Team members recall how they first met Ana, and why they are still part of the Co-Op Web family.

I met Ana in the winter of 2003, when she rescued me during a nervous breakdown in the desert. It’s a testament to her compassion that she patiently handled a neurotic Easterner clinging to the ceiling like Claude Cat at shadows, thinking they were scorpions. My favorite memories of living in Tucson (which I loved) were the cafe meetings, hearing about the latest client.

In the last fifteen years, Ana’s been consistently upbeat, professional, and always seeking out new challenges. What I’ve learned about her in that time: she conducts business with integrity, and nurtures relationships by having character. Very rare in any industry.

It’s been an honor and a true pleasure! I hope it continues for another fifteen!

Ursula Osteen, Designer/Illustrator/Programmer

I met Ana several years ago and she was kind enough to help me out and help me get started. Ana is very driven and wants not only herself to succeed, but her employees and clients as well. She has really embraced the ever-changing technology climate that we work in, in order to succeed.

Nora Canon, Social Media Marketing Assistant Manager

Ana and I met through my mother, who referred Ana to me for Shiatsu treatment in 2003 or 2004. They were neighbors who became fast friends with a lot in common. Mom had been a powerful businesswoman in a male-dominated field in the ‘70s, and could relate to Ana’s familiar next-generation experiences. They also shared a great sense of humor.

Not long after, Ana began utilizing my services as a graphic designer, editor and writer, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with her ever since.

Ana has always been a joy to work with, sharing humor and compassion, and a delight in the flexibility of dancing with the challenges of life, deadlines and last-minute changes. As long as Ana is in business, I will be offering my services to her. I am honored to be a small part of the Co-Op family.

MJ Ali, Editor/Writer

I first met Ana in 2005, shortly after I graduated from college and started working at a marketing firm in Tucson. What I first noticed about Ana was that she seemed willing to do anything it took to make her clients happy. When she was in a tough situation, she would handle it with integrity and always took the high road. The more I worked with Ana over the years, I came to see her as a warm, strong (yet gentle) soul who cares deeply for others while also caring about the mark she makes on her community.

When I lived in Tucson, Ana was someone I most looked forward to seeing at events I knew we’d both be attending (for work or fun–usually a combination of the two). Her warm smiles and sincere hugs always made me feel “seen.” For me, having the chance to work this closely with her feels like an opportunity that was 10+ years in the making… and I’m looking forward to what comes next!

Shannon Franklin, Writer/PR

Congratulations on your 20th Anniversary, Ana, to you and to everyone who has helped make Co-Op Web all that it is today. It’s hard to believe that 12 years have passed since our first awkward phone call after having been introduced long-distance by a mutual friend.

At the time, I was at a fork in the road that was my career. Do I seek a new position in a more familiar industry or do something completely different and follow my heart into the nascent field of web development? I knewthat I didn’t have much time to decide.

At 51 years of age, I was certainly not your typical young web guru, and I’m not sure you really knew what to make of that. I had little experience and didn’t try to pretend otherwise. On top of that, I live in Virginia, which is a world away from Arizona. When we hung up I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you again. But something must have clicked because a week or two later, my phone rang. You needed help on a new website and your regular designers were in the middle of other projects. When we hung up the decision as to which road I would take had been made.

Over the next decade we worked together from a distance, yet as closely as if we were sitting in the same room. Email was our communication medium of choice. With time you became an enduring and very welcome personality in Ann’s and my life. And now, although I’ve chosen yet another path for my last few working years, we both still consider you a friend.

These days I’m hard-pressed to name all the different web projects we worked on together. And although I’ve never been to Tucson, after having built or worked on so many local businesses websites, I feel that I know and awful lot about the restaurants, shopping centers, hair salons, and myriad other businesses that dot the area. And I am proud to have worked on them as part of Co-Op Web. I only hope each of those business owners appreciate how much time, effort, detail, and (dare I say it) love went into making their business websites look and work as well as they do.

So again, congratulations Ana, on successfully steering Co-Op Web through its first 20 years. And thank you, for giving me a chance, for allowing me to work with you for all these years, and for letting me get to know you.

Jim Pietrangelo, Web Programmer

I met Ana not too long ago when she approached me for an internship and the experience that I’ve had here since joining has been unusual and invigorating. Over time I have been introduced to many new ways of writing and researching, as well as addressing public relations through my blog posts. Ana has been incredibly patient and encouraging. It has been a challenge and an honor to work with such dedicated people and learn from their expertise and I’m excited to see where else the internship and the company will take me!

Abigail Edwards, Intern

Thank you, Ana, for 20 years, and here’s to 20 more!

