Has your cubicle got you comatose? Here are some warning signs that it’s time to launch your conscious career.

Most of us spend more time with our colleagues and bosses than our partners, kids and friends. If that’s not motivation to make sure your job is a good fit, what is? The job you choose can determine how physically and mentally healthy you are, your standard of living, your future prospects and whether you look back at your life at the brink of death and feel like you did your best. Consider these 10 signs that it’s time to quit, and you might just set yourself onto a much more fulfilling path.

Just about any task is better than doing your job.

When you’re at work, you’ll do just about anything to avoid performing the tasks that are assigned to you. You play around on Facebook, browse the internet and organize your vacation photos. In fact, you’re happy to perform menial tasks like taking out the trash and running errands for the boss – anything that will keep you away from your job for another five minutes. In other words, your work is utterly joyless for you.

You’ve got unsolvable issues with management.

There’s almost always going to be a certain amount of friction between workers and management; that’s just the way of the world. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to diffuse it, conflicts with your higher-ups can jeopardize your career well into the future. First, make sure that it isn’t all your Facebooking, those lunchtime cocktails or any other performance or behavior issues that are causing the problem. Then, talk to your boss’ boss. If that doesn’t work, think about moving on. Sometimes, it’s just not a good fit.

Your company is on a downward spiral.

There have been layoffs left and right, and the company has been reorganized and consolidated so many times it’s hardly recognizable. Things are so tight, they’ve asked white-collar workers to start delivering packages and vacuuming their own cubicles. This ship is probably going down, and even if the company manages to hang on, your position could be eliminated at any time. Don’t be caught by surprise. Start researching new jobs right now.

Your skills aren’t valued.

You feel like you’ve got a lot to offer, and your company just isn’t using you to your full potential. Not only are you rarely challenged, but you’re marginalized. Maybe you’re not being included in important meetings, or you’ve been passed over for a promotion. If your job doesn’t let you flex, you won’t be able to build more skills and grow professionally.

You’re stuck in a dead end.

You haven’t gotten very far in your company, but the growth has stopped, and it doesn’t look like things will be getting better any time soon. There are no opportunities to move up, and no opportunities for higher pay. Unless you can come to grips with the fact that you might remain stagnant for the rest of your career, you should explore options that can take you higher.

You dread going to work.

It’s Sunday night and your stomach is a ball of lead. The absolute last thing you want to do tomorrow morning is get up and go to work. Maybe your anxiety is so bad, you have a hard time enjoying your weekends because you just can’t stop thinking about Monday morning. When you hate your job this much, you’re not doing yourself or your employers any favors by staying on.

You’re simply bored.

Maybe work is not so bad, but you can’t muster much enthusiasm about it. You definitely don’t feel passionate about what you do – it’s just work. This is reality for a lot of people, and in a poor economy, it’s probably not enough reason on its own to quit your job. But take this opportunity to imagine what kind of job would make you truly happy. What would you rather be doing right at this moment? Running a food truck, starting a dog grooming business or growing exotic orchids could certainly be a viable business. Your dream might be more achievable than you think.

You can’t pay your bills.

On the other hand, some people quit well-paying jobs with the hopes of following their dreams only to find that surviving on their new pay is practically impossible. If you truly love what you’re doing, make it work. That might mean downsizing your lifestyle so that you don’t require as much money to pay the bills. But if you’re working to exhaustion every day and still stressing about your paltry paychecks, it’s probably not worth it.

It’s affecting your health.

Speaking of stress, it can really do some cruel and horrifying things to your body and your mind, putting you at increased risk for heart attacks, respiratory disorders and hormonal imbalances. It can cause tension headaches, nerve pain, irritability, joint pain, ulcers and depression. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your well-being for your job. If you lie in bed every morning wishing you could call in sick yet again, perhaps this gig is not for you.

It’s affecting your personal life.

You’d love to go out for drinks with friends, catch up with that cute guy that always flirts with you at the gym or attend your daughter’s dance recital, but you can’t. You’ve got to go to work. Some people aren’t bothered by 80-hour work weeks, and everybody has to decide for themselves what level of personal sacrifice they find acceptable. But being miserable because your job is keeping you from enjoying your life? Not okay.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

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Photo: Rachael Voorhees, Ana Patricia Alameida, EpSos.de, whatmegsaid

ColumnThe precious practice.

