Insight into Job Search Strategies

See our recent newest TV show episode on Job Search Strategies with advice from Human Resources leader Kelly Villanueva.

Gift of the Heart

My husband's birthday falls right during the busiest time of year; the beginning of January.

Much to his dismay, last year Chris celebrated another BIG birthday. While he agonized over being another decade older, I agonized over what to buy him that would measure up to the bigness of the occasion. Many people think a big birthday marks one's life in some significant way.  This particular birthday had my husband inquiring deeply about his life. What was it that he really wanted? Did his work make him really happy?  In what ways could he make his life feel even more meaningful?  It was a biggie for him as he began to re-assess and re-examine every part of his life.  

I wondered what kind of gift would be just the perfect way to mark his big day in a special way.

I considered a surprise party.
I considered a night out on the town with good friends and family.
I considered sending him on a hunting trip to Alaska as he's been dreaming about Alaska for as long as I can remember.

After a lot of thought, I decided to give him a few of the above gifts (nope, not the Alaska trip), but the best present of all was the gift I gave from my heart.  The gift was called, "A Year of Body, Mind and Spirit." Each month, for an entire year, I gave my husband a gift of body, mind, or spirit. 

 - In January, I gave him a reading with my friend the psychic, Lisa Campion.
 - In February, I gave him a deep tissue body massage with my most fabulous massage therapist and friend, Marie Cornelia.
 - In March, I gave him a seat to a really interesting day long workshop called Buddha's Brain; The Practical Neuroscience
of Happiness with Dr. Rick Hanson. 
 - In April, I gave him the book, "Younger Next Year", by Dr. Harry Lodge and Chris Crowley.
 - In May, I gave us a trip to visit dear friends of ours who live across the country.
 - In June, I gave him a session with a unique kind of chiropractor.
 - In July, I gave him an energy healing session with my dear friend, Lynne Rothstein.
 - In August, I gave him a session with a a nutritionist and health specialist.
 - In September, I gave him a guided horseback riding trail ride.
 - In October, I gave him a homemade DVD of our favorite love songs.

I forget what I gave him last month, and I still have one last gift to go to complete the year.  This has been a fabulous year for my husband in terms of feeling loved and having monthly moments that have helped him stop and re-assess his life, focus on his health and well-being, and help him sort through what he really wants to create for the next phase of his life.

During this season of giving, consider giving gifts from the heart.  Who in your life, could benefit from a special gift because it comes from your heart?  They too, could be happy happy happy, like Chris, the birthday boy.

Recent News

I just finished developing a new video for my corporate business. Bold moves are just everywhere aren't they?!

Awesome testimonial

Thanks Nicole for the rockin' testimonial from our recent Fall Retreat. Maybe you all will come next year?

Click here to watch.

Another testimonial

Mary Elizabeth Wheeler shares her thoughts about our retreat.

Francine Tirrell Testimonial

Francine loves our Women's Escape Weekend. Check it out.

Kat Greene's testimonial

Check out what Kat has to say about our Fall Retreat.

Kathy Bowen's testimonial

Kathy's testimonial is now available on YouTube. You can view it at:

Enjoy!

Testimonial video Martha Miser

My latest and greatest testimonial from our Fall retreat is now available on YouTube. You can view it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ahobJyw4TY

Your Next Bold Move: Careers

Check out our new TV show episode.

Women's Escape Retreat Weekend

We had a fabulous retreat at the Mills Falls Inn & Spa on Lake Winnipeasauke. All 53 of us! Go to our facebook page and "Like us" and then you can see all the pics!

http://www.facebook.com/themagicparties

Steve Job's Eulogy written by his sister

This was a really wonderful eulogy about Steve Job and his life as seen through his sister's eyes.

Does Your Website Have People Saying “WOW” (in a good way)?

Great article from marketing guru Maribeth Kuzmeski on web site and their results.

Does Your Website Have People Saying “WOW” (in a good way)?

Be On Fire

Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Foundry Group, an investment firm from Boulder CO has this really cool post the other day that sounds like Yoda from Star Wars. I think this rocks.


BE ON FIRE

WORLD FULL OF IDEA. ALL NEED IS BRAIN. MOST HUMANS HAVE BRAIN.

IDEA BY SELF IS COLD. JUST SIT THERE. DO NOTHING.

IF WANT DO SOMETHING, NEED FIRE.

NEED BE ON FIRE.



WHY BURNING MATTER

MAKE STARTUP HARD. IT HARD BECAUSE YOU WRONG. YOU FAIL.

FAIL COLD? GO HOME. QUIT.

YOU NOT QUIT. YOU BURN. FAIL IS FUEL. MORE FAIL, MORE BURN. BURN FAIL UNTIL ONLY WIN LEFT.

