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ProfileIssue: Aries 09 - Spring Break

Spring Letter from the Editor

ann_200Spring is finally here! Why not celebrate with a Spring Break right where you are by taking a moment each day this week to focus on being yourself and being in your body? These “mindful” moments could be a balmy vacation from the cold flurry of activity inside your own brain!

I have found that sitting down and practicing meditation for a half an hour (generally the longest I can sit) or going to a yoga class only brings me peaceful respite for another half an hour or so. Then, upon my next interaction with another person or with a crazy driver tailgating my car (!!) my regular habits just come rushing back and I mindlessly embark on my routine of thinking, thinking, thinking, followed by stress, worry, and doubt, and then sometimes sadness, anxiety, and depression followed again by thinking, thinking, thinking—of ways to feel better…(turn on the radio, call someone, eat lots of food!)

In the last few years, along with yoga and meditation, I’ve been trying something new. I’ve been reminding myself to slow down on a regular basis. If my thoughts start to race in one direction or another, I ask myself “Where is this going? Is this train of thought or action leading to anything of useful? Or am I just on a train with no particular destination?” If it is clear that I’m on auto-pilot, I can just put on the breaks. These little breaks (when I remember to take them) allow me to connect to my senses and be a little more myself and a little more at peace and perhaps a kinder person throughout my day.

So I encourage you to put a new spin on Spring this year and really give your mind the rest and relaxation it needs so you can fully be here to enjoy the season.

by Ann Janda

Profile Archives (total entries: 38)

Leo 09 - The Leadership Issue

Rebecca Lolosoli Provides Safe Haven for Vulnerable Women in Kenya

polaroid_rebecca_lolosoli_181Rebecca Lolosoli is much more than the matriarch of Umoja Village, an all women's community located in the Samburu District of Kenya. She put herself on the line for others…her life has been threatened for going against the indigenous Samburu traditions and culture. What started in 1991 as a group of 16 raped women, denounced and outcast by their families, on a patch of sun-dried, neglected land, granted to them by the Kenyan government at the behest of Rebecca is today a unique group of 50 flourishing, happy women and girls, orphans and widows and even a few beloved goats. (read more)

Aries 08

Nina DiSesa Shares Uncensored Tactics for Winning at Work in Her Book “Seducing the Boys Club”

ninadisesa_165Why are there still so few women in top management positions in the corporate world? Nina DiSesa, Chairman of McCann Erickson in New York, thinks it is because women don't understand men and tend to follow the rules and this doesn't work. She explains that women need to learn how to handle men in business in much the same way we do in our personal relationships - through what she calls S&M, seduction and manipulation. Nina says this has nothing to do with sex, and that in the end, everyone wins. In her book "Seducing the Boys Club" she gives the rest of us who think that all we need to do is work hard to get ahead, a swift kick in the butt!

Cancer 10

Linda Furiya Writes About Growing Up Japanese in the Midwest

linda_furiya_150“Many of the meals I ate at home in rural Indiana were Japanese. My mom used what ingredients she could get her hands on then put it out on the table effortlessly. The sensual aspect of Asian food and Mid-west sustainability is ingrained in me. Those are the basic roots of why I love cooking, “ says Linda.

(read more)