At her eightieth birthday party, Sophie Tucker (a.k.a. The Last of the Red Hot Mamas) was asked to reveal her secret of achieving a long life. She replied: ”Keep breathing.”

Damn, I was hoping she would say it was a few glasses of red wine every day, but nevertheless, Sophie must have been a yogini at heart because she knew understood the power of pranayama*.

Like most people that work at a computer all day, I have very tight neck and shoulder muscles and frequently experience pain in my lower back. I practice yoga to help relieve my back pain, and I recently started directing my pranayama breathing into my lower back and problem areas during yoga class (primarily during savasana). Since I started this breathing practice I’ve noticed a huge difference. My back has never felt better, and the tightness and pain in my shoulders are diminishing.

So I started to think, is this back pain relief all in my head, or is my directed breathing activity really medicinal?

I did a little research on the phenomenon and got really excited when I read that during meditation, if you allow your mind to focus on a particular part of the body, the blood flow to that body part increases, providing an abundance of oxygen and other nutrients into those cells.

So, it wasn’t all in my head. There really is something to this focused breathing, and it is having a positive impact on my well-being. I’ve been flooding my aching back with natural healing ingredients fueled by the gift of my breath. Plus, this deep breathing also leaves me in a calmer state and reduces my stress levels.

Do you have back aches and pains in your body? Try a little meditation with guided breathing and you never know, you may just add a few more years to your life!

Photo: Jonathan Natiuk (Isn’t that a cool picture? According to Jonathan those are real lungs that were plasticized!)

*Pranayama: Broken down into plain English, pranayama means breath control. Breathing comes natural, but we can control our breath with special methods of inhaling and exhaling to gain physical and mental benefits, and to alleviate stress.

“I hope I have convinced you—the only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.” —Helen Gurley Brown

Happy Monday! Don’t you just love the start of a new workweek? A whole five days to accomplish goals, fill in the blanks, and fulfill some dreams.

I know, you are probably about to gag right now because, let’s face it—Mondays pretty much suck!

So, put a smile on your face, grab some coffee, and get ready for an amazing week. And if that doesn’t do it, let some of the crazy stuff Helen Gurley Brown has done motivate and amuse you this morning.

-          Helen got breast implants five years ago…when she was 73!

-          Her favorite quote is: “Sex is one of the three best things we have, and I don’t know the other two.”

-          Her favorite motto: “Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere.”

As crazy as Helen may seem, she is not a sex junkie, but rather a work junkie. She loves to work and obviously has worked very hard throughout her life. In her seventies, she is still working out twice a day, doesn’t drink or smoke, and has been a faithful wife to her husband of 35 years. She is a self-made woman whom Gloria Steinem called a feminist “pioneer.” When she got the pink slip from Cosmopolitan magazine in 1996, she didn’t go off into retirement; instead, she became editor of their international editions and has made them all profitable.

You may not like some of the messages that Helen conveyed through Cosmopolitan magazine over the years, but she is a gutsy lady with a ton of charisma and swagger, and I think she is a woman who rocks!

Here are a few links to Helen’s works:

Her memoir, I’m Wild Again

The book that started it all, the cult classic, Sex and the Single Girl

Coffee Cup Image: Alessandro Paiva

“Life gets better after thirty. Then it gets fantastically beautiful. Guilt gets lost in time. I always thought it was my American mother who transmitted guilt to me; one reason I adored my husband’s family is that they have this great feeling that life is there to be enjoyed, not just as an axis of duty and of expiation. But, after thirty, the guilt begins to go.” —Marella Agnelli

Marella Agnelli is an Italian-American socialite who wrote this in Vogue magazine in 1977, at the age of 49. I have to agree with her that life does get better after 30, and for me it just seems to get better and better every year. I’d love to hear what she has to say about life today, at the age of 82!

I love the fact that she blamed the guilt she felt during her early years on her American mother and embraced her Italian side of the family for its joy of living.

I’ve always said guilt is a wasted emotion, so let’s lose the guilt and get on with our beautiful lives!

Marella is a style icon (she made the International Best Dressed List and is in their Hall of Fame) and was married to Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli until his death. She also had a career that included editing and photo contribution to Vogue magazine, assisting photographer Erwin Blumenthal in New York, developing a line of textiles, and she has published several books on gardening.

Here’s a few classic black and white photos of Marella if you are curious about this fashion icon.

Women Who Rock at MariaMedia—serving up fun, attitude, and brilliance courtesy of amazing woman!  Check out the Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe for great books, DVDs and merchandise from these great women. Thank you for clicking on the ads every time you visit to help pay for this site!