THAT WHY BURNING MATTER. NOTHING STOP PERSON ON FIRE. NOT SLEEP. NOT SICK. NOT BROKE. NOT BULLET. NOT END OF EARTH.

NOTHING.



FIRE MAKE SMOKE

ANGER IS SMOKE. FIRE DESTROY. DESTROY MAKE NEW THINGS GROW. COLD PEOPLE HATE FIRE. NO ONE WANT TO BE FERTILIZER. FIRE NOT CARE.

LOYALTY IS SMOKE. PEOPLE FOLLOW FIRE, GET HOT. NOTHING STOP PERSON ON FIRE. PERSON ON FIRE WRAPPED IN HOT CROWD? THAT FIRE CHANGE WORLD.

WIN IS SMOKE. PERSON ON FIRE NOT CARE ABOUT WIN. NOT CARE ABOUT MONEY, FAME. WIN HAPPEN WHEN BUSY DO THINGS THAT MATTER. THINGS ON FIRE.

WHERE IS FIRE? LOOK FOR ANGER. MIDDLE OF ANGER IS CHANGE. MIDDLE OF CHANGE IS HOT CROWD. MIDDLE OF HOT CROWD IS WIN. MIDDLE OF WIN IS FIRE.



HOW MAKE FIRE?

WORLD IS BROKEN. FIX IT.

RIGHT IDEA HARD. RIGHT IDEA HURT. RIGHT IDEA IS HOLE IN WORLD.

RIGHT IDEA MAKE BURN INSIDE TO FIX. CAN TAKE DAY OFF FROM IDEA? IT WRONG ONE.

FIND IDEA THAT BURN, GRAB WITH BOTH HANDS, NEVER LET GO.

THAT HOW MAKE FIRE.



YOU MUST BURN

EVERYONE THINK WAY TO STARTUP IS TALENT + IDEA + MONEY.

EVERYONE WRONG.

STARTUP NOT ABOUT MAKE THING, SELL THING. STARTUP ABOUT CHANGE WORLD.

WORLD IS COLD. YOU MUST LIGHT WORLD ON FIRE.

YOUR FIRE.

YOU. MUST. BURN.

Ted Talks Chip Conley on Measuring Happiness

How do you feel about how you spend your time each day? Ted.com's Chip Conley suggests we can measure happiness that consists of wanting what you have and having what you want. Gratitude and Gratification together. Interesting ideas for changing the way we measure our businesses based on what makes life worthwhile.

Bold Move

My friend, who is in her 70s, made an incredible bold move last week. It's funny, one person's bold move is another person's complete and full out terror. What's stopping you?

Five Ways to Become Happier

For however elusive happiness is to define, there are very specific things people can do each day that are proven to increase happiness: Tal Ben Shahar has spent his career studying them.

Check it out.

How Healthy Are Your Breasts?!

Everywhere I turn this month, there is some reminder to pay attention to the health of our breasts. We all have our favorite way of doing this. Some of us do self exams. Some of us have an annual mammogram. Some of us have breast thermography. And some of us hope by doing nothing at all, everything will turn out fine.

So many of us have stories related to breast cancer and I'm one of those. A few years ago, after being called back 3 times for magnifications during my annual mammogram, I was told I needed surgery, radiation and tamoxifen.

Since that scary time, I have started thermography as the method to take care of the health of my breasts. Thermography is a technology that picks up thermal changes in breast tissue. These thermal changes are the precursors for breast tissue anomalies that can become cancerous. Unlike a mammogram, a thermogram-a breast exam using thermography-isn’t invasive. No flattening, no pain, and and absolutely no radiation exposure. I like the idea of seeing abnormalities BEFORE they become cancer so I have a chance to do something about it and turn it around versus it being too late.

Learn about thermography for yourself and see if you too might benefit. Dr. Christiane Northrup, one of my heroines in the field of women's health has two great articles in which you can learn more about breast health and thermography.

Best Breast Test

and A Tale of Two Exams

If you are a local woman, I have my annual thermogram in Dedham, MA with Jackie Bell. Find out more here about her process of thermograpy at Natural Bell.

Here's to your breast health, this month and throughout the year.

October TV Show

Check out our most recent TV show. First time on location. it was so much fun!!

Women's Escape Weekend

Come to our Women's Escape Weekend on Nov 5-6! It's going to be wonderful and you will have a rare opportunity to re-invent yourself, your career and your direction in life. Interested in exploring your next bold move? The come on and register. We would love to have you, even if you have never been to one of our events before.

Making Ideas Happen

"Ideas are sacred realizations born out of our deepest sense of identity and wonderment." again Scott Belsky, Making Ideas Happen. Imagine if all of our ideas are really part of our identity. Hmmm, I wonder what that says about us?

What's Next Girlfriends?

My inspirational quote for the day: "To envision what will be, you must remove yourself from the constant concern for what already is." Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky.

