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Interview: RealSimple Magazine

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Interview: RealSimple Magazine

How to Find More Time Alone—Without Feeling Lonely

If you’re one of the rare people who like spending time by themselves, enjoy this article as validation of your natural instincts. If, on the other hand, you’re among those who would rather endure physical pain than spend time alone with your thoughts (true story: in a 2014 study published in Science, many of the participants preferred to give themselves electric shocks rather than spend 6 to 15 minutes by themselves with nothing to do), we’d like to change your mind about solitude.

Recipe for Optimal Living

Recipe for Optimal Living

The Benefits of a Daily Smoothie

For many people, consuming enough of the daily recommendations of fruits and vegetables can be a challenge. Blending some servings of each into a smoothie can help you meet your body’s daily nutritional needs. Making a nutrient-rich smoothie is easier than preparing most meals, so it will not only support your health, but it can also add precious time to your day. To make a fiber-rich smoothie you’ll need a high-performance blender (I use a Vitamix), since a regular household blender doesn’t puree fruits and vegetables sufficiently. The recipe below is one that I have for my lunch every day. Feel free to improvise, based on your preferences and needs.

Living Deliberately Versus by Default

Living Deliberately Versus by Default

The law of cause and effect is one of life’s great truisms. When applied to human behavior, it means that through our actions, we generate outcomes. Yet, most people behave as if cause and effect didn’t exist. They live on autopilot, reacting to events without considering the results of their actions or the role they’ve played in creating their lives.

Recipe for Optimal Living

Recipe for Optimal Living

Yoga for Greater Health and Wellness

Yoga is the ancient practice of physical poses meant to unite the mind, body, and spirit. Along with this powerful union come endless physical and psychological benefits. Yoga exercises have been proven to strengthen and tone muscles, as well as promote circulatory health. Mentally, yoga puts the mind in a state of relaxation and can even encourage positive thoughts and self-acceptance. Studies show that just thirty minutes of yoga, five times a week can improve energy level, concentration, memory, and overall mood.

Addicted to Negative Thinking?

Addicted to Negative Thinking?

Chronic negative thinking and the emotions it invokes is, like many destructive behaviors, a form of addiction.

An old acquaintance of mine recently wrote an article about positive thinking—a subject that is often misunderstood. For many years I, like many people on the personal-development path, believed that by writing down and repeating positive affirmations (positive statements about yourself or your life, written in the present tense as if they were already true), I would think more positively and the changes I sought in myself and in my life would happen automatically. I hung these inspiring statements up all over my house, memorized them, and repeated them out loud, sometimes as much as 100 times a day. But it seemed that no matter how many times I said them, the changes I hoped to achieve continued to elude me.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

The Work You’re Born to Do – 3/10/18 (Cambridge, MA) and 4/26/18 (Arlington, MA): Do you long for a more fulfilling career but don’t know what it is? Or perhaps you know your dream, but don’t know where to begin toward achieving it. Many people end up in dissatisfying jobs because they never learned how to identify the “work they were born to do”—work that leverages their innate skills, strengths and passions, and brings a sense of purpose to their lives. 

Recipe for Optimal Living

Recipe for Optimal Living

Eat a Healthy Breakfast
Your mother was right—breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism and boosts your concentration, energy, and productivity levels. Be sure that what you eat has good nutritional value. Protein and fiber are vital in your daily diet; they keep you fuller longer and help your body burn fat calories.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

The Art of Self-Compassion - 1/18/18 (Newton, MA) and 1/27/18 (Cambridge, MA) - Many people treat themselves in ways that undermine their emotional and physical health, their relationships, and the results they’re trying to achieve in their personal and professional lives. In this powerful interactive presentation, world-renowned coach, psychotherapist, CNN commentator, and bestselling author of “Solemate: Master the Art of Aloneness & Transform Your Life”, Lauren Mackler, unearths the origins of self-defeating habits, and offers practical ways to cultivate greater compassion and self-nurturance as a new way of being in your daily life. You will learn essential tools for reclaiming your innate self-esteem and confidence, and appreciation for the unique human being that you are.

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Should You Stay or Should You Go?

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Should You Stay or Should You Go?

This month’s newsletter article features a recent interview Lauren had with Reader’s Digest about how to determine whether to continue or end a relationship, partnership, or marriage.   

RD) How do you know if you should break up with someone? Are there questions you can ask yourself? Or a checklist?

LM) Knowing if and when to end a relationship can be difficult. It’s even more challenging when there are additional factors such as children, a co-owned property or business, and/or comingled finances.

A Tribute to Louise Hay: You CAN heal your life

A Tribute to Louise Hay: You CAN heal your life

It was with great sadness that I learned about the passing of Louise Hay, a woman whose influence had a significant impact on me personally and professionally.

My introduction to Louise’s work was in 1991. I came across her book, You Can Heal Your Life, while doing research for a new workshop I was designing called Cancer as a Chance to Live. The workshop was focused on helping people with cancer to use their illness as a pathway to changing whatever wasn’t serving them in their lives. At the time, my German husband and I were living and working in Munich, and involved in the study of Psychoimmunology (the interaction between psychological processes, and the nervous and immune systems of the body). I was fascinated by Louise’s writings on the mind-body connection, and I started recommending her book to clients, family members, and friends.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

9/26/17 – Mastering the Art of Wholeness (Newton, MA)
Many people spend years waiting for another person to complete them. Others settle for unfulfilling relationships out of fear of being alone. Coach, psychotherapist, CNN commentator, and bestselling author Lauren Mackler discusses her groundbreaking road map to help you achieve a greater sense of wholeness and self-mastery—whether you’re living life on your own or in a relationship. Mastering the Art of Wholeness is about shedding old, self-defeating patterns, retrieving your “lost parts”, and more fully becoming the person you were born to be.

Recipe for Optimal Living

Recipe for Optimal Living

Trust Your Intuition
Your intuition is your instinctive knowing about whether something’s right or wrong for you. It’s part of your innate human nature and a practical tool for honoring who you really are. To develop your intuition, start paying attention to it. When you have to make a decision, ask yourself: How does this feel for me? Is this what I should be doing? Use your intuition to help you create the life you want and to avoid situations that are detrimental to you.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

8/12/17 – Living Fearlessly (Cambridge, MA)
Our innate potential is often diminished by fears of failure, not being good enough, criticism, rejection, and other self-limiting fears. These patterns shape our feelings about ourselves and the roles we play that keep us feeling safe. Coach, psychotherapist, CNN commentator, and bestselling author Lauren Mackler discusses how to uncover the roots of the fears that keep you stuck, transform self-defeating patterns, and override your fears to create and live a personal and professional life that you love.

Is Fear Running You?

Is Fear Running You?

Fear is one of the biggest obstacles people face in managing change and moving forward in their lives. If you’re living your life based on avoiding the things that you fear, you’re not free to take risks or pursue your dreams. If your energy is being expended in avoiding failure, rejection, physical harm, and emotional pain by avoiding the people, places, and situations that trigger your fears—then that energy is tied up in your vigilance to stay safe instead of in fulfilling your potential.

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Leading Organizational Change

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Leading Organizational Change

Resistance is a natural element of change, which can hinder or terminate movement. Whether the human body or an organization, a system will resist change perceived as threatening. During organizational transitions, people resist in response to fear of losing control or their jobs. Although they may recognize the need for change, their fear causes them to hold tight to the status quo.

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