How to Flirt, Italian-Style

From Rome to Catanzarro, flirting is an effortless and graceful art in the Meridionale, Southern Italy. Or in the North, your Amore might take you to the Eurochocolate festival in Perugia, where he will hold a dark chocolate baci between his lips and invite you to help him melt it with his kiss. Italian men and women are not ashamed to artfully appreciate each other with their eyes. Seduction all’italiana is gentle and enjoyable; not aggressive, or invasive. It is a reciprocal dance of possibility. You may notice a slight gleam to the eye, a barely perceptible smile at the corner of the lips, an appreciative turn of the head to follow a slow saunter down a long corridor. Italians see nothing shameful or unnatural about finding ways to make the heart flutter. Amore, after all, is what makes the world go 'round.

NEW LOVE GROUP FORMING! If you are looking for ways to attract love into your life--- dolce vita style--then sign up for the next group telecoaching series: AMORE! HOW TO FIND, KEEP, OR START ALL OVER IN LOVE. To put your
name on the waiting list for a Thursday evening weekly series, write Info@dolcevitaseminars.com with the words "love coaching" in the subject line.

Give Your Talent (and Love) Away!

One of my most treasured gifts is a sapphire-blue shawl that my zia Elizabetta (I call her "mammina") crocheted for me with her two little hands. Another are the two baskets that my almost 90-year old zia Cristina wove for me from the dried leaves of the wheat plants in the fields that she farms (even now at this age, she weaves beautiful baskets without eyeglasses!).

I don't know how hand-made gifts came to lose value in our eyes next to factory-made store bought replicas of each other, but somehow this sadly happened, and it is up to all of us to bring back the value and appreciation of making or receiving something made with a persons energy, time, thoughtfulness, and love.

Whatever your talents are (writing poetry, pet care, painting, playing a musical instrument, baking. knitting, etc), list some ways you can turn them into gifts of love for the people you care about. You don't have to wait for a holiday to do this. Value the time and thought you put into this expression of your soul, and when others give you gifts that express their own spirit, honor it and thank them graciously.

In this economy homespun gifts save money and convey a warmth far greater than something made in an impersonal factory line.

The dolce vita way of life is all about going back to simple and authentic. Express who you are through the fruition of your unique talents. You will find that your light in this world shines a little bit brighter, each time, and will put a smile on many an appreciative face.

Need a little help in living a life of simplicity, balance, and fulfillment? Tell the Dolce Vita Life Coach about your dreams and goals, so we can come up with a plan to make them a reality. www.dolcevitaseminars.com

NEW: Teleclass for job-seeking skills starting soon! www.dolcevitaseminars.com Click on Get Job Teleclass.

3 Dolce Vita Tips for GETTING HIRED!

I know how frustrating it can be to send out resume’ after resume’ to no avail; but instead of giving up, try making yourself stand out from the crowd by following these “sweet life’ tips:

1. Be respectfully persistent. Begin by bookmarking your favorite job sites—websites that announce jobs in your field, or the type of job you want to have. Now make sure you answer at least one ad every day, which fits with your skills, abilities, and interests. After a week or so, drop an email or give a follow-up call. Be courteous, not desperate. If the employer has still not made a decision, ask if and when you may follow up again. Your conscientiousness and respectfulness will be appreciated and remembered—even if you don’t get the job with them this time around.

2. Clean up your resume’. Remember, when employers see a cluttered resume (filled with bits and pieces of accomplishments and experience that have nothing to do with the job announcement), they associate YOU with disorganization. Here is a great resume’ tip. Bounce off of the job announcement itself. Use some of the same words as the duties and skill requirements of the job announcement itself. Of course, you must tell the truth and really possess these skills, but if you do, use the same language to express them that the employer has expressed in the ad

3. Mirror yourself confident. Get in front of your mirror and check out your appearance, the way you carry yourself, the way you talk. Now smile into the mirror to get the right attitude and refine all of it from square one. Go put on something that makes you feel good and look great. Practice standing tall and worthy. Talk with a full voice at the right volume and pace.

NEW TELESEMINAR!! If you’d like even more focused job-seeking strategies, join me for my 2-hour GET THAT JOB! : Job-Seekers’ Teleseminar.
Learn:
· job confidence skills
· interviewing strategies
· ways to explore part-time money-making ideas,
· resume’ efficiency
· and more.

In short, I will teach you all I know about getting the edge in this seemingly impossible market. SPECIAL DISCOUNT PRICE.

Fee: $25
How to register: www.dolcevitaseminars.com (click on Get Job Teleseminar) or to the left of this blog!
Date: Monday, June 8th
Time: 7-9 EST

Cuore Mio, Heart of Mine

From the time I was a little girl my grandfather referred to me as "Cuore Mio", my heart. Of course, part of the problem was that he found my "American" name (Raeleen) difficult to pronounce. But Cuore Mio was just fine with me. The heart, after all, is the generator of the body. A peaceful heart produces chemicals that neutralize the stress hormone cortisol, and keep our emotions and body strong. Recently I came across a wonderful technique to keep the heart in a peaceful place and help our parasympathetic nervous system to shut down an over active fight or flight response when we are stressed, anxious, sad, or angry--all of those emotions if left unchecked, can sicken and even kill the body. The "dolce vita" technique, is appreciation. An appreciative heart has a different rhythm than does a fretful heart. And even when standing before our most difficult challenges and losses, we can still take a moment to close our eyes and fill our mind with the picture of something we have in our lives right now that we truly appreciate. It can be your dog, the flowering bush outside your window, a friend who just said something wonderful to you...or the fact that you were given the gift of another day to live. Appreciate, and let your heart spread the peace. If you'd like some help doing that, just contact me at info@dolcevitaseminars.com . Or find some great life coaching packages on my website: www.dolcevitaseminars.com
Till next time, Cuore Mio.

