Your Weekly Dose of #5ThoughtsFriday: A description of what we think is important at BIAMD
  #5ThoughtsFriday
Edition
03/22/2019
#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By :
and by

"Making Your Best Move"

The 2019
Brain Injury Association of Maryland Annual Conference


Just 3 Days left to register online.
Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
BALTIMORE, Md. — When you hear the beating drums and listen to the traditional songs you know it is a Native American celebration.

Families from the Lumbee Tribe live and breath among us in Baltimore. You’ll see their presence on the east side of the city and in Dundalk in Baltimore County. Their numbers are few about 2,500 and sadly they’re shrinking.

“We're a community that is really hidden, people will still ask if we live in teepees, things like that. They don't think of Native people in a contemporary context,” said activist Kerry Hawk Lessard.

Hawk Lessard works with Native American Lifelines. It’s an outreach group connecting the urban Indian community with programs for things like mental health issues and counseling for substance abuse. From the numbers, it’s clear this small community is not immune from the opioid epidemic.

“We lost two native people within the first week of November to opioid overdoses. In December, there were four opioid overdoses, two of them were fatalities,” said Hawk Lessard.

“It could have happened at my house,” said Rose Locklear.

Locklear’s youngest sister Ruth was one of them. She overdosed December 15 in her apartment.

“I said why would she do that, when she knew that it killed our sister,” said Locklear.

CLICK HERE to see more on this rarely told story .
TOMORROW NIGHT


to benefit
and

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2019



Eastpoint Movies 10
7938 Eastern Ave. 
Baltimore, MD 21224

​$25.00 per Person 
$35.00 at the Door

  • Red Carpet Movie Screening - Popcorn - Soda
  • Live Entertainment & Special Guest Speakers
  • Hobblejog Foundation Grant Presentation

​All profits to support the community services of
BIAMD and The Love Your Brain Foundation. note that RSVP's do not necessarily guarantee a seat.*
The unavoidable tension in attacking the opioid crisis is which time frame you’re talking about.

In the short term, many policies that would limit opioid prescriptions for the purpose of saving lives would cause people to turn to heroin or fentanyl.

In fact, over a 5-to-10-year period, that would increase deaths, not decrease them, according to a simulation study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study was conducted by three Stanford University researchers, Allison Pitt, Keith Humphreys and Margaret Brandeau.

“This doesn’t mean these policies should not be considered,” said Mr. Humphreys, a former senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Obama administration. “Over longer periods, they will reduce deaths by reducing the number of people who initiate prescription opioids.”

A large proportion — 80 percent by one estimate — of heroin users in the United States previously used prescription opioids. In some cases, they were directly prescribed narcotic pain relievers, perhaps after a painful dental procedure or operation. In addition, drugs prescribed to one person can be diverted to others who don’t use them for medical purposes. So restricting opioid prescriptions would seem to make sense.

But it’s not so simple.

CLICK HERE to see more.
Why being alone with your thoughts is necessary for optimal brain function
Many of us are always on the lookout for new ways to boost our productivity. We have long lists of things we “should” be doing — there’s always another habit to take up, another activity to fit into our schedule. When we shift from one task or activity to another, we often try to focus our attention by sheer force of will. Our phone is still at our fingertips, notifications chime in at regular intervals, and our favorite distractions are just a few taps away.

Even if you have the self-control to disconnect from interruptions in advance, you may still spend your day jumping from one thing to the next before setting a timer and saying, “Okay, I’m going to focus on this one thing starting… now.”

Broken down moment to moment, there’s little time in a given day when I’m not juggling various claims for my attention. In the morning, I check my email and other notifications while getting dressed and making coffee. On my commute, I listen to music or podcasts. When I get to work, I bounce between tasks, responding to emails, talking with co-workers, getting more coffee, and taking the occasional social media break.

Even waiting in a short line compels me to pull out my phone, and when I cook dinner, I’ll put Netflix on in the background. Sometimes I’ll do two things at once as though I can focus on both of them — like watching TV while browsing Facebook — knowing full well I’ll just end up missing half of both.
The fact that any of us can be productive at all in this kind of environment is a testament to our ability to selectively apply our focus. But if every moment of every day is full of stimuli demanding attention, it becomes increasingly hard to decide what requires conscious awareness.

CLICK HERE to find out strategies to reclaim your attention.
Registration is open for the FREE LoveYourBrain Yoga program at Yoga on York starting April 18th!  

LoveYourBrain Yoga is free and open to individuals who have experienced traumatic brain injury (including concussions) and caregivers . The two are welcome to attend together but are not required to.
 
What: This FREE 6-week program offers gentle yoga, guided meditation, and facilitated group discussion to build community and foster resilience (watch this video to learn how).
 
Who: our program is for people with traumatic brain injury and their caregivers who are:

- Able to move without assistance (no wheelchair, cane, walker)
- Open to participating in group discussion (includes simply listening)
- Able to follow instructions and regulate intense emotions
- Able to commit to all 6 classes (the first class is mandatory)
- Younger than 71 years of age  

When: Every  Thursday  from  12:30 - 2:00 pm  starting April 18th .
 
Where:  Yoga on York, 6711 York Road  , Baltimore, MD
 
How to sign up: Classes are limited to 13 students so sign up today! Each person must submit their own registration. If you are planning to attend with another person, please try to submit both applications close together so you both get a spot.

Questions: please refer to our  Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

2) What We Are Reading That You Might Enjoy
The key to achieving what you set out for--in business and in life--doesn’t lie in perfectly executed strategy. The greatest tool you have is your own mindset—it determines your ability to adapt and persevere. And, like any other tool, you can employ it to your advantage. 
While most aspiring entrepreneurs think the next business strategy will manifest the life they desire, successful entrepreneurs know it’s the emotional and mental “shifts” that will bring you closer to your goals. 

No one is better equipped to explore these shifts than Ajit Nawalkha, cofounder of Mindvalley and one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and business coaches. In Live Big: A Guide to Passion, Practicality, and Purpose, Nawalkha shares 25 shifts—changes in your mental, physical, emotional, or even spiritual state—that will propel you on your road to success. 
Through Nawalkha’s expertise, discover how this book will: 
  • Bring you out of any funk or stagnant revenue cycle
  • Give you the emotional, spiritual, and mental power to fight the ups and downs of business
  • Show you ways to deal with everyday challenges, find comfort in them, and get past them in 20 minutes or less
  • Help you cope with ‘entrepreneurial anxiety’ and find purpose, passion, and bliss in your business
CLICK HERE for more.

 If you decide to buy this book, please don't forget to use  Amazon Smile  and select the Brain Injury Association of Maryland as your donation beneficiary.
5) Quote We Are Contemplating...

" Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once ."

Stay Safe. Stay Warm.
HAVE A TERRIFIC WEEKEND. 

Did you enjoy #5ThoughtsFriday? If so, please forward this email to a friend! 

Got a story we need to follow or share? Send it to info@biamd.org .  

Want to find a story from a past #5ThoughtsFriday blog posts, visit the archive by clicking HERE .

  Please let us know your requests and suggestions by emailing us at info@biamd.org or contacting us on Twitter. 

  Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Let us know! Just send a tweet to  @biamd1 and put #5ThoughtsFriday in there so we can find it.

  Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.