HOLISTIC APPROACH TO DIABETES SELF MANAGEMENT

COPING SKILLS TO OVERCOME STRESS

What Are The Causes Of Stress

• Diabetes is a disease where you have to be constantly monitoring your sugar levels because it has a lot of impact on how you feel on a day to day basis. Too much or too little of it makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster in terms of your moods. Not only that, when you let it go up and down it can create more complications in the long run.

Controlling Diabetes Is A 24/7 Job• When we are first diagnosed with diabetes, depending upon

the intensity of it we all feel symptoms of hunger and fatigue and it becomes very stressful wondering how to plan the meals and take time to exercise and get into a new unpleasant routine of monitoring the blood sugar levels. Like anything else in life when you are trying to get used to a new way of life, it is confusing but with persistence one can master it like riding a bike. So in the beginning when you think you almost got control of your sugar levels, suddenly you find that due to a little bit of a lapse your sugar levels are going haywire and you need to again pay close attention to it.

Mental Stress• This occupies your mind so much that you feel you are losing your

handle on other matters in your life like relationships and other responsibilities

• It becomes a constant juggling act between paying a lot of attention on yourself and other responsibilities in life which are a necessary and unavoidable part of your life.

• When you go to the doctor he/she doesn’t talk about this part of Diabetes Self Management. They are more concerned with data like your daily blood sugar readings, whether you are eating right, exercising and that you have not developed any complications that they need to keep an eye on. Even then, they can miss it if you don’t talk about your symptoms openly so they know what to look for.

Other Stress Factors

• When I first started going to the doctor or to the Diabetes educator or the dietician who could educate me on meal planning, I would have to fill out a form and one of the fields to check is whether you have depression or not. I was bewildered when I first saw it because I felt that everybody goes through periods of depression in their lives and that is quite normal. So I would answer an emphatic, ‘NO’.

• I was determined not to admit depression and that was my way of being strong and letting my mind rule over my body.

• The other symptoms that could sneek up on you are things like feelings of guilt, fatigue and decreased energy, loss of interest in things, irritability and restlessness, overeating or loss of appetite, sleeping too little or too much.

So What Are The Coping Skills?

1. HAVING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE: Very early on my initial diagnosis I had decided that I was going to be brave no matter what happens. I think I got that attitude from doing all my spiritual practices of meditation and yoga and educating myself in various systems of philosophy.

• I had a lot of varied interests in life like reading non fiction extensively, singing, dancing and making friends with spiritual minded people specifically and I had started writing down my thoughts on my blog. I decided I wanted to share my thoughts and whatever else I found on body, mind and spirit level .

FIND SUPPORT

• Find A Support Group: The symptoms are so varied in Diabetes and everyone’s challenges are so different and the solutions they find are also different.

• Be Non-Judgmental: To be supportive to others, be non judgmental. The causes of diabetes doesn’t result only out of a bad life style or bad choice of foods but there is also a certain element of genetics and environmental factors, etc.

HOLISTIC APPROACH BY WAY OF BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT

• 2. KNOW THYSELF : We hear this saying in most scriptures. To know ourselves is very important so we can live a healthy and balanced life not only on the level of the spirit but also on the level of the body and mind.

• The ultimate goal is to grow spiritually but without a healthy body and mind you cannot soar into the high realms of the spiritual.

• 3. Protect Your Body: Without a healthy body we cannot accomplish anything in this world and so whether you have Diabetes or not, we all need to take care of the body with proper diet and exercise and that can only be attained through diligent consideration of what we put into it. There is information galore out there and we are culturally different and have our likes and dislikes so choose a diet that helps you control your sugar levels by monitoring it every time you have a meal and at least get an average of a couple of readings. Have an open mind and consider supplements in addition to the medicines you take. I have always taken supplements to cope with the fatigue syndrome of Diabetes. And that is what has kept me out of major trouble so far. If you want to discuss the various choices out there we can do that and exchange notes on a personal level as time permits.

SPIRITUAL

• 4. RIGHT THINKING: Yes, right thinking is very important because now-a-days everybody is talking about thoughts and how it affects your life. James Allen, in his book, As A Man Thinketh has so wonderfully talked about how we manifest our lives by the quality of our thoughts.

• PRACTICE AFFIRMATIONS: Be kind, gentle and loving to yourself. I love to listen to Louise L. Hay on “How To Love Yourself” and “Heal Your Life,” because what she says totally resonates with me.

PRACTICE OF THESE COPING SKILLS GIVES YOU MASTERY OVER YOURSELF

• We human beings are like bouncing balls. We may fall, but we definitely have the resilience to recover from any kind of illness, depression or adversity and bounce back.

• When we overcome fear of what is going to happen in the future or of death we enjoy life more fully. Important thing is to live life qualitatively with the above coping tools and faith in a higher power that is always protecting us. In a recent study they have shown that when a group of diabetics who prayed vs. a group who did not, there was better control of sugars in those that prayed.

POWERFUL MIND• It is said, ‘an idle mind is a devil’s workshop’!• We can elevate ourselves or degrade ourselves by what

we choose to think. So “being” in harmony is more fruitful than being in chaos.

• With that said I want to conclude this presentation with a short 5 mins of silence in meditation by chanting Om. The actual meaning of Om is I. Even Jesus said, “I AM” the way! So we will chant Om while really attempting to be in our own supreme pure consciousness. This is just a sample of what we can experience when the mind is silent.

GROUP FACILITATION MODULE 7

• Did a google hangout with Sara Park, Eileen Slovik, Paulette Williams, and Malak Bayaa

• We had some technical difficulties in the beginning with the connection on the hangout but eventually we got started.

• I didn’t really expect any of them to have diabetes so I wasn’t sure of how they would introduce themselves in the mock group discussion but it so turned out that every body was familiar with diabetes at some level

• I purposely made my presentation only 15 slides long and did talk over and above what my slides gave out but still finished my presentation in 20 minutes.

• I had included a sample meditation for 5 mins. But Sara opted out of it but the other 3 stayed for the meditation. Malak Bayaa really liked the meditation part and so did Paulette. Eileen said my method was different from what she was used to but over all she said it was good. However, I felt I wasn’t really sure what the challenges and coping skills of the other diabetics really was and so I wasn’t sure if I had covered enough ground. But I felt I could do a better job with some more practice.