Thrive!

Color Essence Coach Kailash Sozzani tells you how to say YES! to your life

New podcast up on Red Hot Living!

Color Essence™ and Life Coach Kailash Sozzani joins The Red Hot Mama for a fun, relaxed conversation on saying YES! to your life.

Do you ever feel stuck? Kailash inspired me with her approach to life and her example of refusing to be stuck.

She was a 20 year old mother of two who hadn’t even graduated from high school when she had the courage to say YES! to herself and to being happy in her life. By saying YES! to her life over and over, Kailash has had an interesting, full life.

Now she helps clients say YES! to living their full passion and purpose through her Color Essence™ Coaching.

Did you know that what we wear can have a profound effect on our thinking, our courage, and our self-image?

As you listen to this podcast, think about how saying YES! to yourself and your happiness, your love and joy can ripple out and contribute to the happiness of those around you.

You can read more about Kailash at www.kailashsozzani.com . 

Traveling Route 66!

I have wanted to take this trip for years, so when I heard my friend Pat Behnke was taking the trip this summer, I knew I wanted to interview her for my podcast, Off The Beaten Path.

It was so much fun that I invite you to share the fun on the podcast with Patricia and her friend Joy Glanzer as they share their thoughts and experiences of their trip this summer.  They’ll fill you in on:
·    the highlights along the way
·    Joy’s special send-off for her father (This gives an added dimension to a multi-generational trip!)
·    traveling with their daughters
·    why you might want to plan your next trip (They’re thinking A1A from Florida to Maine and then    Africa.)
·    their magic, life changing experiences
·    and more

As Joy says:  “Everybody needs to do this.  You just need to take off and get away from your life for awhile.”

When you do, magic happens!

So join us for a half hour of magic.   And then start planning your next trip to wherever your heart calls you.  I'm adding a Route 66 trip to my list of 101 Goals (along with going up The Amazon, Tuscany, rafting through the Grand Canyon, hang gliding in the Outer Banks, hiking the Rockies...)

What is your dream trip?  Let me know by going to www.TheRedHotMama.com and leaving a comment.

Want more?

Pat is a writer, so grab a cup or something and settle back as you read along: http://www.seniortimesmagazine.com/travel/238 and http://www.seniortimesmagazine.com/from-the-editor/276 or follow their journey in more detail on Pat’s blog at http://writesuccess.blogspot.com/

And for more Off The Beaten Path podcasts, visit BoomerYak. 

What's Age Got to Do with It?

Do you ever catch yourself thinking you are limited because of age?  Do you ever slip up and use the word "old" in reference to yourself?

Then you will take heart with these three recent examples of agelessness!  Their whole beings lit up with excitement and passion:

• Michael Gerber (author of The E-Myth), at 68, started a new business to improve upon and complete the work he started with E-Myth.

• Art Linkletter, 95, entertained the audience for an hour and a half, without notes, at Harv Eker's recent Seminar of the Century.  He is involved in several projects, including huge solar projects in Nevada and Spain.

• A woman I met recently is excited about "retiring".  Her face lit up as she talked about doing it the baby boomer way - buying property for a couple of new, service oriented projects and the related classes she and her husband will offer.

So if you're using age as an excuse (or anything else, for that matter), let these people inspire you.  Age is only a better reason to do what you have been longing to do!  Instead of "old" think "I can make a difference - and have a lot of fun doing it!"

Calling All Golfers!

I was going to sell my golf clubs.

I had tried playing golf years ago.  Honest, I did.  Golf has so much potential:  being outside in beautiful Florida sunshine and natural beauty, good company, and it looks so easy!  It is the perfect game for business building or just for fun, fresh air and sunshine!

I’ve never been athletically coordinated, but I took lessons and practiced some.  Then I got fibromyalgia and it hurt to swing the clubs.  I started working full time, moved, got a divorce, started my own business, and somehow I never got back to it. 

My golf clubs have been sitting in the garage collecting dust.  (I’m embarrassed to tell you how long it’s been, but there were disposable diapers in my bag from when I took my daughter along, and she’s now a sophomore in college.)

Now, after meeting Martha Sue Yeary, founder of B.I.O.N.I.C. Golf, I may take up the game again.

I met Martha Sue back in May 2006 and immediately liked her for her positive attitude and down-to-earth manner.  Now that I’ve had the chance to interview her, I’m even more impressed with what she’s accomplished in golf and how she could improve even my game!

Martha Sue has had great results working with stroke victims and people with other physical disabilities.  And then there’s the larger group that I fall into – the “mental chatter, I’m not athletic” group.  She can help us, too!

So if you would like to learn more about how you can improve your golf score, listen to this podcast as I interview Martha Sue and get some golfing insights.  You’ll find the interview at BoomerYak.com . 

You might just get inspired!  As for me, I am going to keep my golf clubs after all.

Announcing my new Podcast

“Off the Beaten Path”

I love exploring!  And as I have interviewed other baby boomers, many of them also love the thrill of discovery that comes from exploring out of the way places, meeting different people and learning new things.  The idea of doing a podcast has been rolling around in my head for a long time as a way to help others by having fun and talking to interesting people, but I felt fenced in trying to narrow it down to just one topic. 

So here is “Off the Beaten Path”, the podcast for baby boomers who are interested in exploring a variety of ideas, meeting different people and finding out the story behind the story.  You can find out more and listen to it as part of a new and exciting new podcast company.  It will also run on Yaktivate channels of Energy of the Spirit and Lifestyle Yak .  With all those, it should be easy to find!

