As I reflect back over this past year of changes that Covid has brought into our lives, the one thing I attribute to making the most difference in my life is Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra with Jennifer.

I’m prone to stress and worry, and have tried many ways to cope over the years. I started meditating when I was 23 years old, and have practiced various forms, as well as trained in two styles of meditation. After dabbling with yoga for many years, it’s now become a regular practice for me: focusing on breath helps me to slow down. I love to dance, and walk as well, and all of these practices have helped to tame my IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), manage my anxiety, and keep me resilient. Until yoga nidra took me to a whole new level…

I met Jennifer at Kripalu Center a few years ago and took a couple of yoga classes with her over the weekend. I loved her warm and easygoing presence, and immediately signed up for her newsletter. When Covid hit, I began attending her online yoga nidra classes – and have been with her ever since! In the beginning, I did about five classes a week – her voice melted me! I was hooked. I found such peace and utter bliss each time I did it, I just wanted more.

Being a yoga practitioner and daily meditator, I thought I knew what relaxation felt like in my body, until I found deep healing bliss with Divine Sleep ® Yoga Nidra. During the practice, I find I am extremely relaxed, yet aware, as Jennifer guides me through all the different layers of my being – body, breath, senses, with contrasts like hot and cold, and her beautiful journeys filled with imagery – all while feeling safe and secure.

I often doze off and Jennifer explains that this is quite common, and that ‘my body would get whatever it needed’, and so it does! She said this deeply relaxed state was the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the body’s relaxation response to stress and is crucial for healing. I feel an inner sense of calm that I had never truly experienced before.

Practicing yoga nidra with Jennifer continues to be a blessing! I have several of her recordings on CD and listen to the Insomnia Track to put me to sleep almost every night. No matter what my day has been like, hearing her voice relaxes me, and makes me feel peaceful inside.

Jennifer is gifted, and I’m so grateful she chooses to share her gifts with me and so many others in person and now online. Her yoga nidra has been my refuge and anchor this past year and has become such an important priority in my life, and I can’t imagine that ever changing. In fact, I took her Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra 40-hour online training in January as a 70^th birthday gift to myself, and I can’t wait to share it with others in my community.

My daughter is in Guatemala, so sharing yoga nidra with her online is a great way for us to connect now.

I look forward to taking more of Jennifer’s workshops. I love her relaxed teaching style. She radiates compassion in every class and makes learning fun! From Five Element Yoga® and Immune Boost Mondays, to Mudras and of course, Divine Sleep®, I’ll be there with her as my guide. Her classes are always informative and interesting, and it always helps keep me balanced and healthy in body and mind.

My husband said to me the other day, “You seem happy almost all the time now…it’s really nice, and I like it!” He’s not one to give compliments, so that felt big! And my favorite yoga teacher in my area has said to me several times that I’m her ‘poster child’ for being positive through Covid.

I guess I have weathered this year well partly because I accepted it, as it presented itself, one day at a time. I’ve found that I enjoy being more introspective. And I believe Jennifer is part of the reason. Her positive, generous spirit is contagious. She’s so welcoming and gracious and brings joy to others. So thank you Jennifer, for being my guiding light this year.

May Spring Renewal…with Yoga Nidra
We can’t meditate in person, but we can meditate together on Zoom! It’s easy to sign up for Zoom, (zoom.com) and then I’ll send you a link via email so you can join this guided meditation. Everyone is welcome, no prior meditation experience is necessary!
If you’d like to join me for this special Celebration of May meditation — please email me and I’ll look forward to seeing you this Friday, May 7th, Noon-12:30 pm on Zoom!

ICT (Institute for Career Transitions) held a workshop Saturday, June 23rd on the status of work and well-being.  I wasn’t there, but I wanted to share some of the highlights with you.  If you’re a job seeker, you’ll relate and realize you’re not alone.

Headlines are missing key facts:

1. If under-employment is factored in, unemployment is around 7.5%.
2. 15% of college-educated people earn < $15/hr and 1 in 5 are under-employed.
3. 20% of unemployed are LTU (Long-term unemployed).
4. 30% of age 50+ unemployed are LTU.
5. For workers >= age 62, between the years 2005 and 2015, the % of people earning <= $15k went from 10%to 15%.
6. Full time employment (FTE) continues to drop overall as a % of all jobs.  The % of contract and part-time jobs continues to rise.

