Strategies for responding to “Tell me about yourself”

Last week I was in a pitch meeting with a television network. I was in the president’s office seated with six of his key executives on chairs and sofas around a large coffee table. The informal setting was cozy and the vibe was warm and friendly. After introductions, my prospective client said, “Tell me about yourself and your company.”

I started at the very beginning – sharing that my dad was a single parent who taught my sister and me the ad business at an early age. Then I gave a quick overview of my days working in radio, newspaper and finally television, where I helped launch TNT and turn CNN into The World’s News Leader. To conclude my story, I walked them through a few relevant client case studies and shared my branding philosophy and process.

Here’s what I didn’t do: whine about not having a mom growing up, elaborate on personal challenges, complain about difficult clients, lie about my accomplishments, go off on tangents, diminish my talents, overstate what I could deliver or drone on without focus.

Building a captivating story about yourself involves sharing the epic moments in your life that reveal your true character.

To arrive at your answer to the question, “Tell me about yourself,” it’s important that you think deeply to uncover a time when you overcame adversity. This could be the beginning of your signature story – the one where you played the superhero. Michael Margolis, Dean of Story University, talks about how most of us are reluctant or accidental heroes. He says, “Remember, you are not born a superhero. Superheroes are created based on circumstances and a choices.” What were yours?

If you walk into a pitch meeting or give a presentation without a signature story and just go though the motions of showing your work, you’ll miss making an emotional connection with your audience that will set you apart from your competition.

In addition to creating a signature story, it’s important that you demonstrate that you’re on a heroic quest. I always finish my story with my life’s mission, which is to “help professionals fearlessly achieve their potential.” I want my prospects to know that beyond delivering a transformational brand strategy, I am purposeful in my desire to inspire their employees.

If you want to play big and really make an impact in business, begin by sharing an epic story about you. The universe is waiting for you to proclaim your unique qualities. Your target audience wants to know that you can really make a difference to their organization.

When you reveal yourself through story, you honor your accomplishments and set the stage for your next triumph.

Here are some different forms of storytelling you can adopt courtesy of success guru Brendon Burchard:

Woe to Win – when you were down and out, and then you came back

Finding or stumbling upon the magic bullet – and everything changed

David versus Goliath – when were you the underdog?

The tough choice — the other choice would’ve been easier, but this choice made you a better person

The switch from victim to victor — everyone has that story

The switch from self-absorbed to service minded – when was that point for you?

Family play – when did you decide that your family was important, and when did you sacrifice for them?

The no one believed I could do it story

The experience epic – 2-4 years of crap and then you came out of it a winner

The turnaround — when you finally decided to pursue something super meaningful

Start today writing a few different versions of your story and see which one makes you feel better about yourself. It should express what you were born to do and at the same time have a universal theme that everyone can relate to. In the end, your story should be one you feel proud to tell the world.

A quick note to those who are in the middle of a sad story: don’t let your present circumstances define you. Think back to another time when you overcame a difficult situation and let that be your story for right now. The more you tell it, the more you’ll start to believe that you are a superhero and you’ll find yourself transitioning right into a happy ending.

If your story inspires you, it is sure to inspire others.

Robin Fisher Roffer is a reinvention and personal branding specialist. She is the author of Make A Name For Yourself: 8 Steps Every Woman Needs To Create A Personal Brand Strategy For Success and The Fearless Fish Out Of Water: How To Succeed When You’re The Only One Like You. She’s also CEO, Big Fish Marketing, Inc. bigfishmarketing.com

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.

This timeless passage reminds us how few remain immune to the power of music and song. Even the coolest demeanor can be undone by the impact of a well-crafted melody or soulfuly-delivered tune.

Neuro-Physical Effects

While the power of music to touch the soul is both existential and subjective, its effects on our physical and mental activity have been well-researched. According to The Power of Sound, (Healing Arts Press), music triggers at least three neuro- physical processes:

1. Music moves through the brain’s auditory cortex directly to the center of the limbic system. It can help create new neuropathways in the brain as well.

2. Music activates the flow of stored memory and imagined material across the corpus collosum (the bridge between the left and right hemispheres of the brain) helping the two work in harmony.

3. Music excites peptides in the brain and stimulate the production of endorphins, which are natural opiates secreted by the hypothalamus, which elevates mood and emotion.

Brain Function is Enhanced

Paul Hoffman, creator of ‘Success Songs’, writes “The brain itself vibrates at four different frequencies. That’s why musical vibrations can enhance your brain functions. It has be proved that music music can:”

• Spark your creativity
• Increase your productivity
• Lift your emotional state
• Relax and calm you
• Inspire and activate that desire to succeed within you
• Create the mindsets needed to follow your passion

When enriched with music, learning is exponentially easier – a proven phenomenon witnessed when working with children. How did we learn our alphabet if not by singing it?

The infectious nature of music is evidenced in numerous ways- have you ever struggled unsuccessfully to unhook an advertising jingle, TV theme or pop song chorus that became looped inside your head?

Finding My Song – An Artist’s Perspective

In sharing examples from my musical life, I hope to illuminate some of these qualities.

I wrote my first song while strumming two chords on my mother’s Silvertone-Sears own musical instrument brand. Being left-handed, I reversed the strings within minutes of trying to play the ‘right’ way. This also temporarily abolished my mother’s guitar playing- until I bought my own guitar and returned her string arrangement to ‘normal’.

My first sing-along was in a high school hallway, during school hours- a song I had written about reincarnation and the journey of the soul- much to the consternation of the vice-principle. When I reported to his office to explain myself, our world-views couldn’t have been more disparate – as Bill would say, we had significantly different maps of reality.

Moving from D.C. to California in 1970 for my senior high school year, I remember singing Neil Young’s ‘Down By the River (I Shot My Baby)’ for the umpteenth time in a Saratoga coffeehouse. In the midst of the performance it dawned on me that I didn’t shoot my baby- and had no intention to!

I made a conscious decision that night, simultaneously shaping my music and life path- to tell my story in song, and sing words aligning with what I wanted for myself and others. (I share this with full appreciation of Neil for his superb songwriting gift!)

Thirsty for spiritual and artistic development, I studied composition with W.A. Mathieu, arranger for Stan Kenton and director of the Sufi Choir, with further studies at the University of Oregon. I still wanted to impress people by playing speedy lead guitar, elaborate chords and clever rhymes. My momentum in this direction, however, was thankfully curtailed when my heart washed ashore upon the sweet coast of devotional chanting.

My first experience of chanting in English was with the devotional songs of Paramahamsa Yogananda, author of ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. Prior to this encounter, I was only familiar with Sanskrit bhajans and Gregorian chant. To realize chants could be created and sung in English was a revelation I quickly adopted and began to share in small groups. The current widespread appreciation of chant was a rarity then- 1972 was an adventurous time of innovation in the world of contemporary devotional singing.

Singing and Spiritual Awareness

In bringing together singing and spiritual practice, it is essential that the lyrics reflect the clearest awareness that a songwriter is capable of. I ultimately realized that for me there were two recurring themes:

a) the perspective of the individual soul in relationship with the Divine, with others, with the world;
b) the perspective of the One, the undivided Self at peace with Itself.

Contained in the first theme are songs of duality, relationship and journey, the yearning for returning, leaving and coming home, struggles and resolving struggles, human conditions of sorrow and joy. 10,000 joys and 10,000 tears. Songs expressing the second theme are non-dualistic, ‘advaita’, mantric, the acceptance in which there is no coming home because we’re already home, devotional yet impersonal.

While spiritual practice is predominantly an inward affair, shared practice fulfills the innate impulse for connection. A core motivator for my music has been to connect with others in a deeper way, leading to ecstatic immersion in choral harmony. Singing lyrics of affirmation and inner reflection became a practice for cultivating the remembrance of this connection.

When practicing in an acoustically ‘live’ environment, a space designed for singing in which all voices are naturally amplified with a slight echo (high ceilings, wood and glass surfaces) – the experience of chant, of singing into and from the heart, bestows a benign intoxication innately known to all cultures throughout the ages- transforming the mind from mundane to mystery, from linear thinking to spherical awareness of joyful wonder.

