Kathleen Hassan – Speaker for Teen Girls – Demo Video
Please share this video with your school. girls leadership team, pto, and event planners! I want to be your speaker at your next teen empowerment event!
Photoshop of Horrors – What You Can Do
This past fall, I was invited back for the 4th year in a row to speak to 1500 7th grade girls at the Young Women's Leadership Conference in York, PA. After the event, I received a Facebook message from a girl named Makenna who had attended the conference. Makenna wrote: Hey Kathleen. I was at your York College conference. I'm writing a letter to Seventeen Magazine about how they photoshop their pictures and I was wondering if you had any pointers. Thanks. Not only did I write back to Makenna telling her how proud I was of her for taking action, but I figured it would help more girls if I were to share my pointers in a blog post so that other girls can take action too. Below is my initial response to Makenna, her first draft of the letter, followed by my suggestions and comments on the letter. [...]
Being Different Can Be A Blessing – The True Story of Rudolph
A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob’s wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer Little Barbara couldn’t understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad’s eyes and asked, “Why isn’t Mommy just like everybody else’s Mommy?” Bob’s jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob’s life. Life always had to be different for Bob. Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving [...]
Stay Where You Are – So I Can Feel Safe
There's a certain sense of security and camaraderie in the struggle of life. But what happens when someone decides to let go of the struggle and step into the joy and flow of life? Do people like you better when you play it safe and play the victim of circumstances? When someone decides to step out of the role they've been playing and makes a bold move towards change, you'd think that everyone would stand up and cheer! But more often then not, people try to put you back where they think you belong so they can feel safe. Misery loves company is an expression that, although few of us would admit, really does make us feel a little bit better about our own lives if someone else is struggling right along with us. The Mobile Effect Imagine everyone in your family and all of your closest friends are all [...]
iCoach – Self-Esteem & Teens 2
This week's edition of iCoach is part two of a teleconference I ran about self-esteem and teens. This section is all about how your thoughts create your reality and how self-acceptance effects your self-esteem. [sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl="https://s3.amazonaws.com/hassan.mp3storage/icoachweek007.mp3"]
Jess Weiner & The E.F. Hutton Effect: When You Talk Is Anyone Listening?
E. F. Hutton & Co. was a stock brokerage company founded in 1904 and was best known for its commercials in the 1970s and 1980s based on the phrase, "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." I’m sure every blogger can relate to the scene from the movie Julie & Julia when Julie, in the early stages of writing her blog asks “Is anyone listening?” Social media has changed the way we communicate and it sometimes feels like everyone is competing for air time - tweeting, posting and sharing our lives, thoughts, accomplishments and viewpoints with the world. Last week, this played out in a big way when Jess Weiner’s article ran in Glamour Magazine. The title alone was provocative enough to cause quite a stir “Jess Weiner's Weight Struggle: 'Loving My Body Almost Killed Me,’” and the HAES (Health At Every Size), ED (Eating Disorders) and Positive Body Image [...]
Wouldn’t It Be Cool: How to Effortlessly Manifest & Attract What You Want
Six days a week, I set my alarm for the crack of dawn and attend a 7:00am meditation meeting. I’ve never been an early bird and yet this particular discipline that I have been developing and strengthening for the last six months or so has been nothing short of life-changing. Beginning my day grounded in silence, in union with other like-minded individuals, coming together to connect and improve our conscious contact with the God of our understanding sets the tone for the kind of day I want to have. Every day when I come home from this gathering, I sit in my car and just observe the goings on in my yard. There is a chipmunk who sits on the wall in the exact same spot every morning, as if that is his little sacred space and the way he starts his day! Sometimes there are bunnies in the yard [...]
The Importance of a Daily Meditation Practice
Years ago, I read a business book on networking by Harvey Mackay entitled “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.” It was about making contacts and relationships before you need them so that when you’re actually in the process of building a business, creating a new product, launching a global cause-related initiative, you have the support and resources already in place. Recently, I experienced an entirely different understanding of “digging my well before I’m thirsty” as it relates to prayer and meditation and it came to me in the least likely place of being encased in the tunnel of an MRI machine. I’d been having chronic pain and limited mobility in my shoulder. Although not debilitating, it was prohibiting me from fully participating and enjoying simple things like downward facing dog pose in yoga. Part of me wanted to just “suck it up” and push through it, but the responsible part [...]
What If You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?
Imagine if you knew in advance that you’d already won and that nothing you could do - or not do would change that. Imagine how different your approach to life would be. Your attitude and perspective would be so dramatically shifted from the way it is right now. You’d play more and worry less. You’d see challenges as opportunities to be creative. You would no longer be driven by the self-centered fear of not being good enough because you’d already know that you are enough. Well, guess what? You’ve already won! You already are enough! For you were created in the image and likeness of God. Within you lies the changeless and eternal truth that you are one with your Creator. Our only purpose here is to awaken to the truth of that and let go of the illusion that we are anything less than the love and light of [...]
Believing Your Own “True Lies” – Thoughts on the Schwarzenegger Scandal
Anyone who really knows me, knows that I love Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has inspired me so much over the years - someone who has overcome the odds, dreamed big and accomplished so much. I am disappointed in the news, but not surprised. To me, this represents a larger than life projection of the ego and symbolizes the illusion of grandiosity in our culture. I find it actually hopeful that it is all coming crumbling down. Rather than judge him or anyone, I can simply say a prayer of gratitude "there but for the grace of God go I." All my "big dreams" and grandiose thinking was all ego and if I had ever got what I really thought I was supposed to get, I might actually find myself in the same place believing my own "True Lies" and thinking that my larger than life persona was who I really am. [...]