{"id":4813,"date":"2013-03-13T23:29:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T03:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=4813"},"modified":"2013-03-13T23:29:04","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T03:29:04","slug":"blessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/03\/blessons.html","title":{"rendered":"Blessons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ash3\/734568_520815314624498_728977444_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"499\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My new word too, Karen.\u00a0 Each day, we are faced with change and choice. While we may have no choice about the circumstances that come our way, we always have the option to determine via our free will, what we do with it. Often we spend so much time bemoaning our fate that we aren&#8217;t left with enough energy to change it. Today while at work, some of my clients were discussing this very subject. We were playing what I think of as the &#8220;Thank God, I&#8230;..&#8221; game in which we are able to take a look at circumstances that were painful, challenging and unthinkable and sort them and come up with the treasure in the muck, the pony in manure, the&#8230;.well, you get the picture. There is actually a book by that name in which the authors of the chapters including my friend Susan Burger (her Chapter was called Thank God My Best Friend Died) \u00a0wrote about loss of life, job, health, safety, freedom. Titles include :Thank God I Was Raped, Thank God I Lost My Mind, Thank God I Had Cancer, Thank God I Lost My Dream Job and Found My Dream. I know it&#8217;s difficult to imagine in any way being grateful for those experiences, but consider times in your life in which the worst of things became the best of things.<\/p>\n<p>I was speaking with someone today about being able to sort through what most would consider tough situations in my life that these days are simply an integrated part of all that I am&#8230;an ectopic pregnancy, an ill (for 6 years) spouse,\u00a0losing a home and a business to a hurricane, all in one year. The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory measures stress related life events and assigns point values to them. In 1992, the year I just described, I accumulated 332 points (and it didn&#8217;t take into account Hurricane Andrew!) which was way over the top.\u00a0\u00a0 In 1998, the year Michael died, I racked up 334 points.\u00a0 According to this scale, it&#8217;s amazing that I remained sane and vertical. I attribute much of that to learned resilience, a deep and abiding faith and steadfast and loving family and friends that are with me to this day.<\/p>\n<p>What I now recognize is the &#8216;blesson&#8217; in the mess.\u00a0 If not for those experiences, I would not have become an interfaith minister, free lance journalist and bereavement counselor. I would likely be operating by theory, rather than direct experience. I wouldn&#8217;t have as many stories to tell and I wouldn&#8217;t be writing this words. And for all of that, I am grateful.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youblisher.com\/p\/12231-Thank-God-I\/\">www.youblisher.com\/p\/12231-Thank-God-I\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stress.org\/holmes-rahe-stress-inventory\/\">www.stress.org\/holmes-rahe-stress-inventory\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My new word too, Karen.\u00a0 Each day, we are faced with change and choice. While we may have no choice about the circumstances that come our way, we always have the option to determine via our free will, what we do with it. Often we spend so much time bemoaning our fate that we aren&#8217;t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,13,41,19,1246,94,49,50,3,14,4,16,7,10],"tags":[2926,245,1956,1219,2925],"class_list":["post-4813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-bliss","category-blissfull-thinking","category-death","category-empowerment","category-faith","category-family","category-friendship","category-god","category-gratitude","category-how-to-invite-bliss","category-inspiration","category-my-personal-bliss","category-re-creating-your-life","category-spirituality","tag-holmes-rahe-stress-inventory","tag-hurricane-andrew","tag-karen-salmansohn","tag-susan-burger","tag-thank-god-i"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blessons - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/03\/blessons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessons - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My new word too, Karen.\u00a0 Each day, we are faced with change and choice. While we may have no choice about the circumstances that come our way, we always have the option to determine via our free will, what we do with it. Often we spend so much time bemoaning our fate that we aren&#8217;t&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/03\/blessons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-14T03:29:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ash3\/734568_520815314624498_728977444_n.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blessons - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2013\/03\/blessons.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blessons - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"My new word too, Karen.\u00a0 Each day, we are faced with change and choice. 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She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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