Welcome to Health Talk Today.  My name is Marilyn and I blog about health from a Baby Boomer perspective.

This is my first Blog Party and I’m really excited to be invited. I’m looking forward to visiting all the sites of the party-goers and comment on your blogs.

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Need a link back to the party?  Just click the WSNBA’s Sizzlin’ Summer Blog Party image.

I’ll see you all in the Speed Networking chat room next.

I just had a wrestling match with my mattress pad. It’s thick, quilted and king size. The top and bottom edges are elastic to hold onto my over-stuffed, 15″ deep, pillow top mattress. It was late and I was tired. I stretched the elastic over one corner of the mattress and moved to the next corner. As soon as I touched the mattress cover, the first corner popped off. My cat, Cookie, just sat on the bare mattress watching me try over and over again to hold down the first corner as I stretched the pad to reach the second corner. After several attempts, I knew I needed to find another way. Then, it dawned on me … I needed to stretch the mattress pad diagonal to the first corner. That would keep tension on the first corner and hold it in place. It worked! Then, it was easy to do the other two corners. So, there’s the secret to replacing a mattress pad on a king size bed when you have to do it alone.

• Bad Work
• Good Work
• Great Work

Can you tell the difference?

I think we all need to do some of the Bad Work - The mindless, never-ending tasks that take up at least part of our day.  They need to be done, so you either have to do them, not do them or hire someone to do them.  Things like routine office tasks, paying the bills, vacuuming and shopping.

The Good Work is productive and rewarding.  It’s getting the job done.  You can spend all day - Every day - Doing Good Work.  There is a sense of accomplishment in doing Good Work, but, it’s not moving you forward.

Great Work is exciting and scary.  It means stepping out of your comfort zone.  THIS is where you want to spend your time.  It’s where the great minds work.

Here’s a fast paced video that I highly recommend watching …

Today, I don’t meet many young people with common names. So, now the trend is unique names. But, the more they’re given, the more common they become. I’m thinking there’s always a Madison, Taylor, Logan and Jayden in every classroom. I hope there’s also a Kathy, Mary, Susan, Robert, William and John.

Here’s a database of the most popular baby names, sorted by state, by year and for the last 100 years.  Surprisingly, some common names made the list.

Is your name on the list?  How about your children and grandchildren?

So, I’m off on a new adventure. Looking for, as Ms. Beck writes, “… combinations of objects and events that will stick in your subconscious mind and steer your choices toward making the vision real.” She recommends finding these images in magazines. But, I’ve got the whole World Wide Web to browse through.

I’m keeping my original Dream Board. I love that it’s wallpaper on my desktop. But, I’m going to surf the net with my heart and keep my eyes open. I’ll be collecting images, quotes and phrases that I love. It will be eclectic and maybe a little wacky. But, it will be mine. And soon, I’ll make a new Dream Board. After all, it’s a process - Learning as I go.

My original post on Dream Board

Oprah Winfrey has the best, free Dream Board site I’ve seen.

Martha Beck’s post “What The Heck’s A Vision Board—and How Can It Change Your Life?”

Are you ready to make a Dream Board now?

Now I realize I’ve had vision boards all along - Some very informal.  For years, I’ve had two $1,000,000 bills on my desk.  They are both in stand up frames and look real - Except one is much larger.  I’ve also done a slide show vision board as a screen saver.

Windows gave me the opportunity to post pictures of my dreams and goals right on my desktop. I change the pictures frequently, alternating among landscapes that I love, holiday themes, photos, motivational messages and things I want to attract into my life.

A while back, I found a free vision board website and created one there that I was able to save.  The site had some images and text, but it was very limited.  You can see mine here.

I know dream boards work. My brother used to live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building in south Florida. It was short term - Just a few years. Out the back was a view of the golf course and very scenic. But, his office was the 2nd bedroom that faced the parking lot.

So, instead of looking out the window at the asphalt and parked cars, he bought and framed a postcard of the beach. That’s what he saw day in and day out.

Weeks after he and his wife moved into their high rise condo, he was unpacking the rest of his office things. When he found the framed postcard, he did a double take.

His new office was still the 2nd bedroom, but the view out the wall-to-wall windows was the EXACT view in the postcard - Including the building next door and the jetty into the water.

•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•

Oprah Winfrey has just added a dream board to her website.  You need to register - It’s free.  Then, you can create a dream board, using the images on the site.  Add text and upload your own images.  It can be saved, shared, emailed and printed.  Thanks, Oprah.  It’s the best, free dream board site I’ve seen.

