It’s early morning as I type this blog post and I’m up even before the birds, but yet again I can’t sleep.

I want to and need to, but can’t.

Still I’m not as bad this morning as I was a few days ago when I went to Tesco’s at 3.30 a.m. to do some food shopping!

Unfortunately, sleep, or rather lack of sleep has been a recurring problem with me for some time, but I’m not alone.

According to the BBC news yesterday morning, one in three of us suffer from lack of sleep, and it’s affecting our lives.

The long term consequences of not getting enough quality sleep not only creates health problems, but also our lifestyle. It’s hard to work and live life to the full when you’re worn out, and the recommendations to help promote a good night’s rest were

• gentle exercise
• keeping to a bedtime routine
• using lavendar
• switching off the tv and computer an hour before bedtime
• taking a warm bath
• breathing deeply
• having a milky drink

Of course my situation hasn’t been helped because I’ve just returned from a holiday in Canada. It was lovely, but as I live in UK, there is a time difference, and apparently for every hour it takes one day to recover.

That means I should be back to normal after a week, although that still means I won’t be sleeping as much as I know I should.

I honestly don’t know how airline staff cope with the constant jetlag, and I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents or irritable flight attendants.

Whilst I was in Canada, I listened to Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III talk about the day he and his crew landed his plane full of passengers safely on the Hudson River in January 2009. Thankfully, he was very alert as he’d only just taken off, but it might have been a different story if the flight had been a long haul one and they were at the latter end – at least that’s my observation from what it says about pilots on this very clever image below.

Perhaps you’d like to read it?

I’m going back to bed!

Created by: MedicalBillingandCodingCertification.net

April is Autism Awareness Month, and 2nd April is not only World Autism Awareness Day but also my son’s birthday.

He has autism.

Jodi is now 23 years old and has just moved into supported living with two other lads of a similar age.  One has Downs Syndrome and the other unspecified learning difficulties.

It’s a move I never thought would be possible, especially as when he was first diagnosed with the condition, the “experts” told me I’d most likely end up putting my son in a home (read “institution”) by the time he was a teenager because I’d never be able to look after him.

Wrong!

With the right help, advice, support and dedication, a lot can be done to help a person with autism become the best they can be.

However, the range of problems for people on the autistic spectrum is huge and it’s certainly true if you know ONE person with autism, you KNOW one person with autism.

No two are the same!

If you want an easy to understand insight into the disability, I highly recommend you read my first book – I’m Not Naughty – I’m Autistic – Jodi’s Journey 

It will make you laugh and cry and is my son’s true story.  Admittedly, I wrote it 12 years ago, but the problems faced by people with autism and those who love and care for them are still the same.

The book is incredibly easy to read and will give you a very good overview of what it’s like to live with the disability.

Believe me – it’s not easy!

Anyway, today, as I said is my son’s birthday and this afternoon he had a bit of a party at his house.  All the guests enjoyed food prepared by the three lads and tonight they are off to the circus.

I know how lucky he is.

Most people with autism, especially higher functioning autists lead very sad, lonely and miserable lives.  Totally misunderstood, people can be very cruel to those who are considered “different”.

Hopefully, the Autism Awareness month will help people get over their fear and ignorance about autism, but the sad reality is more people are becoming aware of the issue anyway.

When my son was diagnosed with the disability, autism was very rare.  Statistically it affected more boys than girls and that hasn’t changed over the years, BUT whereas in 1990 the likelihood of your child getting some form of autism was about 1 : 2500, now as many as 1 : 100 children are on the autistic spectrum.

That’s scary, because  autism doesn’t just affect the individual.  Its tentacles are far reaching and very destructive to families and loved ones.

Also, as autism is a disability, not a disease, life expectancy for anyone with the condition is normal, which means our autistic children will eventually become autistic adults, all needing some sort of support.

Usually, that’s provided by parents , but if the laws of nature are anything to go by, children generally outlive their parents, so who’s going to look after them?

It’s not something I like to dwell on.

Anyway, as I said a lot can be done to help people with autism and if they ever discover what actually causes it, one day there may just be a ” cure”.

