August 14 Meeting Update: Stay Healthy & Make Your Bed

Six people attended. During sharing, we talked about advertising: when should it be done and how? Some said it's awkward to do it at the beginning of a conversation or presentation because it sets the wrong tone; for others it's extremely helpful because it takes the pressure off the situation. Everyone agreed that it's important to figure out what works for each of us individually.

When one group member was open about his stutter at work, he found out that his boss stutters too, and they talked about the best way to deal with it. After a presentation, the boss told him, "It's brutal, but you have to go through this." Sometimes that's the truth: we can't avoid difficult situations and have to struggle our way through as best  we can.

How can we stay calm in such  situations? Here are some ideas: get enough sleep, exercise regularly, take your vitamins, and stay in good physical health. Also, try to control the pace of a conversation even if it's only for one minute. Take the time to pause and speak at the rate that's right for you not for your listener. Set a goal to do this one sentence at a time, then go to two sentences, three, and so on.

Another group member shared an idea he heard from a Navy Seal: make your bed! Even if your day descends into chaos afterwards, even if everything goes wrong, you did something that was in your power to do and that gives you a sense of control over your life. We can't control many things that happen to us. However, there are other things that we can control, and it's important to identify them and act on them. Find out where you can you make a difference and do it.

Finally, we looked at an article about Jeffrey Gurian, a PWS who developed a program to recover from stuttering. Our group concluded that his ideas are a mixed bag, but there are valuable bits that we can learn from.