog entries inspired me to write about regret. Regret can weigh so heavily on us, nearly paralyze us at times, and can so negatively impact and color our lives, that, in essence, we get stuck in the past. And yet… there is not one thing we can do to change the past.
Click here to hear Stephanie Schmidt, an inspiring Procovery Circle Facilitator in St. Louis, MO speak about this.
In essence what we can do is to look at the past, learn from the past, but not LIVE in the past. Instead, live today, right now, this moment. And in doing so, we plant the much needed seeds for growth and change. By living in the moment and being truly present we can honor “mistakes” we have made by learning from them, by not repeating them and by being different now because of them.
Letting go of regret and getting unstuck can be so very difficult. It can feel overwhelmingly complicated at times, and very heavy and sad. But by learning to let go and by living today, we can honor yesterday and contribute to a brighter tomorrow.
“The best revenge is living well.”
–The Talmud
Procovery Prize Winner Alert!
We would like to congratulate Darrin Kissinger of Kansas City, MO as our Quote Unscramble Procovery Contest winner!
Darrin was the first to submit the correctly unscrambled quote by Helen De Rosis:
“When you put yourself wholeheartedly into something, energy grows. It seems inexhaustible.”
It was brought to our attention, by a wonderful friend of Procovery Institute, that there was a small typo in one of the words of the unscramble. We apologize for the typo and appreciate that our friend so graciously pointed out that we, too, are human. The word wholeheartedly was missing an “L” and we applaud all who correctly submitted, despite our oversight!
The Procovery prize basket (below) will ship out from our office in Los Angeles, CA tomorrow!
 |
| Procovery Prize for Contest Winner Darrin Kissinger of Kansas City, MO! |
Included in the Procovery prize basket:
A portable CD player (batteries included!)
6 Songs of Procovery CD
Procovery Podcast Sampler CD
Procovery Journal and Pen
Procovery Pup
Procovery Mug with Hot Chocolate Packets
Believe Bookmark
We look forward to all of you participating again in the next contest and hope to see you back around the blog often!
Congratulations again, Darrin!
-Procovery Institute
Today concludes our Rekindling Hope: Making Hope a Priority blog series, and during our 21 days of hope we have explored questions about hope that have run the gamut. Some have been “lighter” in topic while others a bit “heavier” and along the way we have vowed to stick with it, and we have been MORE than pleasantly surprised that you have as well! To stick with hope in our interactions, in our lives, to keep hope for someone else when they aren’t in a place to do it for themselves. Sometimes it isn’t so easy to stick with hope – to hold hope when we don’t feel particularly hopeful. And that is why we need to create steps for ourselves to learn ways of MAKING THIS HAPPEN. Something that we have been discussing lately, that we felt would round out our 21 days of hope, and has potential to help transform our relationships, our work, our days… our lives… is our last question of the series:
What steps can you take to trade cynicism and paralysis, for hope and real change?
Whether it is that you make a vow to schedule time each day to restore and renew yourself, so you have the energy and focus to value hope…
Or you vow to take more chances, play a more active – rather than reactive – role in your life…
Or you vow to dream bigger…
What can you do, what will you do to hold more hope and create real change?
What steps will you take?
Let’s break some of the silence today and get talking! Let’s share, let’s listen, let’s disagree and let’s learn from each other!
Is a sustainable health care reform fix likely?
Given the complexities of the current systemic challenges we face, a sustainable fix for health care reform isn’t seeming likely anytime soon.
And partly because of this, and because in many ways it feels as though we are increasingly facing complicated, seemingly insurmountable crises and challenges these days, people often find themselves abandoning what matters most and escaping in to what doesn’t.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
— Albert Einstein
Sometimes the day to day drudgery of putting one foot in front of the other, and working hard in the direction of our dreams can seem both exhausting and unrewarding and ultimately, unachievable. But that is really one of the core issues with real health care reform. We need to take the long view to achieve real transformational health care reform.
“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.”
–Barbara Kingsolver
Happy Monday Everyone!
Unscramble the quote below and send an email to support@procovery.com with the subject line “Quote Unscramble” for a chance to be entered into a special Procovery Institute Drawing! The first correct unscramble sent to the email address above wins a Procovery prize!!
