Issue No. 51
March 2013
What's Your Chametz?

Dear Friends of Balancing Act,
brick wall  
Some of my best ideas are not my own. This month's newsletter theme, for example.

The question "What's your chametz?" comes to me by way of my daughter, who passed it on from a rabbi in her newly adopted home of Chicago.

Read on to learn how the Jewish custom of clearing chametz, or bread crumbs,  this Passover season might bring you peace, whether you're Jewish or not.

On a related note, generosity may bring you peace and even business success, according to a new book by a Wharton professor.

On the flip side, peace may come from an unexpected source:  your iPhone.  But not when you're substituting it for face time, says a positive psychology expert.

Here's to your peace and balance, wherever you may find it.

 

 

                           Pat  
Clear Out Your Chametz
crumbs
 
With Passover comes the ritual cleaning out of bread crumbs ("chametz") from the cupboards. This makes way for unleavened bread, which commemorates the Hebrews' escape from Egypt, so hasty that there was no time for bread to rise.

For those who do not observe that tradition, some suggest identifying a different sort of chametz that needs to be cleaned out.  

Here are the possibilities offered in a Passover e-mail to my daughter's congregation:   "Crumbs of old relationships, old habits, old modes of communication, laziness born of comfort. The stuff that fills space but doesn't serve to truly nourish and enliven our lives."

So whatever holiday you celebrate, you might ask yourself, "What is MY chametz?" and then go about clearing out that non-nourishing, deadening stuff.

It may change your life.
Experience The Power of Generosity


A soon-to-be-released book by Wharton's highest-rated teacher and youngest tenured professor, Adam Grant, brings new meaning to the old adage What goes around comes around.  

In Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success (Viking 2013), Grant applauds the power of giving with no expectation of return.

Its concept is consistent with one of Grant's favorite classroom exercises, "the reciprocity ring," in which students ask each other for specific assistance in an open circle and receive benefit without quid pro quo from their peers.

A positive psychology expert, Grant has conducted game-changing research into the power of prosocial behavior in business.

Give and Take will be released April 9. 
iPhone Becomes De-Stresser. Who Knew?
In Balance
 
There's an app for that has become almost comically true. So it should come as no surprise that you can now use your iPhone or iPad, to counter the stress that compulsive message-checking creates.

Enter Inner Balance™, a program created by Heart Math, which allows you to monitor and pace your heart rhythms and breathing. The idea is to move toward "coherence," or synchrony of heart, breath and head by becoming more in tune with your moods and changing your reactions to stress.

Just out for iOS devices, the app is expected to be Android-compatible by the end of the year. Meanwhile, if you notice someone wired from their ear lobe or finger to their phone, know they're going for inner balance, not obsessive connection.
But Don't Let iPhone Become A Human Substitute

Barb Fredrickson
Barbara Fredrickson
Last month's newsletter featured a new book,
Love 2.0, by positive psychology researcher Barbara Fredrickson.

Consistent with the book's message on the importance of human interaction, Fredrickson in this month's New York Times Magazine offers new research supporting the notion that face time builds health and empathy. She urges us to pull others away from their screens and back into human connection because "friends don't let friends lose their humanity." 
 
Copyright 2013 Pat Snyder
In This Issue
Clearing Out Chametz
Power of Generosity
iPhone De-Stresser
iPhone Disconnect
Quick Links
CHANGE YOUR MOOD, CHANGE YOUR LIFE 
 
Pat's hit the speaking circuit with a one-hour presentation "Change Your Mood, Change Your Life," based on positive psychology research.

Designed for busy professionals, it features 10 exercises to help deal with job stress and work-life integration.

If you belong to a group that might be interested in such a talk, contact her here.


BALANCING TIPS
WINS AWARD 
all-star 2013
The newsletter service Constant Contact has given "Balancing Tips" a 2012 All-Star Award for readership and  service to readers.

This is the third year in a row Balancing Tips has received the All-Star Award, given to the top 10% of the service's international customer base.  

LEASH LAW

NO. 51:

 

BE A SPORT

              

horizontal leashed dog

 

 

With spring comes track season and the opportunity for the overbooked parent to sit five hours to glimpse junior's nano-seconds of glory.

 

Some advice: When you're there, be there and not off buying a hot dog. Best way:  Sit next to over-eager parents of a teammate running the same event. They will always know who's up next. They will even have a copy of the track schedule, which miraculously, they will know how to read.  

 

This is derived from one of 74 leash laws offered in Pat's book, The Dog Ate My Planner: Tales and Tips from an Overbooked Life.            

Join Our Mailing List