TechTalkRadio.com

Andy Taylor and I had a great time laughing about the internet 20 years ago, when Co-Op Web was born, and getting excited about what’s to come in the future.  Please listen to this very geeky audio interview and laugh along with us.  No worries!  We know you are laughing at us, but we can all pretend it’s with us. 

http://www.techtalkradio.com/interviews/coopweb.html

by Ana Lewis

infinite women
by Ana Lewis

___________________

sharing recipes

across the airwaves

military wives discovered

the heart of the Internet

sired by men

but nurtured by women

the Internet opened

its baby eyes

its first words

were a dial tone

a black screen

white letters

and still, women saw

its vibrant possibilities

young, brilliant men

received the accolades

so young, they couldn’t rent a car

designers of the protocols and architecture

we still use daily

and since the beginning

women fostered its growth

unsung (s)heroes such as:

Ada Lovelace

Grace Hopper

Jaime Levy

learned how to build, utilize

and make useful

what we now regard as

our normal existence

Through:

design

sharing

programming

communicating

uniting

learning

promoting

supporting

community

organizing information

women made and

continue to make their presence felt

and heard

women are now the majority

of social media

women started social media

we can now work from anywhere

we can use our knowledge of technology

to narrow the pay gap

we can now make up 100%

of the Co-Op Web staff

we use the Internet

to communicate daily

we use the Internet to care

for our customers

we use the Internet

to reach out

unafraid,

vulnerable,

to our sisters online

we are building and living

what we want

to communicate:

an inclusive

kind

supportive

borderless

society

there’s room for us all

let’s connect and continue to grow

________________

Special thank you to the women at Co-Op Web, Inc: Ursula Osteen, Nora Canon, MJ Ali, Shannon Franklin, Abigail Edwards and Dena Whitebirch.

Resources:

The Women Who Made The Internet

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-women-who-made-the-internet/

For Women in Tech, Pay Gap is Unusually Small

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/upshot/flexibility-is-the-reason-for-a-smaller-pay-gap-in-tech-work.html

The Internet Hall of Fame
https://internethalloffame.org

by MJ Ali

This is it. This is the beginning of the careening slide to the end of the year. This is when so many people start focusing on details, schedules, and all of the to-do, to-find, to-get and to-buy lists that become the focus of the holiday season.

Worlds tend to get small when trying to juggle extra work, planning, and more shopping than is usually done all year. There’s rarely room for contemplation, relaxation or appreciation.

This month we’re focusing on gratitude, something so easy to practice in thought or in deed. It’s also a great way to take a moment, refocus and—believe it or not—relax. Let’s start by taking a look at where else in the world thanksgiving celebrations happen.

Japanese Thanksgiving – Kinrō Kansha no Hi

Japan’s Labor Thanksgiving, based on ancient harvest festival rituals (Niinamesai), the modern adaptation focuses on celebrating hard work and community involvement.

Thanksgiving in the Netherlands

In Leiden, specifically, they celebrate Thanksgiving. Want to know why? It’s tied to the Mayflower.

Thanksgiving in Grenada

Granada celebrates Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the United States intervention in 1983.

South India’s Pongal, or Harvest Festival

A four-day festival in the state of Tamil Nadu, Pongal gives thanks for harvests by giving gifts.

Most Thanksgiving celebrations are about harvests so vital to survival, but they also reach beyond that to gratitude for life, health and loved ones.

What are you thankful for this year? Today?

What would you like to do to give back? Donate to the local food bank? Donate clothes, toys? Donate time or money? It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t even have to take much time. One act will do wonders, guaranteed. Not just for the recipient, but for you, too.

Here are a few places, just in case you’re short on time (‘tis the season!):

Feeding America

Clothing Donations

Toy Donations Pickup

Guide to Volunteering

And, happening now, of course, is Día de los Muertos. Though not a Thanksgiving-style observance, it is a beautiful celebration honoring loved ones who have passed. If you’ve never experienced it, it is a huge celebration in Tucson that must be experienced!

By Ana Lewis

by Abigail Edwards

You know that jolt of happiness you feel when you receive a gift, especially if it’s one you’ve been hoping for? Usually we show our gratitude for the present with a hug and a “thank you”, but what could giving a gift in exchange do for us and the other person? More than some may expect! Not only does it give the receiver the opportunity to feel the same excitement and joy that we have, it benefits us physically, mentally and emotionally.

Givers discover many healthy and positive changes in themselves, according to Cleveland Clinic. Generosity lowers blood pressure, stress levels, and depression in favor of high self-esteem and a longer life. Chemicals in our brains that have been fondly dubbed the “warm glow” give us a sense of satisfaction that we have done our part to make someone’s day brighter.

It’s probably no surprise that the gift-giving season is one of the happiest! Stefania Minardi and Özgür Evren, professors of economics and decision sciences, researched the effects of warm-glow giving and told us that when we receive, it naturally increases our perceived value of giving—and our motivation to do it.

Giving as a sign of gratitude isn’t just about spending money. You can offer the other person numerous things: your time, talents, reassurance, affection and help are all valuable gifts to give when someone is in need. Adopting the habit of giving those things when you can will often result in pleasant surprises for both you and the receiver. You may help them when you didn’t even know that they needed it.

