With the nasty flu bug making its rounds, there's only so much eating healthy, getting enough rest, washing your hands, getting a flu shot, and avoiding germs one can do. If you're unlucky enough to get the flu, your body will hike up your body temperature to boil away all those germs. So, is there a point when your temperature can get too high?
When you get the flu, a sudden high fever is totally normal, and it can get as high as 104° F, and last for three to four days. The best thing you can do is to rest and drink plenty of fluids, since a fever can cause you to become dehydrated. Don't attempt to cool off your skin with cold packs since they'll just make you shiver, which will end up raising your body temperature. Instead you should alternate between taking Tylenol and ibuprofen every four hours to help reduce your fever. Alternating these meds will help to prevent accidental overdose, and sometimes the combination of the two will be more effective in bringing down your fever.
Fit's Tips: If your fever persists for more than five days, or it goes over 104° F, call your doctor and get some medical advice immediately.
(Story originally published here)
As I walked home one freezing day, I stumbled on a wallet someone had lost in the street. I picked it up and looked inside to find some identification so I could call the owner. But the wallet contained only three dollars and a crumpled letter that looked as if it had been in there for years.
The envelope was worn and the only thing that was legible on it was the return address.
I started to open the letter, hoping to find some clue. Then I saw the dateline–1924. The letter had been written almost sixty years ago. It was written in a beautiful feminine handwriting on powder blue stationery with a little flower in the left-hand corner. It was a “Dear John” letter that told the recipient, whose name appeared to be Michael, that the writer could not see him any more because her mother forbade it. Even so, she wrote that she would always love him.
It was signed, Hannah.
It was a beautiful letter, but there was no way except for the name Michael, that the owner could be identified. Maybe if I called information, the operator could find a phone listing for the address on the envelope.
Operator,” I began, “this is an unusual request. I’m trying to find the owner of a wallet that I found. Is there anyway you can tell me if there is a phone number for an address that was on an envelope in the wallet?” She suggested I speak with her supervisor, who hesitated for a moment then said, “Well, there is a phone listing at that address, but I can’t give you the number.” She said, as a courtesy, she would call that number, explain my story and would ask them if they wanted her to connect me. I waited a few minutes and then she was back on the line. “I have a party who will speak with you.”
I asked the woman on the other end of the line if she knew anyone by the name of Hannah. She gasped, “Oh! We bought this house from a family who had a daughter named Hannah. But that was 30 years ago!”
“Would you know where that family could be located now?” I asked.
“I remember that Hannah had to place her mother in a nursing home some years ago,” the woman said. “Maybe if you got in touch with them they might be able to track down the daughter.”
She gave me the name of the nursing home and I called the number. They told me the old lady had passed away some years ago but they did have a phone number for where they thought the daughter might be living.
I thanked them and phoned. The woman who answered explained that Hannah herself was now living in a nursing home.
This whole thing was stupid, I thought to myself. Why was I making such a big deal over finding the owner of a wallet that had only three dollars and a letter that was almost 60 years old?
Nevertheless, I called the nursing home in which Hannah was supposed to be living and the man who answered the phone told me, “Yes, Hannah is staying with us. ”
Even though it was already 10 p.m., I asked if I could come by to see her. “Well,” he said hesitatingly, “if you want to take a chance, she might be in the day room watching television.”
I thanked him and drove over to the nursing home. The night nurse and a guard greeted me at the door. We went up to the third floor of the large building. In the day room, the nurse introduced me to Hannah.
She was a sweet, silver-haired old timer with a warm smile and a twinkle in her eye.
I told her about finding the wallet and showed her the letter. The second she saw the powder blue envelope with that little flower on the left, she took a deep breath and said, “Young man, this letter was the last contact I ever had with Michael.”
She looked away for a moment deep in thought and then said Softly, “I loved him very much. But I was only 16 at the time and my mother felt I was too young. Oh, he was so handsome. He looked like Sean Connery, the actor.”