“First when there’s nothing

But a slow-glowing dream

That your fear seems to hide

Deep inside your mind…”

Lyrics from “What a Feeling,” by Irene Cara

In Episode 6 of No Songs for Men, we pick up with Roxanne feeling her fears deep down inside as she dreams of auditioning for the all girl alternative rock band Code Cherry. Come along for the boat ride as Steve and Roxanne join the party in Put-in-Bay and Roxanne gets another chance to meet the Code Cherry girls before her big audition.

Will she let her stage fright get the best of her? Will she employ the yoga breathing techniques that Amanda teaches her? Does Steve still think she’s a hooker? You’ll just have to read Episode 6 and find out!

A Note from Maria

I know, I know, it has been way too long since the last episode, and if any of you out there are still reading the Web series, I just want to say…THANK YOU for your patience and continuing support!

It has been a crazy few months at MariaMedia, with the launch of The Daily Downward Dog and many freelance assignments that have kept me from dedicating time to writing No Songs for Men.

If you are enjoying No Songs for Men, I’d really like to hear from you, because your encouragement helps bring the Code Cherry girls to life and lights a fire under my ass to keep the series coming. Seriously, I need to hear from you if you want to keep these episodes coming!

“Rocking in the Free World”

Putting these episodes together is a labor of love, and we’d like to keep them coming for free. If you want to keep “Rocking in the Free World,” a small donation would be greatly appreciated and will help keep the illustrated picture book episodes coming. Help us Rock On! with a donation, and, don’t worry, no amount is too small. Every dollar spent will go toward production of No Songs for Men!

Want to help but can’t make a donation? You can do your part by spreading the word or telling a friend about No Songs for Men or checking out one of our awesome advertisers.

Trudie Styler is a lucky lady! Not only is she married to one of the hottest rock musicians, she looks fabulous in her mid-fifties, lives in this incredible villa in Tuscany, and gets to practice yoga with her husband, Sting! She also happens to be a pretty cool lady who is an organic farmer, does a lot of great work as a human rights activist, and promotes green practices.

I’ve always wanted to do celebrity yoga, so I couldn’t resist picking up her Warrior Yoga DVD. I plopped in this DVD about a week ago while my sister was visiting, and we both jumped on our yoga mats to enjoy a yoga workout and a little voyeuristic journey into Trudie Stylers’s yoga world. We both were also holding out hope that we would get to see a few shots of the tantra-tastic Sting as part of the package and we weren’t disappointed.

Yoga Workouts

The yoga workouts on the DVD consist of one 45-minute yoga workout with Trudie Styler and her fitness guru, James D’Silva, and a shortened 25-minute express version. The two go through an organic flow of yoga postures, with James’s calling the shots and providing wonderful verbal clues with his incredibly calming voice. The video was shot at Trudie and Sting’s beautiful, ecofriendly Tuscan villa, II Palagio, with the rich acoustic guitar sounds of Sting playing “Fields of Gold” and other music from his Songs from the Labyrinth CD in the background.

My first impression was that I really liked the flow that James put together. It was different than anything I’ve done before because he takes you through a long sequence of poses on one side before moving to the other side. I recommend you watch the video first before trying it, as there were a few poses I’d never experienced, and his version of mountain is different than what we practice here at my villa in Ohio. There are a few challenging areas in the flow, and I wish that James had provided some variations to the poses for people who are new to yoga (and for inflexible people like me).

One variation that James brought to the table was brining the hands down from above to your head, to your lips, and to your heart and then moving the hands out forward in an offering. The flow seemed more meaningful as my hands grazed past my head and lips and I felt my heart press out of my chest.

My sister and I were amazed that neither Trudie nor James broke out in a sweat during the workout. It must have been cold that day in Tuscany, because the two of us were sweating like crazy. This is a total-body-strengthening yoga practice, with plenty of time spent holding positions, so you will be challenged.

The express is a condensed version of the 45-minute workout—perfect for a quick yoga fix—and it will make you break a sweat. I’m going to use this in the morning when I only have a few minutes to get my back stretched and my body moving.

The only real issue I have with this DVD is that the workout did not include a savasana session, but I do have an insider’s tip for you. After you finish the workout, go ahead and lie down in savasana. The DVD will move to the menu page, and Sting is singing a mellow version of “Message in a Bottle” in the background. It made the perfect soothing accompaniment to my own self-guided savasana.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Guided Meditation with Trudie

When we did the DVD and saw that it featured a meditation session with Trudie Styler, my sister and I both got excited about the opportunity to om with Trudie. Imagine our disappointment when the meditation session was Trudie sitting in a field of lavender, with James’ voice leading us through the meditation. Well, actually—no offense to James—it was really nice.

