LIVE LONGER THE GREEK WAY!

I recently got tagged on FaceBook after one of my friends read an article called Secrets From The Island Where People Forget To Die.

My friend said, “Thought of you, Deborah, when I read this article. Sounds like your words of wisdom.”

Well, the island is Ikaria in the north Aegean Sea. The people there live well into their eight, ninth, and tenth decades. Yes, it is common to see one humdred year old Greeks in the market, gardening, enjoying life. In fact, heart disease, cancer, diabetes are rarely heard of on this island. So how is it that these people rarely suffer from the same illnesses that shorten the lives of the rest of us.

In her her new cookbook Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die, Diane Kochilas sums up as six things which I totally agree with.

1. Eat locally, seasonally and sparingly. 

The octagenarians, nonagenarians and centenarians on Ikaria ate very little in their early years, because of extreme poverty. Now I’m not saying that people should starve, but clearly first world countries consume too much.

Traditionally, people of the Mediterranean eat very little meat. A goat or a lamb or a pig may be slaughtered for a holiday feast, perhaps two or three times a year. Family chickens were kept for eggs. The young roosters may be slaughtered a few times a month. Goats are milked and the milk is cultured into yoghurt and cheese. And if you’re fisherman or have something to trade with the fishermen, then fish is part of the diet. 

Everyone keeps a garden, which is basically xenoscaped as the island is arid. So people scavenged for herbs, roots, snails, mushrooms, wild greens. My husband describes picking dandelion greens from the park as a kid. His Greek father would sauté the greens- Horta – and we still cultivate these weeds today. Great for the liver and really tasty sautéed in olive oil, with a bit of feta sprinkled on top.

And the biggest factor is that there is virtually no processed food on the island, except in some restaurants.

2. Don’t rush through life. 

This is key to Mediterranean people, especially those my husband and I encountered in the small villages of Italy and Greece. The author describes the pace with which people move on Ikaria to be: slow, deliberate, unhurried, but with enough time to observe and live in every moment.

Once when we were visiting southern Italy, my husband and I were shopping for souvenirs in the coastal village of Amalfi. Suddenly all the village left their homes and shops including the shopkeeper where we were shopping and they all headed to the beach. We followed them to witness the most beautiful sunset on the Tyrrhenian Sea. People were holding hands and just enjoying the beauty. When the sun had set, everyone kissed and went back to whatever they were doing before. We asked the shopkeeper when he returned if this was a usual event.

 “Of course!” He exclaimed throwing up his hands in the Italian manner. “You stop and appreciate your beautiful life!” We have been slowing down ever since and I believe that has helped our aging process.

This slow pace allows us to be more in tune with our bodies. And that is key to maintaining our health. If you’re moving too fast, not living deliberately, rushing through life, then how can you possibly attend to your body’s subtle signals of dis-ease. When patients come to me with an illness, I always point out to them that their body is trying to communicate with them. If they want to heal, it behooves them to stop and pay attention.

3. Enjoy sleep. 

We sleep so much when we are on vacation. Well, living deliberately allows you to really sleep well. Take naps! Pay attention to your dreams. The centenarians of Ikaria relish their sleep. All older Greeks nap.

I recently read a study on bimodal sleep. We are meant to sleep in two phases. When we were in Italy and Greece if we didn’t sleep during the siesta time when all the shops closed down in the late afternoon, then we could not possibly keep up with the lively late night activities that the people enjoy. An afternoon nap is just when your adrenals need to be recharged. So sleep well!

4. Let things go.  

This is a lesson for us all. The Greeks say, "Don't hold the bad in." The negative feelings- disappointment, regret, frustration, anger, fear—slowly but surely tax our resources and feed dis-ease. Remember what we think becomes. So release everything that no longer serves you on a regular basis. My Italian grandparents used to say, “Never go to bed mad. Always kiss and make up.”

Celebrating life is a great part of Mediterranean culture. The Italians and Greeks love their wine. Grown in the heart of the land they love, the grapevines capture the love of the people turning sunshine into luscious fruit. The wine is good and strong and fuels lively celebration with much dancing!  

5. Walk.  Move. Dance.

When we were in Italy and Greece, we were amazed at how many old people walked. No wheelchairs, no walkers, no canes. Once my husband tried to help a tiny octogenarian with her groceries and she turned him away. My old Italian aunts were like that…believing that once they could not longer do for themselves they would die. So they insisted on cooking, cleaning, climbing three stories, walking to the market as long as they possibly could.

No gyms, no heart monitors, no fancy running clothes. Just walk as much as possible, every day.  You won’t believe how much exercise you get if you just walk. Once my father got us a couple of pedometers. He and I walked around Ojai and compared steps. I’m shorter so I had a few more steps. Just before dinner, he asked to use my laptop. While he was perusing his email, I went out to the garden to gather veggies for dinner, fed the animals, watered a few plants, folded clothes, and prepared dinner. At the end of the evening, we compared our pedometers, I had double the amount of steps than him. He thought I had taken another walk. “No, Dad, I just didn’t sit down.” So get up and walk!