Declare Your Turning Point And Take Action

Fear is one of the greatest immobilizers. I have talked to people who have suffered profound losses (as I have), whether it be the loss of a loved one, getting laid off from a job, having one's home go into foreclosure, or being diagnosed with a serious illness. The question becomes: is it possible to live a "dolce vita" despite having to face terrible events? In fact, it is more important than ever to capture life's blissful moments--it is good for your emotional health and your physical health. There are many stories of people who have overcome impossibly tragic circumstances, and they all have one thing in common: they reached a turning point in which they refused to take their hard luck sitting down. They decided to move from fearful inaction to determined, massive, action--aimed at moving their lives forward. And in the process, they took the focus off of their hardships and laser-focused it on the gifts they have been graced with, no matter what else was going on. I have done this with my own life, and I help my clients to do it with theirs through my life coaching (info@dolcevitaseminars.com). It is not about frenetic action, but about planning a life strategy that you follow each and every day--even when you don't feel like it. Because when you are feeling defeated, you are also feeling helpless. The key is to focus on what you can control in your life, and start from there. Here is an easy starting point, which, if practiced throughout the day today will have you feeling better by the time you turn in tonight: Stand up straight and smile. That's it. do it today, and every day for 10 consecutive days. Do it as often as you can, whether you feel like it or not. You'll see how even a little bit of action--which you can control---will begin to turn your life back around.
What is stopping you from declaring your turning point? If you'd like me to mentor you in developing a life strategy and hold you accountable for making the next break-through in your life, write to me and let's begin taking action right now: info@dolcevitaseminars.com for a free introductory life coaching session, via telephone.
As always, your comments are welcomed on this post, and don't forget to subscribe (Atom) if you enjoy this blog. You can also follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/RaeleenMautner

The Power of One (The Dolce Vita Way to Lose Weight)

Do you remember your first cursive handwriting lesson as a kid? Chances are your teacher didn’t just put the alphabet in front of you and tell you to “go for it”. Instead, she had you begin with many repetitions of the letter “a” until writing that letter became second nature to you. Once you had it down pat, it became a motivating factor for wanting to make your “b” just as lovely. Personally, I could hardly wait to be able to write like the “big kids”, and so I made a heroic attempt to form all of my letters at once, in order to quickly get to the fluid part of writing. The result was maddening and frustrating. My letters were utterly illegible, and I ended up feeling like a complete failure. Fortunately, my second grade teacher, taught me that having the patience to perfect just a single letter of the alphabet before worrying about the others, would eventually start a chain reaction that made it easier to segue into the “b”, then the “c”, and so on. Before I knew it, I was there, and I have not had to start from square one since. The same thing is true with losing weight.

Losing weight, like learning to write in cursive, can be overwhelming if you think you have to learn all of the proper eating and exercising behaviors contemporaneously. You can’t suddenly expect to change years of improper eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle overnight, like rubbing on a magic genie lamp. Eventually you figure out there is no such thing as a genie that twitches her nose and transforms you into your slimmer alter ego. But here is an idea that is even better than having a personal genie, because you will learn to tap into the real genie within yourself. How do you get it to surface? You can start that chain reaction of weight loss success by selecting just ONE healthy behavior to work on at a time. Then go to the next. It doesn’t even have to be a major change. You could, for instance, simply increase your water intake by just one glass a day for the next couple of weeks. You will eventually perform this behavior effortlessly and naturally. When you see how easy that was, I promise you will be fired up for the next challenge. And then the next, and that is exactly how lifestyle behavior changes take hold. Are you ready to test the power of ONE for yourself? Here is how to start.

Begin by writing a list of ONES. Include all of the healthy dieting and exercise behaviors you think you need to work on, until they become second nature to you. Each list is individual, and you can jot down as many positive weight loss behaviors as you choose. Here are some ideas to get you started:

· One extra 20 minute walk on Saturdays
· One extra glass of water each day
· One less snack during the day each day
· One more serving of vegetables or fruit
· One 5-minute session of deep breathing in the morning
· One minute of positive affirmations at the beginning of each day
· One song on the radio each day, to which you dance freely
· One meal that includes low fat, healthy foods, each day.
· One less temptation hanging around in the refrigerator.
· One compliment that you give yourself without fail, each day.
· One minute of sit-ups before bed each night.
· One weigh-in a week to keep track of progress without obsessing
· One extra day a week of taking your vitamins, if it isn’t already a daily habit

Now choose a single behavior and don’t worry about the other ones on the list until you have mastered the one change you have targeted. Work on it for at least a couple of weeks, before beginning work on another one.
Notice how you feel once you have mastered each new positive habit. Notice how much more motivated you are to get right on to the next one.
Proceed this way until you have mastered your entire list. This is a satisfying, and very doable approach to weight loss, which inevitably snowballs from single behavioral changes, to an entire lifestyle overhaul.

My Power of One approach is a painless way to finally succeed at getting and staying fit. Give it a try and see if it works for you. Remember to center your energy on the behavior you have chosen for the day, and don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by other things you must do. Start with the “a” and before you know it you will be on “z” and everything will come together naturally. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “One today is worth two tomorrows”.