Usually this Japanese ritual which is centuries old, involves the guest, who observes the performance of the preparation and presentation of the tea, then eats traditional Japanese confections to enhance the taste of tea. After consuming the sweets the guest drinks green tea in a formalized manner. The untrained person makes the tea according to her own schedule, but part of the elegance and beauty of this ritual is similar to a dance between two people who are connected and moving together while maintaining their individuality.

In Aikido the inexperienced practitioner often drags his uke (attacker) along in his unskilled effort to throw him. In contrast the experienced Aikidoist harmonizes or blends his energy in order to guide his uke to where both the uke and the nage (thrower) wants to go. It’s about uke and nage aligning their bodies, mind, energy. Instead of doing something “to” someone you’re doing it “with” them. This comes with much practice, body to body.

Ginny Breeland, who has been practicing Aikido for over thirty years and is a 5th dan, says that the first step to becoming a skilled practitioner in Aikido or tea ceremony is to observe ourselves when we train. She advises that we notice how we react, what we need to change. “If you do that you don’t judge yourself you just see it,” she says. “Instead of coming to conclusions before we know the actual story, just observe.”

While these two processes develop a person’s sensitivity, capabilities, and strengths, many people will recognize that DO or “The Way” doesn’t have a direct translation/path journey. “It’s a nameless process that happens that leads you to wellness and growth,” says Breeland. They are both a type of mindfulness practice that begin to change the shape of your thoughts and actions over time.

Both paths are similar but different. Tea ceremony and Aikido can both be considered meditation in action, practices that emphasize stillness through movement. They require commitment and sometimes the work is arduous. “Not like a hobby,” says Breeland. But everything from finishing a book or a piece of art can be martial, she explains. “All the masters in every martial art discipline say it’s about peace, non-confrontation and maintaining peace and respect. Tea is a mindfulness practice that has its origins in Zen. Underneath that practice is the subtle understanding that it’s not necessary to have so many materialistic things to have happiness. In Aikido the practice is to turn lead into gold. The founder Morihei Ueshiba says, “True victory is self-victory.”

“These practices are not about learning to be good. They are about finding the goodness in yourself,” explains Breeland. One way to do that is to try something that requires commitment so people learn about themselves. Both the tea ceremony and Aikido are two paths that can bring you there. It’s not about words and knowing, but about feeling. Aikido and tea aren’t about making you a better speaker, but a better listener.

“People are looking for wellness and maybe they want to try it without a pill as there’s access to it in your own brain,” notes Breeland. “Look inside yourself first. Even if you don’t like what you see work with it and let’s see what we can do after that. As with any new learning you start with one good technique and put it in your pocket and slowly start to gather them.” This is part of the commitment to moving forward incrementally no matter what, using the tea ceremony, Aikido, or whatever you choose as the vehicle.

Join Ginny Breeland 5th Dan Aikido and Sachiko Knappman, urasenke tea practitioner for 2 hours of discussion and sensory exploration of tea and aikido on Sunday August 29, 10am-12pm in Cotati CA. Participation is optional. Contact Pete@cotatiaikido.com for information or registration.

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A couple of black belts volunteer to train anyone who wants to work on specific throws, techniques or to train for tests. I’m not fully awake first thing in the morning, but I roused myself because I wanted the practice so I could have some semblance of comfort…which turned out to be a pipe dream.

Half way through the first practice run one of the black belts said sternly, “You need to remember two things for your test. Don’t talk. And even if you don’t know what technique Sensei calls out just do something, anything. Don’t act like a deer frozen in the headlights, for God’s sake.”

I’m a verbal person and Aikido is virtually a silent art minus the chant or kiais (relaxed and powerful exhalation that coordinates breath with ki or energy during strikes or throws). I’m used to talking when I’m nervous so I can dissipate the excess energy and get to a place of calm. There isn’t an opportunity for this in Aikido. Your body does the talking. Period.

For me this is like asking a whale to walk. During practice I tend to work through techniques verbally along with the physical movement, talking out loud what I’m doing or asking uke about angle or balance, trying to figure out what’s working. I like to get feedback as it helps me understand what’s going on. Observation isn’t enough for me at this point as my “Aikido vision”  is still pretty blurry.

Part of all this had to do with seeing body as separate and uncontrolled being, as if it’s an alien from outer space. I can sometimes see what I need to do, but can’t yet will my body to do it. I know some of this is due to beginner’s ineptitude since I just haven’t done the techniques that many times.

