Children facing a chronic illness endure tests, procedures, exams, as well as long hours either in the hospital or a clinic. Providing them strategies that are easy to use, engaging, and most importantly fun to do supports children's growth and development while also offering them control in an environment that offers them little or none. Teaching children with a chronic illness guided imagery or relaxation techniques offers them tools to manage pain, anxiety, isolation, and boredom while using their greatest strength their imagination.Preschoolers love active games that move their bodies. Teaching them progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) by engaging them in a game of Can You Do What I Do? encourages them to repeat movements that a leader calls out. Asking young children to "wiggle like a worm" or "stand still like a tree", helps them to understand better how to tense and release their muscles. Using this technique when children are having their blood drawn, intramuscular injections, or feeling anxious about any upcoming procedure provide preschool age children with a tool for coping, building self-esteem and promoting mastery and control.School age children can learn meditation techniques by creating an Imagination Scrapbook. Children create images of a favorite place either real or imagined, by drawing in as much detail as possible providing the school age child an escape during long hospitalizations or isolation due to treatment. Drawing on children's creativity offers them an outlet for expression as well as tool to empower them as they cope with a chronic illness.Adolescents often harbor feelings inside waiting for them to build up until they explode. Coping with a chronic illness only exacerbates this problem. Teaching body scanning is a way for teenagers to learn to search their own bodies for tension, emotions, and anxiety as well as where they hold it and how to release it. Getting teens to participate in their own care can be a challenge offering them a way to express fears, confusion, and stress may lead to better compliance, ownership and participation in their care.Different ages coping with chronic illness need age appropriate strategies that are engaging, interactive, and fun to learn and do. Offering children activities that move, create, and play with the fundamentals of guided imagery teach children of a variety of ages and skills to take control of their own illness, while building self-esteem, promoting creativity, and empowering themselves to be active participants in their care.
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Finding the ideal people for employment in your company is only the first step to creating a productive workplace. Companies of all sizes and backgrounds should strive to make sure that their long term and new staff hire positions are filled by individuals that not only have the proper skill set to handle their duties but the motivation to continue to improve.Praise Often, Not OccasionallyThis does not mean managers and supervisors have to make a daily ritual of telling its staff members that they've done a good job. The key is to avoid only praising an employee after completing a huge project or reaching a milestone. Positive reinforcement should be a regular part of the process. For example, let one of your employees know that you appreciated his/her feedback during a company meeting. Such a statement can easily turn their day from a good one to a great one.Remind Them of Their ValueEmployment agencies and those in human resources deal with job seekers and employers on a regular basis, which allows them to recognize how important the relationship is between a company and those they hire. If you're the owner of a business who has been fortunate enough to work with a group of individuals that regularly contribute to your business's success, make sure to remind them that their efforts do not go by unnoticed. This approach is especially helpful if you have an employee that has hit a rough patch or is experiencing frustration with their job. Explain how their job duties contribute to the success of the company and while there are areas where they can do better, they should take the initiative to be the best at their job they can be.Encourage GrowthIt is important to recognize that content employees are not always happy employees. To boost their motivation, encourage them to take steps to advance in their position. Should a promotional opportunity come up, make contact with the employee that you feel has the best shot and let him/her know that if they really want to flourish, they should take advantage of the offer.Helping them envision a better working situation is a great way to get them to invest in themselves not only for the good of the company but so that they feel good about their efforts and talents.Looking for staff to fill certain positions is no easy task. If you're having a difficult time finding individuals to meet your company's criteria, working with a recruitment agency may be just the right solution. With expert knowledge in the recruitment process, this type of company can help you secure people that will not only fulfill their responsibilities but help your business grow and thrive.