6. Turn to nature’s pharmacopeia as your medicine. 

The long-lived Ikarians use herbs for the minor ailments and let their bodies heal themselves. Folk pharmacopoeia may be slipping away in many cultures but it is alive and well on the island where people forget to die.

One of the reasons I created Genesis Gold was because I could not gather all the nutrition my body needed from my organic American diet. Genesis Gold provides my body a potpourri of herbs from around the world to choose what is needed for healing and maintaining optimal health.

 

GENESIS GOLD - NATURE'S PHARMACOPEIA

Dear Corporate Personhood, …


What has been your experience with large corporate entities? Are you just a cog in the wheel or do you have a voice?

I now have experienced the soullessness of corporations. I may be just a little cog in their wheel, but I have an effect.

The recession caught up to my small health care business. We held out for a long time. I will not close my doors, but I do need to supplement my income. So I sought outside employment to lower my debt ratio.

My plan was to work for a company in which I would not get attached. So the large national corporation that offered me a job seemed like a win-win. I would work for them for as long as it took to pay off my debts doing assessments of the elderly and making recommendations to their primary care providers. A public service without the strings.

I did cause some waves, I must admit. I was shocked at the misinformation of this huge national company who hired nurse practitioners and physicians. They clearly did not know the individual state practice acts. Their contracts left much to be desired. I was just protecting myself…but felt it my duty to my colleagues to offer suggestions of change within the corporation to better protect the health care providers.

And after a month of jumping through hoops for them and just a few days before I was to start work, I got a voicemail. Apparently the position no longer existed. Not because I made waves, but because they counted their chickens before they hatched. Their California client pulled out after waiting five months for them to fill the position.

Hmmm. I felt strangely relieved, yet wondered why? And did not receive an answer, nor closure, nor condolences. I expected more. They were so friendly and available before I got the voicemail.

So I drafted a letter to them…


To Whom It May Concern;


In an effort to seek closure, I am writing this letter.

As a nurse practitioner with 25 years experience, I have assessed, diagnosed and treated thousands of patients. I have helped birth infants into this world and the elderly and infirmed through death. And I have always been fully present in every healing situation. So with presence, I reached out to those who guided me through the process of employment within this national corporation. And I am grateful to each end every one of them for their kind assistance.

This is my first experience of employment with a national corporation. Corporations may have legal personhood, but this one, at least, seems to have no soul. I have yet to receive condolence, explanation, or compensation.

As an entrepreneur, I have created an entity with soul. My employees are well cared for, listened to, and taken seriously. They are not a means to an end, but the spirit of my practice. I am grateful to be reminded that my choice to open a small business and keep it running during the recession has been best for all of us.

During our long interactions, I do believe that your corporation has benefitted. I was the first part-time employee to bring to your attention the lack of clarity in your contract. Which I was told would be rewritten.

I was also the first who alerted you that your California Nurse Practitioner-Physician Collaboration Agreement does not adequately reflect the state practice act for either nurse practitioners or physicians and thus as written puts both parties at risk. I hope you change this as soon as possible.

I take responsibility for believing in your national corporation, for rushing to fulfill all that was asked of me as a contracted employee, for taking time away from my own business, and paying for legal counsel before signing your contract.

In the month it took to fulfill all that you required of me to prepare for employment—hours of filling out paperwork for credentialing, inoculations for health clearance, submitting to you my banking and identity information—all of which I completed by your deadlines—I have missed out on four weeks of income from the job I refused once I signed on with you.

I am sure your employment process is the same for everyone. Yet I was informed that the situation that happened to me was quite unusual. So I can only assume that you do not have a policy to deal with it.

At the very least, I wish acknowledgment that you have destroyed all my sensitive information.

Clearly it is not meant for me to work with you. If there is a next time, I will insist on a sign-on bonus. Executives with less responsibility for public well being receive sign on bonuses to make it worth their while. Nurse practitioners must have a higher sense of self to be valued by all employers, even national corporations. Especially those that base their profit margin on the services rendered by nurse practitioners.

I serve on the Past Presidents Council of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners representing 14,000 nurse practitioners and will be speaking at the annual educational conference in March regarding business practices. I am grateful for what I have learned in this experience yet am concerned for my colleagues should they choose to seek employment with your corporation.

I hope you make the necessary adjustments to policy so that another potential employee is not adversely affected.

I’m sorry that I cannot recommend your company to my colleagues. I wish you success in helping those you serve—patients.