There are so many people we could buy gifts for to show our appreciation for them. As you think of each person, it’s helpful to keep in mind that you don’t always have to “buy big.” Some smaller gifts that can be just as meaningful are:

• An encouraging note on someone’s door
• A favorite treat on the desk at work
• A gift card that they can use to treat themselves
• A trinket to add to their collection
• A sweet card to let them know you were thinking of them
• A contribution to their favorite charity

Every gift that we give genuinely is an opportunity to show how much we appreciate the other person and the influence they have on our lives. As you express these gifts of gratitude to others, you’re giving the inherent gift of health and happiness to yourself too.

By Shannon E. Franklin

Before becoming a mom, it felt important to express gratitude for the big things in my life. A comfortable home. Family and friends. Unexpected opportunities. Now that my days are a mostly frenzied mix of conference calls and diaper changes, I no longer take for granted the routine activities of the past. When my partner is with our son on the weekends, slipping in to a long, hot shower feels as luxurious as a day at the spa. I look forward to it, and feel real excitement about the idea of washing my hair without sticking my head out every two minutes to reassure the baby that I didn’t actually leave. Even drinking a cup of my favorite tea out of my favorite mug while the baby naps feels like the ultimate act of self-care.

There have been times when I’m trying to work, but my son only wants to be held. I let out an exasperated sigh as I pick him up, but once he’s in my arms, the frustration melts away and I feel grateful that I’m the one he’s reaching for. At night when he’s fussy before bed, I silently beg him to fall asleep so I can have a break. Yet once he’s been asleep for an hour or so, I find myself sneaking back in to watch him sleep, whispering how much I love him and can’t imagine my life without him.

The hot shower, the cup of tea, the extra hour of sleep. The gentle squeeze of my son’s arms, his soft curls, the sound of his newly-formed, “mama.” A home, a job, family and friends. These are the moments, the in-between times, and the big things for which I’ve become thankful. Altogether, they remind me that the seemingly mundane daily details are just as important as the big things in life, and that gratitude is all about perspective.

At some point within the last several years, I became very conscious of expressing my gratitude. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is say “thank you.” Sometimes I say it out loud, and other times I just barely whisper it, but this mini-ritual has become important for me to set the tone of my entire day. It’s my way of acknowledging how thankful I am to have opened my eyes to be given another chance to try to be a better human for myself and everyone I love. I say “thank you” for the previous day and as a way to welcome the joys, lessons, and inevitable challenges of the day ahead. Saying “thank you” when I wake up is a preemptive, two-second meditation that helps to keep my sanity intact on the days I feel I could fall apart.

I plan to expand my gratitude practice and attempt to cultivate a spirit of gratitude in my son as he grows, if that’s possible. I want him to find joy in life’s small moments and recognize that we can always find something for which to be thankful, even if it’s just a hot shower.

By MJ Ali

There are endless articles online with helpful recipes on how to “practice” gratitude and what it will do for you. So, I’m just going to share my own thoughts here.

Gratitude is a feeling or emotion. It’s something that happens naturally as a result of being present. You know, a moment in time that seems to stand still when a sunset takes your breath away, or an unsolicited smile from a child warms you to the core. You’re not thinking in those moments. You’re just feeling. Time seems to stand still. That is a meditation. It’s that simple.

When I worked downtown I would walk before lunch, every day passing a homeless man tucked up against our building. He had a way of just being that reminded me of meditation. One day, I brought my lunch out and sat next to this man I later came to know as Joe, offered him half my food, and we sat and ate in silence together. When I got up to go back to work, I turned and said, “thanks for having lunch with me today.” He smiled, said thanks back, and nodded good bye.

This became a daily ritual. Sometimes we’d engage in deep conversation, sometimes we’d laugh and joke, and other times we’d just sit together. He was my parents’ generation, and it felt familial to interact with him. We’d thank each other for lunch, and he’d sometimes add a “you’re welcome” and chuckle, a sound that would warm my shoulders as I walked back to the office.

It was a given that Joe would be moving on as the weather got colder, and one day, when I came out and he wasn’t there, I found a note in our lunch spot that simply read, “You’re welcome. Love, Uncle Joe.” I feel tremendous gratitude for the simplicity and serendipity of that daily ritual—that meditation—with Joe.

Joe knew where to get food. It wasn’t about the food. That was just the medium through which we connected on a daily basis, with no agenda, a precious moment removed from the daily routine. Like sharing a meal with family. A meditation.

I feel gratitude for being taught to meditate as a child, a practice I continue today. It’s the simple practice of meditation that nurtures the feeling of gratitude. Meditation pulls me out of linear time and provides a new perspective without my head getting in the way. Meditation is so very simple, can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, for any length of time. Cleaning, doing dishes, walking, five minutes here, three minutes there. It can also be a set-aside daily ritual. There are no rules other than those set by you.

