Happiness Key: Honey, I’m in techno-overdrive! Help!

No matter where we go in 2011 we can be reached at will by the outside world. Cell phones and text messages, Bluetooth and Sync, SKYPE and email; you're only a click away from being found. Honey, you're in techno overload!

Everywhere I am, it is rare for me not to see someone without a contact device. I am as guilty as anyone else; I was always connected. But a chance remark by my book editor, Ellen Urban, made me stop and think about how I was allowing myself to be a 'prisoner' of all-day technology, every day.

Mentioning that I was going on vacation, I also told her that she could reach me at any time she needed to do so. I would be available through my BlackBerry and my laptop. No problem, I said. Contact me whenever you need me.

The response, coming from a woman who is excellent at what she does and always goes "above and beyond" for her authors, surprised me:

"Oh no," Ellen said, "Take time to enjoy yourself. For me vacations are sacrosanct!"

I took her statement to heart and, as hard as it was for me during the first two days of vacation, I broke the invisible chain to my computer and cell phone. In following her advice, I recharged my life for over two weeks. The unplug and recharge feeling was so good I determined to make it a part of my life after vacation was over. One day a week I step away from techno-overload, replug, recharge and discover life.

Happiness Key: Money can buy happiness...in a way

I love the saying that goes: "If you don't believe that money can buy you happiness, you don't know where to shop."  

Believe it or not there's more truth in that statement than you know.

Money is not necessarily evil when used in the right way to help you achieve happiness. If you see money as a means to buy you intangibles rather than possessions, then you're  'knowing where to shop.' Here's what I mean. Money used to enhance your life, such as helping you to start a longed-for business or enabling you to finance a career change is money spent on happiness. You have become your own patron of the arts. It is a good thing that you are doing for yourself. You are practicing self-ness and nurturing a dream or goal. That is using money to make your life a priority. In this way, money can indeed buy the ingredients for happiness.