As a girl, I once read a book where the main character would frown with great purpose every time she saw a smiley face sign. I can’t recall the book, but you know the sign: those cheery yellow faces that blithely instruct you with just one word. Smile! “How do they know I’m not already smiling?” the girl character fumed. Yes, yes, yes! My eleven-year-old self shouted in her loudest inside voice. Finally, someone who gets it! In a good mood already, as a matter of fact, and you have ruined it, smiley. Where’s the humility, you piece of paper? What do you even know? Nothing.

Which brings me to yoga and yesterday.

On Sunday nights, when I can, I like to take myself to dinner, notebook in hand, for the express purpose of eavesdropping on humanity. The key is not to go anywhere so cool you’ll only overhear boring bits about things he should have texted, nor to go anywhere so sad you’ll want to die.

Last night, a woman at dinner with her three friends was in a total tizz over being dumped by her yoga partner.

“She says I’m too loud!” said the woman, loudly. “Too loud! Can you believe that?” It appeared her friends could believe it. “I explained, Claire, the entire point of yoga is to breathe! If you’re not really breathing, if you are not really sounding out the breath, it doesn’t work!” Here, she paused to shake her head in disbelief.

“But she says she won’t go. She won’t do it. She’s done with how loud I breathe.” The three friends nodded in silent unison.

“I don’t get it. I just can’t believe it,” the woman continued. “You’re supposed to chant, to breathe, with intention! She isn’t even doing it right. Most people aren’t, which is such a shame! Ommmmmmm” – sucking in a huge breath for the demonstration – “You know?”

My ears sharpened. Could it be? Was it she? The Loudest Lady in Yoga Class? Before she could notice me staring a little too long, I buried myself. Don’t mind me, just nerdy girl with notebook, probably a grad student. (Note to the novice: Bun that hair and wear a hoodie to dinner. You want free pearls, not free drinks.)

Sweet Jesus, I thought, this is the obnoxious Om-er right here, in the flesh, alive and explaining herself to the rest of us. Earthly understanding shall be ours! We have all experienced this woman, and sometimes man, in their terrifically varied but consistently exasperating varieties.

There is the Orgasmic Omer, belonging to the woman who has apparently never had her pelvis opened up the old-fashioned way, who also seems to experience the miracle of revirgination just in time for next class. If her Oms could talk, they would say, “I need to get la-la-laaaaaid more.”

There is the Male variant. He chants so smoothly. He really gets deep. He smiles at you with intention, all right. And, after class, he stares at you as if he’s just given you the greatest gift, because he’s pretty sure he has: your first orgasm. Shall we hold clammy hands over bowls of carrot ginger puree with primrose oil? We can discuss our alimentary tracts. He is wise in the ways of wheatgrass, say his Oms.

There is the Shamer Omer, the bald one who lets you all think she went through chemo even though she didn’t just because she likes the attention of it, as well as the attention that comes from hurtling her chants across the room like a bull moose in rut, and when confronted at last, accuses you of being the angry one, to which you burst out, “I was fine until you got all Om Shanti Shanti on us at 120 decibels!” and you never go back to that yoga class again. You don’t want to know what her Oms say, but they’re a true story.

There is the Quantum Omer, who ascribes spiritual glory to our shared celestial chemistry with stardust, whereas I find it scientific. Hers is a very special knowledge. Her Oms say, “I eat powdered placenta.”

There is Suzy Super Omer, who rolls up in her Range Rover, sporting her Lululemon. She has changed her email signature to Namaste. This is worse than anything that could have happened to yoga, including Portlandia. Her Oms say, “I’m the easy target. But be nice to me. I’m trying.”

My spiraling notebook taxonomy was interrupted by another protest about Claire, and I looked up to see the woman’s friends nodding once more. Two insights came to mind there in that restaurant. First, that woman needs better dinner friends.

