A reader wrote:

"As a former practicing physician, I am dismayed that the dialogue on many important medical and health-related issues has become restrictive, full of misinformation, and threatening. I've been making decisions based entirely on fear, How can I take charge of my emotions and responses?" R.P., NY

Following Part One, How Influence Priming Causes Us to Lose Ourselves, or How We Are Manipulated to Have Increased Anxiety During Covid, now, we can recover our personal authority and stop unhealthy media coverage from increasing anxieties. (READ PART One HERE!)

While writing Part Two, I stumbled onto a personal dilemma. Do I make a bulleted list of ways to increase awareness of media manipulation and recovery of personal charge? It seemed to me that these qualities and actions that define our well-being warranted more discussion, for my sake too!

In upcoming newsletters, I intend to explore the issue more deeply and intermix helpful strategies. First, let's define personal power.

What is Personal Power?

Through months of quarantine, you might have fallen into ruts, felt emotionally frazzled, and confused. In this newsletter, I share thoughts about 'new' normal conditioning and the tactics used by those in media and authority to raise stress and anxiety; in already difficult circumstances intentionally.

There's a difference between education, where the process of learning involves uncertainty and the effort towards mastery, and the deliberate confusion that media creates designed to trigger submission, fear, and loss of self.

This article is not about whether you should wear a mask or not wear a mask and does not speak for or against recommendations and mandates from any authorities. I write to awaken you to the relationship between deliberate installation of fear and anxiety-related emotions, and the effect of media manipulations on your emotional and physical health.

When I was five, my family moved from a small town to a slightly larger small town in Ohio, where my mom's Italian parents lived. At the insistence of my maternal grandmother, my parents physically relocated the home they purchased to a new site, less than a block down the street from its original location, and to my grandmothers' back yard.

From that moment on, my parents' tension, and smoldering words between my father and grandmother shifted to a climate and feelings I did not understand but felt. However, I imagine the undercurrent of anger over my grandmother's control over her daughter is what shook the foundation on which we lived.

It's a melancholy morning as I watch the snowflakes fall and sip hot coffee. A white Christmas has always been the most exciting gift for me since childhood. Our first and last Christmas in this home was white.

This year our home is quiet and less twinkly due to the residential move in three days, but joy fills my heart as I recall the years gone by,. These memories reside here energetically, but all the love and happiness will go with me.

With our daughter in Europe and other family members at a distance, love cannot be pigeon-holed into only time spent together or a place. There is also love when we respect the need for distance for safety and health. We miss people we love and experiences of laughter, love, conflict, and togetherness.

The holidays are roaring in regardless of lock downs, health issues, financial status, stress, and trauma.

 But what do you really want?

 I had a conversation with someone recently who emphatically stated that she wants the holidays to be the same as in previous years. "I want it so badly, I could cry," were her words.

 She believed this was the only way she could have a Merry Christmas and celebrate New Years. What do you think will happen?

 She is setting herself up for a fall because she will be very sensitive and reactive to whatever occurs outside the norm of previous years. If she holds on tightly to these beliefs, she risks missing any semblance of past traditions. She may blind herself to witnessing and participating in a tradition as a means of self-preservation.

Every person has a story to tell about family life: holiday traditions, parents' funny habits, stresses, abuse, successes, and failures, including traumatic events. Whether communicated or kept secret, whether good or bad, the experiences pass from generation to generation in not-so-obvious ways.

As we get close to the holidays, perhaps you've noticed more commercials of people tracing their ancestral roots. One of my favorites is a father showing pictures to his daughter of her great grandmother. The daughter beams when she sees that her cheeks and nose are identical to her great grandmothers'. This exchange is a happy reminder that we share the genetic makeup of previous generations.

On the other hand ...

How are you really?

Do you feel afraid because you have factors that predispose you to Covid?

Maybe you present an I-Am-Ok appearance socially, but inside, you feel deeply worried and negative about pandemic circumstances.

Perhaps a distant relative died unexpectedly from Covid, and you fear that if you contract it, you could die too.

Do 'fear-based thoughts' produce stress? Yes!

"Thought' initiated stress is often dismissed as producing stress. It's nothing, we say, just a thought?

We have an obstacle in front of us right now - Covid-19. Of those who caught the virus, some
people died, and most people lived.

I don't want to catch the virus (who does!), and I believe the touted recommendations are not the only line of defense against it.

I chose to be proactive and as responsible as possible for my health. Care to join me?

The Covid recommendations have been confusing and unclear over previous months, with
experts arguing about wearing a mask, using a ventilator, or if lockdown of major metropolitan
areas is necessary. It’s a —

                              Ball of confusion, that's what the world is today. (Temptations)

If you experienced energy psychology, its effectiveness may have surprised you. Reducing the angst and symptoms of stress or trauma, including PTSD, is common when using the Emotional Freedom Technique, whether seeking professional assistance or applying it yourself.

Do you know that there are over 400 therapy approaches, most of which have no research demonstrating their effectiveness? I am thrilled to inform you that energy psychology is in the top 10% because of the consistent results in studies.

Wanting to save the world is admirable. On every level and on all four corners, the earth and its inhabitants need assistance. While some are resourced and are interdependent, for others, work might require millions of minds, dollars, and people-hours.

Without balance, efforts to create change often lead to exhaustion, burnout, and self-sacrifice for
those involved. Without support or a clear plan, depression and suicide rates of those who work tirelessly in the field of nonprofits and health care are a rising concern.

Early in my career, I lived in Florida where our tri-state area was ranked as number one for child sexual assault in the country. As an outspoken child advocate, studying the overwhelming data that
identified this painful existence for children and their families, I had to
do something, and so I did.