Always looking for that Golden Opportunity?

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself."
--Mary Engelbreit

Surviving Breast Cancer

There are no coincidences in the world and if you are reading this and don't quite understand how or why you found this blog -- there's a reason for it.

A few months back I found out about a man named Robert Moss. I heard him being interviewed on a talk radio show. I liked what he had to say. He was promoting a book he had written called, The Three Only Things Dreams, Coincidences and Imagination. Several weeks went by and I searched his website to find that he was going to do a talk and book signing at a small bookstore about 15 minutes away. I was so excited.

I went, got his book, and had the chance to ask him one question as he was signing my book. The question I asked was what do I do when coincidences happen. What do I do with that information. He answered by saying, "Think of it as a secret handshake from the Universe." I loved that answer.

In his book he mentioned a woman named Wanda Burch who had also written a book called, "She Who Dreams." I quickly got my hands on this book and so enjoyed it. You know those kinds of books you just wish wouldn't end? It was one of those for me.

I feel this book should be read by every female. The basis of this book is centered around Wanda's journey of discovering she had breast cancer, trying to convince a doctor she had breast cancer, and then the whole process of surgery and chemo.

I think as a woman you'll find yourself empowered when you read it. I hope that as you get into this book you'll reclaim your own personal intuition and maybe look at your dreams with the possibility that they can help you.

We live in such a busy society now where it's hard to take a moment to ourselves to listen to what our gut/heart is telling us. We get so caught up in the ugly news that surrounds us on a daily basis, we've got work in and out of the home. You know what I'm talking about. BUSY BUSY BUSY.

Taking a few quiet moments to ourselves can actually make us healthier and quite possibly save our life.

Jane Stillwater -- At it again.

No Jane isn't headed to Iraq again...yet (just give her time). But she is on yet another adventure. I can so relate to this woman at times. Right now she is off on a little vacation to Puerto Vallarta for a week or so. Sounds nice right? You're probably thinking that you wish you could go take a little trip right about now.

Well before you get too much into your head, let me explain that Jane got a really good deal on a plane ticket to PV and couldn't pass it up. Basically that's all she can afford (read the full story here). She has no place to stay and has no idea where she'll sleep. Most likely on the beach and she has about $300 in her checking account.

This woman has GUTS. But I can so relate. I've traveled more than once with no idea where I was going to stay, and with very little money in my pocket.

I'm sure Jane will find some how to blog her adventure and I'm looking forward to her updates.

On another exciting note I'm going to finally be able to meet Jane. She just lives down the Interstate a ways. She's agreed for me to interview her. This is going to be so much fun. I'll post the video as soon as possible.

Which brings me to asking you a question. If you know of any women in California who live their life out of the box so to speak, please tell me about them. I've love to interview them.

And good luck to you Jane

Setting Your Spirit Free

Let me ask you a question. Describe to me your spirit? Don't confuse spirit with personality. When you describe your spirit tell me all those things you enjoy doing. Basically when you're doing these things you aren't thinking about anything else in the world. You're living in the moment, happy, and content.

If I was to describe my spirit and what it likes to do to you I'd say it loves to go to bookstores, it loves art supplies, it likes to play tricks on people, it loves to ride motorcycles, it loves to run really really fast...

I'm starting to realize more and more how much energy I put towards squelching my spirit. We all do it. The older we get it seems the less our spirit is able to really show it's face.

Today for example I was taking my walk through the park and I hit this small downhill part and I had this intense desire to run...really fast. My first thought was, "What if I fall?" My second thought was, "If someone sees me running like this their going to think a bear or a mountain lion is after me." See the thing with letting your spirit go is that our ego/mind is always eager to jump in and sit on spirit and squelch it. It's really rather sad. But today I didn't let that happen. I ran as fast I could. For as long as I could. And it felt so good. For just a few short moments I was totally in the moment, and as happy as I could be.

When you let spirit out to play, you have to put ego away. And that isn't easy to do. Above you saw a picture of a chalk drawing I made about a week ago. I've had this weird desire to create with sidewalk chalk. I've also had a desire to create mandala's. So I put these two ideas together and went to a park and started to draw. It wasn't easy for me to do this. I don't feel like I'm an artist in any sense of the word and going out where I might be in front of people creating something made me nervous.

So I picked an out of the way park, and went to a section people weren't going to really be walking by and drew. I LOVED what I created. I wanted to sit there for as long as possible and take it all in. The picture doesn't do it justice. The colors were much brighter and you could really see a lot more definition. I had a blast. My spirit was totally fed by doing this.

Below is another example of feeding my spirit. This past summer I did something I've wanted to do for a really long time. I took a surfing lesson. Yes I had my doubts, was scared and felt a little foolish at first...well let me show you instead.

DANGER

Yesterday I was out taking my usual walk in a local park when I noticed someone had written on a rock the word Danger. I was at first a little concerned because the arrow was pointing in the exact direction I was headed. Even though I had walked this path several times before, I started to second guess myself and wondered if MAYBE there was danger ahead.

Well I threw cation to the wind and continued my walk...toward the DANGER. Turns out there was no danger. Typical!

How many times are you faced with the possibility of doing something but stop because it feels dangerous? Dangerous because someone else says it's something to be feared or it's just sounds scary. Then your mind goes into overdrive starts churning out all types of terrible possibilities if you try such a thing?

My experience has been that it's never as scary or horrible as we make it out to be, and can actually turn out to be a pretty cool opportunity.