Second, while I have loved yoga for years, I’m not sure I’m loving it the way others who love yoga seem to love it. I feel like a fraud, a phony, a huckster. After all, my inspirations are Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde and H.L. Mencken and House and Hitchens, not the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle and goji berries. I like Dorothy Parker and contemporary art and high fashion and alcohol (the last, preferably with rich food). I like comedy and code. The History of World War II was one of my favorite courses in graduate school. I genuinely feel nothing after a superfood smoothie. My years as a vegetarian were, literally, a gas. I am unmoved in the face of granola. Anything to do with groups of women makes me feel like I have a pending case of hives instead of a pending case of empowerment.

Something is definitely wrong with me. But no matter how many times I resolve to try, I find afresh that I must stand by my principles: I just don’t feel the need to get in touch with my inner anus. I don’t want to communicate nonviolently about my two-days-late class bill, I just want to give you my new debit card number because I’m fine, I haven’t lost my job, I just got sent a new card, no I’m really fine, no I’m not being resistant or defensive, if you’ll just let me explain, I…Oh God! Please just let me give you the new number!

Does a cat care? I want to stretch like a cat. Does the cat ask his cat friend, respectfully, lovingly, compassionately, for some room on the cushion?

I breathe, even if you can’t hear it. I breathe because sometimes it makes me cry trickles of relief and sometimes it makes me grow pent up with joy. But sometimes it feels like a job, and sometimes I go through the motions and I smile, knowing I actually just need the old-fashioned way.

And sometimes instead of Ommmmmm, I just say, Oh.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

Image: Christian Parreira

ColumnResolutions: Just like to-do lists, only impossible!

The season of cocktail parties and last-minute dinners with friends before we all trek back to our respective homesteads (or wing like hell in the opposite direction) is upon us. Inevitably, someone will ask what your New Year’s resolutions are. You will have already thought about how you are going to perfect your life ever further in the coming year, perfect it compassionately and positively and joyously, in explicit detail in both your new moleskine purchased for just this purpose (drunken scrawls), as well as in Excel which you hate but admit is kind of useful sometimes (alphabetized goals), but all this you will keep to yourself, because in response you’ll laugh with the loveliest measured nonchalance and murmur something mindful Meryl Streep or a person who has found her bliss would murmur, something about slow food or slow presents. “Conscious resolution is revelatory in a way that regular old resolutions could simply never be!” your organic milk-fed countenance will say without saying a thing.

Resolutions are fine things if they are extraordinarily selfish, one-off, low dose, so easy a Kardashian could do it, or recklessly nice just because. For instance: You should resolve to have more sex. To eat some very fresh food. To save an animal. To save a friend. To leave the house clad in real shoes always, because sneakers are for the gym. To write down all the things you want to accomplish in the next decade, and choose just two for this year. To let the smile show in your eyes. To stop saying “totes.” To find a yoga class without a woman who moans her ohms like her mat is equipped in a way yours isn’t. All lovely things to achieve in this grand new annum.

Then there are all the other things.

Resolutions Not to Make in 2012

1. Lose weight.

Just stop right there. Not going to happen. You know how I know? This was your resolution last year. And the year before that. In fact, every single year for as long as you can remember being aware of your weight, or, third grade for girls, age 45 for boys. Personal trainers and lifestyle coaches will recommend that you get more specific to get results. Aim for dropping a dress size, or 10 pounds, or 5% of your body fat, they say. I say success starts with setting the bar so low you could trip on it. Consider three pounds. Three pounds is a week of no carbs. Three pounds is walking around your town for three hours, thrice. Maybe just twice. Three pounds can even be a satisfying bowel movement after a fibrous dinner of zesty uncaloric nightshades. Three pounds: You can do this.

No one else will notice, but you sure will, and since all your friends really want is for you to stop talking about how skinny you used to be that one time before they ever knew you, everyone wins.

2. Pay off your debts.

I always say that if I had real money I’d buy all the landfills in the world, because someone is going to figure out how to turn dirty trash into clean energy and get, well, filthy rich. Perhaps our debt-burdened world will strike upon some similar Eureka formula whereby all debt becomes highly valuable to the people owing it instead of the people gaming it. In the meantime, resolve to drink. Kidding! Resolve to get real. The student loans, the mortgage, the car, the second mortgage, the second car, the credit cards, the stray bank charge on the account you opened on Maui three years ago because they don’t have Wells Fargo and you forgot about it: Forgive yourself. We are a nation of forgivers. We forgive Wall Street, we forgive television, we forgive Donald Trump his hair and Newt Gingrich his head, we can forgive you.

