Searching for My 10th Element: 4th Quarter

Searching for My 10th Element: 4th Quarter

The 4th Quarter
Searching for My 10th Element

This book is meant to share lessons I have experienced and in many cases actually learned during 74 years of living.  Some to many things I have experienced and thought I learned from them but in reality, I have had to learn and relearn or often unlearn and learn anew.

Think back about books that have impacted my life in major ways I easily remember these few:

Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

All four books I read in my early 30s during a period of major change that included 14 separate major stressors:

Divorce
change jobs
loss of jobs
death of my parents
death of a nephew
deaths of some friends
near death accident with a car
house fire
loss of much of my personal belongings

At the time I was taking classes in guidance and counseling and took a test that reports how serious the stress is in your life called the

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) for identifying major stressful life events.

My score from a 14 month period was extremely high, over 300.

According to the scale that meant I was highly prone for a health breakdown.


My plan for this book is to help you take care of your life and prevent the same potential results in your life.

Reading, attending retreats, workshops, lectures and having a couple older friends to talk things over with at the time greatly helped me.

Taking long walks
Spend Saturday mornings drawing in nature
Watching the sun rise over the beach
Listening to beautiful music
Watching humorous tv shows and movies
Reading comedy books 

were things I learned to do back in the late 70s
and finally taking a trip around Europe from Ireland to Egypt all helped me take control and re-create my life.

Now at 74 ending my 3/4 quarter of a century, I am seeking to re-create my life once again.

Perhaps that is what you want to do too and why you have picked up this book to read.



One of the first things I have done prior to beginning this book is to do a 100 day Health & Happiness Walk Campaign, walking somewhere different each day while taking better control over my eating habits to lower the hereditary health factors I have been working on with my doctors since December 2004:

Type II Diabetes
Cholesterol
Weight
Blood Sugar
Blood Pressure

Most of the 14 years my numbers have been within a high normal range or lower.  Occasionally they have gotten into low warning ranges.

Weight, I have mostly lowered and maintained for several years.  Blood pressure also has been in a moderate range.

But occasional slips into comfort food and getting relaxed about regular exercise on a regular basis have 

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