Integrating Singing Into Your Practice

If you are on a path of inner growth (and if you’ve read this far, it is likely the answer is a ‘yes’), I encourage you to integrate singing into your practice. When people gather to sing, join in. Don’t let anything, whether fear of other’s judgment or your own self-criticism, keep you from cultivating your voice as an instrument for your own healing, joy and freedom.

Be inspired. Whatever can help you open to the song inside of you, do it. Hear my video message, The Song of Home
Let your spiritual awareness and your singing voice unite. Listen to ChantWave, O Great Spirit, and a hundred more of my recorded chants and healing songs at www.innerharmony.com
Listen to songs of healing, empowerment, reconciliation and awakening at The Honoring. (these are all spontaneous, created in response to a request)

In summary, singing has been a major part of my life and spiritual path; I encourage you to consciously use your voice to open your heart. It is inspirational, healing, fun, and a great way of connecting to yourself and others.

With so many great singers in the world, why bother to add your voice? Why not just listen and keep quiet? Why risk being criticized for a voice that isn’t like those you hear on the radio, CD or stage?

Of course, it’s up to you. But remember one thing before you decide to withhold your voice from life.

Each person’s voice is unique, like a fingerprint. This is why a person’s voice can digitally identify them.

Each voice is special. Without your voice added to the mix, life is less colorful. Like a species endangered to extinction, if you choose to withhold your voice, the world has virtually lost the singular species of your unique sound.

Indigenous cultures believe a day without singing is unnatural as a day without breathing.

In a recent study conducted by brain researcher Prof. Manfred Spitzer of Ulm, Germany, new nerve cells were discovered to form by engaging actively in music. The study concluded that it doesn’t matter if you sing in the shower or play concert piano – music de-activates those places in the brain designed for fear and stress. The climate of making music is the ideal place for these nerve cells to develop.

What’s important here is that it’s not enough to simply listen to music – it’s by actively participating that the new growth occurs!

Have you ever heard kids playing with their voice, inventing songs by themselves or with each other? Or remember yourself doing it? Or perhaps you have made up songs for your own kids, when you thought no one else is listening. If you belong to this special band of voice rebels, those who didn’t pay attention when the announcement was passed to stop singing and keep quiet, you are already ahead of the game.

Many years ago I discovered the joy of spontaneous song creation. Over time, I developed SongCare, composing and recording new songs on guitar and voice in the presence of the recipient.

I discovered that in times of major transition, when we are most vulnerable, we are also often most open to hearing something new, something different- we are more open for change, and for knowing deeply who we are.

This method of spontaneous songwriting has led to a hospice ministry, singing songs of comfort, healing and reflection in preparation for a person’s homeward journey. The recording ‘Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying’ was produced together with Emmy-award winning composer Gary Malkin as a further expression of this intention- to reduce anxiety around dying, and support the meaningful conversations that want to occur.

I have also offered this spontaneous musical service for:

• pregnant couples and the birthing process
• people with chronic illness, creating medicine songs to help move through their condition with courage, faith and trust in the process.
• couples entering the initiation of marriage, celebrating an anniversary, or traversing difficult relational waters. seeking
• one’s soulmate
• seeking one’s vocation.
• Healthcare practitioners

In the last few years I began offering these song-portraits in groups, called SongCircles. If you would like to experience this unique artform, I will create and record a song on CD for you. Or if you are ready to release your voice, come to ChantWave, a universal practice for opening the heart. Whatever you do, keep singing!

Michael Stillwater is an award-winning musical artist, inspirational educator and co-creator of Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying and Care for the Journey: Music and Messages for Sustaining the Heart of Healthcare. He has been the featured musical artist at Centerpointe retreats since 1994. He lives in Zurich, Switerland with his wife, contemplative psychotherapist (also presenting at Centerpointe Retreats), Doris Laesser Stillwater. He tours the USA twice a year, Spring and Fall. On his website you can listen to his music, download MP3s, order CDs, register for an OnSite or TeleSong session, learn about his tour schedule or contact him – go to www.innerharmony.com

In Part One of Natural Capitalism, Amory Lovins, MacArthur Fellow, consultant physicist and Co-Founder of The Rocky Mountain Institute, explored two of the essential ingredients that have been missing from the contemporary valuation of capital. Here in Part Two he talks about ‘solution economy’ and ‘reinvestment in natural capitalism’ the third and fourth necessary ingredients that can make our lives – especially the lives of those of us who are 50 and older – more effective and our future more stable and constructive. This topic of Natural Capitalism is of critical importance to all of us who are interested in leaving a legacy of sustainability and genuine abundance to future generations.

The Third Principle of Natural Capitalism

The third principle of natural capitalism—the most interesting and powerful one, I think, which Jim Womack calls the “solutions economy”—provides the strongest kind of feedback by changing what we reward, changing the business model so that both the provider and the customer make money in exactly the same way—by doing more and better with less for longer. To do this, the “solutions economy” business model shifts from occasionally making and selling things to providing a continuous flow of value and service.

Examples are popping up everywhere. If you go to Europe or Asia, you’ll notice elevators made by Schindler, a Swiss company that is experimenting with not selling its elevators. Because the firm believes its elevators require less energy and maintenance than competing ones, if Schindler retains ownership of the elevators and pays the running cost itself, it can more cheaply and profitably provide customers with what they want, which isn’t an elevator; it is the service of being moved up and down. Instead of selling you an elevator, the firm leases you a vertical transportation service.

Similarly, Dow would rather not sell you a solvent. It’s a much better deal for both of you to lease you a dissolving service, after which Dow takes back the solvent and repurifies it. The more times it can be re-used and the less is lost on each cycle, the more money you both make. Dow can charge less, gaining market share. You pay less, yet Dow has more profit. In fact, if Dow can keep your parts from getting greasy in the first place, then no solvent is needed, and they can get paid for that too.

This takes us to a world in which, when a company tries to sell people a product whose use will deliver the service they really wanted in the first place, a smart customer will probably ask: “Why are you trying to sell me this product? If it had the operational benefits you claim for it, you’d want to get those benefits yourself by keeping it and just leasing me the service it provides. So why do you want to sell me this thing? There must be something wrong with it!”

The Fourth Principle of Natural Capitalism

The fourth principle of natural capitalism is to reinvest in natural capital. This is the easiest of the four because nature does the production; all we need to do is get out of the way and let life flourish wherever it wants to—it’s very good at that. Typically, those who learn to treat nature as model and measure and mentor, not as a nuisance to be evaded, are those whose business success depends directly on the health of nature around them—such as farmers, foresters, fishers, and ranchers. Allan Savory, the Rhodesian wildlife biologist, showed that the arid, brittle Western rangeland we thought was overgrazed is typically undergrazed, but it’s grazed in the wrong way. If the grazing pattern is carefully changed to mimic the natural co-evolution of grass and grazing animals, the result is actually more grass, more animals, and everything working much better. Then there is Wes Jackson’s work at The Land Institute on the high plains in Salina, Kansas, where he is trying to change agriculture from a monoculture of annuals to a polyculture of perennials that will look like a prairie, because that’s what works best there.

The rice farmers in California used to burn straw after the dry-rice harvest. Then they tried flooding the rice fields into a seasonal wetland instead, inviting in millions of ducks and geese, which provided free fertilizer and cultivation plus lucrative hunting licenses. The farmers harvested the previously burned silica-rich rice straw as a valuable building material. They are also paid for recharging the ground water. Although they are still selling rice, it’s merely a coproduct of these other activities, so the system is far more profitable. Thirty percent of the rice growing has been switched over to this system, which imitates some of the extraordinarily productive Asian and African coproduction systems.

I want to add the example of Gunter Pauli’s Zero Emission Research Initiative (www.zeri.org), because it shows how to reinvest in and with natural capital in the South. He points out that a billion people worldwide have poor housing or no housing, even though many of them live in places where bamboo, a grass that can be stronger than steel, grows prolifically. The Colombian architect Simon Veléz has figured out how to turn a hundred pieces of bamboo five meters long into a strong and beautiful 65-square-meter house. The bamboo grows in 100 square meters of bamboo thicket every five years. Including a cement slab and other amenities, the cash cost of the house is $1,700. Smoking the bamboo as a preservative method also yields a by-product of charcoal for cooking, which saves trees, and because the smoke brings acid to the bamboo’s surface, bugs won’t eat it, so it can last for 500 years. Growing the bamboo for structure and smoking sequesters enough carbon to sell to a broker for about $1,700, which means you just grew your own house, made it self-financing, and protected the climate—a nice example of what you can accomplish with integrated design.