As I was mulling this over I recalled how much practice time I put into tennis in my youth when I played competitively. At tennis camp I trained 8-10 hours a day doing drills with other people, with the ball machine, with a practice net, and against a wall. I hit thousand of balls working to ingrain the basic strokes. We jump roped, we ran, we did all kinds of exercises and drills to strengthen our muscles in addition to actually hitting the ball.

In the anticipation of trying to do well I tended to forget how much time I clocked to become fluent and agile at tennis. Plus, I had a lot more energy back then. And I didn’t need to pop Advil after a few hours of training. With tennis the goal is clear — connect the racquet to the ball and hit it where your opponent isn’t. In Aikido there is no such direct path.

With all my limbs moving in different directions and the various body types and personalities attached to those bodies with their own individual limbs, I can rarely figure out where I am in space and time. It’s as if I was in the space shuttle and up was down and down was up and all the in-between stuff was floating about in an aimless manner. There’s not sense of where the boundaries are or which direction I’m facing. It’s a topsy turvy world with no edges and no way to move forward directly. One can get lost in the circles, spirals and triangles if one is used to traveling in straight lines, which I am.

In addition to the “deer in the headlights” advice I got more direction that set me on edge. The other black belt said, “Stop worrying so much about what other people think of you and focus on the technique.” All the years of parental pressure to be number one, to be the best, to try try try, are evidently written on my sleeve.

What he saw in those moments wasn’t active agitation, it was background worry. A kind of slow whirr that’s on all the time that I’m so used to I barely notice. I thought I was focused on the technique, but I imagine that too much of my brain space was already taken up by errant thoughts of failure. With that being the case there wasn’t much room left for concentration.

At home, when I practiced visualizing each throw, little scenes of disaster would pop into my head and derail the graceful flowing sequence I was creating until the entire golden vision deteriorated into one big fiasco. In general my mind tends toward the moribund so I imagined things like my foot getting caught on my uke’s hakama and breaking my ankle or tonking my head so hard on the mat that it would trigger an epileptic fit. I could easily write The Worse Case Scenario Handbook for Martial Artists.

When the blunders, missteps and accidents nudged their way into this visualization, I’d breathe, reset and begin with the last positive thought before the foot in hakama ankle break took over. I recalled that a few days earlier during training Goto Sensei had been talking about how once you learn to breathe through a technique the breathing guides the technique effortlessly. But breathing takes a back seat when you don’t know where to put your feet.

Nonetheless while practicing at home on our deck I made breathing the focus as I moved through the various throws watching myself in the reflection in the glass doors. Being able to see myself helped me gain a sense of where I was in space and time. Now I just need to practice each technique thousands of times, breathing, relaxing and focusing to train my mind to just hear and see and feel what is going on in this moment, with this body, in this one breath.

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Their words and actions may seem like pure idiocy, but, surprisingly, your partner’s responses are rooted in physiology. What is going on, says psychotherapist Nancy Dreyfus, author of Talk to Me Like I’m Someone You love: Relationship Repair in a Flash, is that in the midst of a fight our bodies go into fight or flight mode. Our instincts rev up on high alert.

During these moments of elevated chemistry we are actually looking for danger. Typically, we find it pretty fast. Even within an apology. “When your partner says, ‘I’m sorry,’ we not only hear the words, but the tone beneath them,” says Dreyfus. “If it’s not wholehearted or there is a lingering edge of exasperation, what we hear is ‘You’re my enemy not my friend’.”

Part of this is due to the fact that according to communications pioneer Professor Albert Mehrabian “7% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is in the words that are spoken. 38% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is paralinguistic (the way that the words are said). 55% of message pertaining to feelings and attitudes is in facial expression.” so that even a sincere verbal apology may be contaminated by a small percentage of tension perceived by the listener. When our body is in a state of arousal we’re oriented to scan the environment for danger both auditorially and visually.

What complicates the matter is that when the person who receives the apology isn’t buying it, or feels like it’s just being said to shut them up, the apology itself can ignite a cycle where the person sincerely apologizing feels hopeless. When his apology isn’t accepted, it refuels his anger.

This is one of the reasons Dreyfus created her written flash cards which can help couples who are fighting or at an impasse calm down and get through to each other in less than a minute and turn a mean interaction into a loving one. The flash cards are a series of warm and calming self-aware messages that can be held up in the midst of an argument. For example it may be scary to say, “I’m afraid if I say I’m sorry, you’ll make everything all my fault.” But holding up the card can neutralize the difficulty.

