{"id":6763,"date":"2016-02-01T18:46:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T23:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6763"},"modified":"2019-05-15T13:50:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:50:06","slug":"other-gifts-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6763","title":{"rendered":"Other gifts, too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About a month into my\u00a0recovery, a friend who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crystaldawnherbs.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">is an herbalist<\/a> and practices traditional Chinese medicine told me: &#8220;Your <em>shen<\/em> had a fright and has yet to fully return.\u00a0 Taking baby steps to make things nice and cozy &#8216;in Lisa&#8217; will entice your <em>shen&#8217;s<\/em> full return.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She recommended herbs, meditation, looking at green things, being in nature. And my spirit did return.<\/p>\n<p>Those practices are good all of the time &#8211; and making myself cozy for my own\u00a0spirit was a gift for keeps.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did I learn that I had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6612\" target=\"_blank\">more friends than I realized<\/a>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0The brain aneurysm and surgery gave me other gifts, too:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have greater empathy for people with brain injuries and PTSD, especially soldiers.<\/li>\n<li>I gained a deep appreciation for the intricacies of microsurgery in the brain.<\/li>\n<li>I met some nice people in my community, the volunteers who took\u00a0me to the Fitness Center when I couldn&#8217;t drive.<\/li>\n<li>I sleep better, and longer.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t find it so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6744\" target=\"_blank\">hard to exercise<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Because I am <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6693\" target=\"_blank\">more myself than ever<\/a>, I reaffirmed some things I knew were important but had been ignoring:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Routines are soothing and morning hours are sacred<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t worry so much<\/li>\n<li>Listen to your body<\/li>\n<li>Take care of your brain and protect your head<\/li>\n<li>Alcohol is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6742\" target=\"_blank\">toxic<\/a><\/li>\n<li>If you really need something &#8211; ask for it loud and clear<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t watch a lot of violence or dwell on negatives<\/li>\n<li>Some days are better than others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Because I came so close to death, I really thought about the possibility of death-bed regrets. And because of that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I started writing a book because I&#8217;ve wanted to all my life<\/li>\n<li>I reconnected with and appreciated my friends<\/li>\n<li>I set aside time every day for art.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My pace is the biggest improvement. My mind is revved back up to its old speed, just about, but now when I try to do too much, I repeat the new rule:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One thing at a time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Today&#8217;s penny is a 2015 for the gifts I received but didn&#8217;t acknowledge then.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About a month into my\u00a0recovery, a friend who is an herbalist and practices traditional Chinese medicine told me: &#8220;Your shen had a fright and has yet to fully return.\u00a0 Taking baby steps to make things nice and cozy &#8216;in Lisa&#8217; will entice your shen&#8217;s full return.&#8221; She recommended herbs, meditation, looking at green things, being &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6763\" class=\"more-link\">read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Other gifts, too<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[67,671,35,596,493,670,494,504,669,112,75,502],"class_list":["post-6763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-refraction","tag-67","tag-appreciation","tag-art","tag-book","tag-brain","tag-empathy","tag-gratitude","tag-recovery","tag-shen","tag-sleep","tag-spirit","tag-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6763"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6890,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6763\/revisions\/6890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}