As a practicing nurse for over 30 years, I never imagined one day my role would be reversed. On May 16, 2017, I received news that would change my world. I was diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease. As a nurse, I knew a few years before the diagnosis that I probably had Parkinson’s Disease, but I ignored it as I didn’t want to know or admit it. Coming to the realization that I would have Parky (what I refer to my Parkinson’s Diagnosis) as a lifetime companion was difficult. There is no way to sugar coat this devastating realization, but I had to determine how I was going to respond to this chronic condition. Not long after my diagnosis I met Eileen McDargh. She was speaking at a conference on resiliency. I connected with her as she had a granddaughter named Alicia Lynn. That is my name, which is not common. Her work on the topic of resiliency really hit home. She also shares many perspectives and has many tools that have helped me so much in this journey. I am so blessed to have the care team I do. Dr. Sriram and Angela West are amazing! I also interface with Dr. Coleman on a periodic basis who is just as amazing. I do what they recommend, and it works. Most people looking at me have no idea I have a Parkinson’s Diagnosis. Take your meds, exercise/therapy, and a positive attitude are needed to make the best out of life. It is of vital importance that you take care of yourself. I was wired to take care of others. That can be a hard shift to take care of yourself, but you must do it. I worked in the Pediatric Critical Care for so many years and it is evident attitude had a lot to do with how people do with their disease and injuries. Your mental frame of mind impacts how you feel and cope with the challenges encountered with a chronic disease. Gravitate to things that make you happy. I love Snoopy and I found out Charles Schultz had Parkinson’s Disease which makes me love Snoopy all the more. Laugh! I love to watch the comedian Jeff Dunham as he makes me laugh so hard. I do adult coloring which is good hand coordination therapy but is also relaxing. Music is shown to be good for people with Parkinson’s and I listen to Creed as the messages in their songs are good for me. My furry kids, my dogs, are my therapists. I am so blessed with an impressive son and love spending time with him and his new wife when I can. I share these thing as it is important things to do for me. What do you love and what makes you happy? You need to do them While I struggle everyday with memory, anxiety, tremors, feet muscle cramps and stabbing pain in my legs. That will not define my me or impact my outcomes on life. I continue to focus on my blessings. I am blessed with friends, a wonderful team, and support system to get me through this journey. My question for you: What do you love and what makes you happy? Make them a priority, because Joy heals all. My friends with challenges, I hope this brings you blessings. Used with permission from the Adaptabilities Blog – Parkinson’s Awareness Month 4/2022.

Try baby hummingbirds. Consider a tiny dove chick. Or how about the toddler who screams as she runs into the ocean and turns to me with her outstretched arms for a “pick-me-up” demand. It all happened today. And it restored a sense of happiness in my heart. The hummingbird babies are but pea-size bits of fluff. The dove chick has finally shown its little head. And the toddler—well, she's not mine. I was just standing on the beach when she ran to me. Here’s the deal: in the middle of the hatred that divides our nation, the war in Ukraine that rips our hearts out, the climate crisis that brings devastating storms and heat waves, we all need something that reminds us there are positive, uplifting moments. Small? Yes. Essential? Yes. Just enough to take a deep breath and murmur a thank-you. For today.

I am a firm believer that at some point we all must go to the college MSU—Making Stuff Up. When you can’t figure out what action to take try something— anything. As long as you keep the action on a short leash with a short feedback loop and it’s neither illegal nor immoral… proceed! Example: My husband and I were part of a management team that had been awarded a major government contract. Tension was high as we beat out the incumbent contractor with the 750-page RFP I wrote. We were not greeted with open arms except by the employees on base who really did not like working for that contractor. We were regarded with suspicion and—as if to challenge us even more—given an incredibly short time frame to turn the MWR (Morale Welfare & Recreation) components around. We needed all the resiliency and energy we could muster—and it had to be conveyed to some 250 plus employees in a matter of three weeks. The answer: Strawberries. You see, during our intake interviews, we found out from many of the employees that they were constantly kept in the dark, treated poorly, and talked down to. We’re like mushrooms, one manager told me. And you know what mushrooms are covered with! Some angel on my shoulder must have opened my mouth because I heard myself say, We believe in strawberries. They only grow in bright light and each berry is part of an integrated entire plant. That was it. All of us wore strawberry pins. We published a fast newspaper called “Strawberry Shorts” with each department talking about their new vision. The goal was to have everyone market and talk about all the base community functions—boosting up each other. That improvisation became something that none of us would have dreamt possible—a desired future we could not have imagined. Embedded in that strawberry story are the last two resiliency skills: laugh-ability and alignment. These skills are what makes the journey meaningful and dare I say, even fun. This excerpt is from Your Resiliency GPS: A Guide for Growing through Life and Work and is available at Amazon . P.S. It makes a great gift!

