Archives for April 2011

A recent article in the New York Times asks the question, “What’s my REAL size?” Any woman who shops online or in a mall has faced the perplexing dilemma of no two sizes being the same. I can be a perfect 8 in the Gap, a 10 in Banana Republic, a 6 in an Ann Taylor and so on. How is this possible? How can I fluctuate three sizes in one shopping excursion? Either it’s my biggest nightmare and the hot pretzel in the food court really does add ten pounds, or there is a discrepancy between companies and size charts.

Tanya Shaw is an entrepreneur working on a system to help alleviate these problems. She has created MYBestFit, a free service that “makes it easy to find clothes that fit your body.” Apparently they are popping up in kiosks in malls across the country. I don’t know how well the system works or if it might possibly cause even more anxiety for shoppers, but it does seem to be a step in the right direction of leveling the clothing size playing field. According to MyBestFit, there is no sizing standard for apparel manufacturers, they can, quite literally, play with our minds and our bodies.

Another woman pioneering this change is Cricket Lee. Lee is on a personal mission to regulate the sizing industry with her company FITLOGIC. Her system breaks down women’s bodies into three shapes: thick waist with thin hips, curvy but proportional; and thin waist with round bottom and large thighs (sounds like pear-shape to me).

But isn’t part of the fun in shopping trying on different sizes, different styles, different looks? If everything was mapped out for us perfectly, where’s the excitement? The drama? It’s like arranged marriages, sure it seems like a simple solution but does it just open the door for more problems?

I am 32 years old and running out of time. Over the past year I have been steadily building my business, adding more clients, more responsibility, and more tasks to be completed within the hours of a single day. I have two cell phones, two computers, I read 5 newspapers a day and countless online articles. In one work day I will schedule and complete at least a dozen conference calls. I work in PR so staying on top (or even a few steps ahead) of everything that is going on is imperative to my business. Weekends are spent speaking at writing and publishing events and my nights are spent researching and writing.  I also added a daily 4 mile run with the pace increasing every day.

Every year it seems that my life becomes more filled with responsibility and the time in which these tasks must be completed shrinks. Everything is moving at a faster pace and I can barely keep up, let alone grow and thrive.

And with all of this I am finding that the attention I give to the ones I love is shrinking steadily. I have less time to listen to stories or funny anecdotes. I don’t have long, drawn out conversations with friends, those have been replaced with short, clipped emails tapped out in a sliver of a free moment.  I am short on time, so I am short with people.

The words languish, indulge, relax, restore don’t exist in my life anymore. I have no patience. I am literally running out of time and I am only 32.

We truly need to slow down. But how? How when we have programmed ourselves to fill up every minute of the day with busyness? How when we read story after story about young people working night and day to develop a business model that results in multi-million dollar payouts? We are spurred on and inspired by these stories but we are killing ourselves to emulate this success. Is it time we slow down? Or does it go against everything we have been taught?

Research has found that slow thinking actually promotes and inspires creativity. A recent study found that people fighting a clock were the least creative because they were unable to truly focus and let their minds zero in on the most important and powerful ideas.

Google is one of the first companies to truly implement this slow movement. They advise their employees to devote 20% of their time to personal projects. Gmail and Adsense are two innovations that came from the 20% downtime.

I would love to see if the slow life is the way to a healthy and happy heart and a well-adjusted brain. I want to take the long, windy road instead of the fast lane. The obstacles I face, to do more and do it faster, is a common problem among young women today. Fearing the pressure to fit it all in before settling down with kids, a husband, a mortgage or fitting it all in with those added pressures of family already in place, is something that women are battling more frequently and with more intensity than ever before.

With books like Carl Honore’s IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS and Dominque Browning’s SLOW LOVE, this is something that people are learning later in life. But what would happen if we could discover the power of slow living NOW, when we are still in the throes of building our lives, when things are just beginning? Is the slow movement more than just a theory to test? Is it the secret to happiness and fulfillment in life?

My niece picked out the above image for me to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

Today I watched the Boston Marathon. I had it on in the background while I went about my daily routine (emails, writing, phone calls). I must admit that when the elite runners were rounding the corner and hitting Boylston Street (the last few blocks of the race), I put everything on pause and sat, transfixed. We were very close to having an American woman (Desiree Davila) win the race but unfortunately, in the last 200 yards or so, she was passed by Caroline Kilel from Ethiopia. The last time an American woman won the Boston Marathon was in 1985, so I was really hoping for some history making today. Unfortunately, it was not to be. And our beloved Kara Goucher finished 5th. Kara, who gave birth to a baby boy 6 months ago (!!) ran a personal best and has vowed that she will continue running the Boston Marathon until she wins. I love her gumption.

The men’s race was equally as exciting because a world record was smashed by Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai who ran the fastest 26.2 miles in history (unfortunately the downhill portion of the race makes it ineligible for an official world record).

I, of course, had to hit the treadmill after work and have my own imaginary marathon run. While running, I couldn’t help but think about the passion and determination on the faces of all the runners I watched today. It’s very hard to worry about your relationships, your boss, your financial situation, your hair when doing something as solitary and physically exhausting as pushing your body forward in a perpetual motion. With each foot fall you can leave your worries, your stresses and your frustration behind you. You can’t stress about any extra pounds on your body because you are consciously working towards making them history. You can’t worry about work because you are in no way capable of doing anything but putting one foot in front of the other. There is also something that happens when working out, your thoughts tend to lean towards the positive, the hopeful, the optimistic. You’re moving forward and so are your thoughts.