If we take a moment to breathe, to meditate, to just be in a moment without our heads getting in the way, feeling gratitude—and expressing that feeling—is inevitable.

By Abigail Edwards

No matter the holiday, there are always traditions for which every family in every community will make time. Some have only recently been introduced to add a fresh spark to the season, while others are classics that go back so long that it feels as if there can’t be a holiday without them. Traditions nurture the bonds that we’ve made over time, give a sense of purpose, and serve as a testament to what we find important.

A family friend grew up with a beautiful holiday tradition: every year, people in the neighborhood would pitch in for the cost of luminarias. Regardless of what holiday each family celebrated, the paper lanterns decorating every front yard were a symbol of hope and togetherness. When she left that area as an adult, she eagerly introduced the tradition to her new community. Neighbors who never interacted before she arrived have become close friends thanks to the group effort of creating a stunning display.

Other neighborhood celebrations are just as exhilarating. Jumping into the family van or onto the back of a hayride to look at the Winterhaven Festival of Lights in Tucson has been a tradition in my community for the past seventy years. The Winterhaven families always embellish their houses in their classiest decorations and welcome people from anywhere in town to drive through and admire. Entrance is free, but the neighborhood never fails to encourage onlookers to bring nonperishables for the Community Food Bank. In this way we’re reminded that traditions aren’t solely for our own enjoyment. Taking part in rituals that bring our attention closer to home is just as important.

For thirteen years, my family has practiced a tradition called the Twelve Days of Christmas. We seek out a widow or widower in our sphere of influence who is experiencing their first holiday season without their spouse and find twelve small, thoughtful gifts that may put a smile on their face. Over the course of twelve days, we sneak them onto the receiver’s doorstep, never revealing our identities.

Practices like these create memories that last a lifetime. They’re something to delight in during the holiday season and to look forward to in the next. They give us a sense of belonging, provide comfort, teach values, connect generations and create stability in the whirlwind that holidays often become. They remind us where we come from and form a bridge that can take us where we want to go, something that all of us should reflect on and rejoice in.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

By MJ Ali

Have you ever been in the middle of trying to do three different things at once and looked around to realize there was no help in sight? What was your first feeling? What did you do? Did you ask for help, or just power through?

Everyone has their reasons for choosing one or the other, and those reasons are often complicated.

I had a boss who practiced interdependence with her team. She identified and supported the strengths she saw in each staff member, and helped us all to develop those strengths and apply them directly to the work we were doing. Jasmine developed a culture of excellence by fostering an environment of mutual support that, in turn, produced unfailing loyalty and resilience. We were doing very difficult work under unbending and uncaring institutional constraints, yet we moved mountains together anyway because we relied on one another and worked extremely well together.

In a not-so-interdependent world, though, we can end up inadvertently creating a cycle of dependence to affirm our existence, or from a need for control. As a result, we don’t engage in interdependent relationships, and end up actually isolating ourselves. That sets us up for martyrdom, always doing for others, neglecting ourselves under the umbrella of “if I don’t do it, no one will” and “I don’t need any help from anyone; that’s my job” that inevitably builds resentment, fatigue, burnout, anger, and toxicity.

We can’t be helpful to others in a healthy way if we’re not helping ourselves, and inviting others to experience the joy of helping us when we need it. Asking for help is not an easy thing for many, so I invite you to try. Ask someone during this holiday season—the stress-out of all stress-outs—to help you with something.

Don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed and ticked off that no one has seen that you needed help but never offered, but genuinely ask someone to help you. Invite them. You may be very surprised to find that they’ve been waiting for you to ask them to engage in interdependence for a very long time. After all, everyone, on some level, wants to feel useful.

Below are links about creating interdependence for businesses, families, friends and caregivers that I hope you’ll find helpful.

For business leaders: tips for building a culture of interdependence at work

Interdependent relationships: creating balance

For parents of teens: nurturing interdependence

For Caregivers: Taking Care of You

Interdependence in family relationships: achieving happiness at home

And, just one [more] thing: Rick Hanson’s latest Just One Thing newsletter about gifting yourself is very timely.

Happy, Enriching, Loving, and Interdependent Holidays to All!

By Ana Lewis

At the beginning of this year I wrote a blog post discussing the fact that I typically only have one resolution per year. For 2018 it was, “Up My Game”. And oh boy, I did.

I am clearly able to articulate several ways in which I was able to succeed in this resolution, and here are some items that come to mind:

1. Attended and finished B-School
2. Became a 100% whole-foods-plant-based eater
3. Started using the Twist app with our team for better communication across time zones

B-School probably had the most impact as it helped us to increase our revenue, greatly improve our website content, build our subscribers and drive more traffic to our website, which ultimately helps us to consistently spread our message to the world:

“The internet provides us with an opportunity to be connected and inclusive, regardless of nationality, race, gender, size, religion, age and beliefs.”

