Author: Dominick Flarey

A Closer Look at Spiritual Meditation

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Taking a Better Look at Spiritual Meditation

When it comes to meditation programs, it must be mentioned that there are many kinds of it. While some meditation techniques aim to heal the body and mind, others are meant to heal the spirit. Spiritual meditation is undoubtedly one of the most popular and most effective forms of meditation, as it is deeper than any other kind. In this article you will find detailed information regarding spiritual meditation: what it is, its benefits and how to practice it.

What Is Spiritual Meditation?

In a nutshell, there is not any major difference between the typical medication, when you simply concentrate very much on what you want to achieve (money, health, success and such) and spiritual meditation. The latter focuses more on the inner light, on spirit, love and understanding. It is a very deep form of meditation that has been used all around the world for centuries. The purpose is simple: spiritual meditation aims to help people achieve supreme wisdom and experience that inner feeling of liberation, it aims to enlighten your life and show you the path to God.

Women enjoying the benefits of spiritual meditation.

They say that the deeper the meditation, the deeper the healing. Your body, mind and soul are interconnected – you cannot have one without the other one, this is why you need to approach a “holistic” type of meditation, one that would take care of all three of them. Spiritual meditation aims to heal the body, enlighten the mind and purify your soul with the help of God. This type of meditation basically helps you see divinity in small things; it helps you appreciate those small details that make our life beautiful.
When you meditate spiritually, you basically open “gates” between your conscious and unconscious mind, you can access the divine world (thing that would be impossible without proper meditation). Once you are ready, you can choose to ask God various questions, you can choose a type of meditation that allows you to forgive people easier, you can find out more about Christian spirituality or you can explore your soul and find out information about you and your past life.
What Are The Main Benefits?
One of the most important advantages of spiritual meditation is that it helps you relax and relieve stress. Meditation aims to take your mind to a whole different level, one where you can release the tension that has accumulated inside you throughout the day. Besides, it aims to open your heart and your mind, and it helps you be more tolerant.
Another benefit of spiritual meditation is that it helps you become a better person, generally speaking. It will give you the ability and the wisdom you need in order to understand what is happening around you and the reasons why certain things are happening. Spiritual meditation aims to offer you the wisdom to accept the things you cannot change and it also helps you understand basic principles like birth and death.
Spiritual meditation provides overall well-being: if you meditate long enough, you will feel that sense of liberation, of freedom, of wisdom and tranquility. This is the feeling we are all craving for, and many of us do not manage to achieve it. Spiritual practice makes you appreciate more the things you have, instead of thinking about the things you lack.

How to Practice Spiritual Meditation?

As stated above, spiritual meditation is a profound practice that requires a lot of skill, research and determination. Despite the fact that there are many spiritual meditation techniques, it is highly recommended not to mix practices – stick to one practice only. This aims to connect you with God, and it is something that must be taken seriously. Here is how you need to prepare for your spiritual meditation:

Spiritual meditation can help with stress.

1. The first step is to find a quiet place, one where nobody will disturb you. Pick a comfortable position and place your hands lying palms up in your lap. Try to imagine that your body is an open gate, one that is ready to receive divine information. Relax and focus on this image;
2. The next thing you need to do is to take deep breaths. Whenever you breathe in, imagine a white, pure light that enters your body through your nose and fills it with love, enlightenment, peace and wisdom. Continue to do so until you feel that your body is totally filled with that pure divine light.
3. You can even use some specific sounds designed for Reiki therapy that help you relax and concentrate more on the light that fills your body. After these steps, you can choose one of the different types of spiritual meditation mentioned above: spirituality, questions for God, forgiveness or inner journey.
To summarize, these are the basics of spiritual meditation. It is a simple yet highly effective process that not only allows you to relax, but it can also answer some of your most important questions about God, existence or the human soul.
If you are interested in learning more about meditation courses, you should visit our site.

Courses in Grief Counseling Training: American Academy of Grief Counseling

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

AAGC Site Recognized by Masters in Counseling

We are pleased to learn that “Masters in Counseling” has selected the American Academy of Grief Counseling website to be listed among its 100 top recommended counseling resources site. We are grateful to receive this acknowledgement.  The Masters in Counseling site is a well organized resource for “everything” counseling. We highly encourage our members and our visitors to make use of the site.
Access Masters in Counseling site: click here
If you would like to learn more about grief counseling and bereavement then please review our courses in grief counseling training.

Corporate America and Its Battle for the American Soul on Thanksgiving and How to Become a Certified Christian Counselor

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

 Materialism over Christianity: Where Have Our Values Gone?

