Choices
Mom - An Independent Woman
One of my mother’s key values was the importance of “Choice,” her underlying principal was for women to be independent, strong and employed. “It’s important to work hard and get an education” she said, typical values growing up in Minnesota during the 1950’s and 60’s. I lived my life believing this until I became a Director several times over and learned that budget cuts are painful choices and that we let people go even though they had an education and worked hard. It’s been two years since I “chose” to leave my corporate job and reinvent myself, I’ve moved away from health care management and sales management in private industry back to healthcare but from a holistic health and wellness perspective.
I’ve made lots of choices, trying on different ideas based on a holistic perspective and building from my healing practice foundation. I’ve experimented the past two years thinking through what type of business I wanted to create until something became clear and the clarity came through personal discomfort. What are my strengths, what work is satisfying and can I evolve the business into an eventual retirement practice?
After my father died last fall I realized I used my nursing skills to manage his medical care over several years, I did the same when my mother died from cancer and subsequently other family members requested my support. When my sister died recently I organized the work that needed to be done with my remaining sisters, closing out all her final affairs. Having assisted with end of life activities for both parents and a younger sister I learned a lot through very different experiences and it became clear that being a daughter, sister and friend with a health and healing background could be helpful to others.
Some choices are obvious and other opportunities come to us unlooked for but life is an interesting journey and I have a myriad of choices. I consider myself a strong independent woman, I learned from my Mother.
Mary
June 30, 2009
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Mary · 
2 Comments
Tags: alternative therapy, Business Development, complimentary therapies, energy healing, executive, family, friends, healthcare, holistic healing, independent women, integrative medicine, job loss, journey, Women · Posted in: Healing, Life Lessons
Mary Chapa, RN is a multi-talented woman with a background in nursing leadership, quality management and business development in both health care and private industry. Mary is also a writer and passionate holistic health practitioner living in Minnesota.
2 Responses
Dear Mary,
I am delighted to see your post on “Choices” and, most definitely, some are easier than others. My background also includes health care and I have found that awareness of choice is essential to good health. To me, without individual choice on our own health matters, we are detaching ourselves from one of the major links to good health in the first place — free choice.
A book I have recently written highlights this viewpoint and I want to draw it to your attention , as you may be interested in it. The title is “Soul Talk With Cells: What We Really Want Is To Play” and information is available at http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/soultalkwithcells.html If you have any questions, I am most willing to offer my views on this topic.
Flora Sue Gardner
Flora,
Thank your for your comments and for the reference to your new publication, I look forward to learning more about your perspective. In some ways holding firm to the choices in my life I find making the best choices for my personal health is still a challenge. I learned a long time ago that simply having the necessary knowledge was often not enough when it came to taking a stand and making the best choice for our own self care. A lot can be said about demonstrating courage to commit to positive choices for our own self care first so we have the necessary personal strength to be our best for the rest of the world. Thank you again for your comments.
Mary
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