New Year’s Resolution-Try Introducing More Color In Your Lives

This is post two of my 10 days of New Years resolutions. As I’ve mentioned previously, Be Brave. Lose the Beige is not just about color (although I’m crazy about colors..all colors, the more the better). Be Brave. Lose the Beige is really a life choice. It’s about exploring the playful side of your life by escaping incessant to-do lists and experiencing more joy and fun in your life.

 Resolution Number2- Try introducing a little more color in your daily lives.  

After all, do we really need all that beige? Beige sofas, walls, and clothes? I recently exercised my creativity muscles (see post above) by creating drawer and cabinet pulls like the ones featured in the photo below. These polka dotted, flowered and heart filled clay knobs are now affixed to my cupboard doors and drawers at our beach place. You don’t even have to go to the trouble of making your own. Web stores and brick and mortar stores abound with fun, colorful knobs and drawer pulls. The color combinations alone will all but guarantee delight each time you reach inside for a cup or bowl. Somehow color and whimsey can imbue even the most mundane task, such as setting a table or pouring a glass of milk a lot more fun.

So, go ahead, be brave, lose a little of that beige and take a step toward coloring your life.

 Running from meeting to meeting, checking off the to-do list- that isn’t really living. Discovering the playful side of life. Spreading joy. Being colorful…clever…creative.  Now that’s living!

This is post three of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s 12 days of New Years Resolutions. Even though Be Brave. Lose the Beige isn’t just about color, today’s post is. Be Brave.Lose the Beige argues that running from meeting to meeting, checking off the to-do lists, etc. isn’t really living…it is, however, a fact of life. We do run from Parent-teacher sessions to board meetings and on to client conferences. So, let’s accept the inevitable and try to have a little fun with it. Why not try wearing something really fun when you are making the meeting rounds…as an example, try wearing colorful tights. I have and they single handedly make the meeting more fun for everyone involved.  

Introduce More Color into Your Life

 

Resolution #3 Try Networking in Color

 Recently I attended a women’s networking function at a law firm. Now even the word, networking makes me cringe. It sounds so pretentious and artificial. So, in an effort to introduce a little levity to the mix, I wore a rose colored dress and psychedelic, zig zag pattered tights (photo below). This insertion of color in the midst of a sea of black and navy blue suits caused quite a stir. Young women, middle aged women, law partners and bankers, came up to me throughout the evening saying things like, “I just wanted to meet you, you’re so bold”. People said I was the “life of the party”, all because I deemed to wear a colorful pair of stockings. I had a ball and maybe this act will inspire other women to break out of the beige box and delight themselves and others.

colorful tights

 So..Resolution #3- Try Networking in Color

 

 

Santa’s Tips for Celebrating Christmas- #8- Give To Others

#8 of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s tips for celebrating Christmas is – Give to Others- Let generosity be your guide during this holiday season. (That does not necessarily mean, however, overindulging your children)

Halloween Isn’t the Only Time We Wear Masks

Be Brave. Lose the Beige embarked upon a seasonal journey with our Lady Boomers this past year.  This month our gathering focused upon the “masks” we wear using the metaphor of Halloween to inspire us. Our “mask” is the face we present to the world.  We have a wardrobe of different masks for different people and occasions.   This topic inevitably led to a discussion about all the hats women wear and the roles they occupy- mother, daughter, wife, sister, grandmother, employee, friend…so many masks,  how can we have congruency with some of these masks, allowing people to see our true selves?

Using crayons and markers, participants illustrated the persona or mask(s) they present to others.  I am continuously blown away by the candor and connection these women demonstrate in our sessions, and this one did not disappoint.

The following are a few of their illustrations and reflections:

Margrette divided her mask.  One side reflected her leadership skills, her logical self;  the other side reflected her squiggly line self.    

 

Theo created a beautiful mask saying her light shown inward in her early years, becoming more outward as job descriptions required.  She has found her self going inward again as she was faces a new chapter in her life.  

 

Trish’s mask was a study in contrasts and intense colors- rich blues and oranges.  She noted how her favorite color is orange-  Orange is optimistic, sociable and even adventurous, consistent characteristics with Trish’s outward persona.

 

Lynn wrote on her beautiful mask-  “Who am I?  My face is an open book.  My emotions are usually on public display.”

 

 

 

 

I’m a Three-Fisted Drinker

Don’t you sometimes think (or at least hope) your little idiosyncrasies are invisible?  I choose to think that about mine.  Therefore, I find it a little disconcerting when friends and family members delight in calling attention to one of mine.  Ok, I admit it…I like a good beverage.  Typically when dining out I order multiple beverages.  I enjoy the little buzz I get from a glass of wine; the caffeine from my unsweetened iced tea keeps me awake and alert; and the ice water actually quenches thirst as beverages are supposed to do.  This liquid combination is really the perfect triumvirate.    

 I’m not sure whether it’s my lengthy drink order or the fact  my thirst quenching threesome encroaches on my dinner companions’ table space that attracts attention.   Whatever the cause, my tablemates can’t resist making comments such as, “there she goes again with her three drinks!”  Sometimes they even jump in to order for me.  Nevertheless, I’m undaunted. I believe in my sipping strategy.

Thus, I was so surprised when my soon to be daughter in law mentioned recently I had liberated her beverage habits.  “I thought you could only order one drink at a time.  It didn’t occur to me I could order coffee, water, etc.  I feel so free”.  I was thrilled.  This was the first time someone had actually embraced my strategy and adopted it as a ritual of their own.

