Hi there! Keep reading to find out more about Part 13 in our FinerMinds 19-Part Series on Becoming Just Awesome. This week is all about Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Body.
Most of us live our lives in our heads. We’re either thinking about the past or the future. It begs the question: Are we really living or are we thinking about living? Rarely do we live in the present moment – truly aware of ourselves and others in time and space, conscious of our current surroundings. We’re such ‘head’ creatures that we utterly forget about our bodies, how they’re operating, as well as what is happening around us right now.
Our bodies also say a lot about us. It only takes us a few seconds to register whether a person is shy or confident by the way they’re standing. In certain instances, researchers report that body language accounts for a whopping 55% of communication. Surprisingly, what is said only counts for a minuscule 7%.
Our bodies are a window into how we’re feeling. Be present and notice your breath. If you’re calm, cool and collected, chances are your breathing is steady and even. If you’re anxious and stressed you’ll have short breaths where you’ll inhale quickly. The depressed person will often have long exhalations.
The importance of the body cannot be underestimated. You can use your body to help influence the mind.
Do the following exercise: Take a warrior stance – feet placed firmly, chest and head up, arms strong but relaxed at your side, and smile pleasantly. Now say, “I’m so sad.” The second step is to take a depressed posture and frown. Now say, “I’m very strong.”
What happened? Chances are you don’t feel sad or weak (even if you’re verbally expressing it) when you’re standing strong. I’d also guess that you don’t feel particularly confident when you’re body is projecting weakness, even if your words say otherwise.
This is the power of the body.
Your body is a hugely important instrument in helping you increase your confidence, wellness and success, but one that is not focused on enough. We read and read and read in order to improve ourselves, but it’s time to recognize your body in the development process.
Any physical activity, whether yoga, martial arts, breathing exercises or dance, will help you become more aware of your body – your muscles, how your body moves in space, how it feels when it’s tensed or relaxed. Increased body awareness also helps to bring you into the present moment.
As you become more aware of your body, you can monitor your posture and body language to help you reach your personal and professional goals. You might be wondering how posture and professional goals go together. Well, posture has actually been described as a leadership skill, as you’ll find out in the following video.
Watch This 3 Minute Video to Discover Your Power Posture
There's an artist, musician, painter, designer, and creative visionary in all of us. Some of us are fortunate enough to be aware of our ability, for others its hidden. Creativity seems to flow through the veins of some people - and be completely avoided in others. So what if you haven't been given the fine hand of Da Vinci or the ear of Mozart? There's still good news for you!
Creativity can be stimulated through a range of exercises designed to push right brain thinking and reveal some of your hidden creativity. The right brain functions in a non-verbal manner and excels in visual, spatial, perceptual, and intuitive information. The right brain processes information differently than the left brain. For the right brain, processing happens very quickly and the style of processing is nonlinear and non-sequential. The right brain looks at the whole picture and quickly seeks to determine the spatial relationships of all the parts as they relate to the whole. This component of the brain is not concerned with things falling into patterns because of prescribed rules. On the contrary, the right brain seems to flourish dealing with complexity, ambiguity and paradox. At times, right brain thinking is difficult to put into words because of its complexity, its ability to process information quickly and its non-verbal nature.
The left brain on the other hand is associated with verbal, logical, and analytical thinking. It excels in naming and categorizing things, symbolic abstraction, speech, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The left brain is very linear: it places things in sequential order -- first things first and then second things second, etc. If you reflect back upon our own educational training, we have been traditionally taught to master; reading, writing and arithmetic, which are all strong elements of left brain.
Each one of us has a dominance towards the left or right hemispheres of the brain. Creative people are naturally more right-brained dominant - but if you're not one of these people, you don't have to miss out.
Creativity can be practiced - here are some ways how:
One exercise which you should try is to draw yourself upside down with your non dominant hand and then sign it. The point of this exercise is to release our mind from habitual patterns and engage our right brain in a creative task. Our left brain always wants to make things the way we know, but it finds it difficult to engage in this exercise as we are ambiguous as we draw clumsy pictures of ourselves. I've attached the scanned picture I drew of myself below. Of course this looks nothing like me - but this is my quick free hand sketch with my left hand upside down!
Another brain exercise you can do every day is train yourself to automatically look for connections between things. For example, any time you pick up a magazine, a book, or surf a website - always think of what new things you are learning relate to things you already know. Beginning to automatically see and make these connections in your mind makes you more creative and allows you to create solutions and new ways of doing things.
