Teresa Giudice’s Layered Jacket in Italy

Season 10 Episode 16 Real Housewives of New Jersey Fashion

Teresa Giudice’s layered jacket lewk in Italy on last night’s season finale episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey was super cute and although it may look like she layered two jackets on top of each other, we’re here to confirm that it’s actually just one. However we wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled that trick by adding on a few others at the airport to reduce the baggage fee on her 124786574 pounds of luggage. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Purse Also Seen on Tamra Judge:

Click Here to Shop Her Baci Jacket

Click Here to Shop Her Saint Laurent Purse

Jacket Info: @CharlottesWebTowaco

Originally posted at: Teresa Giudice’s Layered Jacket in Italy

The World Health Organization recently analyzed research from over 900 global publications and concluded that engaging with the arts and culture can significantly benefit both mental and physical health.

I’m
reminded of an essay by Robert Fulghum, author of the book Everything I Really
Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, observing that if you ask a
classroom full of kindergarteners how many are singers, artists, and dancers – all hands shoot up!

Visit upper
grades and fewer and fewer hands go up until by high school very few students
will claim any artistic abilities. What if, as a gift to ourselves, we reclaimed
our love for and belief in our inner artist?

What if we
channeled our 5-year-old selves and sang, danced, drew, painted, and sculpted
without self-criticism. To do that we’d have to drown out not just criticism of
abilities but also ageist expectations. I’m sharing my story to illustrate what
I mean.

I Used to Be a Dancer

In my 20s
and 30s, I taught dance and co-directed and performed with a university dance
company. In my 30s, I became a mom and a published author and started a career
as a senior wellness consultant.

My life allowed
so little time for dancing that, when I eventually uttered, “I used to be a
dancer,” when chatting with a colleague, I felt actual pain as my kinship with
strength and grace and joyful movement fractured.

So, at age
48, with a “now-or-never” urgency, I leaped into a local dance performance. The
problem was, my mind lagged behind.

The Aging Myth

As a
heathy aging specialist, I fully understood the power of ageism to undermine
well-being, but professional knowledge failed to stop my subconscious “aging
scripts” from running the show.

Long story
short, my return to the stage failed. I learned the dances and went through the
motions; injured myself on dress rehearsal night and couldn’t perform. The
flood of disappointment was immediate, and then resignation swept in as strong and dangerous as an undertow – “I
used to be a dancer.”

Much
later, it hit me. I’d fallen prey to ageism. Even though I know that
inactivity – not age – causes the majority of functional loss, at the first signs of my
own physical decline I’d let the constant accusations linking age with decline sideline
me.

So, at age
52, a busy professional, wife, and mother of two, I found myself standing on
stage in a skimpy leotard, fishnet stockings and heels, seconds from performing
a Fosse dance piece (think the movie Chicago) with eight other dancers
ranging in age from 18-28.

But it
wasn’t an easy path. The physical retraining paled in comparison to what it
took to overcome both external aging stereotypes and internal beliefs.

Floor to Ceiling Mirrors and Indifference

Walking
into the dance studio was my first trial. Approaching dance like a work project,
I identified the resources I needed to be successful: strength, flexibility,
balance, and a good friend to confide my mission.

I was
stretching, doing cardio and strength training, and attending dance classes twice
per week. But surrounded by a roomful of dancers, none of them over 25, and not
one of them meeting my eye, I encountered an unexpected wall of indifference.

I had taught
dance 5 days a week for over 10 years, right in this studio, but none of these
dancers knew that! I was going to have to start at the bottom to earn my place.

Overcoming Challenges

My resolve
was tested continually: when I had to choose between attending a professional
conference and dancing; when I doubted my ability to choreograph a dance; when
my knee started to hurt; and when I started to feel anxious about performing.

I had been
one of the best dancers – could I stand average, or just being good “for my
age”? I had to make a conscious effort almost every day to override aging
stereotypes and self-doubt.

My knee hurts. Maybe I should stop. “Well, my knee hurt when I was a young dancer and off-and-on
through the years when I wasn’t dancing,” I would remind myself. Advil, ice,
stretch, strengthen, better warm-up.

I probably shouldn’t use that move; I could
hurt myself. Then, I’d counter, “Do I have the necessary strength,
flexibility, and balance? If so, get with it, if not, what can I do to gain
them?”

Reclaiming Joy

My inner
dialogue danced with class interactions. Gradually, some eye contact and
smiles, and more confidence and joy in movement, graced my hours at the studio.
When a dancer asked, “Can you show me that move?” I knew I’d graduated from being
a mere curiosity.

When I
regressed to the attitude of doing well enough “not to embarrass myself,” my
friend Toby challenged my thinking then drove seven hours to be with me the
week of the show.

Curtain
up, lights on cue, music – friends,
husband, and kids in the audience – what a rush! The piece was good. I was
good. And the experience was life affirming.

Fast Forward 8 Years

I’ve since
danced in every yearly show, and, as a 60^th birthday present to
myself, choreographed and performed a physically challenging piece to Aretha
Franklin’s classic song, “Rock Steady.” And here’s the deal – I was stronger,
leaner, and more flexible at age 60 than I was at age 52.