Choose the smallest debt, divide by 12, automate checking transfers to your savings account you’ve set up just for this, and get back to work on banishing the use of “totes” from your life.

4. Learn to/take up/get into/go to classes for those seventeen things you’ve always thought you would be good at and should be good at because that guy you can’t stand but can’t unfollow on Twitter is.

Painting, singing, the Barre method, skiing, kayaking, bouldering (it’s harder than rock climbing), raising your Klout score, the art of tea, HTML5, Mandarin, never again needing to look up the meaning of sui generis, artistic welding, knitting in a hipster way not a housewife way, riding, hey how about a Century?, pasta from scratch, finally understanding and enjoying Brahms, ikat upholstery, poker, why not a tournament?, curing pork products at home, paintball, sky-diving, Tantric sex, coed club baseball, writing a novel, plus all the other things that in fact require years of practice and learning to approach basic proficiency, nevermind professional status. Definitely at least 17.

In 2012, resolve to: Take one, lone “class.” Attend one, new “thing.” Visit one, other “place”. If you can manage all that in the space of 12 short months while working, living, loving and doing, I’ll know you’re also the one who lost three pounds. Gold star.

5. Sign up for the gym.

A time-honored tradition in our country, a whale of a deal, practically a steal! Just $49 a month forever. Propping up the gym bubble adds millions to the GDP, while deducting nothing from the BMI. Do you dream about the gym? Do you miss the ritual of wiping down the handles of the Stairmaster with Pine Sol spray because the guy on it before you left a flash flood of sweat in the cup holder? Do you find yourself just hanging around the gym at 5 a.m. on a Saturday in August, wishing it were open? No? Don’t sign up for the gym.

6. Drink less.

If you have to say it, it’s not going to happen. How about worry less and drink more…of other things? Drinking is a sign of boredom. (Unless you are an alcoholic, in which case, doctor, now.) Change up friends, change up activities, change up how you spend your evenings, just change up some old thing. The drinking will change itself. No resolution required.

7. Find true love.

“You should really date more.” “So, have you tried online dating?” People. I know of a handful of happy marriages – not perfect marriages, but really happy ones, the ones that don’t make me fear marriage, the ones that don’t come like a box set of Barbie Never Orgasms But Gave Up on It Years Ago So Her Face Is Set to Permafreeze and Ken Makes Joking Digs About Balls and Chains But Boy Is He an Amazing Dad to Get Back at Barbie. Anyway. The happy ones, to the last, all happened instantly: boy met girl or girl met boy or boy met boy or what have you, and that was that. There was no trying in any case. I’m not saying we shouldn’t work at finding true love like some people garden their resumes, I’m just saying we shouldn’t work at finding true love. You’re a whole hunk of lovely love. A rock, if you will, and someone will soon turn it over and find the adorable creeping and crawling flaws underneath, and hug them and squeeze them (but not too hard), and name it Love. It’ll happen. I promise.

(Although I’m not going to make a resolution about it for you. Like I want to be responsible for dooming your chance at love in 2012.)

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life.

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P.S. A special hello to one Starre Vartan. We love you.

When you’re at the end of your rope, maybe it’s because of hope.

Hope: noun, verb.
• the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
• a person or thing in which expectations are centered.
• a four letter word that doesn’t amount to much.

Every word you speak or think lands somewhere – it’s heard by you (and if not consciously, certainly by your unconscious mind), by the people around you, by the Dream Fairy, The Universe, The Powers That Be.

So what kind of message does the word “hope” send out? How is Life, or your boss, or your partner supposed to interpret “hope?” Hope doesn’t tell anybody where you really stand on an issue. It doesn’t holler, Go get ‘em! or declare I wholeheartedly believe! or I’ll do whatever it takes.

Hope hangs out on the sidelines…just, you know, hoping. While expectation, optimism, and pragmatism are on the field playing the sport of life. Full on.

