Blog
How Do Baking and Conflict Management Mix?
I have always had a love/hate relationship with baking and cooking. Though I come from a long line of amazing bakers and cooks, I did not inherit that gene! Case in point I was raised in the Midwest where I was involved with 4H, a youth organization that promotes responsibility...
Present, But Not There
Presenteeism. This one word costs U.S. employers between $150-260 billion a year. It's a concept that is identified as a contributing factor to lower productivity and higher costs to employers. By definition presenteeism is usually associated with employees coming to work who are medically ill, have an injury, or have...
How One Woman’s Internal Peace Saved Her Life and Hundreds of Others
We handle external conflict well when we have internal peace. On August 20, 2013, Antoinette Tuff was a shining example of this concept. She started out her typical work day at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy Elementary School, where she was suddenly met with a gunman who entered the...
Teen Teaches Adults About Focus with Tag Words
Much has been written about teenagers' difficulty with focus. Most often, it is cited as a sign of immaturity. The Psychiatric and medical community even have a diagnostic code Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) that justifies the use of mediation for such a condition. A 15-year-old Somali boy has recently shown...
I Don’t Have Time
One of the most frequent comments I hear of what gets in the way of taking the much-needed time for personal recharging and renewal is "I don't have time". The reason behind this thought seems that if time is taken away from your to-do list to be still and focus on...
7 Tips to Manage Conflict and Increase Productivity
Conflict has really gotten a bad rap. Most often, conflict is avoided which eventually leads to ugly disagreements and possibly fractured relationships. Even in the workplace, conflict often goes underground leading to denial, gossip, sick days, and good people choosing to leave and work elsewhere. But what if conflict was...
Listening beyond words
Think of a time when you were overwhelmed, angry, discouraged. Do you have it in mind? What was your mindset? Were you focused on all that was wrong about the situation, a particular person? Not able to see a way around the negativity? How does your body feel right now...
Seeing with new eyes
In the next two days between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day you may be exchanging gifts between you and loved ones. If today is a working day for you, perhaps there will be gifts exchanged between you and co-workers. You may have drawn the name of a difficult family member...
Three questions that will enrich your Holidays
Rituals. They are the practices that we have as part of Holidays that give us comfort and stability. Rituals can be special foods, practices, or most simply "just how things are done" that provide meaning and significance. Several years ago, I started a ritual with my extended family by asking...
A Mindful Gift that will never be forgotten
Are you tired of the commercial aspect of the Holidays where the emphasis is on buying gifts that people either don't need or want? Do you lack original ideas of what to buy? Perhaps you have people on your list who have everything and you are stumped as to what...