Healthy Joyful Living Newsletter August 2009
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Living in the Moment
Welcome to our LIVING IN THE MOMENT corner.
A major shift to living healthy and with joy is to live in the present moment. EASIER SAID THAN DONE!!! Living in the present brings total joy and at the same time is extremely difficult. One minute you have it and then it is gone. Our mind wanders and our thoughts move away from the NOW to the past or the future.
Over the past couple of years we have been purposefully practicing living in the NOW with some gains and many setbacks. What we have learned is the more we push, force, and persist the more resistance we get, small or big.
Living in the Moment Practice: Go HUG someone for 5 seconds (not just a quick pat) -- hello, goodbye, or just because and tell them how glad you are to see them.
Creating the Lifestyle You Want!
For many of us we are being pushed (voluntarily or involuntarily) to rethink how we want to live the next phase of our life. It may be that you have to live on less and less, that you have been laid off or work is hard to come by. You may be dealing with aging parents and children simultaneously while making ends meet. You may be just tired, bored, and ready for the next transition or anxious about yours (or your spouses) retirement.
These transitions we go through in life are a natural part of moving from one life phase to another. The problem is, no one told us we were going to go through these transitions and no one gave us a guidebook to follow. That leaves us floundering-- wondering why we can't figure it out all by ourselves quickly and easily.
The good news is that there are a variety of tools and resources available to help you (and your partner perhaps) to design the next phase of your life so that it revolves around being healthy and joyful in all parts of your life. Each time you go through a life transition you have a wonderful opportunity (as hard as it might be) to redesign your life to be a quality life worth living.
Tip of the Month:
Notice what you are yearning to do more of. Keep a notebook and as it comes up, jot it down. Every time you read the newspaper or look at a new blog, does an idea, an article, or a description of what someone is doing jump out at you? After a week notice if there are some common themes. Continue to do this for a month and see if you can pinpoint something that is pulling you.
Life and Entrepreneurial Coaching
Healthy - Joyful Eating
Taking time for a long, luxurious lunch (nothing fancy) and realize the difference.
Excerpt from upcoming book:
From Rat Race to Change of Pace
"I just want a quick salad," Jean said.
"Me, too," I responded, encouraging the waitress to come to our table so we could place our order.
"J' arrive (I will be with you soon)," she called out to us as she casually conversed with some other diners.
Trying to settle down, I yelled out to her, "We're in a hurry." "No, you cannot eat fast. Please, you must eat your lunch slowly. What else do you have to do that can be more important than eating?" the waitress lectured us sternly.
She continued, "Please, you must take your time and enjoy your lunch. That is why you are eating, right, for pleasure, no? It is very important. Otherwise you have no life, c'est vrai (it's true), oui (yes)?"
We laughed, as the mirror had been held up to us. We came to France to embrace a simpler life, to rejuvenate and reinvent ourselves, and all we were doing was working even harder and feeling anxious about taking a long lunch. We were still being our obsessive-compulsive selves, living on American work ethic time and taking ourselves so seriously. We had been so conditioned to do, go, do more, and accomplish, that we did not know how to just be any more and simply enjoy the process of life. But the time had come, and we were willing to let go of the old ways and try to change. Ce n'est pas grave, as she said. The wallpaper and painting will just have to wait, because lunch is the priority.
We had been well trained to stuff our lunch down in five minutes at our desks. Looking around at the six little tables set with tablecloths, polished glasses, and shining silverware, situated on the sidewalk under the large poplar trees, we saw no one in a rush but us. Lunch was meant to be a two-hour affair, where you could visit and share and discuss. What could be more important than this life-enhancing ritual?
Customers were enjoying wine with lunch, and no one seemed to be in a hurry. Clinking our glasses of rosé in a high toast, we proposed that all of our lunches would be long and luxurious. Let's taste our food and discuss our deepest thoughts; the world can wait. At a minimum, we were trying our utmost to find a balanced way of living.
A Treat
Treat yourself this week and take a longer lunch, or for starters just take lunch. Get away from your desk. Take time to eat, to talk, to rejuvenate. After all it is the lunch hour.
San Francisco Examiner Online Column
on Entrepreneurial Lifestyle for weekly tips, ideas, and thoughts on Creating the Life you Want as an Entrepreneur.
Thank you and please forward this email to friends, colleagues, and those who are looking for a healthy, joyful life!
Email us at Suzanne@saxe-roux.com with your questions or comments and check out the website at www.healthyjoyfulliving.com |
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About Dr. Suzanne
From corporate executive to business owner to lifestyle creator and lover of travel, Suzanne moves people to develop, grow, and create the life they want.
Co-author of The Consultative Approach, Partnering for Results! and upcoming book From Rat Race to Change of Pace co -written by Jean-Pierre Roux, Ph.D.
Check out Building Bridges from Writers to Readers 2009 SF Writer’s Conference Anthology. Dr. Suzanne is a contributor!
Healthy Joyful Living Blog
Visit Dr. Suzanne's Blog for ideas, tips, and thoughts on Living a Balanced Life and finding Joie de Vivre.
Read Dr. Suzanne’s column in the SF Examiner Online on Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
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