Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

(Photo credit: Niels Rameckers)

Hi and welcome to the Readers’ Café – a place to gather and to share. Tonight we’re at a café in Meemu Atoll, Maldives. (I’m hanging onto the last bit of summer as long as I can!)

Please join us and help yourself to a beverage of your choice. Then sit back, enjoy the lingering summer evening and join in the conversation by posting comments below. Hit your internet browser’s REFRESH button to see new comments as others join in the conversation. All that I ask is that you respect others and keep it relatively family-friendly. Also, keep in mind that this is a public space, so share what you feel comfortable sharing publicly.

With autumn unofficially here (in the northern hemisphere), kids are going back to school and parents are attempting to establish a normal routine. This means new teachers, new classmates or even new schools, and perhaps even new jobs, which can cause new stresses or challenges. Transition seems the appropriate topic for today’s discussion.

My husband Darrell’s first podcast provides a few suggestions for easing kids back into the school routine. (A transcript is also available.)

What are some of the challenges or stresses you (or your child) faces when transitioning? (This might be to a new grade, a new school, a new home, a new job or whatever.) How have you handled it? What strategies do you use?

City girls just seem to find out early
How to open doors with just a smile
~The Eagles, “Lyin’ Eyes”

A smile is quite handy, literally, when there isn’t an automatic door opener!

Besides opening doors, smiling has numerous physical and psychological benefits:

• Research indicates that optimistic, smiling people have stronger immune systems and are actually able to fight off illness better than pessimists.
• The British Dental Health Foundation found a smile gives the same level of stimulation as eating 2,000 chocolate bars. The same result without the calories: that is definitely something to smile about!
• Smiling is contagious. Psychologist Dr. David Lewis says, “Seeing a smile creates what is termed as a ‘halo’ effect, helping us to remember other happy events more vividly, feel more optimistic, more positive and more motivated.” One bug that is okay to pass on.
• Smiling people are more attractive. Frowns, scowls and grimaces push people away. Smiles draw people in.
• Smiling reduces your blood pressure. Dr. Mark Stibich offers this suggestion, “Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?”
• Less muscles are used to smile than to frown. Conserve your energy!
• Smiling and laughing is good medicine. Life coach Lisa Branigan writes, “Some doctors are using laughter therapy to replace anti-depressants and to reduce the use of painkillers. According to researchers faking laughter will also produce the same health and wellbeing results as real laughter.”

Yet, look around you. How many people are smiling? A smile costs nothing to give, but can mean the world to receive.

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.”
– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Smile, it’s Tuesday and you are alive!

Brisbane skyline at night

After two weeks of amazing travel, I wearily flew back to Australia (wishing these weren’t virtual air miles) for the final appearance on my Summer Sojourn virtual book tour, promoting my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself. Upon landing at Brisbane Airport and meeting Yvonne Russell from Grow Your Writing Business, my energy was renewed. I had arrived in time for the 10th Anniversary River Festival, with fireworks planned for that night. What better way to wrap up my book tour!

While Yvonne graciously showed me around the city, we discussed virtual book tours, ebooks and secrets for writers. There was even some talk of a second book! Please join us.

Thanks to Yvonne, this tour ends the same way it began: in style! I sincerely thank the ten bloggers who hosted this tour. You made it magical and unforgettable:

• Jody DeVere (Thousand Oaks, California, USA)
• Karla Meachem (Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, Canada)
• Mike DeWitt (Scottsdale, Arizona, USA)
• Jacqui Dalling (Southport, Queensland, Australia)
• Susan Reynolds (Sterling, Virginia, USA)
• Karen Putz (Bolingbrook, Illinois, USA)
• Jana Wall (Terre Haute, Indiana, USA)
• Ruth Ellison (Isabella Plains, Australia Capital Territory, Australia)
• Emma Magnago-Prime (Cleveland, United Kingdom)
• Yvonne Russell (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

I also thank my readers for following along on my tour and offering your support. And, I look forward to getting to know the new faces I met along the way. Thank you.

My Ferrari 360 Spyder now goes into the shop for a tune-up and I take the weekend off to recover from the jetlag. But, I will be well rested in time for Readers’ Café on Wednesday, September 5th, at 4pm (pacific time) precisely. Hope you can join us.

Have a great long weekend and thank you!

The purple heather-covered moors of North Yorkshire

Early this morning the Learjet landed at Heathrow and I drove the leased MG Midget to the north of England, through the moors covered with purple Heather and thinking about my mom Heather. At the Moors National Park Centre I meet Emma, an avid knitter – another reminder of Mom.

Emma is also mom to adorable Oliver who turned eight earlier this week and has cerebral palsy. While Oliver and his Dad entertained themselves with his new Nintendo, Emma and I chatted about friendships while growing up with a disability, finding funding for much needed equipment, and using communication devices. Join us in the beautiful English countryside.

I now fly back to Australia (who arranged this itinerary?) for the last stop on this magical Summer Sojourn virtual book tour. But I sense I’ll return to England in the near future. For now, please cast your daily votey so I may win the opportunity to be paid to blog for a year (be sure to click on “Vote for Glenda Watson Hyatt”). My goal is #3 by Labour Day. With your support, I know I can do it. Thanks!

See you tomorrow, down under!

Canberra’s Parliament House

Overnight I was back on the Learjet, flying to Isabella Plains, a suburb of Australia’s capital city Canberra. This trip to the land down under I am meeting with Ruth Ellison, an interaction designer who is extremely passionate about creating accessible and useful user experiences.

Today we chatted about living with cerebral palsy, our common passion for web accessibility, and a new term I recently coined: Disability 2.0 – “Nothing about us without us”. Please join us.

Tonight I board the Learjet for the United Kingdom – I’m training for the life of the rich and famous!