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MERI Center Blog

March 17, 2020
Resilience Tips

I am passing along a meditation suggested by my personal teacher that has been really grounding and uplifting for me over the past few days. I want to share it in case it is of assistance to any of you as well: 

  1. Find a comfortable seated position (or a comfortable position lying down).
  2. Imagine a gentle energetic cord grounding and connecting you to the center of the Earth. Once you do, find a similar energetic cord connecting you to the stars. Find a point of balance in between the two. 
  3. Tune into yourself to find a color (or combination of colors) that represents healing, immunity, and health to you. The first color that comes to your mind is perfect. It may also change from day to day, and that is fine. 
  4. Once you have your healing color in mind, allow that color to coat the outside of your Aura, or the energy field that surrounds your body. Then allow it to completely permeate the inside of your Aura or energy field as well, until you feel surrounded and supported by it. You can also imagine the healing color permeating every cell of your body.
  5. Once you feel grounded and comfortable with the above step, create a tiny rose in your mind's eye in the same healing color. This represents your healing gift to others. Once you see the tiny healing rose in your mind's eye, imagine sending it out energetically to everyone in the universe so that they can find their intention to heal/optimize health as well. 

I have been doing this meditation every day and it is definitely...

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February 20, 2020
Events

 

I recently had the opportunity to attend the inaugural National Clinicians Conference on Medical Aid in Dying (NCCMAID) in Berkeley, California, thanks to the generous sponsorship I received from the MERI Education Scholarship Fund in the spring of 2020. As a palliative care physician who cares for seriously ill patients, I found this educational experience to be incredibly rewarding and meaningful. While Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) has been legal in California since 2016, shepherding several of my patients through this process has taught me that we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that patients have equitable access to this service, and that providers can offer this important intervention knowing that we have the support of an effective and efficient institutional process behind us. Attending this conference has enabled me to feel more connected to a nation-wide network of competent and compassionate providers committed to this cause, as well as more comfortable providing this meaningful intervention to my patients who are suffering from terminal illness and strongly wish to pursue this option.

It was a huge privilege to meet so many providers from all over the country who offer MAID to their terminally ill patients, including Dr. Lonny Shavelson and his team. Lonny was the Chair of the NCCMAID conference and is the founding CEO of Bay Area End of Life Options, a medical practice devoted exclusively to the care of patients considering MAID.  Dr. Shavelson and his colleague, Thalia Wolf (RN), moderated several fascinating discussions on various...

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