Unscramble the following quote:
“nhwe ouy upt lfreusoy yeereoaltdhhw noti gnhieotms, yenreg ogwrs. ti essem hseteainxuibl.”
Good luck!
And remember, there are various ways to subscribe to our new blog!
When visiting www.procovery.blogspot.com:
– Look for the “Subscribe Here!” section to the right of your screen
– Click on “Posts” to receive blog posts to your daily Google, My Yahoo, netvibes, newsgator, and RSS feeds
– Click on “Comments” to receive comments submitted on blogs to your daily Google, My Yahoo, netvibes, newsgator, and RSS feeds
OR
To subscribe to comments posted on a specific blog post:
– Click on the blog post you are interested in
– Scroll down to the bottom of the post
– Click on “Subscribe by email”
We encourage you to subscribe to keep in touch with the exciting new things happening daily on www.procovery.blogspot.com!
Until next time…
Procovery Institute
What will you plant in your soul today?
Healing, like so much in life, is a non-linear process. Often that is because of the complexity of the healing process, but it can also be due to the simple fact that very little is only forward-moving! Below is an excerpt (paraphrased) from pages 12 & 13 from The Power of Procovery in Healing related to “backsliding.”
Healing, like so much in life, is a non-linear process. Often that is because of the complexity of the healing process, but it can also be due to the simple fact that very little is only forward-moving! Below is an excerpt (paraphrased) from pages 12 & 13 from The Power of Procovery in Healing related to “backsliding.”
The process of healing is often two steps forward and one backward—or sometimes one step forward and two back. If we don’t expect someone to make a perfect soufflé the first time, or win a marathon, or play a song on the piano, how can we expect an individual to heal without setbacks or relapses? Backsliding is to be expected in any really difficult matter; it can be an indication of the difficulty of the task. Society applauds a persistent person who succeeds after repeated failure, “against all odds,” but beats the heck out of people while they are “failing.”
Signs of “healing” are not always recognized as such, unfortunately. The “system” often does not recognize, support or sustain healing. Sometimes when people are working hard to heal, the “system” sees their actions as “trying to kick their illness under the rug”, denial or delusions of grandeur. All along the way, healthy, positive actions can be seen as all kinds of things other than healing. But this is where listening to your heart, getting in touch with what YOU think and feel, talking with others who you trust will be honest with you, who see your potential and whose opinion you value, can pay off.
Remember, if you do what everybody else does, you will likely get what everybody else gets. The system, unfortunately, is not (yet!) successfully providing the care and services people need to heal and exit the system. But it can! Click here to hear Dr. Felix Vincenz discuss what attracted him to Procovery and his choice to bring hope to people who, so often, are systemically deprived of hope. Since we are all part of the system, our actions can impact it. As a plant reaches for light, we all reach for the same. And together, we move forward, but not without hope and focus and action… and each other.
To learn more about Missouri’s experience with Procovery (by Dr. Joseph Parks), please click here.
“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.” –Thomas Merton
What will you plant in your soul today?
Hello Everyone!
We are very excited to have the opportunity to share with you about an informative new radio show which will feature a segment with Procovery Circle Facilitator Gary Gougis from Los Angeles County!
The “Free Your Mind Projects Radio Show” airs on Sunday mornings at 7:30AM PDT on KTLK AM1150. Tomorrow’s segment will feature longtime Procovery Circle Facilitator and Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Community Worker, Gary Gougis! The radio show can be streamed live at www.ktlkam1150.com or, If you miss the broadcast, you can also catch the podcast on the Free Your Mind Projects Web site, www.freeyourmindproject.com. Just click on the upper right and then on the latest show.
Also, we are so appreciative of the wonderful feedback we are getting on our blog, and will soon be expanding our topics. We will still write about hope, always. But we will also begin to write about many other topics as well. Thank you for your ongoing interest and support!
Have a wonderful Saturday and check back tomorrow for Day 19 of our Rekindling Hope: Making Hope a Priority blog series!
Until next time…
Procovery Institute
Recent Comments