Self Improvement Help | Irene’s Articles

Cleaning out the clutter

April 22, 2012 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

We had a “garage sale” yesterday. Some people call them “yard sales.” We sold neither a garage nor a yard. We don’t even have a garage. In some parts of the country they are “Tag sales” and I doubt if tags are sold. But you know what I’m talking about.

We put out the “stuff” we no longer used, needed or wanted outside in our driveway for other people to look at and determine if they wanted it, needed it or could use it. We had a king size comforter, a wing back chair, the children’s books Jack has outgrown. There was a bowling ball we acquired somehow even though none of us bowl. Some just-like-new ski boots that we couldn’t attach to an owner were in the mix and various kitchen items that we hoped someone else could use – a blender, a Foreman grill and a coffee maker. Office supplies, outgrown toys, some still useable pots and pans, some things we had received and never used (you know the kind of things I mean – stuff that you wouldn’t use in a million years but didn’t think you could “re-gift” either.). Lamps, some tools, tablecloths, and pictures rounded out the mix and before we even got the signs up people were here.

The first person arrived precisely at 6 a.m. (we were planning on 7 a.m.) By 9 a.m. almost everything was gone and when the next person showed up in a very old and shabby van looking for anything they could afford, my son told them to take everything that was left. The man wasobviously overjoyed and they loaded the van and we were all happy about the outcome.

And it was fun. I had a large bag that I used it when my grandson was tiny – it was black and covered with drawings of pink, green, blue and orange cats of all sizes. Garish but wonderful. It served as purse and diaper bag. I don’t need it anymore. The lady who bought it was obviously excited to find it and held on to it like she was afraid someone else would take it first. The purse had a lot of wonderful memories for me and I have an idea that it will be meaningful to her as well. She was shopping for her granddaughter who was moving into her first apartment so she filled the cat-purse up with kitchen utensils and some old silverware. Another one bought a tooled leather purse that I had made in Home-Economics in high school in the fifties. I haven’t used it since then so why was I keeping it? You would think she found the diamonds on the sunken Titanic and she thanked and thanked me for making it available.

It’s a great feeling to get rid of the clutter. The shelves and cabinets now have space and the house both looks and feels better.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could have a sale of old, unneeded, and perhaps overwhelming debilitating negative emotions? If you could, would you sell the ancient festering anger at a discount and maybe even give some bitterness and guilt away for free? What kind of grudges are you holding that clutter up your mind and close your heart? Where do you harbor unforgiveness that takes up so much space?

Take some time do do the inner search for things you no longer need. Old anger, bitterness, guilt, grudges, resentment, regret, et.al. don’t serve you. You can clean house and let it go by intention and by choice. Sometimes you need help to bring it all out and sometimes you need assistance in letting it go. If so, find a therapist or a coach because the payoff is greater than anyone can count and you’ll have new emotional currency available to spend on your own happiness and the welfare of others .

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles

Let’s put “Self” Back in Self Improvement

April 16, 2012 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

You’ve done everything you know to do. You’ve lost that extra 30 pounds that kept you from your “perfect size.” You spent your last bit of savings getting a makeover – new hairdo/haircut, new wardrobe, ripped abs, teeth whitened. You look good and you know you look good. You’ve studied successful people and do your best to emulate their walk, the way they speak, how they react to others. You should feel good about yourself but, surprisingly, you don’t.

You look in the mirror and the image that looks back at you is a facade – a fake. A phony. At least that’s what you think. The false smile covers up the emptiness you feel inside and it masks the pain that seems always to be there. No matter how great you look you still don’t feel “good enough.”

“Why can’t I be like everyone else?” the voice inside your head asks.

The answer might surprise you. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you have become just like everyone around you when, in fact, you are a unique, remarkable one-or-a-kind human being.

We are bombarded by the media to look a certain way, talk a certain way, believe a certain way. But, think of this (and I know you know this already), there are over 7 billion people on the planet and no two are alike. We aren’t supposed to be alike. So why don’t you stop trying to be like someone else and discover you own uniqueness? It comes down to the questions:

Who are you?
Why are you here?
What do you want?

Real, lasting self improvement involves answering these questions and getting to know who you really are. It involves self awareness, self acceptance, and self love. Answering these questions will bring you worlds of information about yourself and it will open up more questions. It is an exciting adventure and you are the only one who can do it. No one can do it for you.