You can achieve the same design integration and entrepreneurship at the level of a whole society. My favorite chapter in our book Natural Capitalism is the one about Curitiba, a Brazilian city the size of Houston or Philadelphia. Its population has quadrupled to two and a half million people in the past twenty years, and the city’s budget per person is 15 times smaller than that of Detroit. This doesn’t make it sound like a nice place to live. Yet, although it’s not paradise, the city has the highest quality of life in South America and has solved its problems better than any North American city I know. That’s because the people have treated their formidable social and economic and ecological needs not as competing priorities to be traded off among government departments fighting over budget, but rather as integrated, interlinked design elements with synergies to be captured. A brilliant design process, led largely by architects and by women, integrated from the start hydrology and landform, nutrient and waste flows, education and health, transport and land use, participation and dignity—and thus created one of the world’s great cities.

The heavy lifting was done largely by the private sector. In what’s widely considered the best public transport system in the world, for example, ten competing private bus companies are rewarded not for carrying more people, but for serving more kilometers of route, so they spread out and serve the whole city fairly.

Let me now illustrate how the four principles of natural capitalism fit together. Think about carpets. Carpet is typically made of oil. After ten or fifteen years it looks worn, so you have to shut down your operation, move out all the furniture, roll up the only-partly-worn carpet, and get rid of it. Each year millions of tons of carpets are sent to landfills, where they sit for ten or twenty thousand years—not a great use of oil or money or land. Meanwhile you lay down fresh carpet, glue it in, move back in, resume operations, and perhaps get sick from the fumes in the carpet glue. Does this sound like an intelligent design? Ray Anderson didn’t think so. As a result he’s been making Interface—a $1.5-billion company that makes carpet and interior-finish materials—into a natural capitalist company.

During 1994–2000, he added $165 million to the bottom line, gaining over a quarter of his total operating profit by wringing out waste through better resource productivity. He also developed Solenium®, a new product with unusual attributes. It contains no chlorine and nothing toxic. All climate impact of making, delivering, and maintaining it is certified to have been offset before it’s delivered. You can wash Solenium with a garden hose. It doesn’t stain, it doesn’t mildew, and it has excellent aesthetic and acoustic qualities. It also is four times more durable than a regular carpet but uses one-third less material, so seven times less carpet but uses one-third less material, so seven times less flow of material is needed to cover a square yard for a year—and then it can be completely remanufactured into an identical product, with no loss of quality.

This raises the obvious question, “Who wants to own a carpet anyway?” Don’t people just want to walk on it and look at it? If so, shouldn’t the manufacturer be leasing a floor-covering service instead of selling a carpet? That way there is mutual benefit from this durability and dematerialization. The answer is yes, and the way to do it is to deliver the carpet in the European fashion, as carpet tiles, under a service lease. Every month, the little elves come in the night and take away the worn carpet tiles, but only those that are worn, which are about one-fifth of the total. The worn ones are instantly replaced with new ones, so your floor always looks fresh, but now you’re replacing only one-fifth as much carpet. Multiply that by the previous factor seven saving, and you have 97% less material use. When enough of the worn tiles have come back, you remanufacture them, saving 99.9% of the raw materials originally used in the once-through carpet-selling model.

Now imagine that you’re a normal carpet maker, selling rolls of carpet. How are you going to compete with this company that uses a thousand times less raw material than you do, and ten times less capital, to produce a better service at a lower cost and a higher margin, and provides a tax-deductible operating lease to the customer? Answer: you’re not. This is an example of the sort of breakthrough competitive advantage that natural capitalists can gain. In addition, even though Interface manufactures less carpet, it employs more people to deliver the service than were displaced at the factory—substituting abundant people for scarce nature.

The next step, now underway at Interface and illustrating principle four of natural capitalism, is to reinvest in natural and human capital. The way Interface will do this could be to make its product out of corncobs derived from organic corn grown by poor black farmers in the deep South in a way that restores soil fertility. The farmers will also get paid for taking carbon out of the air and putting it back in humus where it belongs. It’s a reinvestment back into rural culture, economy, and community.

These innovations are good business: in the first four years on this new tack, Interface more than doubled its revenues, more than tripled its operating profits, and nearly doubled its jobs, all at the same time. And the workers are much more excited, because they no longer feel any contradiction between what they’re doing on the job and what they want for their kids when they go home. When that happens, neither the managers nor the competitors can keep up.

I was there when the designer of this remarkable Solenium product, David Oakey, wandered in with a dreamy expression, having just figured out how to do this impossible thing. He said: “You know, God must be an environmentalist. As soon as we figured out what questions to ask, it all fell into place, and we got every attribute we wanted, none we didn’t want, and a lot of cool stuff we never thought to ask for.” This is a typical outcome when you finally get the statement of the design problem right. It’s worth waiting for.

To sum up the prevalent practice that Interface is transforming: We take out of the earth, out of natural capital, substances that are grown or mined, and from that extracted flow we make a mixture of products and wastes. After the products are used, they are either thrown away or brought back to create value as what Dr. Michael Braungart calls a “technical nutrient,” or as compost to feed nature.

The trouble is that in this country, about 83% of what we extract is mined, and we grow only 17%, much of it unsustainably. The resulting flow of material, twenty times our body weight per person per day, is then about 93% wasted, either in extraction or in manufacturing, with only 7% going into products, of which about six-sevenths is consumer ephemerals, promptly thrown away after one use or no use. The remaining 1% ends up in durable products, 98% of which then are thrown away and 2% recycled or remanufactured. This system is thus approximately 99.98% pure waste—a huge business opportunity. Moreover, a lot of the waste is toxic, so when it goes back into nature, there being no other place for it to go, it harms the regenerative capacity we need in order to keep having the biotic resources and ecosystem services we can’t live without. This is a bad design. Let’s change it.

In a natural capitalist industrial system, we would grow more and mine less of what we take from nature. We would also extract a great deal less because of comprehensively improved resource productivity. This includes closing loops, recapturing resources in and after manufacturing, making products more durable, and dematerializing products—all of the activities that are rewarded by the “solutions economy” business model, which pays everyone for doing more and better with less for longer. As we design out waste, we also rigorously design out toxicity, so the small amount of remaining waste going back into nature is no longer harming regenerative capacity—which, on the contrary, we deliberately improve by reinvesting the financial profits that come from getting rid of the waste in the first place. That is how the four principles all link together.

Natural capitalism is consistent with orthodox market economics; it just takes economics seriously rather than literally. It rests not on environmental economics, which treats the earth as a minor external factor of production, but on ecological economics, which holds that (as Herman Daly puts it) “the environment is the envelope that contains, sustains, and provisions the economy.” Subject to that shift, natural capitalism uses all the methods and tools economists have developed; it just uses them correctly.

I use markets a lot. Creatively applied, markets are nifty. But they are meant only for the short-term allocation of scarce resources, and were never meant to be fair or wise. Markets make a wonderful servant, a bad master, and a worse religion. If we think they can substitute for faith or ethics or politics, we’re really in trouble. But properly used, markets can be very effective if they’re restricted to what they do well and not applied to things they can’t do at all.

We’re fortunate to live in a world in which over half of the one hundred or two hundred biggest economic entities are no longer countries but companies. Companies often have the leadership, management, skills, speed, resources, initiative, innovation, integration, and motivation to solve tough problems in a hurry. The companies we write about in our book are early adopters of the four operational principles of natural capitalism, and as a result they are gaining stunning competitive advantage and better short-term profits as well as happier customers and workers. They are proving what Edgar Woolard suspected when he chaired DuPont: he said, “Companies that take such opportunities seriously will do very well”—while, he added, “Those that don’t won’t be a problem, because ultimately they won’t be around.”