Christian values are becoming more and more eroded in this country.  One sign of it is the lack of thanks we show on Thanksgiving by going and fighting each other for mere objects on Black Friday.  If that was not bad enough, the greed of corporate America and the upper 3 percent now push these sales during the sanctity of Thanksgiving!  This emergence of a ‘Grey Thursday’ should be very alarming and a line we should all draw where we tell the barrons of this country that enough is enough.  While retail workers are stripped of their time with their families, greedy CEOs dine with theirs and earn more money than they know what to do with.  And as for the materialistic individuals who indulge these sales, especially on Thursday–shame on you!

Dominic Rushe of the Guardian, writes in his article, “Black Friday Slips into ‘Grey Thursday’ as Retail Giants Face Staff Backlash” about the growing greed and unchristian values of uncontained capitalism in the United States during the holiday season.

“Jackie Goebel has worked for Walmart for 24 years, but this year, for the first time, she will spend the Thanksgiving holiday working at the retail giant. Like many of her colleagues, she is not happy. “Walmart has become a company so obsessed by the bottom line and greed that it no longer values the importance of the people and families that work for it,” she said.”

If you would like to read more about this article, click here

If you are interested in certifications in Christian Counseling, please click here

In the meantime, if you would like to learn how to become a Certified Christian Counselor, then please review our program.  We can guide qualified professionals through the steps on how to become a Certified Christian Counselor.
Mark Moran, MA

Program in Grief Counseling: Veterans Day and Offshore Memorials

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Grief and Memorials of Our Lost Brothers Overseas

the grief of never having a father, brother, friend or even now, mother or sister never return home from war is a frightening thought.  While most come home, many memorials in Europe and around the world hold the sacred remains of brave Americans who fought overseas during WWI and beyond.  Thousands of our fallen rest in these offshore locations where their sacrifice for America and the rest of the world is remembered with honor.   Grief counselors should encourage the visiting of these sites for those who still experience the pain of unresolved grief of no return.

Michael Luongo of CNN, writes about oversea burials and cemeteries in his article, ‘Overseas Burial Grounds Honor Fallen Americans”

“Carol Malone never knew her father. She was born in 1942, and her father, U.S. Army Sgt. Victor J. Hubany, was killed in 1944, before he’d been home from war to meet his little girl. She used to watch hours of World War II footage, looking for a glimpse of him.”

To read rest of the article, please click here

If you are interested in Grief Counseling, please review the program and click here.
Please also review our program in Grief counseling
And of course, Happy Veterans Day to all living and deceased veterans.

AIHCP

Certified Christian Counselors: Black Friday and the Cult of Materialism

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Certified Christian Counselors Need to Condemn Black Friday

Thank you God on Thursday, give me more on Friday.  Christian love on Thursday, Neo-Pagan hate on Black Friday.  The materialism seen here is alarming as so-called Christians attempt to balance their act of good Christian with greedy heathen.  Certified Christian Counselors need to emphasize to their spiritual children the dangers of the Cult of Materialism.
Black Friday brings out the worst in America.  Shoving, pushing, name calling, and capitalistic greed are all on display for the world to see.  As people trade their human dignity away and become like rats in a race, they are whistled forward in a surge of human cattle as the commercial doors open.  People have historically been injured and died in these races for a mere object.
This sickening display only a day withdrawn from Thanksgiving is an insulting to what we celebrated the day before.  The day before, we solemnly thank God for what he has given us, but on Black Friday how many of us covet more, more, more and more?  It is fine to desire something, but when it becomes a sick obsession void of Christian charity and that places spirituality second to materialism, then this vice becomes a true problem.  And Black Friday displays this vice oh so well.
Christ in the Gospel of Luke spoke of the parable of the rich man who instead of thanking God, hoarding his material goods.  He continued to collect and collect, with no regard for others or his spiritual needs.  Do we resemble him at times?
If we do go out on this pagan feast of Black Friday, let us with Christian love, kindness, and an understanding that material goods are second to spiritual ones.  Please, let us also remember how thankful we should already be for what we possess.  If possible, try to boycott this day and let the capitalists of three percent America understand that Christians do not play this twisted “game”.
If you are interested in becoming certified in Christian Counseling, please review the program.

