Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for supporting our webstore by giving yourself a gift of self-care. I appreciate the emails and notes in the comment section of the order from (I read every one!), and I’m thrilled that so many people are being touched by the movie, You Can Heal Your Life. It really is life-changing. You can find it here.

If you had trouble hearing the MP3 file with Adam Dreamhealer, we have good news. Carl, a community member, has adjusted the file making it easier to hear. You’ll find this fascinating conversation here. Thanks Carl!

Finally, I’ll be hosting a weekend of Self Care again this year at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the beautiful Berkshires of western Massachusetts. We’ll be holding it in the fall – September 19th through the 21st (a gorgeous time of year in New England), and I’ll be teaching new concepts from my next book, “The Art of Extreme Self Care.” Concepts like protecting your sensitivity, leaving the “good girl or boy” role behind, learning to disappoint others, or uncovering hidden parts of you that long to be expressed. It’s a great way to attend a more affordable retreat and you’ll find more info here.

Have a wonderful week…

Love,

Cheryl

p.s. – Need a little Divine Direction? Use the “Touch of Grace” button on our homepage here: http://www.cherylrichardson.com.

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Topic of the Week – Time Savers

As we kick off summer here in the Northeast, I thought it might be fun to rerun a newsletter about making time to enjoy your life using shortcuts. I hope you find one or two ideas that will make a difference. Here goes…

Teaching yourself to look for and use shortcuts is a way to perform everyday tasks more quickly and efficiently, allowing yourself more time for the things that matter. This week I asked a few friends about the ways in which they save time (and money) so I could share them with you. Here are 10 examples:

1. Buy in bulk. The next time you go shopping for household items (toilet paper, paper towels, etc.), purchase them in bulk. By doing so, you’ll avoid making multiple trips to the store throughout the year which saves gas, and since many warehouse stores offer better prices for bulk purchases, you’ll not only save time, you’ll save money, too.

2. Call all your creditors and have the due dates on your monthly bills synchronized to the same date. By aligning the payment dates of your bills, you’ll be able to pay them all at once – hopefully once a month. This also helps to insure that they’re paid on time.

3. When cooking meals, double the serving and freeze the other half for future meals when you’d rather relax than cook.

4. Use a pick-up and delivery service. You might be surprised to discover that your dry cleaner, local restaurant, or copy shop offers this service as part of the cost of doing business. Just ask…

5. Order your household goods or office supplies online. I recently needed supplies for a workshop at the last minute, and when I ordered them from Staples.com, I not only received the supplies the next day (for free), I saved 10% as well.

6. Keep an on-going list of books, movies, or music recommendations on your computer so you can easily recall them when shopping. This way you avoid spending time trying to remember what you like. A book list may also give you an incentive to visit the library — this will allow you to save money by borrowing the books you really don’t need to purchase.

7. Learn new shortcut features on your computer. It’s amazing how much time you can save by taking a few simple steps. For example, did you know that using “control A” will highlight all of the text on your screen so you can copy, move or delete it all at once? Or using”control Z” will undo any previous keystrokes, making it easy to recover a great thought that you mistakenly deleted? Check your computer’s help or tutorial file for common keyboard shortcuts.

8. Schedule automated tasks on your computer so you’ll remember to perform the most important ones (like backing up your hard drive or scanning for viruses). Take a look at the help index on these programs for set-up instructions — it takes about two minutes. By the way, this also prevents you from spending time trying to eradicate viruses or spyware programs from your computer later on.

9. Set up a carpool with neighbors to take kids to and from activities. I know this may sound obvious, but many moms tough it out alone, too busy (or afraid) to ask for help. If you hate playing chauffeur, challenge yourself to make a few calls.

10. Set up short cuts on your desktop so you can quickly get to important documents that you use on a regular basis. For example, I keep a “to-do” list in a word document. When I go to my computer, I h ave an icon called “to-do” on my desktop that I can click on to take me right to the file. If you’re a PC user, right click on your desktop, click “new,” click “shortcut,” and follow the instructions.

Enjoy!

~*~ Take Action Challenge ~*~

Choose one of the above steps and implement it this week. Once you experience the benefit (reduced stress levels and extra time), you’ll start looking for and using time savers on a more regular basis. Have fun :)

In the News

• Have a question for Cheryl? Call in during her live Internet radio show, Coach on Call, on Mondays at 5pm ET (2pm PT, 10pm GMT) at www.hayhouseradio.com. Simply dial (866) 254-1579 if you live in the US, or for international callers dial, 1-760-918-4300 after your country code. Cheryl discusses a variety of topics related to practicing Extreme Self Care and living a high quality life.

• We have a variety of unique life-changing gifts in our webstore at www.myextremeselfcare.com. You can have books personally signed for you or a loved one with a note of encouragement or support, include a hand-written gift card with your order, or find a special item to support your own self-care. There are heart ornaments, books, audio programs, lotions, and our popular Mesmerizing Oggz Egg (you need to see it to understand :). Check them out here: www.myextremeselfcare.com.

Life Makeover For The Year 2008 (sm) is written and produced by Cheryl Richardson. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: cheryl@cherylrichardson.com. © Copyright 1999-2008 Cheryl Richardson, P.O. Box 13, Newburyport, MA 01950. All rights reserved.