A written message diffuses all the subterfuge. “We want to connect,” says Dreyfus. “And from a spiritual perspective, we already are. But in these moments of anger and despair we feel like we’re separate.” The flash cards close the separation. Since they are free from any “tone” their message is also free of any interpretation beyond the words. “Written messages allow us to more simply align with trusting in our connection,” says Dreyfus. “We’re willing to trust that a written message has a purity to it that a verbal message doesn’t.”
 
Another reason why the cards work is that they show that the person using them is making a conscious choice vs. reactive one. Since people don’t typically have the flashcards at hand when an argument erupts they must dash out of the room, get the book and find a fitting card.

The written message, untainted by questionable voice tones, usually has the unique potential of transcending the survival-based paranoia our fight-or-flight response dictates.

A couple who begged Dreyfus for an emergency session on the day she was leaving town for her book tour, found solace in Dreyfus’ advice – and could have benefited greatly from having the cards at hand. This normally loving couple hadn’t spoken in two days….

On short notice the husband invited to dinner someone who was in town for the day whose approval was important to him. Rather than ask, he informed wife ‘We’re having company for dinner.’ They were experiencing financial hard times and couldn’t afford an extravagant dinner but had some frozen eggplant parmesan on hand. The wife, who reorganized her entire day so she could clean the house and get everything prepared for their guest, neglected to read the instructions on the eggplant and just took it out of the freezer to defrost.

When the husband found out that the dinner would be about thirty minutes late because his wife hadn’t micro-waved the eggplant as the instructions said, he went ballistic. He began screaming and saying “You’re not my friend or wife. A friend would have known how important this was.”

This kind of overreacting is the effect of deep childhood wounding, Dreyfus explained. He took her “laxness” about the meal as an indication that she didn’t care as much about dinner as much as he did. Of course it wasn’t about the food at all, but about a childhood wound around a mother who was never in sync with him.

It was as if he was a healthy toddler screaming for his mother to be attuned to him. Early in life this sub-optimal attunement can be life-threatening if a mother isn’t responding to the needs her infant can’t verbalize. In the present, this unresolved issue was transferred to his wife. The first thing he said in their session to her was “You don’t love me.” Everything she had done was meaningless for him. What he was asking for was someone to read his mind and do things exactly as he would have done them.

This form of fight or flight is rooted in a time when survival depended on a parent being able to mind-read the child’s needs. The wife’s “failure” sent the husband into a panic leading him to become enraged and cruel. The wife felt blind-sided as she hadn’t witnessed this kind of behavior from him before. In this instance flashcard #15 could have been an intervention for her. “I am your friend. It is painful when so quickly I become your enemy.”

His possible best bet cards to her: #41 “I realize I’m over-reacting. Can you give me a minute to get sane again?” Or #47 “I was just reacting to you as if you were my mother, and I know that you are not.” Little can calm your partner down as much as an admission of your own insanity, reports Dreyfus.

Not everyone can rush into Dreyfus’ office during a relationship emergency, but the cards serve as a sort of surrogate therapist always on hand with wise advice to suit the situation. With the help of Talk To Me Like I’m Someone You Love turning enemies back into lovers is just a card away.

Nancy Dreyfus, Psy. D. is a psychotherapist, couples coach and former journalist who gave up a job offer at The New York Times, when she realized that reporting on the grievances of the world was only adding more misery to the planet. She now believes that world peace will only come when we deal with the grievances we have with the person we woke up this morning. She wrote her book, Talk To Me Like I’m Someone You Love: Relationship Repair in a Flash as a guidebook for staying true to oneself in life’s messiest moments.

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While some women in the workplace don’t ever wake up to a different way of being “successful,” those who do often discover that their femininity and core values have been shoved to the background or edged out of their lives in a subtle but significant way.

When women want to build a stronger business team, closer friend and family relationships, or a more centered self, many hundreds have sought the expertise of Richard Strozzi-Heckler, President of Strozzi Institute, Center for Leadership and Mastery. Strozzi-Heckler’s programs are designed for people who want to be leaders in their companies and/or leaders in their own lives.

Strozzi-Heckler explains that the way we shape ourselves is the result of our response to past experiences, both positive and negative, which then determines the deep muscular and cellular patterns that have set into our body. These responses and choices become the habitual, mostly unconscious, way that we react to people, situations and our environment.

