Taking a stand for improving every patient’s understanding of their diagnosis, treatment plan, overall prognosis, and available options can help patients make more optimal and informed decisions, which can result in more favorable patient outcomes.

This requires comprehensive patient education and a thorough understanding of patients’ emotional and mental needs as well as their support system.

As the ever-evolving voice of healthcare, patient advocates are needed more than ever to help bring the focus and power ultimately back to the patient, whose body’s innate wisdom and guidance can help the patient make the most well-informed decisions on his or her unique healing journey.

We know that policymakers have a significant influence on women’s rights including their access to abortion and while this may be a controversial topic, it does not diminish the long-standing healthcare disparities that women have faced. This includes subpar patient care and a disadvantage for many minorities and women of color that leads to missed diagnoses and higher death rates.

What is needed at this time is more women becoming empowered over their health and body on a holistic level, which includes a deep understanding of their menstrual cycle, energy levels, medical history, and genetics in a way that they can take full ownership of what they need in their care.

Every woman has the gift of intuition and her body stores powerfully ingrained wisdom.

Her intelligent cells and DNA hold all the information and codes she needs to make the most well-informed decisions…but first, she must give herself her own permission to trust her body’s guidance, to seek the knowledge that she feels called to learn, and to be open to a collaborative approach with the right clinician, healer, therapist, coach, etc.

The traditional education system does not take into account that students have different learning styles and different ways of processing information. Some students learn better through auditory modalities including podcasts or re-listening to recorded lectures while others need to visually see the information in order to better conceptualize.

Yet, the education system has overlooked this for many years and created report cards and parent-teacher conferences as a way to track the student’s progress in a way that feels partial to one’s perspective without accounting for differences in learning modalities. 

Everyone is unique, has his or her own set of skills that allows him or her to comprehend information in various ways, and, in general, everyone learns at a different pace. If more students were given the fair opportunity to succeed in a way that honors their growth, their talents, their own journey…then more students would feel empowered around their education.

The system also does not teach one of the core skills that students need to thrive in life – emotional intelligence. And without this skill, most people have been walking around in adult bodies but with child-like emotional maturity. 

The current education system needs radical change that empowers each student to activate his or her own unique gifts and contribute to the world in a greater way – through their own superpower. 

The only way to allow for this discovery is to promote a higher sense of self-awareness and create sufficient space for students to explore their creativity and self-expression.

During my time working at a health clinic serving the underprivileged population in New Brunswick, NJ between 2007-2010, I was distressed to see the amount of children who would come in for physical ailments but were actually seeking attention for child abuse and to have a safe space to report their unhealthy family dynamics. 

Statistics show that more than 600,000 children are abused in the U.S. each year. Many children are victims of abuse and neglect. 

Abuse can consist of physical and mental violence, sexual trauma, and the use of illicit substances.

This can result in long-term repercussions for a child’s life, including a higher tendency to become involved with drugs, violence, and criminal activity. 

Every child comes into the world with an inherent need and the divine birthright to receive safety, especially within their family and at home.

Without this basic need being met, children are left to wander the planet trying to find safety in substances that help numb their pain, including alcohol, drugs, self-medicating, and outsourcing their power to the world instead of learning to create safety within. 

We must increase awareness around mental health on a global scale, be open to exploring different trauma healing modalities, and create the world we want to live in by being an example of safety within ourselves, which can model to children some of the more healthier behaviors that can be learned and embodied over time.

This is how we create a world filled with happy, healthy children who know they are deeply loved, cherished, and safe.