My Hearing Loss and Me
We Get Along Most of the Time
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
CONTENTS
Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Some words before all others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xii
Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Those Heavens in Us – What is Spirituality?
—The Quest for the Divine within—
Natural Infinite Wisdom 4; Nature, Culture and Divine 6
;
The Quest for the Divine in Us 9; The Metamorphosis 10;
The Self and its Source 12; The Self and Us 13; The Journey
of The Self 17; The Awakening 19; The Call 20; The Law of
Universal Love 22; The Resolution 23; Understanding it 24;
The Law of Unity 26; Be Wise 27; Coming back full circle 27
Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The How and What of Spirituality
—Walking the Way— How-to and with What—
The Approach 30 - Attitude 33; Teacher 34; Pursuit 36; Lessons
38; The Toolbox 43. Resources 45. Attitudinal Means
45 - The Law of Universal Love 45; The Measure of Non-
Attachment 47; The Approach of the Eternal Present 50; A
Lofty Point of View 54; Involvement and Happiness 55; Be to
the point 56; The Quantum Qualitative Leap 57; Enlightenment
59; Feelings 61; Awareness and Wakefulness 65; Bhikkhu
66; Correct and Incorrect 69; Doubt 71; Love versus Like
72; Serenity 74; Ask, Seek, Knock! 75; Trust 76; Judgment
and Forgiveness 77; “Be what you are?” 78.
Practical Means 83 - Meditation 84; Toxic Substances 85;
Hallucinogenic Drugs 85; Vegetarianism 87; Prayers, Invocations
and Affirmations 89; Prayer 90, Invocations 98, Affirmations
99; Karma 102; Panoramic View and Hearing 105;
Sex and Sexuality 108. Signs of Finding and Reuniting with
The Self 113
Chapter Three 119. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
The First W of M - Why Meditation
—The best Tool in our Quest for the Divine within—
Chapter Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Second W of M – What is Meditation
—The Mechanism of Meditation—
Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
The Other Two Ws of M – When and Where
—The Environment of Meditation and
Other Related Matters—
Time 130; Physical Ambience 130; Clothing 131;
Physical Posture 132; Mental Attitude 136; Breathing
136; Summary 143
Chapter Six 145. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
The H of M – How to Meditate?
—Systems of Meditation and Techniques employed—
Relaxation Techniques 148; Muscle Affecting Techniques
149 - Progressive Relaxation 149; Release-only
Relaxation 150. Breathing Relaxation Techniques
150. Visualization 151. Concentration Techniques
153 - OM Repetition 155; OM Repetition Plus 157;
Mind Focus 157; Mind Focus Plus 157; OM Focus Plus
158; Super Focus Power Repetition 159. Meditation
160; Contemplation 164; Adoration 167; Exiting the
Meditation Process 168; Troubleshooting 168
Chapter Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 171
Wheels that make the Man go round
—the Human Body Structure
—Our many Bodies and the Energetic Matrix,
and other related Things—
The Structure of the Human Body 174; The Chakras 176;
The Head 179; Prana 184; Benefits and Pitfalls of Spirituality
and Meditation 185
Last word 189. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
It is very difficult for teachers and parents to understand the psychosocial effects of hearing loss on young children. This book can help all of us better understand the world from the point of view of a child with a hearing loss.
This is a story about a young boy who has a cochlear implant. He attends a mainstream school and is the only child in his family with a hearing loss.
This book describes his experiences in life highlighting how his hearing loss affects those experiences. In almost all the situations described in this book, the young boy, Jack, is involved in a conversation with someone. Conversations with his parents, his brothers, his speech language therapists, his playmates, and others are all presented in this book.
Sometimes the conversations are not successful immediately. But all the conversations eventually succeed because Jack, the main character, receives help from someone. Sometimes Jack is able to help himself. Other times, he receives some support and encouragement from his parents to help get through a communication breakdown that occurred in some way.
In this story, Jack uses a cochlear implant. The reader will have to decide how well he thinks Jack seems to be doing with the cochlear implant. The author's intent is not to evaluate the success or failure of the cochlear implant. Rather, the author is trying to focus on how well Jack is able to do in a world where everyone else around Jack has normal hearing. It is the author's belief that Jack does quite well in this world.
It is the author's belief that conversations about a child's experiences having a hearing loss in mainstream schools is vital to the child's feeling of belonging to this world. These experiences are not limited to the challenges that the child might have to overcome. It also includes the experiences where the child did well and feels happy about it.
It is the author's hope that this book helps you have the conversations that you would like to have with those who are a part of your life.
About the Author
John Anderson was born with normal hearing. At the age of three, he began to lose his hearing and was diagnosed as having a moderate inner ear loss. The etiology of the hearing loss was unknown. At the age of 4, he began to wear a body worn hearing aid with amplification in his right ear. Later, it was found that he had lost more hearing and the nature of the loss was determined to be progressive. While attending mainstream schools, he received weekly speech therapy during his elementary school years. He did not have access to FM systems nor did he use interpreters of any kind. He earned his high school diploma in 1967 and went on to college earning a bachelor degree in data processing in 1971. He went on to earn his masters in business administration in 1973 and began a career in computer programming. When he was in his early 30Õs, he lost the remainder of his hearing. At the age of 35, he received a cochlear implant and has been using it successfully for the last 19 years.
After regaining some of his hearing through the cochlear implant, he began to think about a career change to the field of counseling. He did make that change, earning a masters degree in counseling psychology in 1997, and has worked for the last six years as an adjustment counselor for the Mainstream Center at Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton MA, where he works with children with hearing loss who attend public schools.
William Bushell is an artist and illustrator living and working in Victoria, BC, on Canada's west coast. He has illustrated and designed books for several authors internationally.