Happy Happy Summer Solstice, it is the longest day of the year and the shortest night. After work I will light a fire and celebrate this day. I am so grateful to be in a place where I can honor our Creator, our ancestors and Mother Earth. I am blessed to be surrounded by great family and friends. I love my children and grandchildren and am so thankful for them everyday. Nobody ever leads a perfect life but you can choose to lead a good life that works for you. I think that you can love and support people but the bottom line is that you are the one to wake up feeling joy at where you are at in life. If you don't, then change it...for you. I wish you a beautiful day and a wonderful year.

I also want to acknowledge that today is also National Indigenous People's Day, which used to be called National Aboriginal Day. For me, every day is Indigenous Day...hahaha. I think it's great, as an act of reconciliation, that we acknowledge and celebrate the First People's of this land. Celebrate the people! yay! and never forget who the original people of this land really is...speak the truth.

 The first time I heard a scaling measure for physical pain was when I was with my dad, he was having a heart attack and the EMT was asking him on a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain. I have since used this scaling measure to ask people at risk of suicide about how they would measure their emotional pain or measure how they were feeling today.
I was reading through some on-line blogs when I stumbled upon "thegracefulpatient" blog. This Mental Health painscale asks the individual to look at themselves and see where they would rate themselves on a daily basis. A measure of their own mental health and also a scale to help when you need additional support.

Here's another one that has been used.

I haven't tried out any of these scales but I will ask other's what they think. Scales might turn out to be a handy tool for some people.

Hi Folks,
Here we are almost to the end of May. It is so amazing how quickly time flies. I have been blessed to have adventures in the last few months that allow me to see new places and meet amazing people.
I wanted to share with you a new workshop that I have developed called "Health, Hope and Healing". It is from an indigenous perspective and it's all about you and what is needed to maintain great holistic Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Emotional Health.
I often see and hear people refer to departments that deal with the individual aspects of the self. Our traditional teachings and stories tell us about looking at ourselves holistically and as we develop into birth, youth, adult and Elder's, we will continue to strive toward out balance as human beings.

I am not sure who to give credit to the picture of the Cree Medicine Wheel I added but I really like it. It adds teachings to it that might be helpful to someone.

Another important topic is our past. We, as Indigenous people, have a different history than Europeans. We need to talk about that. Not just intergenerational trauma but Intergenerational strengths. We have them, let's use them.

When I talk about grief and loss, in this workshop, I talk about healing. Not just from a individual perspective but also thinking about healing for families and communities. We are so interconnected to others that we need to heal these three aspects but finding the balance in keeping ourselves well at the same time.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I am grateful. Hiy Hiy.