When creating leaders Strozzi-Heckler’s observations and practices go deeper than “body language.” He says that evaluating people on “body language” alone does them a disservice. He looks at the “soma,” or whole person and examines the unconscious ways people hold their bodies, respond to stress situations, react to physical and verbal surprises, and through the way they move when under pressure. A central question he asks of all his students is “Are you leading your life, or is it leading you?”

Carol, an executive in a very large manufacturing company that distributes heavy equipment worldwide, found that her life was leading her. She had unconsciously taken on male values and subverted her core feminine ones. Though she moved up quickly in the company she found she couldn’t build trust with teams. Her frustration in not making swift progress made her impatient, which in turn alienated the people on her teams. “In the process of rising within the company Carol had allowed the erosion of empathy and deep listening to replace a ’slash and burn’ style to accomplish her goals no matter what the cost to her people,” explained Strozzi-Heckler.

Over the course of one-and a half years Carol worked individually with Strozzi-Heckler on site and also involved her employees in the process of redefining their relationships to each other in order to create a cohesive team. During their coaching Carol began to get more “somatic sensibility”, an awareness of how her facial expressions, voice and tone, body shape and movements effected the members of her team. Once this awareness began to surface, crying, grief and anger erupted as well. “There was a well of emotion surrounding what she held and how she responded to the people in her life,” said Strozzi-Heckler. “She saw how she had sacrificed the core of self for a particular future she thought she wanted.”

This new awareness and change in a way of being wasn’t immediately accepted and trusted by those closest to her, however. The old patterns of behavior and response were still fresh in everyone’s mind. In the past her requests sounded like commands. Before she lost her temper she would “chew down on her teeth and her eyes would narrow.”

Strozzi-Heckler reflected these and other behaviors back to her so she could see herself through the eyes of her team. Then he worked with her to develop new practices that involved somatic body work, sitting meditation, and some exercises adapted from the martial art of Aikido. Eventually Carol began to soften and become more open. When she calmed herself down she could listen more closely “meet people in a different way” and then take more effective action.

At first Carol’s team thought the changes they observed were just a strategic move to get what she wanted out of them. Over time they saw that she was devoted to create genuine alliances, partnerships her constituency grew within the company.

Then, a few other surprising things happened first at the professional level, then at the personal level. Professionally, Carol was able to develop a culture in which she and her team could give direct and effective feedback to her and to each other. Later, her whole level of interest changed and Carol decided that she wanted to work at a non-profit. Her original mission to make a profit shifted to making a difference. She retired from corporate America and sits on four boards advising non-profits. She speaks about women and leadership, sails, and rides horses.

Things also changed dramatically at home. Carol suggested that the family begin to cook and eat dinner together. She and her husband decided to go on vacations alone with the family instead of with other families so they could spend intimate time together. She and her husband found themselves having conversations that they had put on hold for decades. And they began to discuss their shared future.
 
Perhaps the most moving thing to Carol was the shift in family dynamics, in particular with her daughter. Her daughter told her that it was an incredible virtue that her mother could truly change at age fifty and her mother became a role model for her. “What’s really touching to me is the recognition that if we change in significant ways it can live on in other generations,” said Strozzi-Heckler. ”

Richard Strozzi-Heckler, founder of the Strozzi Institute for Embodied Leadership, has a Ph.D. in Psychology and is a sixth degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido. He is the author of seven books on leadership and has worked with tens of thousands of people over the last 30 years including corporate executives, managers, political leaders, counterinsurgency agents operating behind the front lines, and inner-city gangs. His clients include U.S. Marines, U.S. Army Green Berets, U.S. Navy SEALS, AT&T, DMV, Microsoft, Sportsmind, Capital One, Barnes & Noble, and Hewlett-Packard. The Strozzi Institute mission is to produce leaders who embody pragmatic wisdom, skillful action and grounded compassion.

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Check this out — Booties to go.
While this product may not help your health, it can cause a heads to turn bolstering your self-esteem…

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This dog was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with 2 legs! He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his mother did not want him.

His first owner also did not think that he could survive and he was thinking of ‘putting him to sleep’.  But then, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to take care of him.  She became determined to teach and train this little dog to walk by himself.  She named him ‘Faith’.

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfboard to let him feel the movement.  Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward  for him for standing up and jumping around.  Even the other dog at home  encouraged him to walk.  Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a  miracle, Faith learned to balance on his hind legs and to jump to move  forward.  After further training in the snow, he could now walk like a  human being.

