Last post

This is the last post for Slender Women as I consolidate my two businesses and take all my knowledge and experience into the one business.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Sarah

Drama. Drama. Drama!

Do you enjoy a bit of drama? I'm not talking about terrible events that happen to us during our life time. I am talking about a little bit of excitement through created drama. The fact is that we all like a bit of drama now and again.

This week's blog is about drama addiction which leads to all sorts of problems and issues for the person with the drama addiction and for all those involved. What is it and how can you avoid it?

 A little bit of drama through the media is great. It meets our need for variety and excitement. The problem occurs when we want to create unnecessary drama for the sake of it or we become drawn into someone else's unnecessary drama. This sort of drama is unresourceful and can lead to all sorts of negative issues.

There are weekly television shows and magazines that promote and romanticize drama. These magazines follow the lives of famous people and report on their mishaps, misfortunes and misery as well as reporting on their successes. If you flick through one of these magazines you will find more articles on drama than on success. Television adverts about soap operas hook people into the next week of viewing with snippets of drama to come. Will that character survive the car crash/fire/broken heart?

One of the workshops that I run for organisations is about recognising and stopping drama between staff members at work. People like to meet their need for variety by creating situations at work such as bitching about other staff members, spreading gossip and trying to form groups that separate one set of staff from another. It is derisive and causes all sorts of problems, not to mention poor morale and creates an unpleasant workplace.

The way to avoid this sort of drama is to meet your need for variety in positive ways. Here are just 3 ways that you can meet your need for variety resourcefully:

1. If you enjoy watching or reading about drama choose books, television programs and films that portray either a real story, or about people overcoming adversity. Personally I really enjoyed the 'ANZAC Girls' last year, which was about the real story of 5 nurses during WWI. The events were taken from the diaries of the nurses and portrayed brilliantly by a wonderful group of actors.

2. Get out of your comfort zone every week. It could be something as simple as shopping somewhere different, like the supermarket in a different suburb or trying somewhere new for coffee. It could be as dramatic as trying an new sport like sailing, golf or lawn bowls. Have a go at Toastmasters because getting up to talk in front of a group of strangers is going to put you a long way outside your comfort zone.

3. Meet new people. This might be by joining something as suggested above or it could be through a 'Meetup' group that shares similar interests, or a club of some kind. Finding people with similar interests to you helps you make connections. You might not want to meet them outside of the club but enjoy talking about your shared interest at the club meetings. It is a great way to increase your skills in a hobby in addition to meeting new people and getting outside your comfort zone. You could also volunteer. There are a variety of organisations, charities and events that require volunteers. 

What action will you take this week to increase the ways you are meeting your need for variety?

have fun
Sarah

Why a weight loss pill can be a good thing

Last Christmas my siblings and I gave my mum the gift of a cleaner. Once a fortnight the cleaner comes in and gives the house a 'top to bottom' clean, which doesn't take long in my mum's small house. My mum doesn't need a cleaner but I knew that she would like a cleaner.

My mum has never liked cleaning. I can remember as a teenager that she would head upstairs with a duster in her hand and mutter something about dusting. However if you went upstairs you would find her on her bed, duster lying next her, as she enjoyed reading her book.

Now a very fit and healthy woman in her 70s she is absolutely able to clean her house, but she hates cleaning. So a cleaner was an ideal present. It is the sort of present that keeps on giving.

Every Tuesday there is a large red car in our road that stops for a few hours outside three houses. They are a local cleaning business and get business through word of mouth referrals. The houses they clean belong to busy mums who work part-time and would prefer to spend their free time doing something other than cleaning.

I have heard that some women feel guilty about not keeping their own house clean. I can only suppose that as a child they overheard or were even taught that a woman isn't a real woman unless she looks after the home and made that mean that they had to be the ones that cleaned it. Surely paying a cleaner is part of looking after your home. Who would want to have to do everything themselves? Not for me, that's for sure.

I agree that there are some things that we should earn, such as a qualification. I am aware that you can buy certain post-graduate degrees but for me that would feel like cheating. However there are many people who believe that taking some kind of supplement to aid weight loss and weight management is also cheating. I used to be one of these people. But the more I talked to women about their needs, wants and desires the more I came to realise that taking a weight loss/management supplement is like having a cleaner. You can do it all by yourself or you can get some help and enjoy more of your free time.

What are your thoughts on this?

Sarah