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Four Critical Health Questions to Ask Your Mother

I'm Mary!

The Presence Path is about finding self compassion and walking your way home to yourself.  Living in your joy, creating and being true to your authentic self expression - is the key to create the fulfilling life you dream of.  Thank you for being here. I'm happy to share the journey with you.

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With Mother’s Day coming up on May 14, I just finished a podcast for a healthcare client on “Honoring Our Mothers.” The focus of the conversation is based on my book, My Mother, My Friend: The 10 Most Important Things to Talk About With Your Mother, and why it’s so important to honor your mother by talking to her about her health and yours.

A woman in one of my stress management seminars summed it up best:

“I never thought about my health until it was taken away. It wasn’t until I had a heart attack that I realized I had so much control over my own health. I started fighting like hell to live and found a new woman inside me – strong, brave, and determined to get well. When you lose your health, you lose everything. When you have your health you can do anything.”

In interviews with over 400 mothers and daughters and talking to thousands of women in my stress management and positive communication seminars, as well as dealing with the crisis of my mother’s diagnosis and death from ovarian cancer and my dance with cervical cancer (I’m a grateful, healthy 12 year survivor – get your HPV Test), I discovered there are four reasons why it’s so important for you to have the health conversation with your Mom, especially if she’s over 65 or currently has health problems:

  1. Unnecessary suffering and untimely death of Mom because no one knew there was a problem. Often in my interviews, I heard from a mother, “I don’t want to be a burden to my children.” Better a burden than laying in a coma or dead for 2 days because adult children were out of touch or appeared too busy Mom didn’t want to bother them.
  2. Prevention vs. Crisis Triage. Having a health conversation can often prevent the crisis and the additional negative stress that impacts not just Mom but you, your health, your family, work, and finances.
  3. Caregiving. Most adult children are not prepared to be caregivers to their Mom (or Dad) in the case of sudden illness or accident, yet it happens more than you think. Discussing health concerns and options before you need to isn’t always easy, but it is always wise.
  4. Access. For your sake. Women whose mothers died before they talked about health no longer had access to their medical history, which influences screenings and lifestyle choices.

To get you started, here are four critical health questions to ask your Mom:

  • What medications are you on and what are the dosages? Ask her to explain what the medications are for so that you both understand. If she can’t tell you, it’s time to help her be a better partner with her doctor and you. Someone besides her and her doctor need to know in the event of an emergency.
  • Who is your doctor and what is their phone number?
  • When was your last doctor’s appointment and when is your next one? (Annual checkup at a minimum. You too!)
  • May I go with you to your next appointment? Make the time. It could save both of your lives.

If you’d like access to twenty more critical health questions, as well as over 200 other questions on other important topics, and how to make these conversations easy, painless, and informative, you can get a copy of My Mother, My Friend at:

My Mother My Friend ebook

My Mother, My Friend soft cover copy

As my Mom Grace said, “Life is short, life is precious. Don’t wait. Do it now.”

Mary

PS. If you’d like a book label personally signed by me to you or to include as a gift, email me at mary (at) marymarcdante.com with your name and address and who to sign the book to and I’ll snail mail it to you.

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My intention as a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and coach is to help you reconnect to your wise, loving, intuitive self, follow your creative calling, and experience and share your creative gifts with the world. 

I bring 30 years of experience as an international inspirational speaker specializing in communications and stress management and over a decade in Marketing Consultancy. I am the author of "My Mother, My Friend," and "Living with Enthusiasm" and a contributing author to five best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and "A Woman's Way to Success in Business." I have been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts and have spoken on more than 1500 stages around the world. 

I believe there is a path to create the life you want and achieve your goals and dreams - at any age, at any stage. It is my honor and joy to help women find their creative calling and put their dreams at the forefront of their lives.


My intention as a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and coach is to help you reconnect to your wise, loving, intuitive self, follow your creative calling, and experience and share your creative gifts with the world. 

I bring 30 years of experience as an international inspirational speaker specializing in communications and stress management and over a decade in Marketing Consultancy. I am the author of "My Mother, My Friend," and "Living with Enthusiasm" and a contributing author to five best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and "A Woman's Way to Success in Business."

I have been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts and have spoken on more than 1500 stages around the world, sharing how to stay inspired, enthusiastic, and healthy in changing times.

I believe there is a path to create the life you want and achieve your goals and dreams - at any age, at any stage. It is my honor and joy to help women find their creative calling and put their dreams at the forefront of their lives.


I would love to help you bring your creative spirit to life.

Learn more

A Lifetime of Experience, Travels, Challenge & Change

Mary is Director of Communications for the Center for Mindful Self Compassion and is a MSC Trained Teacher, Coach, Meditation Guide and Retreat Leader based in San Diego, California. You can find Mary creating artful photography and leading walking meditation groups on the beaches of Torrey Pines Reserve.

Mary's career experience includes over a decade working as a marketing consultant with business, government, nonprofit, and community organizations to create and complete mission-driven collaborative projects and events, and a 30-year career traveling internationally as a communication and stress management speaker and author. 

Working with latest research on stress, positive psychology, and brain/mindset learning into practical and powerful lifestyle strategies, Mary inspires people to make conscious choices and take inspired action in the midst of challenge and change, believing that all dreams are possible.

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written by mary marcdante

written by
mary marcdante

Living with Enthusiasm

Living with Enthusiasm is a powerful 21-Day Plan for turning your stress into success, funk into fun, and adversity into adventure. It's about going for the gusto.

WRITTEN BY MARY MARCDANTE

WRITTEN BY
MARY MARCDANTE

My Mother, My Friend

Every woman has things that she wants to talk about with her mother -- but can't. Big questions about health, aging and money, and even more personal issues about family secrets and Mom's relationship with Dad have made for extremely difficult conversations -- until now.

purchase the book  →

purchase the book  →