If you want to read more on your right-brain and unleashing your creativity - you can check out these links:
Sometimes we need to be reminded to take a step back, to detach ourselves from our current reality, and to assess where we are, where we are going, and where we want to go. We get caught up in our lives, we forget our motives, our values, those who around us, who really are the most important to us. We becomes our jobs, we walk around living lives - serving obligations thrust on us because we are not aware of our surroundings.
So now imagine a place - a place that encourages reflection, one where we can relax, wherewe can begin to realize and understand that the path ahead of us needs to change. A place that breeds positivity and prosperity, and gives us time to set out our path ahead.
I found such a place, in a movie - an inspiring film that makes you consider your place in the world.
So who is behind this inspiring film?
At the ripe age of 68, personal development icon Dr. Wayne Dyer is preparing to change the world. All over again.
He sparked a revolution in humanism back in '76 with his bestselling book 'Your Erroneous Zones'. This time, he's focusing on helping us find real, lasting happiness through one of my favorite mediums - film.
It's a feature film called 'Ambition to Meaning', and it's one of the most inspiring tales of self discovery ever made.
So why do you need to watch this film? Because like you I appreciate the opportunity to reflect and question my motives, my ego, and my responsibilities. It's not every day that I can spend two hours thinking about where I'm headed, and if I'm currently going in the right direction. I'm a busy person, and like everything else that's good for me, important things such as meditation, or self reflection - often get put on hold. But that is such a bad attitude for us both to have.
You can be lifted up right now and given a dose of inspiration!
You can watch the film online right now, and in as little as five minutes, you too can discover your true self and begin improving your life.
Hi everyone! Welcome back. I’m excited to share Part 12 in our 19-Part FinerMinds series on Becoming Just Awesome with you. This week I’m going to focus on the power of support and the importance of asking for help. Obvious concepts, but practiced far too little.
Western society, in particular, orients itself around the individual. We’re focused on the ‘me’ rather than the ‘we’. We strive to achieve goals on our own and asking for help is deemed to be a negative thing, suggesting weakness. This is actually problematic because many of us don’t learn how to be effective team players or even how to ask for help properly. We struggle when it comes to knowing how to get help and who to go to.
Functioning entirely on our own with a project, we often drown. We keep thinking “I can handle it” until it erupts into a full-blown incident where we feel panicked and lost. This situation could be entirely averted if we put together a support team from the outset – if we brought together a collection of individuals with the right background and expertise to lend advice, knowledge and encouragement along the way.
And this ‘support network’ approach isn’t just for work related projects; it’s a beneficial approach for any life project, particularly if we’re going through a rough patch, whether an illness or stressful event. Sometimes the unexpected happens and we feel utterly helpless, but we don’t know how to harness the power of others to support us through a difficult situation.
Study after study has demonstrated that being a part of a support network, whether a casual social network or a more formal support group, has significant benefits, including:
Decreased anxiety and depression
Increased life expectancy
Less stress
Enhanced immune function
Increased confidence and sense of self-worth
Gain in knowledge
Greater sense of belonging and security
The above advantages are especially important to keep you mentally and physically grounded if you’re going through challenging circumstances.
Simply having a circle of supportive friends around you is one of the best ways to combat feelings of anxiety and depression when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Often, when you’re feeling down there is a tendency to drop relationships and opt for isolation. This is counterproductive.
Rather, you should focus on reaching out to those who care about you, especially if they have expertise in a particular area you’re struggling with. Make the time to talk to a friend who is a particularly good listener and has a track record of doling out practical, positive advice.
Chances are you will feel so much better after a cup of coffee and a heart to heart chat. You’ll feel more relaxed and focused. They’ll provide you with some much needed perspective on your problem. They’ll take that ‘end of the world’ issue that you’re wrestling with and break it down into manageable parts that you can work on.
The next time you’re facing a problem, whether personal or work related, go through the following steps to ensure that you get the support you so desperately need:
Step 1
What is the issue or problem you’re facing? Can you easily breakdown and articulate what is going on? What is even better is if you can analyze a situation and identify where problems might arise – you can cut problems off before they happen. Taking a preemptive approach will minimize future difficulties.
Step 2
Two questions here: What do you need and who do you need? Once you’ve taken the problem apart, you probably have a better sense of what and who you need. Identify resources and individuals who will help you with your task, whether it’s building a house or recovering from the loss of your spouse.