Faith loves to walk around now.  No matter where he goes, he attracts people to him.  He is fast becoming famous on the international scene and has appeared on various newspapers and TV shows.

There is now a book entitled ‘With a Little Faith’ being published about him.  He was even considered to appear in one of Harry Potter movies.

His present owner Jude Stringfellew has given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world  to preach that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul’.

In life there are always undesirable things, so in order to feel better you just need to look at life from another direction.

I hope this message will bring fresh new ways of thinking to everyone and that everyone will appreciate and be thankful for each beautiful day.

Faith is the continual demonstration of the strength and wonder of life.

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Experienced and beginner Aikidokas (Aikido practitioners) were stretched by Stevens’ examples of how to practice. During our time together he demonstrated eight ways of doing the first pillar of Aikido, Shiho-Nage, 4-directions throw. When we began to practice there was some confusion given that training ingrains certain movements and expectations and builds in muscle memory. When learning something new there is a retraining of the brain, the mind, the spirit, the body.

Stevens continually said, “This is training. This is practice, eh?” He has a lovely lightness to his presence and  practice. He said that, at this time in his life, because he couldn’t use as much physical power in Aikido he had a much better understanding of its essence. This came through quite clearly when he demonstrated throws. The energy and lightness of his touch is something I want to emulate.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was learning Kototama, the secret sacred sounds of Aikido. These sounds evidently sunk in to my unconscious mind. My sweetie informed me that I was practicing them (loudly) in my dreams and was driven from the bedroom to the guest room so he could get some sleep!

You can hear John Stevens Sensei performing Kototama or sound meditation in a church in The Netherlands here. He said that on the first take he was too self-conscious about how he sounded so it didn’t turn out. It was only when he forgot himself that he found the freedom to let the sounds come through unobstructed.

As you can hear, they came out whole and strong and clear. I find that when I media coach people this is true for them too. When we speak from a place of no-thinking our stories universally come out whole and complete. They don’t need editing. If we can drop into this place and rest there our thoughts and actions serve us well.

After two hours of practice we took a break for lunch and then began several hours of calligraphy using breath, kiais (short yell before or during a strike or technique) and lots of ink and paper. Of course our practice and life experience show up here as well; In the way a line is too thin or forced or broken, how we flow, the way we begin and end a stroke, our attention, the ways we stop ourselves or critique in the middle of doing. Whether we will it or not who we are is seen clearly, in the black ink of our doing and on the white paper of possibility.

Stevens suggested we put up our Calligraphy in the dojo and live with it, and watch how it evolves. He commented on how our sensei, Hans Goto’s, strokes had changed since last year. Both of them have been practicing Aikido for over 35 years. Often we don’t notice the shifts that happen over time as we move through our busy lives as we do.

Since starting to practice Aikido I’ll try to apply what I learn there to PR and to life. The phrase, “How you do anything is how you do everything” has truth to it. When you put yourself out in the world and connect with others everything shows up: whether you’re doing calligraphy, cutting a flower, speaking to your children, or handling yourself on-camera, we see who you are.

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In that moment she made the decision to go on the date just to see what it was like to be with someone who didn’t like Her. The guy was hang down miserable the whole time.

“I felt not wanted, invisible, humiliated, hurt,” says Myers. Then she looked at him and saw something surprising. He was really hurting. Myers’
inner strength surfaced and she said do herself, ‘I can handle this.” A few hours later she asked him if he wanted to take her home.

“Yeah.”

This event catalyzed a key world view for Myers and became the early seeds for her work with women and leadership. “I knew I had to love and accept myself and continue connecting to who I am as a person and to connect to purpose.”

When she got home Myers took out some paper and made a line down middle. On one side she listed what was good about herself. On the other side she listed what was bad. On the “good” side she wrote. “I’ve got smarts. I’m not pregnant. I’m not sexually active. I do my chores. I follow rules. I go to school. I’m a nice person.”

On the “bad” side she wrote…well, nothing. “I had a really hard time finding something wrong from the inside out. I don’t like to dust and mom wants me to dust. That was a pivotal moment for me then. Writing became a powerful tool for self reflection.”

Today Myers keeps the essence of what’s on her list in mind. She stays focused on bringing out who she is no matter what she looks like on the outside. Even when she glances down at her sagging stomach, which she calls her “kangaroo pouch”, the aftermath of having quadruplets. She stops herself and says, “No. I make an offer in the world. I make a difference.”