A few days later I checked out James’ meditation sequence and was delighted to find that Trudie was offering up the guided journey as he sat in the field of lavender. In her lovely English accent, she had me breathing in rays of sunlight and breathing out into the depths of the ocean. It was an incredible meditative journey, and, Trudie, thank you. I did find my inner peace! I’ll be going to this DVD often for my daily meditation—shanti.

But Wait, There’s More!

The bonus tracks on this DVD are really cool. There is an interview with Trudie, James, and also one from Sting. The interviews give you a nice peek into the making of the videos and Trudie and Sting’s core beliefs about exercise, living a healthy lifestyle, and their involvement with the Rainforest Foundation and the UNICEF Ecuador Water Project (a portion of sales from this DVD go to this organization).

I love what Trudie has to say about giving yourself the gift of exercise. “We’re given one body in this life. It’s our precious vehicle, it needs maintenance, and it needs to be empowered.”

You also get a glimpse into the making of Sting’s album If on a Winter’s Night. In a couple of the interview shots, Sting has a beard, which I didn’t care for (looks a little too Grizzly Adams for me), but don’t worry, there are also shots of the clean-shaven Sting we all love, and the CD sounds pretty amazing too.

The DVD does a good job of selling the other workout DVDs that Trudie and James did together. I’m especially curious about the Sculpt & Tone Ballet DVD, as I’d really like to visit the inner ballerina in me, and the Cardio Dance Flow and Pilates workouts look like a lot of fun. James is a classically trained dancer from the Royal Ballet, so I’m thinking the dance elements have got to be good.

I highly recommend Trudie Styler’s Warrior Yoga DVD. It left my sister and me feeling invigorated, centered, and fully present as we got the added bonus of hanging out with Trudie and Sting for the afternoon.

Summer is not over, summer is not over… That is the mantra I keep repeating! If you are a northeast Ohioan desperate to latch on to outdoor activities before we get locked up inside for the winter months, I’ve got a great way to get outdoors, listen to music, try a tasty mojito, and catch the sunset over Lake Erie.

The Third Thursday Music, Flowers & a Sunset event in historic downtown Vermilion, Ohio, has become extremely popular, and the last one of the year is coming up on September 16, from 6:30 p.m. until sunset. Where else can you roam the streets and hear a Goth punk band on one corner, walk a little farther down the street and hear an alternative rock band, and proceed to the downtown square to see G-Force an all-girl pop-rock band singing their hearts out? These gals can rock!

As you stroll around the beautiful sites of downtown Vermilion, the Vermilion River, and Lake Erie, you’ll enjoy a musical mash-up of over 12 different musical groups and solo artists from just about every musical genre and it’s absolutely FREE.

I love the fact that Vermilion has provided a venue for so many young artists to show off their talents.

If you are thirsty, you can turn the evening into a mini pub crawl by popping into Touché at Chez Francois for one of their Thursday-night lime-drink specials—can you say margaritas and mojitos?—or stop into Rudy’s Bar and Grill for a cold draft beer.

Not in the mood to imbibe? The downtown Vermilion restaurants are all open and ready to serve you anything from pizza to perch. Everyone who attends Third Thursday in Vermilion is required to eat at least one ice cream cone, and a great place to get a cone and your very own caricature is at Granny Joe’s Ice Creamatorium.

There is a really cool vibe behind Woodstock, a pizza shop located right downtown. Be sure to walk around back for a band playing Grateful Dead-type music, hula hoop artists, and last month there was a gathering of vintage VW vans.

While you are roaming the streets, you can also shop for chocolate, candles, and surfboards, check out the Great Lakes Maritime Museum (it’s open from 5 to 8 p.m. and is free on Third Thursday), and an art show at the Main Street building. If you have not picked up on this yet, get there early so you don’t miss out on anything. If you look around in the shops, there are schedules and a map to let you know where all the activities are planned.

The grand finale of the evening is the sunset, so be sure to walk down to the Main Street Beach to catch one of my favorite daily outdoor art shows—the sun setting over Lake Erie. It’s even more beautiful to watch while being serenaded by a band playing on the boardwalk at the beach!

Sunset in Vermilion, Ohio

This list of top Rules for Writers was copied from Erica Jong’s official Web site. I’m on a little bit of an Erica Jong roll, as she was our Woman Who Rocks on September 2.

Erica, I hope you don’t mind that I’m sharing your writing rules. These rules are just too much fun and such good advice that I really wanted to share them. By the way, you don’t have to be writing a novel for this to apply; it can go for any kind of writing.