The perfect starting place for this “inner work” is to learn to sit quietly. Simply be with yourself. Pay attention to your thoughts and the way your body feels. Relax by taking a few deep breaths and consciously releasing any muscle tension you notice. Then, relaxed and quiet, ask yourself the questions. Don’t be surprised at the answers to “Who am I” that come into your mind. Write them down. Each time you ask, let your mind explore further. Pay attention to the information you receive either at the time or as you proceed through your day.

Pay attention. Become a student of you. Why do you react to things the way you do? For example, how do you react when someone tells you “no?” Why do you react that way? How do you react when you’re cut off in traffic? Why? How do you react to something beautiful? What touches your soul and brings tears to your eyes with its beauty? What do you like? What do you dislike? Why? What things do you react to in ways that you saw your parents react when you were a child? For example, you see someone dressed a certain way and you immediately decide you don’t like them. What are your broad generalizations about people? I heard a little boy make the declaration, “All girls are slow!” He was seven years old. How did he come to believe that? Will he learn better? What “old programs” do you still have running?

Monitor your thinking. Are your thoughts about yourself predominantly positive or negative? When you make a mistake do you say “I can and will do it better next time” or do you berate yourself with phrases like “You don’t do anything right. How can you be so stupid?” Begin to change your thinking to more and more positive. Yes, even Pollyanna-ish. Your thoughts are the powerful creators of everything in your life. If you pay attention you might be surprised about where your thoughts take you and what they are creating for you that you aren’t aware of.

What do you believe? Have you examined your own beliefs about the important things in life? What do you believe that you weren’t told you HAD to believe about God, politics and government, sex, marriage, family, work, play, human potential? Have you thought them through?

This is by no means an end of the self discovery process but it will give you a good starting place.

Self improvement is most definitely an inside job and going within is as simple as getting quiet and relaxed and allowing yourself to as honestly as you can, answer the questions. As you know more about who you are and what your truly want, you will begin to notice small but significant changes taking place within you and the person in the mirror will begin to smile back in approval.

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles Tagged With: self acceptance, self awareness, self discovery, self improvemen

Tiny Puppy, Huge Happiness

March 9, 2012 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Sometimes an innocent trip to the store turns out to be a “game changer.”

Yesterday we made the one mile trip to PetsMart to get food for the frogs. (Yes we have two little spotted frogs which sing to us at night). While my son was getting the food, I looked at the cats for adoption, hoping they would have some kittens. No kittens. So when Chris had the frog food I suggested that we look at the dogs – we haven’t looked for a long time. What was this? We had plans for a new pet but certainly hadn’t talked about it for a while. I only came along for the ride.

We walked into the kennel and there, right in front of us, in the big play area were three of the cutest puppies I have ever seen. Three. Pick One! The attendant took us all – my son, the three puppies and I - into a smaller room with toys and chairs and we played. The dilemma was – which one. Each was adorable. Each was different and each was special. Two were brown and one was white with tan spots. One was smaller, one was prettier and one was a different color. All played. All were loving and friendly. All looked healthy. Could we take all three?

No way. We simply couldn’t handle three at once. Oh, but it was tempting.

We played more.

And then, after lots of play, we held each of them. One was calm. Two were wiggly little guys. We liked calm and the choice was made.

We left with a puppy and a bag of frog food.

It was a wonderful choice. Shadow, the big dog at home, wasn’t too pleased but the puppy settled in like he had always been here. No crying. No whining. (That was a surprise).

Sometimes, things are just meant to be and you are led right to them.

We promised my grandson that we would get a new puppy. He is in California and will be here in three weeks. We had planned to wait until he was here to pick it out but puppies are rarely at PetsMart and this one is exceptional. Jack can name him and we know it will be love at first sight between boy and puppy.

Pets bring so much to people. Read the featured article about pets and happiness. The picture is my son, Shadow the alpha dog and the new puppy. We wouldn’t know what do do without these wonderful friends of ours. It has been hard to cope with not having my grandson here on a daily basis and I know a puppy won’t fill that hole that’s left in our lives. But he certainly brings joy at a time when a “joy boost” is needed. And when my grandson comes at the end of the month, the house will be absolutely overflowing with love, joy and happiness.

Charles Schulz was right when he wrote, “Happiness is a warm puppy!”

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: Happiness, new puppy, pets, Pets for therapy, self improvement

It was me all along!