Don’t let the headlines get you down! It’s tough out there, but keep going…your fellow job seekers are your biggest allies.

Qualitative Data:

More people are exhausting their retirement savings and/or are on programs such as SNAP.  People are turning to survival jobs- renting out rooms on AirBnB, driving Uber and Lyft.

Older, well educated workers are finding it harder to get a job like the one they had before, so they look more broadly, either going down, or transitioning to a new field.  Going down levels leads to objections that they are over-qualified; switching to a new field leads to objections that they have no experience.

A growing number of people are in emotional crisis which leads them to self-blame, isolation and heightened stress  and makes it hard to focus and conduct an effective job search.

What Works:

Networking!  It’s not easy for some and it takes time to network effectively which can lead to more stress.  Building rapport and long term relationships is “an incredibly difficult feat” for people in emotional and financial lows.

“This game sucks.”  We need to change the game, but individuals who must play the game can’t change it.  There is no Magic Formula and many job seekers are disappointed.

Ofer talked about the Collaboratory and its strategic and social/emotional benefits.  Members meet 15 hrs/week and help each other in a place where they feel valued, a sense of belonging and accountability, decreased isolationism, and affinity with others.

Someone asked about a recent Boston Globe article on older workers being unable to gain employment in this “robust economy”, and how Governor Baker’s office is building a list of older-worker friendly companies.

Ofer saw this before when he was invited to the White House during the Obama administration.  Companies included their names on a list but there hasn’t been follow through by them or the government.

The majority of workers in the USA face issues, not just the unemployed. Many are unhappy, have lost benefits, are under-employed, stressed, but afraid to quit or ever take time off.

3 Questions Asked:

As one of my clients said, “What people wrote in response to these questions is so moving and true to life.” The unemployed continue to amaze me in their perseverance, their determination to keep going, and in their humanity.  It is hard not to get emotional reading these now; I can only imagine how it was to be in the room.  Our country really ought to be serving them better…

1. I am most proud of:

• The friends I have
• My unpaid public policy advocacy
• Getting my fashion biz certificate (64 unemployment)
• Helping people who are important to me when I don’t feel I can
• Reinvented my career with recognition worthy success
• Family
• Helped others to find path to make positive change
• Not sure anymore; there are things I enjoy; a great meal I’ve created
• That my children are living the values that I feel are critically important to how a good life in community should be lived
• My 401K (sounds awful to say but represents 15 years of night/weekend work invested
• My teaching; my kids
• Being non-judgemental and forgiving and raising my children with similar values
• I have had the courage, repeatedly, to leave jobs that were inauthentic and treated employees as ‘pieces not people’ and creating life supporting options
• Helping people build and develop their skills
• My 2 adult children (boys); proud of who they are and what they’ve done and our relationship
• Spending my life helping people
• When I inspire others to believe and use their strengths
• Of my achievements at previous jobs
• Perseverance; creativity; resourcefulness; relationships where people have stuck by me regardless of my emotional state
• Being reliable, supportive, caring, open-minded
• My work ethic, especially in the face of adversity
• Being part of an improv group (I am an introvert)

2. The most challenging part of being unemployed/underemployed/no meaning in work (besides financial) is:

• All the extra stuff that fills my non-work time
• I am so bored
• How I feel about myself
• Not being able to contribute/use my skills
• Staying positive
• Not knowing if anything  I’m doing is making a difference
• Meaning (lack of)
• Life is passing by and I am wasting it
• Trying to be productive; fill your day to check things off your list; taking advantage of your new found free time
• Meaningless job; irritation; depression; I want out
• The feeling that I’m not hitting certain life ‘mile stones’ that others in my age group (and younger) seem to be completing or entering (owning home, married, more degrees)
• Being perceived as a has been; defective somehow; undesirable
• Feeling that you lose yourself
• Isolation; missing stimulation of ideas and colleagues; not feeling comfortable knowing how to talk about ‘situation’ without burdening others or ‘complaining’
• Not being able to contribute fully because it took too much to be managing day to day
• Emotional challenge
• Losing sense of self worth
• Not using skills
• Friends moving for jobs and to pay for less expenses; friends not understanding; periodic negativity and sadness from disappointment
• Loss of perceived status- it really hurts to feel lesser/lower than
• Sense of having no control; being powerless
• I’m not doing my part to contribute- wasted resource
• Keeping my intellectual spirit high and not mentally checking out
• The fact that I derive so much of my value and sense of self-worth from my work and when I am not producing tangible, quality outputs, I begin to lose my confidence and experience a feeling of incompetence and less worth

