SANITY SAVERS: Tips for Women to Live A Balanced Life is in bookstores and is filled with suggestions to save your sanity every day of the year.

A must for any woman seeking to find her balance!

Have you considered writing an ethical will? Ethical wills have gained popularity in recent years and may be more commonplace today than most of us realize.

Unlike traditional wills that transfer worldly possessions, an ethical will expresses your values, ideas and personal reflections to family members and other loved ones. They are an ancient Jewish tradition whose roots stem from early Biblical times. Although initially shared through oral tradition, they are now recorded on paper. Ethical wills can be a reflection of your life and include descriptions of significant events. Recipients tend to read and reread them, as ethical wills can carry enormous weight and meaning both for the person who writes them as well as those for whom they are intended.

Today, ethical wills are being written by people of any age at any stage of their life. Typically, people write them when they are facing a transition in their lives or are facing a particular challenge. Write them when you have time to think and process what you want to say.

Ethical wills help to clarify your values and put your life into perspective, so it is important to focus on your message. Many people choose to write their ethical wills over time; not in one sitting. In this way, you can jog your memory as well as include historical facts and observations that help to clarify why you think and feel the way you do.

Often shared with family and community while the person is still alive, this is not always the case. It is a highly personal and thoughtful process. Write it however you decide to share yourself with your family and the world, and present it as you wish. Ethical wills may be on of the most cherished and meaningful gifts you can leave to your family, friends and those in your community. It is your personal legacy.

There are several books and websites dedicated to writing ethical wills. One step-by-step guide is "The Wealth of Your LIfe" by Susan Turnbull. See http://www.personallegacyadvisors.com/store/the-wealth-of-your-life/?gclid=CJ_2m9a6mKACFdRM5QodN3Mxgg .

TODAY Show (NBC)

Please check my website, www.drdaleatkins.com, for the most current updates.

Stanwich School
March 2: 12PM: The Balancing Act - Balancing Our Responsibilities As Parents and Our Personal Needs.
The Stanwich School, Greenwich, CT

Coming in April:

Honoree: Jewish Women's Foundation of New York
April 20th: 12PM: Annual Benefit Luncheon.
Plaza Hotel, New York, NY
For luncheon or contribution information, please call 212-838-2660, ext. 13.

Event Committee: Jumpstart's Scribbles to Novels Benefit
April 29th: 6PM
Espace, New York, NY.

Read Dr. Atkins' chapter, "Family Involvement and Counseling in Serving Children Who Possess Impaired Hearing," in the new text, Introduction to Aural Rehabilitation.
Edited by Raymond H. Hull, and published by Plural Publishing.

See Making the Case for Family Dinners, at iVillage.com: http://www.ivillage.com/making-case- family-dinner/3-a-62563

See Dr. Atkins' and Rabbi E. Mencher's article, Are You a Buttinsky?, in Reform Judaism Magazine, Fall 2009/5769, pg. 8. www .reformjudaismmag.org. There is also a complimentary discussion guide offering thoughtful questions for conversation.

Smile

Smiling is a great way to make yourself stand out while helping your body to function better. Smile to improve your health, your stress level, and your attractiveness. Smiles attract and draw people to you. Frowns, scowls and grimaces can push people away even though we may need companionship.

Next time you are feeling down, if you can, try to smile "to give yourself a break." There is a good chance your mood will improve.

It is possible to alter your own life, based on what we know about happiness. Connecting with friends, expressing gratitude, and being randomly kind are several ways we can engender happiness. One other way is to invest in experiences.

Experiences bring more joy than material goods because they are more open to positive reinterpretations and are a more meaningful part of your identity. Experiences also contribute more to successful social relationships, because you tend to do things with other people.

Here are some tips for for expanding your horizons:

Challenge Yourself - Our culture highly values accomplishing goals and challenging oneself. Reach outside of your comfort zone and set the bar high enough to reach and succeed.

Develop a Hobby - A good hobby makes you lose all sense of time and self, liberating you from the everyday.

Join a Club or a Group - Meet others so you can share experiences.

Share Stories - Talk about experiences you had, even if they were difficult challenges. Sharing the story can help you focus on the fact that you got through it.

Make a Mental Trip - Look at photographs of places you love and revisit them in your mind. You can "feel" how you felt when you were physically there.

The bottom line: experiences can make us happier both in the moment and in the long run because we get benefits like social bonding and vitality that aren't often met by a material object.

"It is not the strongest of the species which will survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change."

Charles Darwin