Gifts and Gadgets | In Care of Dad

Archive for the ‘Gifts and Gadgets’ Category

Essential Oils: A Gift Of Love And Wellness

Posted on November 8th, 2012 by karen

by Karen Keller Capuciati

It has been awhile since we published a “Gifts and Gadgets” article. But it’s November already — time to start thinking about those on your gift list. My sister Kim and I started a tradition years ago, which is to buy “our favorite things” as gifts. The idea is to simply exchange those items that we found added value to our own lives, whether it was a small luxury like a body cream, a book we couldn’t put down, or a gadget that made life just a little bit easier.

So, this year, I’m putting essential oils on the top of my Christmas list for my sister and my friends (Kim, just forget that you saw this until December 25th).

Essential oils are the aromatic liquids extracted from plants, trees, flowers, seeds and roots. They not only smell amazing, but they’ve been used since biblical times for relieving physical discomforts and calming frayed nerves.

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Gifts & Gadgets: Shoes That “Earth”

Posted on July 24th, 2012 by karen

by Karen Keller Capuciati

After publishing our blog about Earthing in early June, we heard from a footwear company called Juil which makes shoes with copper in the soles, allowing your body to be in contact with the natural healing energies of the earth.

Peter Coulter, a representative of Juil, shared with me his interest in the benefits of Earthing and suggested I try their leather (and vegan) sandals and clogs, made for both men and women. The copper-infused soles allow for conductivity, so the wearer is connected, or grounded, with the planet’s surface.

What’s behind Earthing? There is emerging research that indicates our planet has healing properties. With simple contact, the energy of the earth has been found to neutralize disease-causing free radicals, which are uncharged electrons (neither positive or negative) that build up in our bodies due to environmental toxins, poor diet and stress. These free radicals can cause all sorts of damage to our body’s systems. So, in effect, our planet serves as a natural antioxidant force, healing our bodies from many ailments, including autoimmune disease, headaches, insomnia, pain and disease caused by inflammation. And all it takes is simple everyday contact with the earth, like walking barefoot in the grass or in the sand on the beach. For more information, including links to research results, you can check out the In Care of Dad blog called Earthing: Can Our Planet Heal Us?

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Eternal Letters

Posted on May 30th, 2012 by kim

by Lisa M. Wolfson

As I get older, and especially after surviving cancer, I’ve decided it’s vitally important that I leave some kind of guide for my teenage son. I want to share with him my inner thoughts, my memories and stories, and my hopes for him and his future. These desires have lead me to explore legacy writing, the act of documenting your experiences and values through letters that are kept sealed until the reading of your last will and testament. The whole idea struck me as a wonderful gift, to both my family and myself, linking me to my own history, giving purpose to my life and helping to preserve family traditions after I’m gone.

Legacy letters can convey almost anything, from values to past experiences to hopes and dreams. They can pass on who we are and what we hold dear. They can be written to family, friends, even colleagues. They nourish the future, fill gaps in the past, and connect generations, providing insight into who we are and who we hope our children will be. Legacy letters can be in the form of blessings or stories, but shouldn’t be written as admonitions or instructions. For example, rather than insisting your son believe in himself, you can write a blessing, something along the lines of “May you always be blessed with wisdom and a true belief in yourself,” and it will be far more effective than judgments or commands.

In her book, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies, Rachael Freed provides the following “Principles of Practice” for legacy writing:

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Making The Photo Book Of Love

Posted on May 1st, 2012 by karen

by Karen Keller Capuciati

If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a whole book of pictures is worth.

For some people, the worth is incalculable. Let me give you an example.

Recently I met a woman who was creating a beautiful photo book filled with the memories of six best friends and first cousins growing up together. The book was intended as a gift for one of the six who is battling cancer. It starts when they were all young girls at the beach in Montauk, NY, and spans 53 years, up to the present with photos of them together with their now-grown children. In between those two points, the book details the story of the wonderful life these six women shared — the history and specialness of their sisterhood. The author has included captions throughout the clean, upbeat design for added personal touches. It’s a beautiful tribute for a dear friend, filled with love — a gift all of the women will undoubtedly cherish.

Instantly I wanted to share this wonderful idea! It’s a great gift for anyone, but an extraordinary one for a friend in need of some loving support.

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Guided Imagery: Opening The Door To Wellness

Posted on April 4th, 2012 by kim

by Christine Taylor

Anyone who has received a life-threatening diagnosis can probably describe the moment their world stopped. I was struck in the middle of a beautiful summer day while my family was over for a visit. We were deciding whether to go to the beach or out to lunch when I received the call from the surgeon who had biopsied my right breast a few days before. I had spent the interim time telling myself that I was only 32 and there was nothing to be worried about, trying to suppress that aching fear in the pit of my stomach. I was waiting for the phone call so that I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore and I could just move on with the amazing summer that was before me.

Then the phone rang.

I had cancer. My world stopped.

The next day, I went for my first mammogram and MRI thinking how backward it all seemed. Shouldn’t the first mammogram happen before the cancer is diagnosed? And shouldn’t that be eight years from now, when I’m 40? This is not how my summer was supposed to go. I was supposed to be celebrating new beginnings. I was supposed to be enjoying my new house, swimming in the ocean with my son Jack and hosting friends and family. I was not supposed to be fighting for my life. Unfortunately, when you’re faced with a diagnosis such as cancer, you do not have the luxury of festering resentment. You have a lot to do in a short period of time. Your life depends on the decisions you make and the focus you maintain in the days and weeks before your treatment begins.

