2010 - Page 11 of 30 - Sarah Wilson

finding your daily launch pad

October 29, 2018August 23, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

The lovely Clare Lancaster at Women in Business posted this interview with Gwen Bell, one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Tech, 2010. It touches on some really great points, including how to get mindful for the day…. for everyone out there feeling like they’re doing too much, which is sooooo a theme this month. Too much, all layered up, swamped, drowning….and not doing things with heart and care.

Don’t know about you, but I’m BUSTING to come home to myself.

Last month Gwen unplugged, she did a digital sabbatical – no blogging, tweeting, Facebook or email for 31 days. Clare spoke to her about it and got some really lovely, poignant answers. For the whole interview go to Women in Business, a site for chicks doing it online. PS Clare is a GREAT web strategist, offering e-courses on how to build an e-businesses…e-hah!

And bear in mind this: Gwen experienced her most profitable month during her sabbatical.

Gwen on: how when you grow up you have to enforce your own breaks…

When we were students, someone enforced breaks. You’re taking the summer off. You’re taking the winter break off. School is closed during those months. Load up on library books and prepare for self-study. Because the library will be closed, too.

I think our entrepreneurial selves are like students, without those enforced weeks off.

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sunday life: why you should read slowly

October 29, 2018August 22, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

This week I learn The Art of Slow Reading

I’ve never been a big reader. Even as a kid. Which has always surprised people who assume that just because you wore glasses with an eyepatch for 18 months (when I was 12) and spent lunch in the library means you were a bookworm. Truth be known, I only ever got as far as Double Love in the Sweet Valley High series. Which I suppose doesn’t really say much in either direction.

As a kid, if Mum caught us reading it was code we weren’t doing much and she’d hand us a basket of nappies to hang on the line. A resting heartbeat in a child would get her antenna up and she’d swoop in with a bundle of kindling to start the fire. So we stayed outside. And avoided the brown questions in Trivial Pursuit.

That was my excuse then. Now, like everyone else it would seem, I blame the internet. Recently much noise has been made by many angry experts claiming the internet is making us stupid because it forces us to read too fast, skimming tidbits at the expense of absorbing nourishing knowledge. In his new book The Shallows, tech guru Nicholas Carr uses neuroplasticity theories to argue this hyperactive toggling is reshaping the pathways in our brains, rendering us incapable of absorbing complex insights and arguments. Let alone follow a family tree in a Tolstoy novel.

Julia and Tony, you’re too close to the screen!!

October 29, 2018August 20, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

Is this the toughest election in history to get excited about, or what? It’s been lacking in defined policies and been brimful of watered-down, negatively-defined, wavering visions on both sides. It’s flaccid soup. And I haven’t been able to find the chunky bits!

A few thoughts before I head to the ballot box tomorrow.

I’m choosing to find the heartening and true path in it all…because I believe there is one, under the spin and limp performances:

* This flaccid soup has meant the Greens have emerged as a viable third option – a sturdy crouton, if you like – for the first time in history, in the running to control the Senate and get their first member in the House of Representatives. They have a clear, unwavering vision that something can stick to. They are an injection of kind (their income tax changes, for example), a reminder of where we all REALLY want to be. It’s going to be a good injection to have in the mix, no matter whether you agree with all their policies….keeping the bastard’s honest and all that. I’m glad they’ll be around.

* Despite the fact that whenever there is a dire absence of substance we resort to a personality contest, we haven’t in this case. Because both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott left theirs at the starting gate. This rather breaks my heart to watch. They’ve been stage-managed within an inch of their lives. And they both got too far down this corralled path to be able to get true in time for tomorrow’s ballot. I get the sense they wanted to. But exhaustion and micro-management has prevented it.

Both leaders have also been operating too close to the screen. They’ve been sitting in the front row and wondering why they’re missing the plot.

Have you ever been in that position…where you have so many people telling you what to do, and so many competing factors are up close in your face, that YOU get lost in the pulling and tugging?

love your guests? a great guest information pack to download

August 19, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

I found this post on Lifehacker about how to be a great host replete with really clever free download. I thought I should share it because it’s really rather efficient. And sweet.

I personally get pretty uptight when guests stay. Having new people in my space confronts me. I live a pretty selfish life and I get all flustered when my routine is mucked about (mostly because I have no “fat” in my schedule…something I’m desperately working on right now…for another post). When friends and my large family step into into my home it kind of breaks my stride. Which sounds revoltingly ungenerous, I know…

That said I always put out flowers – daphne is a favourite – in the spare room, place a towel and facecloth on the end of the bed and bust my foof-foof valve (as my grandad used to say) to show them a good time. Lifehacker suggests we all go one step further and they’ve created a Guest Information Pack template you can download for free.

Tuesday eats: brown rice

August 10, 2018August 17, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

So. Today. I start filming my new TV show. First day. I’ve lost my voice and I’m up to here with snot and flueyness. I’ll post again soon about the new show -it’s all secret squirrels for now (wherever did that phrase come from?!!). For now I can tell you it’s about nutrition…a pet topic of mine. As I’ve mentioned here, I’m studying integrative nutrition at the moment. I graduate as a health coach in October.