So yes, baby we were born to run…(or walk, swim, bike). Find something that lifts your heart rate and your spirits and keep doing it. Every day.

I am literally in a funk. I don’t know if it’s the weather (I have seen maybe one or two glimpses of the sun), the time of year, the anticipation of spring and summer or the general need for a vacation. All I know is I am in a funk. I don’t feel like going out on the weekends and I generally just want to stay home and watch reality tv. (However, recent studies have shown that some alone time is actually healthy and can lead to creativity and happiness. I will definitely be weighing in on this in further detail in a later post.)

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not depressed. I am actually quite a happy person, by nature. I can find joy in the smallest things (a good dinner, a captivating book, some snarky celebrity magazines) but lately I just can’t seem to shake this general sense of “eh.” That’s the best way I can put it.

So because I’m in this funk, I start looking back and thinking “when was the last time I was really happy?” When was the last time I was super excited to get out of bed in the morning? It’s kind of like when you lose something and you have to retrace your steps to see if you can find where you dropped it.

I was happiest when I was writing freelance for magazines. I wrote about sending love notes and getting rain insurance for your wedding. I wrote about curiosity and health. I wrote book reviews and a story about building pools (yes, some stories were more random than others). I loved writing these stories. I loved researching and crafting the perfect words, pitching them and waiting to hear back from editors. To put it simply, I love writing.

My job is PR. That’s what I do for a living. I enjoy it, I really do. I love working with authors, crafting press releases and pitching ideas to the media. But sometimes you want to stretch your creative muscle. You want to do something for work AND for fun. You want to do something that both inspires and intrigues, something for yourself.

I may not have the time to write and pitch magazine articles, but I do have a platform to express these thoughts and explore the new things I learn along the way. I think that by writing these blog posts about the interesting things I discover, I will be creating both balance and pride in my life, in my work and in my heart.

Truly, it’s all about curiosity. Studies have shown that curious people are happier people.

So my journey towards relocating my happiness is going to start here. With you. With my research, my thoughts and my words.

Today was a perfect day. Do you ever have those days that are just fully enjoyable from beginning to end? That was today. But technically, that’s not true. I started off the day in a state of turmoil. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, how I wanted to spend my precious free time. I have so little of it these days and it sometimes seems that I am paralyzed with indecision. But I made a decision. I chose to spend time with someone special, doing things that weren’t productive. I wasn’t organizing or cleaning or getting a jump start on work. Instead, I went out for a breakfast buffet that was beyond delicious (even if I did dump half of my hash browns…covered in ketchup…into my lap…twice). Then we went for a walk and found a bench facing the water. We sat and talked. About nothing and everything. The sun was warm, the air had a little early spring chill in it but the day was bright and perfect. Even better, I was dressed appropriately, a sweater AND a jacket…I tend to under dress at the first sign of spring and 9 out of 10 times I’m always cold…needless to say, I jump the gun for warm weather. So there we were, enjoying  a lazy Sunday, full from a delicious brunch and casually walking the streets of this quaint, quiet, historical town.

To say that I am excited about a recent purchase is an understatement. I’m not just excited about my new iMac, I’m overwhelmed, terrified, exhilarated and optimistic. I have been a PC person for my entire adult life so this is the equivalent of suddenly driving on the opposite side of the road. What I can tell you is that what I have seen so far is beyond my greatest expectations. I am going to completely sound like an “I’m a MAC” commercial, but seriously, this is one awesome computer. I love the clicking and dragging aspect of it. I love the overall simplicity of the entire operating system. Yes, it is going to take me a long time to get over the fact that THERE IS NO RIGHT CLICK but other than that, I’m in love.

I also have to say something about the support they have over at Apple. It’s unlike any other electronic purchase I have ever made. This morning I had a two hour MEET YOUR MAC class and a lesson in the One-to-One program they offer. This is a program that allows you to set up meeting times with someone at the Apple store whenever you want and they will walk you through whatever difficulties you are having. In a word: AMAZING!

{Just FYI, I am in no way affiliated with Apple nor am I receiving any compensation…I’m just a girl who’s excited about a new toy!}

I really believe there is a therapeutic quality to blogging (or maybe just writing in general). Writing has the power to act as a reset button. No matter how unhappy or frustrated you are about something, just the act of writing it down helps to clarify things. It can even make problems that seemed larger than life suddenly seem a lot more palatable. I believe this is why many of the blogs I read always sound so upbeat and optimistic. Once you write it out, it no longer carries the weight it once did and you are able to look at things more objectively and come to more helpful conclusion.

Today was a busy day. Busier than I had originally hoped (or anticipated) it would be. I went to my friend’s bridal shower, went to the gym (where they were shooting a commercial!) and then hit up Target and the grocery store. I left the house around 10am and didn’t return until close to 8pm. I’m completely exhausted and even though I would have liked to have spent the Sunday lazily reading the paper and surfing my favorite blogs, I am happy with all that I accomplished and enjoy the feeling of living a FULL life. Seeing friends, meeting new people, being healthy, shopping…really, what else could I ask for in life?