Until then though, we just have to be as open minded as we can and try to support everyone affected by the disability.

Here is a video  by a young girl who explains a bit about how autism has affected her life, but remember what I said earlier, if you know one person with autism, you only know one person with autism.

They are ALL different, so you might like to check this video out as well.  It’s also about a girl with autism and made me cry – http://www.wimp.com/autisticgirl

Look and learn!

Take care.

Jean

One year ago on 11th March, 2011, Joel Therien and Chris Reid launched their 7MinuteWorkout program and I became one of its first members.

That gave me the title of “Maverick”.

Now if you look in Thesaurus an alternative word to “maverick” is “rebel”.

Somehow I’ve never thought of myself in those terms, but apparently the desription is “someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct”, so I guess by being a Maverick Member of the 7MinuteWorkout, I am a bit of a rebel.

You see the concept of the program goes completely against everything I’d ever learned about exercise, and whilst there will be many skeptics, especially in the younger generation, there’s no doubt about it, exercising just seven minutes a day, three times a week works!

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

That’s what I thought too, but I tried it anyway, and am really glad I did.

Not only have I been able to interview lots of people about the 7MinuteWorkout, write a book on it, but also change my health.

It’s not easy in as much as you do have to push yourself with the exercises, BUT it’s only for seven minutes, three times a week, and it’s well worth the effort.

You can do the exercises at home, when you want, or you can do them at the gym. Most people who go that route find it takes them longer to actually get to the gym than it does for them to workout!

The whole push yourself for hours until you drop type attitude towards exercising is certainly changing though, and only last week I watched a program on the BBC where a scientific study revealed concentrated exercise of only 1 minute a day can prove just as, or even more beneficial, than an hour running on a treadmill.

That’s good news for those of us who don’t particularly like exercise and live in a time strapped society.

One interesting thing I discovered about the 7MinuteWorkout program is the majority of members are middle aged and above, and I suspect there are two reasons for this.

Firstly, most of them don’t want to go to gyms alone where everyone is younger, fitter, stronger and more energetic than they are, so like to go with someone else for moral support, and secondly they either haven’t got the time or the money to go that route.

However,the 7MinuteWorkout program allows two people to share the same membership and as it’s an online program, you create your own profiles and don’t both have to exercise at the same time or even be in the same house, city or even country!

It’s just a “buddy” system for moral support.

Another thing about the 7MinuteWorkout program is you can earn money from it if you wish to do so as there’s a global home business opportunity affiliate program you can join for a small one off investment.

I don’t know any gyms that offer that, plus if you do decide to go that route, you actually get SEVEN memberships, not just two.

Anyway, if you want to grab a couple of chapters of my book and see what it’s all about go here -

http://www.jeanshaw.com/the7minuteworkoutstory.html

Take Care and Stay Healthy.

Jean

During my last interview , the topic of the name of this blog came up again.  It’s not  really surprising as it has absolutely nothing to do with the menopause in the usual sense of the word.   It’s mostly my thoughts on all sorts of different subjects.

However, just to set the record straight,  it came about because I was introduced to the world of the internet during one of my “menopausal moments”.  You know, those times when you act completely out of character.

Anyway,  at that time I had no idea about the importance of keywords and relevance as far as the search engines are concerned, and now I know better, but…

…this blog is comfortable.  It’s familiar like an old pair of slippers and I’m reluctant to change it.

I  have th is idea if people are meant to find me, they will.

You did!

Anyway, that’s how the blog started, and since then I’ve done many things “out of character”, including joining some mlm/network marketing companies, which is something I’d never considered was really “me”.

To be perfectly honest, it still isn’t, BUT I can see the potential of earning residual income for promoting GOOD products,  and that’s the only reason I’m involved.

They’re  ALL , not just “good”, but GREAT products,  and I use them, and would use them regardless of whether there was an income opportunity involved, or not.

To me, that’s secondary, but I know a lot of people are making a LOT of money by actually making the introduction of the work from home mlm opportunities to others their sole business.

I just tell people about them because I like the products, know they can help people, and if anyone buys or joins as a result of my recommendation, then great.

It’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?