Anyway, I was at my mate Rosie’s house for dinner over the weekend, eating brown rice. I hope you won’t mind me saying this, but she reckons the stuff upsets her stomach – gas, runs to the loo, and the like. You too?

OK, here’s the solution plus some tips on how to make cooking with brown rice easier and healthier, bearing in mind the wholegrain version of anything is always 9485749 times more nutritious. The outer brans contain the fatty acids and also ensure slower digestion, providing more sustained energy.

1. always always always soak brown rice

The husk of brown rice is full of phytic acid. It’s a naturally occurring organic acid. But here’s the thing.

The Happiness Project giveaway. and the winner is….

August 16, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

Hello everyone, thanks so much for all the happy tips from Sunday’s post on Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project. All of them, caring, creative replies. Thank you!! Gretchen just got back to me with her verdict: Let’s see…so hard, so many of them are great, and a good cup of tea is always a good idea … Read more

the best (safest) cosmetics: a list

July 31, 2018August 16, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

The other week I posted about getting a toxic audit on my flat (cough, cough…I have to now move out, such is the dire state of my bedroom). And also about the toxic state of our beauty products. Since then I’ve studied further, and this Time magazine interview with the authors of the new book No More Dirty Looks popped into my inbox over the weekend. A few stats that might make you feel sick:

* Putting chemicals on your skin is actually far worse than ingesting them, because when you eat something the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help break it down and flush it out of your body. Cosmetics absorb directly.

* Women who use make-up on a daily basis can absorb almost 5 pounds of chemicals into their bodies each year.

A stack of you wanted to know what to buy, what to look for.So here’s some extra info:

1. The best advice I can give:

Use less products.

Then…

Check out Good Guide. And download their iphone app. The site surveys 16,000 products and lists the best in each category. And the worst. The FREE app allows you to scan barcodes and they give you a rating out of 10. If you live in the US, you should definitely use it. I spent an afternoon going through my products and not all of them are recognised.

Me, I’m not tossing the stuff I already have…that’s a waste. I’m using it up and will gradually replace with safer alternatives, researching as I go. Which I’m glad to read is also the No More Dirty Looks chicks’ approach. I’m working through my cosmetics stash, with my main approach being to use products with as FEW INGREDIENTS AS POSSIBLE. I do the same with food. So, Triology Rosehip oil and lavender oil (on my spots) are a good start. I’m also going to start using Natural Instinct products* – Australian made and totally committed to this kind of cause. My sister-in-law swears by it.

* Although update: see reader Vanessa’s comments below. Sigh…

2. Avoid fragrance, just avoid fragrance.

One artificial fragrance can contain hundreds—even thousands—of chemicals, and fragrances are a major cause of allergic reactions. When a product lists “fragrance” or “parfum” as an ingredient, run the other way. Companies are not obliged to tell you what exactly it is that’s making it smelly… it’s Russian roulette. And, yes, this applies to perfumes…they are stenchy endocrine disruptors. Not convinced? Read this.

3. Read the label and avoid these ingredients:

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This is a really good starting point. Anything with SLS…high-tail from it – it’s a common ingredient in anti-freeze and engine degreasers. For a full rundown,see Dr Mercola‘s site.
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sunday life: the secret to happiness (a chat with Gretchen Rubin)

August 15, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

This week I get happy…close to home

Gretchen Rubin calls it her “Beautiful House” moment. As in, “This is not my beautiful house”, the existential lament from the Talking Heads hit “Once in a Lifetime”. Gretchen’s life was ticking along just fine. She had a beautiful house. Two kids. And all the rest. But she woke one day with that feeling of discontent and disbelief and asked, Is this it? Is this me?

It wasn’t. There was more she yearned for and so she set off on The Happiness Project, which launched – as everything does these days – as a blog in March 2006. I’ve been following it for years, often somewhat bewildered by the Cartesian precision with which she pulls apart the bumbling ways we humans happen upon happiness. She’s written thousands of posts over the course of her journey, attracting a monthly following of 300,000 readers. She’s a regular on the American morning TV circuit, contributes to the Huffington Post and has turned her findings into a number one bestselling book that sat on the New York Times list for 18 weeks (and it’s released her this month).

Sweet bonus on a Sunday: I’M GIVING AWAY THREE COPIES of the book today to three readers generous enough to share what they think makes human’s happy. A simple tip will do. I’ll get Gretchen to pick the winners!

Which begs: after such a long, imbedded journey, what’s the one take-home-wrapped-in-ribbon-with-warrantee trick that has resonated with her disciples? What, dear Gretchen, moves us beyond our beautiful house and makes us happy?

On Monday I posed this very question. Gretchen’s response down the phone from New York? You ready for it?

chat to your nan this weekend

August 13, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

I like the idea. Not so keen on the execution. But let’s focus on the idea and intention. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition have launched Nag Your Nan day, encouraging all of us to talk to our grandparents about environmental issues ahead of the election. It’s kind of a local version of the American one … Read more