Maybe the biggest problem with capitalism—this extraordinary system of wealth creation built on the productive use of and reinvestment in capital, all four forms of capital—is that we’re only just starting to try it. But the early returns are very encouraging. I hope you will not only visit us at www.naturalcapitalism.org or www.natcap.org, but also send us your stories of what worked and what didn’t work, so that we can speed up our learning together about this new way of doing business as if nature and people were properly valued.

Amory Lovins, a MacArthur Fellow and consultant physicist, has advised the energy and other industries for nearly four decades as well as the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense. Published in 29 books and hundreds of papers, his work in about 50 countries has been recognized by the “Alternative Nobel,” Blue Planet, Volvo, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, the Happold and Benjamin Franklin Medals, nine honorary doctorates, honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Time Hero for the Planet, and World Technology Awards. He advises industries and governments worldwide and has briefed 19 heads of state. He co-founded and serves as Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), an independent, market-oriented, entrepreneurial, nonprofit think-and-do tank. Much of its work is synthesized in Natural Capitalism (www.natcap.org). RMI spun off E SOURCE (www.esource.com) in 1992 and Fiberforge, Inc. (www.fiberforge.com), which he chaired until 2007, in 1999.

Amory Lovins may be reached through Rocky Mountain Institute.

Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, entrepreneurial, nonprofit think-and-do tank in Old Snowmass, Colorado, founded in 1982. Its diverse staff of ~80 foster the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. Half of the Institute’s $10 million budget is earned through programmatic enterprise, chiefly consultancy for the private sector—an effort that advances the goals, refines the content, and spreads the concepts of natural capitalism. The remaining revenue comes from foundation grants and tax-deductible donations. RMI’s work is noted for technical depth, vision across boundaries, creative use of market forces, and engagement with commerce and community (far more than with government; RMI doesn’t lobby or litigate). In seeking new solutions to old problems, its people strive for faith, hope, and clarity; their hierarchy of needs is typically to save the world, have fun, and make money, in that order. RMI’s Annual Report, thrice-a-year Newsletter, and hundreds of popular and technical publications (many free) are available from:

Rocky Mountain Institute
1739 Snowmass Creek Road
Snowmass, Colorado 81654-9199
(970) 927-3851
www.rmi.org

Here Judith talks about a Maya god who understands and forgives human vices.
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If you have your own example of ‘vices’ while traveling, please feel free to share your stories with us via the ‘Comments’ section – but keep it clean!

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Judith Fine and Paul Ross do a lot more than write great travel articles and take world class photographs that capture the spirit of remarkable destinations, they belong to a special breed of adventures who forge paths that others of us can follow not only to explore new geography but to uncover new experiences – eye and heart opening experiences – experiences that help us to understand other cultures, to connect with other people and learn more about this remarkable and extraordinary earth that we are privileged to call home. In keeping with the mission of AgeNation, Judith and Paul will soon be announcing some remarkable journeys for AgeNation Community members.

Is it becoming as clear to you, as it is to an increasing number of Americans that truly, effective solutions to our most serious challenges in education, environmental and financial reform, job creation, healthcare, life care, and immigration are being held hostage by a political process that is seriously impaired, if not permanently broken? If so, you may believe it is time to correct this problem. What you may not believe is that the fix is easier and more accessible than a lot of us imagine. It lies in what I call, ‘the power of one.’

I know this may seem far fetched especially when our challenges appear so complex and only a few minutes spent listening to the foolish rhetoric and bombastic posturing, the partisan ranting and uncivil divisiveness that pass for news and political debate today make it clear that we are living in a very dysfunctional time; one in which Washington more closely resembles an urban schoolyard full of bullies and brats than the capital of one of the most powerful nations on earth where our legislators have taken an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and serve the needs of the people.

We could, of course, spend hours tracing the highly suspect decisions we have made and the questionable paths we have taken to arrive at this troubling destination; and, if pressed, we could easily, and with ample justification, assign varying degrees of responsibility to big business or labor, lobbyists or political operatives, religious leaders, the media, both political parties, our educational system or our legislative representatives themselves. Indeed, there is no shortage of candidates for blame. In the end, however, democracy is a participatory and not a spectator sport, and so when the buck stops, it unfortunately stops with each of us.

Yes, in a landscape full of potential villains, we, unfortunately, may well be the greatest of them all. For it is our inattention, self-preoccupation and unwillingness to do the sometimes tedious, daily work of paying attention and taking some of the necessary and specific actions to preserve democracy that have brought us to this place where our individual rights are being reduced, the wealth and resources of this great nation are being aggregated in fewer and fewer hands and the very underpinnings of this great experiment in democracy are being assaulted.

I know some of you will find this judgment harsh. After all, we have families to care for, children to nurture, businesses to run, careers and jobs that require our attention and, especially in these times, a lot of bills to pay. So where are we supposed to find the time and energy to do all of these things true civic engagement requires? We vote, sometimes. On occasion we contribute financially or volunteer. Hell, we even take the occasional 10 or 20 seconds to sign an online petition for or against something. And, of course, some of us do a lot more than all of this!

Yes, I grant you, the pushes and pulls of daily life are substantial and pre-occupying. Of course, if I were not so trusting, I might suggest that this pre-occupation has been engineered by the same forces that are accumulating more and more of the wealth and who would rather have us trudge along looking down rather than looking up and around. But that is a whole story other and it still does not absolve us of our responsibilities as citizens – not if we want to preserve our freedom and protect our way of life.

So what do I suggest we do? And what has all of this to do with ‘the power of one’? From my perspective the answer to both of these questions and, as I said above, to some of the most series challenges we face is much simpler than some of us might imagine. Here are three examples that support my contention about ‘the power of one.’ See if you agree.

Voting With Our Money – With the exception of those who are having a literal field day raping and pillaging in the financial sector, most of us are pretty clear that the economic burdens we us face today (individually and collectively) result, in part at least, from the lack of regulation of the financial sector and the lack of moral character and integrity that is being practiced within it. Indeed, we live in a time when individual and organizational greed has reached unprecedented heights; a time when some banks and investment houses are no longer content with making an honest dollar leveraging and growing our money, but instead appear to believe they are entitled to manipulate the financial markets, gauge us with absurd costs for credit, gamble with our money in truly reckless ways and then seek and find protection against their losses through special government guarantees and the support of our tax dollars.

Nice work if you can get it and they are certainly getting it in spades these days! In fact, some elements within the financial sector are now so removed from the reality the rest of us face they have forgotten that it is our money (and not just our tax dollars) they are gambling with and refusing to lend us. Indeed, it is our money that fuels their enterprises. It is our money that allows them to take the absurd and disproportionate kinds of salaries and bonuses they now believe they are entitled to take.

And so here’s where the ‘power of one’ comes in. If we are serious about wanting a sane and successful future for ourselves and our children then each and every one of us, one at a time, need to take our money back from the ‘too big to fail’ banks and those investment houses that are out of control. We can, instead, put our money in reputable banks, and particularly in local banks and credit unions that do not play roulette with it. And instead of making investments in industries and companies that abuse us, we can invest in local businesses that we can monitor and support. Hell, considering the rate of return and the level of risk most of us are subject to in the financial markets, we might be better off putting our money in our proverbial mattresses! Not only would it be more accessible to us, but there, at least, it would do us no harm and reduce the ability of those who do harm to continuing to do so.

Voting With Our Time and Attention – Many of us claim that we are tired of the media; of all of the censorship and bias that is imposed by the large corporations that control them, and of the untruths and distortions that flow from the mouths of those who mistakenly call themselves news commentators with unfettered regularity. Yes, many of us agree, the media has become an albatross that weighs down the neck of democracy. But what do we do about it? Do we turn off our radios and televisions when the news comes on? Do we stop buying daily newspapers that distort the truth? Do we deal with our addiction to online news services, many of which never heard of journalistic integrity? No, the majority of us simply and slavishly keep giving them our attention and our money. In short, we support and enable the media sources that mislead, manipulate and abuse us.