Step 3
Simply ask for support. So many people are scared to ask. This is a HUGE problem. Just ask! Clearly explain your problem and why you think the person you’re talking to can help you out. Most people will be completely flattered that you turned to them for support and advice. People like to feel useful. And if for some reason they are unable to help you out, chances are they’ll be able to point you in the direction of someone else who can.
Step 4
Accept the help. Some people ask for help, but then they feel awkward or even resentful during or after someone has assisted them. Relax, accept it and say “thank you.” There will be plenty of chances for you to reciprocate. Let the person helping you out know that you’ll be there for them should the need arise. That is a wonderful gift to them. It’s nice to know that someone has your back.
Let us know how a strong support network has helped you through a rough patch!
When was the last time you saw your mailbox EMPTY? Seriously - end your day without having a single e-mail waiting for you and being able to start fresh the coming day?
A trivial question, some would say, doesn't matter if you have 1000 or 0 e-mails in your mailbox, you can always only read the ones that matter to you and ignore the rest, right?
Well, according to psychologists your over-flooded inbox might actually be the number one reason for your decreased productivity. Nothing wrong in being informed, but the amount of information that is being bombed at you every day simply exceeds your brains capacity to process it. Much too often we become paralyzed by knowing too much and not being able to decide anymore what is truly important for us.
When you think about it then checking your e-mail is the single most common habit that your parents didn't have -- yet for you logging in into your mailbox and browsing your e-mails has become so automatic and frequent that you rarely even ask WHY or consider seriously HOW you're going to process the information that you find.
If you're like most of the people then you almost never end your day with having 0 e-mails in your inbox. Most likely you have some e-mails that you've read, a whole bunch you haven't read and don't intend to either, some that you've actually written a reply to -- and some you just don't know what to do with (you probably decide to read them in the future -- which almost never happens).
It's a mess! And it's cutting down your productivity more than anything else.
Fortunately there's a way how to turn this disguised energy vampire into a well-tamed pet of yours, in other words: how to create a simple system that reduces significantly the time your spend in your inbox and gives the control over the information you consume right back to you.
It's called the 0-inbox system.
A productivity expert Merlin Mann explains the system in his highly insightful presentation. According to Mann the 2 most valuable resources that you have are your attention and time. You have a limited number of hours and minutes every day and no matter how much you'd like you can't add anything extra to it.
So Mann asks a question: "What is most important to you?" No matter what's your answer -- your family, project you're working on right now, your cat -- your mailbox actually reflects your priorities. If someone would check what has been going on in your mailbox in the past couple of weeks that person could tell a lot about where your actual priorities lie.
This is how crucial it is to actually have your inbox under YOUR control -- not in the hands of all those people who are mailing you every day.
If you still feel that having 0 e-mails -- and yet having all the important things done -- is rather daydreaming, you might find Mann's ideas sort of revolutionary. However as with most of the good things in life -- they're rather simple and obvious.
Observing Zen Monks meditating for hours may make you believe that living a more balanced life filled with joy, happiness, and focus takes years of practice, sacrifice, and was not obtainable for the vast majority of people.
This is actually a widely held mis-conception - as the powerful benefits of meditation can be felt by everyone, with as little as ten minutes a day. Recent research has shown that meditating has dramatic positive effects in as little as a 10-minute session. Several studies have demonstrated that subjects who meditated for a short time showed increased alpha waves (the relaxed brain waves) and decreased anxiety and depression.
Researchers studied participants with MRI brain scans while they meditated, and found that meditation activated several of the autonomic parts of the brain, including those that controlled digestion, and blood pressure - which are normally out of our control. By lowering stress, and allowing these vital body functions to work free of any extra burden - ailing medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and digestion problems are much less likely to occur.
So what does a state of Meditation infer? In his book, "What is Meditation?" (Shambhala Publications, 1999), Rob Nairn talks about it as a state of "bare attention." He explains, "It is a highly alert and skillful state of mind because it requires one to remain psychologically present and 'with' whatever happens in and around one without adding to or subtracting from it in any way." Meditation cleanses your mind, cleaning it of negative thoughts and other obstructive clutter.
If there are so many positive benefits to meditation, why don't more people practice it? Our biggest objection is that we don't have 10 minutes to take out of our busy lives and meditate. The irony of this is that if we took out the time, as little as 10 minutes a day, the physical and psychological benefits would be much greater than any extra time spent working. Meditation is as simple as sitting in a chair in a quiet room and focusing on ones breathing, or listening to a CD of sounds.
