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Coping with Major Illness

Senior Issues Series
1. Aging or Ageless
2. The Continuance of Existence
3. Coping with Major Illness
4. Processing Loss
5. Senior Intimacy from a Spiritual Point of View

Susan Helene Kramer

Click for site map. Photo from Santa Barbara Botanical Garden by Susan Kramer.

 

I.   Coping with Major Illness
article from a spiritual viewpoint
II.  Discussion Forum
for questions and comments on grief, meditation, prayer, recovery, yoga,
and other spiritual practices or ideas for practical daily living
III. Links
for children, teens, adults, and those challenged
on grief, meditation, prayer, recovery, rhythmic movement, and yoga
IV.  Biographical Sketch


I. Coping with Major Illness
 

Times of personal illness affect others, too.

Emotionally, there may be loss or change. And, perhaps the cost of care is a factor, and who is going to be a care-giver?

Currently, my father is weathering a major illness, and our step-mother, who was providing primary care, died almost a year ago. My brother moved back to the family home and cares for Dad full-time. This was possible because my brother is single; the move back home affected only him.

Major illness is a catalytic force of change for the one ill, other family members, or extended family as the case may be. Illness probably comes in all families at some point in our lives; it seems universal.

What I've found in coping with the illness and death of my mother in 1984 and now with my father's major illness in 2001 is that I need to do what is necessary to maintain my personal harmony in the midst of these changes and feelings of loss.

I spent 9 months of this past year ill. Now I feel recovered but it was another kind of process being the one ill and not the care-giver. During this period I had to learn to surrender to the best for that moment, and it was hard. I wanted to be up and doing and I didn't have the strength or stamina. I tried not to be needy to spare my husband much extra work.

What helped me recover faster, I think, was that I stayed as much as possible in consciousness of the Holy Vibration. This constant companion soothes and harmonizes thoughts and the body; perceived within the head under the crown of the skull, its gentle melody present during times of feeling good or in illness. During my mother's final illness I sat with her and stayed in the consciousness of the Holy Vibration. She told me that she had come to feel this Holy Presence and it gave her peace.

Coping with a major illness sends us back to our roots; roots of harmony and peace that are sunk deep in each of us; which we can draw from when in need.

Communion with the Holy Vibration, the Vibration of Peace, is a stabilizing stronghold for me when I'm sick, or being the care-giver, or just coping with everyday life.

Coping
and more than coping
recouping natural harmony in stressful times
by tuning in with the ever-present
Vibration of Peace

Author's Note: For more on meditation techniques and related writings go to Part III Links below.


 

III. Links
for children, teens, adults, and those challenged
on grief, meditation, prayer, recovery, rhythmic movement, and yoga

Adaptive Rhythmic Movement for Children to Seniors
http://www.susankramer.com/Adaptive.html
Aging or Ageless?
http://www.susankramer.com/Aging.html
The Continuance of Existence
http://www.susankramer.com/ExistenceContinues.html
Conquering Codependency
http://www.susankramer.com/Codependency.html
Growing in Consciousness
http://www.susankramer.com/consciousness.html
Meditation for Adults
http://www.susankramer.com/Meditation.html
Meditation for Children
http://www.susankramer.com/ChildMeditation.html
Meditation for Teens
http://www.susankramer.com/TeenMeditation.html
Praying Effectively
http://www.susankramer.com/Prayer.html
Processing Loss
http://www.susankramer.com/ProcessingLoss.html
Radiant Yoga for Children
http://www.susankramer.com/Yoga.html
Radiant Yoga for Teens and Adults
http://www.susankramer.com/RadiantYoga.html
 


IV. Biographical Sketch

Stan Schaap and Susan Kramer

Susan Kramer, M.A., M.Div. is an international author of more than 50 collections and 150 articles on rhythmic dance, ballet, music, philosophy, social issues, yoga and practical spirituality for children, teens, adults and those challenged, with some translations in Dutch, French, German and Spanish, and with her husband, Stan Schaap, resides in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
email susan@susankramer.com
Creations in Consciousness web site http://www.susankramer.com
biography http://www.susankramer.com/Biography.html
Text and photo copyright © 2001-2011 Susan Kramer
Santa Barbara, California USA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Published by Creations in Consciousness
site map

Senior Issues Series
1. Aging or Ageless
2.
The Continuance of Existence
3.
Coping with Major Illness
4.
Processing Loss
5.
Senior Sex from a Spiritual Point of View

 

 



page created April 23, 2001; updated January 11, 2009
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