The Value of Role Models

I just love role models. I'm always looking for people to inspire me and show me new ways of being and doing things. I believe that other people, whether we know them personally or meet them through stories, can truly change our lives. That's why I just had to share this video with you. I love it. 

It's an interview with Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga in Canada. But she's not just any mayor. She's 88 years old and plays ice hockey! Now that's inspiring!

Change Your Mind

This is an amazing video! Change the way you see the world and yourself, and you can change your life. Check it out!

The Dr. Darlene Mininni Show

I'm just back from Clear Channel Studios in Burbank after taping the first episodes of my new radio show. It was so much fun! 

I've designed each program to give you the latest cutting edge strategies to boost your optimism and resilience and even reverse your physical age up to 16 years in the process. And like all my work, it's based on science so you can trust you're getting the real deal to live your happiest life. And of course, I've got lots of free stuff to give away.

So listen in. And you'll learn how people just like you are making their lives the best they can be. What a perfect way to start the New Year!

Although the show is based on Los Angeles radio, you can listen on your computer wherever you are! Just go to KTLK.com and click "Listen Live." The show premieres Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 8:30am PST (that's 11:30am on the east coast).

From my family to yours, have a wonderful holiday.

Honoring Studs Terkel

Last month we lost an American icon. His name was Studs Terkel. For those of you not familiar with the man or his work, he was a Pulitzer prize-winning author, storyteller and radio host.

But perhaps Studs is best known for his uncanny knack to show us ourselves. He interviewed and told the stories of America's unsung heroes: men and women working every day to earn a paycheck and take care of their families.

Studs left behind an oral history of our country that wove his conversations with real people against a backdrop of the day's events. As one journalist recalled, "When Studs listened, people talked." And we all benefitted. Thanks Studs.

Click here to find out more about Studs Terkel.

What's RIGHT With Your Life?

Do you feel inundated with bad news? The financial shifts, the election, the housing market? Descriptions of "crisis, panic, and meltdown" seem to be all you hear from the media. When your primitive nervous system hears these words, you freak out, just as Mother Nature planned.

No one is denying that these are challenging times, but what if you step away from the stories of doom and gloom that boost television viewer ratings, and take a break? What if, instead of focusing solely on your 401K losses, you acknowledge what you still have? 

Do you have good health? A loving relationship? Happy kids? Caring friends?

There is a time and place, with calm heads, to figure out how you'll respond to the changes in the market. Your brain will guide you better when you're calm. And there should also be a time and place to notice all the good in your life that fluctuating markets can never take away from you.

The Times They Are A-Changing

Summer is my favorite time in Greenwich Village -- the busy, artsy town just a train-ride from my old home on Long Island.

Every time I return to New York, my friend Erin and I go to the Village, always stopping for a cappuccino at our favorite place, Le Figaro Cafe. The 50-year-old haunt was the original gathering place for the likes of Bob Dylan and the Beatniks, a cultural fixture on Bleecker Street, and a personal landmark for us.

Then we saw the sign on the door. CLOSED. Le Figaro Cafe will become a burrito chain restaurant.

Have you ever lost something you thought would last forever? It doesn't feel too good. Now, in the grand scheme of things, Le Figaro is not groundshakingly important, but for Erin and me, it was a piece of our personal history, and it was gone. As Dylan once sang, "The Time They are A-Changing."

I was stunned, but rather than stay focused on something gone, I thought about the good things that still remain, like the fact that I was walking down Bleecker Street with the same wonderful friend I've known since my first ventures into Greenwich Village. 

"Well," we said, "Let's walk across the street to the Cafe Del Mar and try their cappuccino." And we did.

Happiness Is Just A Click Away!

I just stumbled across a website called MindHabits, and it's utterly fascinating. Its' creators claim that by playing their specially designed computer games you can get happier, and they've got the research to back it up.

Each of the four free games challenges you to focus on the smiling faces or positive words displayed on your screen. The authors' research suggests that people who played MindHabits just five minutes a day were able to boost their confidence and self-esteem and even reduce the stress hormones in their bodies.

I really liked the game "Matrix." Wanna give it a try? Click here. Then drop me a line. I'd love to know what you think.