This past weekend, an historic event took place at the Augusta National Golf Club...and I am not talking about the annual Masters Tournament. The very 1st ever women’s event took place there - the Inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship. The event was established to increase the interest and participation in women’s golf and to inspire younger female golfers to take up the sport. The winner of the tournament was Jennifer Kupcho, the world's top-ranked amateur, who is a 21 year old senior at Wake Forest College. Everyone is talking about how well Jennifer golfed, particularly the fact that she played her final six holes in five under par, including an eagle on the par-five 13th hole and birdies on the 15th, 16th and 18th holes.   As impressive as those playing statistics are, what blew me away was when I found out that during the tournament, Jennifer was suffering from such a severe migraine headache that her vision was completely blurred and she could not see her own golf ball! In a recent interview, when Jennifer was asked how she could have played golf so well with impaired vision, she said that it was possible because she frequently practiced with her eyes closed. I find this astounding! I should not be surprised by this concept....after all, I remember when decades ago Michael Jordan famously shot a free throw with his eyes closed and my high school typing teacher blindfolded us so we would be forced to memorize the key positions. Additionally, my eldest son regularly plays the piano with his eyes closed and I often encourage my Qi Gong students to “go with the flow” by shutting their eyes as we practice the movements. The part I never contemplated about this “eyes closed” practice was just how helpful this technique can be to your brain. Closing your eyes prompts your brain to engage in a higher degree of activity since you are forced to use your other senses and pay more attention to what you are doing instead of relying on your eyesight to do the job for you.   What if we tried this technique with other aspects of our lives? Read More

It’s not what you expect to hear from a Health Coach: “Put down the Pedometer!” I want you to strip that device off of your ankle, remove it from the clip on your belt, and stop looking at the rings on your fancy watch. My advice to you today, as startling as it may sound, is to take a pass on the pedometer. This is because I have something else in mind for you...and it has to do with the beautiful country of my ancestry...the one shaped like a boot...yes, I am talking about none other than Italy. There is a daily tradition that is part of the culture in Italy that is known as “La Passeggiata"...which is a beautiful way to say “the evening stroll”. The name originates from the verb passeggiare, which means ‘to walk’. La Passeggiata is a ritual that Italians, and tourists visiting Italy, take the time to enjoy nearly every day – relaxing and walking through the pedestrian streets. The walk, which may be short and is taken purely for pleasure, typically happens between the hours of 5-8 pm, after meals. This daily walking ritual, which originated in the south but is now happening all over Italy, may involve a variety of things - window shopping, chatting with friends, “taking a coffee”, sightseeing, admiring great works of art, or stopping for a gelato or an aperitivo. The one thing missing is that no one is counting the number of steps that are taken! This cultural phenomenon is so special that it is not uncommon to see entire families walking together. Now that’s my idea of “FaceTime”! Read More

It’s a phrase you hear often....expect the unexpected. What images are conjured up when you hear those three words? I think of preparing for a sudden storm, a power outage, a significantly delayed flight, or a surprising election result. I also think about something my Grandmother and Mother often said to my sisters and me, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Most of us were raised with a similar mindset...that we should ‘always be prepared’ because life will certainly deliver the unexpected.   What happens when YOU are the UNEXPECTED? I bet there have been times in your life when you did something that was different than what was expected from you and you surprised your loved ones. If that is the case, then you and the famous singer Taylor Swift have something in common. The iHeartRadio Music Awards were presented last week and Taylor Swift received the award for “Tour of the Year”. The award came as a shock to many, particularly Taylor’s critics, who had predicted that her recent musical tour would fail. In Taylor’s own words: “I think one of the most wonderful things about the way this whole tour turned out, is that for the entire six months leading up to the tour, every headline I read about it was that this is going to be a massive failure — this is going to be a flop tour...and that I was going to be playing to nearly empty stadiums. I've learned a lot, and one of the things I've learned is that life is really unpredictable, and people can make forecasts and make predictions, but those predictions and forecasts may not come true.” Taylor’s tour was actually the highest grossing United States music tour ever! Talk about the unexpected!   Have you ever done something that was unexpected? Did you take a job in another field? Asked for a raise or promotion? Started a new workout routine? Traveled to someplace exotic? Joined a new club? Whatever your unexpected accomplishment was, perhaps you surprised yourself as much as you surprised your friends and family. Read More