Here’s my latest dream board . . .

Marilyn Kvasnok's Dream Board - May 10, 2010

I saved my dream board as a .jpg file.  It’s now wallpaper on my desktop, so  I see it off and on, all day long.

What does your dream board look like?

Residential Security Survey
No one can completely burglar-proof their home.  The idea is to make it as difficult as possible for a thief, hoping he’ll decide it’s not worth the trouble to break in.  This document has a checklist with many practical suggestions for home security.

Personal Safety Tips
Stay safe while you’re in your home, in the car and walking outside.

Maya Fleckenstein

• Maya Fleckenstein
• Black hair
• brown eyes
• Wearing a blue tee shirt, blue jeans and orange shoes
• Last seen at 10:00 pm ET
• Corner of West 130 St and Sprague Rd in Cleveland, Ohio
• If seen, call Parma, Ohio Police at 440-885-1234

The message asked me to check my yard.  We have no streetlights, so it was very dark.  I turned on the outside lights and looked around.  I noticed there were other lights on down the street.  I wondered how many of them were checking for Maya, too.

I watched the 11:00 pm local news hoping to hear that Maya had been found safe, but there was nothing.  And no report this morning, either.  So I did a little research this morning.  I went to the Parma, Ohio Police Department website.  There was no news about Maya, even though there was a section with News Releases and another with Alerts.

So, I tried WOIO’s website, a local TV channel.  I didn’t see a news story, but a search of the site found an article from January 21, 2010.  There it was … Maya’s picture, a video and the story of how she walked away from her school.  If this happened in January, why did I get the call in April?

Next, I called the Parma Ohio Police Department.  The phone number in the message I got was the non-emergency number at the police station.  The dispatcher explained to me that Maya is a problem child and has run away in the past.  Last night, she was with her mother, driving to the hospital and Maya suddenly jumped out of the car.  How frightening!  She was found safe a short time later.

I didn’t mind that the phone rang at 10:30 pm.  In fact, I feel even safer knowing that this automated system is in place.  I wonder what other emergencies and disasters would be reported this way.  I love technology and think this is a great use of computerized phone calls.  Parma is a neighboring suburb.  I hope my city has Code Red, too.

Babies are born with the softest and smoothest skin.  But as we age, our skin can take a real beating.  An unhealthy diet, air pollution, soaps and cleansers, smoking, sunburns, tanning booths and cheap cosmetics with harmful chemicals.  It all contributes to the aging effect and shows the most on your face.

If you want healthy skin, you need to take care of it.  And the best time to start is today!  It’s possible to slow down and even improve the health of your skin.  Make these 10 tips part of your daily routine and they’ll become good habits.

1. Avoid excessive sun exposure. A little sun is good.  It helps your body make vitamin D.  But too much sun, especially in the heat of the day, can burn your skin.  So, wear sunscreen on all exposed skin.  And wear a hat to shield your face.
2. Take a multivitamin to guarantee you get sufficient vitamin D.
3. Use moisturizer to keep you skin hydrated and protect it from the elements.
4. Use all natural cleansers with no harmful chemicals.  Gently wash your face in an upwards direction.  Never pull the skin downward.
5. Don’t smoke. Smoking causes wrinkles and premature aging.
6. Sleep on your back. It helps counteract the gravity that’s been pulling your face downward all day.  And it keeps your face from being pulled by the weight of your face on the pillow, if you were to sleep on your side.
7. Facial exercises can help keep a youthful look.  It can avoid and even improve wrinkles, crow’s feet, laugh lines and a sagging neck.  Even smiling and laughing helps to exercise facial muscles.  There are many facial exercise experts.  Carol Maggio is at the top of my list.
8. Eat a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish and healthy fats like olive oil.  Chocolate is NOT one of the 5 food groups on the food pyramid!
9. Don’t touch your face. Your hands have bacteria that can cause infection and make your skin break out.
10. Use all natural cosmetics. Anything you put ON your skin gets absorbed INTO your skin.  From there it goes to your bloodstream.  Make sure it doesn’t contain harmful chemicals.

I ask myself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who am I not to be? I am a child of God. My playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around me.

I am meant to shine, as children do.  I was born to make manifest the glory of God that is within me. It’s not just in me; it’s in everyone. And as I let my own light shine, I unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As I am liberated from my own fear, my presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

PS:  Originally, this quote was “Author Unknown.”  Thanks to Elizabeth Aleccia for identifying the author.  The title and text have been corrected to exactly match the author’s quote.