TAMPA BAY NEW TIMESan alternative, holistic magazine exploring Body, Mind and Spirit. |
July/August 1999Articles on the theme "Lifestyles"A Look Back Design Your Own Lifestyle The Spirit of Caring Is Lifestyle Predictable? The Yogic Lifestyle Exploring Your Style of Life A Lifestyle of Love Life's Stylus The Victimization Lifestyle A Lifestyle of Grace Other Feature ArticlesNatural Health Q & A 2000 and Beyond!
What is . . . Astrology? Mineral Kingdom
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The Spirit of CaringLisa RaphaelSuch a strange word, life-style. Style refers to fashion, and fashion is something that changes with the times. This magazine is called "New Times". What is the fashion for the new times? The fashion for the new times is very different from what has been associated with the term lifestyle in past decades. The style for the new times is that Less Is More, more or less. In the new times the rich and famous will not be those with the largest number of lavish homes, yachts, private jets, designer clothes. The rich will be recognized and famous for their true wealth, their richness of spirit. Spirituality has, until recently, been a much-neglected aspect of lifestyle. The senseless bombings, the senseless sexual liaisons, the senseless, fast-paced way of living are all symptomatic of lack of grounding in spirit. What do we mean by spirit? Spirit is that aspect of ourselves which is neither transitory nor divisible. Spirit is whole. Even folks who shy away from the term spirituality concede that a person can be high-spirited (joyful), or dis-spirited (sad) and recognize that not all people "get in the spirit of things." Spirituality simply means of the spirit. And, whatever our religious background or belief, we are all aware of the quality of spirit in our lives, the quality of spirit in others, the quality of spirit in the forces and institutions which govern our behavior in the world. The spirit of caring, for instance, while it is more and more blatantly missing from the health care industry manifests in multitudes of ways between and amongst folks in tune with the new times, challenging our present time cultural belief that "time is money", and that we must therefore pay for any care that we receive. This is the spirit of caring? No. This is managed care, and true caring by definition cannot be "managed." It is difficult enough to manage to care about some people when it is our choice to do so. How ludicrous to believe that Managed Care - doling out care under the micro-management of anonymous clerks and computers - can produce any kind of health or healing? It is not care that is being managed at all under Managed Care, it is the almighty dollar. Professional caregivers are discouraged from caring about client-patient consumers because, with a limited number of visits allowed for each diagnosis and treatment divided into a multitude of specialties, it is practically impossible to form any kind of personal relationship. The spirit is that part of us which is whole, one, undivided and indivisible. The delivery of health care through separate, divided parts and specialties is a travesty of both health and care. More and more we come to know that the mind, body and spirit are part of a holistically functioning organism intimately interactive with its environment. A system that divides treatment into separate compartments is simply dysfunctional. "Who cares?" you may ask. If you are one who is too poor to afford treatment outside of the system, you may feel that some attention to your needs is better than none. If you have the good fortune of being able to afford your choice of caregivers, you may not care about those trapped in the Managed Care system. As long as we evaluate lifestyle in terms of money, income, material possessions, there can be no care. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul" Spiritual awakening and the advent of the Managed Care system of health and mental health delivery happened together for me. My thriving twenty five-year practice dwindled as fewer and fewer providers accepted billings from professionals not on "The List". My growing spiritual awareness had a dual effect. It both made it impossible to remain in a system that treats "by the numbers" and made it possible for me to develop a different style of caring. One that does not divide a family member, a good friend or a client into a separate categories. I am available or present in the best way I know to everyone I like. And as I cannot fake caring. I choose only to associate with people I like. As I evolve, this includes more and more people, because the more I learn about myself, the less able I am to make negative judgments about others. I am the same person in relationship to everyone in my life. My expertise and wisdom is offered as freely to friends and acquaintances as to clients for whom I care in my professional capacity because it is simply who I am. I no longer see myself as separated into different categories like wife, mother, counselor, and friend. I am the same person, all of me, one in all my relationships. As long as the act of caring is satisfying to me, I will continue to care. When it ceases to be satisfying, I will stop caring. That is the basis of my life style for the new times. What is yours? Lisa Raphael is a healer, Florida licensed mental health counselor, seminar
leader and author. (727) 822 0489. E-mail: raphael@gte.net.
Internet: www.ashlandweb.com/lisaraphael Copyright (c) 1999 Altnewtimes,
Inc. All rights reserved. |