As a kid, my favorite thing to do when I got home from school in the then-rural spot of Sandy Springs, GA was to grab an apple and go tromping through the woods with my dog. Seems like I always came back better than when I had left the confines of a school room. To this day, walking my beach, revives my spirit. In reading The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, the author took clear aim at building a well-researched case for the value of nature to reduce stress, restore mental balance, and increase the ability to focus and pay attention. That’s why recess and outdoor play is so important for children. But do we hop onto the natural daylight and outdoor train every day? My sense is that we don’t. Do we surround ourselves—indoor and out–with greenness, natural color, and plant materials? I would guess not. We can make excuses about the weather, the seasons, and our emphasis on nose-to-the-grindstone requirements. My challenge: just stop it. You can. My brother, in the midst of New England frost and cold, brings into the house yellow forsythia branches. He lights a pine candle and walks outside to feed the birds. It’s not like my beach walk which I’ll take as soon as I finish this post, but it is bringing nature into his environment. Interoception—awareness of our body and what it is saying to us—expands our world and ability to be more than our brain. Movement, gesture, nature are just three areas of the powerful areas explored in The Extended Mind. Do yourself a favor, read it and then tell me what you are doing differently. I can’t wait to hear!

When I taught an English class to 7th graders, literature was easy. Ah—but grammar—that was another matter. In the English language, pronouns are either subjective (she, he, they) or objective ( her, him, them). Without getting into a grammar lesson, objective pronouns follow prepositions. But what the heck are prepositions? The only way to remember prepositions is just that: memorize. Booooooriing!!!! So, I had my students stand up and do hand jive movements while they called out the prepositions: “About, above, across, after …” were shouted out as their hands did a paddy-cake type with a partner. It worked. I never knew why until I read Annie Murphy Paul’s book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. In short, cognition is enhanced when coupled with motions of the hands and the rest of the body. Paul’s book extends gestures as critical for persuading or enlisting others. Think of a preacher who just stands behind a pulpit and reads to the congregation, versus another preacher who gesticulates often and probably strides around an altar. Catalina just turned one. Her dad told me that she points to things as he says the word. And we all know that pick me up is one of a child’s first gestures. Not only do children expand vocabulary when words are accompanied with gestures—but adults are more likely to be engaged and understand complex topics when gestures are used! Fascinating, yes? For years, I have anchored key learning points with gestures. I ask my audience to make the gestures with me while they repeat the point. Might sound juvenile, but people tell me years later how they used that gesture in many settings. Here’s the point: If you want someone to grasp ideas, solve problems, and increase understanding—think of ways your hands might tell the story. Yes—hands down, the hands win when communicating.

I often hear myself saying, “If I don’t exercise in the morning, my brain doesn’t work.” Until I read this chapter on Thinking and Movement from The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, I had no idea how correct that statement is. Acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul distills so much information about the correlation between movement and cognition. She cites the difference between radiologists who remain seated while looking at images versus those who are moving (assume a slow treadmill) while looking at images. The seated radiologists spotted 89% irregularities vs 99% accuracy with the walkers. Think about this. Humans were not made to remain seated, glued to some screen or tablet. But over the decades, we’ve been taught that being chair bound is desirable. Kids must not fidget and need to “stay on their place”. Not so. In fact, the opposite holds true, Children with ADHD had better cognitive performance when they moved. Even doodling while listening to a lecture helped people remember 29% more than the non-doodlers. My lesson—recess is vital for kids and adults! And the best results for adults come from moderate-intensity exercise for a moderate length of time. (Think I’ll slow down my 5.5 mile run to a steady walking pace.) The results are powerful: focused attention, less distraction, problem solving enhanced and working memory increased. Here’s the biggest lesson for me: information is better remembered when we are moving to learn it. I need to practice my presentations while walking. Descartes would have been more correct if he said, “I move, therefore I remember”. There is so much richness in this chapter. One fascinating piece of research found that even putting motion to an idea resulted in better output. Take the expression “on one hand… on the other hand…” A control group held out one hand as they brainstormed ideas. The other group kept switching hands with each idea. The latter generated some 50% more ideas. Next week, I’ll tie movement, memory and gesture into how my 7th graders learned prepositions. Until then… get up and move.