“Yes,” she continued. “Michael Goldstein was a wonderful person. If you should find him, tell him I think of him often. And,” she hesitated for a moment, almost biting her lip, “tell him I still love him. You know,” she said smiling as tears began to well up in her eyes, “I never did marry. I guess no one ever matched up to Michael…”
I thanked Hannah and said goodbye. I took the elevator to the first floor and as I stood by the door, the guard there asked, “Was the old lady able to help you?”
I told him she had given me a lead. “At least I have a last name. But I think I’ll let it go for a while. I spent almost the whole day trying to find the owner of this wallet.”
I had taken out the wallet, which was a simple brown leather case with red lacing on the side. When the guard saw it, he said, “Hey, wait a minute! That’s Mr. Goldstein’s wallet. I’d know it anywhere with that bright red lacing. He’s always losing that wallet. I must have found it in the halls at least three times.”
“Who’s Mr. Goldstein?” I asked as my hand began to shake.
“He’s one of the old timers on the 8th floor. That’s Mike Goldstein’s wallet for sure. He must have lost it on one of his walks.”
I thanked the guard and quickly ran back to the nurse’s office. I told her what the guard had said. We went back to the elevator and got on. I prayed that Mr. Goldstein would be up.
On the eighth floor, the floor nurse said, “I think he’s still in the day room. He likes to read at night. He’s a darling old man.”
We went to the only room that had any lights on and there was a man reading a book. The nurse went over to him and asked if he had lost his wallet. Mr. Goldstein looked up with surprise, put his hand in his back pocket and said, “Oh, it is missing!”
“This kind gentleman found a wallet and we wondered if it could be yours?”
I handed Mr. Goldstein the wallet and the second he saw it, he smiled with relief and said, “Yes, that’s it! It must have dropped out of my pocket this afternoon. I want to give you a reward.”
“No, thank you,” I said. “But I have to tell you something. I read the letter in the hope of finding out who owned the wallet.”
The smile on his face suddenly disappeared. “You read that letter?”
“Not only did I read it, I think I know where Hannah is.”
He suddenly grew pale. “Hannah? You know where she is? How is she? Is she still as pretty as she was? Please, please tell me,” he begged.
“She’s fine…just as pretty as when you knew her.” I said softly.
The old man smiled with anticipation and asked, “Could you tell me where she is? I want to call her tomorrow.” He grabbed my hand and said, “You know something, mister, I was so in love with that girl that when that letter came, my life literally ended. I never married. I guess I’ve always loved her. ”
“Mr. Goldstein,” I said, “Come with me.”
We took the elevator down to the third floor. The hallways were darkened and only one or two little night-lights lit our way to the day room where Hannah was sitting alone watching the television. The nurse walked over to her.
“Hannah,” she said softly, pointing to Michael, who was waiting with me in
the doorway. “Do you know this man?”
She adjusted her glasses, looked for a moment, but didn’t say a word. Michael said softly, almost in a whisper, “Hannah, it’s Michael. Do you remember me?”
She gasped, “Michael! I don’t believe it! Michael! It’s you! My Michael!” He walked slowly towards her and they embraced. The nurse and I left with tears streaming down our faces.
“See,” I said. “See how the Good Lord works! If it’s meant to be, it will be.”
About three weeks later I got a call at my office from the nursing home. “Can you break away on Sunday to attend a wedding? Michael and Hannah are going to tie the knot!”
It was a beautiful wedding with all the people at the nursing home dressed up to join in the celebration. Hannah wore a light beige dress and looked beautiful. Michael wore a dark blue suit and stood tall. They made me their best man.
The hospital gave them their own room and if you ever wanted to see a 76-year-old bride and a 79-year-old groom acting like two teenagers, you had to see this couple.
A perfect ending for a love affair that had lasted nearly 60 years.
Through a slight lack of awareness, I made a chance at a good interaction less than it could have been.
Are rituals part of your life? Maybe you'd like to better understand what I'm asking before you commit to an answer. In my way of thinking, a ritual is a prescribed or established rite, ceremony, proceeding, or service. Lots of things that happen in religious establishments qualify as rituals too, but that's not specifically what I'm talking about here.