Maybe hoping is for sissies.
And if that’s true, than intention and faith are for heroes.

What if you banned the word hope from your vocabulary? Try this hope-replacement exercise. How do you feel with each of these statements?:

• “I hope I’ll get the job.” BZZZZT! Reframe it.
• “I really want to get the job.” (“Point taken,” says the Universe.)
• “I’m praying to get that job.” (Prayer is an action too.)
• “I have done all that I can do to get the job.” (Yes! Stand tall.)
• “I will either get the job, or I won’t.” (Precisely. Now you can get on with your day.)
• “I expect to end up with a job that I love.” (Excellent! Open-ended and affirmative!)

Do a Hope List. What are you hoping for? Opportunity to knock? The outcome to be positive? The test results to be negative? Replace “hope” with action words, reality words, intentional, faith-bounding, wide-open, change-agent hero words.

There are too many variables out of our control, yet many variables firmly within our control. It’s foolish to plant big desires on the sands of hope. It’s amazing what happens when you decide to not lean on hope (tho’ you may go through withdrawals at first, not having hope as dream-filler can be profoundly uncomfortable.)

When you move beyond hope, you take responsibility. You face facts. You see solutions that you didn’t see before. You stand in the present.

Hope less. Realize more.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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We’re counting on you.

Rachel Crow is fourteen and she can sing. You’ll cry happy, cheer-leading tears when you watch this video.

The gem of this comes at the end of the clip and it’s easy to miss. I had to watch this twice to catch it. SPOILER ALERT: When Rachel gets four thumbs up from the judges (yeah!) and there is wild applause and cheers, she says something so important:

“Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

Thank you. I won’t let you down.

This is the most humble and courageous phrase you can speak when life opens the door wide for you — which it does every day.

You’re up for it. You’re grateful. You see the gift and you realize you can’t do it alone.

With this: Thank you. I won’t let you down, you rise to the occasion.

There are so many people believing in you. Backing you up, saying prayers, taking your call, saying yes.

Dream realizing is reciprocal. Sometimes, when someone believes in you, you are honor bound to go for it.

Say it. Believe it. Hear it (from my heart to yours).

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: krikit

It’s time to get whelmed instead.

Your plate is full, right?
You’ve been at this for a while.
Life is your kind of kuh-raz-eee.

And then it gets fuller, and the time has come, or there’s a curve-ball, and things get well n’ truly wild.

And you could say, because it’s your right to, that you’re feeling “overwhelmed”. But don’t. Don’t go there. Stay with me, on the light side of change and bursting creativity; on the front end of pressure, and greatness, and the best and worst kinds of challenges.

Back away from overwhelm. Because when you just utter that word, you cast doubt on your capacity to rise. You let angst flop on your couch. You fret that you might not have the resources to surmount obstacles or to seal the deal on your dream.

Let’s make a pact. If you slip and use the o-word, I’ll refuse to believe you. I’m going to act like you didn’t even say it, and I’m going to remind you that

: you put everything on your plate with intention, and you have a huge say in creating your reality.

: you’ve been watering your dreams for years and you’re going to get what you ask for and allow (ya!)

: tragic circumstances or a circus of success — you’ve got what it takes to meet life with more giving.

Ban “overwhelmed” from your vocabulary. Refuse it entry to your psyche. You’re bigger than that.

Just be, you know, whelmed (this is best said with a Jewish, Brooklyn accent.)

Whelmed. Not at full capacity, rather, full of capacity.

Whelmed. Sounds full of potential, doesn’t it?

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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QuoteDaily quotes at EcoSalon.

“The things you dread have the most to teach you. Dive in.” – @themindfulist

Image: Brent Bat

QuoteDaily quotes at EcoSalon.

“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”  – Vincent van Gogh

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ColumnWhat will your do with your wild hair?

Every few years I get what’s known in the parlance as a wild hair. These are more than mere hankerings, yens and yearnings. I feel them before I understand them, but by now I know better than to question them. The result of this is always swift, powerful change. I happened to drive to Los Angeles on Saturday in order to get some EcoSalon matters squared away, and halfway down the 5, it happened. I realized the real reason for the trip was something else entirely. Hello, wild hair.