Our first shows will feature:
·    Frank Cotolo – personality, creative genius, entertainer, former writer for Wolfman Jack...and the list goes on and on 
·    Marth Sue Yeary, The Most Dangerous Woman in Golf – and her B.I.O.N.I.C.Golf program
·    Angela Treat Lyon – who breathes creativity and shares her insights on living creatively
·    Jerry Cameron of LEAP – with an interesting discussion of how we are losing the war on drugs, how much it is costing and convincing parallels with the 1920’s and lifting prohibition
·    Don Kirchner – author of “A Matter of Time”, which is in the movie pre-production phase and is being referred to as the next Shawshank Redemption.

You can subscribe to this blog, or be sure to visit often, to keep up with these and future podcasts.

And, let me know what you’d like to hear!  Just leave a comment below, or email me.

Your Red Hot Mama™ Guide to Gratitude

You’ve seen it on Oprah, read about it, and hopefully you practice it…  I’m talking about the practice of counting your gratitudes. 

As a matter of fact, this is so powerful that I have my coaching clients practice it daily and it is one of the steps in my book  “Thinking Yourself Young!”

But sometimes we get in a rut.  I was shocked recently when a couple of members in my teleclass couldn’t name 5 things to be grateful for.  Can’t you come up with 5 things before breakfast?

Quite frankly, I had gotten in a rut, too.  I was counting my gratitudes, but not with pizzazz, and my life was feeling flat.  The results were kind of lukewarm.

Would you like to find out what has turned things around for me?  Here goes…

Red Hot Mama™ key #1 to passionate gratitudes:  Become aware.  It’s hard to be grateful when you don’t notice life.  This week I deliberately took the scenic route home from a meeting.  I was a good 5 or 10 minutes down the road before I realized I wasn’t seeing anything because I was paying attention to the chatter in my head.  Yikes! 

I spent the rest of the drive noticing the giant moss-draped live oak trees overhanging the road and the glimpses of the river, sunlight dancing off its surface.  And I breathed in this mantra to keep me focused:  "I am allowing, I am appreciating.  Allowing.  Appreciating."

I came home vibrating joyfully.

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

#2.  Write down your gratitudes.  Why?  Because if you don’t, you might not count them.  And, if your mind is like mine, it jumps off track.  Writing your gratitudes helps keep you focused and brings more of your total being to it.  Write at least 5 to 10 gratitudes a day.

#3.  Get out of your head. We tend to live in our heads, but the truth is You are a whole person.  Use all of your senses to bring life to your gratitudes.

Have you ever noticed you can say or write something and it’s nice, but sometimes just lukewarm?  So, as you read your gratitudes out loud, FEELthem.   Get excited!  Be enthusiastic!  Feel passionate that you are so richly blessed!  Let yourself enjoy them all over again!  Now you’re getting Red Hot!

Besides feeling good, you will also be on track for creating more gratitudes.  This little experiment opened new doors for me – new clients and new opportunities.  Wow!

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” Lionel Hampton

Are you ready to try this Red Hot Mama™ gratitude experiment for yourself?

As you write your gratitudes, say them out loud.  Then, focus on your heart and feel the joy, enthusiasm, gratitude and love radiating out.  Indulge your senses.  Smell the scents, see the colors, feel the joy, savor the touch, feel your mouth watering… Ahh, this is what it is to be alive!

Will you share your experience by posting a comment?  Let us know how this little experiment affects your life!

"Give me the beat..."

This isn’t your grandparents’ “golden years”!  Or your parent’s.

As Baby Boomers, we are transforming what life after 50 means. 
We are dancing to our own beat – at least when we can figure
out what the beat it as we blaze new trails into this time of our life.

Most days, if I stop and think about it, I am in shock that I’m in
my 50s (and not for that much longer, either.  It makes me gasp!). 
So I’m always looking for good mentors – trail blazers - for this
part of my life. 

Here are a few people I talked with this week (mentors – or not!):

Dream Bold Part 1

Do you ever get writer's block?  You know, you have all these beautiful, creative, juicy ideas in your mind and as soon as you pick up your pen, they all dry up and your mind goes blank. I've been noticing lately that some people seem to have Dreamer's block.  Sometimes those creative, delightful, inspiring, juicy, exhilarating Dreams of youth dry up in the face of life's obligations and "have to's" and we start doubting ourselves and think that "they" were right and this world is not a place for Dreamers. And so we've spent too many years trying to force our big, bold, beautiful rainbow-colored Dreams into tiny, hard, drab boxes of practicality.  And sometimes we forget that what the world needs is more rainbows, more greatness, more boldness and enthusiasm and passion and laughter... and fewer (far, far fewer) little tiny dark boxes.

Dream it Now!

It is never too late to live your Dreams!  Dream it now!  Join me for Dream Integrity Day June 2 from 10:00 to noon.  Email me at coach@thrivingafter50.com for details and to ask any questions.

Oasis or Chaos?

Oasis or Chaos?  What do you have in your life?

Imagine, in the midst of a BUSY week, having a couple of hours to relax to the outdoor sounds of a fountain in the lily pond, night noises of frogs and crickets, starts coming out as the sunset fades, a gentle breeze blowing, and quiet conversation punctuated by silence to enjoy the night sounds.

Deborah Boland gave us some wonderful ideas in this call on how to make your own yard into an Oasis for your relaxation, recreation or entertainment.

Until I get the audio uploaded,  you might want to check these out for more information:

www.backyardpleasures.com (This is Deborah’s website, and it will be live on or before August 1.)

Lynn

www.ThrivingAfter50.com