Holidays Archives - Sharon M Weinstein

December 14, 2019 By Sharon Weinstein

Is it the end of just the beginning?

With just two weeks remaining in 2019, the time has never been better than to address your stress-relief goals. You have the chance to finish this year and begin 2020 with a new mindset and new results.

What are your three greatest stress triggers? After a few relaxing days off, are you eager to get back to your job, or anxious because of that job? Think about it! You’ve had a great vacation, or even a great weekend. Now, it’s time to get back to reality—to whatever stressed you in the first place and necessitated that important respite. There is so much to do and no time to get it done. The first few days are hectic until you settle back into your routine. Emails and snail mail remain unanswered. Your voice-mailbox is full. What you thought would be an easy transition has become a life challenge, and you wonder how you will get through each day with your mind intact.

Life can be challenging and stressful. Creating work/life balance is critical to success and survival. Living the dream, and overcoming the pain is something else.

In today’s economy, stress may be attributed as much to having a job as to not having one. Layoffs around the country impact workers in all settings. If you fear the loss of your job—even a job you don’t like—you experience stress. How will you feed your family? How will you pay your bills? Will you have to think twice before making routine purchases? We all have different stress triggers, but work tops the list.

Causes of work-related stress include being unhappy in your job, a heavy workload, long hours, unclear expectations of your work, bullying and toxic work settings. Is that what you want to return to? Vacations and holidays come and go, but stress is ongoing. This is reality!

“Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.”

– Lily Tomlin

How will you cope now and in 2020?

Apply these simple strategies for finding life balance, and begin to deal with the challenges you would otherwise face:

Create realistic goals.
Manage your time wisely.
Eat healthy.
Learn when to say no and when to let go!

Minimize the pain by choosing one to two strategies to tackle; this process will put you on-track—starting now! Enjoy the holiday season and say hello to being stress-free!

December 16, 2016 By Sharon Weinstein

Your Environment…your choice

Your environment is your space…it is your body, and the settings in which you live, work, and play. Your body probably started out on an even playing field 25 or more years ago. And, your home and work settings have influenced your body’s ability to adapt – to thrive and survive today and forever. Think about where you live, work and play, and think about the sources of stress that present on an almost daily basis and influence your ability to be well and to stay well.

Let’s begin with choice! The choices that you make, about what you put into your body and that with which you surround yourself, impact your outcomes – how well you feel, how productive you are, and how good you look. Are the choices that you are making healthy, or will they impair function? For example, is a can of soda on your desktop – eager to turn your body into an acidic environment that will slow you down, swell you up, and put you to sleep? I hope not!

The work-life connection

A crisis exists today. Millions of people are unwell, suffering from the stresses that are part of modern living: lack of sleep, poor nutrition (and obesity), exposure to dangerous pollutants, no exercise, and time pressures. And people — millions of people — are looking for solutions.

Workplace wellness programs are beginning to earn their place among necessities within the environment. Model programs for disease management are decreasing days lost from work, enhancing lifestyle, and increasing performance. As workweeks are expanding and stress levels are rising, more hours are spent at the workplace, and health takes a toll.

One of the greatest sources of stress for workers, regardless of professional role, is work-related. We all have the same requisite number of hours in a day – only 24. And yet, we try to extend those hours and make them equal 36 or more. It is virtually impossible, and our productivity demonstrates our failure to adhere to the ‘work day’ as a somewhat normal work day.

A workplace is only as good as how it treats its workers. Today’s employers are constantly seeking ways to assist their workers in managing their job responsibilities and their personal responsibilities and needs. Strategies for work/life balance help create supportive, healthy work environments; strengthen employee commitment and loyalty; and result in more productive workplaces and improved customer satisfaction.

As professionals, we have expectations from our work environment, from those with whom we work, and our future. Oprah Winfrey suggests that, “right now you are one choice away from a new beginning—one that leads you toward becoming the fullest human being you can be.”

If your path is paved with good intentions, but your work is unrewarding and your time is not your own, negotiate. Think things over and make a change. Negotiate for change in the workplace; work with your employer to improve the environment, your outcomes, and the company’s success.

As workweeks are expanding and stress levels are rising, more hours are spent at the workplace, and health takes a toll. Initiatives aimed at producing a healthy workforce, enhancing recruitment and retention, decreasing overall healthcare costs, and enhancing productivity and bottom line are evolving. Workplace Wellness Programs provide the structure, encouragement, incentives and ongoing support that many individuals need in order to make lifestyle changes. Embark on the journey to workplace wellness…and begin by treating your staff well!

It’s your choice! It’s your business! It’s your future! Make it a healthy one…

Life Balance…it is what I do and who I am! I work with organizations that want to learn how life balance can drive safety, satisfaction, and success!

Sharon is an energetic, motivating and highly skilled professional speaker and author specializing in work/life balance. After all, she wrote the book. She is the founder of SharonMWeinstein, an LLC and two not-for-profits.

She holds the coveted Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, the highest earned international recognition for professional speakers. This makes her one of only 12% of all speakers to hold this designation and one of only 22 nurses in the world with this credential. www.sharonmweinstein.com

Are you ready to embrace a life in balance in 2017 and beyond?