The year was 1942 and the war had never looked bleaker. Every able-bodied pilot was needed to fly combat missions in the European and Pacific theaters. But if the male pilots left, who would do the domestic military flying? Who would ferry aircraft from coast to coast? Who would tow targets for gunnery practice with live ammunition? Who would test the planes coming off the assembly line? Into that void stepped aviator Jacqueline Cochran with an idea for Colonel Hap Arnold. Women could take the place of men! After all, Nancy Harkness Love had already created a small ferrying squadron of women flying war planes to Britain. With the agreement that the women would ultimately be rolled into the military, the call went out for women to enlist in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP WWII). Thousands of women applied including a skinny podiatrist from York, PA. I know the story. That podiatrist was my mom, Mary Reineberg. You can the rest of the article in Leadership Excellence at This excerpt reprinted with permission from Hr.com.

As my brother has done every December, the flowerpot arrived. Moss covered the dirt and the accompanying instructions said to put the pot in the sun and water sparingly. I always follow directions. However, as weeks passed and nothing happened, I began to lose hope. It reminded me how in these very disturbing times, when I see nothing much in a positive way, I too begin to lose hope. Then, finally, a shoot popped its head from the soil. Now—almost two months later—I have the most amazing amaryllis plant. It’s over two feet in height (three if you count the base of the pot). Right now, I have eight gorgeous red blossoms and another stalk promises at least three more. Every morning I marvel at this plant. And then I remind myself of the words of the philosopher Howard Zinn “To have hope, one does not need certainty. Only possibility.” We call her Phyllis Amaryllis. She’s my teacher on these days when it seems my efforts don’t bear fruition. I realize I just must keep “watering” my community and clients with compassion, kindness, and positive energy. What about you?

If you are an entrepreneur, if you work for yourself, or if you own a business, resiliency is not a nice-to-have. It is a requirement! The life of an entrepreneur requires you to maintain your elasticity in rough times. You need to bob and weave and expand within a constantly changing landscape. Unlike people employed by others, an entrepreneur is routinely faced with failures, changing circumstances, and opportunities that stretch our capacity. Our capacity to stretch, to adapt, is the foundation of resilience as entrepreneurs. When we become rubber bands, stretching to meet each new challenge, flexing with each failure, and maintaining our elasticity in the face of uncertainty, we become capable of growing through those inevitable moments instead of having to recover from them. So how do we build and maintain that elasticity? 1) Take care of yourself. Self-care is frequently at the core of the work I do with my clients. You cannot become the business owner and the leader that you want to be if you are not taking care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If you are always being stretched, always under stress without a chance for rest, you will wear out and begin to crack like a dried-out rubber band. 2) Maintain the integrity of your vision. There is a reason I use the rubber band analogy. Rubber bands return to their original shape when they are removed. You and your business must have a definite shape, a definite mission, and a vision for what you put into the world. Without those guiding principles, you will mold to fit any container and not be able to hold a shape of your own. Your vision becomes the north star for your business. It will shape and direct your actions. 3) Know your capacity. Every rubber band has a limit. Based on the size and thickness of the rubber band, there is a capacity that it can handle. You too have an upper limit. Know where that limit is so that you don’t snap. Know when you need to call on the aid of other “rubber bands”: your team, mentors, support system. This allows you in to accomplish a task that is outside of your personal capacity. 4) Cultivate elasticity. The best rubber bands are the stretchy ones. Actively cultivate stretchiness. Spend time daily thinking outside the box. Prioritize using your imagination. Cultivate a growth mindset. Practice being flexible with the people around you and with yourself. Ask yourself “does this really have to be done this way?” Create habits in your life that routinely increase your capacity to flex, routinely expand the edges of your comfort zone, routinely increase your range, routinely stretch you, and then allow you to relax. We build elasticity in the same way we build muscles or flexibility, gradually and with practice. Resilience is a required skill and capacity as a business owner. The world of entrepreneurship WILL stretch you. It’s not optional. Cultivate resilience so that you can adapt and stretch in the face of those inevitable challenges. Elizabeth Tollis is the founder and CEO of The Emerald Office. Her work emphasizes entrepreneurship as the path to intentionally designing a life that is good for you, for your family, for your community, and for the world. Her flagship coaching program, Full Focus, combines one-on-one coaching and group training to bring entrepreneurs exactly and only what they need in order to build businesses that support the life they want to live. Full Focus has members across the globe. You can find her at http://www.theemeraldoffice.com/.

Whether you are heading a Fortune 100 company or leading an enterprise of one, some time in the course of this year, you will be called upon to be resilient. Whether pushed by pain or pulled by possibilities, resiliency is now a required on-going life skill. This raises the question: why wait to develop resiliency skills? I believe in PREsilience™ (preemptive resilience). These are skills and actions that can be cultivated, developed, and taken BEFORE necessity strikes. Resilience is complex, multidimensional, personal as well as professional. Presilience™ is practicing now, building preemptive resources within yourself, your organization, and your world. Consider these taking three simple actions now to help you develop a resiliency muscle: 1. Develop a support network. These are people you can turn to for ideas, for moral support, and for truth telling. A support network is not comprised of “yes” folks but rather people who care enough to offer critical insights as well as critiques. In our personal lives, these are people who will bring food, watch the kids, and offer a shoulder. Support networks take time to grow and must be nurtured as carefully as a newly planted garden. Consider what happened to Mary, the vice president of marketing in a global company. Relationships took a backseat in her “get-the-job-done-take-no prisoners” mindset. When a new CEO took over, Mary found few in her department who would speak in her favor as the CEO looked for other personnel to fill Mary’s role. Ouch! Too late. 2. Hone the skill of intelligent optimism. Nothing drains our mental and physical energy more than negativity. Intelligent optimism is the practice of finding what is right or possible in a situation instead of what is wrong. It’s hard work because, for some unknown reasons, humans are more prone to negative thinking instead of positive. Consider teaming with an optimism partner, someone who will gently point out negative statements and visa versa. Unlike the Pollyanna of story fame, most of us are not hard-wired for optimism. But it can be developed. 3. Exercise regularly. This might sound trite but times of challenge or opportunity demand energy resources. It’s too late to build up reserves of muscle, blood, and bone if you have neglected your body for years. Firefighters have gym equipment in the firehouse and practice a steady regimen to improve their strength, so they are READY when called into action. You are no different. As Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts said of their “be prepared” motto: “The meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.” Sounds like presilience to me! 4. Say thank you. Gratitude is the Miracle-Gro for resiliency. If you can end each day with writing down three things for which you are grateful, the germ of optimism sprouts and you reinforce your sense of self-worth. Some days, it might be gratitude that the day is over and you are still standing. Other days, you are grateful for a new idea, for a client interaction, for a great meal... you get the idea! To learn more about PREsilience™ check out my book "Your Resiliency GPS: A Guide for Growing through Life" at https://www.eileenmcdargh.com/your-resiliency-gps-book.

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” ― James Clear, Atomic Habits Life can be stressful even under normal conditions but experiencing a worldwide pandemic for the past two years has made everything even more difficult and stressful. Practicing daily resiliency habits will help you build your resilience muscle and give you a feeling of control over your day. Use affirmations that resonate with you. They may sound silly at first, but you'll feel the results the more you use them. Exercise your body. Go for daily walks, practice yoga or workout at home or in a gym that practices social distancing. Practice gratitude. Even when it's hard you always have something to be grateful for. Dig deep and use a journal. Look for humor every day. There are many Facebook groups for humor or perhaps you like funny television shows or movies. Be nice. Smile at strangers, check in with a friend, buy someone a cup of coffee or offer to babysit for a friend. We are not born resilient—we cultivate resilience through repetition. Habits practiced regularly build inner strength and self-confidence. It's a great way to start a New Year!

I went through my blogs from the past few years to see what people enjoyed reading the most. I uncovered some gems and want to share them with you. 1. 5 COVID-19 POSITIVE Lessons A lot has been written about the lessons learned of individual resilience from our shared pandemic experience— usually, what not to do. But what about the reflections and good lessons for resilience we have gained as communities and as organizations? Let us share some reflections of collective resilience at UWC Costa Rica. Read Post 2. Resilience Goes Down - Not Out At a virtual meeting I suggested that the crazy world crafted by this pandemic might require us to pivot, to move out in other directions. My colleague,Stephen Shapiro, challenged my notion. Read Post 3. Promote Resilience with Adaptability Skills Security rests in adaptability. Our current uncertain times can either freeze us from action or create a space where we strengthen our ability to adapt. Remember, survival is based on "requisite variety". Read Post 4. Don’t Just Be an Issue Spotter. Be A Problem Solver. Plenty of issues abound such has how to keep a business open to how to stay safe, from how to engage employees to how to win customers back and more. Learn why it’s important to be a problem solver in addition to an issue spotter. Read Post 5. Loneliness Threatens Resilience Loneliness short-circuits any ability to grow through challenge or opportunity. Loneliness weakens an ability to be resilient as surely as it weakens one’s immune system. What can we do about it? Read Post I hope you enjoy reading these blog posts as much as I enjoyed writing them!