Mark Moran

Sarah York’s "Remembering Well"-An Excellent Guide for Pastoral Professionals

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Grief Counseling Review: Remembering Well

From a standpoint of one who deals with grieving families, this short work is a must have in one’s grief counseling library.   Grief Counselors come across a myriad of issues and challenges in the aftermath of death.  When grief counselors, pastoral counselors, funeral directors, or ministers are asked to aid in the memorial of a lost loved one, it can become a difficult task to deal with in a professional but also compassionate manner.  This text answers many of the problems one will face and helps guide the pastoral professional.
From preparation to guidelines on preparing a soul sketch, “Remembering Well: Rituals for Celebrating Life and Mourning Death” is an excellent guide.  Beyond the mere planning, the text also helps the pastoral professional deal with unexpected inner family conflicts, types of deaths and even how to help family members beyond the funeral.  Yet far from a clinical text, this book also offers a personal touch of real stories that correlate with the information provided.  This creates an informative work but also a readable story that touches the human heart.

If you are interested in learning more about grief counseling, please also review our program.

Mark Moran, MA

Legal Nurses Can Help One With Social Security and Disability Claims

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Legal Nurses Consultants Can Help One Through the Maze of  the Social Security Disability Program
Legal Nurses!  The Social Security Disability program is operated by the Social Security Disability Administration that caters to provide financial assistance to those people who are physically or mentally disabled. General tax revenues fund this program and it is so designed that both the disabled person as well as their family members get its benefit. In simpler term the Social Security Disability service can be defined as an insurance program that provides benefits to the insured disabled person if he has been paying his social security taxes.  Certified Legal Nurse Consultants can be of a great service in understanding the complexity of this system and in some cases even help someone who is being unjustly denied a claim.
A very important criteria for this insurance claim to be accepted is that the aggrieved party, who is the person asking for the claim, has to be totally disabled, i.e., he should be unable to do any of the works he had been doing earlier. Also a person with a short term disability or a partial disability will not be qualified to claim the insurance money. Another criterion is that the disability should have lasted for more than one year and that it must have resulted in death. Only if these criterions are met with, only in that condition the claim can be made.
There is a five step procedure that is needed to be met up with first. The applicant has to face a question at each level. He will be asked about certain areas that include his current employment status, the severity of his condition, whether he meets with the criteria presented by the Social Security Disability system and whether the applicant is in a position to do the work he had been doing previously.
The Social Security Disability benefit is a struggle in its own right since all the criteria of the system needs to meet up in order to claim the benefits. Though the Social Security Disability administration claims that they receive applications from among ten to twelve million people every year, more than half of them are rejected in the first step. The entire process takes a lot of time and is full of hassles. Although it takes less than four months for a strong claim to get accepted, for the others you will need to reapply and then it will again start from process one, thereby taking most of your time and actually taking more than one or two years to finally settle down either in your favor or the administration’s. Before claiming the insurance money, it is always better to go through the Social Security Disability website and see what all criteria’s are needed to be provided. You need to prepare yourself beforehand for this. Make a list of whatever you need and ensure that you take all the necessary documents along with you to their office. You really need to file the Social Security Disability claim as soon as possible.
As already mentioned, the process actually takes a lot of time and hence it is absolutely necessary to work in advance. Be extremely cautious while filing up the form since a majority of the claims are denied by just looking at incomplete forms. Therefore check the form twice and is needed thrice to ensure that no place is left blank, all the spaces are filled correctly and that nowhere in the forms do the claims disparage with one another.  Again this where the service of a legal nurse consultant or other health and legal professional can be invaluable.
While checking on the form your updated medical reports are keenly examined since that is the place where you can be denied of your claim. Therefore make sure that you keep visiting the doctor regularly and do not forget to collect medical reports from them since they are the evidences on which your case will stay. Also during the entire process if you get a respond mail from them, immediately reply to it. Also remember that in case of any query or assistance during the trial period, do not call the Social Security Disability center since they would not answer any of your query. Instead call the Disability Determination Services who are the most appropriate people to answer them.
If somehow the claim gets denied, ensure that you are appealing with the Social Security Administration within sixty days of getting the denial letter. You can then take the matter up to the tribunal court through an attorney and your case will get decided then. Also remember that there are no limits to the number of times you can apply for the claim. Therefore if being denied previously, if after five years you feel that your case is more stronger, you can definitely apply then. The Social Security Disability is after all, programmed to help the needs of those who cannot help themselves.
Legal Nurse Consultants can help one through this difficult gauntlet.  Doing it by oneself can lead one to waisted time and lost funds.  The aide of Legal Nurse is extremely important and should be considered by the elderly and those who have little understanding of the system.
If you are interested in certifications in legal nurse consulting, please review the program.

