Home Page

Family Outreach Online Introduction

FAMILY OUTREACH

Sherrie Kvamme,
WFF Grief Recovery

If you haven’t checked out our Family Outreach online ListServ, take a few minutes go to this link. All you need to do is follow the brief instructions. If you have any trouble at all, please call me or email me and I will be more than ready to make sure you connect. We need you! It’s going to be a wonderful place to stay in touch with each other. Join those who have already been participating and share a wave, a smile, a good morning or a headache!

While on the subject of Family Outreach online, please note that I will be starting a few new topics that I hope you will find interesting to participate in. So far, we’ve just been getting accustomed to the format. Maybe it’s time to move a step ahead and start a more rousing conversation!  It belongs to you! Please join us!

The tough part of being acquainted with the Wildland  Firefighters Foundation is that you are probably here because of a loss. For that we are so very sorry.  We wish that were not the case but if it is, please know that you are surrounded with friends who genuinely do care about you. We are dedicated and firmly entrenched in your lives, being available and always there when you need a soft place to fall.

One of the tools we work to learn skillful use of at our Outreach classes is the tool of focus. It has proven to be one of the most valuable new habits that we work hard to achieve and turn into a natural part of who we are.  We’d like to suggest that you make a concentrated effort to practice making it part of your world starting today. Choose a trigger word that feels somewhat like a reprimand to you. Mine is bogus which makes me think that it is bogus to practice negative behavior. Next, make a promise to yourself to stay very aware of what people are saying to you, (listen with full attention), drive with your attention completely on where you are, how fast you are going and details around you. Drive somewhat like you did when you were first learning. Each sound of the shift for example was something you would even be aware of. Read with such focused attention that you don’t need to go back and re-read the last two or three pages, or rewind the movie you were watching the news or a favorite program. Don’t regret having not heard what a child was saying to you or the thoughts of a special friend who needed your listening heart. When you catch yourself daydreaming or zoning as I like to call it, slap your hands together sharply and firmly say your focus word. The hand clap will sting a little, the noise of the hands clapping provide audio as well as your trigger word giving you a reminder that you had checked out. This action will bring you back into focus quickly. If and when this happens in public, you will find this action somewhat embarrassing but it will also provide a little more pronounced incentive to stop the zoning! J  It is effective but it takes work and it also will take you a little time to really practice and make living in focus, a real habit. Sometimes, it takes around six weeks to ‘get it’.  Go on a focus walk everyday to help yourself learn this new challenge. Listen to what you hear around you, feel the air and the temperature of the air, the wind in your hair or breeze on your cheeks. Smell the air and the many fragrances of the flowers and trees, listen to the sound of your footsteps, see the neighbor’s smiles, and enjoy the unlimited opportunities. Be able to relate to yourself what you saw, felt, smelled and heard on your walk when you get home from each one of them. Email and let me know how you are doing and if you would like any other tips on practicing and skillfully accomplishing the use of your new tool of focus!  Email or call me and let me know when you have reached your “I got it” moment! J J

I hope that you are enjoying a beautiful summer. If there is anything that I can do or if you have time to visit for awhile please call or email me.

Warmly with hugs!

Sherrie

Sherrie Kvamme     familyoutreach@wffoundation.org   griefrecovery@eagletelephone.com

                                    wffoundation.org  ~  208-908-3360 ~  541-893-6315