Live A Flourishing Life Workshops

Do you want to live a better life − a life where stress is reduced and managed; a life replete with loving friendships; a life guided by optimism and courage? In other words, a life that flourishes?

To live a flourishing life is to live an examined life. To do so, you begin by exploring, recognizing, and understanding the habits and attitudes that serve you, and those that do not serve you. And then, step-by-step, you make a determined effort to change those attitudes and behaviors by developing a doable action plan.

My workshops and private coaching sessions offer insight and assistance, enabling you to work through the obstacles that stand in your way, and guide you towards actionable, positive changes that will affect all areas of your life.

To learn more about Live A Flourishing Life workshops and private coaching, contact me directly via e-mail at rita@ritaschiano.com or visit www.reededwards.com and click on Workshops/Coaching.

The Multi-tasking Miasma

It is not surprising that modern day life is often referred to as the “culture of distraction.” We are bombarded with information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And yet, most of us cannot get enough. We channel surf, search the Web, talk and text, drive and text, drive and talk, drive and talk and text. It is no wonder we are driven to distraction!

Not only are we less focused, we are not present-moment oriented. And in our efforts to skim through volumes of information, we truly miss out on quite a bit by paying only partial attention.

*Excerpt from Live A Flourishing Life

Have a joyful day everyone...
Rita
www.ritaschiano.com

The Key to Stress Management

The key to stress management is being able to recognize your body’s response to emotional conditions and then to take steps to minimize or alleviate the stress triggers.

A good tool is to keep a stress-awareness journal. This will help you recognize where your body stores tension. The more aware you become of your body’s reaction to stress, the better you will be able to take steps to reduce the stress and metabolize the harmful buildup of stress hormones in your body.

Have a joyful day everyone...
Rita
www.ritaschiano.com

*From Live A Flourishing Life

Kaizen!

Kaizen! Breaking tasks down into small, incremental steps…

Kaizen is a Japanese management concept for incremental (gradual, continuous) change (improvement); breaking tasks into small, manageable steps. Kaizen is also a way of life philosophy based on making little changes on a regular basis. Kaizen is about finding new, creative, and effective ways to improve one’s life…from tackling the mundane to managing our stress, to attaining our life vision.

Learn how to put Kaizen in action in your life... Live A Flourishing Life.

Have a joyful day everyone...
Rita
www.ritaschiano.com

*From Live A Flourishing Life

Words of Wisdom

Human flourishing involves the rational use of one’s individual human potentialities, including talents, abilities, and virtues in the pursuit of his freely and rationally chosen values and goals.
~ Edward W. Younkins

From Live A Flourishing Life

Live a Flourishing Life

I've a new book coming out next month... Live A Flourishing Life is the result of melding my three professions -- adjunct Philosophy professor, stress management and resilience-building trainer, and writer.

In June, Bay Path College (where I teach Philosophy) tapped me to teach a Stress Management course in their One-Day-A-Week Saturday Program. Since this was the first offering of the course, I was literally writing the workbook as we went along.

However... I did not want the book to be solely a classroom text. And so I created Live A Flourishing Life for anyone to use on one's own, or together with private coaching sessions, or workshop/lecture. The book includes a progressive relaxation and mindful breathing techniques CD Relax and Flourish. (Pre-publication offer....order now and save 25%!)

What qualified me to write this book and offer these programs?

Since 2008, I have been working as a stress management trainer for WorkTerrain, presenting programs throughout the Commonwealth to organizations and municipalities via Dept. of Industrial Accidents grants. (To learn more about WorkTerrain's Safety Programs go to
http://www.workterrain.com/at_work/programs/safety_training/.)

And for the past six years, I have been working with Dr. Ron Breazeale as he developed the "Duct Tape Isn't Enough" resilience training and coaching program, initially developed for First Responders, and now being offered nationwide. (To learn more about Resilience Coaching programs go to http://www.reachinghome.com/course.html.)

Details on the Live A Flourishing Life workshop/lecture series and coaching sessions in future blogs postings.

Have a joyful day everyone...
Rita
www.ritaschiano.com

Teaching Kids About Food

While we tend to think of summer foods as hot dogs, hamburgers, and barbecue chicken, parents should take these months to get their kids involved with understanding proper nutrition. A great way to do this is to teach them how to cook. Rather than rely on fast food and the above-mentioned summer staples, web sites such as Cooking With Kids and the Food Network’s Cooking For Kids are great resources for turning your picky-eaters into gourmands. And the benefits will be multifold.

In the past decade numerous studies have been conducted linking nutritional disorders with behavioral and learning problems in children. Research shows that children with iron deficiencies sufficient to cause anemia are at a disadvantage academically. Other studies suggest that iodine, iron, folate, Vitamin B12, zinc, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may play a significant role in the development of the brain and in cognitive functions.

Dietary deficiency concerns are not a worldwide problem; any child may be vulnerable to the maladies of poor nutrition due to dietary behaviors. To detail this critical issue, KidsTerrain turned to Dr. James M. Greenblatt, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, Massachusetts, to create a webinar to help parents understand the critical link between proper nutrition and behavior in children and adolescents. Nutrition and Behavior Problems in Children and Adolescents explores the link between dietary deficiencies and to compromised health, intelligence, and basic social skills.

For more information on this program or to view the webinar, go to http://www.kidsterrain.com/products/product.php?productid=18.

Have a joyful day everyone. - Rita
Visit my website at http://www.ritaschiano.com

*Written for KidsTerrain.com. Reprinted with permission.