The September issue of Women’s Health magazine offers a terrific article on increasing patience to become more mindful of everyday moments. The author, Shelley Levitt, does a great job of putting her own spin on to the challenges of allowing life to unfold. Levitt speaks with Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer Ph.D who has studied mindfulness, Levitt tells us, for over 30 years.
Langer offers great reassurance for people like me who have a hard time sitting and doing nothing for 5 minutes, let alone meditating for 20 minutes. Langer’s suggestion is to simply observe what is happening around you. This natural observation will lend to greater mindfulness. 
This makes sense. Mindful living contributes to greater satisfaction with ourselves in each of the area’s of our life that we are now paying attention to. Improved satisfaction with ourselves leads to high self-esteem. Levitt tells us that “mindfullness…makes you fall a little in love with yourself and your life…”. So, if you can get yourself to get there, try it. Allow yourself to take in more of what is happening all around you. You’ll gain a little more love and patience for your Authentic Self in the process.
I have been traveling from home more over the past 2 weeks than I have in months. There hasn’t been a night home in recent memory. One of the reasons is that I’ve started a part-time Masters program which lands me in an actual classroom for the first time in 10+ years. The travel time to and from class as well as the time in class has been unexpectedly draining. Homework on top of my own work on top of family work = lots of time and energy.
When we are tired, we feel stupid and things slip through the cracks (forgetting a book for our flight that we need to finish; losing a important email address; leaving our digital camera in the car instead of in our carry-on, etc). This feeling of ‘why am I a step behind?’ monotony is really defeating to our self-esteem.
I am reminded that I need to get in extra sleep, lots more water and tons of fresh veggies. I’ve kind of been doing that but need to double my efforts and make sure that I am paying attention to what my Authentic Self is telling me it needs.
If you are unexpectedly falling behind, consider how your circumstances have changed (added commute time to a new job; child care changes; homework that seems to drag on) and then ask your Authentic Self what she needs to restore her energy and self-esteem. Then, act on those ideas to refresh yourself.
My proposal, Lonely Planet-How Relationships Suffer and Why it Matters, has been accepted by the good folks at Change This and from now until 10/2, eager readers like you and others will be able to read it and decide whether or not, I should write a manifesto based on the proposal. So, get out and vote. 
And, for this election, you don’t even need to leave the house! Click away and be magically transported to my proposal where you can read it and then vote. And, this time, I guarantee no hanging chads to underscore your efforts.
One of the more interesting components of successful people is that they deliberately create change in their life, to facilitate making a difference in the lives of others. Most of us feel like we would like to make a difference in the world. But, often, we aren’t sure how. In my work, clients uncover their Authentic Self and through this unravelling, build compassion for who she is and learn to appreciate her own uniqueness. When we are aware of how unique we are, our inherent qualities that seem like ‘nothing special’ can be viewed through a vision-oriented lens. We are then able to see how we can make a difference in the world. Feeling confident of our place in the world, why we are here and what we must do, builds feelings of success which in turn heighten our self-esteem. Additionally, our chances of being affected by a life-threatening illness are lessened, as Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz tells us in both of her powerful books.
I read aboutVera Farmiga in an article by Lynn Hirschberg in yesterday’s NYT magazine, A Film of One’s Own. The article raised a number of interesting points but what struck me was the close of the article when Farmiga shares, “…I do feel a need to make a difference, to shed light on human emotion through acting.“. Farmiga, age 33, knows how she can make a difference and is seeking the forums–quality, strong female roles in film–in order to do so. 
Will she find those films? Perhaps. She is getting the support of powerful directors like Martin Scorcese. Hopefully Farmiga will find films that honor her Authentic Self by allowing her that medium of film to make a difference to others through her own uniqueness.