How can we continue to spread this most-valued message in 2019?

One way is for us to learn from one of our biggest lessons of 2018. We lost one of our team members this year and it had a big impact on us.

Dena Whitebirch worked with Co-Op Web for the majority of our twenty years in business. She ran our servers and managed and built our Twitter followers. She had a very rough last year; she was in and out of the hospital so frequently, I lost count. I’d call her and talk to her and ask if she still wanted to work. She always said yes, that it helped her get through this time more easily.

Okay, I had that little business-y voice in me saying, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” and our weakest link was terminally ill. Huh. The mother in me said, “No.” We know… Dena rarely was able to meet deadlines towards the end, and we had to fill in for her. She was sometimes hard to reach in the hospital and often she was too ill to even carry on a conversation without having a severe coughing fit. But, as a team we rose and she worked for us until the end, and her daughter kindly was able to step in and guide us through her final days with regular updates.

I’m glad we didn’t cut off our weakest link. It just didn’t feel true to our beliefs. It didn’t feel right in the heart.

This experience continues to teach us the lesson that things don’t go according to plan, pretty much ever.

We enter 2019 with a new grace. A stronger, more united team. We are openly receiving more opportunities, more communication, more connection, more clients, more team members, and more inspiration.

We will continue to walk our talk and embrace the lessons to come in 2019, along with you.

Thank you and Happy New Year,

Ana Lewis

By Ana Lewis

By MJ Ali

We’ve all been there. A deadline creeps up. It could be a goal or task we set, or one set by our boss or partner or child.

If you can’t seem to make a list, it’s okay. You’re not alone.

A lot of people use mind mapping and other organizational tools successfully, but for those of us who have some sort of unexplainable allergy to list or mind map creation and adherence, read on.

When organization is not your thing, it doesn’t matter how flexible an app is or how awesome a mind map looks (“I’m totally using that!”…), you might use it once or twice and then never again.

The problem is often that we’re not starting small and simple and working our way up to a comfort level that will keep us using some kind of organizational or list-making, goal-setting system.

Schedules and deadlines are here to stay, so we need bite-size morsels to get us through each day. Sometimes, choosing the right organization for the topic helps.

START WITH DAILY CHORES, FAMILY SCHEDULES AND TO-DO/TO-BUY/TO-NOT-FORGETS, AND START SMALL

These are our compulsory personal things. Groceries, chores, transporting kids, things you just can’t forget to do each day. And each day, it changes.

If you’re like most, you need something easy you can carry with you from place to place. You already have your phone, so let’s look at options:

Analog: stickies. No, I mean stickies you stick on your phone. I’m not kidding. I know people who swear by this method. It’s there like an annoyance every time they reach for their phone and realize that list is their lifeline to the day. Stickies and a pen. Easy and done. And you get to throw the paper in the recycle bin before you go to bed. Win-win.

For home, a dry erase board is a great way to keep reminders in full view.

Digital: apps. Start small. One thing on one list. Get it done. Move on. That is all you have to do. We’re keeping it simple, so let’s take a look at some apps that are easy to populate, easy to navigate, easy to schedule, and will ping you across devices.

Minimalist

Free (offers in-app purchases)

This can be used for everything. Personal, daily, business… everything. Easy, intuitive categorization. For focusing on the daily stuff, this app has a “today” focus page. Also, if you share with others, you can keep the pressure on to make sure you get it all done.

With MinimaList, you use swipe gestures and voice to add, mark as done, delete, or enter focus mode. Plenty of features as free app; more with premium.

Sync across devices? Yes.

Available for Apple

NOTE: there is a MinimaList app for Android that also has good reviews.

Todoist

Free (offers in-app purchases)

A slightly beefier app, Todoist provides a more left-brained version of MinimaList and other more intuitive, simpler task apps.

If you have a recurring task and want to set it to repeat, this app will do it. You can delegate tasks in different projects, share with others and measure your daily progress.

Sync across devices? Yes.

Available for Android and Apple

Remember The Milk

Free (offers in-app purchases)

Still easy to use, this app allows you to use larger categories like Today, Tomorrow, This Week, and Given to others. You can use smart lists, tags, contacts, and locations as well as recurring tasks with notifications, but it’s still a simple and intuitive app to use.

Sync across devices? Yes.

Available for Android and Apple

So, start with a daily chore. Just one. Then add another when that one’s done. You can do this. Once you’re comfortable with the personal daily stuff, move on to work stuff. You can use the same app or use different physical things to separate home and work. People of all ages still do this by using analog for one and digital for another, or two separate apps. That’s why they still sell physical date books and calendars.

Find what works for you, whether mainstream, quirky, or somewhere in between.

If you can carve out one little piece of the day or week or month where you can forget about time and schedules and get off the hamster wheel for just a little while, it will do you a world of good!

