Don’t Neglect Your Body as You Develop Your Mind.

I was talking to my husband late last night about the things that are preying on my mind these days. He leaves for a contract job 1000 miles away from us next week and I am hunkered down trying to ride out the emotional turbulence leading up to his departure: all of the last minute home improvements, the disorganized clutter involved with finding passports, social security cards, etc., the cleaning and packing.

» Continue reading “The Mind-Body Connection”

When I was in elementary school, I had a falling out with my circle of friends. It is a scene I have since seen played out on many different stages with many different girls in very similar circumstances. The social hierarchy of young people is unstable and unforgiving. My circumstances seemed particularly harsh and I would be dishonest if I didn’t confess that the effects of the treatment I received at the hands of my former friends didn’t leave me traumatized.

» Continue reading “Looking for Injury: A Self-Centered Perspective”

Does Getting Angry Make You Angrier? : NPR.

I must admit, I have noticed this kindling effect. If I nip my angry response in the bud, I am far more likely to calm down in a reasonable amount of time and objectively respond in an appropriate way to the trigger. If I give in to the angry response, it is much more difficult to regain composure and I may spend the rest of the day stewing in my own juices.

» Continue reading “Question of the Day”

Are you defined by what you lack or by what you have?

In an economy that continues it’s journey up Shit’s Creek with no paddle in sight; in a country that values consumerism and capitalism as fundamental pillars of society; among people who define success according to wealth and status, it’s no wonder a lot of people are depressed. We often define ourselves, or allow others to define us, by the things we lack. We often take what we have for granted.

» Continue reading “Question of the Day”

“Optimists live longer, healthier lives than pessimists, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that may give pessimists one more reason to grumble.” I told you so!

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5247NO20090305?rpc=59

» Continue reading “Pollyanna and the Road to Immortality”

The other day I read an observation about how adults teach ourselves that our bedrooms and beds should only be for sleeping, but then we turn our childrens’ bedrooms into playrooms and wonder why they fight sleep. Personally, I don’t know that I have ever personally had a problem with my boys sleeping in their rooms after playing in them, but I have historically had problems with insomnia that were exacerbated by treating my room as an office or student lounge and not a bedroom.

» Continue reading “Bedroom or playroom?”

I spent a lot of time today walking, working, talking to a good friend, and talking to my husband. We shared our fears that we are trying to force a square peg into a round hole by staying in an area that is good in theory but much more difficult to reconcile with our urban souls in practice.

The fact is that we want to raise our kids in a decent area, we want to be able to afford a home in a community where people care, but we also want to be close to people our own age and enjoy the urban activities we miss. We want to live in a progressive area and live progressive lives and it’s difficult to do when you’re in a conservative mecca.

» Continue reading “A Full Day”

Follow this link to view the presentation:

How to Lead When You’re Not the One in Charge

I thought this was a good presentation on harnessing/leveraging personal power. It’s particularly relevant for people like me who have chosen career roles that place them outside of the management hierarchy. A couple of years ago I made a decision to take a senior, non-management role at my company, and resign my management position, in order to lead a more personally fulfilling life. My current position allows me to work from home, offering me a decent wage with benefits and personal flexibility. What it does not offer is an opportunity for advancement or positional power. One of the first things that I had to learn was how to collaborate and not dictate, and how to disagree and commit. This series of slides has other good information on how to be a leader when you’re not a manager.

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/

Manjula Jain provides not only traditional, vegetarian, north Indian recipes, she provides video tutorials for cooking them! I can’t wait to give her recipes a try!

According to a study that was published on Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cutting back on calories can help improve your memory. Just three months on a restricted diet helped improve performance on memory tests for the study volunteers. I always called it mommy brain and attributed my memory issues to sleep deprivation (which is still probably a large contributing factor), but maybe I just eat too much!

» Continue reading “No Wonder I Can Never Remember Anything!”