On the other hand, if we exercised ‘the power of one’ by withdrawing our attention and money from these news sources – even a few days at a time – they will soon find themselves, like beached whales, gasping for financial breath. Yes, this kind of ‘media fast’ would send them a clear message that they need to change their errant ways or we will permanently deny them our attention and therefore, eventually, their advertiser revenues. And least you forget, this same message can be sent to those cable and digital service companies who believe they are above regulation and can charge us what they choose and decide who has access to what information.

Voting With Conscious Consumerism – Each and every day, each of us make hundreds of decisions as to what products and services we buy and use. Yes, from the food we eat to the electronics we use; from our morning cup of coffee to the drugs some of us take; from the kind of fuel we purchase for our homes, cars and trucks to the kinds of cars, trucks, clothing, household products, cosmetics and more that we buy. Get the picture? Everything we buy and use every single day is made by a company. So what do you think would happen if each of us became more conscious consumers? What would happen if we made our buying or use decisions based who the company is that makes this product or delivers that service? Do they have good values – honesty, quality, and customer service, fiscal and social responsibility? Do they treat their employees fairly and well? Do they stand behind their products and services? Do they pay their fair share of Federal and state taxes? Imagine what would happen if we only purchased things from companies who are really committed to the well being of the environment, to the health of their customers and to our economic stability! Imagine what would happen if we supported only those companies who create jobs and invest in our local infrastructure rather than exporting jobs and hiding their profits off-shore!

You see, ‘the power of one’ is really quite extraordinary and offers us a remarkable and immediate opportunity to take our individual power back and to get this country back on track. Indeed, just as most of us would not willingly do business with someone we consider criminal or someone who threatens our friends and family or endangers the health and well being of our community, we should not do business with banks, investment houses, media sources and with other companies who are more committed to their own greed and growth than to our greater good.

So at this time in our history when we all experiencing the negative impact of big money’s disproportionate influence on our lives; when our political process remains largely at odds with our needs and we are confronted with stalemates and impediments to genuine solutions on all sides don’t you think it’s time to at least consider ‘the power of one?’ After all, it doesn’t take a national vote, a legislative act or even a whole social movement to exercise your ‘power of one.’ All it takes is for each of us to make the decision to reclaim our sovereignty and to live more consciously for our own sake and for those generations who will come after us.

George Cappannelli is co-Founder of AgeNation and President and CEO of The Information and Training Company. He is an world-class consultant, author and expert on change. Over the last 25 years he has worked with hundreds of leading organizations, the people who run them and hundreds of thousands of individuals in the public sector. He books include: Say Yes To Change, Authenticity, It’s About Time, I Dream of A New America and the soon to be released, Do Not Go Quietly, A Guide To Conscious Living and Wise Aging in the 21st Century. For more information on consulting and coaching services visit www.agenation.com/consulting or www.georgecappannelli.com.

Far too few people realize how seductive, even addictive cyber-habits can be.
Think about the last time you were tempted to check your phone or computer at an inappropriate time, e.g. while driving; during a funeral (I saw it last week!); from bed after you hear the “ding” of a new message. The anticipation of good news or an exciting contact makes just saying “no” very difficult. When you add secrecy or an element of the forbidden, this form of titillation alters your brain in a way that makes you crave even more. If the contact is a person, texts become more frequent; repartee becomes more personal; flirtation has a field day. Soon, these seemingly innocuous relationships take precious time and energy from home and work.
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Why is it so powerful and prolific? Any activity related to meeting, mating and procreating—which are survival strategies, is reinforced with feel-good neurotransmitters led by dopamine. The human brain is programmed to pay special attention to nuances related to survival and is rewarded with a surge of pleasure and urgency with each encounter. A personal note from a co-worker or a special smile from the neighbor can elicit a satisfying sensation and evoke interest. Dopamine is the marker for salience; when it is released, your brain gets the message “this is important; go get more!”
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So how does pornography fit into this paradigm? Again, survival strategies play a part. Procreation insures the species will continue and sexual curiosity is part of Nature’s plan. Most porn use begins innocently, i.e. with normal curiosity. But drawing the line is difficult because pornography has its own form of seduction. Nowadays you don’t even have to pay for it; it’s everywhere. YouTube and chat rooms have made a lethal slash into the porn business—a modern day version of “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Millions of ordinary people are willing to put modesty aside for their fifteen minutes of fame by revealing themselves in the most intimate sexual acts. Not too long ago, to see anything resembling porn you had to leave home, go to the other side of town, face real people and risk being seen before you could even view the goods—then pay money to experience it. Now it’s available just about anywhere, anytime, and is (mostly) anonymous. So what’s the problem?
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The nature of porn, and what separates it from a nude Leonardo da Vinci painting, is the intent to produce sexual arousal. Unlike art which inspires appreciation and awe, porn elicits sexual stimulation and craving. A habit that begins with YouTube clips can lead to gateway sites that offer free peeks to grab your interest and then require payment for the next level of titillation. Viewing sexual stimulation recalibrates your sexual set point; i.e. once your mind forms a picture or has a new sexual experience, this becomes the norm. To get another thrill you need something even more exciting. This is how porn use can destroy your interest and attraction for your mate. Repeated pornography use numbs normal sexual drives and deadens your desire for a real person/partner.

In addition, bizarre as it may seem, the more shame you feel about your guilty pleasures—the more you resent your partner! We don’t like people who remind us of our bad behavior. When you violate the lines of your own commitment and values you actually end up looking for faults in your partner to alleviate your guilt. “Well, if he/she were more (fill in the blank) I wouldn’t be doing this.” And the guiltier you feel the more vulnerable you become to the escape of a sexual high. Millions of people are currently caught in the excitement cycle of porn use or an affair, either online or face to face. And if you think it will stop where it is, research proves you very, very wrong. Relationships which begin in cyberspace eventually meet face to face in some way, shape or form.

Needless to say, this sharp rise in secrecy and clandestine activity is largely due to the multitude of technical resources we have at our fingertips. Plus, the workplace, by providing access to more people, phones and computers offers a fertile breeding ground for crossing the line of commitment. A survey by Spherion found four out of ten U.S. workers admitted to being involved with a co-worker at some point. A New York-based career publishing company found 17 percent of workers have actually been found having sex on the job! And the number keeps growing. Nielsen Online reported that one quarter of employees who use the Internet visit porn sites during the workday—up from 23 percent in the previous year. In a SurfControl survey of 350 U.S. companies, half of all workers said they’d been exposed to sexually explicit material by co-workers. Atlanta-based Delta Consulting polled 50 executives from 50 Fortune 500 companies and found that half of the executives have dealt with at least one incident related to porn in the workplace during the past 12 months and in 44 percent of the cases the offenders were fired and an additional 41 percent were disciplined. Cyber-skiving (skimming time from work to shop, surf) is estimated to account for as much as 30-40% of lost worker productivity and 90% of U.S. workers admit to doing it. But shopping for a shirt is one thing; shopping for sex is another, whether it’s with a porn star or a person you know.

The simplest antidote for the seductive call of cyber infidelity is an open air policy. This is good advice for children as well as adults. People closest to us have a clear sense of when we have violated our own core values or commitment. Of course privacy is important, even in love and marriage, but transparency makes life simple and honest. There’s a quick way to know if you have violated your fidelity commitment: ask your partner.

“Hon, is it OK with you if I get up at night after you are asleep and email Suzy/Sam at work?” Or, “Here, check out this porn site I’m paying for.”

If the thought of this strikes fear or anger in your heart, perhaps you need to realign your behavior to reflect your innermost values. That way if your partner reads this article and asks: “May I view your texts?” Or, “What about your emails and net searches, may I see those too?” You can say with confidence and dignity: “MySpace is YourSpace!”

Distinguished professor, Certified Love Educator, Pat Love, Ed.D. is known for warmth, humor and commitment to learning. For more than twenty-five years, she has contributed to relationship education and personal development through her books, articles, training programs, speaking and media appearances. Visit Pat on the Relationships and Transitions pages and at www.patlove.com.

Hyla Cass, MD, is one of the true innovators in the field of longevity medicine. In this article she shares some of her secrets to living a fulfilling, healthy and satisfying life. While Dr. Cass is clear that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in the quest for greater longevity, her practical, grounded approach gives us a genuine insight into some of the specific things people of all ages, but especially Boomers, elders and older GenXers can do to increase their health, wellness, improve the quality of life and slow down the aging process.

