The Toll of War: MilWives and Suicide | Military.com

The Toll of War: MilWives and Suicide | Military.com

Today is a new day

Today is the start of something new... new beginnings, new memories, new hope, renew relationships with loved ones, new seasons, new plans for the future.

So many changes has happened; some good, some not so good but we made it work. Sometimes it was hard to understand why things were happening that torn us apart but I learned that we are alot stronger than what we gave ourselves credit for. For...

giving myself was the first step and I am truly blessed with all that has transpired in the last year.

As my sister's all gathered to make a meal for our family, I could feel the tides of change as we celebrated our lives, our differences and our stories. The walls came down and we celebrated.

Thank you to my friends and family for being awesome and a blessing in my life!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Always Prepared

Always set an extra place at the table. Your reasons will become your own as it has, in my family. My grandmother was always prepared to serve anyone who was hungry and in need of company. I give thanks for the traditions that she started and we share today.

Take the high road

The high road of service in Leadership is travelled with integrity, compassion and understanding. People don't care you much you know until they know how much you care.

There is no blame in Healing

It is very difficult to help someone else if you can't help yourself. Everyone that knows me, knows that I care alot about the ones that I love. I took a big step yesterday to stand up for myself and talk about my experiences of living with someone with military PTSD. It is not a big secret or shame because I always keep in mind to be fair and respectful. There is no blame in healing.

 

It's when no one knows, no support is offered. When people are aware then more changes can happen and that is what is needed right now because it has become more and more common occurance in our military. Some people look at "speaking out about problems" as in insult or embarrassment! I rather take pride in making changes, than hiding secrets. Walls need to come down.

 

We still have choices about how to react and treat people and taking it out on your support is not the right decision. Ownership and awareness is never easy but its the first step to healing. 

 

If you have PTSD, your family needs to know HOW to support you to begin the process of healing. We ALL go through "Stuff". It's usually friends and families are the ones that hold the key to unlock the doors that were closed by pain. When the cards are on the table, you can see who is going through the process with you.

"Be true to your word, be solid in your trust, be honorable to yourself and be open to change" ~ Roberta Hibbert

Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI)

1)      Where you surprised by you results? Why or why not?

The highest score was 95 in ‘Information Processing’ and the second highest was ‘Study Aids’. This tells me that I use my personal experience to aid my learning habits and skills. I feel this is accurate because of how I learned growing up. I only completed grade 7 in formal education before my family decided to home study on a farm It was here that I learned by experiencing and doing the work necessary to accomplish a task.

      Using study aids and building a link helps me plan a visual plan so that I am confident about changing the delivery method if I feel that I am not gaining insight. I call it the ‘sticky note’ method of learning.

2)      List the categories that you want to work on in order of importance (to you)

My lowest mark was ‘Test Strategies’ and ‘Time Management’, it seems to go hand-in-hand. If I find the solution to one, I’m sure it will strengthen the other skills, that are linked by tasks.

     By order of importance to improve is: 1) Test Strategies 2) Time Management  3) Self Testing

3)      Come up with one idea (per top 3 categories) about how you might start working on each of your weaker areas.

Test Strategies:  The first step is making sure I am caught up on homework. I find my struggles come from not being prepared for the test because I crammed through the assignments and didn’t really fully understand the assignment which makes it stressful to take a test. Another strategy is to make sure I do at least a review a day, two days prior to the test so that if I have any questions, it would give me enough time to work out a solution.

Time Management: Being on time makes a big difference for being ready to engage into discussions, tasks, lectures, etc. I will make sure I have at least 5 minutes before class to be prepared to take notes. Also having a complete schedule of assignments will keep me focused on what is a priority.

Self-Testing: When I rush through the work, I find I do not retain the information for understanding. My ability to comprehend the materials when I am stressed or rush is not practical so if I make an conscience efforts to check my understanding at several points, then I can learn the materials with a step by step method.

What will you do to maintain you stronger areas?

What I have learned from this task was the importance of a clear study & assignment schedule. My strength is having a plan and having the right attitude to follow through. With my busy household responsibilities, I find it hard to set time aside to complete my homework so I end up putting it off until I have some quiet time. If I have a schedule that I can work on things bit by bit then I may get further ahead and reduce the stress of my responsibilities as a student.