Erica’s 20 Rules for Writers

1. Have faith, not cynicism

2. Dare to dream

3. Take your mind off publication

4. Write for joy

5. Get the reader to turn the page

6. Forget politics (let your real politics shine through)

7. Forget intellect

8. Forget ego

9. Be a beginner

10. Accept change

11. Don’t think your mind needs altering

12. Don’t expect approval for telling the truth—

(Parents, politicians, colleagues, friends, etc.)

13. Use everything

14. Remember that writing is heroism

15. Let sex (the body, the physical world) in!

16. Forget critics

17. Tell your truth, not the world’s

18. Remember to be earthbound

19. Remember to be wild!

20. Write for the child (in yourself and others)

There are no rules

Erica Jong

Thanks, Erica, for daring me to dream. I’m going to print these out and tape them to my wall as I continue to write my Web novel, No Songs for Men. I promise to be wild and to write for joy, and the part about being a beginner will not be an issue!

Because there are no rules for writers, do you have any good tips or suggestions for writing? If so, please share in a comment below.

Image: abcdz2000

Check out the Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe for great books, DVDs and merchandise from the Women Who Rock at MariaMedia. Thank you for clicking on the ads when you visit to help fund this site!

“I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back, turn back, you’ll die if you venture too far. –Erica Jong

I’m working on Episode 6 of No Songs for Men, and it is all about Roxanne coming to terms with her fear of performing in public and her self-doubt about her musical talents.  I was looking for a good quote about fear and found this ditty from Erica Jong and just had to share it. Erica is not a stranger to MariaMedia, her first quote appeared on May 14.

Fear is such a big part of our lives. It’s easy to say “I’m not going to be afraid,” but somehow all those nagging doubts just creep back into our cerebellum. I love the fact that Erica is hip to the fact that those fears are going to be there, but the key is not to let them control you. Keep getting in the face of fear, smack it in the face, get that adrenaline pumping, and do something that really scares you today!

Woman Who Rocks: Erica Jong

Occupation: Novelist, poet, and essayist

Why She Rocks: Erica has used her incredible writing skills to bring about a feminist consciousness in women around the world.

Nickname: I couldn’t really find a nickname for Erica, but she did come up with a great term: the zipless fuck, which basically means having sex without any attachments. A sexual encounter free of all remorse and guilt–the perfect one-night stand.

Life Span: March 26, 1942 –

Major Accomplishments and Honors:

Erica has published eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six nonfiction books, and a ton of articles that have appeared in publications like the New York Times, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.

Her first novel, Fear of Flying was an international best seller, with 18 million copies sold worldwide.

Some of her honors include the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature; Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize; from France, the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence; and from Italy she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature.

Erica has lectured, taught, and read her work around the world.

In 2007 Columbia University in New York acquired her literary archive.

Fun Facts:

• This is a direct quote from Erica: “Because my first successful book was thought to be about sex, sex, sex, I got stuck being the happy ho of literature, and that image has been hard to dodge—especially in sex-crazed, puritanical America.”
• Her standard poodle’s name is Belinda Barkowitz.
• Erica is a poet at heart who believes that words can save the world.
• Her name is mentioned in the Bob Dylan song “Highlands.”

What You Need to Know: Even though Fear of Flying was first published in 1973, the story and feminist message is still relevant today. I selected this book as one of my book club picks and loved reading it. I guarantee your club will have an enlightening and interesting conversation on the role of women, our relationships with men, and our search for purpose. The heroine of the book, Isadora Wing, plays a key role in the three subsequent novels that Erica penned—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman’s Blues. I have not read these last three yet, but they are on my reading list.

Web site: The official Erica Jong Web site

The Erica Jong Experience: Are you an aspiring writer, student, or part of a book club? Erica has a whole web page with tips for you at http://www.ericajong.com/tipswriters.htm. How cool is that? It’s a great place to get inspiration and encouragement, and you can read her “20 Tips for Writers.”

Even Erica’s memoirs, published in 2006, became a national bestseller and you can read all about her life as a writer inSeducing the Demon: Writing for My Life.

Check out her poetry Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected

The Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe is full of great books, DVDs, and merchandise from the women who rock featured on MariaMedia. Thank you for clicking on the ads every time you visit to help pay for this site!

I love finding new, cool outdoor things to do in Ohio, and if you live near the Akron area, you have to check out the new Lock 4. And no, I didn’t get it wrong and mean to say Lock 3. Akron’s popular concert venue, Lock 3, has a new sister venue, that is über trendy, intimate, and complete with waterfront views.