Giving girls the chance to play ball...or whatever sport she wants to play!

Came across a great article in the Carroll County Times by Bob Blubaugh and it got me to thinking more about girls and sports.

WHY don't more girls play sports?

So then I came across another great article called, "Why don't more girls play sports?"

Below you'll see an article taken from the Women's Sports Foundation called, 25 Benefits of Girls Playing Sports. It points out that girls who play sports are less likely to get involved in smoking, drugs, and will wait until later for their first sexual experience, among other great benefits.

My question is this...once girls get into high school how many sports can they pick from? Compare that to the guys choices. Also girls playing sports in high school drops off dramatically from junior high. Our girls are becoming women, they should act like one right?! Not like a tomboy anymore. AND YET, playing sports will by far be the best thing a young girl can do for herself.

What's so ironic here is that we see and KNOW there are benefits to girls playing sports, yet we don't want them to get hurt. However we're more likely to let the boys get hurt. That doesn't seem to bother us as much.

Another thing is this, what female sport role models do our girls have to look up to? Who are they, where are they?

I feel the best thing we can do for our girls is to expose them to as many female oriented athletes that we can. Take them to games, get them excited about playing sports.

I was talking to one of my co-workers the other day about going to a WNBA game and he said that he actually liked watching women play basketball because it's more about the game instead of all the antics and tricks that you see the guys do.

This month try to make it a priority to take your daughter, niece, sister, your friends daughter...whoever you can, and take them to a professional woman's game in your area. I think you're going to enjoy it a whole lot more than you though you would.

25 Benefits of Girls Playing Sports

1. Sports are FUN.
2. Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image than girls and women who don't participate.
3. Girls who participate in sports have higher self-esteem and pride in themselves.
4. Research suggests that physical activity is an effective tool for reducing the symptoms of stress and depression among girls.
5. Playing sports teaches girls how to take risks and be aggressive.
6. Sport is where girls can learn goal-setting, strategic thinking and the pursuit of excellence in performance and other achievement-oriented behaviors - critical skills necessary for success in the workplace.
7. Playing sports teaches math skills.
8. Sports help girls develop leadership skills.
9. Sports teach girls team-work.
10. Regular physical activity in adolescence can reduce girls' risk for obesity.
11. Physical activity appears to decrease the initiation of cigarette smoking in adolescents girls.
12. Research suggests that girls who participate in sports are more likely to experience academic success and graduate from high school than those who do not play sports.
13. Teenage female athletes are less than half as likely to get pregnant as female non-athletes (5% and 11% respectively).
14. Teenage female athletes are more likely to report that they had never had sexual intercourse than non-athletes (54% and 41%).
15. Teenage female athletes are more likely to experience their first sexual intercourse later in adolescence than female non-athletes.
16. High school sports participation may help prevent osteoporosis.
17. Women who exercise report being happier than those who do not exercise.
18. Women who exercise believe they have more energy and felt they were in excellent health more often than non-exercising women.
19. Women who are active in sports and recreational activities as girls feel greater confidence in their physical and social selves than those who were sedentary as kids.
20. Women who exercise miss fewer days of work.
21. Research supports that regular physical activity can reduce hyperlipidemia (high levels of fat in blood).
22. Recreational physical activity may decrease a woman's chance of developing breast cancer.
23. Women who exercise weigh less than non-exercising women.
24. Women who exercise have lower levels of blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides and have lower blood pressure than non-exercising women
25. Regular exercise improves the overall quality of life.
-- Compiled by the Women's Sports Foundation 1999.For full citations please contact the Women's Sports Foundation (800) 227-3988.Copyright(c)WSF

My First WNBA Game

I was able to go to my very first WNBA game and I'm wondering why it's taken me so long to actually go. What got me to go to this particular game was I've recently wrote an article that included Sheryl Swoopes. The more I researched her the more impressed I became. Swoopes has played for the Houston Comets for as long as there has been a WNBA (about 11 years now).

Her past has included winning three Olympic Gold Medals and is a three-time WNBA MVP. She is frequently referred to as the "female Michael Jordon" and is the first woman basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

I was so excited to watch her play at Arco Arena against the Monarchs. Well on Thursday I found out she was out due to an injury. I almost didn't go to the game, but went anyway and I'm so glad I did. It was such a blast.

First off it was very cool to go to a sporting event where there were more women attending than men. It was also really neat to see young girls at a sporting event really getting into the game and cheering their team on (which happened to be the Monarchs).

It really dawned on me while I was at this game last night that our daughters have very few women athletes to look up to and admire. The Olympics come around every few years which gives girls the opportunity to find some new heroes. I remember Mary Lou Retton in the 84 Olympics. I was so impressed with her.

And why did Mary Lou Retton decide to become a gymnast? Well she was inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television. If you don't remember much about Nadia she was a Romanian gymnast, winner of five Olympic gold medals, and the first to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic.

The WNBA struggled in the beginning with low turn outs and not a lot of support, which is so sad. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge basketball fan myself, but after going to this game last night I've had a change of heart. First off the game was a blast to watch, and second I'm bringing my girls next time so they have an opportunity to see some women athletes in action. I think the more our daughters get the opportunity to see female athletes the better.

If there's a WNBA team in your town -- go see a game. Take your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, mothers, aunts and whoever else will come. You won't be disappointed and it will give our young ladies the chance too see that there are some great opportunities out there for them that they may never have realized before. Who knows what dreams that might dream.