Be Brave. Lose the Beige (the name of my company and blog) is about defining your life as you would like it to be.  It gently pokes fun at societal rules and norms.  It says yes, when the world around us says no.  I think my being a 3 fisted drinker is a small example of this philosophy.  Try making one change in your life; it doesn’t have to be a major one, just a baby step even, like altering your usual restaurant order.  It can be quite liberating. 

 

 

 

 

Be Brave. Lose the Beige meets Weight Watchers

Two weeks ago today I started on Weight Watchers.  I toyed with the online version of Weight Watchers a few years ago.  This time around I’m going to the meeting version of WW, the one with accountability built in- the weighing in front of other people kind of accountability. I’ve spent the past two weeks tracking every morsel I put in my mouth, and every step I take (ok so perhaps going to the mailbox should not count as “activity points” but, what the heck).

The meetings I’ve attended include motivational lectures with titles like, “Snacking Smarter” and “Produce Power”.   During my very first visit, the meeting leader distributed a brochure urging participants to “color up to your plate” as a dieting strategy.  The color comes in the form of orange carrots, red peppers, yellow squash, and green leafed lettuce.  All this rich, beautiful “color” costs the dieter 0 food points in the Weight Watchers World.

Hearing this I could not help but think of Be Brave. Lose the Beige (the name of my website and journal).   Color is a defining characteristic of BBLB.  While I am crazy about color (all colors, the more the better) the color component of Be Brave. Lose the Beige is really used to encourage people to think creatively about their lives and make interesting choices ( An interesting life is a choice after all).

I feel like Weight Watchers is a good choice for me.  Any system that uses color to achieve a successful outcome is the place for me.  

Lady Boomer Love

Be Brave. Lose the Beige is the name of this blog and the name of a group of Lady Boomers with whom I have the privilege of working.  Be Brave. Lose the Beige encourages women to discover their own colorful, creative spirits, and to adopt a more playful attitude in their daily lives.    As evidence of how these women are taking this advice to “heart”, I’m attaching photos of clay creations made by participants at a mini-Valentine’s retreat.  Thank you ladies for agreeing to share these adorable creations.

Meet Your Best Self In the New Year

This is the twelfth and final post of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s 12 days of New Years Resolutions.

 Previous posts have urged Lady boomers to exercise their creative muscles, to infuse their lives with more color and fun, take mini adventures, evaluate their empty nests, and even examine their purses for excess baggage. 

The ultimate objective of the exercises proposed in these posts has been to encourage Lady Boomers and other empty nesters to transform their lives a little bit at a time, through daily activities and choices. “Transformation” can be an intimidating concept. Little steps, however, make this objective easier to achieve. These exercises are designed to remove the obstacles obscuring who you really are. As Rod Styker, meditation and yoga instructor says, ” We are not transforming into something we aspire to. We’re transforming into the very thing we are innately- our best self.”

Here’s hoping you meet your best self this year.

 

 

Resolution #12- Meet your Best self In the New Year

This is the twelfth and final post of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s 12 days of New Years Resolutions.

 Previous posts have urged Lady boomers to exercise their creative muscles, to infuse their lives with more color and fun, take mini adventures, evaluate their empty nests, and even examine their purses for excess baggage. 

The ultimate objective of the exercises proposed in these posts has been to encourage Lady Boomers and other empty nesters to transform their lives a little bit at a time, through daily activities and choices. “Transformation” can be an intimidating concept. Little steps, however, make this objective easier to achieve. These exercises are designed to remove the obstacles obscuring who you really are. As Rod Styker, meditation and yoga instructor says, ” We are not transforming into something we aspire to. We’re transforming into the very thing we are innately- our best self.”

Here’s hoping you meet your best self this year.

 

 

 

New Years Resolution #11-Throw Yourself a Tea Party

This is post 11 of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s 12 days of New Years Resolutions.

The white rabbit in Alice In Wonderland kept muttering…“I’m late, I’m late for a very important date” And I say, yes you are! That very important date is with yourself, at least once in a while. It’s a great idea to take a break from stress and schedules and invite yourself out to a virtual tea party. If you don’t want to actually host a tea party for your self complete with mismatched cups and saucers, tea sandwiches, and one rather toothy cat, why not envision some other kind of afternoon or evening date with yourself. It can be in whatever form you choose – a walk in the park, a shopping expedition, a spa treatment, a museum outing, a movie, rifling through an antique shop – whatever the activity, it should be one of your favorites and it should be done alone. It’

s amazing how little time we spend with ourselves and how rejuvenating it can be. Pamper your passions. This is your opportunity to be just a little bit selfish.

Park it; Plant it; Pedal it; Preserve it!

This is post number 10 of Be Brave. Lose the Beige’s 12 days of New Years Resolutions.

The past couple of years have seen an emerging emphasis on buying and being “green”. While we do our part to recycle and conserve energy we either don’t really know what else to do for the effort or we think it all sounds a bit PCG (politically correct to be green). I have a proposal for the new year- Park it, pedal it, preserve it, at least on the occasional weekend. 

  

You drive to work all week. Driving is boring and fraught with hassles. Why not leave the car in the garage and ride your bike wherever you need to go. Put saddlebags on your bike and only buy as many groceries as will fit into your bag..biking makes everyday chores more fun. Take a ride on a bike trail. You get the triple benefit of exercise, being outdoors, and actually getting to a destination. Bike riding is one of my favorite activities. I feel youthful and free like I did when I was a kid and my ticket to freedom was my bicycle. It’s a fun was to help protect the planet.