Haston Helping Hands

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to tell you that I had an audition! I know that I should be ever so cool about it and not mention it but that just isn’t me and I don’t think it ever will be.

I am an actress so an audition “should” be old hat to me.  In fact it is not, nothing could be further from the truth.

Every time I have an audition, I am reminded it is not up to me whether I am cast or not. I am like all other artists, full-time auditioner and part-time player. When you run the numbers that is an easy equation to follow. Living in the hope of getting the part is very exciting and I wish I could capture that feeling, that adrenaline rush I feel after an audition is over and it went well but even more exciting, is the idea that I could be cast! Now, I wait in anticipation……. and you get to wait with me cause I don’t have a tidy end to this post.

Dear Readers, When I was younger. say 16 or so, I thought about who I would marry. I wanted to marry several successful actors and foreign diplomats (love to travel) including Scott Bakula mainly because I figured as his wife, I would get to be a guest star on “Quantum Leap”. At the time, I did not realize that things don’t work that way in the business but I digress.

I did not marry Scott Bakula, have not even met him (yet) but the reason he comes to mind is I was thinking about time travel and if you had told the me of 11 years ago that I would
be melted by a man doing my laundry I would have laughed in your face. I had dreams of far-flung exotic getaways, french novels and chocolate, lots of fancy Belgian chocolate because it was so far afield of my real-life experience.

Instead, I married the man who does my laundry, goes to five stores to buy me fudge rounds because I barely mention that I want them but most importantly prizes my happinesss far above his own which he shows in little and large ways every day.
He learned how to make gumbo paleo so I could still eat it. He wrote me a love letter that never fails to move me when I read it and he is constantly surprising me with his generosity to others.

So in this case, my dreams were NOTHING compared to reality.

Love is laundry, and laughing at something only the two of us find funny, too many inside jokes to count, and every day I fall a little more in love with my husband.

Jeremy, you are Awesomesauce!

be melted

Okay, deep breath. I gave a speech in June in aid of getting better at giving speeches.

My friend, Ryan Avery just recently reminded me that the goal should always be to give a message from the heart. While this is a message from my heart, I also it to be effective, so I am posting it to all my readers (gasp!) in hopes that you will comment and give me feedback on what went well, what did not go well, what I could do better. In particular, I would like to focus on the points of strength you find and what you would suggest I leave out or expand upon in future speeches.

As I discuss in the speech (Spoiler Alert) – I have a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL to give a TED TALK and would love your help in the process. This may be part of the speech I end up giving at Ted (flutters in my stomach, just typing that) but your feedback is greatly appreciated and vital to that process.

so here it is, tell me your thoughts. I know many people ask for feedback and they only want the good. I am actively seeking the good, the bad, and the ugly so let me have it, it is the ONLY way to grow.

 

Thank you in advance for taking the time- Please email me your feedback or comment below

jennifermckennasays@gmail.com

Dear Readers,

I am not the first to say this phrase certainly but as I walking on my treadmill last night I realized I am on Workout Day 65. That represents 65 times I have chosen to exercise this year. GO ME!

But I have to realize that there are far more people who are inches away from “workout day 1” because they haven’t started yet because they feel too far afield of the process to ever “catch up” . I have news for you, there is no such thing as “catching up” when you are competing to be the best you that YOU can possibly be. I could very easily be upset by the fact that in my first dance class in 9 years that I was having trouble keeping up and even knowing what the heck the instructor was asking us to do but you know what, when I started working out in December of 2013 I walked, slowly and had trouble going for longer than 5 or ten minutes, so like so many things in life, it is a process and in the world of dance, I am a beginner, a neophyte, a total novice. For someone who prizes the expert status I have in so many other fields, this is a hard sentence to type.

That is okay by me because I have seen the progress I have made in the world of fitness, so dancing “one step at a time” into success is going to be fun and I hereby declare I will NOT feel bad about my progress by watching someone else do an amazing pique turn, I will instead focus on the approaching day when I do a perfectly executed cha cha. Is there something you say “yeah, I would like to be better about that, but …. (insert excuse here) but haven’t? Start now.

Let today be your Day 1 and stop complaining, start doing!

Think about it!

Well my dear dear readers, I am so excited to report that I had a FANTASTIC visit with the dentist on Tuesday.

These are truly amazing words considering the posts of the past– two years ago –

https://jenniferhastonsays.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/your-health-needs-integrity-too/

Suffice to say, In the past, my dental health has been deplorable and so I have spent time, money and tears on my teeth and it has NOT been FUN.

After several months of more concentrated flossing and brushing and using mouthwash, the results are a very healthy report from my dentist!. By itself that is a wonderful thing, the sense of accomplishment I feel is real, the real proof though is that while getting a routine cleaning this Tuesday, it only took an hour and there was no pain! Usually I need about 7 shots of anesthetic to handle a cleaning! NO PAIN is HUGE for me since the dentist is normally an ORDEAL and I dread going, I dread being there (despite the extremely kind and considerate staff, you know who you are) and its an absolute misery.

Now I will go ahead and admit, I have not done it every day but I have been much more focused on taking care of my teeth and these are the results, can you imagine if I did it every day, how much better can it get? It is such a nice feeling to know that we are no longer in “recovery” mode with my teeth and working on “maintenance” YAY!

As a public service, the following youtubes are provided so you don’t have to wonder what is the proper way to brush your teeth, floss your teeth, also .. ask your hygenist at your next cleaning, they will be happy to show you.