Another practice she began after breaking her back kick boxing was to imagine a tea candle inside herself right below belly button. She took pain killers, as the pain was extreme, so she could continue to work as she was on the speaking circuit. Some days on stage the flame was tall and strong. But on other days it so small a light wind could kick it out.

At those times she would say to herself, “No DeeDee. How can you feed the flame?” She kept visualizing what she wanted with her kids. Myers says that we can locate virtues inside our bodies. For example, she houses courage in her diaphragm. That’s where she goes to find the energy to do a handstand in Yoga. Continuing to find the places where we house strengths can be self generative. By locating those parts we continually connect to what’s good in us.

This is not just an occasional practice. Myers practices being in the mind-set that her body is fulfilling on what it’s made for. “I go home everyday and ask myself, ‘Was this a day well lived?” She also envisions a happy future that helps drive the present. She’ll be 68 when her quadruplets graduate from high school. What’s important to her is to be able to run, laugh and enjoy her children and that she can also live fully in her body and be alive, alert, healthy, happy.

Deedee Myers is an executive leadership coach who supports sustainable changes for individuals, teams and organizations. She is a motivational speaker and author, teacher and coach on leadership practices, effective coordination in teams and living a life of Purpose and balance. As a former triathlete and ultramarathoner Deedee is well schooled in pacing as CEO of the Advancing Leadership Institute, and mother of 9 including twins and quadruplets.

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[I have] Fear of publicity: What do you suggest for a writer with a small ego and who abhors fame? My biggest fear would be getting ON the Oprah show. Can’t I just be a well paid recluse? (I discovered my fear of public speaking years ago while getting a degree in PR!)

In journalism I was good at interviewing- off camera- so I realize it’s a control issue. CNBC show encouraged me with your branding and sound bite suggestions, taking back control. My appearance is professional. I worked for years in sales and am outgoing and assertive in a small group, until I’m the center of attention. Please suggest which book I would best start with.

Signed,
Secretly Wimpy

P.S. please don’t post my name on a blog!

You’re not alone. I’m shy by nature and outgoing by training. And a lot of my clients are just like you. They are my favorites as they have great gifts to give the world. You can learn to be relaxed under pressure so you can be creative. It’s a practice, just like writing.

1. Start with Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul. 
2. Listen to the free teleclass how to become a soundbite genius. (The others would be good too, but this focuses on being public).
3. Do you have speaking circles in your area? I suggest you start going.

Remember small steps consistently. It’s all about training and practice so you can get comfortable under pressure.

Keep me posted on your progress. I’d like to hear about your process if you’re willing to share. I promise to keep all of our correspondence confidential.

Warmly,
Susan

Thank you for your kind reply and encouraging words! I’m going to get the book today.

After I wrote the email I created two folders, one with your name on it (for your generous free downloads) and one with ideas on how to market/brand/promote myself.

I know my ‘desire for success’ vibration is being weakened by my ‘privacy and anonymity desire’, as well as my fear of public speaking. I needed some new downstream thoughts, such as success=calm, but where would I find this? My favorite Louise Hay card is “I am safe, it’s only change,” but it wasn’t enough for the realities and pitfalls of media today. I just happened to turn on CNBC right before your segment was on-perfect alignment. I hadn’t even intended to send you an email, I was just checking out the web site. Sending you the email was like stepping on a lurking excuse. I felt nervous excitement and relief. The journey was starting.

Sincerely,
(Wimpy, stepping out of the shadows)

P.S. I would be glad to keep you updated on my progress.

Without using your name, may I use what you’ve written for a blog post? I think a lot of people would benefit from your writing. You’re funny and sweet and smart. I’ll just call you “secretly wimpy”.

I looked at your blogs http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-harrow http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-body-blog and found them insightful, delightful and bookmarkable, everything you teach.

I was able to get Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul from my library the first day. My mom went to pick it up for me and strangely never returned. I found her nose deep in the book, and she said, “You’ll love it! I’ve been flipping through and everywhere I stopped it was good!” I concurred, and purchased my own copy for my permanent collection as I want to do a lot of underlining. It’s wimpy approved recommended reading!

More info.
Download free audio teleclasses for the anyone who fears publicity or who wants to grow their media presence here: http://www.prsecrets.com/free-audio-signup.html

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