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.