As you can tell from this site, I am a huge fan of everything GVO.  I’ve interviewed and even written a book about Joel Therien,  and I don’t put my name to things lightly.

I hate hype, and that’s one thing you don’t get with GVO, although I have to admit I hate it when they launch any new products, because everything is geared to the serious  mlm/network marketer type of person, rather than those less interested in that sort of thing…

… like me.

That’s the situation at the moment with MeetCheap, which is a phenomenally,  inexpensive, web based, collaborative tool, due to launch to the public on 23rd January, 2012.

At only $19.97 per YEAR for a 20 seat conference room, where you can hold live webcasts, web meetings, sales presentations, etc., anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection , and which has an mlm business opportunity included in the price as well, I guess they can be forgiven for a bit of hype.

After all, there’s NOTHING currently to compare to it out there in cyberspace, especially as it can be linked to ViralWebcaster so the webcasts can actually be held inside of Facebook!

That hasn’t been released yet either, but I’m reliably informed it’s very powerful and, “WILL BE the TOOL of 2012″

Viral Webcaster is the brainchild of Tissa Godivitarne and Mark Call, another two hype free people I like, because they are genuinely nice and helpful.  They also make a very profitable living from holding webinars so clearly they know what they’re doing and have implemented the best of everything in this new product.

If you want to check it out before it even launches, you can go to the ViralWebcaster page on Facebook, where there’s a short video explaining how it works.

Apparently, you have to first, click the LIKE button and, second, Click ALLOW, and then Mark Call gives you the details

Anyway, if you  also want to check out  MeetCheap, or any of the other GVO products, you can go to my 10 Questions page and scroll to the bottom.

They’re all listed on that page, because (according to those in the know) they all satisfy the criteria for the questions you should ask yourself before getting involved with any home based business.

The 7MinuteWorkout satisfied the criteria too, and is a great health and fitness lifestyle program, which I’m sure many people will appreciate in the New Year, especially if they indulge just a bit too much over the festive season!

Here’s  a video I made about it, and if you want to see more I’ve written about it, you can check out my 7MinuteSuccessWorkout site.

Finally, there’s ONE Group.

Now this company provides certified organic skincare amongst other things, and certainly doesn’t fulfil all the criteria for the 10 questions, BUT I suffered from mercury poisoning and had to get rid of as many toxic chemicals from my body as possible, and you’ll be surprised how many your everyday items contain.

I was!

Anyway, these Miessence, Mi-Vitality and Mi-Environ products only contain beneficial and active ingredients from food and plants, (which I can pronounce), rather than potentially dangerous Lab concocted toxic synthetic chemicals, (which I can’t pronounce).

That’s why I use them, and as I personally use a sufficient amount each month to fulfil the required order level to become an Independent Representative and potentially earn commission, then it makes sense to choose that option, doesn’t it?

If you want to read my story, you can check out my books at JeanShaw.com, or you can get my free organic report here.

Now, here’s a video I made about ONE Group, incase you’re interested in either purchasing,  or building a home based business with chemical free products , BUT it certainly isn’t for everyone, and of all the mlm opportunities I’ve found myself part of, this is probably the hardest to sell.

Of course, it doesn’t bother me, because I just want to use the products, but that may not be the case for you.

Anyway, that’s why my blog is called , “Jeans’s Menopausal Moment”, but  I guess my moment of madness  has  already allowed me to meet hundreds of people worldwide,  and led me to become an author, an interviewer, a blogger, an article writer, a ghost writer, video producer, webmaster, and an mlm and network marketer, albeit unintentionally.

That’s not bad is it?

The menopause is supposedly a time of change,  and I certainly haven’t stood still.

Wonder what 2012 will bring?

Best wishes for the festive season and take care.

Jean

As a young child in the late 50′s, I used to enjoy Watch With Mother in black and white on our one and only home TV.

It was a combination of education and entertainment, and I watched, listened and learned.

Now, in 2011, when I’m in my late 50′s, I’ve enjoyed Learn With Sally in full colour on my computer, and again I’ve been educated and entertained.

I’ve once more watched, listened and learned.