Dinner with pals at The Tasting Kitchen in Venice (lovely branzino, by the way, order it with a Baby Bird cocktail), 7 p.m. Checkpoint: Oh yeah. Something’s going on. Tossing and turning with enervated, inexplicable insomnia, 1 a.m. Checkpoint: I’m awake, already! What? Brunch with a think-different-now, go-get-em-girl musician friend, 11 a.m.: Like it was in the cards all along. And the unexpected, sudden change in the work schedule for the day, 1 p.m.? No surprise at all.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to go on runs to a spot on the bluffs of Pacific Palisades. These hills just beyond Temescal High School are lined with a grassy dog park and benches, only a few feet from the edge, the whole of the Pacific Ocean spreading out below. From this vantage point, you can gaze in the distance at Long Beach and Malibu; you can sense the gentle curve of the planet. The sea sparkles some days, and is a mirage of sunlit mist other days. My bench was lower and more secluded than the others, below some wild chapparal on a ledge jutting out from the bluffs. This was my thinking spot for years, a place where I made many important decisions and renewed commitments. And on Sunday, I knew exactly where I belonged.

The last Wild Hair Incident, just over three years ago, resulted in radical change in my life of the external sort. It’s why I’m here talking to you, in fact. This time is different, a kinder, gentler fire under the ass. So, no: I’m not adopting an African baby or marrying a rock star or moving to an ashram. I’m still me, here. But while I’m here, I want to say something to you.

Right now, what do you really want to say to that person? Stop reading and go say it. You know how to say it. It’s the right thing to say. Say it.

Forget this year. Think about this decade. What do you want out of it? Start working backwards right now. Do not wait. We need you.

And just stop.

Stop faxing. Who faxes? If they want you to fax it, refuse. Insist on an email. Nobody needs to be faxing, period, ever. Get a scanner and tell them to try out the new century, they’ll like it.

Tell the market it is not acceptable that they do not have organic dairy products and are still selling conventional strawberries. Just tell them. They will change.

Don’t text. Pick up the phone. Don’t surf, pick up a novel. If it is not about creating, changing, or cramming things of value into that brain of yours, do not do it. If it is not getting you where you want to go, and you know exactly where you want to go, do not give it any thought.

Don’t wait if you already know the right thing. Good men don’t wait and neither do good women. Everything is always in flux, always changing, and waiting or not waiting does not slow the pace of change or make something more right. Start making your decisions quickly; yes or no, in or out. Light your own fire.

How do I know you can do this? Because you’re here, right now, with me. A few weeks ago I was thinking about the EcoSalon audience – yes, I do that – and the thought that twigged me most persistently was how powerful you are. Today’s marketing-savvy consumer can trot out the facts and figures about how women control the dollars as well as any advertiser I know; we’re 80% that, 60% this. You can probably tell me more about what marketers do than they can. Anyone who has seen a commercial or received a promotional offer knows this power implicitly. But do you know it?

AOL just bought The Huffington Post for $315 million. Arianna Huffington is now the president of AOL’s content, and content is their strategy for the foreseeable future. The reason? As put by the perennially rude (and brilliant) Paul Carr on TechCrunch, “Tim Armstrong has just sent to all AOL staffers: ‘The Huffington Post is core to our strategy and our 80:80:80 focus – 80% of domestic spending is done by women, 80% of commerce happens locally and 80% of considered purchases are driven by influencers. The influencer part of the strategy is important and will be potent.’ Or put another way, ‘we bought the Huffington Post because it’s full of important women who buy things’.”

Do you actually know your power? Or are you just saying you do? Elle‘s slogan is “Cherchez La Femme”: Look for the woman. Why? Because women are behind everything. Our motto is “Have a Heart.” Why? Because everything you need, absolutely, ever, to create change, to create a life of meaning, to leave this place better than you found it, is right inside you now.

You’re powerful and you know it and so do I, and I expect you to make good use of it. Consider this your wild hair. Now, what are you going to do?

This is the latest installment in your editor’s new column for 2011, The Insider’s Guide to Life, exploring topics such as media, culture, sex, politics, and style. Cheers and spellcheck!

