How Healthcare Works, LLC

by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH The other day, someone texted me and said I was “doing great.” I know they meant well, but when you’re barely able to cover your basic bills and working in a job far below your qualifications, it doesn’t feel like “great.” A lot of the challenges I’m facing now stem from years of people minimizing my needs, making assumptions about what I “deserved,” and encouraging others to withhold even basic support. For a long time, I didn’t realize how deeply that affected me. When I moved to Idaho, I met someone who finally showed me something different—what genuine friendship looks like. This person treated me with kindness, consistency, and respect. They helped me begin to understand that it’s normal for people to do kind things for one another. That friendship was the first time I truly saw that needing help isn’t a flaw, and accepting help doesn’t make you weak. It’s simply part of being human. Notably, that person did not attend my undergraduate institution. He...

by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH As I’m writing this post, I have dinner cooking on the stove. What’s on the menu tonight? Carne asada tacos. My pre-dinner snack was Skinny Pop. I’m a self-proclaimed foodie, having lived in Kansas City and traveled extensively throughout the country. It’s funny to think about now, because I was an extremely picky eater as a child. As an adult, every time I traveled somewhere new, I made a point to try new foods. I’ve even tried Ethiopian food—definitely not my favorite. To me, it tasted like a spicy, dirty sponge. I enjoy cooking when I have the time to cook and clean up afterward. I have this quirky rule where I won’t cook unless the kitchen is clean first. So it’s bothering me tonight that I have dirty dishes in the sink as I’m cooking dinner. But they will be washed and put in the dishwasher before bed. I’ve had a long, complicated love-hate relationship with food. In a previous post, I shared that I was neglected as a child and often didn’t have enoug...

by Jeanette R. Harrison It's early morning, and I’m making my coffee before work. I’ve already walked my dog and fed her. My mind is in work mode as soon as my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. Some days, I wake up before my alarm even goes off. I go over my plans for the day in my head and ask myself if what I’ve set out to do is actually realistic. Life is challenging when you have to do everything yourself. From running my business to managing my household, every task falls on me. No one takes out the trash for me. No one cooks dinner, cleans my home, or even brings me a cup of coffee. If I need something done, I have to pay someone to do it—and I don’t have buckets of money. As I get ready, I’m also thinking about how much time I have before my Uber driver arrives to take me to work. That, too, is stressful—trying to find the “sweet spot” for a decent fare, wondering if the driver will take the right route, and hoping I’ll make it on time. Not having transportation has become a major...

 by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH It’s Friday night—or rather, the early hours of Saturday morning—and tonight’s gratitude practice is about being grateful for work. I was supposed to write this post yesterday, but I took the day off. I could have written it this morning, but I didn’t feel like it then, either. As I sat at work today, I asked myself, “What is my issue with writing about being grateful for work?” The truth is, it’s an emotionally charged topic for me—one that, like education, has often been the source of misunderstanding and even bullying from others. Years ago, someone spread a false rumor that I didn’t work and was lazy. That lie has followed me for years. The truth is, I’ve always worked hard. I held three jobs to get through Graceland University, and  while attending the University of Nebraska–Kearney during the day worked full-time at night at a hospital as a medical transcriptionist. In graduate school, I worked as much as I could as an intern and consultant...

 by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH It’s the very early morning hours, and I’m awake. I went to bed at 8:00 p.m. after dinner and took a nap. What should have been a really good day—actually, a really good week—has left me feeling conflicted. My book Bragging About You is on free promotion this week, and I plan to extend it to help more people jump-start their gratitude journey. My walking book is also doing well—it’s back in the top 100 for walking-for-exercise books on Kindle. It moves in and out of the top 100 so often that I’ve stopped announcing it every time it happens. I also had my second interview with Bold Journey magazine. The first piece focused on resilience, and this latest one was about risk-taking. Bold Journey receives about 185,000 views a month—an incredible opportunity. I shared the news with my coworkers, but their response was lukewarm. No one asked for the link. I think it’s because I have the same job they do, and because they see my financial struggles. It f...

 by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH Yesterday, I voted. I took an Uber directly to my polling place because I wanted to make sure I got it done before heading home to rest. When I got back, I had some baked chicken from the night before, a little yogurt, and a salad. I’ve been trying to eat healthier— trying being the operative word—especially since I gained almost twenty pounds earlier this year while recovering from pneumonia. It’s interesting how the body responds differently to illness. During pneumonia, I gained weight; during COVID, I lost more than twenty pounds—over 15% of my body weight—in just a few weeks. I was very sick, but I kept going. I credit my dog, Mosie, with keeping me alive. Friends reached out when they could, but it was her loyalty and my background in healthcare that truly kept me moving forward. I created most of the videos for my course  28 Days of Gratitude on my lunch break when I worked at the housing authority.  If you look closely, you will noti...

 by Jeanette R. Harrison, MPH When I get home from work, I usually have the energy for one activity before I’m completely zapped. Last night, I had to walk downtown to get a money order. On the way there, I was doing mental math—figuring out how to stretch what I had left in my budget and make it through the week. I need at least $50 a day to get to and from work, and that can be challenging at times. I work all day, then come home exhausted. When I walk through the door, that’s it—no one’s cooking dinner, folding laundry, or asking, “How was your day?” The last person who asked me that regularly was my bus driver, and even that felt more like a polite formality than genuine care. Sometimes, when I think about that, I can almost hear the unkind voices from my past—people who’ve said things like, “That’s because no one cares about you.” Recently, when I watched my promo video for Bragging About You, the next video that popped up was Brené Brown’s “How to Tell When People Don’t Car...