In part one of this article I began to explore my personal approach to health and longevity; that is, how to delay the usual pitfalls of aging as long as possible. As I discussed, while death is inevitable, the goal here is to have a joyous, fulfilling, and healthy life for as many years as possible along the way. I’ll share what has worked for me, my friends, colleagues, readers, and patients.

In part one I talked about:

1.) The Value of a Positive Attitude;

2.) Quality time spent in health relationships and,

3.) Stress management.

Let us turn next to:

4.) A healthy lifestyle including good diet, appropriate supplements, and regular exercise:

a. Lifestyle: Be careful not to overindulge in alcohol, drugs, or food. Beyond their effects on blood sugar and mood, drugs and alcohol also have toxic effects on the brain, liver, and other systems of the body. Don’t substitute food for drugs, either: excessive sugar and simple carbs will only make matters worse, playing havoc with your blood sugar levels, upsetting your mood, and draining your energy.

b. Diet: Have regular meals, of fresh, organic food. This includes lots of fruits and veggies (living foods), and a moderate amount of protein (fish, chicken, lean meat). It’s better to eat 4-5 small meals throughout the day rather than the 2- 3 large meals we are used to, and be sure to have a substantial breakfast. This eating pattern helps avoid large fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which are hard on the body and cause aging.

c. Nutritional Supplements: With age, our bodies are less resilient and forgiving. When younger, we were better able to compensate for deficiencies. Now, you must be more diligent in your supplementation. With stress, too, you need to replenish those lost in the stress response, which uses up many of the nutrients that we need to fully function both emotionally and physically. You can cover your bases by taking a high potency multi-vitamin and mineral combination that includes Vitamin B complex, vitamin C, D, E, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, chromium, and manganese, plus trace elements such as boron, vanadium, and molybdenum. You’ll also need to pay special attention to antioxidants.

d. Antioxidants: A major contributor to aging are the “reactive oxidative species” (ROS), also called “free radicals. ” They are created both as by-products of normal metabolism and by the toxins that we ingest from our environment. Free radicals cause cellular damage, cell death, and ultimately, body death. The solution is taking large quantities of neutralizing antioxidants, in the form of both food (fruits and vegetables) and supplements. Antioxidants are potent anti-inflammatories, too, as well as immune system boosters, battling infection and even, potential cancers.

At this point, the American Cancer Society has joined the bandwagon of recommending increased fruits and vegetables for prevention. The most commonly recognized antioxidants are vitamin C, E, selenium, alpha lipoic acid, and plant extracts such as ginkgo, green tea, and ginseng. You need a whole array: they all work together like instruments in an orchestra, each with its own role in the process, to quench the dangerous free radicals. So, a single antioxidant, even in large quantity, won’t do it. Essential fatty acids in the form of fish, fish oil, and flax oil are also important for brain health, hormones function, and even, for soft smooth skin.

a. Supplements for Your Brain: As a psychiatrist by training, I focus a great deal on the mind. Mental capacity and mood are closely related to hormone levels, and respond well to hormone therapy. I also prescribe supplements based on specific deficiencies. For example, as we age, levels of vitamin B12 decrease due to difficulty in absorption, causing such symptoms as depression and mental fog. Treated by injection or sublingual tablets of vitamin B12, these symptoms often clear up nicely.

b. For depression I will also include amino acids such as 5 HTP and SAMe, plus an array of B vitamins and fish oil.

c. For anxiety, I recommend the amino acids, theanine, GABA, glutamine, and taurine, and the herbs, hops, lemon balm, and passion flower. I combine these in my CALM Natural Mind formula, available on my website.

Memory is a big issue in aging, and fortunately, we can save our brains! Besides exercising our brains with quizzes, crossword puzzles, social interaction, physical exercise is a known mental health enhancer. Antioxidants are essential for keeping our brains young, then add some other specific nutrients that have other actions. Here are some of the supplements that I recommend to preserve and protect our brain: phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl serine, acetyl-l-carnitine, ginkgo biloba, and vinpocetine. These can be found in my Brain Cell Support .For details, you can read my books, Natural Highs, and 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health.

My website carries a variety of formulas that address these mood and memory issues.

a. Sleep: Be sure to get enough sleep, since sleep deprivation can undermine overall health—and even cause weight gain. If you have trouble falling sleep, and/or staying asleep, take 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), kava or valerian, combined with some deep breathing. You can add some specific muscle relaxation exercises as well: in sequence, clench each muscle of your body for 10 seconds as you inhale, then release as you exhale to the count of 15. Again, avoid using prescription sleeping medications. They can be addictive, and lead to rebound insomnia when you try to quit. My favorite is my own formula: Nightly CALM, containing CALM plus valerian.

b. Minimize Medications: Half of the U.S. population is taking at least one prescription drug, and in the over- 65 age group, half take 3 or more. They have serious side effects, including nutrient depletion in an already depleted population. Before rushing to take prescription medications, with their side effects including possible addiction, try one of the many safe, effective natural remedies. In Supplement Your Prescription: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutrition, I explain how drugs deplete the body of essential nutrients, causing some of the known side effects (eg statins deplete coenzyme Q10 causing muscle pain and weakness, and cognitive problems). I explain not only how to protect yourself while taking prescription drugs, but natural substitutes for dealing with your condition.

c. Exercise: Use it or lose it. We were meant to move and without regular movement, we deteriorate. Don’t you better when you’re exercising regularly? At the age of 80+, my mother created a weekly aerobics class in her condo complex and invited her octogenarian friends to join her. They were all the better for it. Exercise increases circulation, oxygenates our cells including brain cells, enhances neurotransmitter production, helps us maintain our weight… and countless more benefits.

d. Hydration: To provide the substrate for our body chemistry, it’s important to drink the obligatory 8 glasses of pure water daily,. Often older people are poorly hydrated, and this can show up as impaired brain function. Just add water and see what happens!

5. Hormonal Supplementation: Many of our body processes are regulated by hormones: chemicals released in minute amounts from specific glands and carried through the bloodstream to target areas where they do their job. The pituitary, the master gland found in the brain, just above and behind the eyes, produces specific ‘stimulating’ hormones that activate the thyroid, adrenals, testes, and ovaries to produce such hormones as thyroid hormone, cortisol, DHEA, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.

As we age, these hormones go south, and so do we. In my practice, I recommend testing hormone levels, then restoring levels to those closer to youthful ones. There have been scares about women having an increased incidence of cancer after taking female hormones. The Women’s Health Initiative Study on which this is based was using synthetic Premarin and Provera, rather than the bio-identical hormones that integrative physicians prescribe. We just still monitor for any abnormal responses, but the risks are not as great as with the synthetic ones, and the benefits, many. For details, there are a number of excellent books, including my 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health and Dr. Uzzi Reiss’ The Natural Superwoman.

Then, for mental and spiritual health, you can combine prayer, meditation, and emotional clearing, and breathing techniques. This, plus a healthy combination of good nutrition, including the right supplements, exercise, water, and adequate sleep will provide an excellent buffer against aging, while restoring mind, body and spirit. The time and attention required for this pays off enormously. You deserve a life lived long and well!

Adapted from Dr. Cass’ chapter in The Fountain: 25 Experts Reveal Their Secrets of Health and Longevity from the Fountain of Youth by Jack Challem, editor; Basic Health Publications, Inc, 2009. Learn more about Dr. Hyla Cass on our Experts Page and at www.cassmd.com.

Dr. Cass is one of the country’s foremost authors and speakers on the subject of integrative medicine. A former Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, Her books include: Supplement Your Prescription, 8 Weeks To Vibrant Health. Visit with Hyla on the Wellness pages and at www.cassmd.com.

OFFER TO FACEBOOK USERS: Dr, Hyla Cass’ ‘Secrets To The Fountain of Youth’ is just one of the articles in our FREE eBook – THRIVE – A Guide To Living The Life You Were Meant To Live – Part 1 – Click here for details

Hyla Cass, MD, is one of the true innovators in the field of longevity medicine. In this article she shares some of her secrets to living a fulfilling, healthy and satisfying life. While Dr. Cass is clear that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions in the quest for greater longevity, her practical, grounded approach gives us a genuine insight into some of the specific things people of all ages, but especially Boomers, elders and older GenXers can do to increase their health, wellness, improve the quality of life and slow down the aging process.