Image: NeilArmstrong2

There’s a moment in the third season of The West Wing where President Jed Bartlet declares that stress is something that happens to other people. Sadly, many of us are holding ourselves to the same harsh standard with devastating consequences for our health.

Stress is a natural physical reaction and it’s useful - the problem is that in modern life we don’t give our bodies time to recuperate. Instead we subject it to yet more stress and the cumulative effect can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure or poor digestion.

My wake-up call came recently when I fainted at a public event (this one) and was carted off to the hospital in an ambulance (thankfully at no cost since I live in the UK and it’s all covered by the National Health Service). The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me whatsoever and I can only conclude that it was my body’s way of telling me to look after myself.

When I stopped to think about it, I knew that I’d been feeling stressed for some time. Everyone has stresses in their life – the recession and financial problems is a big one for many people at the moment, while life events such as redundancy, divorce and moving home rank right up there, as well. The biggest stress in my life is organising my wedding, which is less than a month away now.

For me the idea of wellness and ecology are intrinsically linked. If I’m wound tight with stress, I’ll inevitably go for the fastest or easiest option and not necessarily the greenest one. I’m more likely to order take-out because I’m not in the mood for cooking or catch a cab because I’m running late.

I might feel guilty about it but guilt is not a productive emotion. On the other hand, a more peaceful and relaxed state of mind gives me the space to make eco-friendly choices. If I nurture myself, I can nurture others and the world around me and I can practice compassion and creativity.

I started making changes to alleviate stress on my own and then last week I went to a workshop on understanding stress at the Neal’s Yard Remedies store in Covent Garden (NYR sells natural, organic beauty product and treatments at stores in the UK and through their online stores in the US and Japan).

I thought I’d share with you the changes I’ve made and what worked and what I’m yet to try. In this post I’ll write about the changes I initiated on my own and I’ll do a follow-up post to share what I learnt at the workshop.

1. Diet: I already eat a healthy diet but I’ve made more of an effort to focus on nutrition so that I have the energy to deal with stressful events. I eat a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat protein and I’ve cut out most sweets and fried foods and limited my coffee intake. Bonus – this will also help me look better in my wedding dress!

2. Exercise: I find exercise is a highly effective stress-reliever. You might be tempted to skip it if you’re feeling tired but actually it gives you more energy because it gets the oxygen circulating and triggers your body to release endorphins. I’d been slacking off a bit so I picked it up again. I like to run, but walking is also very good exercise and a great way to clear your head. I don’t like the gym but I do find exercise DVDs can be a godsend at this time of year when it’s cold out. I also resumed my morning yoga practice – just a simple 10-minute routine but I could feel it dissipating the stored tension in my neck and shoulders within days.

3. Vitamins: My iron levels are slightly below par (although this was not the reason for the faint). I already eat plenty of iron-rich food and making further changes to my diet wasn’t practical so I started taking an iron and vitamin C supplement (vitamin C helps your body absorb iron and, hey, it’s also good for you).

4. Sleep: I started going to bed earlier. My new rule is no computer after 9pm and I’m trying to get to bed by 10pm or 10.30pm most nights. I can operate on less sleep but I feel so much better with more. It doesn’t have to be a permanent change but it’s helping me right now.

5. Productivity: A major source of stress is my own ill-discipline – I am the world’s best procrastinator. I obviously can’t blow off my work nor the wedding preparations, so I’ve been trying to work more effectively instead. Wasting time doesn’t get my work done, it just leaves me less time to do it, and hence adds to my stress. I find the Getting Things Done system helpful and I’ve also tried to curb my addiction to tools such as Twitter.

6. Treats: We all know that all work and no play makes you dull and it doesn’t do anything for your stress levels either, so I’ve been making sure I schedule in fun things with friends and loved ones. I also went for a remedial massage – Neal’s Yard Remedies offers cut-price treatments with its graduates once a week, and I picked up the leaflet for the workshop while I was there. I’ve also enjoyed small treats like a bubble bath or a few squares of dark chocolate.

What are your top tips to deal with stress? Please share with us in the comments section.

Image: Townend Photography