Laughter Yoga

Can forcing yourself to laugh reduce your stress level?  Yes.  Help strengthen the bonds of friendship?  Yes.  Make you feel a little silly about yourself?  Yes. Yes. Yes.

In 1995 a doctor in India developed a technique to get people laughing, just about nothing at all.  The positive experience was contagious, and now it is practiced in 60 countries across the globe. 

Laughter Yoga has been effectively used in team building, community groups, educational and health settings.  Basically, all that's needed is about 4 people with open minds who don't take themselves too seriously.  Check out this site to learn more:  www.ctlaugh.com.  Lets all lighten up!

Reinvention Evangelist

Jane Pauley is a terrific role model for aging, successful women.  Despite her awards and success in broadcasting, she faced a lot of questions about what I call the 'Zenith Years.'  She asked herself:  What am I going to do with the rest of my life?  Answer?  Build on her strengths, but in a fresh format.  

Your Life Calling with Jane Pauley is a collaboration with the Today Show and AARP.  Through interviewing people who have crafted new beginnings at 50+, she knows she will learn and help others learn.  She has already observed that often 'what seems like a new idea goes way back.'  Jane urges us to keep our eyes open, and we could just end up where we were always meant to be.

Women's Work, Revisited

40+ years of fighting for work equality has a new, two-headed opponent.  Susan J. Lambert, in her NYT article, "When Flexibility Hurts" (9/20/12) makes a strong case that the drive for productivity hurts women at the top, and at the bottom.  Professional women in jobs exempt from overtime pay are overworked, while those in 'pink collar' hourly jobs (waitress, retail sales) are subject to fluctuating schedules that make every payday different.

My own experience supports her arguments.  In my last job as a top HR person, I often wished there were two of me.  I drove between facilities and ran between meetings during the day, and 'after hours' my blackberry buzzed into the wee hours.  It consumed me.  On the other hand, working as a bartender while pursuing other dreams, my daughter sometimes gets to work only to find there are too many people behind the bar, and one needs to leave.

As a compensation professional, I believe I evaluate jobs fairly, without discriminating against women.  But as women still strive to tend the home fires while bringing in the bacon, we are vulnerable to jobs that offer flexibility but don't deliver a dependable wage.  Or, following the male model, require excessive "face" time in the office and keep us tied to our smart phones.

Susan Lambert suggests a change in labor laws, recognizing this is not the likely economic climate for that to happen.  For sure, our 24/7, stagnant economy is creating unique hardships for working women.

Slip Away

Multi-tasking is getting a bad name.  In "The Busy Trap" NYT columnist Tim Kreider asks if being busy has become an addiction:  By over-booking our calendars, are we avoiding self-reflection?  His warning about failing to nurture relationships is echoed in Phil Vassar's current tune "Don't Miss Your Life."  The song's dilemma of a traveling father is not new, but it seems more relevant than ever.

As a woman can now become a CEO while she is pregnant, multi-tasking has reached Olympian heights.  Women are less likely to put their families on the back burner than men are, but at their own peril.   While we are busy running the universe and scheduling the household, we leave ourselves behind.

In Women Who Run With the Wolves Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes urges us to slip our collars and reclaim our inner knowingness.  An inability to pace ourselves becomes life-sapping:  How can we keep our soulfulness?  One way is to find a pack of creative comrades.

One pack I belong to is a loosely-knit cluster of working women.  A handful of us have pondered Dr. Estes' messages in virtual discussions, interspersed with nourishing face-time.  In a secure location we've crafted primitive art that pulls our dreams through the din of domestication and the demands of professional life.  Invariably, one of us has to cancel; the rest of us nod, and keep going.

Find a pack -- find three hours.  Feed your soul.

Magic Pocket Shrines

 

Five women age 55+ captured their dreams in magic pocket shrines at The Secret Garden.  Never too old to dream and to play.  See entry below.