October 3, 2016 By Sharon Weinstein

New Beginnings…for the year and for communities across the world

Working in Ukraine was a privilege between 1992 and 2002. There were hospital visits, collaboration with many professionals, and cultural exchanges. History came live on the streets of L’viv, Odessa, Luhansk, Donetsk, and of course, the capitol city of Kiev.

As families near and far celebrate the coming of the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, it seems fitting to revisit The Great Synagogue, also known as the Central Synagogue, the Brodsky Synagogue and the Choral Synagogue, which was returned to the Jewish community of Kiev in 1992 after many years as the State Puppet Theatre. Until it was shut down by the Soviets in 1926 as the Communist Party began to consolidate its hold on society, the Great Synagogue was the place of worship for many, including Shalom Aleichem, the Jewish Ukrainian writer, and Golda Meir, who would become the prime minister of Israel in the 1960s.

Preparations were extensive for the March 21^st ceremony, and involved efforts by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), then co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus in the U.S. Congress, whose grandparents emigrated from Ukraine. She presented a crown, delivered by Rabbi Yaakov Pollak of the Shomrei Emunah Synagogue of Brooklyn, N.Y., and presented to the director of the renovation project, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman, several days before the rededication ceremony. The rededication ceremony also included a standard ribbon-cutting ceremony, as well as the traditional affixing of the Mezuzah, an engraved metal container attached to the main doors that holds parchment inscribed with biblical passages. Dr. Mira Brichto of Cincinnati, founder of the R’faye-nu Society, helped build a network of religious leaders, both Jewish and Catholic, to work together on the restoration. She also brought the project to the attention of Rep. Kaptur, Fr. Ken Nowakowski, President of Caritas Ukraine, who oversaw its charitable works and directed the Press Office of the Catholic Churches in Ukraine during His Holiness John Paul II’s visit in 2001, and to me as Director of Premier’s Office of International Affairs. Fr. Ken and I officiated at the ceremony and added the finishing touches to the synagogue, including plants, lighting, brochures, and a warm welcome to the thousands of visitors. We escorted elderly women to the balcony, many of whom had last visited the site as young children.

Originally the rededication ceremony was to have taken place the previous week, on March 14, but because of the Krasnodon coal mine disaster, in which 81 people lost their lives, we decided to postpone the ceremony and offer a memorial service to the miners instead. Members of several Jewish organizations raised some 100,000 hrv, which was delivered to the miners’ families. A significant contribution was made by Premier (founded as the Consortium of Jewish Hospitals with 16 members in 1983), including household goods, shelter, food and more.

The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is about new beginnings. Many believe that our actions during the High Holy Days impact our lives; thus, the holiday period is a time of reflection. Moments like those in 1992 are also cause for reflection: on a rich past, our present and new beginnings.

About Sharon:

Life Balance…it is what I do and who I am! I work with organizations that want to learn how life balance can drive safety, satisfaction, and success!

In 1994, with the assistance of Rabbi Azman and Father Ken Nowakowski, she visited her family’s homeland in Volynia.

April 30, 2016 By Sharon Weinstein

Motherhood and Mother’s Day

Years ago, I received a Mother’s Day card from my first-born daughter, who is now a first-time mom as a result of adoption; we are thrilled for her, and for the young boy who has joined her family and ours. I saved the card in a special place, in my home and in my heart…and I read it often. The card read, “I know a woman of strength and beauty. I have watched her for years…she is my mother.” What greater tribute could a mother receive?

We are blessed! My husband and I have brought three wonderful young people into the world that care for, and about, others. They are independent thinkers; they are bright and articulate. As a mom, I have been fortunate to celebrate many Mother’s Days – but where did this all begin?

Mother’s Day in the United States is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. It celebrates motherhood and it is a time to appreciate mothers and mother figures. Many people give gifts, cards, flowers, candy, a meal in a restaurant or other treats to their mother and mother figures, including grandmothers, great-grandmothers, stepmothers, and foster mothers. We have all had moms at one time or another, so we all have something to celebrate, even if it is a warm, or perhaps not so warm, memory.

Why do we honor the moms in our lives? Many believe that two women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis were important in establishing the tradition of Mother’s Day in the United States. Other sources say that Juliet Calhoun Blakely initiated Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the late 1800s. Her sons paid tribute to her each year and urged others to honor their mothers.

Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for Mother’s Day to be celebrated each year to encourage pacifism and disarmament amongst women. It continued to be held in Boston for about ten years under her sponsorship, but died out after that.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis held a private Mother’s Day celebration in memory of her mother, Ann Jarvis, in Grafton, West Virginia. Ann Jarvis had organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to improve health and cleanliness in the area where she lived. Anna Jarvis launched a quest for Mother’s Day to be more widely recognized. Her campaign was later financially supported by John Wanamaker, a clothing merchant from Philadelphia. http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/mothers-day

Has Mother’s Day become another ‘economic venture?’ Mother’s Day expenditures on flowers exceed Valentine’s Day by 4%. What about the cards, candy, and other special gifts? I love flowers…just like other moms. How else can you honor mom? You can send a card like the one that my daughter did! You can serve breakfast in bed, do the laundry, the dishes, or mow the lawn. For moms without families nearby, you can offer to help a mom in your area by ‘paying it forward.’ Let’s celebrate the moms in our lives…and let’s make it special. They gave us life!

To start the process: