Listening To My Life

Update on acupuncture

It's the morning after. Just wanted to check in to say that I see nothing that I didn't see last night.

But I'll keep lookin' :)

I didn't wish, but am oh-so glad I got this done! (warning--photo may not be for the squeamish!)

Yep -- that's me with needles in my face. There were more in     my hands, ears, head, legs, feet, and over my heart--all for various things I complained about to the doc. Wait--the one over my heart wasn't there to handle something about which I'd complained, but to help my heart open more. Yum.

But back to the ones in my face...they were for a non-surgical face lift. A Biovisage face lift, to be exact.

My friend Sally swears by this, having done it herself, and really does look noticeably younger. So when Sally told me she'd asked said Niloufar Gorman, who has successful clinics in LA, and has recently moved here to Balto, to visit her salon and talk with customers about the acupuncture she does, I said I wanted to come listen.

So there I was, with a group of about 12 women, listening and asking questions. I learned that so very much can be handled with acupuncture, including, but not limited to: taking years off one's face, hands, and knees (you know your knees age, right?), curing acne; reversing hair loss; and almost any other ailment you can imagine.

And I, the one who never ever volunteers in a group situation for anything, felt my hand shoot up when Dr. Gorman asked who wanted to give it a go.

An hour later, I was all done, and people were ooh-ing and aahing over what they said they could see different about me/my face.

What I noticed, besides the slight endorphin rush and the shaking that comes to me when that sort of rush is over, is that my neck and hands look visibly better, my nasolabial folds (those creases women develop that run from the sides of the nose down to the corners of the moth) are almost unnoticeable, my pores are tightened, (who KNEW that was even possible?), and I can feel an increased firmness in the skin when I touch it. Also, there's a sort of tautness to the skin on my face--almost as if an esthetician had applied a mask to my face and it had hardened and tightened everything up. But there's absolutely nothing there. No mask, no powders, no gels or creams. Just me.

My skin is also noticeably smoother, and less dry--a problem I've had since surgery that no facial or cream has helped. There are absolutely differences, although none startling--something I was told to expect, as this method of face-lifting is much like retraining the body when one starts a fitness regimen. It takes a bit of time to really see changes.

Sally said I'd likely see more of a difference tomorrow morning, so I'm looking forward to seeing whatever I see. And then I'll decide if I want more, and for what purpose(s). Even if I decide to not see her for my appearance, I'll probably ask her to have a go at my sciatica (greatly relieved after surgery, but not gone) and the tendon pain I feel in my right arm. And I'm pretty sure my insurance will cover that.

In Baltimore and interested? Call 100 West and ask for more info about ALL of what Dr. Gorman might be able to do for you. Or check out Dr. Gorman's site for her LA clinics. I especially liked this review of her work.

P.S. It didn't hurt. Honest. And I know it would have been a far "nicer" experience if I'd been in a dimly lit room, with candles burning, and soft music playing, and where the only person in attendance is Dr. Gorman.

Let your love show

Popping around the blogosphere to catch up with some of my favorite women, I stopped for a visit with Elena. Her post about this sticker she saw made me think that I never told my own similar story.

 

 

I shared it there with her in a comment, but wanted to share it here with you.

 

On the day I learned my mother had died, Dawn met me at one of our fav lunch haunts for Soothing Lettuce Wraps, Salt and Pepper Calamari, and Kung Pao Chicken—all the comfort foods needed on a day like that day.

 

Out on the parking lot after lunch, she wrote, in lipstick, a message to me on my car window. Here’s the snap I took of it:

 

 

I thought I'd keep it there for a week or so, and imagined that rain and other elemental forces would ultimately wipe it off. But six months later, it’s still there (Dawn did just rejuvenate it a bit earlier this month, and it looks as good as the day she first did it).

 

I never realized how truly warm and happy I would feel every time I see it. Nor did I realize how many people would engage me about it. But I’ve been to countless banks and other drive-through places where, upon seeing it, someone will say something like, “I love you, too!” or, “Awww…thank you for loving me!” and thereby make my day (and doubtless his or her own, as well).