AIHCP

Hospice and Palliative Care For Mesothelioma

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Why Mesothelioma Patients Benefit from Palliative Care and Hospice Care

hospice and palliative care are two different – but beneficial – forms of medical attention for mesothelioma patients. Although they both focus on making the patient as comfortable as possible, they are given with different intent.
Palliative therapies refer to treatments that do not have the potential to cure the cancer but still provide symptom control benefits.  For mesothelioma patients, these therapies may reduce chest pain or dyspnea and dispel anxiety. Palliative care may even be able to help patients respond more positively to traditional mesothelioma treatments, such as surgeries or Alimta chemotherapy. Patients can obtain these benefits from palliative care at any stage of their disease, regardless of the expected time to progression.
Hospice care, on the other hand, provides benefits that are more appropriate for patients with a later stage of mesothelioma. Typically, patients enter hospice when they have six months left to live. Since most mesothelioma patients survive about a year after diagnosis, they may not need to consider hospice care right away.
Benefits of Palliative Care for Mesothelioma Patients
Palliative care for mesothelioma can include minor surgery, radiation therapy and several alternative procedures. These therapies can help reduce the pressure on the lungs, improve breathing and relieve pain.
Patients may undergo surgery to drain fluid from the chest or abdomen (known respectively as a pleurodesis or a paracentesis). These operations can have significant pain reduction benefits until the fluid accumulates, at which point the patient may need to repeat the procedure.
Mesothelioma patients can also benefit from palliative radiation therapy. Although it does relieve pain by shrinking the tumor, it is still considered a palliative therapy as long as the doctor does not expect it to cure the cancer.
Oxygen therapy and respiratory therapy can also provide palliative benefits to mesothelioma patients. Both of these therapies can make it easier to breathe, and respiratory therapies can improve lung function over an extended period of time.
Doctors may prescribe these therapies alongside potentially curative treatments, or they may be the patient’s sole cancer management system. This depends on whether or not the patient is a candidate for more aggressive therapies. When combined with curative care, palliative treatments can also help patients manage the side effects of traditional therapy. Alternative therapies such as yoga, therapeutic massage and acupuncture are especially useful for this purpose.
Benefits of Hospice Care for Mesothelioma Patients
Hospice care takes palliative care to the next level. It strives to make the patient as comfortable as possible in the face of a late-stage disease. Hospice workers can administer medications that reduce pain caused by the mesothelioma tumors, and they can position the patient in a way that encourages smoother breathing. Hospice nurses can also address the patient’s hygiene needs, making it ideal for patients who need extra personal assistance.
Hospice also provides spiritual or emotional care for mesothelioma patients who are coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis. While certain palliative therapies can relieve stress and anxiety, hospice organizations often employ mental health professionals and clergy members who are trained to provide these additional benefits.
Author bio: Faith Franz researches and writes about health-related issues for The Mesothelioma Center. One of her focuses is living with cancer.

If you are interested in Pastoral Care Certifications, please review our program at AIHCP.

Teen Drug Abuse and What you can do!

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Substance Abuse Counseling and Detecting Teen Drug Abuse

Substance Abuse Counseling and its counselors can detect teen drug abuse through various signs.  In the article below are listed eight tips to see if your teen is possibly abusing drugs.

Sair Harrar of Philly.com writes about ways parents can detect or be better prepared to prevent their teens from falling into substance abuse.  In her article, “Teen Prescription Drug Abuse: 8 Tips for Parents” she outlines suggestions from a family who dealt with their teen and his drug abuse.

“Previous posts told the story of Tim Rader, a high school football star from Ashland, Pa., who became addicted to prescription pain pills while undergoing cancer treatment at age 17. He is now in recovery after a 10-year battle with addiction. Yesterday his parents, Lou and Patty Rader, talked about their own struggle as their son sunk into addiction.”

To read the entire article, please click here

If you are interested in substance abuse counseling, please click here

AIHCP

Pastoral Care for the Dying

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Pastoral Care and Compassion for the Dying

More and more people are recognizing the need for pastoral care of the dying.  The fear of dying alone or without compassion is one of the biggest concerns of the dying.

Colette Douglas Home of the HearldScotland writes about the need of pastoral care and love for the dying to ease the transition from life to death in her article “We Need a Human Touch on the Pathway to Dying”.

“ASK anyone if they fear death and nine times out of 10 they’ll tell you: “I’m not afraid of being dead but I’m nervous about dying.” Death really is the last frontier, the great unknown.”

If you would like to read the entire article, please click here

If you are interested in Pastoral Care for the Dying, please click here
AIHCP