This week brings some big changes to Dragonfly Lights!  I have been sharing my vision for over a year now and roots have taken hold.  My mission to help people with the day to day struggles of diabetes has become a full-fledged movement and people are experiencing real change.

As I connect with more and more people who share my diabetes journey, I am reassured that coping skills, mindset change, and empathetic understanding are the key factors that really make a difference. Don’t get me wrong, education about disease and treatment are crucial, but it is tapping into your motivation, your coping skills, your beliefs, and the rules you agree to are vastly more important. No one is good at something they hate. Knowing you should “be” different but not knowing “how” creates frustration, disappointment, and poor self-esteem.  These dark places are where we need to start.

It would not be prudent to overlook the role pain plays in your growth and your path. Pain tells us something is wrong.  It helps us learn not to touch fire, not to walk on a foot with a blister and to seek medical care when your abdomen has you doubled over. There is a purpose in pain.  Our challenge is to recognize it, pay attention to it, and try and figure out the lesson.

I have so many examples. Diabetes taught me that I matter.  There is nothing like fearing for your life when your blood sugar is 40 or 400 to make you cling to that which keeps you alive.  It takes pain to steer you away from a job that has run its course. It is the pain of those dark times when you are planted, before you sprout,  where you learn patience. Pain can teach us to let go. To let go of ideas of perfection and embrace persistence. To let go of pleasing others and learning to follow our own heart’s desires.  To let go of what was and embrace what it is.

As we let go and follow our path, not knowing the outcome but knowing you must go this new way,  is when you step into your purpose. Ideas that were misty images last year are becoming realities.  Walking away from several lucrative corporate business opportunities to explore my passion for changing the landscape of diabetes care has not been without challenges, struggles, doubts, and fears. But I knew it what I was meant to do.  As I look back, I see the lessons (struggles) that have brought me to this place and I am grateful for each of them. They shaped me and pushed me to this new thing. And I have lots of new things!

So, friend, you are in a special group that gets to see what is unfolding.  I invite you to be a part where you can. I ask for your prayers and good wishes, and I am grateful and humbled that you are reading this. And because you can only do 6 bullets and remember them, here is what you can expect from Dragonfly Lights!

Individual/Group Coaching – Uncovering the thoughts and beliefs that are keeping you from your best life and learning how to do diabetes YOUR way.

Community Engagement – Sharing insight into what people with diabetes really need – in families, in the workplace, and in any community.

New Website! – A beautiful new site this week to bring my messages to more people, support the new products I am offering and support future growth.

Children’s Book – “Dragonfly Lights – Learning About Your Perfect Purpose” is my new book for all of us who are #PerfectlyImperfect.  It is a beautifully illustrated Children’s book with companion coloring book. My book launch is 11/03/2018 2:00-4:00 at the Cosby Library and Community Center in Coppell, TX.  All are welcome! We’ll have kids activities, book signing, book reading, and author presentation.

Online Video Coaching – A series of “A-Ha” moments that will change how you view diabetes.  The coursework explores the basic pathophysiology of diabetes, emotions/frustrations/coping, motivation, ownership, and communication.  It is a common sense, day to day approach that your doctor doesn’t cover. Does your business need this wellness approach? Let me know!

Dragonfly Lights Foundation  – This is my non-profit 501 (3) (c) that is dedicated to alleviating the psycho-social aspects of a life with diabetes.  It is just getting started but birthed with the idea that diabetes is a struggle that we can address as a community. I have 3 current programs 1) upcycle and redistribute diabetes supplies – work with Home Health and Hospice Agencies to allocate supplies from patients off service to persons in need. 2)  Corporate donations to defer the costs of insulin 3) Scholarships for online education for those in need. Although my 501(3)(c) is a reality, I am seeking corporate sponsorship & funding. It is amazing the number of supplies that are not being used and the incredible need for these same supplies.

Just a few things going on, but you know me – this is where I thrive! It could be the ER on a Friday night, the ICU with critical needs all around, the challenge of “how does an ER doc want to do his work?, the deployment of an 800 page government software regulation on a single software screen, bedside with a family member or a  CSI Crime Scene Birthday party. I love making things happen and being a vessel for the greater good.

If you read this and someone/something comes to mind – let me know.   It is not random. This thing I am doing has a purpose. It is bigger than me.

If it touches you, if you have an idea – I want to connect and talk.

Blessings,
Patricia