Resilience for Life Newsletter
June 2013

Helping Others by Helping Yourself

While blogging about how extended CPR saved my friend Hillary’s life, I found myself thinking about how survival is kin to resilience - being mentally, physically and spiritually able to respond to any given situation, life-threatening or not.

And that means taking care of ourselves first. Without this, we're in no position to effectively help or take care of anyone else.

It's not always easy. We may insist we have no time or feel guilty for such an “indulgence.” We may tell ourselves stories that we’ll be okay, we’ll manage, everything will take care of itself (and us with it).

Here are a few favorite sources for thinking about how to avoid such pitfalls and to prime ourselves to be there for others:

Take Care of Others by Taking Care of Yourself First (Productive Flourishing)

What It Means to Really Take Care of Yourself (Tiny Buddha)

5 Reasons to Put Yourself First (Great Living Now)

55 Gentle Ways to Take Care of Yourself (The Freedom Experiment)

Is Self-Care Selfish? (Psychology Today)

New on The Resilience Blog:

“I Was Terrified…
but I Kept Going…”

My husband and I recently recertified in CPR – something we were even more motivated to do after learning what my dear friends Hillary and Bill Greenberg had experienced last year...

It was the Costa Rican holiday from hell.

Swept away by an underwater surge that ripped her regulator from her mouth, Hilary sank 30 feet in frigid waters to a reef where her lifeless body remained for 7 minutes until Bill, her husband, brought her to the surface.

Once they hoisted her into the scuba boat, they saw that her eyes were dilated and her lips, blue. A physician, Bill couldn’t detect a pulse or breathing.

He began CPR immediately....

Read the rest of the story
on The Resilience Blog

Image by Stacy via Flickr

Kale and Pear Smoothie

This recipe is great for breakfast, especially in the summertime!

Kale may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to making a great smoothie, but once you try this one, I think you’ll agree: It’s one of the best! This dark, leafy green is packed with calcium in a form that the body finds easier to digest than milk, and that’s a real bonus for your bones. Combine these leaves with pear, green grapes, orange and banana, and you’ve got a surprisingly sweet smoothie that is absolutely loaded with nutrition.

It’s also a real immune booster! You’ve got the vitamin C from citrus, cholesterol-calming potassium from the banana and the flavinol compounds in green grapes that fight free radicals and repair connective tissues.

Ingredients
1 c. frozen green grapes
1 medium orange, peeled
½ Bartlett pear
1 frozen banaa
1 c. kale
½ c. water
1 ½ c. ice cubes

Place all ingredients into a Vitamix* container and secure the lid. Select variable speed #10, then increase to high, blending for 1 ½ minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 4 cups.

* You can also use a regular blender. Just make sure it’s hefty enough to handle frozen fruit and ice.

Recipe adapted from Vitamix

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Helping Others by Helping Yourself

New on The Resilience Blog:

“I Was Terrified… but I Kept Going…”

Kale and Pear Smoothie

“I Was Terrified…
but I Kept Going…”