March 2, 2012 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

You may have noticed that The Self Improvement Blog didn’t change for a few days. Usually, I change the main articles everyday – it is my first acts of the day – right after meditation. But on Wednesday everything at the top of the blog was stuck. Yes, stuck. The slider didn’t slide so you couldn’t see the new featured article and the “Self Improvement” articles with the tabs simply were gone. Yikes! What happened?

I immediately reported this to my webmaster son saying “HELP! the blog is stuck!” He took a look at it but his busy day didn’t have time for him to focus on it or do anything with it. It wasn’t a “quick fix.” Thursday a.m. I bugged him again, knowing he was buried in work, but – well, you know. Moms now and then have priority. As he checked it out he updated WordPress- actually, he updated everything in the blog thinking it might be an incompatibility problem with some new software.

No change. It was still stuck.

“I can’t seem to find the problem,” he announced, but I’ll keep looking.” I wanted to have it working by the time the radio show aired because I wanted to refer to it. A half hour before the Self Improvement Show was to start it was fixed. “What on earth was the problem?” I queried.

“It was you,” he said, with a crooked smile on his face.

“What do you mean it was me?”

“Did you delete some videos from the sidebar?” he quizzed?

“Yes,” I responded. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Well it seems it had everything to do with it. I had left a piece of the code to the videos in the sidebar and the computer didn’t know what to do with it so it shut that part of the blog down.

It was me all along. I was the problem.

I thought of Gary Spinell’s book “It Was You All Along.” (A great read, by the way.” I couldn’t get the title out of my mind for the rest of the day. I was me! I messed up my own blog inadvertently while I was trying to make it better. I didn’t know it was me and it caused my son to work half a day to solve a problem I caused in a few seconds. I didn’t even remember doing it until he told me what caused the blog to be stuck

Me. It was me.

Aren’t we the ones who usually set ourselves up for our own mishaps? We forget to call. We procrastinate. We do things we aren’t skilled to do but don’t want to wait for help. We over-schedule and then have to rush to get finished or cut corners or drive too fast. And sometimes we get impatient with those around us who can’t quickly “un-do” the mess we made. We humans are wonderfully complex and sometimes proud creatures who don’t always want to admit that “we did it.”

Taking responsibility for the messes you cause and admitting your shortcomings and glitches doesn’t make you “less than.” It makes you and others realize that you are human.We are not perfect and we aren’t expected to be perfect.

I thank my son for fixing this blog and gently and humorously reminding me that “It was me all along.”

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: it was me all along, self improvement, taking responsibility

I’m a bookaholic!

January 18, 2012 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Hi. My name is Irene and I’m a bookaholic. Yes, I truly am. I can’t get enough of them. I have books secretly stashed in filing cabinets, the top of the piano, the kitchen table, on the floor beside my wingback chair, in the seat of the car and more often than not, in my purse. I sometimes read two or more books at a time – no not simultaneously. You know what I mean. I read a chapter of this one then I pick up another and read a few pages. Somehow I manage to keep them straight in my mind although sometimes I forget where I was and read it again thinking it sounds familiar. I learned to read before I started school and have been a bookaholic ever since.

I love the smell of a library – especially old libraries. There’s nothing else that smells like that –musty old pages mixed with dust and ancient ink. I actually loved the old card catalog and miss being able to browse through the cards as I’d try to find the ones that led me to just the right section and the right shelf that held the books about my subject of interest. Our little town had a very small card catalog section tucked in the side of a small reading room but imagine my excitement when I discovered a room the size of my house filled with those wonderful dog-eared, smudged, worn cards the first time I visited the university library. I was in heaven. Searching on a computer just isn’t the same.

A high point of my college days was getting to study at the Library of Congress where you sit at a carrel in the main reading room, turning in your request for books and having them delivered to your desk. I would have moved in if I could but they don’t take overnight guests there.Working in that magnificent room where so many icons of history had worked was a high for me.

My idea of a good time is sitting in Barnes and Noble with a good cup of coffee looking through the just-published books. .

The point is that I read a lot of books. I know a lot of “stuff.”

But the question is, “Do I have wisdom?” Knowing a lot of facts doesn’t necessarily mean I will make a good decision or take the right path. “Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with this understanding.” (Wikipedia)

Wisdom implies intellectual and emotional maturity and an ability to patiently dig beneath the surface to know what is really going on. It is knowing when the time is right to take action rather than impulsively charging forward. It is knowing when to speak and when to be silent, when to help and when to walk away. Some people call wisdom “common sense” but there’s nothing common about it.