By Shannon E. Franklin

Every once in a while I find myself in a weepy mess as I scroll through photos and videos of my son from the past nine months. I’m amazed by how different he looks from one month to the next. I’m in awe of how quickly he’s transforming from a helpless infant into an independent little person with a will all his own. My heart already aches for the days he will grow beyond needing me at all. At the same time, I excitedly anticipate every milestone and delight in the ways he changes daily.

For babies, change is constant. Sometimes in a matter of a few days, they go through significant physical and cognitive changes that make them more ready for the big world around them. They may have a period of crankiness or trouble sleeping as these changes settle in. Then, miraculously, they’ve grown an inch, learned to wave, or taken their first steps.

As adults, we’ve learned to be uncomfortable with change. We become stuck in our ways and get complacent in situations, even when they no longer serve us, because change can be hard on us. We can’t always predict what’s on the other side of any “change,” which makes it inherently risky. It can create chaos, is marked by upheaval, and can be downright scary — as the effects of change are almost always out of our control. We forget that after that period of unrest, we emerge, ready to take on a new phase of life.

Change is necessary for accelerated growth. What would happen if we approached change the way babies do? Instead of being fearful, nervous and resistant, what if we were excited, curious and hopeful? If we are committed to personal growth, shouldn’t we shift to a mindset that welcomes change?

Instead of fighting against it, in the new year and beyond, I’m committing to embracing change as it comes in the following ways:

1. By anticipating my growth – and being excited to enter a new life chapter
2. By being present – and taking each high, low, success or obstacle as it comes
3. By being unattached to the outcome – and acknowledging that whatever happens is what’s needed in that time of my life
4. By accepting the lessons being revealed – and applying what I learn to future experiences

One day I plan to tell my son just how much he’s taught me about life in the short time he’s been here. His existence has ushered in a massive shift in every aspect of my life. I find myself wanting to change to be better for him. I seek out ways to shed old habits and establish new behaviors that I want to model for him. He has been my greatest motivation to change for the better, and with that in mind, change does come easy.

By Abigail Edwards

“I want to become healthier.” “I want to save more money.” “I want to take more time for myself.” New Year’s resolutions are large, varied and notoriously hard to keep. Our motivation sparks on January 1^st and then as we start to realize just how long we’ll have to keep this commitment, our motivation and enthusiasm wanes. According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, only 64% of resolutions make it into February and only 46% last for the first six months. How can we ever tackle a huge commitment for all 365 days of the year? It’s as if we made a goal only to disappoint ourselves.

The truth is that large goals simply need to be broken down into small, manageable short-term objectives that we can face one by one to make up the whole. There are various aids you can put in place to set yourself up for success every day:

Visual Keys

• Set out the number of water bottles you need to drink throughout the day
• Put a small bowl of your vitamins next to the coffee pot
• Create a budget in a notebook that’s easy to carry so you can consult and make sure you don’t overspend while shopping
• Write yourself sticky notes and centralize them to areas you frequent

Auditory Keys

Notifications on your computer or phone are a good call to remember what you want to accomplish and when.

Set an alarm:

• To get up and stretch every hour
• For that chunk of time you can use to schedule your appointments
• To let you know when you’re free to take a break

Alarms can be used as reminders for practically anything!

Accountability

Find someone who can keep you on track by checking in. If someone is working toward the same goal, work with them. Solidarity boosts both morale and motivation; you’re more likely to stick to your goal when you have a partner.

If that isn’t enough to keep you going, search for someone who has already hit that goal. They’re certain to have wisdom and advice to share for the journey.

Taking these steps will undoubtedly set you up to achieve specific, realistic goals in a timely manner. Another thing to remember is that if you find yourself falling away from your goal, you can always look at your methods and adjust them for another, more disciplined try. What can you do today that you weren’t capable of twelve months ago?

By MJ Ali

Achieving balance—like balancing on a tightrope, balance beam, or bicycle—is an action with a specific goal involving, well, not falling! Not falling = good; falling = bad. Simple, right?

We concentrate on what we can do to maintain balance given a very tight set of parameters. Achieving balance is something meant for a specific task, and for a short period of time. Yet, in our daily lives, many of us set out to “achieve balance” and stay within those tight parameters for extended periods of time. This tends to create rigidity, and makes it much more of a challenge to implement or accept change.

Our society tends to think and function in opposite poles:

either | or

yes | no

on | off

up | down

good | bad

fast | slow

healthy | sick

strong | weak

stressed | relaxed

right | wrong

yin | yang

Trying to find balance on either/or terms is a lot like walking a tightrope. You’re either up or you’re down. There’s no in between, and no room for anything other than concentrating on not falling off.

Living balanced, on the other hand, so we can breathe, laugh, respond to adversity, and get stuff done without doing ourselves in is more art than science. Living balanced is forgiving, and it provides a large, gently sloping space within which to make minor adjustments without falling, and without fear.