If I had 2 more hours before I went to bed, I’d:

• Write (mentioned 7 times)- write in my journal, compose, creative writing, hand write letters to friends
• Listen to motivating Ted Talks or books on tape
• Meditate/Guided meditation (mentioned 3 times)- meditate/reflect
• Art/Writing/Collage
• Read (mentioned 12 times)-about fashion, about people’s different stories, read more fiction, read without worrying, reading my journal, read for fun
• Watch TV, watch friends stories on Instagram, watch shows on You Tube
• Play musical instruments and sing
• Yoga; yoga/stretch; yoga for an hour
• Dance
• Unwind; relax; rest
• Do something just for me
• Photography
• I’d spend more time creating: canvas, painting, crafting, drawing etc.
• Have sex
• Be outside at night for more than 2 hours
• Rethink the current direction of our World
• Play
• Improve the appearance of my home, make it more welcoming
• Hug
• Spend more time with family and friends

Wow, that was powerful and moving for me just to type and take in- now, what can we do about the situation?  I don’t know but I think we need to raise public awareness big-time:  About ICT and the work they do, about how companies could be hiring LTU and workers over 50 more, about what legislators could do, and about how we can retrain workers for new jobs to name a few.  What do you think?  Please share your ideas with me or Ofer Sharone at ICT.  It’s going to take a village…

I’ll be offering a free meditation session on Friday, July 13 at Noon-1:30 for anyone who’s interested.  Details are on my website…hope to see you there!

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you really need to do, in order to have what you want.

January is the best time to make positive changes in your life.  It’s a time when many resolutions are made, but few are kept.  You have to stay motivated if you really want to manifest your goals and intentions.  How?  Here are 3 great tips from JJ Virgin, New York Times bestselling author…with my thoughts sprinkled in…

1. Find an accountability partner.

Once you have a clear goal, you need to write down the action steps that will help you reach that goal.  (I like Vision Boards, and I use a Goal sheet that has different sections for areas in your life, such as Business/Work Goals, Home Goals, Personal Goals, and Fun Goals.  I fill this out at the beginning of each year and post it on my bulletin board where I see it every day.)

Next you want a partner, a friend or two, or a coach to hold you accountable.  Ideally, they’re available weekly and act as your personal cheerleader.  Share your goals, strategize, and plan with them.  You can ask them to check in with you for a progress report and/or schedule a call or in-person meeting with your accountability partner at least a few times a month for updates.  (I like having a coach for this, as well as a coaching group, and this year, I’m going to try it with a friend in TN, where we can be each other’s accountability partner!)

2. Track your progress on a regular basis.

In order to review progress, you have to track it.  Do this in great detail; you’ll see when and where you’re most productive and you’ll learn lots about your habits and patterns.  As you move towards your goal, you may notice that you procrastinate:  Ask yourself, when and why do I procrastinate?  When do I do my best work?  Am I overwhelmed?  Am I eating healthy foods, exercising, getting enough sleep?

Once you’re aware of your emotions and habits, you can tailor your action steps to them.  Look at your calendar and decide how much time you have for action steps, and block out your schedule.  Then track the hours you spend working towards your goal.  On a scale of 1-10, how focused and productive were you?  Write this info down and share it with your accountability partner.  (I put my action steps on my wall calendar in time; this helps me be realistic and not put too many things in one day.  At the end of the day, I check things off if I’ve completed them.  If I don’t get to something, I move it to the next day I know I’ll have time to complete it.  At the end of the week, I check and see if I missed anything and if so, I do it on Friday or the weekend.  But my goal is to have weekends free, so that motivates me to finish things Friday!)

3. Celebrate your small successes and your big wins.

Acknowledge your accomplishments along the way!  Completing action steps and goals is intrinsically rewarding, but plan small extrinsic rewards as well…Take a walk in nature, see a movie with a friend, take a relaxing bath…  Enjoy small pleasures and celebrate each goal as you achieve it- this will keep you motivated to set and achieve goals that really matter to you.  (This is so important.  Make sure your goals and intentions are ones that you really want to achieve-in your heart and your mind.  I write my accomplishments in my gratitude journal each night and I do celebrate them.) 

Feeling good about your big goal or project will keep you motivated to keep setting conscious, authentic goals and and action steps to create the life you want!