If you enjoyed reading “Eat Pray Love”, perhaps you’d like to create your own eat pray love experience with me on my Italy Retreat for Women to live la dolce vita, the sweet life. Even though the Italy Retreat this September is filled, I encourage you to make plans for the September 2011 Italy Retreat.
How can you prepare?
4 Steps:
1.) Start saving money for the trip. Have a special jar on your shelf or a travel savings account. Each week add more to your Italy jar.
2.) Create the trip in your imagination. Visualize yourself strolling along the Mediterranean, eating gelato or enjoying a spa on the Italian island of Ischia or Capri.
3.) Jump out of the duldrums and be courageous like Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love. Check out her book if you haven’t already, and read other books about Italy throughout the year. Some of my favorite books to read about Italy can be found on my Italy Retreat blog. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.
4.) Even if you don’t create your own Eat Pray Love experience in Italy, find the moments in your life to go for more than you ever dreamed possible.
The book was a huge success and I’m sure the movie will be too (opening Friday August 13) because Elizabeth captures the joy of courageously following a dream, even though it may not be supported by others. She also reminds us that we will recover from sadness in our lives.
I love this section from the book about happiness:
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”
Each day think of 3 aspects to experience happiness:
EAT: I’m not promoting eating your troubles away in order to find happiness. Far from that, but part of travel in Italy naturally includes indulging in the pleasure of eating delicious food. Again, if your eat pray love adventure does not include leaving your own town, know that eating is symbolic for experiencing life’s pleasures.
PRAY: is a daily experience whether or not you are in Italy visiting an ancient church, or enjoying art, architecture, and turquoise waters that take your breath away, you will be filled with tranquility. Even if not in Italy, daily spend time in prayer, meditation, and communing with nature. I’m visiting Boulder and walking in the mountains to connect with the beauty of creation. This can be deep prayer.
LOVE: Open heart, feel deeply. Think about self-love–you will fall in love with yourself, and the possibilities that the outer beauty of Italy offers. Self-love does not have to mean narcissism, but an appreciation of your beauty and qualities. Love yourself first to be able to love others in a more accepting way.
How do you manifest eating, praying, and loving in your life?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Let’s start our days out like four year old Jessica and stand on your sinks, in front of the mirror, and give ourselves a pep talk. We can all do a little self life coaching to lift us over the rough spots in our days.
Gotta love this kid!
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the world! This is a fun video, but just so you know, the women break dancing are NOT really pregnant, just the women watching. I was a little worried when I first watched it wondering how one could be pregnant and break dancing!
Here’s to having fun on our special day!
My brother sent me an email about job titles for moms:
A woman, renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk ’s office,
Was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
‘What I mean is, ‘ explained the recorder,
‘do you have a job or are you just a …?’
‘Of course I have a job,’ snapped the woman. ’I'm a Mom.’
‘We don’t list ‘Mom’ as an occupation,
‘housewife’ covers it,’ Said the recorder emphatically.
I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself
In the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall.
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised,
Efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like,
‘Official Interrogator’ or ‘Town Registrar.’
‘What is your occupation?’ she probed.
What made me say it? I do not know.
The words simply popped out.
‘I’m a Research Associate in the field of
Child Development and Human Relations.’
The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and
Looked up as though she had not heard right.
I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words..
Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written,
In bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
‘Might I ask,’ said the clerk with new interest,
‘just what you do in your field?’
Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice,
I heard myself reply,
‘I have a continuing program of research,
(what mother doesn’t)
In the laboratory and in the field,
(normally I would have said indoors and out).
I’m working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family)
And already have four credits (all daughters)
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities,
(any mother care to disagree?)
And I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it).
But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers
And the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.’
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she
Completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career,
I was greeted by my lab assistants — ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model,
(a 6 month old baby) in the child development program,
Testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy!
And I had gone on the official records as someone more
Distinguished and indispensable to mankind than ‘just another Mom.’
Motherhood!
What a glorious career!
Especially when there’s a title on the door.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
A recent Gallup Poll, called the Healthways Well-Being Index, has rated Boulder, Colorado, the #1 healthiest and happiest city in the country. It was based on an analysis of 353,000 Americans in 2009. The interviewers asked individuals to assess their jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state and communities.
Having just visited my daughter, Grace Boyle, who lives in Boulder, I was not surprised. The restaurants are excellent, the town is surrounded by boulders, mountains, and forests with Boulder Creek flowing through the center of the town. Boulder is surrounded by a wonderful greenbelt with 120 miles of trails and there are 9 bookstores between 9th and 18th streets. Does reading books make us happier? I’m pretty happy when I spend time in bookstores!
