Has the circle of life ever taken you on a roller coaster ride? As I write this, my grandmother is in her final stage of life in hospice care and my daughter is in her last month of elementary school. One moment I am fine, and the next I’m a hot crying mess as memories of good times now past descend on me. Fundamentally, I accept life and death and the changes happening so fast as my kids grow up. But somehow as I sit between the opposite ends of life—my beloved grandmother’s impending death and my daughter’s new chapter of life—the meaning of life and my own role in the grand scheme of things invites deeper reflection. Am I living to my full potential of joy? Spreading enough love? Learning and growing daily? Connecting with the people who are important in my life?
When hospice told me to get my grandmother’s affairs in order and I secured a company for cremation, they asked if I would like them to write her obituary. I considered their offer but decided to take on the task myself. I had been the primary person managing my grandmother’s care and household for the last three years—making multiple trips from my home in Virginia to hers in Florida as her needs changed—and this task, I knew, would be a sacred one. Here are the lessons I learned from writing my grandmother’s obituary: 
1.)   Ask your loved ones about their lives, even the small details. As I used the hospice form to fill out my grandmother’s life details, I was disappointed in myself that the names of all her siblings did not come easily to me; I had to research and even look up one of her sibling’s obituaries. Years ago, I had interviewed my grandmother and written a small book to celebrate her life, but in going back to it now, the content feels superficial and high-level; in the face of death, our views change. If I could do it all over, I’d spend more time with my grandmother and maybe even create a video featuring her life.
2.)   Make time to spend with your loved ones. Life is fragile. Work can wait. What is the worst case if you miss a deadline? Have you experienced a sudden death that made you wish you had more time? My grandmother has made it to age 91, but in 2016 I lost my childhood best friend. Life is short; make the time!
3.)   Write down what you want your legacy to be. While you’re at it, ask your aging family members how they would want to be remembered. Include the details—they are the personal touch that celebrates the gift of each person’s unique personality.

• For my best friend, I wrote, “Angie was a creative, fun, loving, and adventurous spirit. A poet and prolific singer/songwriter, she created and performed countless songs with the musical talent of her husband. Most recently, Angie wrote the song ‘40 West’ for her cousin’s first Nashville recording.” 
• For my grandmother, I said, “Margaret was by nature a creative person, bringing her unique touch to everything from costume- and jewelry-making to her gourmet meals. Margaret’s life was rich with loving family and very special friends, who were the source of much joy for her.”

As my tears flow, so too do the beautiful memories of those I have loved dearly over the years. I hold on to the positive and uplifting memories, and I try to uphold each of their legacies, from being playful daily as my best friend would want to spread love and kindness as my great-grandmother Pauline taught me. These days I am cooking the food that my grandmother taught me to make and sending pictures to her aids, so they can show her my kids and I cooking together. They say it always makes her smile. I also cook when I visit my grandmother—that is the bond we share, the legacy she has passed to me. It’s something I can do now to celebrate her life, while also spending time with my own kids.

​What one step can you take to spend more time being with and getting to know your loved ones, young and old alike? 