Sincerely;


Deborah Maragopoulos MN APRN BC, FNP
Intuitive Integrative Medicine
Full Circle Family Health
www.genesisgold.com


I have spent my life creating change. Being a pioneer. Walking down unknown paths, finding the pitfalls, and alerting those who might follow. I am an effective patient advocate and a voice for my colleagues. I created change as President of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners. I created change for patients by providing integrative medical choices when I opened my own practice in 1997. And now I am creating change in voicing my concern.

Health Care Reform is needed….for all our sakes…patients and providers alike.

We need choices from the best of conventional and complementary medicine.

We need freedom to choose what is best for us, for our patients, not be tied to insurers’ treatment protocols.

We need to educate our patients especially on the health care choices that are within their control…but first we need to educate ourselves on natural means to healing and how to help our patients heal themselves.

We need to stop creating dependency on prescriptions, on myopic assessments that force the patients to come back over and over milking the system, when time spent educating rather than medicating would heal them and be much more cost effective.

We need to remember as health care providers that we do not heal our patients, but are instruments in their healing process.

We need as patients to empower ourselves, take responsibility for our health choices, and learn to listen to our bodies’ innate wisdom.

We need to work together—patients and providers—with the goal of optimal health and wellbeing.

We need to start NOW!

Letting Go

Sometimes, helping others come into hormonal harmony requires a sharing of heart and soul.

Last spring, I was invited by the Grandmother’s Council of Ojai to speak about my book. The grandmothers were very interested in the Divine Daughter energy. From the moment I entered the circle, I was enveloped in their loving embrace. The grandmothers gather in fulfillment of the Hopi prophesy that “when the grandmothers speak, the earth will be healed.” My own grandmothers passed years ago and while I have my husband’s beloved Gran, you cannot have enough grandmothers in your life!

The grandmothers offer empowerments—an amazing experience of being held in the love of all that is—so in spite of being the guest speaker, I was asked by Jill, the head grandmother to come and receive an empowerment. Wow! I have been embraced by a circle of wise loving women who are always with me now. What a blessing.

Yet, alas, I am not yet of age to become part of the circle of grandmothers. A woman must reach the age of 52 and be menopausal—no longer bleeding out her wisdom—to pass into the circle. I have a ways to go yet.

Fortunately on the second Sunday of the month, the Grandmother’s Council opens the circle to men, younger women and children. All are welcome to receive empowerments and once received are encouraged to participate in the empowerments. I have invited many of my friends and patients to come. Last month, I was blessed to have my son join me in the Grandmother’s Council Solstice Celebration. It was beautiful. Jill wasn’t feeling very well though and when I asked if I could be of assistance (I meant offer her a healing), she handed me the sacred cowl and asked me to perform the empowerments.

While the grandmother’s received from healers and well wishers in the outer circle, I was supported by an inner circle of loving women. My son had commented before we arrived at the council that I looked like a high priestess. Well, I felt like one offering sacred feminine blessings to each amazing being who stepped into the circle for an empowerment.

This past Sunday, one of my dear patients joined us. Here is her letter …

Hi Deborah,

Thank you so much for inviting me to the Grandmothers Council. The empowerment circle was simply incredible. I had a totally different reaction to it than I expected- not so much a feeling of empowerment, but instead, of shedding something. And after meditating on it a while, I think I need to shed some of these walls I've put around me all these years. I've always been one who feels very blessed, and I think I've carried that almost to the point where I don't think I deserve any more. So I'm working on releasing some of that so that I CAN receive!
When I say my prayers of thanks, you are one of the people in my life I'm so thankful for!
Love, Lisa

Dear Lisa,

Thank you for coming!!!

This is the second month that Jill has asked me to take over. I have not yet offered any empowerments without the circle of grandmothers, but with you now empowered maybe we can begin. My mother needs to come and Chris too, but it takes awhile to be ready to receive.

In fact you're right...it begins with a release, a letting go of all that no longer serves, no longer fits into the new paradigm . Then we are open to receive the blessings of the next stage of life. My son was a very content child. He felt so blessed to be where he was at, that he resisted moving forward...

On the other hand, I pushed toward goals without stopping to smell the roses, not enjoying the present in favor of breathing life into the dream.

This past year has been one of great joy...wrapped in sorrow at times, all a letting go of the old way of being to make room for the new me.

I began this work in 2004...it was so powerful that I wrote an article on this disentangling our cords of attachment.

When I reconnected to my higher self, I was well aware that I was holding onto something that was preventing me from receiving more. I too feel very blessed, yet I know there is more... what I had to release was my fear...and the universe showed me all the faces of it for the past five months, until finally I could embrace it then let it go.

I realize now that life is about joy, that my lesson is to BE Joy, to be Faith, Beauty, Vitality, Compassion, Love...not wish for it, not work on it, just be it!

It's who I am. It's who you are, too.

Love, Deborah

Disentangling Our Cords of Attachment by Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP