The Ridiculously Simple Holiday Gift Guide - $25 and up

Part 2: $25 and up - The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Once again, most of us are struggling, in one fashion or another, to buy the perfect gift for a variety of people on our shopping list. As always, some people are harder to buy for than others. 

Cost: $25 and up. Effort: Practically zero. Impact: Huge. 

So, for the 2nd part of The Ridiculously Simple Holiday Gift Guide, my suggestion is Kiva. As I said in my first part, studies show that consumerism (buying stuff) doesn't really bring happiness. What does bring us happiness, however, is being grateful for what we already have, and selfless acts such as helping someone else. 

  If you've not heard about Kiva, it's a micro-lending organization that enriches entrepreneurs in third world countries. By securing micro-loans from individuals, it gives hard working people the means to start or grow their small businesses and become more successful and self-reliant. It also positively affects the quality of life for their families. 

This may be the perfect gift for the person who really has it all, or for the boss, client or colleague you're not comfortable buying a personal gift for, but would like to do something lovely or appropriate, just the same. Nothing says, "I've arrived", more nicely than doing something great in the name of someone else. 

Keeping it real on the flip side, nothing is more sly, smart or satisfying than circumventing a gift you feel obligated to give, than by giving the gift to someone else, in the name of your required recipient. Unsavory relative, client or co-worker? The Secret Santa nightmare? It's the perfect solution, and someone really deserving benefits, too. 

 Regardless of who, how or why you're gifting, in nearly every case where you and the recipient live an industrialized nation, you are light years ahead of the poverty and hardships that the Kiva recipients face, many of which live below one or two dollars a day. We all have so much living here in these advanced societies, sharing with someone who doesn't is very meaningful to everyone involved, and subsequently, may also increase your happiness quotient when you realize how much you truly do have. 

For any of the gifting scenarios, $25 in their name to a worthy recipient through Kiva, which is actually a LOAN that is repaid, is a wonderful way to give and make a real difference. When the loan is repaid, the recipient can choose to reinvest in another worthy entrepreneur, in a country of their choice. Or, they may take the dollars you originally gifted back into their own pocket and waste spend it on a round of Starbucks or something equally fleeting overpriced desirable. Karma is their choice. At least your gift can't be rebuffed or misconstrued, doesn't start out as a reindeer sweater that they're going return, or worse surreptitiously re-gifted. Problems upon problems solved! 

 But there's more. You also have a Kiva gift for waiting for me, and this one won't cost you a thing. Follow my invite to Kiva. Simply for registering to have a look around, a benevolent donor at Kiva will give me $25 to invest in a worthy person to enrich their lives - for free. When these donor loan are repaid, it stays within Kiva to help yet another person - which is perfect. I always pick women entrepreneurs and generally those who are working in healthy food enterprises. 

The site is inspiring, which will also increase your happiness & gratitude quotient. Now tell me, when was the last time a holiday gift guide gave you so much? 

Please join me in checking out Kiva and jot down three things you're grateful for today!

There are, of course, many worthy organizations that may better match those on your gift list. There are a multitude of world wide children's organization,  Animal foundations, such as one of my favorites, The Elephant Sanctuary or home to so many of us here, BreastHealthOnline. There are many, many more worthy places, including your own local civic organizations. All of which are in need of our help and would make inspiring choices for your gift recipients. 

I'd love to hear how micro-lending at Kiva or gifting through to any organization made a difference in your holiday giving and changed someone's life, including yours!

Here's wishing you a happier holiday and more prosperous New Year to everyone on your holiday list, and beyond. 

The Ridiculously Simple Holiday Gift Guide $0-$25

In light of Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday this holiday season, in a two part article, I'd like to give you two very different ideas for gifts that you might not have previously considered.

Part 1 of The Ridiculously Simple Holiday Gift Guide:

Cost: $0-$25. Effort: Minimal to simple. Impact: Huge. 

It's that time of year again. We're all scrambling, often times without enough dollars or daylight, to buy the perfect gift for the people we love, care about and respect. Most gifts are really an expression of how we feel about another person. With the gift representing and conveying our feelings for us, no wonder it's so hard to pick the right one!

 At the same time, we're also wishing people a happy New Year, while contemplating another year passing, and our own future. But what if you could stop wishing and actually bring about a happier New Year for yourself and others through your gift? 

If you only had between $0 and $25, what truly meaningful gift could you give to your loved ones that would make a measurable difference in their lives in the next year? If there was any way that even a zero dollar investment could change your lives, this first idea would be my number one pick. It also happens to be my gift for you:  A Gratitude Journal. Don't scoff, and keep reading - remember this is my gift to you, so at least take a minute to 'open it' and pretend to be overcome with joy. Who knows, it might actually work!  

What will you and yours receive from this ridiculously simple gift? Well, the benefits are literally priceless: With it, you can exponentially change the happiness quotient this coming year for yourself, and others. What would you give if you could be a whole lot happier? Exactly. Quite a lot. Except you can't buy happiness. Fortunately, it doesn't need to cost a thing, and it's actually quite simple. 

Studies show that consumerism (buying stuff) doesn't really bring happiness. One thing that really does bring us happiness, however, is being grateful for what we already have. If you lost everything and you only had the ability to breathe and blink, you'd start there. But, fortunately, most of us aren't anywhere near this dire of circumstances. 

By simply by writing down as few as three things you're grateful for each day, you can change your life and the lives of your loved ones by helping them on this truly simple path.

At ActionForHappiness.org, they recommend writing down three things you're grateful for each day. They state, "People who are grateful tend to be happier, healthier and more fulfilled. Being grateful can help people cope with stress and can even have a beneficial effect on heart rate. This action is easy to do yet its benefits have been scientifically proven. In tests, people who tried it each night for just one week were happier and less depressed one month, three months and six months later."

So, your task is to buy, make or otherwise create a Gratitude Journal. One for yourself and as many journal gifts as you plan to give. Traditional, hands-on journals can be simple or elaborate, large or small, store bought, or handmade, or they can easily be free. You can buy any notebook or a handmade Gratitude Journal off of Etsy from $3 and up. You can handcraft a little notebook out of scraps of paper, dedicate a sticky-note pad, or up-cycle an unused notebook yourself. You could even just create a little tutorial gift card to share the idea of a gratitude journal with someone. Then make a pact with yourself and your loved ones to follow through on your version of choice. 

On the net, via sites like Instagram, anyone can create a visual gratitude journal, with text and representative or random photos. You could post your gratitude as your Facebook status once a day. Using your Twitter account, or create a dedicated one to tweet to gratitude to your heart's content. There are also Gratitude Journal sites such as http://happyrambles.com. Apps abound; Sixteen of them exist for the iPhone alone, ranging from free to $1.99. You could even create a personal youtube tutorial on the idea and options involved and electronically share your gift with one or many. 

Whichever mode you choose, being regularly cognizant of what you're grateful for will change your life. 

There are also some fun things you can do with your journal. On a pen and paper book, you can use the left side of an entry page to write down what you're grateful for today, and then use the facing right hand side of the page to jot down what you want to be grateful for tomorrow. Example, on Monday night you could write on the right hand side, "I'm grateful for all the people who are kind to me on Tuesday".  Do it, and some really unusual things will start happening to you. 

I did a silly experiment with this. On my 'grateful for tomorrow page' I wrote down how grateful I was that everyone I encountered in my day was kind to me. It works best if you don't 'ask for stuff', ahem. It's wild, because every time I do it, it's like being on  Candid Camera. I think, seriously, this must be a joke. It's as if some friend of mine had read my journal from 2 am and set out to tell each random person I encounter the day ahead to be ridiculously nice to me, all of which is extremely unlikely, if not impossible. 

 It was so effective, however, that I just started laughing at one point after about 16 ridiculously positive interactions. In fact, it worked so well I found myself delayed due to in depth conversations from the kindest people imaginable. Be careful what you wish for! Truth is: it works. and clearly, if I can stand in the middle of a crowded store full of strangers and laugh, I'm already happier. DO IT. 

Some interesting things will start to happen, besides being happier. With the 'grateful for tomorrow page', you'll start to notice that what you wrote on your 'grateful for tomorrow' page will actually start appearing on your 'grateful for today' page. It effectively brings what you were looking for into your life. So, when I did this experiment, I ended up being grateful for all the people who were actually kind to me that day.  

 It's fun to play with it, and if you're playing with this, you've already brought some intrigue and joy into your own life by doing so. 

Here's to a beautiful season ahead and a happier New Year for you and your friends and family. I hope that you will put this gift to work for yourself and others in your life. 

I'd love to hear how your gratitude journal (either new from this post, or if you're already journaling) has changed your life.

Breast Health: Is a Pink or Gray Barrier Affecting Your Quality of Life?

Originally Published in 

The Pulse of Comfort Life Magazine

Breast Health: 

Is a Pink or Gray Barrier 

Affecting Your Quality of Life? 

Ten years ago my then-72-year-old mom came to me for help and shared that she had spent years concealing a painful breast condition. Fortunately, she did not have breast cancer. Unfortunately, no equivalent pink-ribboned industry exists for education and funding for the non-cancerous breast conditions that she and many other women face.


When we sat down to talk, however, she had a new advantage going for her. The previous year, my group founded BreastHealthOnline.org, a non-profit to help women address the breast conditions that are not supported by “pink funding.” 


My mom admitted that she had stabbing back pain, numbness and tingling down her arms and hands, crushing bruises over her collar bones and painful, sticky rashes beneath her breasts. Her disproportionately large breasts were causing her physical and psychological pain on a daily basis. Unfortunately, no doctor, including her gynecologist, ever addressed this over all the decades in which she suffered.

Many conditions like this are not age-specific, but for women age 50 and older it usually means they’ve suffered longer and have endured further damage along the way. With no major funding for patient education, many women will live out their lives without any relief.

My mom is not alone. Many women don’t realize there is medical help available. If they are aware of the procedures that could help them, some may be affected by the “gray barrier”, thinking they’re too old or that it’s too late. Worse, health-care providers are often reluctant to broach the topic, despite the fact that disproportionately large breasts are medically recognized and covered. What women age 50 and older and of reasonably good health need to know is that these procedures are available, safe and appropriate within their age group. The benefits are improved health and self-esteem, resulting in an increased quality of life after so many years of suffering.

Statistics were not available from the Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, but in the United States last year, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that more than half of the 85,000 breast reductions performed were for women 40 and older. A third of those were for women 55 and older.

While medical care for these conditions does exist, proper information and knowledgeable self care is imperative if a woman is to experience a successful surgery, recovery and outcome. BreastHealthOnline.org has proven invaluable to women, including many in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

One of the most frequently asked questions from women age 50 and older is how well they will heal in relation to their age. Our experience in the last decade has echoed what top plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens of Marina del Rey, California, taught us in our early days. Recoveries for patients between the ages of 20 and the late 70s remain stable and consistent across the board. We’ve also discovered that more mature patients have far less scarring and healing problems than their younger counterparts.

My mom, now 82, experienced a flawless recovery and has enjoyed the last ten years without the pain and encumbrances she struggled with for so many decades in the past. These conditions are clearly worth looking into for the life-changing benefits that can be achieved. It’s not too late to greatly improve your life.

Update on Our Mangled Paypal Account

Paypal effectively mangled our operating funds for pretty much an entire month between August and September. Unlike their agreement, which specifies exactly how and in what time frame they are bound to resolve issues, the circumstances that they hoisted upon us weren't outlined in their own rules of engagement. You see, there was actually nothing wrong with our account. They had requested updated information, of which we produced immediately and fully. But, despite meeting all requirements, our account remained locked.


  Unfortunately, there were no rules for what they were doing to us. They gave no indication as to what to expect or when to expect resolution. We were basically just shut out. As one of their supervisors said, "Even I can't access the people who deal with this". Wow, pretty scary.


  So, with tons of conflicting messages from the various Paypal people we spoke to, basically one hand not knowing what the other hand was doing, there was no end in sight or controls in place to make them accountable. We were simply adrift indefinitely, unable to pay our bills for the first time in the history of our organization. 


  Due to the considerable horror stories we've heard about Paypal seizing accounts, we count ourselves extremely lucky now, however, to have been allowed back into our account where we could retrieve what was rightfully ours.


  But getting our funds back was just half the equation. Having our account locked down also prevented us from our normal monthly business transactions that raises money for the months ahead. August and September are typically good months for us and those efforts have pretty much been lost.


 The emergency fundraising we did via the awesome Amazon payment buttons on the the right of blog here have raised about $700, for which we are grateful. We covered our immediate needs but failed our normal momentum during our down time.


  We are continuing our emergency fundraising via the Amazon payment buttons on the right while we catch up. If you can pay some breast health forward, the person you help may be yourself or someone you love.  ♥


  I am working on the email receipts to the 32 donors who gave last week, please don't think you've been forgotten. Thank you again for your help and support.


Anni Bricca
Founder Breast Health Foundation
www.BreastHealthOnline.org

Thank you

We're Having a Little Emergency!

  Despite a lot of hardships, nothing has stopped us from successfully funding and running our organization for the last 10 years. In fact, we’re proud of the fact that we’re completely virtual, run on a bit of a shoe-string, yet have done so much to help others.


   But in 4 short days, Paypal has taken us out.  After 7 years of being ‘a very good customer’, they requested our non-profit documentation as part of the new IRS compliance. This was no problem. We’re a bonafide 501(c)(3) non-profit since 2001. I went about providing the necessary information the very first day we received notice. We had 4 days to fully comply or our account would be ‘limited’.


  After providing every document imaginable, they asked us to click a series of buttons to change to a different type of account. Not a problem.


 But we were unable to complete the request because of a glitch in their system. It continually took us to the wrong screen.  Many, many calls later only ended in our account being ‘limited’ as the 4 days ran out, which in effect means they have hold of our entire operating expenses for the month of September and beyond. Limited really means seized. OH we can take donations - we just can’t access the funds.


Like maybe - ever.


  I’ve never had to do this, but as the Breast Health Foundation’s founder, I’m putting out an emergency call for our non-profit to mitigate our losses and save our site.


 We are in need of emergency donations due to the actions of Paypal. We opened a non-profit Amazon Pay account to accept these. They had everything ready to go for us in less than 10 hours. I wish I’d known about this sooner - many thanks to Jonathan Leissler. 


  Our new Amazon donation buttons are located in the right sidebar  --->


 Please give if you can. Can you donate a couple ‘Starbucks coffees’ to us?  No, we won’t drink the coffee, we’ll put the money to use running the site! Please give. Our services are greatly needed. The breast care we provide receives no pink funding.
 
There is more than one breast disease and condition that affects women. We are mainly member supported. These are women who are supported by no one else but themselves, which I think is a crime in itself. Many of these woman are facing surgery today, tomorrow, this week, and depend on us to be here.  Please help if you can.


  Those who know me know I rarely ask for anything - am generally on the other end offering my help. Please hear my plea today and help us bridge the gap.


  Donations are tax deductible. I will manually email out all receipts to donors. Since Amazon payments are new to us, let me know if you need any help or encounter any problems. You can leave a comment here or find me under the same name on Twitter, Facebook, G+ and Gmail: AnniBricca.


Thank you,


Anni Bricca
Founder & CEO
Breast Health Foundation
BreastHealthOnline.org

Breast Health: More Than One Disease

Originally published in the Herald de Paris

Breast Health: More Than One Disease

By Herald de Paris Contributor's Bureau on August 12, 2011

By Annette (Anni) Bricca for BreastHealthOnline.org


LOUISVILLE (Herald de Paris) – A concerned young man from Cape Town, South Africa, wrote to me recently, alarmed that bovine growth hormone in cow’s milk is causing breast cancer.


I sat here and pondered his sweet, singular message. I reflected over my years of self-directed diet and nutrition study and my work with tens of thousands of breast surgery patients — real women from all over the world who make up the fabric of our society. One thing I know for sure is that from the tip of the iceberg to the tip of South Africa, our diets, which have greatly strayed from anything resembling whole, natural and authentic, are deeply destroying our health and, specifically, women’s breast health.


When people meet me they often assume a slight tilt to their heads, soften their expressions and lower their voices while expressing to me what a noble cause breast cancer is. I couldn’t agree with them more. Except that’s not what I do. My work is actually breast health. We are one of the few non-profit organizations (if not the only one) that help women through the many conditions and surgeries that aren’t breast cancer-related. And believe me, while you may or may not have had to think about it, breast cancer is not the only breast affliction a woman can face in her lifetime.


Sadly, only breast cancer non-profits and for-profits receive funding, which means that the resources available to women for everyday breast afflictions are largely non-funded and underdeveloped (even though these also help to detect, as well as work to prevent, breast cancer). To top it off, those administering the much-needed care and information are nearly always unpaid.


Mother Teresa said, “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.”


I’m from the Mother Teresa school of thought, which says that anything you fight will persist. I’m not anti-breast cancer. I’m pro-health. My work for over the last decade has to do with the breast afflictions women face (and the resulting care they need) that do not fall under the auspices or funding that breast cancer receives. My work also has to do with the whole woman, as well as her family and the community, in terms of learning how to use nutrition to actually sustain and promote life and health.
I feel this is one of the most important aspects of maintaining breast health.


It is the foundation of our life and health. Food is life. We are what we eat, and we cannot sustain life and health with fast food nor with boxed and processed foods sitting on grocery store shelves. I’m constantly struck by the oddness of seeing grocery carts filled with brightly colored boxes, cans and packages. What is that? That’s not food. Real food consists of whole, natural, unprocessed, living works of art that you could hunt and gather yourself in nature. While our society has moved away from our own hunting and gathering, our return to our original diets is a tremendous and profound necessity if we have any hope of true wellness.


Articles, studies and movements abound on the diets and increased disease states and mortality rates of entire countries. In France, Japan and other countries, more western and globally processed foods are taking over traditional “slow food” culture, though it’s been going on for much longer than the last century. France appears to be suffering from an unusually alarming and worsening mortality rate with breast cancer patients, despite the grass-roots “Slow Food” movement that began in Italy in 1986 and subsequently founded at Opéra Comique in Paris, where the Slow Food Manifesto was signed in 1989.


While country-wide and global movements are much needed, hands-on care on an individual basis is still required to enact real change. We work with women individually to first teach them what they need to know about the procedures they’re facing, then to teach them how to eat so they can recover and heal effectively. We have their attention the longest during this period of time, and we endeavor to reach as many women as we can.


Women sometimes find us after their surgeries, armed with little or no information or support. Some have gaping wounds and have spent considerable time applying ointment and bandages to no avail. In one case, leeches were applied.


Within two weeks, if they really listen, we can make a marked difference and see them through to complete healing. But we also can change their lives forever, as well as the lives of their families, at the same time through the knowledge they gain. I developed “The Healing Diet,” a whole, natural foods diet, with the help of surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens, who also worked in burn wards. This diet promotes healing as well as effectively balances blood sugar. Stable blood sugar promotes healing and good health. Natural, whole, unprocessed foods are the cornerstone. The diet builds on itself to teach lifelong dietary skills to those who take advantage of our free and unending help that now encompasses quite a few programs and options.


As an organization, our goal is to find a city, state or country, as well as funding, that would welcome and embrace a large headquarters to directly assist people — individuals, families, the local community and the global community — by teaching about breast health, whole health and beyond. It would be a waste of time and funding to not be in the midst of an engaged, true community. It is from there that our work will spread. We have a very clear vision of the mission and goals we want to accomplish and have had this vision for the last decade. But because the only aspect of breast health that is funded is actually a disease — breast cancer — there are no grants, major funding, contributions, corporate or private donor gifts available for breast health and the betterment of health for people everywhere.


While it is important to make medical advances in disease states, we also must direct funding to promote true health and wellness. As soon as we begin to focus our time, energy and money on promoting authentic health, the degree to which we will have to fight breast cancer (and many other diseases) will lessen greatly.


Anni Bricca
Founder & CEO BreastHealthOnline.org


Please consider donating to our organization via the Paypal link on the upper right side of the page. We receive no pink funding and depend on readers like you to make a difference for the tens of thousands of women we help.