Ah, the glamour, the lifestyle, the paparazzi!  When you think of Madonna, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Grace Kelly, Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, certain images come to mind.  These women represent strength and beauty and that certain something that resides within each one of us.  Which movie star are you most like?  We found this terrific little quiz and posted it to the coffeytalk.com home page.  Take the quiz, just for fun, and see what you have in common with these wonderful women.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

Autogenic training is a relaxation technique developed by Johannes Schulz, a German psychiatrist, in 1932.  In a series of sessions, we’re taught to relax the limbs, heart and breathing.  The idea is to induce a feeling of warmth throughout most of the body, and a feeling of coolness in the forehead.  It is a way for us to influence our own autonomic nervous system to combat the effects of stress.  This is a physiological response.  To practice (in a nutshell!): -Practice alone, in quiet, or with soft background music or environmental sounds. -Wear loose, comfortable clothing, and no shoes. -Practice before meals so that the digestive process doesn’t interfere with the relaxation process. -Take your time, do not rush. -Sit comfortably in a chair, or lie down.

-Warm -up:  Begin slow, deep breathing.  Inhale for one beat, exhale for two.  With each breath, increase the duration of the inhales and exhales, always doubling the length of time for the exhales.  Breath to six counts in, and twelve counts out.  Then reverse the process all the way back down to one count in and two counts out.

-Heavy and Warm – Heaviness and warmth represent muscular relaxation.  Visualize and actually feel your limbs becoming heavy.  Say on the inhale: “My arms and legs are” and on the exhale: “heavy and warm.”  Repeat.

-A Calm Heart – Say on the inhale: “My heartbeat and breathing are” and on the exhale: “calm and steady.”  Repeat.

-A Warm Stomach – this helps you to add a central warmth and peace to your body.  Say on the inhale: “My stomach is” and on the exhale: “soft and warm.” Repeat.

-A Cool Forehead – This helps you provide a calm, stabilizing coolness to the forehead.  Say in the inhale: “My forehead is” and on the exhale: “cool.”  Repeat.

-Completion.  Say to yourself on the inhale: “I feel” and on the exhale: “supremely calm.”

Practice once a day.  Some people like to do this before bed because they get so relaxed it helps them sleep.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

We eat salads a lot in my family, especially this time of year.  Lately I’ve been just crazy about Arugula!  I can get Arugula lettuce in my market that is organic, pre-washed and ready to eat, so it’s easy to just toss right into the mix.  And, according to my research, Arugula is high in folate, lutein and zeaxanthin.  Okay, I didn’t know what zeaxathin was, so I looked it up and it’s an awesome nutrient that helps the health of our eyes.  Spinach and Watercress both have it, too.  It’s great to experiment with the darker leaf lettuces.  Romaine and Spinach provide lots of vitamin A and C.  Red leaf provides vitamin A and vitamin K.  There’s more to lettuce than iceberg, so toss it up this summer and treat yourself to a tasty, flavorful salad.

I recently added a whole bunch of new recipes, including salads, to the familyeveryday.com site.  Check it out, and please share your favorite recipes with our community, too!

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

Many of you know that I changed my first name from Lisa Marie to Lissa (still pronounced Lisa but with 2 s’s) to be in the flow with Vedic Numerology.  The science of numbers is fascinating!  I came across this very cool site that lets you run your numbers online, and it calculates everything for you automatically.  Numerologist Sally Faubion has come up with a system called the Wizard Star.  You put in your name, and birthdate, and get numbers in various categories that tell you more about yourself.  Check it out at: www.sfnumber.com

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

Still haven’t switched from coffee?  Here are some health benefits that just may spur you to action.  Studies have shown that tea, and particularly green tea, relaxes arteries and lowers blood pressure.  Green tea is also being studied as a preventative for Alzheimer’s disease.  Green tea has been known to prevent kidney stones, and it also helps keep bones strong, which fends off osteoporosis.  Green tea gives fat metabolism a boost and its main antioxidant may even prevent cavities!  Green tea has less caffeine than black tea, which has lots less caffeine than coffee but if you want to make sure you avoid that stimulant altogether reach for the decaffeinated variety.  Many brands also have green teas flavored with peach, orange or even mango!

