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LoraKim Joyner

Coping with Hard Times


A lot has happened in the past few days that are challenging my ability to cope with the present. My family and I are beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as my husband and I are both self-employed (I currently work part-time for One Earth Conservation) and we have had to buy our own health insurance as best as we can for more than ten years now. Before the ACA, we cobbled together what we could to cover our daughter and ourselves. Just a few years ago, we were coming perilously close to joining the uninsured, due to skyrocketing costs. The ACA arrived in the nick of time for us.

Even though costs have also risen with the ACA (and I’ll admit it is far from perfect), the coverage we have has served as a much needed safety net. We attended a local rally in support of the ACA this past weekend and heard stories of many others who also benefit from it. However, our lawmakers don’t seem to care about who they might hurt by repealing the Act and this has been very hard to watch.

So, even though I believe in standing up for what is right and taking action whenever I can, sometimes such efforts can still feel rather hopeless. That is when I turn to my self-care toolkit, of which Nurture Nature is a big part.

I find that using Nurture Nature concepts is an important first step is to find a way to break out of that feeling of hopelessness. To do that, it often simply takes distracting myself (stopping my ruminating and negative thoughts), and effective ways for me to do that include taking a walk in a beautiful setting (when I have the time), watching a cute animal video, or taking a few minutes to talk to Dusty, our beautiful little cockatiel. He is so sweet and funny that he often lifts my spirits even as he benefits in turn from receiving my attention.

Once I break away from feelings of hopelessness by connecting with nature, I can then proceed with taking some kind of positive action, even if I start with only washing the breakfast dishes and then later work my way up to calling a local politician. Nurture Nature has indeed become second nature to me.


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