In health care it is the difference between knowing the symptoms and knowing what is at the root of the symptoms. An “intelligent” physician or other health care professional will ask the questions about the presenting symptoms and, looking at them all, will make a diagnosis and prescribe a plan of treatment. A “wise” doctor or health care professional will get this same information and then set about discovering what else is going on with the patient. What are the stresses? What’s happening at home? What is the patient’s belief about his own health (For example: Does he believe he will have a heart attack because his father died at this same age from a heart attack? Does she believe she will have breast cancer because her mother and a sister had breast cancer?) Do they have adequate nutrition or do they rely on junk food and fast food from the drive through for their meals? What do they do to relax or do they relax at all? They will want to know if the person feels loved, safe, secure.

So how do we get wisdom? Confucius said, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

I’m a bookaholic. I’m not looking for treatment for this condition but I am looking for a wise doctor who reflects before he gets out his prescription pad.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: books, information, intelligence vs wisdom, self improvement

O.K. Let’s Talk About 2012 and the Mayan Calendar

December 28, 2011 By ireneconlan 1 Comment

By Irene Conlan -

This morning I decided that it’s time to start talking about the new year. I began my search for an article that did that and after slogging through pages and pages of the predictions of doom finally found something worth posting. (see the featured article)

Are we going to do the moaning and worrying, the fretting and the scare mongering that we did for Y2K? Give me a break.

Yes, I’ve read the predictions. I know that an extinct group of people predicted that the world as we know it is ending on December 21, 2012.

We have had quite a number of predictions for the end of the world since I’ve been on planet Earth and, guess what? We’re still here.

I figure that if the world is ending there isn’t a whole lot we can do to stop it but there are two ways to react – two ways to live before that last day arrives.

You can join in the frenzy of negativity and let your negative thinking infect the Universe along with the others who live in fear and cringing. You can spend your days in fearful worrying if you choose to do so. If you believe that your thoughts create then you won’t want to do that. Will your doomsday thinking change anything for the better? Most likely not. The inevitable fact is that someday you are going to die. You know that already. Whether it’s in December 2012 or in April of 2042, it’s still going to happen. The question is, how do you intend to live your life before that day arrives? Do you know what you believe about death and life after death? Maybe it’s time to think it through.

Your other option is to live life as usual with an unusual attitude of love and caring for your fellow human beings. If you think it is the end time, then how do you want to end it? I prefer to think that sending out love, positive thoughts and good deeds would benefit you and others far more than getting caught up in the “Oh, my God, we’re doomed” mentality.

Look around. Who can you help? Who can you comfort? Who needs a friend? Who needs someone to sit and listen.? Who needs an arm around the shoulder? What child needs something to eat, someone to dry her tears, someone to see that she’s safe, warm and clean? What older person, alone and lonely, needs a visit, a hug, a kind word? Who needs a smile, a greeting a pat on the back? You can do any of those things, can’t you?

So if you believe the world is ending, shouldn’t you use that time living? Dance more. Laugh more, Help more, Sing more?

T.S. Elliott in “The Hollow Men” writes, “This is the way the world ends: This is the way the world ends: This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but a whimper.” I’m sure you’ll hear that a lot this year.

But how you end your sojourn here is your choice. I don’t mean when and I don’t mean by what means. But you have a choice of how you live – with a positive attitude and a loving spirit helping others or hiding in your room under the blankets in fear and whimpering. I don’t live that way now and I don’t intend to live that way in 2012.

We don’t know for sure what will happen within the next five minutes so why should you start worrying about what’s going to happen next December? Is that your idea of living?

It’s not mine. I’m going to get some breakfast and plan some yummy new year’s resolutions to break.

Hey, 2012. Let’s go!

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles Tagged With: 2012, choose how your want to live, end of the world, Mayan calendar, self improvement

Some Self Improvement Thoughts Now That the Holidays Go Into Full Gear

November 26, 2011 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

One more day of November and the holdiay season is moving into high gear.

Every TV commercial says “Buy, Buy, Buy.” Some even suggest that you get a loan so you can buy those expensive gifts you think each member of your family wants (and needs?) After all, will 5 year old Tommy ever respect you again if you don’t give him his own cell phone with music, video and text messaging? (of course he can’t read or spell but so what?) Will 13 year old Jessica forgive you if she doesn’t receive those $120 designer jeans? Does your wife expect diamonds or your husband expect a Rolex even though you’re on a tight budget? Or, hey, how about having twin Mercedes sitting in the driveway on Christmas morning like the commercials instruct?