A Health Commentary by Dr. Hyla Cass

I was recently asked to reveal my personal approach to health and longevity; that is, how to delay the usual pitfalls of aging as long as possible. While death is inevitable, the goal here is to have a joyous fulfilling and healthy life for as many years as possible along the way . I’ll share what has worked for me, my friends, colleagues, readers, and patients.

As a board- certified psychiatrist and practitioner of integrative medicine, I long ago abandoned the mainstream approach of the “physician as the all-knowing expert, a prescription, for every ailment, and the 10-20 minute office visit.” Instead, I spend an hour or two with patients, work with them as a partner in their health, and look for root causes rather than treating symptoms. For the most part, I depend on natural treatments including lifestyle and supplements, prescribing medications where appropriate and only as a last resort. The natural  “prescriptions” that I give out require more participation than simply taking a pill every few hours. Similarly, the key to preserving our health is participation. There are no shortcuts.

Of course, even doing our best in these areas, we all succumb to the inevitable at some point. I have had friends who lived cleanly and exuberantly—and they departed too early in my opinion. The lesson here is – live every day fully, since it may be your last. Paradoxically, when taken to heart, this awareness can make life a true joy. We’ve seen people told they had several months to live find great meaning in every aspect of the time remaining, and stuffing lifetimes of quality experience into those hours and days. The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman is a perfect example of the turnaround that a “known” death sentence can inspire. Both diagnosed with advanced cancer, we see how companionship and mutual encouragement can be wonderfully life-enhancing, even — or especially– in the face of death.

So how do we stay as youthful as we can? There are no magic pills, specific hormones, or special diet that are “the answer.” The result derives from a mysterious combination of factors, only some of which we can know or control. There is much that is unknown, as well. According to Deepak Chopra, and others I know who have traveled to India, there are psychic readers there that are able to tell you your date of death if you ask them. This has piqued my curiosity ever since. Does this mean we are already ordained to die at a certain time– so why bother doing anything about it? Knowing our date, do we then make the very best of our remaining time? Or, do we dismiss these predictions as primitive superstition? What effect would it have on your life if you knew your date of death? My own philosophy is that it can happen at any time, so don’t take anything for granted—your health, your relationships, and the beauty that surrounds us all if we only take the time to look.

Questions abound, but I also have a few answers, guidelines to healthy living that will help you make the best of the body and life that you have.

Here is a short checklist of Life Enhancers and likely, Life Extenders that I have found to be useful in this quest:

1. A positive attitude, including psychological well-being and resiliency in the face of life’s stresses
2. Satisfying, fulfilling relationships
3. Stress Management: Build up your stress-resilience
4. A healthy lifestyle including good diet, appropriate supplements, and regular exercise
5. Hormonal supplementation (herbal, or prescription bio-identical) to compensate for waning levels

Here is a deeper look at the checklist:

1.    Positive Attitude:

Research shows that attitude has a powerful affect on the immune system. A positive attitude goes a long way toward keeping us young, vital, and healthy, just as a pessimistic, negative attitude can be aging. Happiness in not happenstance: it is cultivated. We’ve seen people living in miserable circumstances radiating joy, while many with “perfect” lives are miserable. Two books that I recommend on how to create your own happiness are What Happy People Know by Dan Baker, and Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out by Marci Shimoff.

2. Spend quality time with others, in healthy relationship:
Be supportive and loving toward your friends and family. In fact, helping others is a great remedy for anxiety and depression. Volunteer at a hospital or homeless shelter. There is no greater reward than what we receive from giving to others. Research shows that married men live longer and healthier lives than single ones, and it is likely that all the love and support is keeping them going.  And for everyone: don’t forget hugs — natural, safe, free, and mutually beneficial!

3. Stress Management:

Stress is inevitable. It’s not so much what the stresses are, but how we handle them that is most important. As Mark Twain said, “I have had many troubles on my life, most of which never happened.” Allowing our built-in stress response, the flight or flight mechanism, to take over, not only interferes with our productivity, efficiency, and joy, but can negatively impact every system of our body –  blood pressure, digestion, cholesterol levels, and even our immunity to infection. All of this robs us of our energy, and our years. Beyond the Stress Response: There are a variety of specific brief and simple techniques that effectively deal with chronic feeling of stress and anxiety. One of my favorites is Gary Craig’s EFT (www.emofree.com). Though it’s best done initially with a therapist, once you have a good start, you can continue on your own. A powerful tool, EFT combines positive imagery and specific pressure points on the body to release negative thoughts and feelings. Another outstanding technique, called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), uses rapid eye movements (or tapping on alternate sides of the body, such as on alternate knees) to help synchronize the two sides of your brain. This allows negative feelings of fear, pain, and anger to move through you, and be released. EMDR helps to put you back in your emotional driver’s seat (www.EMDR.org).

You can also use positive thinking to reprogram your mind. Add some visualization, picturing and sensing how you would like your life to be, and how you would like to experience an ideal planet. Research has shown this to be a very powerful way to create change in yourself and the world around you.

Along with a positive attitude goes a spiritual connection, being in the present and connected to a larger purpose. Life must have meaning, connection to the Universe outside ourselves, whatever one’s concept of the Divine is. This may include regular meditation, prayer, or simply being present to the wonders of nature.
Adaptogens are specialized herbs that support your adrenals and give you sustained energy when needed. Some of my favorites are rhodiola, reishi mushroom and Siberian ginseng, which can be found in my Energy Balance formula.

Deep relaxed breathing is an excellent anxiety and stress reducer, and overall tension reliever. Try it. You won’t be able to both breathe deeply and feel anxious or tense at the same time! Regular meditation practice takes this a step further. Try 10 minutes twice a day. There are many excellent books and courses – or simply sit quietly and focus on your breath. Your mind and body will naturally settle into a quiet, restorative state. You can add in a supplement formula containing theanine, GABA, glutamine and other natural ingredients that help your brain and body to chill, such as my CALM Natural Mind.

Adapted from Dr. Cass’ chapter in The Fountain: 25 Experts Reveal Their Secrets of Health and Longevity from the Fountain of Youth by Jack Challem, editor; Basic Health Publications, Inc, 2009.  Learn more about Dr. Hyla Cass on our Experts Page and at www.cassmd.com.

Dr. Cass is one of the country’s foremost authors and speakers on the subject of integrative medicine. A former Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine, Her books include: Supplement Your Prescription, 8 Weeks To Vibrant Health. Visit with Hyla on the Wellness pages and at www.cassmd.com.

OFFER TO FACEBOOK USERS: Dr, Hyla Cass’ ‘Secrets To The Fountain of Youth’ is just one of the articles in our FREE eBook – THRIVE – A Guide To Living The Life You Were Meant To Live – Part 1 – Click here for details

Let’s face it, for a lot of us who the world calls Boomers, Elders and Older GenXers (anyone 40 and over) life is more challenging today than it was prior to the financial crisis of 2008. We have watched our investment accounts shrink, the value of our homes and real estate decline and our ability to find meaningful employment tumble. Those of us who own or want to start a new small business also find it harder to get loans and, in many instances, our lines of credit have been significantly reduced.

Not a pretty picture, especially when you consider the demographic shift that is happening that will result in more than 50% of our population being over 50 for the first time in history. When you add in the fact that our elected officials at the national, state and local levels do not appear to have our best interests at heart, the picture becomes even less attractive.

In fact, based on the rhetoric that issues daily both sides of the political aisle, a number of these elected officials (especially the fiscal reactionaries in both parties) appear to believe that ‘we’ (the over 50 crowd) are the problem. So they want to reduce or eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, turn social security into a bonus pool for Wall Street and even increase the retirement age. They are hoping, of course, that they won’t have to face the truth that the real problem lies in the unfair tax cuts granted to the wealthiest, the absurd tax incentives given to corporations, many of whom pay little or no taxes at all and their stubborn resistance to implementing a quality, single payer health care system for us, like the one that they benefit from themselves.

