Dr Affie Adagio Life Coach, Family Therapist, Marriage Celebrant, Trainer

2.30 Registration $10

3.00
Dr. Affie Adagio UNAANSW IWD CONVENOR/MC

INTRODUCTION
Valerie Weekes: President UNAANSW

GUEST SPEAKER
Sue Conde: Past President, UNWA

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Theme: Diabesity – Must the discrimination continue?

Professor Lesley Campbell protagonist in the field of research, medicine and service provision for diabetes, who is Professor of Medicine, Director of Diabetes Centre, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW, 2010 will speak for 20mins on DIABESITY and how it affects women, especially indigenous women, causing them to be blamed when they need not be. This valuable research evidence was pioneered together with a colleague and close friend of Professor Lesley Campbell who is visiting from Denmark at present. Professor Berit Heitman who will be present at the Seminar may be convinced perhaps to contribute as a Guest Speaker.

Apart from sharing my delight for the Hungry Jacks advertisement in me previous  post, it has been many months since I have written a post. Was it the shock of losing my close friend Waratah Rose Gillespie to a major stroke on 21.06.2010, or the battle to prevent the Humanist Society of NSW  being  taken over, or just life being too busy. Nevertheless, I remember asking myself over and over – where’s my passion gone? No posts, no sketches, no poetry! I had planned to write about Waratah’s passing away last year, and this June a memorial article and I did neither.

I don’t usually follow talent shows because the final choice is quite often unexpected. Nevertheless, as I flicked onto one of the American Idol shows with Adam Lambert performing, my hair stood on end at the talent of this man. His voice and performance was iconic. Every time there was a new segment I watched with anticipation and recommended it to others.

He is a star in the making and everyone who watched him with me agreed. We got goosebumps every time he performed. He may have sometimes looked Gothic and with his black nail-polish could be misinterpreted but he was pure talent and the judges even gave him standing ovations. Adam changed his appearance to suit the genre assigned for that particular show, and any mentor supervising their performances could only confirm the enormity of his unique talent.

Energy can seem to disappear when motivation becomes low. It is important not to hand over our power to the negative feelings which are also affected by negative associations. Notice how invincible we feel when motivation is high and we then have the energy to reach great achievements. So when motivation waxes and wanes we need to remember that it is a natural occurrence and not allow ourselves to over react one way or the other. Some strategies are listening to relaxing music, writing, reading, dancing, drawing, yoga, walking and many other options including regular medication as required, meeting with people we like, discussing our state with a therapist, mentor or priest. Quite often lack of motivation can create problems in recovery from obsessive compulsions and it becomes extremely hard to stay committed to the program we have chosen. At such times, rather than resort to substance or process abuse to relieve our pain, we can use whatever has worked in the past that results in a healthy outcome.

No matter how happy we are living alone we need love and music to keep us alive and happy. Notice how feelings change when we put music on. When the music is adagio, the heart warms and the serotonin is released making us relax. The same applies to other music such as some Chopin or Mozart, once played in psychiatric wards to calm the patients. Heavy metal music although popular with some youth, I found creates hostile behaviour. Romantic and country music may create more depression in lonely or depressed people. Admittedly, there are some who are affected differently than others. Nevertheless, one of most healing processes is love with soothing music or even Latin American – think of how many times the tune ‘Sway‘ has been popular over the decades.

When we are injured physically or emotionally (burnout) the recovery process takes some time and we need to give ourselves permission to veg out and rest in order to heal. Sitting around doing nothing can cause us guilt but the recovery from injury takes time. We need to follow doctor’s orders and not push ourselves to do things that might throw us backwards. Patience is important and logic helps us to be patient till we are again well enough.

I have not written regular posts recently because I have been preoccupied with other priorities and because, more recently, I dislocated my shoulder. When life intervenes we reorganise our priorities to cope with the obstacles and eventually we learn to ‘go with the flow’ until everything is sorted out once more. As I live on my own, I had often wondered how I would manage should something serious happen to me. Well last week I found out. I tripped and felt the horrendous pain as my shoulder became dislocated. As I sat on the floor moaning and groaning holding onto my injured shoulder I manage to reach my mobile and call 000, twenty minutes after which I was picked up by an ambulance and taken to St Vincents Hospital Emergency. I was Xrayed and under anaesthetic they took care of the injury. My arm is in a sling and I am on the mend. The point I am making is that when life intervenes we can manage to ‘dust ourselves off and start all over again’.

Children can get bored easily unless there are games to occupy them or they have the full attention of those they are with. However, it is important that they learn how to participate politely so that they get the attention of everyone instead of monopolising the attention of one person, usually a parent. In this way teaching respect helps them to learn how to entertain themselves. It’s a socialisation skill they need to learn as early as possible.

There is no use blaming others for our misery because happiness is in our own power. In other words whether we are happy or not depends entirely on our own decisions and perceptions. Other people can try to make us happy or unhappy but we allow them to impact us in whichever way. So make a plan to bring happiness into your life and live fully and blissfully.

Ellen is in her 80s and was an exceptionally
beautiful and talented women in her youth
but most of her life she has been miserable
when asked why this is so she replies that
happiness has eluded her and
misfortune has left its mark on her!
she cannot see that it has been this belief
that has caused her to miss any opportunities
at having happiness and fulfillment and
to this day still blames everyone and everything
for missing out on life’s joys
what a waste of talent and beauty?!

It is vital to not give up on our goals. Just because they don’t easily come true does not mean they won’t later, so keep visualising what you dream. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, although it could, just keep affirming what you desire and picture it in your mind’s eye. It’s a form of programming your mind to do what you instruct it to do. Set aside negative thoughts and hang on to the positive ones so that the program stays clear and firm. Visualisation means success