I think the 300 days of sunshine per year in Boulder contributes to feeling happy. In Iowa, I think we have almost 300 days of gray skies. Okay, this isn’t official data but it seems true. I think the sunshine alone adds to their happiness level as I’ve written about in many posts about how 20 minutes/day of skin exposure to sunshine is needed to manufacture Vitamin D in our bodies.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Happy and Healthy Heart
In 1995 researchers started following 1,739 healthy adults living in Nova Scotia, Canada, for 10 years to determine whether attitudes affected their health.
Known heart disease risk factors were calculated, and still researchers found that the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease over the 10 years of follow-up than people who were in the middle of the negative-positive emotion scale. This study involved 14,916 person-years of observation.
People with the most negative emotions had the highest risk for heart disease and people who scored highest for happiness had the lowest risk.
On a NONscientific note, when we’re happy, we tend to use expressions describing our heart–such as ‘my heart is full of love’, ‘I’m open-hearted’, or she’s a ‘big-hearted’ person, or my ‘heart is overflowing’. It makes sense to me that the heart is closely linked to happiness.
The researchers are theorizing that if they could make people happier (‘increase positive affect‘), they could decrease cardiac risk in a larger part of the population. My personal experience over 18 years of helping people to be happier, shows that when we decrease the number of limiting beliefs we live by, we are free of the pain they create in our lives. The result is that we feel happier …and often healthier.
Additional research is needed, to prove (not just to suggest) that heart disease prevention may be helped by experiencing positive feelings as well as reducing symptoms of depression. The findings also do not prove that happiness protects the heart. This will require rigorous clinical trials. I don’t usually wait for scientists to tell me what I already suspect is true! One way that happiness may protect the heart is because many happy people eat and sleep better.
Do you have a healthy heart because you have more positive emotions? What do you think?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
VITAMIN D, the SUNSHINE VITAMIN: It’s that time of year in the northern hemisphere when there is cloud cover about 70% of the time, and many people begin to feel dreary.
I started taking 5000 international units of vitamin D3 every day exactly one year ago in January 2009. I wrote the first of 4 posts about the amazing healing properties of Vitamin D3. My main purpose was to offset this feeling of gloom that I feel in the depth of winter.
After only one week, my mind became clearer and that clarity has lasted. I didn’t expect that result, nor did I figure I’d notice any changes that quickly. It was as though a light had been turned on. (more…)
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
A very simple way to be happy is to join a group of like-minded people. If you are a member of a church, it’s usually easy to find fellowship. If not, you may have to search for the group that you feel a kinship with. You could join Rotary Club in your town–a group comprised of people from all walks of life whose purpose is to support each other, and give service to the community. If you’d like to build self-esteem and meet interesting people, join Toastmasters International, a club that teaches you to how to lead and speak more confidently.
Or if you like to dance or ride bicycles, join a dance class or bike club. I have fun with my walking group, becausee we walk several miles together while engaged in great conversation, and then share light food and chat afterward. There are people who get together to write, cook, knit, discuss investments, or read books. (more…)
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Welcome back to my blogs! I thought it was time to change and usher in the new year with a brand new name and address for my original ‘The Happiness Zone’ blog that I started in January 2007, now called Be Happy Life Coach.
I’m celebrating change and invite you to do the same in your life. As Johann Goethe wisely stated, ”We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden…”
So here’s my Top 10 Ways to Be Happy in 2010. I’d love to hear your top 10 of anything too…10 for 2010
1. Walk 10, 000 steps (5 miles) every week. Don’t worry that 10,000 steps are recommended every day. If I wait for that goal to be met, I won’t even try. I can always change the words, “every week” to “every day” later on. It is zero degrees in Iowa right now, so the treadmill is my friend, sort of.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
My hiatus from writing on this blog was only due to the fact that I was IN THE HAPPINESS ZONE IN ITALY FOR A MONTH. You can read more about me fulfilling my dream in my Italy Retreat Blog.
Lenora’s Three Ways to Handle Disappointments and Expectations
1.) Look at the things you like. For Italy, I romanticize its values as though it’s a utopia. I don’t complain about the government, nor the high unemployment, or how many people make up answers, or their relaxed work ethic. It’s hard to get anything done there. Because their primary goal is to enjoy life, this makes it difficult to get things done in a hurry.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
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