 

I had to have some body work done on the car back in the spring, and when I went to collect it, the body-shop owner said to me, “When I washed your car, I was going to wash that window, but decided that was a pretty important thing you have on it, so I washed around it.” 

 

The point? Love matters. People love love. They love talking about love. They love connecting around love. And given the chance, they’ll respond to it—even around absolute strangers. What can possibly be better than that?

On the train to New York

I'm on the train to New York to see E. I'm excited, as I always am when going to the city. There's now the addition of the knowledge that in just a couple of hours, I'll be seeing his smile, and feeling his warmth as he hugs me hello. Please excuse the formatting... I"m writing this using the Typepad app on my crackberry, and that's very cool, except I cant figure out how to do paragraph breaks, and it doesn't allow for automatic capitalization or the addition of periods at the end of sentences by hitting the spacebar twice I'm sitting next to an older woman from someplace south of DC As we rolled out of town, and she saw the broken down city neighborhoods Amtrak rolls through, she quietly (but not so quietly that I couldn't hear) said, "Baltimore is a really ugly place." I can't argue...based solely on what she just saw, but it made me feel a little sad that, like this lady, there are probably a whole slew of people making judgments--about Baltimore, and possibly other towns--as they roll through on trains, enroute to other destinations Today's lesson is about remembering not to judge books by their covers

Change your email process, change your life!

For the past eleven years, I’ve been a virtual work expert (fact, not ego), and have made my mission that of helping people successfully, effectively, and happily work without borders or cubes.

I love knowing about best practices, what works for people, the technologies and practices they love, and the ones they really think are crap. Part of what’s always so fascinating for me is how different we all are, and how one person’s terrific technology or practice can just about send another person round the bend in frustration. Would that it were different, but there simply is no one best practice for anything.

In my own life, I’ve tried countless ways of making myself more efficient and effective—saving time really is my middle name (and not, as it is with so many other people, so that I can just do MORE work, but so that I can do more LIVING). And having found what’s been working for me for years, I was astounded and delighted the other day to find a new way to handle my email that has made such a huge difference for me.

I found it in a bookstore, where I’d picked up, and glanced at the very first hack in Upgrade Your Life, by Lifehacker goddess Gina Trapani (now, if I’d been smart enough to routinely read the blog, I’d have known this eons ago, and my life would have been amazingly better for it for a long time now. The take-away? Read the blog!).

I won’t belabor the method that’s now allowed me to take my in box items from 2900+ (yeah, I was one of those who was blithely (and blindly) happy with the equivalent of a trash can in my in box) to, well, as of this moment, TWO, or my folders from 60+ to TWO. <g> I just wanted to say that I think what’s important is that I’m truly a life-long learner (although sometimes I question that), and willing to adapt to the new.

Life makes it easy, I think, for each of us to get into a comfort zone and just stay there—whether or not the stuff in the comfort zone works well for us or not. We are impoverished, I think, by a refusal to consider learning something new--whether or not it's ever implemented or used in any way. We are, none of us, hurt, ever, by learning, but many of us refuse to do more of it. Maybe it’s a case of “The devil you know, vs. the devil you don’t.” What I want to remember about this is how amazingly alive I feel for having stepped out of my comfort zone, and made a radical change to something that’s much better for me. It’s a sacred thing, that feeling and movement, and I want to be more present to it.

It's good to laugh :)

In the midst of deep thinking, it's good to have friends who are infinitely entertaining. Today my thanks goes to Miss Mia, who sent me this gem. Enjoy!

Sooooooo sweet!

Three pounds. .75 inches...when closed. I bought it the other night, and am so excited to get it (that will be in about three weeks)!

And what does this have to do with bringing what matters into my daily life? First, it's about abundance. I almost never buy the machine I want, because I want to save money. But this thing can boot both ways, making me more productive at higher levels. It's also something I'll want to take along with me more often because of it's weight and size. So I'll be able to work on the fly with more frequency. And mostly--I just wanted it. And I'm not sure there's really a much better reason to buy something than that, is there?

Life is oh-so good :)