I’m
sharing the video to Rock Steady (I’m center stage – long hair); not as
a “Yay me, look at what I can do,” but as a YAY, YOU – what can you do?

What artistic
activity have you given up that you used to love to do? What steps could you
take to reclaim it? Is there a form of art you have always wanted to embrace? If
not now, when? Please share with our community!

Teresa Giudice’s Pink Mules at the Jersey Shore Party

Season 10 Episode 16 Real Housewives of New Jersey Fashion

Teresa Giudice’s pink mules at the Jersey Shore party on last night’s season finale episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey made for the perfect lewk along with her pink metallic dress. And considering they’re currently on sale for 60% off, when it comes to clicking “add to cart” we’re of course 100% pushing you to “do it.” 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her N°21 Mules on Sale

Click Here to Shop Them in Black on Sale

Click Here to Shop Them in Green on Sale in Limited Sizing

Click Here For Info on Her Dress

Originally posted at: Teresa Giudice’s Pink Mules

My chief goal for this year is
to figure out why I work. Yeah, I know that sounds absurd. But when I
created my New Year’s resolutions this year, I realized that while my writing
and personal goals were crystal clear, I couldn’t articulate a work goal beyond
“work more.”

Another way to say this is that I
am addicted to work. One definition of addiction is: “a
psychological and physical inability to stop consuming a chemical, drug,
activity, or substance, even though it is causing psychological and physical
harm.” 

Coming from a large, sprawling
Irish family with its fair share of substance abuse problems, I use the term
“addiction” advisably. But I think in my case, it’s apt.

Now that I have – in classic,
12-step fashion – identified the problem, it’s time to step back and begin to
craft a solution. 

Here’s where I’ve gotten so far:

Answer the Eternal Question

What would you do if this was your
last day on Earth? This is the question the HeadSpace appuses to guide
its meditation on prioritization. Given that Headspace is a mindfulness app,
the question is posed softly and gently. But it is, of course, the eternal
question we all need to answer.

Oddly enough, it’s also the first question
I ask my friends who come to me for career advice. “I don’t know what to do with my life,”
they will say, or some version therein.

I always begin by asking, “If
you had an entirely free day tomorrow, with no commitments whatsoever, how
would you spend it?” Or, if you prefer, “What
would your 90-year-old self would advise you to do?” 

In my case, I know I’d prefer to
spend at least a third of my day writing. Of all the things I do in a day,
writing is the activity where I feel most authentic and most relaxed. But
at the moment, I’m not even close to achieving that 1/3 goal.

Practice Being Your Future Self

A Harvard Business Review article states that you have to
practice being your future self. The upshot of the article is that once you’ve
figured out the key components of your ideal day, you need to block out time to
practice being that future self. (This is a familiar piece of advice to anyone
who wants to be a writer, which essentially boils down to: Start
writing.) 

But what really resonated for me in
this article was the way the author, Peter Bregman, framed the “future
self” imperative.

He writes: “You need to spend time on the
future even when… there is no immediately apparent return to your efforts. In
other words… if you want to be productive, you need to spend time doing
things that feel ridiculously unproductive.”

That framing really hit home for
someone who consistently conflates
being productive with being busy. On any given day, doing the thing
that you love can feel like you’re taking valuable time away from the 10,000
things you “need” to get done.

Not so, says Bregman: “It’s
the wildly important stuff that never gets done because it’s never urgent
enough… or it’s too risky or terrifying” that you need to prioritize.
True dat.

Create Affirmations

Once you’ve set aside your
“me” time, create some affirmations to reinforce that positive image
of yourself.

I’ve written before about how
I’ve used positive self-talk in both my writing and my work. But in recent
weeks, I’ve really doubled down. I’ve made a brand new list of 10 affirmations
tailored to the first quarter of this new year, which I repeat out loud every
morning before I start my work day.

Of those 10, the hardest one to
utter – but the one that matters most – is this: “It’s easy for me to say no to people.”
It isn’t. And that’s not (entirely) because I often need the money.

It’s because – courtesy of my
addiction – I measure my productivity not in terms of number of sales or level
of income (like most business people), but in terms of the number of hours
worked. And with that as my metric for a job well done, more is always better.
Isn’t it?

I’m trying really hard to focus on
these three, big-ticket goals as I slowly work my way towards managing my
addiction to work.

What strategies do you employ
when you need to hit re-set on your own work/life balance? What have you had to
re-organize in your priorities list to become more productive? Let’s have a
conversation!

Kristin Cavallari’s Green Tie Skirt

Very Cavallari Season 3 Episode 8 Fashion

In this week’s episode of Very Cavallari Kristin Cavallari agrees to take a walk on the wild side by agreeing to a camping trip with husband Jay Cutler. And although I can’t totally picture it—possibly because I can’t picture myself camping—based on her outfit’s camo color combo and utility skirt, I think she may be more ready than I think. And if those front pockets are functional, she should totally pack it for the trip.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to See her Marissa Webb Aster Skirt

Originally posted at: Kristin Cavallari’s Green Tie Skirt