You can pre-order my new book SANITY SAVERS: Tips for Women to Live A Balanced Life which hits bookstores Spring 2007.

It is a wonderful guide filled with all sorts of stress busting tips for women of every age based on my Sanity Saver ideas in this monthly e-newsletter.

Everyone everywhere can use a helping hand. At some point in your life, someone was probably there for you at a difficult or lonely moment of your life. If someone wasn’t there, wouldn’t you have appreciated it if someone HAD been? Why not become that person you most wanted and needed, and then be available for someone else?

Volunteering to help others, especially when you are older (a time of life when many people focus on what they either no longer have or can no longer do), can be an enriching experience that will give you an immeasurable sense of self-worth, as well as an iron - clad defense against feelings of isolation and loneliness.

1. Do What You Like to Do - Do something or be in a setting that suits you and your personality. If you like to be around babies, there are plenty who would love to be held and cuddled, and who need affection. If animals are your thing, offer to take some of the shelter dogs for walks. Tutor a child at the local clubs or youth organizations. If you have musical talents, offer to play the piano at the local nursing home or church social.
2. Don’t Look for Anything in Return - When you are older -- and hopefully wiser and more mature- -you understand that the returns are often not what you thought they would be. Allow yourself to be surprised by what you experience.
3. It Is a Real Job- Think of your volunteer job as your job. Focus time and energy into your work and realize that you’re helping other people in a profound way.
4. Don’t Get in Over Your Head - Get to know the routine of the job and the environment. Find a schedule that works for you and when you are at your most energetic and alert. You can always do more; what is difficult is jumping in too soon and having to cut back on your commitment. People will soon be dependent upon you and grateful to you, so get off to a good start by being realistic about what you can do.

Share your gifts.

TODAY Show (NBC)
Friday, September 1st
Midlife for Women: Crises or Awakening?
Dates and times of other upcoming segments will be posted on Dr. Dale's website.

Naomi's New Morning (Naomi Judd)
Sunday, September 3, 11:00am (10:00am CT) Firm Foundations
The Hallmark Channel

The Lisa Birnbach Radio Show
Every other Wed., 9:20-10:00am
Sept 5th: Empty Nest Syndrome
Sept 20th: To be Announced
The Lisa Birnbach Show airs LIVE Mon-Fri 9am-Noon EST
>>Go to the Lisa Birnbach Show

Learn one new thing every day.

Whether it's a new word, computer technique or how to fix something at home, open yourself up to learning.

Increase your knowledge and keep growing!

It’s time to hit the books. Whether you are returning to school because of life circumstances such as job loss, illness, shift in family responsibility, divorce, retirement or were never able to enter or finish college or a job training program, studying may be a bit more challenging than when you were younger.

With many new fields emerging, there’s good reason to change or start a different career. Enrolling in classes now can not only prepare you for a new field, it can increase your self confidence and help sharpen your mind.

• Revisit and Restructure. . . your impressions of yourself as the student you “used to be.” You are not doomed or programmed to keep the same assessment of yourself as a student based on how you did when you were younger.
• Re-think and Re-phrase . . . your own or other people’s comments about the type of student you were in elementary, junior high, high school and college because that no longer applies and it certainly does not predict how you will do this time around.
• Reassess . . . your vision of yourself. See yourself as a student. Appreciate that you are open to learning and are motivated to enter a new field. Or just learn for the sake of learning.
• Reengage . . . and enjoy the fact that you can engage in intergenerational dialogue about topics of mutual interest and that will surely contribute to keeping you young and vital. Take the fact that you will be older than your professors and most of the other students and see the humor in it. Be a role model.

Engage in learning at any age in any way accessible to you.

"Be the change you want to be in this world."

Mahatma Gandhi