Our latest TV show episode

View our latest TV show episode with guest Paul Saganey, CEO of Integrated Financial Partners. Get help with money tips as we deal with this economy, and the planning for saving money towards retirement.

Our Summer Retreat Rocked!

You can join us at our next retreat on Nov 5-6 in Meredith, NH at the Mills Falls Inn and Spa. It will be great. Check it out!

http://www.themagicparties.com/events.html

Create Your Future With a Vision Board

Our most recent TV show now up on Youtube!

Women in the Economy

This is a fabulous article about women in the workplace and their movement and progression forward and what blocks them.

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/women-04112011.html

Happiness Project

What if we gave each month a theme, like marriage, relationships, money, sex, friendship, fun, girlfriends, passion and we took small steps every month to make ourselves happier by adding small, easy changes to our everyday routine?  Gretchen Rubin wrote a great book on happiness called the "Happiness Project."  Want to try it out now thru end of May? I'm going to pick relationships as my happiness project.

Group Price

My friend Cindy Loughran of New Leaf Touchstone turned me on to Group Price. Group Price negotiates massive discounts off leading local business svcs, software, apps, & supplies for a limited time to help your small business cut costs and grow, and deliver thousands of new customers to our merchant partners.

More Magazine Social Gaming

According to More Magazine, the average social gamer is a 43 year old woman. Chocolateville, Mother-in-Law Wars and Bespanxed seem to be favorites. I'm into Words with Friends myself, how about you?

Eckhart Tolle TV Meditation

This is an awesome quick meditation you can do right at your desk. Click here.

Girlfriends are good for you health!

There was a lecture recently at Stanford University on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.


Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this "quality girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?--rarely. Women do it all the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health!

A recent UCLA study indicates that friendships between women soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill emotional gaps, and help remind us who we truly are.

And, they may do even more. Hanging out with women counteracts the stomach-acid stress many experience daily as we juggle life's demands. This landmark study suggests women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that turned five decades of stress research (most of it on men) upside down.

Women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just fight or flight; in fact, when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of a woman's stress response, it buffers fight or flight and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in "tending and befriending", more oxytocin is released, further reducing stress to produce a calming effect.

We are indeed very very lucky.

So let's toast to our friendship with the women in our lives. Evidently it's very good for our health.

Make Your Hobby Your Living

In 1986, Frank Hyman was a 26-year-old college dropout and world traveler who had decided that he didn't want a job, much less a career. What he really wanted was to get paid for his hobbies: writing, gardening and politics. So he made that his goal. Read this great article in the New York Times to see an unconventional way to make money and a living.

Read about it; it's pretty interesting.

Women's History Month

March is the month for celebrating women's history. Is there some way you might mark the month in some meaningful way? Read a book about a famous woman in history? Tell your daughter or son something you want them to know about women or a special woman? Send out an email or put up on Facebook a quote by some woman you admire? It's up to us to forward the conversation about women and their importance in the world. I celebrated by going away with my temple sisterhood for the weekend to Cape Cod for their 12th annual retreat where the topic was Taking Care of Body, Mind and Soul. You still have a few days left in the month....What will you do?

The Couple's Retirement Puzzle

We had a great recent Wake up with Wendy episode with Dr. Dorian Mintzer and Roberta Taylor as guests. Check it out, you might get some tips. Their new book, The Couple's Retirement Puzzle; 10 Must Have Conversations for Transitioning to the Second Half of Life is such a great resources to think about and plan what's ahead.

Radioactive Protection

Dear Friends,
The disaster in Japan has gotten me thinking and wondering if there was a disaster where I live what preparations have I considered or made in my own house. The answer sadly is mostly none, with the exception of a collapsable ladder under my bed in case of fire where we might be able to get downstairs at least we could climb out the window. This is a good start but I've been thinking I might want to do more than just the ladder.

I've been thinking over the last few days, if in the case of some disaster, and I had the luxury of getting to my supplies, would I have any to get to?

This is a homeopathic and integrated approach in case we ever, god for bid need radioactive protection. It comes from my friend Jonathan Glass from the Healing Essence Center in Concord, MA who I respect his opinion on this topic. It actually made me feel a lot better just to read it.

http://www.healingessencecenter.com/blog/

With love,
me

How to Find Your Dream Job

Check out my first edited episode of our TV show with my friend Michael Neece on How to Find Your Dream Job. Not bad as a start, don't you think?

Click here to view.

February 2011 Wake up with Wendy TV show

See our newest episode of Wake up With Wendy as Dr. Sharon Livingston recommends you market yourself to increase your visibility and branding.

Click here.

Wake up with Wendy Overview

Dr. Sharon Livingston and I talk about bozo the clown and how Wake up with Wendy my TV show started. We had great fun.