With other competing demands, I have not spent much time on marketing the kid's books I have written. So was pleasantly surprised to receive a Parent's Picks Award for my book If It Does Not Grow Say No - Eatable Activities for Kids and wanted to share the story of WHY I created the book.
I was a plump kid who had to bear the additional weight of comments like “Girls like you should not be eating any bread or rice” and “Good thing you are pretty and nice, so your weight will not get in the way of dating.” The “solution” to my weight issue was exercise and constantly restricted portion sizes, and it has taken me years (decades!) to build instead a healthy relationship to food.
These early experiences with food have made me passionate about educating and empowering kids towards healthy eating. Specifically, my work is to educate kids, parents, and teachers about how important it is to tell the WHY behind healthy eating. We need to empower kids by allowing them to make their own food choices and guiding them in noticing and responding to feelings in their body.
When I became a mother, I wanted to help my own children see healthy food as a friend so they wouldn’t have to go through what I did. As luck would have it, my son seldom ate vegetables without a fight. It felt as though he and I were in a constant battle about his eating, and we were both so frustrated. 
One night, as once again I was trying to get my son to eat his asparagus, and once again he was crying and gagging, I realized I had to change my strategy. I knew I needed a way to make healthy eating fun, not just something I commanded my son to do. So I created If It Does Not Grow, Say No: Eatable Activities for Kids, an activity book that helped us change the fights about food into fascination and laughter.
My approach is about curiosity, not demands. It’s about “How does it taste? How does it feel? Did you like it?” versus “You have to eat a plate of broccoli.” The activity book uses this same positive approach. Children of all ages will be entertained for hours as they
·        draw and write about their favorite foods
·        learn why fruits and vegetables are so awesome
·        try easy recipes for fun foods
·        get brave about trying new fruits and veggies
·        make food art
·        and find other ways to “play with their food.”
The activity book also helps teach kids (and grown-ups!) to slow down for mealtimes, how to enjoy and pay more attention to fruits and veggies, and how to make conscious choices for their health. These are lessons that naturally spread into other areas of their lives, making them stronger, healthier, happier kids... who grow into stronger, healthier, happier adults.
Eating is a life journey, so the activity book is simply a facilitation tool to start the discussion toward empowering you and your kids. Visit the book’s website www.doesnotgrowsayno.com for ideas on how to conduct fun food exercises, how to plan a rainbow meal, how to reduce your family’s sugar intake in fun ways, and much more.
Get your fruits and veggies ready; they're about to become very popular!

Article Sponsored by: The Recovery Village

Recent research suggests that mindfulness, or the ability to cultivate a purposeful, non-judgmental, moment-to-moment awareness of one’s surroundings, can be a powerful force in helping people overcome drug and alcohol addiction. While the causes of addiction are complex and often personal, the driving force of most substance use is the desire to escape from the present moment.
 
The human drive to move toward pleasure and away from pain doesn’t just manifest itself in drug and alcohol addiction. Many people endlessly scroll through social media, binge watch Netflix and eat junk food without realizing that these are unhealthy attempts to avoid difficult emotions. But through mindfulness, it’s possible to become more aware of these behaviors, change them, embrace the present moment, and find more meaning in day-to-day experiences. If you’re someone struggling with addiction, the simple addition of self-awareness could change your life — or even save it.  
 
Accepting Discomfort
Negative feelings and experiences are an unavoidable part of life. The only way to survive and thrive in spite of difficulty is to learn how to accept and find value in less-than-ideal circumstances. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done. Many people who struggle with addiction believe that they have good reasons for fleeing from reality. Trauma, mental illness and physical injury are common catalysts for substance use. Circumstances outside of personal control, including family history and home environment, are often also contributing factors.
 
But people aren’t just the sum of external circumstances — everyone has the power to step back from their feelings and take control of their perspective. That’s where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness is the act of being fully and nonjudgmentally aware of the present moment, accepting and identifying any feelings, thoughts and sensations as they arise. Instead of fleeing from or mindlessly diving into these experiences, practitioners are encouraged to simply observe them, identify them and let them go. Most mindfulness practices involve some form of seated mindfulness meditation, but they can also be performed while walking, eating, speaking, listening or practicing yoga.
 
This kind of passive, detached awareness of inner dialogue and experiences can be incredibly beneficial to people struggling with addiction. Instead of fighting or avoiding the difficult states of mind that inevitably arise during recovery, mindfulness helps practitioners label feelings — particularly, negative ones — and learn to tolerate them. With the power of detachment, those in recovery can remain resilient and level-headed in the face of events or feelings that might otherwise trigger substance use.  
 
Finding New Meaning in Recovery
While internal monologues and beliefs about oneself, others and the world can influence addiction, mindfulness can also be used to help individuals push back against these faulty frameworks. Many people with substance use disorder have a story that they tell themselves about their addictions. They may believe that they can’t stop using substances even if they tried to, or that they wouldn’t be able to cope with specific circumstances without consuming drugs or alcohol. Mindfulness allows people in recovery to recognize supposed truths for what they are: stories they tell themselves. In the moment that a person can see a belief for what it is, they have the power to change it.
 
