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To give you a little lift and a little more life…
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“It’s summertime and the livin’ is easy”
Lyrics from “Porgy & Bess” by Gershwin & Heyward
Sometime around the middle of June, I realized that it was really summer, the time of easy livin’ but I was finding my summer livin’ not so easy. The extremely hot weather meant that I got up earlier so I could walk my dogs or work in the yard. In the evening, I kept working longer because it was too hot to go outside. What happened to my plan of taking life this summer a little easier? As soon as I had an extra space in my schedule, I filled it up with “to do’s”. Finally, I had enough!
So I vowed to at least slip in some easy livin’ time and thought I might share my ideas with you. Maybe you can enjoy some, too. I realized that whatever I did had to be simple, with not much planning or expense and these had to be some things I could just slip in when I was getting cabin fever. So here are a few ideas :
Easy Livin’ Coolers
· Went to free “Movie on the Lawn” at a local church. We brought lawn chairs & church supplied popcorn & drinks. It was definitely old-fashioned fun with a old somewhat corny movie that encouraged clapping & cheering. Lots of churches & parks are doing this- check around your area.
· Spent a wonderful hour at my local library reading magazines. Read things I’d never seen before. There is something about a fresh shiny magazine to enjoy that we just don’t get from magazines on the Internet.
· Slipped in some time to just browse some favorite local shops, The Bag Lady & Green With Envy .
o Read the cards, found some great ideas for gifts
o Chatted with friendly staff and was very impressed with the creativity of displays as well as merchandise.
o Bought a trinket to remind me to “take it easy.”
I’d love to add your ideas to the “Easy Livin’ Coolers List. Send me a comment & I will include it.
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STRESS/LESS STRAGTEGIES
FREE & FUN
“STRESS/LESS” WORKSHOP
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CPCC, Harris Campus
7/22 · 11:00 -1:00
Learn easy, simple ways to decrease your job search stress so you can enjoy that great new job when you get it!
Also appropriate for
friends & family
Contact me for more info: jeannie@jeanniefennell.com / 704 342 ,1144
Lookit! I’m on TV!
I had the wonderful fortune to be interviewed by WCNC /
Channel 36,reporter, Bobby Sisk, for my support group called “The Bucket Brigade ” for people who are unemployed or in some type of transition.The article was also featured in 5/23 Charlotte
Observer Business section.
It was a little scary to do and of course when I saw myself on t.v. , I was surprised at how I looked .But it was also fun and exciting and I hope that it will help some of the folks who are stressed and need some support.
It’s the part of being laid off many people don’t expect: the emotional toll it takes to lose one job and then look for another.
That’s where Dr. Jeannie Fennell of tries to help. A psychologist, she started a job support group last November called the Bucket Brigade.
“I realized there was a lot of help for resume writing, but not a lot for what is the stress part and the toll it takes on you physically and emotionally,” she said.
The group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at Julia’s Coffee in the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Wendover Road. At this week’s meeting, six job seekers showed up and talked openly about the emotional process of figuring out what’s next.
“I worked in nonprofit for 12 years,” said 63-year-old Cindy Thomson.
Laid off last April, Thomson says she understood why her agency had to make cuts, but she still felt like she’d been rejected.
“I’m not that far from retirement age, so I say if you’re my age and you get laid off, you might be retired,” she said, laughing.
Thomson has attended the meetings since they started and finds the candid discussions helpful.
“I don’t do well at home by myself. My batteries will run down. I like to be around people so this group really helps,” she said.
Fennell said, “I hope that eventually this group goes away and that we don’t really need this anymore.”
But with more layoffs — this time in county government and schools — she expects the need to increase.
People with Great Courage
“I’m just very, very, very fortunate to be able to do this and be with these people and hear their stories. They are people with great courage,” Fennell said.
Fennell knows the pain of a pink slip firsthand. Before going back to school to get her doctorate in psychology, she worked as a recruiter and in human resources. She has hired and been fired.
“I often say I’ve been the person on both sides of the desk – the person looking for work and the person employed. In fact, when I moved to Charlotte, within about two months of being relocated by a company, I got laid off. I didn’t know anybody and it was really a tough time,” she said.
At each meeting a bucket is placed in the center of the table. Thomson says the message it sends is two-fold.
“One thing is you put doubts and fears and impatience in the bucket and leave it. And with the Bucket Brigade, there’s the analogy of throwing water on a fire and it takes a lot of people to pass the bucket, so we can all communicate with each other and understand what we’re all going through,” she said.
Transitions…Endings & Beginnings
ENDINGS, BEGINNINGS & THE SOMETIMES DARK HALLWAYS IN-BETWEN
This month we celebrate Black History month and next month, Women’s History month. So I have been thinking about my own history as an entrepreneur and woman in transition and what it means to me.
I notice that I want to “re-live” the successes of the past and hold on to them as a guide for the future. And even though I know that the times are very different now, I find it challenging to change my thinking about my history and look at the new world I am in.
I want it RIGHT NOW.
Sometimes, what once “was” gets in the way of being in the present. Having to change so quickly is upsetting and I want what was secure. I like beginnings but am not so sure about endings. And I really don’t like the dark hallways in between,
I want things to change and change for the better RIGHT NOW.
The Grief of Endings.
Recently one of my clients brought this type of experience to my attention as she cried over having to close part of her previously successful business. She said she kept thinking of how it used to be and was angry and sad that it is gone and said she could not imagine having to starting again.
I realized that she is going thru a grief process where anger and depression are normal stages and that until that is complete, she cannot move on.
We think of grief as only appropriate when a person dying but when part of our work or any other part of our life ends, it is a great loss …not only the money but the dreams, the security, the sense of safety and the identity.
But in order to have beginnings, we have to have endings so I suggested that she create a ceremony to release her business.She could then honor the tangible as well as the intangibles that her business gave her .It had given her much and it deserved an honoring at the end.
Rituals help us let go
Rituals and ceremony can be very powerful in creating appropriate endings…giving us a way to respect our history and mark an ending while celebrating what was.
She did create a ceremony where she burned some business cards, and other symbols, buried the ashes and then planted flowers there. And yes, she cried but it was cleansing. She said that it was a major step in releasing and going forward. Although grief is a long-term process, she created an ending so she can have a beginning…and her action moved her of out the dark hallway.
Most of us need to do the same in some place in our lives.
And as more of us have to change our work & our lives, it is important and freeing to release the old ways with gratitude and yes, some tears.
In honoring our history, we can appreciate it without it weighing us down.
So if your work or your life has “transitioned”, bless what it gave you and set yourself free to create a new path.
Susan’s Super Suggestions for Small Steps
“Small steps make grand adventures!”
~ Winnie the Pooh
Today we have the incredible advantage of having the amazing knowledge of traditional “western” medical science and the also amazing knowledge of other wellness traditions to learn from.
Each one has much to offer and to enable us to be more healthy & more productive lives.
Sometimes the “holistic or alternative ” therapies are seem as strange and unproven…but really, many of them have been around for thousands of years & have keep people well long before ” modern medicine.”
So as we open up to a multi-cultural world, we can also open up to a “multi- medical ” world.
So glad you are on this journey with me!
Welcome Guest Writers for Whole Health Series
Over the next few weeks I have the pleasure of bringing you guest columnists who have the best of both wellness worlds. They are great examples of learning and using a “both sides of the brain” approach.
Today’s columnist is Susan Thomasson,who has an extensive background in both traditional medicine as well as complementary therapies.
SUSAN’S SUPER SUGGESTIONS FOR SMALL STEPS
When Jeannie asked me to write for this blog, I didn’t have any idea where to start. My personal and professional interests are all over the map. I do, however, have a passion for sharing the possibilities of integrative medicine (complementary therapies) as an approach to health and wellness. So let’s start there.
Some Girls Buy Shoes…
Do you enjoy learning new techniques, exploring ideas, searching for answers? I have always loved to learn new things…have been back to school a few times over the years, enjoy continuing education classes, and love reading, reading and more reading to figure things out for myself. (Some girls buy shoes—I buy books!) My recent reading has included Dean Ornish’s Love and Survival, Lynn McTaggart’s The Intention Experiment, and Crowley and Lodge’s Younger Next Year. All three are amazing…and lead me more and more in the direction of “we have a lot more control over our health and well-being that we may even begin to imagine!”
What you can control…
What do you want for the New Year? What do you want to have control over or change in this new decade? Have your considered a holistic approach? I use an integrative approach and find that many of these ideas can address many issues. For instance, a monthly massage therapy or Reiki session will help decrease the effects of stress, improve your circulation, decrease tense muscles, relieve pain, and improve sleep. Or a weekly yoga class can help you focus while helping improve flexibility and strength…..Or regular prayer or meditation practices can help you feel calm and less stressed ….Or volunteering at your favorite charitable organization can help you feel connected and whole….Even sitting down to dinner with your family can provide many healthy benefits…and a sense of belonging.
Take some time for you & your health.
The main idea here is just to take time for you. Honor and nurture the wonderful person that you are. Work to take care of your WHOLE being, mind-body-spirit! I’m trying…so you can, too! Happy New Year!
…………………..And enjoy the journey.
Susan is a Board Certified Medical Laboratory Scientist & Instructor at Carolinas College of Health Sciences. In addition, Susan is Director of Continuing Education there and has created an innovative seminar on “Integrative Medicine” to introduce CMC students & the public to that information.(for more info on this seminar, email Susan at the address below). I have been honored to be a part of that for several years. She is also a licensed massage therapist & Reiki master.
• Susan B. Thomasson, M.Ed., MT(ASCP)SH, LMBT
Director, Continuing Education Department
Carolinas College of Health Sciences
Email: susan.thomasson@carolinashealthcare.org
Happy New Year! Start It Right…
WHAT WILL THIS YEAR BE FOR YOU?
You know that every new year you say...
This will be the year I will….
·Get healthy/lose weight ·Find a new job
·Save Money ·Get Organized ·Start my new business
·Have a great relationship
Yet somehow it doesn’t happen.
You don’t need more “self-help” information…you need real-time professional support,and practical ideas + accountability.
Even if you are the most talented and disciplined person on the planet,it is doesn’t work to do it alone.Even great athletes,artists & musicians need coaches and mentors.
Let Dr. Jeannie Fennell of LIFEWORKS give you the support,perspectives,and experienced help you need to make lasting change.
TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT !
CLIENTS SAY:
” Jeannie, I think you have x-ray vision…You were able to see my blocks & fears and help me to move thru them.Sometimes it was gentle and sometimes a push in the behind…I needed this accountability to get going.Thank you” Jim C.
” I didn’t know what to expect …as a guy. it hadn’t done anything like coaching…I should have done it much sooner as it was a big help in getting me motivated.I looked forward to our meetings and will always be grateful for how things have changed for me. My family likes me better now too!” M. G.
“Jeannie has a gentle but powerful way of listening to you and enabling you to get really clear on what you need to do and discerning what keeps you from moving forward. With her help, I have really changed and my life is so much better now”
SUSAN R.
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Sign up today and start your year right….
This time next year your life could be so much better!
YOUR LIFE IS WAITING
Get Clear,Get Focused,Get Support and GET GOING!
Contact me for more information: 704 342.1144