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

We’ve all done it, put things off, delayed doing things, thinking that it will somehow be easier, or more interesting, at some time other than now.  But then we get stressed out, and feel under pressure because our “to do” list has grown and our time allotment has shrunk.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Procrastination is not laziness, it is an active process of delaying things until we “feel better” about them.  It’s a kind of perfectionism in the sense that we think everything has to be “just right” when in reality, there’s no time like the present, and we really “feel better” when we have gotten something done.  If procrastination is becoming a habit, there are things we can do about it.  First, address what is making you uncomfortable about completing a necessary task.  It the task seems too daunting or overwhelming, break it down into smaller chunks, and start from there.  Once you get going, you’ll start to feel a sense of accomplishment, and the rest will go much more easily.  Another strategy is to sit yourself down with a timer give yourself 10 or 15 minutes on the clock to get as far as you can into the task.  Chances are, once the time is up you’ll be so involved that you’ll be happy to keep going until you finish.  And you can also reward yourself for the completion of a task.  We may readily put off something that makes us uncomfortable, but we are less likely to delay gratification.  The reward can be anything that will spur you to action: a dinner out, a new DVD, or a bubble bath, for example.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

We do so much to keep ourselves healthy, diet, exercise, sleep and now there is evidence that shows something else we can do: turn down the volume!  University of Michigan scientists found that the blood pressure of factory workers rose 2 points for every 10-13 decibel increase in workplace noise.  Another study, done in Germany, found that living in a noisy neighborhood, where traffic raised decibel levels above 60, doubled a man’s chance of a heart attack, a tripled a woman’s chance of a heart attack.  How does this happen?  Excess noise increases stress hormones that constrict arteries, and that’s not good.  The simple solution is earplugs.  When you have to raise your voice to be heard by someone just 3 feet away, that’s when you need earplugs.  Watch the volume level on telephones, iPods and appliances, too.  Be aware of noise levels at concerts and social events, and protect your ears when flying.  And spend some time in silence every day.  Silence is a wonderful rejuvenator for body, mind, and spirit.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

The past few months I’ve spent a lot of time visiting hospitals.  A hospital isn’t anyone’s favorite place to be, certainly not if you’re a patient.  But I was impressed with all that some hospitals are doing to make the experience less stressful.  For example, Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles has a music program, and volunteers go around to the rooms and the waiting rooms singing or playing music.  At one point we were serenaded with a beautiful harp, and another time were treated to a lovely folk song.  Many hospitals also have programs where dogs come to visit.  A study at UCLA reported that when patients were visited by these canines, they had a 24% drop in their anxiety scores, and a 17% dip in the stress hormone epinephrine.  The same results did not hold when patients were visited by friendly strangers instead.  The lead researcher noted that there’s no social effort for patients when the dogs come to visit, so the patient can be more relaxed.  The dogs I met were wonderful, and although they take their job seriously, they each seemed to enjoy the experience.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

I’m sure you’ve seen many of the online greeting cards that you can send from various websites.  Some are free, others are membership based.  I’ve sent a lot of these cards for all kinds of occasions.  As much of a selection as I’ve seen, there have been times when what I wanted to get across just wasn’t on the page.  So, I decided to create my own online postcards, or “Coffey Cards” and share them with you!  I took some of the most popular messages from Wisdom News and categorized them under headings, or reasons you might want to send a card.  Then I found some beautiful images that I hadn’t seen anywhere else.  Basically, you pick the image you want, and pair it with the message you want, add your own greeting if you’d like, type in the recipient’s name and send your card on its way!  It’s that easy – and, it’s completely f/ree!  Check it out, I think you’ll be excited.  The cards are much more meaningful than anything else I’ve experienced with online greetings, and I think that recipients will be touched with the thought.

https://www.coffeytalk.com/coffeycards/

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)

It’s interesting to take note of the people in our lives, how we met, when we met, why we met, and what they mean to us.  My friend Dick Sutphen has a new book called “Soul Agreements. It’s about understanding our relationships and the influence that they have on our lives, how they shape the very direction of our lives.  This book is really a collection of stories, case studies, where real people discover how the soul agreements in their lives work, and how they can use these to overcome obstacles and create their own reality of love and success.  It’s fascinating!  It really got me thinking of some of the people who have been there for me at certain times when I needed them most.  Some of these people are still in my life, and others I have lost touch with.  You might call them angels, or you might say that we had this“soul agreement” to fulfill with each other.  Whatever the case, it is an opportunity for growth to recognize these agreements, and to live up to our end of the agreement.

Lissa Coffey’s online newsletters and article content may be reprinted provided the following credit line is included:

Lissa Coffey is an author, media personality, and the founder of CoffeyTalk.com (Reprinted with permission Copyright © Bamboo Entertainment, Inc.)