However, in 2012, I’m going to take action, because the tips, tricks and techniques used by The Blog Hopping Queen really work, plus, of course, slight Sally is not someone to be messed with.

This wee Scottish Lassie threatens to kick butt!

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Sally (again) following the successful completion of her first Learn With Sally coaching course, and also two of her more active students, Nikki Stephens and Barry Wells, who’ve put me to shame.

When  you listen to our chats you’ll discover why Sally’s method of teaching is so effective and how Gold Stars and acknowledgement can produce far more positive results than criticism.

In our lives we’re all guilty of being quick to criticise, and slow to praise, and maybe the world would be a different place if it were the other way round.

People generally remember the last thing you say, so if you want to make friends and influence people, try to make sure it’s positive!

You can listen to my interview with Sally here,

http://www.jeanshawinterviews.com/learnwithsally.html

and with Barry and Nikki , here

http://www.jeanshawinterviews.com/learnwithsallystudents.html

On Sally’s last webinar in the course, she felt it was a bit like saying goodbye to her children and letting them loose on the world.  She was proud of ALL of them and  said she knew they’d go on and be successful in whatever they chose to do.

She’s like that – inspiring, motivating  and encouraging.

Sally’s course is no longer available, BUT you can purchase the replays, and if you’re considering starting an online business, or want to move yours up a notch, I seriously recommend you purchase them.

Sally covers blogging, social media, video, and various other easy to implement strategies , which help build that all important Know, Like and Trust!

You can get the LearnWithSally Replays  by clicking on the image below

Make 2012 your best year yet -just like me!

Take care and Season’s Greetings.

Jean

In many respects I’m very lucky and have a lot to be grateful for, but my youngest son has autism, which does make life somewhat difficult sometimes.

Christmas is one of those “sometimes”.

Jodi is now 22 years old, but still loves videos,especially those really old childrens videos he’s grown up and become so familiar with.

When I say videos, I really mean “videos” – those bulky black oblong things that are fast becoming obsolete, and which people are practically giving away at car boot sales and charity shops.

It wasn’t always so.

When he was younger, and didn’t understand there was more than one copy in the world, he wanted to buy every video he already had, thinking, I suspect, his copy had been taken from home.

He also wanted to buy every other video shown in the trailers of the film, or displayed inside the video covers.

It cost us a small fortune, and we now have over 2000!

Yes, you did read that correctly.

The thing is Jodi doesn’t speak, other than a few odd words, BUT he can recite every word from every video in the right accent and even mimes the actions and includes the sound effects.

It’s incredible!

I remember the other year when he was at college he sang The Bare Necessities from Jungle Book on stage, and afterwards loads of people came up to me and said they had no idea he could speak, yet alone sing.

Anyway, back to the reason I’m “desperate”.

Jodi has typed out a list of videos. Most of them he’s been able to get, but not all.

My son loves Christmas, but never asks me for anything, which means I never know what to buy him. He knows he gets presents though, and every day since about July, he has been dragging me to the calendar, and lately it’s been twice a day.

He points to three dates in December and says -

“Christmas Eve”.

“Christmas Day – presents – good boy”

“Boxing Day”

Then he will thrust the piece of paper on which he’s typed out his video list infront of my face and point to those left. He’s even cut out the image of the most important one he wants on Christmas Day, because he’s been a “good boy”.

The thing is I can’t get it…

…anywhere!

I’ve tried every charity shop and car boot sale I can find; e-bay and amazon can’t help either, so I’m desperately trying this internet “thing”.

I’ve heard/read somewhere we are all just 6 clicks away from any information we need because of the viral component of the internet.  

Apparently, if you want to know/find something and put the word out, a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, will have the information you seek.

So, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you recognise this picture, will you kindly see if you, or your contacts have this very old  Teddy Trucks One Hour Special video collecting dust somewhere in your attic, garage or wherever. and then consider selling it to me, because honestly that’s all my son wants for Christmas.

Getting it for him will make two people VERY happy indeed – my autistic son and his “desperate” mother, plus…

… it will prove this internet “thing” really does work!

Thanks.

Jean

P.S. If you have the video please just leave me a comment or message me on Facebook  and I’ll contact you.