This is why mindfulness is so successful in addressing addiction. Over time, regular mindfulness practice can completely change the way that individuals relate to their thoughts and allow them to push back against dangerous behaviors that once felt automatic. From this place of peace and stillness, people can begin to reconnect with their bodies and minds, and make more purposeful decisions about how they lead their lives.
 
Bio Information
​A Florida-born and based writer for The Recovery Village, Megan Hull is driven by a desire to connect individuals suffering from substance abuse disorders with the help they need. The Recovery Village is a collection of full continuum of care drug and alcohol addiction treatment facilities. With locations across the country, The Recovery Village has helped countless clients find renewed living in sobriety.

In today’s society, much of what we do is online and electronic: paying bills, depositing checks, checking in with friends and family – and giving back is no exception. There are many ways to give back online, and here are just a few options available if you’re interested in ways to give back online.
 
1. SocialVibe
Social media can help foster spreading positive vibes, especially when you’re on the right platforms. Once you sign up, you can pick a non-profit that aligns with your goals and beliefs and choose an organization to sponsor you. You can then add widgets to add it to your existing social media accounts, and connect with new friends with similar passions and interests on Social Vibe. 

2. Free Rice
This website is a way to practice your knowledge of different subjects and learn something new while giving back. It hosts quiz-like questions in a variety of different areas and skill levels, such as humanities, math, English, foreign languages, sciences, chemistry, geography, and even offers questions for SAT preparation.  For every correct answer you provide, the website will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Hunger Programme.  This is a great way to give back while brushing up on your skills, and is perfect for kids if they are searching for a new computer game.  You can use this website as a tool for teaching them about how they can give back.

3. Donate Credit Card Rewards
If you have any unused rewards from your credit cards, you can donate them to multiple charities.  For example, your frequent flier miles can help fund the Make-a-Wish Foundation and, in the process of donating, keep your miles from going to waste. If you have a charity close to your heart, see how your rewards can help.

4. Sparked
Sparked is a board game designed to bring women together and foster uplifting conversation.  The next time you have a game night, consider playing a game like sparked to encourage meaningful fellowship.  As a bonus, 10% of each purchase from their website goes to a charity partner that aligns with their mission. This partner changes every 4 months, and is currently Girl Talk, a non-profit peer-to-peer mentoring program. (Currently on back order it is so popular!)

5. GiveWork
The principle of Give Work is based off of Leila Janah’s book, Give Work: Reversing Poverty One Job at a Time.  The idea is this: every time you decide to make a purchase, consider buying from companies and organizations that hires those who are marginalized, including veterans, former prison inmates, low-income workers, or people who have been rescued from sex-trafficking. 

6. Give Back Box
If you have any clothing items you no longer need, whether you or your kids have grown out of them or no longer like them, you can give them a new home through this organization.  You simply pack up your clothing and shoes in any box and print out a prepaid shipping label from givebackbox.com.  Bring it to the post office, and voila! Your items will be donated to a charity.  When you sign up for a shipping label, you will receive a tax receipt via email. 

7. The Hunger Site
This works in one of two ways: you can buy from the website’s store and a percentage of your purchase will support organizations with a goal of fighting hunger, or you could click the banner on their homepage once a day to donate one cup of food to those in need.  This button is backed by the website sponsors, and 100% of their sponsor advertising fees go to charity. Organizations they partner with include Food Recovery Network, Mercy Corps, and Partners in Health, among others.  

8. Amazon Smile
This one is incredibly simple: you can link your amazon account to a charity of your choice (even if it’s local!) and they will receive .5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases. The same amazon you use with an added bonus of helping fund charity!

9. Donate your Birthday on Facebook
There’s a new feature on Facebook allowing you to “Donate your Birthday” – you click on the fundraising tab, select a charity of your choice, set your fundraising goal, and share your birthday message encouraging others to donate. Instead of receiving money and gifts on your birthday, you can ask others to donate on your behalf. 

​My birthday was this week, so giving back was focused on myself. And I wanted to share with you as well a special 43% off on any product or service. Another birthday surprise was being quoted in The New York Post.

We created a good experiences and memory jar at the beginning of 2017 and just read all our memories. What an awesome tradition we will continue into 2018 and years to come!