Saying Goodbye  While some of us may have difficulty saying 'hello' to people, it is often the external and internal goodbyes that provide most of us the biggest challenges by invoking anxiety and stress.   Learning to say goodbye in a healthy manner is a significant part of the grieving process when we lose someone or something important to us.   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

 Many of us have topics that are difficult to openly discuss with others. Two of these sensitive topics seem to be the 'wealth game' of self-worth and the exploring/sharing with others the diversity we wish to live during the final days of our life. Whether we see ourselves as more winners or losers in life games, being able to relate our experiences, hopes, and fears with others can be a challenge for our emotional and physical health.      We can face the last of our life chapters with introspective intellectualism.  Having an actual 'last days' experience can allow us to explore many questions about ourselves, others who are important to us and the many decisions we have made on our personal life journey.  Doing both allows us to have a more realistic view of how we see the continuum of our life into eventual death.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

All Things End: What Have I Learned?  At some point, in some way, all living things eventually meet death and our one chance to live this unique gift of life will come to an end.  We each have many choices as we live and our personal choices have consequences throughout our life path.     One personal guideline that can be helpful in pondering positive and healthy choices for our latter days is:  I cannot go back and change the beginning.  I can start where I am and change the ending.  Except in our memories, yesterday is gone.     Like doing an eulogy, it is difficult for most of us to summarize both positively and negatively what we have and have not learned on our individual life path.  Each of us will basically answer the questions:   Who Am I?  What have I learned to maximize my remaining days of life to be positive and healthy? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

Is This My Last Chance?  One of the major assets of living life is knowing that at some point our individual life will come to an end. Knowing that our life will eventually end can give tremendous value to each of us on making our personal decisions for whatever time remains.     One choice that has positively affected my emotional health has been a choice to frame each interaction with another as though it could be my last chance to frame our relationship.  If family/friends were to never interact with me due to their illness or death, I wanted them to leave this earth with an accurate understanding of how and why they were important to me. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

What Do I Choose to Leave Behind?   Our personal life legacy is in a constant state of being created by our daily choices made one hour, one day or one month at a time.  While our life choices are open to varied perceptions by others, do I accept responsibility for expressing my own values and beliefs in actively living what is important to me?    When death does eventually arrive, shall I be content with the physical, emotional, social and spiritual choices that will accurately define me and my legacy to others?  If I were able to look backward after my death, would I be pleased with the personal choices that I leave behind for others to remember me? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

Learning the skills to appreciate our pets with love and caring is important to many individuals.   For some, the lives of our pets may be as important or more important than the skills and beliefs learned to value the lives of fellow humans.   The presence of life also teaches us that at some point and in some manner there is the arrival of death for humans as well as for pets.   The arrival of death for either brings forth our unique values and beliefs we each have developed during our lives.   Having each of us confront his/her views on death for humans and/or pets provides a significant self-learning opportunity.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

Managing Expectations of Self and Others Wellness Psychology recognizes that each of us has the power to 'frame' his/her world into the specific perceptions that we choose. We have the personal responsibility for viewing our world along with the power to accept, reject or modify our choices. We frequently need to ventilate our feelings with others. This process of sharing with another tends to reduce the emotional pressures we feel with the frustrations of life. Seeking information about options different than receiving advice can be helpful. Expectations change. Do we choose the power to accept, reject or modify them? Do we choose the 'victim' roles and seek to blame others for our own choices? Are we willing to explore the reasons we offer for our choices versus the challenges of finding the 'real' reasons we have for framing our world and the resultant choices? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

Presence: Best Gift for Human Connection Our in-person presence can often be the most valuable and useful gift that we have to give to others as we build and maintain our human connections.   The emotionally healthy person recognizes the presence or absence of other humans can significantly affect one's mental health.   Each of us comes into life with the need to have some type and degree of relating and connections with other humans.  Regardless of age, gender, geography, social group, etc., this need for some level of social connection is practically universal.    Learning and understanding the various roles of being present for another is a significant gift to connecting and supporting our relationship with them. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

One + One = One or Two?   Inherent in our relationships is that the participants have a set of assumptions and expectations for themselves as well as for the other person.  Whether in marriage or friendship we rely on these assumptions and expectations to healthfully maximize the connection we have with each other.    We have choices in our degree of connection such as whether our relationship emphasizes remaining two separate entities or whether we prefer the tighter connection of blending into one entity such as some marriages, families and friendships strive to do.   Our challenge can be to the degree that both of the individuals see this type of assumption and expectation as being compatible for daily living.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall-Part 2   Wellness Psychology encourages each of us to more fully understand and appreciate the choices we make in developing and implementing our own individual self-esteem beginning as a child to becoming a senior citizen.   Special interest is paid to the emotional cancer of perfectionist tyranny and the ways we can re-decide to promote healthy self-esteem for ourselves. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/power-for-positive/message