…by Julie Clark Robinson “Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”  -Langston Hughes Yesterday, I was strangely excited. The sky stayed dark all day and my battered wind chimes worked overtime. “Clang, clang….the weatherman wants to tell you something…” I stopped working for a minute and let my senses drink it in. “Clang, clang…get off your ass and turn on the TV”. After months of frosty air, I cracked open my office window and felt actual warmth seeping in. “Clang, thump! Rumble, rumble,... Read More

…by Prill Boyle Many women love Valentine\’s Day. Not me. I\’m not inspired by Hallmark cards. Nor do I care for forced romantic gestures. (If you want to make my heart go pitter-patter, surprise with me flowers when it\’s not a special day.) But having just finished Doris Kearns Goodwin\’s monumental biography of Lincoln, I am newly inspired by our 16th President, whose birthday is February 12th. Anyone in the throes of a life change would do well to follow his example. Here\’s why. During the most turbulent times this nation has yet encountered, the Civil War,... Read More

…by Julie Clark Robinson “Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens.”  -Frank Herbert. A person expects it to some degree, whether they are aware of it or not. You squeeze through the aisle — trying not to bonk anyone in the head with your carry-on –mumble words of appreciation to the flight attendants, and step down the ramp into another city\’s version of an airport. Change is literally in the air, albeit institutional and somewhat stuffy. You pick up your pace and follow the overhead signs to your final destination. But when the month is March and... Read More

…by Suzanne Falter-Barnes Five years ago a psychic in Key West, FL told me something I\’m only just now beginning to understand. As I sat there in front of her, in a darkened room all full of incense, she intoned: “You\’ll have the success you want, Suzanne… but only when you open your heart.” I wasn\’t sure what this meant, exactly, but I did what any good self-help devotee would do. I set out to crack the code on what ‘opening your heart\’ meant. My first stop was the aromatherapy store, where I spent a good hour sniffing this and that until I\’d... Read More

…by Julie Clark Robinson “Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.”  -Margaret Fuller It\’s the inner voice that\’s going to do me in. Not the trans fats. Not talking on my cell while driving. Not the pesticides on my beloved cherry tomatoes. It\’ll be the inner voice. For instance, I am a fairly productive person and I realize that I deserve a break here and there. In fact, I wrote the book on it, so to speak. The message of my radio interviews, speaking engagements and book (Live in the Moment) is one and the same: to help people learn how to cut themselves... Read More

…by Suzanne Falter-Barnes Want your ezine list to catch fire and really start to fill up? Jenna Glatzer took her own list from the hundreds all the way to 75,000 in 7 years by simple, steady marketing, and using many of these techniques. (Jenna bought only 4000 opt-in names along the way.) Here are some tips we provided, and some I\’ve pulled from my own experience, building my list for The Joy Letter to 17,000 over five years. 1. Free Stuff. Pick genuinely useful free stuff that you know your audience wants and needs. For instance, my brand new ezine, Expert Status, attracted 600 readers... Read More

In this SERIES of monthly COLUMNS Dr. Stephen will help you: • Finding out more about your depressed mood • Naming that tune: A description of depressive and mood disorders • Change your depressed mood through action • Decide if you need medication SPECIAL NOTE: Dr. Stephen has added a DAILY SUPPORT feature to her Doctor Flamingo Online website. Visitors to the website can fill out a simple form about their goals for the next day around food plans, exercise, limit setting, and new behaviors. Submissions sent by 7:00 P.M. (PST) will receive a next day response... Read More

…by Prill BoyleHave you ever sabotaged a dream? Most of us at some point have dismissed an inspired idea without taking a single step towards its fulfillment. We might glance back from time to time, but we convince ourselves that our dream is neither realistic nor achievable. Don\’t be so sure. Let me give you an example. Like many young mothers in the mid-1970\’s, Carol made her own baby food from natural ingredients. She puréed batches of fresh fruits and vegetables and froze them in ice cube trays to thaw at some later point. One day a light bulb went off in her head. She... Read More

…by Julie Clark Robinson “The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.”  -Sebastian R. N. Chamfort I\’m not even finished wrapping presents and I find myself thinking about New Year\’s Eve. Not necessarily what I\’ll do – being married with two children seems to solve that problem for a person – but more annoyingly, what will I resolve to change in 2006? I could put a couple years\’ worth of photos and home videos in order. I could drag my kids around to every soccer, piano, dance and martial arts class I can find. But, let\’s face... Read More

…by Suzanne Falter-Barnes A few years back, I had the great fortune to spend the day at the Vermont recording studio of a jazz musician named Chuck Eller. Chuck recorded my Discover Your Soul Purpose meditation CD, and offered to provide some background piano music as well. From the beginning, I knew the meditations needed some kind of scoring, but exactly what and how eluded me. There are no entries in the phone book for “Composer – Mystical, Healing, Background Stuff”. Furthermore, I had no idea how I was going to \’direct\’ such a musician. (“More... Read More