I'm sure you have 10 minutes today to meditate and see the positive benefits to your mind and body. You can start by trying a free demo of one of the most commonly used meditation courses, allowing you to experience different states of meditation, or just by sitting down and taking some quiet time to allow yourself to observe your mind.
Welcome back! It’s time for Part 11 in our 19-part FinerMinds series on Becoming Just Awesome. (We’re more than half way there!) This week is all about the power of giving. The holiday ‘giving’ season might be behind us, but giving is a habit we need to nurture year round.
Right now we’ve got some serious world issues on the agenda – financial meltdown, war, climate woes – which leads to a tendency to turn inwards. Crises put us in ‘me’ mode. It makes us feel scared, like there’s not enough of anything – money, jobs, security – to go around.
What kind of energy vibrations are we sending out into the world by doing this?
When we’re all thinking, acting and feeling selfishly, what do we get? We get less of everything. The universe mirrors us. One of the best ways to combat this urge to curl into an anxious ball and hoard all of our worldly possessions is to give. It’s that simple.
When you give something from your heart without expecting anything in return, you will unleash a powerful force into the universe that will positively boomerang back to you in incredible ways. You will usher in good vibrations and abundance into your life. Give unconditionally, without the expectation of rewards. Simply give because you’re happy doing it.
Even the act of giving has its own rewards. Studies show that those who give enjoy:
Better health (enhanced immune system, lower cholesterol, stronger cardiovascular fitness, less chest pain)
Increased life expectancy
Less stress
More friends
Being able to find a romantic partner and meaningful jobs in a shorter amount of time
A study in the United Kingdom reported that 50% of volunteers felt healthier as a result of the work they were doing. With one in five reporting that they had lost a significant amount of weight while doing volunteer work.
People generally believe that volunteering and donating money are wonderful ideas. But for the majority it stays at the idea level. They never do it. They put it off for later when they hopefully have a little more time and money.
The important part is to start giving now. It doesn’t matter how little. It’s about creating the habit of giving, which will serve you (and, most importantly, others!) for a lifetime.
Two Popular Ways to Give:
Donation
There are so many organizations out there that focus on critical issues – poverty, education, women’s rights, health issues, etc. – at the local, national and international level. Get on the Internet and start researching causes that mean something to you. Identify organizations that are aligned with your interests and goals and help them out financially. Many people say, “well, I don’t want to just give money.” They have the philosophy that instead of giving a person a fish to eat, they would rather give them a fishing pole and teach them how to fish, so they can eat for a lifetime. Completely understandable.
The great part is there are many organizations out there that do just these sorts of things – organizations that are very much focused on education, training and empowerment. By supporting these groups, you are essentially teaching a group ‘to fish’. Here are some websites to get you started: JustGive, Network for Good, Just Giving.
An alternative to a financial donation is to donate clothes or other material items that will benefit another person or group. It’s as easy as finding a local shelter and dropping off items from time to time. You can even mobilize your friends and family members to donate as well, which will help out even more. And perhaps you have your own business. Committing 10% of you profits to charities is a great way to give back.
Volunteering
Another important way to give is through service, giving some of your time to make things better or easier for another person, animal or even the environment. There are so many ways you can do this. You can volunteer at a non-profit organization. If you have a particular skill, you can teach classes for those less fortunate. You can donate blood. You can teach sports to kids or those who are disabled. Keep reading to learn more.
Tips on volunteering from the Wiki How To Guide to get you started:
Consider why you want to volunteer. Do you want to help the world or your community? Do you want to build your own skills, make new friends, and learn? Do you love what you do? Do you want to share your gifts with others or give something back? Examining these sorts of questions can help you to choose the right direction for your volunteer work.
Choose an organization that is meaningful to you. If you feel strongly about literacy, for instance, volunteer at your local library or find out if there is an organization of volunteer tutors in your area. There are organizations doing all sorts of work, and it is especially important with volunteer work that you choose something that you value. Organizations exist for all sorts of purposes, so if dishing up food at a soup kitchen doesn't sound like your cup of tea, consider ushering at your local theater, building homes, or volunteering at a hospital or animal shelter.
Look for an organization or activity in your area or community. While some volunteers do sign up for the Peace Corps or other worldwide organizations and travel to remote parts of the world, you should probably start on a smaller scale than that, especially if you already have commitments at home. If you do plan on venturing abroad in your volunteer work, get lots of information about what to expect there and ask your doctor about getting immunizations appropriate to your destination. Talk to others who have traveled with your intended organization and ask them to share their experiences, too.
