I have been a fervent journal writer for over thirty years and I love to hear about other’s journaling experiences. Dr. Mona Balogh, also an avid journaler, writes little vignettes about her patients in her new book, How to Stay Out of My Emergency Room. And she has written a post for Choices about how she turned her journal entries into a blog. Please welcome Dr. Mona Balogh.
My Failed Online Bookstore Turned Me into a Blogger
by Dr. Mona Balogh
I began blogging when my children were little, and I had an online bookstore called “Oasis Family Bookstore.” I sold homeschool books and wrote about “Homeschooling Made Easi-er,” implying that homeschooling is not easy. After the store and website failed, I learned how not to sell books online. But I was able to convincingly write about how to homeschool a family, and even help others homeschool their own children. I also attended many homeschool groups, conferences, get-togethers, park days, and co-schooled, hired teachers and gratefully allowed other parents and teachers to school my kids.
For my book, How To Stay Out of My Emergency Room, I started writing little vignettes about patients I worked with, 22 years before I wrote my book. But even before that, I had been writing patient records, with a history, physical, assessment and treatment plan for each one. Thousands of them, each one a little journal about a patient encounter.
I recently read a blog on KevinMD.com about how doctors make great entrepreneurs because of three traits: 1. delayed gratification, 2. problem solving, and 3. marketing. Marketing? Yes, marketing, in the sense of pitching a treatment plan to a medical customer. Some customers are harder to market to than others, a few downright belligerent. I learned something from all of them. With this trio of skills, also found in many more people than doctors, many can and have experienced life and written very helpful and useful blog posts.
Anyone who journals their life experiences can turn that into a blog. Anyone who works with others in a helpful manner. Anyone who has made mistakes and learned from them. Anyone who spends time and curiosity gathering information and experiencing their existence can meaningfully write a great blog.
To this day I’m still learning, gathering information, experience and wisdom, and writing useful things, some of which I turn into blogs.
And I LOVE reading the wisdom of others. The more wisdom out there, the better.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Over the course of twenty-seven years treating patients in emergency rooms, Dr. Mona Balogh observed a tendency – from diabetes to addiction – for some people to chronically use ERs to address their disease when lifestyle changes could help their condition immensely.
How to Stay Out of My Emergency Room addresses a panoply of bad habits and addictions through captivating stories of Dr. Balogh’s interactions with patients who repeatedly returned to her emergency room due to their tendency to avoid making lifestyle changes.
The second part of the book moves into action, presenting a roadmap to creating healthy new habits complete with worksheets. By applying the Eastern concept of balance of opposing forces with the 12 Steps and Vipassana-inspired meditations, the book provides a foundation for the reader to help themselves escape from whatever unhealthy rut in which they find themselves. And In a series of powerful meditations we get in touch with our Higher Self.
How to Stay Out of My Emergency Room calls upon time-honored principles to help us stop blaming everybody and everything around us and use tools outlined in the book to fulfill the vision that we have for ourselves and our life.
Not since the 7 Habits of Effective People has there been an “instruction manual” that powerfully presents such a positive program of living. This book will be useful to the health professional, the caregiver and for anyone who is ready to do what is necessary to transform their lives and become their very best self.
Link to the Amazon book page: https://www.amazon.com/How-Stay-Out-Emergency-Room-ebook/dp/B08BDBY397#ace-g6796040015
To win a copy of How to Stay Out of My Emergence Room, click this link: <a class=”rcptr” href=”http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4ab089741/” rel=”nofollow” data-raflid=”4ab089741″ data-theme=”classic” data-template=”” id=”rcwidget_gw504kla”>a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src=”https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js“></script>
ABOUT MONA BALOGH
Mona Balogh is a retired emergency physician who received her medical degree at Southwestern Medical School. After she completed her residency in emergency medicine at Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center, Dr. Balogh worked in emergency rooms throughout Los Angeles. She also provided free healthcare to underserved populations in Los Angeles, and in Baja, California, with the Flying Samaritans.
Dr. Balogh discovered her passion for alternative medicine at an addiction medicine seminar, where she learned to combine evidence-based Western philosophies with Eastern therapies. Since then, Dr. Balogh has studied traditional Chinese medicine, herbal and homeopathic therapies, and acupuncture. She lives with her husband, Endre, in Chatsworth, California.
See Dr. Balogh’s full tour schedule here:
Thank you Dr. Balogh. She and I would love to hear your journaling and blogging experiences. Please comment below.
[…] you’ve spent some time on the site, you may have come across a few words on the journaling approach to blogging. Journaling is an immensely rewarding activity in a number of ways, both in blogging and in one’s […]