I attended two unique events today, both of which centered around empowerment and feeling great, on the inside and out.

I started at the “9 Ways to Look 9 Years Younger in 2009″ event @ The Carlton Hotel, sponsored by New Beauty Magazine. The event featured 4 core speakers: Dr. Gerald Curatola (Dental Rejuvenation), R. Scott French (Designer and Co-Founder of The Fashion List), Nancy Jarecki (Founder of Betty Beauty), and Dr. Kevin Tehrani (Aristocrat Plastic Surgery).

What we learned:

• ORAL HYGIENE: A beautiful smile is important for 2 reasons: 1) healthy gums help to prevent an array of diseases that span beyond just your mouth, and 2) people with an aesthetically pleasing smile make more money and are more successful than those without (the statistics said it, not me)!
• FASHION SENSE: Wear clothes that fit, don’t pay attention to the size; find a great tailor, altering your clothes can make a good outfit into a great outfit; and don’t try too hard–the runways show us what the trends of the season are on the extreme level, but you should only incorporate small doses of these trends on top of your classic basics.
• BEAUTY: Treating yourself to a grooming experience, even if it’s in your most private of areas and not for the anyone else to see, leads to inner and outer empowerment.
• COSMETIC ENHANCEMENTS: Celebrities who say they haven’t had work done are lying; minimally invasive tweaks can be made as we age to help preserve a younger look, and you don’t have to be laid up for a week to get the results.

After work, I stopped by an event at the William Morris Agency hosted by Author, Laura Day.  Laura, AKA The Happiness Guru, has written The Circle, Welcome to Your Crisis, The Practical Intuition Series (all of which I came home and ordered on Amazon immediately) and was allegedly responsible for helping Jennifer Aniston through her Brangelina fiasco.  Tonight, she spoke primarily about mechanisms for coping during a crisis.  She believes that there are 4 core types of people, and that we can be all 4 of the types at times, but in a moment of crisis, we have a pattern we follow.  The 4 ways in which people deal with chaos include: withdrawal, denial, anger, or anxiety.  I, myself, fall under the anxiety column.  This is when you overwhelm yourself with the “what if’s” in a given situation, driving yourself crazy about the potential (and hypothetical) fall out of a crises instead of the crisis itself.

What we learned:

• MANAGING THE TYPES:  If you can identify your own type and be aware of what you’re doing while you’re doing it, in a highly sensitive moment, you will be better equipped to navigate said crisis.  And even more so, if you know what “type” the people around you are (loved ones, family members, partners, co-workers, best friends, etc), you are better able to approach this person with the right tools during a difficult time.  For example, Laura is the oldest of 7 children, and she knows what “type” each of her siblings are.  One sister is a “withdrawal” type; when things get really difficult she just procrastinates because she is overwhelmed.  So instead of her approaching this sister with “Oh my gosh, it’s tax season and we have to get all of the family taxes done this week, and it’s going to be a huge job, and I need you to start doing x, y, and z,” she can approach that sister with “Taxes are going to be a breeze this year, I just need you to send me your paperwork for the following 3 things, and we’ll have this thing filed away!”  Eventually, you can learn to nurture those around you and react more efficiently.
• THE POSITIVE PRESENT:  Set your goals in the positive present.  Instead of saying “I want to learn to dance this year,” say “I am a dancer.”  Live out your goals in the present tenses.  Often times, this will allow all of the set-backs and your own neuroses that have been preventing you from succeeding to rise to the surface more immediately, so that you can tackle your crises effectively (per the directions in her book) and start achieving goals sooner.

Today was a stimulating day of free therapy and motivating thoughts for 2009.   Time to set clear goals and de-anxiety-ify myself!

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 12:47 am and is filed under special events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.