Instead the only thing our elected official can talk about is cost cutting. Somehow they seem to have forgotten that you build the future with a combination of real investment and fiscal responsibility not with budget reductions alone. But when someone is only interested in grabbing a bigger piece of the financial pie and accumulating more political power and not the well-being of the majority, our quality of life, fairness and justice, and our national responsibility to take care of our own, then they focus only on the numbers.

So I say it is time those of us who already belong to the over 50 crowd and those of us who are joining us at the rate of 1 every 7 seconds to stop relying on these self-obsessed dandies with limited personal agendas and start doing things for ourselves.

And the first of these things is to admit that we have a lot more power than we sometimes remember – voting power, buying power and knowledge and experience power. In short, we control a significant amount of this country’s wealth, spend more than 2 trillion dollars annually and know how to get things done. And if you have any doubt look at what we have accomplished in civil rights, human rights, woman’s right, the environmental movement and more.

This leads to the second thing we would be smart to do. We have to stop letting those who want to divide us and manipulate us have their way. Instead, we can remember that those of us who are in the second half of life have a lot in more essential things in common than the superficial things people use to separate us. So it is time we start speaking out with one voice on the issues that directly impact our lives today and our future. (You can learn more by becoming a free member of the AgeNation Community at www.AgeNation.Com/Join

We also have to stop listing to those who suggest that we are over the hill and out of luck. We need, in fact, to stand up on our hind legs and bay at the moon of new possibilities. We need to re-invent and/or invigorate our own careers and stabilize and rebuild our financial futures by remembering who we are, by refining our current skills and developing new ones, by redefining our priorities, by learning about great new business and investment opportunities and by taking a close look at the kind of legacy we want to leave to those who follow us.

So how do we do all or some of this? In the coming weeks and months a number of authors and experts will use this column to recommend a variety of practical and necessary things each of us can do to turn our challenges into remarkable opportunities. They will introduce you to new opportunities, share their strategies, and recommend books and articles, and online and live programs you can take. (You can get a jump start on this today by clicking on the THRIVE slide above and getting your free Volume One of this great library of information. You can also click on the FaceBook symbol on the home page or go www.facebook/agenation

In addition, here are a few steps you can take today to get started on the road to reinventing and reinvigorating your career and your life.

1. First Things First –

As the old Chinese adage suggests, ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.’ So one of the most important things any of us can do to ensure that we our years ahead are filled with the kind of career opportunities we want, the kind of our financial stability we require and the level of genuine meaning and purpose in our lives we want is to take a close and honest look at how our life is going right now.

You can start by making a list of what is working and what is not. List the resources (tangible things you own, skills you possess, individuals you know, etc.) you have that you can use to meet your practical needs. If you are currently employed, ask yourself if you like what you are doing and if it makes best use of your talents? Do you feel valued and are you contributing something that is worthwhile? Does what you do provide you with the money you need? And what about your physical and emotional health, the quality of your relationships, and our living environment? Yes, the first step in the process of creating the kind of life you want involves your taking stock of “what is” going on here and now.

2. Create A New Vision For This Next Stage Of Your Life –

The second essential thing you can do is to get to work on a new vision for this next stage of your life, one that takes into consideration the things you have identified as currently working and not working. This is your starting point.

And please remember the more specific you make your new vision, the easier and quicker it will be to manifest the kind of life you want for as the old cliché goes – if you don’t know where you are going, you’re likely to end up there.”

So take the time to describe the essential elements of this new life. And be bold and imaginative. Make it an ideal scene and not just something you settle for. And even if you believe this ideal scene is out of reach for you at this moment based on where you are at the moment, do it anyway. Let your heart and your imagination loose. What do you really want to do to earn a living and contribute something of value? What skills do you need to work in this field or to open that kind of business you want? Where do you want to live? What kind of financial stability do you want to have?

Don’t forget to include your personal relationships in your ideal scene. Your health, the contributions you want to make to your family, your community, and to the future. And remember be bold and imaginative because you have the right to live the life you were born to live.

Finally please remember Management Guru, Peter Drucker’s sage advice, “If you want to know the future invent it.” For in the end, “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

And this is only the beginning. As I said, in the coming weeks leading authors and experts on careers will share their insights, strategies and opportunities with you here in this column. You can also learn more by joining the AgeNation Community for free at www.agenation.com/join. And don’t forget to get your free copy of Thrive, Volume One, it includes insights from Mark Victor Hansen, Dr. Hyla Cass, Jeddah Mali, Michael Gelb, Robin Fisher Roffer and Sedena and myself

So here’s to a bright and remarkable tomorrow that we can start living today! Here’s to all of us being able to say – “Over the hill and out of luck? Not a chance!”

George Cappannelli is co-Founder of AgeNation and President and CEO of The Information and Training Company. He is an world-class consultant, author and expert on change. Over the last 25 years he has worked with hundreds of leading organizations, the people who run them and hundreds of thousands of individuals in the public sector. He books include: Say Yes To Change, Authenticity, It’s About Time, I Dream of A New America and the soon to be released, Do Not Go Quietly, A Guide To Conscious Living and Wise Aging in the 21st Century. For more information on consulting and coaching services visit www.agenation.com/consulting or www.georgecappannelli.com.

Judith Fine and Paul Ross do a lot more than write great travel articles and take world class photographs that capture the spirit of remarkable destinations, they belong to a special breed of adventures who forge paths that others of us can follow not only to explore new geography but to uncover new experiences – eye and heart opening experiences – experiences that help us to understand other cultures, to connect with other people and learn more about this remarkable and extraordinary earth that we are privileged to call home. In keeping with the mission of AgeNation, Judith and Paul will soon be announcing some remarkable journeys for AgeNation Community members.

It’s everywhere, all the time, always around us. It’s there when we wake up in the morning, get the paper, open the blinds, heat water, walk, go online, work, meet, eat, greet and sleep.

It’s the particular sounds you hear and don’t hear, listen to and try to ignore.

In Scotland, there were the sounds of the wind and rain that lashed our hair and faces on the dramatic isle of Skye and the haunting tenor and bass drones of a lone bagpipe player who piped for tourists in Edinburgh. We stood still in the middle of a busy street, overcome by sadness, pride, and a host of emotions that had no name.

In central Portugal, we walked with a chorus of men who played the tinny, clanging chocalhos–sheep bells that were strung over their bodies from shoulder to hip like a sash.

In the historic village of Monsanto, a warm, open-hearted woman played the adufe, a square tamborine that reportedly goes back to Biblical times and was once played by Miriam, the sister of Moses. In the Beiras and Barraida regions, it was the swishing of wine in the mouths of wine experts, and the spitting of red and white wines that were pronounced as fine, fruity, balanced, leggy and tannic.

In Norway, there was the sharp ping and crack our ice-cube glass made when it slipped out of our hands in an ice bar and splattered on the icy floor.

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And the pelting rain that bounced off the ground as we ran for the shelter of a gourmet restaurant in Stavanger, which has been made rich by oil money.

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In Vienna, we sat in what may have been the summer residence of Beethoven, looking out the window at the thin blossoms on the trees and, through headphones, listening to the swelling outpouring of the musical genius.

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On a Uniworld boat that sailed on the Danube through Eastern Europe, we listened to presentations about the terrible war in the former Yugoslavia, told from different sides.

The passengers sighed, huffed, whispered, groaned or held their breath, depending upon how they received the information, and what they thought about it.

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In Vienna, there was the creaking of the wooden floor where Sigmund Freud received patients like the famed Wolf Man, as he puffed the pipe and cigars that would kill him and analyzed the seen and unseen forces that wrestle and grapple in  the human mind.

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On the Journey Through Hallowed Ground in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, we listened to the recreated sounds of cannons that exploded on battlefields where more than half a million humans sacrificed their lives on both sides of the slavery and secession issues.

And, at home, at night, under the covers, when the lights were out, our own giggles about silly things that happened, and our joy at being alive.

May the sounds of life awaken you to the thrill of existence everywhere you go, and remind you of how lucky we are to have been chosen to live. May there be love and laughter in you and around you, and may each year bring more sounds, more variety, more depth and more passion to your inner and outer world.

Happy year end.

Judie + Paul