Get real.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: self improvement

This is a week of Thanksgiving – so what does that mean to you?

November 20, 2011 By ireneconlan 1 Comment

By Irene Conlan -

How many times have you heard on radio or TV lately that Thanksgiving is a day of celebrating having enough – food, clothing, shelter, safety? Have you heard that it is a family time, a time of gratitude and appreciation for the bounty we have received during the year?

I can’t remember hearing it even one time. NOT ONCE!

What I have heard is about:

Turkeys are cheaper at X store than Y store
Black Friday is almost here – a time when we turn the red ink of the merchants to black and our own bank statements from black ink to red
The stores are opening even earlier than before. Workers are upset and shoppers can’t wait to get in line.
Christmas is coming so buy, buy. buy.
The same old news fills up the rest of the air space – war, kidnappings, protests, murders, celebrity debacles/debauches and our regular diet of mayhem around the country.

Thanksgiving is for – well, it’s for giving thanks. How hard is that? (The only one not thankful is the turkey).

What do you have to be thankful for? Think about it. I mean REALLY think about it.

Take a moment to imagine that you have been homeless for the year. Day after day of living on the street or in your car you have wondered how you would feed your children, how you would keep them safe, how you could get back on your feet. And now you have been restored to life as you once knew it. You would most likely be aware of how grateful you are for:

a safe place to live
good food on the table on a consistent basis
new clean clothes and a place to was them
good shoes
your own bed with clean sheets
air conditioning and heat so you aren’t at the mercy of the elements
transportation
people who love you

Notice I didn’t say a big screen TV, a Wii or Playstation, diamond earrings or an iPad. I didn’t mention a Gucci handbag or a little gift in a pale blue box from Tiffanys. There’s nothing wrong with having these but do you give a thought of gratitude for being able to have them or is your mind on the next thing you want?

Most of us have so much. Are we grateful? Do we appreciate it?

Use this week to think about these things and put things back in proper perspective.

We are grateful for the bounty!

It is a day to celebrate survival in harsh land. It is a day to celebrate family, food and fortune. It is a day to be grateful for what we have.

This is the week we celebrate Thanksgiving – a day set aside to celebrate the harvest, to rejoice in the fact that we survived another year, to acknowledge all the good things we have received from the bounty of the land and the kindnesses of each other.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement

The Smart Phone Gets Smarter About Health

November 19, 2011 By ireneconlan 1 Comment

By Irene Conlan -

The other day I received an email that seemed especially interesting. I didn’t have time to respond at that moment and it slipped my mind until this morning. I read it again and followed the link to their website. After reading the descriptions on their website, I think this is something everyone should know about so I’m breaking some of my own rules: 1) never endorse a product (well, I’m not actually endorsing it but letting you know about it; 2) always try it before you introduce it. (I have not tried this).

Here’s the email:

I totally agree with your tips on healthy living. I’m training for a full marathon in May and I keep having to remind myself to drink more water because I live in Colorado and it’s SO dry up here with the altitude! When you’re hydrated you are able to operate normally and think clearer. And it is very true that H20 flushes out the toxins from your system. I work for a biotechnology company in Lakewood, CO called Aegis Creative Communications, and I’m working on marketing this personal health record app for iPhones and iPads called CladeHealth Tracker. This innovative app tracks all aspects of your health, including information on healthcare providers, health conditions, lab results, medications, surgeries, upcoming tests, and emergency contact info. It is a very helpful way to keep you more organized so that you have the information with you 24/7 in case of any medical related emergencies. It also encourages independence by helping you take your health into your own hands. If you could check out our website and maybe mention us in a blog it would be much appreciated. We have a blog on our website as well. The URL is http://www.cladehealth.com. We are also on Facebook and Twitter so “like” us and spread the word. Thank you!

This is definitely worth checking out. Let me know how you like it. My cell phone is old and not so smart and this makes me think I need a new phone.

Those who enjoy learning about nutrition may look for the top online nutrition schools via www.GuidetoOnlineSchools.com.