This week is National Sleep Awareness Week which makes for interesting timing since many of us are still trying to find the hour of sleep we lost when Daylight Saving Time kicked in on Sunday morning. There has been no shortage of tips in the news this past week to help us build better sleep habits. I even recently taught a class on how to use Qi Gong to get a great night’s sleep, complete with a list of my top twenty suggestions for improving the quality and quantity of your sleep.   One of the recommendations that you often hear from sleep scientists is that you should never, ever press the SNOOZE button on your alarm clock or iPhone. You are setting yourself up for failure by starting your day negotiating for a few more minutes instead of hitting the ground running.   I have wanted to write a blog for awhile now about my “Three S’s Approach to Achieving Your Goals”. When I repeatedly heard the word snooze mentioned this week, it reminded me that I never shared the “Three S’s” with you....until now.   My Three S’s for Success are: SYSTEM, SCHEDULE and (DON’T) SNOOZE. Read More

Tyler Perry, who is a famous producer, director, actor, author and playwright, has been extremely busy recently making the rounds on the talk show circuit. His popular “Madea” movie franchise is coming to an end so he has been heavily promoting the film. When someone makes the Forbes list as the highest paid entertainer for two years in a row, it is easy to forget how far that person has come. Perry has been open about his humble beginnings and the fact that he was once so broke that he was homeless and forced to live in his car for six years. Times were so tough for Perry that the car (along with all of his possessions which were in it) was repossessed. That car was a blue 1992 Geo Metro and one just like it is now permanently parked in front of the 220,000 square foot production studio in Atlanta, Georgia that Tyler Perry owns and operates. The Geo serves as a daily reminder that his dream now overshadows his former nightmare. Tyler has challenged us to each go back in our lives and find something that didn’t work out and place it near all the things that did. I accept the challenge and I am inviting you to join me. Read More

I recently overheard my oldest son saying to my husband, “Hey, you left me on unread today!” At first, I did not know what he was talking about. Did it have something to do with Red vs Blue States? Had my husband gotten my son angry and “red” over something? I soon found out that “left on unread” is how the younger generation refers to the various forms of communication (emails, texts, direct messages) that haven’t been opened...also known as left “unread”. The assumption becomes that the recipient does not care about you because they have not even bothered to open your message. Apparently, my husband had (unintentionally) not opened the email that our son had sent him earlier in the day. What I like about this story is that my son let his father know how he felt about that. Like the lyrics of the popular John Mayer song...."say what you need to say.” Read More

I could listen to Frank Sinatra music all day, every day. There is just something about the melodic sounds of his voice and the compelling lyrics that warms my heart and always lifts my mood. As soon as I hear his voice, I am immediately brought back to my childhood home and the aromatic smells of Italian “gravy” cooking on the stovetop and my parents and grandparents singing along with the stereo. I am grateful that my own children inherited my love for the Chairman of the Board. All these years, I had no idea how Frank got his famous “Chairman” nickname. It was easy to figure out why people referred to him as “‘Ol Blue Eyes”. I assumed that he became known as the Chairman of the Board because he was always “in charge”. What I did not know was that Frances Albert Sinatra actually held the position of the Chairman of the Board. In 1960, he started his own record label - Reprise Records - and quickly became the company’s President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Frank started the company as a vehicle for his own recordings and those of his best friends (and members of the legendary “Rat Pack”) Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.  There are many reasons why people are motivated to start their own company. It seems like it is the logical path to take if you are frustrated with the service (or lack thereof) that you are receiving. Can’t get your book published? Self-publish it! Hate the local restaurants? Open up one of your own. Can’t get your music recorded? Create your own record company. Not only will you seize control of your destiny, you will no longer have to deal with an unreasonable boss. Read More