Seek out an organization and tasks within it that suit your skills and interests. Of course, you can develop new skills and learn many things by volunteering, but your volunteer work can still be compatible with your interests. If you're an outgoing "people person", you might not have much fun in the back office stuffing envelopes or filing papers. Others, by contrast, might find it uncomfortable to solicit funds door-to-door. Do you love to work with people? With animals? With children? With numbers? Are you handy? Do you love to speak or to write? Organizations need all sorts of skills. If you're not sure what sort of work you like or dislike, a volunteer organization may be a great opportunity to dabble a bit and try different things.
Start small. If you already have a busy schedule, volunteer your time for an hour or two per week or perhaps one day per month. (Just about anybody can free up that much time easily. Try turning off the TV!) You might be surprised how much you can accomplish in even a little bit of time. Then, if you find you enjoy the work and have more time to pursue it, gradually take on more.
Get to know others in the organization and how the group supports volunteers. Attend a training or orientation session, if one is available; if not, talk to local group leaders and other volunteers in the community about their experiences. You'll learn what to expect of an organization and your work with it, and you'll pick up some good tips to make your work there more productive and more meaningful.
Explain your own background and preferences to those in charge. They can help to match you with meaningful, suitable tasks, but only if they know a bit about who you are.
Get started. Ask plenty of questions and do your research, but until you sign up and get your feet wet, you won't know if volunteering for a particular organization is really right for you.
Get training. If your organization has a formal orientation or training, attend it. If not, or if you still don't know where to begin, ask to work with an experienced volunteer or group. Then, ask lots of questions and give it a shot.
Try not to give up. Volunteer organizations, too, sometimes have less-pleasant tasks, difficult fellow workers, busy times, slow times, or bad management. Remember: If you find your work unpleasant, you have choices.
Have fun! You will accomplish more if you love what you do, and chances are good that your enthusiasm will infect others.
Please let us know how GIVING has positively impacted your life!
Wasn't having better sex one of your New Year resolutions? What if we told you that there was a natural and relaxing way you can improve your sex life, which you can practice in the comfort of your home right now? Still listening?
A recent study has revealed that sexually unsatisfied women who practiced Yoga and mindfulness techniques improved levels of arousal and desire, and had better orgasms. A study of a sample of men also found similar Yoga techniques were as effective in preventing pre-mature ejaculation compared to pharmacological treatments such as Prozac.
For Years, Eastern practices such as Yoga have been touted to have many positive sexual benefits, with many techniques originating from the Kama Sutra of the fourth to sixth centuries. By focusing the mind, a greater level of awareness and concentration on the present moment is achieved, and thus sexual experiences become more vivid and intense.
Practicing naturally available techniques such as Yoga and other mindfulness techniques are fun and will provide your body and mind with greater levels of physical and mental flexibility.
Whose sex life couldn’t benefit from a little mental and physical flexibility?
Many of us endeavor to be a better person and follow what we our heart's belief's and desires... but many of us often find our dreams hampered when the "rules of society" tell us this is not possible.
The late Dame Anita Roddick does not believe so. Cynthia Kersey, author of the bestselling book "Unstoppable", shares this moving story of Anita Roddick with us.
This story will inspire and uplift you to fight for your heart's dreams and desires, even if this means you have to fight the system.
The Creation of a Caring Corporation
If you want to start a successful business
Don’t choose an industry that’s already dominated by several large companies.
Don’t plan on selling products without an advertising campaign.
Don’t mix politics with sales.
Any Harvard Business School graduate can tell you those rules. And that’s exactly why someone from Harvard Business School is the last person Anita Roddick plans to hire.
Anita broke just about every rule in the book when she started The Body Shop to sell naturally based cosmetics. She’s still breaking the rules today. Of course, such irreverence has its consequences. In Anita’s case, the consequences read like this: The Body Shop now has more than 1,500 stores throughout the world, is worth over $500 million, and has influenced the products and marketing of all its chief competitors.
And those are just the consequences in the business arena. The Body Shop is also a powerfully effective vehicle for social and environmental awareness and change; as far as Anita is concerned, that is the most important consequence of all.
From the moment in 1976 when Anita first conceived the idea of opening a shop to sell naturally based cosmetics, she was thinking in a most unbusinesslike manner. Most entrepreneurs set out to establish a company with growth potential that will make them wealthy someday. Anita was just looking for a way to feed herself and her two children, while her husband, also a maverick, was away on a two-year adventure, riding a horse from Argentina to New York.