Having a professional background in health, I’m well educated on the topic of mind-body interconnection. I remembered being fascinated as a college student when I read about guided imagery — also known as visualization — and how it could improve the outcome of many ailments, including cancer. So I asked the patient navigator at the breast-imaging center if she knew of any practitioners. She directed me to a social worker who specializes in helping people with cancer. When I got home, I called the social worker and she shared with me many resources, including a guided-meditation clearinghouse called Health Journeys. That night, I went to the website and loaded my iPod with “The Cancer Pack,” which includes meditations for fighting cancer, for assistance with chemotherapy, for relieving stress, and for general wellness. I also purchased a meditation to help with successful surgery and one for creating a healthy immunity.

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Nourishing Your Life With Vitamin G

Posted on November 10th, 2011 by karen

by Lisa Wolfson

As a cancer survivor, I worry about recurrence and about illness in general. I don’t know what life has in store for me, but I do know that I want to give myself the best possible chance to live it as fully as possible.

While everything I’ve read and heard indicates that positive thoughts are a key to staying healthy, it’s not always easy to keep an agreeable and favorable outlook. However, through my work at a breast cancer wellness center, I was introduced to the concept of a gratitude practice, a simple process that helped me transform into a calmer, more positive me.

A gratitude practice consists of calling to mind three to five things you’re grateful for each day. If you’re like me and prefer to write things down, you should check out a book called From Gratitude to Bliss: A Journey in Health and Happiness, by Lorraine Miller. It’s essentially a guided journey, with sections set aside for you to transcribe your own thoughts.

“Keeping a gratitude practice is much like taking a vitamin,” Lorraine writes in From Gratitude to Bliss. “All-natural and extremely nourishing, regular gratitude is a nutrient I like to call ‘Vitamin G’ and is essential to living a happy, healthy life. Begin taking it every day and watch what happens.”

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Blissful Listening

Posted on October 27th, 2011 by karen

by Karen Keller Capuciati

Perhaps you’ve seen our previous blogs on meditation What Is This Meditation Thing All About Anyway? and Meditation For Health in this space. Well, as part of In Care of Dad’s continuing commitment to the topic, today we’re sharing what some of our readers like to listen to when they meditate.

While most of us believe that meditation would likely be beneficial if we only knew how to get started, the truth is, we just need to jump in and actually do it.

Listening to a meditation CD is a great first step in that direction.

We polled some of our In Care of Dad friends to find out about their favorite CDs for meditation. Though my own response to the question would be guided-meditation CDs, like Thicht Nat Hahn‘s Plum Village Meditations or Don Kollmar’s Coming Home to Self, I was delighted by the eye-opening range of choices delivered by some of our readers — everything from chants and music to the sounds of nature. I hadn’t really considered the notion of listening to a beautiful piece of music for meditation, but I absolutely love the idea!

Check out some of these responses and see what sounds good to you.

“I listened endlessly to ancient Hindu chants during my 8-hour surgery. I made sure that these chants Om Namah Shivaya and Shri Guru Gita continued through the entire surgical procedure. There are many Om Namah Shivaya chants available, I recommend the CDs with either Bhupali Raga or Shiva Bhairav or Bhimpalasi Raga.” — Christine Sherwood

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Things That Make Life A Little Easier: The Gift Of Quiet

Posted on September 6th, 2011 by karen

An In Care of Dad Series

by Karen Keller Capuciati

Noise-canceling headphones have become popular with people who fly a lot — they’re a luxurious upgrade over the airline-issued variety. They’re comfortable and block out the background airplane noise so you can actually hear the movie.

When our father was in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation centers, we bought him the Bose noise-canceling headphones to enhance his comfort level in two ways. Our initial objective was to provide him the pleasure of his favorite CDs — Dad loved all types of music, from Patsy Cline and Neil Diamond to the Three Tenors. But we especially wanted to provide him some peace and quiet from the constant noise that fills every medical facility — the beeps, alarms, pages, incessant hallway chatter, as well as the often-too-loud TV that his roommate would watch.

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Book Review: Still Alice

Posted on August 17th, 2011 by kim

by Kim Keller

Every once in a while I read a book that I love so much I want to buy it for everyone I know. Does that happen to you? Well, that’s how I felt when I finished reading Still Alice. I just loved it! And that, frankly, surprised me. A book about Alzheimer’s disease is one that I would expect to learn from but certainly not enjoy. Turns out, this book is unforgettable.

Still Alice is a novel about a 50-year old woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alice experiences what most of us do as we get older — we start to forget things. Alice begins to wonder: Is it just aging? Stress? Not enough sleep? Menopause? When Alice gets lost during a routine jog in her neighborhood, she recognizes there is something more going on and decides to see her doctor. Alzheimer’s was clearly not her first guess.

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Things That Make Life A Little Easier: An Automatic Pill Dispenser

Posted on August 8th, 2011 by kim

An In Care of Dad Series

by Kim Keller

Alice lives in Muskego, Wisconsin, near most of her family, and just celebrated her 86th birthday. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As with many families, Alice’s eight children, who refer to themselves as “Team Alice,” worried about her taking her medications properly.

Would she remember what to take and when? Alzheimer’s is an enormous obstacle to a medication routine. So Team Alice was thrilled to discover the huge selection of MedTime Automatic Pill Dispensers from e-pill.com.

The medication dispenser they chose looks like a space ship. It has 28 compartment for pills and the like, so it can handle a variety of medication routines without the need for constant refilling. The dispenser also has a timer system that’s adjustable for each routine, and Team Alice reports that it’s very easy to program and to use.

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