Filed Under: Health, Irene's Articles

One year old this week

November 6, 2011 By ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

On Thursday The Self Improvement Show will start its second year on VoiceAmerica/World Talk Radio. It’s hard to believe that we’ve done a radio show every week for a year but it’s true. When I started, I was skeptical but I agreed to do it for three months and figured that at the end of the first quarter we would all decide that we’d done enough.

I was wrong.

At the end of the first quarter we were having too much fun to quit and I was just beginning to feel comfortable with it. I was just beginning to realize that I loved doing it and so we continued. My big concerns in the beginning were:

How can I ever talk for an hour? (people who know me will smile at that question)
Can I find people who want to be guests on the show?
What if I mess up?
What if nobody listens?
The list goes on but now I have answers -

Yes, I can talk for an hour. However, I have not needed to do that. I have had wonderful guests who loved to talk about their work and sometimes it was hard to get time long enough for a commercial break. I love people who are passionate about what they do and this year I met a new one every week. How great is that?

In the beginning it was hard to find guests because I didn’t know where to look and I was nervous about asking. At the end of my first quarter, I looked at the schedule to see that I only had two guests scheduled in the weeks to come. PANIC. I put a brief notice on LinkedIn and in two days I had scheduled six shows – and they were great guests. Since that time, I have publishers, publicists, authors, speakers, leaders in the field of self improvement and more contacting me. At this point, I am booked up until February, 2012. That is exciting to me.

What if I mess up? I do and we all get over it. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m human. I mess up. In the beginning it was hard for me to listen to the show – I was a harsh critic of myself but there is no way I can improve if I don’t listen. Now on Friday morning I listen to Thursday’s show and send a link to the guest. Chad the engineer magically removes the really bad gaffs and I find that I actually enjoy listening. My guests are “the best.”

What if nobody listens? I can’t really control that but I know someone is listening because there are many who download the program from World Talk Radio. My job is simply to do the best I can and leave it at that.

The surprise to me is that I absolutely love doing it. It feels like something that is “natural.” From the “Blast Off” of the first show with Allison Maslan to last week’s talk about the Human Hologram with Dr. Robin Kelly it has been one week after another of wonderment and wonderfulness for me. I do the show because I want to help people and this is a way to have a greater outreach and bring in people who have helpful programs and a depth of wisdom. What I didn’t anticipate was that I would have so much fun. Cyndi Lauper would be proud.

I’ll admit that it’s a lot of work. Finding people, getting them scheduled, writing up the bios and show descriptions, writing questions so the show has some reliable structure and no dead air, writing press releases – all are part of it. Sometimes I long for the days in the past when I had a secretary but most of the guests make it easy and enjoyable. The guests are fantastic and if I had to pick a favorite, I couldn’t. Each week is special and each guest is magnificent.

The exciting thing for me is to talk to people all over the world. I think the most interesting to me was last week’s show when we called New Zealand on Thursday but for them it was Friday. I’d never talked to someone “tomorrow” when it was actually “today.” Don’t think about it – it will make you dizzy.

Starting year two, we’re looking for interesting guests and we’re seeking sponsors and believe we gave a lot to offer in the way of positive reinforcement for anyone who backs us. I believe in “shameless promotion” of my guest and certainly of a sponsor and we are no ready.

It’s been a wonderful year and I’m looking forward with excited anticipation to year two.

Want to be on a radio show? It doesn’t matter where on the planet you are, we can talk.

Mars? I’m not sure about that.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: The Self Improvement Show

Cleaning out the clutter

Let’s put “Self” Back in Self Improvement

Tiny Puppy, Huge Happiness

It was me all along!

I’m a bookaholic!

O.K. Let’s Talk About 2012 and the Mayan Calendar

Some Self Improvement Thoughts Now That the Holidays Go Into Full Gear

This is a week of Thanksgiving – so what does that mean to you?

I can’t remember hearing it even one time. NOT ONCE!

Thanksgiving is for – well, it’s for giving thanks. How hard is that? (The only one not thankful is the turkey).

The Smart Phone Gets Smarter About Health

One year old this week

Brain Magic

News and Other New Stuff

Listen to Yvonne Perry’s interview with Gaetano Vivo today at 2:55 CDT

Someone You Should Know

Book Reviews

A Review: Lipstick and The Leash: A Woman’s Guide to Getting What You Want from Your Dog & Your Life.

The Oneness Gospel: Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You. A Review

Irene’s Articles

Cleaning out the clutter

Let’s put “Self” Back in Self Improvement