sharings from Pauline O'Shea, Patient Advocate, Public speaker, Media spokesperson & Writer on the challenges & healing that life has to offer
Diagnosis can bring devastation, but after 10 years living with a pretty big one (heart failure, post misdiagnosis of SCAD), I have learned that it doesn't bring only devastation... There are times in life when things take a turn for the worst, and times in life when things take a turn for the better because… Continue reading Yes, GREEN SHOOTS are possible after and because of, that pain in your heart…
I recently got a message from a lady in the US. She had read a blogpost I had previously written on the impact of SCAD, heart failure, and open-heart surgery, (see '10 years on...') and having experienced all three of these herself, only a few months prior, wanted to know what my medical results were… Continue reading Could SHARING YOUR STORY be the purpose of your pain?
I have always been a reader, in fact books are my ‘shoe addiction’. A bookshop is my go-to place. Little wonder then that when I have faced the challenging times in my life, I have dived into the world of books, in part to seek connection with someone else in my predicament, but equally to… Continue reading BOOK MEDICINE… GREAT READS to help heal the heart, mind and soul!
We've all been there, those moments in life where life itself can seem more demanding than we are able for, where we feel exhausted before we even start, where we feel alone on our journey. While I am not in that place at this time in my life, I have been! And the reality is,… Continue reading ‘THE CLIMB’, by Pauline O’Shea, a reflection and poem for those feeling overwhelmed, lost and alone…
On this month, 10 years ago, my life changed forever. On the very day I brought my beautiful baby daughter home from the hospital, I suffered a condition called SCAD, where a tear occurred in one of my coronary arteries, causing a heart attack. I was 38 years old. A trip to A+E, a medical… Continue reading 10 YEARS on from a SCAD & HEART FAILURE diagnosis … here are some of the things I’ve learned…
It's everywhere this week, from TVs to phones, newspapers to radio, our world is at war and so with saddened heart I write these words today... I hope humanity can rise to the humanitarian challenge it is now facing, that aggressor's everywhere are defeated, and that ultimately, goodness, freedom, love and peace win, and with… Continue reading ‘O World at War’, by Pauline O’Shea
It happens to us all. We have the blazing row with someone, or take offence to what they said, or choose to ignore the one who has hurt us, certain that our hostility is the right and only course of action to take. Fueled by pride and anger in the aftermath of the 'offence', we… Continue reading “Finding grace”… how healing can become a beautiful thing… by Pauline O’Shea
In case you missed it, last Monday was called ‘Blue Monday’ (Jan 17th), declared the official saddest and most depressing day of the year back in 2005, by Cliff Arnall, a tutor at the time, attached to Cardiff University, in response to a request from a travel company to provide a scientific formula for the… Continue reading Are you, or a loved one FEELING BLUE?
I hope you all had a good Christmas or at least the comfort of some good love and kindness if you didn't. Today I am feeling more poetic... hope you enjoy this, my latest poem... wishing all who read it, all the good wishes it professes... and that you all may experience the jewels of… Continue reading ‘This New Year’, by Pauline O’Shea
While for many of us, Christmas will be a very, or relatively, merry affair, for some, it may not. If you have lost a loved one, a job, your good bill of health, your home, or your relationship over the last year, then Christmas might involve coping with that empty chair, or that other gaping… Continue reading Christmas for the BROKEN-HEARTED…. a tale of finding light after loss
In his books about the physiological effects of love, hope, positivity, and joy, on his patient’s recoveries, American oncologist, Dr. Bernie Siegel , leaves the reader in no doubt that these elements are important medicines for the human body. Having read his classics, Love, Medicine and Miracles and Peace, love and healing, I found his… Continue reading The medicine of JOY…
We’ve all heard the message, ‘It’s OK to not be OK’, to reach out, to tell someone how you feel… but the response to such a statement can perhaps be as vital as the admission itself, for the one who is seeking healing. I recently watched a documentary called ‘The Weight of Gold’ narrated by… Continue reading “It’s OK to not be OK,”… but is the RESPONSE to that admission causing more hurt than healing?
It was a week where the poet in me emerged to the public, finally out of my chrysalis, ready to flap my poetic wings through the use of technology to express my inner world... I hope that readers enjoy 'For You'... ©Pauline O’Shea If you would like to see more poems by Pauline, please click… Continue reading ‘For You’ by Pauline O’Shea
Last week I had the pleasure of being part of a presentation and discussion on the psychological impact of diagnosis. It’s a topic close to my heart, having experienced all manner of psychological fallout to my own misdiagnosis, eventual diagnosis and horrendous legacy of both, from stress and anxiety, to lows and PTSD (more on… Continue reading The PSYCHOLOGICAL impact of illness… why we need to HEAL OUR MINDS, as well as our BODIES!
You know how it is, your life turns upside down, while everyone else’s looks rosier than ever. Your Facebook feed is full of smiling family pics from the latest staycation hotspot (is it Donegal this week, or has it moved back to Kerry?). You even notice the odd ‘Playa de something or other’ creeping into… Continue reading ‘CLICK & CONNECT’… why finding your tribe, is a UNIQUE and VITAL lifeline in a struggle…
When you find yourself describing yourself as ‘Thomas the tank engine’ in the morning, and ‘Salty’, the clapped-out engine, in the afternoon, it can mean only one thing, that you’re talking to a child about living with heart failure. We were having a lovely week away, my daughter and I, taking in the beach, visitor… Continue reading HEART FAILURE & MOTHERHOOD… and learning to juggle the two
There are a lot of books written on overcoming life challenges, 5 steps this way, 10 steps that way, all trying to produce the complete, ‘over it with these strategies’ result. Having been through a few big life challenges myself (cardiac arrest and marriage breakdown, to name but two), I can see the appeal of… Continue reading ‘RISING STRONG’, yes Brené Brown, I think that’s the call, when cometh the life challenge
When you’ve been through great pain, there is something within, that wants to help prevent that pain for another, or at least help them get through it, if indeed they have to bear it. It is hard to explain that feeling, or why it is there, but throughout the world, we hear this reaction from… Continue reading HEALING through HELPING… and how it sows seeds for the better
We had been married for 20 years and together for 29, when our marriage ended. Teens to forty somethings, we had journeyed together from REM to Coldplay and through lots more debatable ‘good’ music choices in between. A marriage is a complex affair. It is a melting pot of history, dreams, intimacy, finances, sometimes children,… Continue reading “CONSCIOUS UNCOUPLING”… sorry Gwyneth, I’m not as good as you at it… but I’m getting there!
I won’t lie, there were lots of nerves, pressing the publish button on my blog. What if’s were rampaging through my head… most of them accompanied by some vision of a catastrophic outcome… ultimately all being about whether baring my soul, my struggles, my wounds and revealing how I try to overcome them would become… Continue reading Feeling the FEAR but doing it anyway
A few years ago I got a sudden illness and nearly died. With a new diagnosis, it was time to investigate everything that could help me get well. My journey led me to doctors and hospitals and afterwards to all kinds of advice and therapies. But healing, I discovered, wasn’t all about taking enough pills,… Continue reading I now know that LIFE IS MEDICINE…
The healing of life 