That last either/or example in the above list, yin/yang, is actually just the opposite of either/or. It is the ultimate lesson in what a balance spectrum is. Even the utmost yang has elements of yin, and vice versa. (Those characteristic dots you always see are the lesson. There is no yang without yin, and no yin without yang.)

Even the most rudimentary tenets of Traditional Chinese Medicine were difficult concepts to teach to western medical professionals when I was training them to provide auricular acupuncture. They wanted a finite definition, and I couldn’t give them one.

I ended up drawing a training tool. I used pastel chalk and drew a yin yang symbol with blending colors signifying the interdependence of the five phases (Wu Xing). I scanned and vectorized that pastel drawing and turned it into a graphic to highlight some areas that would hopefully provide a useful visual for the concepts.

Here’s that illustration, hoping it will help you keep in mind that living balanced is gentle, forgiving, with no clear, sharp lines. All of the phases in this illustration blend into one another in all directions. Balance is somewhere in the spectrum, and for each of us it’s different, always shifting and changing.

Photo by Mathias Konrath on Unsplash

By MJ Ali

Do you remember the last morning you woke up rested and energized, springing out of bed eager to face the day? We’ve all had them; we’ve also had those mornings where the underside of the cover looks like a good place to stay until the sun goes down again. Lots of things contribute to that.

For me, the key is knowing my strengths, acknowledging my challenges, and listening to myself holistically several times throughout the day. I call it checking in, and it usually comes in the form of breathing intentionally or another form of meditation that helps me stop and take stock of what’s going on with me. It takes mere minutes, but is a very powerful tool.

We know ourselves inside and out better than anyone else possibly could, because we live in our own bodies 24/7. It makes sense to me that we are best equipped to determine what’s best for us, and to listen to our own alarms when we feel something’s off.

There are so many tools available that have no side effects, no label warnings, are freely available, and allow us to use the power of our own self-knowledge (i.e., help us utilize what’s inherent in all of us) to find things that help us define our own sense of “wellness” unique to each of us. And no one can—or has the right to—define it for you.

No matter what our challenges, physiologically or otherwise, no matter how involved we might be with healthcare personnel, we still have the right and ability to make our own choices.

I have a family member who has certain rituals in the morning that involve oil pulling, exercises, bone broth with other good stuff mixed in for breakfast, and journaling. These are things that physically, mentally, and spiritually feed her. It’s her personal blueprint. The actions may change to adjust to life, but the foundation is there. She recently unlocked a simple thing to help with anxiety, and that was adding more protein to her diet. Who knew? She did, because she kept exploring.

A friend of mine who has a very high-stress job gets up every morning, looks in the mirror, makes a series of very silly faces until he makes himself laugh, tells himself genuinely, “I love you,” and this sets his day. There is no telling what far-reaching positive effects this has on his entire being, and it doesn’t matter. It works for him. It’s a vital part of his personal blueprint.

There are no rules, no best practices, no “gurus” with answers about how we navigate our own wellness paths. They’re always changing, because we’re always changing. Sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it?

The links below are resources you can view as a buffet table where you can choose what appeals to you.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT has been around for decades and has its roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine’s meridian system, focusing on certain points. It helps us explore where we’re “stuck” and helps us “unstick” ourselves, whether it’s a negative thought, a fear, anxiety, etc. I’ve been practicing for decades off and on, and keep coming back to it. It’s not a magic trick, and again, does not harm you in any way, and I’ve had great success with it, for me, for past clients, even for my dog. That’s right. I have a high-strung rescue dog who responds phenomenally well to surrogate tapping.

This is a simple technique and you don’t have to be exact with it. Simple is powerful.

I’m pointing you to Gary Craig’s site because he’s the founder, and he shows you the “old school” way of tapping, which I find myself going back to more often.

Health Benefits of Laughter

Here’s Gaiam’s list of some of the real health benefits of laughter. There are more, but this is a good start for incentive to add laughter to your wellness routine.

Perspective

Ignore the title of this article; I love the way Barrie describes her personal experiences with life events. It’s a fun read, and has a lot of insight.

Water

I know, I know. Everyone talks about how important it is to get enough water. Well, there’s a good reason for that. For many, however, drinking the amount of water that’s recommended becomes seemingly insurmountable and they end up not drinking nearly as much as they intended. My advice: start drinking more and see how you feel after, say, a week. If you start to see benefits, add some more. Simple.

Trying to drink enough water every day when it’s readily available is clearly a First World problem. The link above doesn’t take you to the usual list of benefits of water. It takes you to africa.com’s page describing the global importance of water, including stories of how water saves lives… and lack of it takes them away.

We are extremely lucky to have such easy access to water. Let’s use it wisely, and know that our bodies (which are 60% water) cannot thrive without it.

By Ana Lewis

This year I will be spending the night in a hotel for work on February 8th, the same night my mother spent the night in a hotel room over thirty years ago, only to never wake up on February 9th. My mother’s silent death added to the very dire statistic, that heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the United States. Acute cardiac arrest killed her nearly instantly (like a bolt of lightning, we were told), and her symptoms were not enough to make her think that this was even a remote possibility.