Flossing

Brushing

My tips-

1. Set a reminder for yourself and floss, brush and mouthwash twice daily

2. Make it fun, pick a toothpaste that will help you work on your problem areas but put fun stickers on your tube of toothpaste

3. Realize baby steps (daily activity) will REALLY work.

Think about it! and Brush, Brush those Teeth!

Dear Readers,

I have struggled with my weight for most of my life. Last year I had an incredible breakthrough about loving my body as it is and a big part of that was the glamorous photo shoot (albeit to celebrate some major weight loss) I scheduled for my 37th birthday and I have continued to make strides on “not calling myself fat” “thinking of myself as overweight” even though several people around me including my loving husband tell me I look great,

It matters that I believe it and slowly, ever so slowly I am coming to the conclusion that this many people saying it, it must be true. I carry myself with more confidence because for the most part we eat paleo and I do not feel deprived because I know the cheat day is coming and coming soon when I can have all the dairy, processed foods, and grains that I want.  It was recently that I decided that I was done with the guilt that comes along with eating foods that make me happy. You know the ones, ice cream, cookies, fries, nachos, anything that has cheese or chocolate attached to I am in love! I recently read a wonderfully witty book called

“French Women Don’t Get Fat” http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/ (check out the website!)

for years, she has been teaching women about bien dans sa peau–

roughly translated-it means feeling good about how you look-

that spent a good deal of time exploring the differences between American and French women and a big takeaway is the guilt we (Americans) feel over eating that piece of cake instead of eating it and truly enjoying it and then not feeling the need for more. The author provides some great advice including adding exercise (don’t tell me your building doesn’t have stairs) in your daily routine.

Julia Roberts touches on it playing Elizabeth Gilbert in “Eat, Pray, Love” – “I have no interest in being obese but I am done with the guilt… ” and so am I.

I exercise and I eat healthy foods (what a concept!) except when I don’t and I REFUSE to feel guilt over it any more!

Dear Guilt,

For a long time now, you and I have been together.

I have realized that you don’t help, you are hurtful and really not productive.

It’s definitely not me, I am AWESOME, you suck

We are never, ever getting back together,

Not Love,

Jennifer

 

When you throw a pebble in a pond, do you watch the rings form and do you ever count how many there are as the water slowly stills?

I was thinking about that yesterday as I was helping a customer with a difficult problem. Every person has the same chance to make a difference. You decide whether to be a force for good or evil. That is a little black and white so let me quantify it better by using math. You can add or you can subtract.

When you lift people and support their dreams, you add.
When you say things like, “you can’t do that” “that’s silly” you subtract.

Be an good pebble,not a bad pebble. you have no idea how far out your rings extend.

Who knows, you could inspire the next Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Mahatma Gandhi.

Think about it!

As an actor, I spend a lot of time thinking about being present and “in the moment” but its not exclusive to being an actor. It’s a great way to be a human as well.

Over the last seven days, I have had the opportunity to really take in life and my surroundings in cool and comfortable Portland, Oregon, and Camas, Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho. We went to the beach, we went to the mountains, we drove near a waterfall and every single place we looked at or drove through had the same reaction. “Wow” “How beautiful” and while I wanted to capture every moment with my camera (read Iphone), I actively did not. I wanted to live through the experiences I was having and I think I did that. I still took pictures but not nearly the volume I would have in the past. In fact, as a result of the trip, I decided I will take the photos and put them in a photo book which will allow me to add the ticket stubs and programs from the events we went to. If I was posting every five minutes on Facebook, I don’t think that thought would have been born. Think about it.

The irony that you are reading my post and then heading to a link, does not escape me, but Social Media can be good. As people far smarter than I have penned, everything in moderation. I have seen lost animals and people found by use of its ability to get information out there as quickly as possible. Take five minutes and watch this and then look up from whatever you are doing and go outside and enjoy the Vitamin D that is available to you and the life you are in fact living.

Think about it!

Dear Readers, Happy Friday and I hope you are enjoying your day!

I went walking on the Mueller Lake Trail on Sunday and was not with my workout buddy as she was in Chicago enjoying the sights. So I had on my Ipod and was running and walking and running and walking and noticing people giving me slightly perceptible looks of encouragement, thumbs up, and in one case a high five after I did a sprint, I even had a groundskeeper look on and say are you okay, as i passed him after some exertion, I smiled and said thank you (gasping)

This encouraged me to keep moving, but more importantly, it was an opportunity to engage and nod and thumbs up and high five others who might have needed it just as badly as I did. It struck me then how many times we focus on how awful and evil the world is when that simply isn’t true. Inherently, people are good and they want to help others. There are definitely bad apples out there to be sure, but try not to let a rotten one or two on a branch stop you from seeing the whole tree.

 

Think about it!

And while you are “thinking about it” do something too.. My friend and World Champion of Public Speaking, Ryan Avery is doing a 31 days of kindness challenge #31daysofkindness (for more details see below)

For my birthday, I typically don’t ask for presents, I ask people to do random acts of kindness and then tell me about it, leaving it open to the giver what they want to do.. There have been some pretty creative ones. Buying broke students pizza, paying for someone’s coffee. Really think about what you can do (doesn’t have to cost money) to make the world better. Sounds pretty daunting till you think about one step YOU can take, then it seems pretty easy!

http://ryanavery.com/join-us-for-the-31-days-of-kindness-challenge/