Her first challenge was to find a cosmetics manufacturer to produce her products. No one she approached had ever heard of jojoba oil or aloe vera gel, and they all thought that cocoa butter had something to do with chocolate. Although she didn’t realize it at the time, Anita had discovered a market just about to explode: young female consumers who would prefer their cosmetics to be produced in a cruelty-free and environmentally responsible manner. When manufacturers failed to have the same foresight, Anita found a small herbalist who could do the work she required.
Since Anita was not the typical entrepreneur, she saw no drawbacks in starting her company with almost no capital. To save money, she bottled her cosmetics in the same inexpensive plastic containers hospitals use for urine samples, encouraging her customers to bring the containers back for refills. Because Anita couldn’t afford to have labels printed, she and some friends hand printed every one. Her packaging couldn’t have turned out better if she’d planned it that way. With the improvised packaging, her product now had the same natural, earthy image as the cosmetics themselves.
Anita opened the first branch of The Body Shop in her hometown of Brighton, England. When she first opened, neighboring proprietors made bets on how long the store would last. Less amused were the owners of local funeral parlors who insisted she change the shop’s name. No one, they complained, would hire a funeral director located near a place called “The Body Shop.” She stuck to her guns and the name stayed.
The first store was only minimally successful. Nevertheless, Anita decided to move ahead with a second one. The bank questioned the wisdom of her plan and refused a loan. So she found a friend of a friend who was willing to lend her the equivalent of $6,400 in exchange for 50 percent ownership of The Body Shop. Today that person is worth $140 million. Signing over half of her business was the only real mistake Anita ever made.
But it wasn’t the only decision that looked like a mistake. Here are three more:
She has never advertised even when she opened shops in the United States. People told her it was suicide to enter a new market without massive advertising support.
She doesn’t sell in any outlet other than The Body Shop stores. (Some of her Asian stores are the only exception and are located within department stores.)
She resolved early on that her shops would be a catalyst for change, not just in the business world, but in the world at large.
These decisions turned out to be some of the most inspired “mistakes” in the history of retailing. Even though Anita has never paid for advertising, her unconventional ideas have inspired hundreds of articles and interviews generating tremendous publicity. Her first shop in New York was packed with customers from the day it opened. At one point, a thirty-five-year-old woman on roller skates threw up her arms and shouted, “Hallelujah! You’re here at last.” So much for advertising.
A new branch of The Body Shop opens somewhere in the world every two and a half days. Occasionally, Anita has had trouble opening stores in shopping malls. But having a past that was filled with challenges, Anita is accustomed to coming up with creative solutions. For instance, when one mall refused to lease her space, she organized every mail-order customer within a 110-mile radius to write letters to the management of that mall. Within a few months, a branch of The Body Shop was open.
Anita also had this nonconformist idea of putting ideals ahead of profit. From the start, Anita wanted not just to change the faces of her customers but to change the entire face of business. She envisioned a company that was socially responsible and compassionate. “I see the human spirit playing a big role in business. The work does not have to be drudgery, and the sole focus does not have to be on making money. It can be a human enterprise that people feel genuinely good about.”
Some of the raw materials for her products are harvested by groups of people in underdeveloped regions, thus generating an income for them. The Body Shop has launched campaigns to save the whales, ban animal testing in the cosmetics industry, help the homeless, and protect the rain forests. All of these campaigns have been eagerly supported by loyal customers.
Employees of The Body Shop are actively involved in these efforts. Each month, employees receive a half day off with pay to volunteer in the community. Some employees, for example, went to Romania to help rebuild orphanages. In the stores, customers are encouraged to register to vote, recycle their plastic cosmetics containers, and bring their own shopping bags to save paper and plastic. Because of all these activities, people have suggested Anita’s company should really be called “The Body and Soul Shop.” Customers emerge not only looking good but also feeling good.
“Business as usual” isn’t part of Anita Roddick’s make up. But as far as she’s concerned, doing what is not usual has made all the difference.
This story is authored and contributed by Cynthia Kersey, a highly-sought authority on perseverance, peak performance & achieving breakthrough goals, as well as a bestselling author. The story on Anita Roddick is one of the 45 powerful stories from Cynthia's bestselling book, Unstoppable, which sold several hundred thousand copies in 13 languages. Numerous Fortune 500 companies and independent distributors, including Xerox, Johnson & Johnson, Aetna, Home Interiors & Gifts, Jafra, Noevir, Quixtar and Primerica utilize Cynthia's inspiring message and unique strategies. Her message empowers individuals to build and maintain a successful business and to create a rich and meaningful life.