Fast forward to 2018, and I, too, have been diagnosed with some initial symptoms of possible heart disease, most likely thanks to my family lineage. Every single person in my family has died from heart disease. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years before he passed in 2004. Initially I was sad and afraid about his diagnosis. Then I thought about it and told him, “No worries, Dad, we go quick in our family. Cancer won’t kill you.” I was right. He died at the age of 67, only 10 days after sextuple bypass surgery from a pulmonary embolism. Yep, he went quickly all right.

When I was first diagnosed, I was afraid… no, truthfully, I am still afraid. This disease is brutal. After numerous visits to my cardiologists’, I can tell you, if it doesn’t kill you, it can make your life pretty freaking hard, painful and downright miserable.

I am still in the throes of the diagnosis and my response to it, and it is very possible that this may be the rest of my life, so I’ve had to make some serious decisions.

CHANGE THE ATTITUDE, HONEY

I don’t have a lot of patience for whining (just ask my kids), so I didn’t want to make myself the one other people wanted to wear earplugs around. So, I make no excuses for making sure that I get daily doses of meditation, yoga, ashwaganda and plenty of edible plants.

I have gone through two cardiologists to date, due to the fact that it appears that they are making recommendations based on decades-old data. I really would like to find a cardiologist that is staying current on better, less invasive ways to address heart disease. But, for now, I am shopping, not whining.

OPEN YOUR MIND

I love to learn, so I decided to make this my super power during this time and have made the following contacts with people who can help me learn more and do better:

1. Watched the documentary, Forks Over Knives and signed up for menu plans.
2. Subscribed to Dr. Greger’s website, nutritionfacts.org for daily doses of health news.
3. Consulted with Sally Fisher, at Sunrise Springs Resort, who is a proponent of plant-based whole-foods eating and using food as medicine.
4. Attended the One Day to Wellness Workshop and learned from Bruce and Mindy how they implement lifestyle changes into their lives to improve their own health and fitness.
5. Joined Weight Watchers and have thus far lost 10% of my weight.
6. Rewarded my five-pound loss with a new Apple Watch that helps monitor my heart health.
7. Rewarded my ten-pound loss with a visit to my Acupuncturist, Julie Armstrong. Julie has put me on a full-throttle series of herbal statins (no side effects) and weekly visits.

WHAT HAPPENS FROM HERE?

I get follow-up tests in a few weeks, and will visit my cardiologist again on the day that this post is published. I don’t know right now what will happen. I don’t know what my retesting results will be after overhauling my lifestyle. But I do know that I do feel better now, and that I do have a strong team of support on my side, no matter what.

By Abigail Edwards

Wellness often seems like an uphill battle. It’s a buzzword you hear a lot these days as something to prioritize for a fulfilling life, but what does it really mean? Wellness is defined as “the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal.” Wellness is a term frequently used interchangeably with well-being. Well-being is the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy. It more fully encompasses the scope of wellness in a person’s life: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and relational.

How do you choose among the varied approaches to achieving wellness and well-being? Wellness can mean different things in each person’s life: exercise, eating healthier foods, disease prevention, etc. Even among each of those categories, there are diverse schools of thought. There is, however, one highly affective factor that influences every one of them equally: a positive mental attitude.

Negative thoughts and emotions adversely impact our bodies, circumstances, life satisfaction and the people around us. In the quest for wellness and well-being, it’s vital to take charge of our “thought health.” Our thoughts and emotions are ours to control. Martin Luther once said: “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” Negativity is the bird that lands on your head and you get the choice to shoo it away. There are multiple means of doing this!

POSITIVE MANTRAS

Speak optimistically to yourself: “Take baby steps. Slow progress is still progress and days without progress are okay. I’m proud of every step that I’ve taken. I have made it this far; I can go farther!”

FIND THE LITTLE THINGS

Find little things to be grateful for in your everyday life, such as your favorite outfit, your morning cup of coffee, and your walk with your dog. Write them down in a journal or simply keep them in mind.

CHANGE YOUR MIND(SET)

Change your “I have to” to an “I get to”. Remind yourself that you get to go to work, you get to go grocery shopping, you get to do laundry. These chores and responsibilities are reflections of the essentials that we can appreciate.

SMILE

Make someone smile. Ask a friend to meet for coffee or send a message that lets them know you’re thinking of them. When you take your focus off of the problems weighing you down and put it towards someone else’s happiness, it will brighten your mood and day too.

These practices can put you on a faster track towards your wellness goals. They reduce stress, provide better sleep, create connections with others and build a greater sense of overall happiness. With that foundation laid, wellness and well-being will be a gentler and more enjoyable path to travel.

As a last note, this fun—and useful—list has a lot of great advice:

The Ten Commandments of Emotional Intelligence