Right across the street from Cascade Plaza and in the place of an old parking lot for the Civic Theatre, downtown Akron has built a new public park. A set of concrete steps takes you down to an urban space with picnic tables and trees that are hugged by cascading waterfalls of the Cuyahoga River and downtown buildings. If you work downtown, this would be a great place to escape for a lunch break while listening to the soothing sounds of the flowing Cuyahoga River.

On Wednesday nights this summer, the park transformed to the Lock Bottom Jazz and Blues Club. The city of Akron, which spent two years constructing the space, was trying an experiment with summertime jazz and blues concerts that started a few weeks ago, and I think they may have started something! The small, intimate venue is the perfect place to sit outside and listen to local jazz and blues musicians on a beautiful summer night.

There’s even a Peroni beer garden that serves up cool, refreshing beverages, the world’s best peanuts from downtown Akron’s Peanut Shoppe, and cool cuisine from Cleveland-based gourmet food truck Dim and den Sum. I was lucky to have someone tell me about the first concert, featuring local jazz quartet the Stingers, and have been back every week since for great blues and cold Peroni.

If you want to check out Lock 4, you’ve got to go this Wednesday, September 1, for the last concert of the series, which will feature Peggy Coyle and her jazz trio. The fun starts at 7:00 p.m. Based on the success of the concerts this year, I have a feeling they’ll be back for a longer run next summer.

Oh, and did I mention the concerts were free?Yeah, a free jazz concert in a cool setting on a summer night…life is good! Thanks, downtown Akron!

“I have a problem about being nearly sixty. I keep waking up in the morning and thinking I’m thirty-one.” —Elizabeth Janeway

Well, that is kind of funny, because I keep waking up and thinking I’m still 25. Hey, whatever works for you to help you stay young! Elizabeth led a full life until her death at age 91. She also contributed our quote of the day on August 20, 2010.

Woman Who Rocks: Elizabeth Janeway

Occupation: American author, critic, and feminist

Why She Rocks: Elizabeth grew up during the depression and had to drop out of Swarthmore College to help support her family. She did so by writing bargain-basement advertising sales slogans. She did end up getting her college degree from Barnard College a few years later and was so determined to become a writer that she took the same creative writing class repeatedly to hone her craft. I love the fact that winning a competition sponsored by Story magazine encouraged her to keep going, and she went on to write seven novels. Throughout her career she served as a reviewer and critic for the New York Times and Ms. Magazine. While she was a critic at the New York Times, she helped champion controversial literary works of her time, like Lolita.

Some of Elizabeth’s early works focused on the struggles of women dealing with modern society, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that she began writing about feminist topics. Her works—Man’s World, Women’s Place: A Study of Social Mythology (1971), Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening (1974), Powers of the Weak (1980), and Improper Behavior (1987)—gained her a critical voice for women stifled by the home or workplace. She was a major supporter of the women’s movement and abortion rights.

Some of her best friends included Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.

Nickname: She was called a modern Jane Austen and a precocious writer

Life Span: October 7, 1913 – January 15, 2005

Major Accomplishments and Honors:

Her 1945 novel, Daisy Kenyon, was made into a motion picture, starring Joan Crawford.

Elizabeth served as the president of the Authors Guild from 1965 to 1969, working toward copyright protection for authors.

Barnard College, her alma mater, granted Elizabeth their highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, at their 1981 graduation ceremonies.

She served as a judge for the National Book Awards and the Pulitzer Prize.

Elizabeth served as director of the National Organization for Women’s legal and education fund.

Fun Facts: Elizabeth described her husband as “the most intelligent man I have ever met.” She was married to Eliot Janeway who was the economic adviser to Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson (there aren’t many woman I know who would say that about their husbands!).

As part of their social circle, Jane and Eliot hung out with several U.S. Supreme Court justices, and I think it is hilarious that Jane recommended Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying to Justice William O. Douglas. By the way, I’m with Jane; I highly recommend Fear of Flying. It is one of my favorite books.

She signed the contract with her publisher for her first book, Girls, on the way to the hospital to deliver her second child. She has said that if her delivery were not a few days late, she would have never finished the book.

Star Trek Voyager’s Captain Janeway was originally named Elizabeth. The name was changed right away to avoid any legal issues when they show’s producers figured out that a prominent woman already held the name Elizabeth Janeway.

The Elizabeth Janeway Experience: Here are a few links to the book Elizabeth wrote on the women’s movement and the classic Fear of Flying.

Fear of Flying

Mans World Womans Place: A Study in Social Mythology

Between Myth and Morning Women Awakening

Daisy Kenyon

Photo: Dmitry Mayatskyy