Get a body like Jennifer Aniston. Get a butt like Jennifer Lopez. Love your curves like Christina Hendricks. Lose your baby weight like Angelina Jolie. Dump your bump like Beyonce.

There is no end to the enticements for us women to change our bodies to be like the stars --...

Everything I do is small. I collect small notebooks to pen my thoughts. I put small, decorative objects on presents to transform them into exquisite treasures. I believe in the small idea, the small thought and the small bite. The only way I've succeeded at anything is to take small...

Perhaps. If not handled carefully.

I visited an Aikido site that appeared to be run by a serious teacher who stated that he was "an author and Aikido instructor, 6 dan Aikikai." He also teaches the sword art iaido. He seemed to have substantial credentials but as I scrolled down...

During the first Japanese tea ceremony Sachiko Knappman conducted, she prepared tea and served it to her guest when Sachiko herself was ready. After much training, she realized that the person she was preparing it for also needed to be ready and open to receive the tea. The...

I was on the mat last Sunday to practice running through my fourth kyu test from beginning to end. It was quiet and dark in the Dojo (training hall) in the early morning cool where just a few of us had gathered to practice. Several black belts volunteer...

Just when I've eschewed my Jimmy Choo's I read about Stiletto Spy School for Women. Power has always been sexy -- for men. But when a woman is called powerful it's often code for "bitch." When you combine sexy with power you get the potent combustion...

How many of you gals out there would like to send the men you meet trying to find Mr. Right to charm school? Imagine that those men learned how to really look at you and listen. Their bachelor pad had all the comforts a girl could want. This...

Forget about beauty. Be funny. When you can forget yourself you can express your talents and connect with people as the maverick Isabella Rossellini shows us in her films called green por.no about the sex lives of insects.

Rossellini says the "P" word like she's talking...

Can your lover be your worst enemy? The answer may be yes. It sure can seem that way in the midst of a fight. Sometimes this person you love, whom you thought you knew, turns into an alien from another planet. You don't have a clue as to what changed...

My house is squeaky clean today. My Brazilian cleaners are as fastidious about creating a meticulous house as they are about creating a perfectly sculpted body. The first plastic surgery for "Julia" was a nose job. Before she had the surgery she constantly complained to me that her nose was...

Don't you hate serving size lies? Food manufacturers are imposing portion control for people who nibble, taste or sample. These guidelines aren't for people who actually eat.

I adore Kettle brand potato chips, for example. But I'm sorry, one bag is NOT five servings. It's two. Or one if I'm...

Women often think that they have to act like men to succeed. They climb the corporate ladder by mimicking traditional male behavior. Although it may buy them temporary "success," most of the time, on a deeper level, it doesn't work. They often end up dissatisfied, restless, and ultimately unfulfilled.

Every night when I head out of the house to practice Aikido my sweetie Will calls out, "Don't get hurt and don't hurt anybody." Other than being a klutz I'm not much of a danger to anyone, but some people are a danger to me.

One particular Nage (the thrower...

Sometimes men bear the biggest brunt of women's negative body image (NBO).

If she suffers, he suffers.

Body image expert Sarah Maria, author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life has worked with women and men to overcome their negative body image (NBO). She deals with the root causes and...

A few months ago John Stevens Sensei, a Buddhist priest, and 7th Dan visited our dojo, Bay Marin Aikido. Stevens, a foremost authority on Aikido has written over thirty books on Buddhism, Aikido and Asian culture. The experience brought new dimensions to our taijutsu, body skills or...

"Our stories are in us from a long time ago," says DeeDee Myers -- leadership expert, triathlete and mother of quadruplets, twins and three other children. One of her first stories came at age 16 on her first date. She met a cute boy at a football game....

A number of months ago I attended a four day course at the Strozzi Institute, Center for Leadership and Mastery titled Leadership in Action 1.

After it was all said and done I began to feel somewhat ill. A lot of the stuff that surfaced was rather ugly....

Are you a sneak eater? Do you hide food? Are you someone who hoards cookies, cakes, chips, and other yummy stuff so you can eat in privacy away from prying eyes?

I was.

Before I was even a teenager I learned to eat in the closet, literally. I loved sweets....

Weight loss coach Kathrine Brown's mission is helping women of power and influence who are holding themselves back. She does this by detecting the subtle sabotaging dialogs, thoughts and actions that contribute to the slow ebbing away of their power.

In the beginning her practice attracted women who were...

Leadership expert, triathlete and mother of quadruplets, twins and three other children, DeeDee Myers is never without lipstick in her purse. She's always prepared, always presentable, no matter what. In Eighth grade her mother told her that she needed all the help she could get given that she had...