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The people you have working for you can be one of the most valuable assets your business has. They come with diverse ideas, talents and abilities, and often have a willingness to help you solve any problems facing your company. The key is to tap into that talent pool, and to get your employees working with you to make your business stronger.In order to get the most out of the crew that is working for you, you need to learn how to empower employees effectively, and allow them to use their unique skill to solve your problems.Listen to ThemThe first step toward learning how to empower your employees is to listen to them. You need to allow them to state their opinions, and to offer suggestions for improving the workplace. They work at their jobs every day, and many of them will have viable suggestions for ways to do their jobs more efficiently.As job requirements change over time it is important to occasionally revisit how jobs are done. This is a great place to begin giving your employees a little more power. This does not mean that you need to act on every suggestion they make, but simply giving them a voice will cause them to start to take more ownership in their jobs.Establish BoundariesAs you empower your employees and give them more power within the workplace, it is important that you establish boundaries. For instance, you may be able to offer some flexibility in your employees schedules. However, there may still be times that you absolutely need someone in the office. You can still offer flex time, but within certain established parameters.Another way to establish boundaries is to make sure you communicate the expected results with your employees. There needs to be a goal, or an end in mind with each project. Your employees need to know what is expected, and toward what end they are working.Avoid Micro-ManagementOne of the hardest parts some managers have in empowering employees is being able to let go of some of the control they have on their area. This will cause them to begin to second guess the decisions and recommendations of their employees.This means that you should not constantly go behind your employees backs and change the things they have done. If they are off track you should approach them and let them know in what areas they will need to make corrections, but do it in a way that does not strip them of any power you gave them. Second guessing and micro-managing will only cause resentment on the part of your employees, and it will reduce their effectiveness in the future. The end result will be a worker that is less motivated than when the project began.Allow People to FailWithin certain boundaries, you need to be willing to allow your employees to fail. Letting them fail accomplishes two very important outcomes. First, you send the message that you have given them the power, and that you are not going to second guess them. In the future they will try even harder to make sure that the projects they are working on succeed.The second outcome is your employees will gain valuable experiment in problem solving, and learning how to make improvements in what they are doing. It is through mistakes that some of the most valuable lessons are learned. As long as their mistakes do not harm the solidity of the company, or that the mistakes are not irreversible, allow those mistakes to happen.Inspect what You ExpectIt is important to remember that empowering employees does not mean giving up all control. You are still in charge, and you are still responsible for the final outcome. Once you have established boundaries, and set the expected goals and outcomes it is important that you keep an eye on what is going on.This does not mean that you are micro-managing; it is simply a check to make sure that everything is proceeding as it should.Empowered employees can add value to your company. Using the talents that are alre
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1. Ask Yourself: What Do I Want?To know what you want is the first step for you to get it. If you don't know what you want, how are you supposed to get it? Many people know what they don't want, but that does not help them to get what they do want.Walking through life with a clear understanding of what you don't want is not sufficient to empower yourself. It is like going shopping with a list of items you don't want to purchase. It can help to keep you away from the things you don't want, but it does not help you to get he things you do want.So ask yourself, "What do I want?" and keep listening until you hear a reply from within.2. Ask Yourself: What Is Stopping Me From Getting What I Want?This is an interesting question to ask yourself and most likely you will end up with an answer consisting of a mix of doubts (Maybe what I want is not the right kind of goal for me).limiting beliefs (I can't achieve/ I don't deserve to achieve what I want).attachments (Well, it would be nice to achieve what I want, but then I have to give up x).resource issues (I'd love to get what I want, I am capable of getting it, I deserve to get it, but I simply don't have the resources I need in order to get it).3. Deal With Your DoubtsWhen you have a moment of peace and quiet, close your eyes and internally visualize yourself achieving your goal. Make it like a 3D movie with you inside the movie as the main actor. See, hear, feel, smell, and taste what it is like to achieve what you are after. Make it even more real by intensifying the sounds and colors in the movie.If achieving this goal does not satisfy you fully, make adjustments to it and rerun the movie until you are fully satisfied and have expelled any doubt that this goal is right for you.4. Deal With Your Limiting BeliefsThis can be a bit tricky, because some of our limiting beliefs about our self, others, and the world stem from the distant past and are hard to uncover. If you feel that you have limiting beliefs that bother you but you find it hard to identify and constructively deal with them, you might consider getting professional help from a coach or therapist.If you can identify a limiting belief, speak to it internally, as if it was a person. Ask: "What is it you want for me?" Limiting beliefs are often protective mechanisms that try to safe us from experiencing again some kind of suffering we have experienced in the past; So when you ask this question, you are likely to get an internal response like "To keep you safe, to spare you from x happening again."When you know what your limiting belief is trying to achieve for you, you can start a dialogue with that belief about what you could do to satisfy its intention for you (e.g. "being safe") and at the same time go after your goal (e.g. "committing to a relationship").5. Find Out What Your Current Situation Does For YouThere is a very simple agenda that all humans (and animals) live by: "Maximize Happiness, Minimize Suffering." Of course, there are different stratgies people employ to maximize happiness, and not all of them are successful. But the agenda is pretty much universal.Even people who seemingly are unhappy often get something positive out of their misery (e.g. attention, a reason to not participate in something they don't like, etc.) As provocative as it sounds, if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a while, it is likely that you are getting something out of it, because otherwise you would have moved on.Consider this story: A businessman was transferred to a new position which meant that he had to travel around the world constantly. After a little while in this new position he picked up a habit that he had given up 10 years ago: Smoking. He was confused about that, because he had never missed the smoking after he had given it up. "Why did I all of a sudden start smoking again?" he asked himself.Later, with the help of a professional,
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