During a recent coaching call we were exploring the ways I could restart some habits. It was suggested that the use of ritual might help. The conversation took some interesting twists and turns, and I got intrigued with this concept of ritual helping make and break habits. It would be useful for me if I could figure out how to make it work.
Personally, I think rituals are fun. Energizing, even! They add depth and breadth to any number of activities, from trivial to important. For example, Wayne Dyer had a ritual of giving thanks three times as he arose each morning. Boulder, Colorado, used to have a ritual of the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade in front of the only Irish bar in town at the time; the green semi-truck that was part of the parade was longer than the parade route.
You may participate in some rituals yourself, like tailgate parties before (during and after too?) football games, class reunions, Mardi Gras, the Tooth Fairy, brushing your teeth before bed, Cinco de Mayo, the girls' or boys' night out, and reading or saying prayers before bed - you get the idea, and can most likely expand on this list.
You may be wondering about now, how can ritual help with creating or breaking habits? In some ways, a ritual is a habit. From that perspective, it comes about because it has importance to you.
To start with, let me point out my client was de-energized by some of the missing habits that formerly were enjoyed. And disgusted by habits that had snuck in.
When I used to wear contacts my morning ritual was to get dressed, comb my hair, put my contacts in, and brush my teeth. When I quit wearing contacts my toothbrushing habit suffered. The ritual was broken, and days of fuzzy teeth ensued. Ick! It became vital to me to find a way to get that done so I could stand being with myself. Leaving the toothbrush and tooth powder out at night triggered me to use them in the morning. Ta da! Then, when I wanted to start stretching every morning, I chained that desired new habit to the trigger of brushing my teeth. My morning ritual is entrenched now, and I love it!
Adopt a similar thought pattern to start the new habits: start with a ritual that was already in place - going to morning prayer. That would be the trigger for a new habit - walking for thirty minutes afterward. Chaining to that triggered-event was the habit of going to the organic green grocer on the way home to buy fresh produce for lunch and/or dinner. After those three activities were finished, going to the office to tackle the first task of the day, the one that took the most concentration, focus, and fresh brain was next. Hence, a new ritual was born - comprised of four activities.
You can do the same thing with habits you want to form. Use anchors, triggers, and chains of activities.
Then how can ritual be used to break habits? First, what is the habit you want to break and why do you want to break it? Those are important questions to answer before figuring out how to use the concept of ritual to help you drop that habit. What I'm asking is, do you really want to break the habit - or do you just think you should, or someone told you that you should.
OK, do you have the answer to those questions yet? Now, what activity, thought, or behavior happens just before or after the habit you're thinking about breaking? Let's say, for this exercise, that you have three chained events. Presuming those are desirable events, think about what habit can you substitute for the undesirable habit. When the first event happens, replace the second event with the new and desirable event, and then connect the third event to the new one.
Or, if you don't have a habit you want to substitute, here's a suggestion of how to remove it. Consciously break the chain of events so you can remove the middle event (the bad habit), and then connect the first and third events into a new chain. That lets the first event in the chain quit acting as a trigger for the second event, and instead trigger the original third event. The original third event is now the second event. Follow that?
It's like fixing the backyard swing by removing the bad link. The swingset I had as a kid had chains, not ropes, to connect the swing seat to the swingset frame, making that analogy easy for me.
You have now created a new ritual that supports the habits you want in your life. Cool, huh.
Taking control of your life by introducing new, desirable-to-you habits, or old, undesirable-to-you habits energizes you. There are lots of wins in this concept. I hope you'll play with it to make it work for you too.
Kit Cassingham is the Chief Energizing Officer at LIFE (Live In Focused Energy). She's been coaching professionals in energizing their lives for vitality, productivity, alertness, and satisfaction since 1989. Kit lives an energized life, and continuously looks for ways to help improve that lifestyle for herself and others.
Take control of your life through your attitude, health habits, and energizing habits. Kit's LIFE coaching is the answer to help you create the productive and energetic life you aspire to, and to help you age gracefully. https://www.LiveInFocusedEnergy.com is the doorway to that life.
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