Traverse City Record-Eagle

Kathleen Gest: Senior Focus

Related Photos

  • Kathleen Gest

    CSS6AF4.jpg
January 7, 2012

Senior Focus: How you react is most important

By Kathleen Gest, Local columnist ----

How do you handle the changes in your life?

The Senior Center Network is sponsoring three group discussions, led by local counselor Gerald Micketti and based on the best-seller, “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Micketti will work with the everyday occurrences people go through — those that change their lives.

“I borrowed the title from the book ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ showing that it’s more like, ‘Who changed my life?’” Micketti said. “The emphasis is not so much on what happened in their life … but how they responded to those changes.”

The book features four characters: two mice, “Sniff” and “Scurry,” and two little people, “Hem” and “Haw.” They live in a maze and look for cheese, which represents happiness and success. The four characters have very different reactions to what happened to their cheese.

A former pastor, Micketti has a master’s degree in counseling education from Western Michigan University — with emphasis on working within the community.

“To some people, change is an adventure and to others, change is a disaster … when life throws a punch or a curve — from we don’t know where — a person’s reaction is sometimes going to be anxiety or depression. That’s OK,” Micketti said. “But I can help that person be aware of what their reaction is and then take the appropriate measures to help counteract the emotional response to the situation … handling life as it comes at us.”

The first step is understanding that it’s not the stressful situation that’s causing your anxiety; it’s your response to it. If you can learn to pay attention to the ways you react to change or stress, you will become better able to counter anxiety before it becomes a problem.

Micketti’s discussion will help people understand the signs — symptoms like irritability, sleep problems, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, worthless feelings — that indicate something is happening emotionally.

“The message that I really want people to understand ... they are not alone,” Micketti said. “Sometimes … all we are looking for is someone just to listen to us.”

The Micketti discussion will be at the Rock in Kingsley at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18; at the Golden Fellowship Hall in Interlochen at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19; and at the Traverse City Senior Center at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26. Reservations are requested for each location and donations will be accepted at the door. Call 922-4911 or email ehovie@tcseniorcenter.com.

Kathleen Bellaw Gest is a local freelance writer. For more about the Traverse City Senior Center, go to www.tcseniorcenter.com.

Text Only