SANITY SAVERS: Tips for Women to Live A Balanced Life is in bookstores and is filled with suggestions to save your sanity every day of the year.

A must for any woman seeking to find her balance!

A wonderful hiking guide in New Zealand recently told me "If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much room." I have thought about this a lot lately. At first blush we may dismiss it because the thought of living on the edge doesn't suit many of us. We are comfortable away from the edge and relax into the familiar and the predictable. We may associate living on the edge with "extreme" sports, daredevil or thoughtless risk taking. We may ascribe character traits to those who live on the edge as people who have a death wish, who avoid taking care of themselves and those around them.

But what if we were to look at the concept of living on the edge differently? We can each consider where is "our personal edge" and assess what it would mean to venture a bit closer to it. Each of us could take a risk that challenges our personal status quo. Every day we face opportunities where we can stretch ourselves in some way. We are in situations where we can make more of an effort, select a more challenging route, do something different, look from another point of view, learn a new fact and then investigate it in depth, or read about someone we admire. In sum, push ourselves.

The phrase "on the edge" often conjures a negative image. "Don't bother her, she's close to the edge." What we feel when we are close to the edge is that we have no reserve. When there, we (and those around us) fear we will snap or lash out, losing it in ways that make us become people we don't like or recognize.

Try to think of approaching your personal edge in a different way. Yes, it is a place of temporary discomfort but that discomfort is okay.

In addition, remember being near the edge is temporary. Once familiar, it is no longer the edge so being there is not permanent. What you say to yourself while there is important. "I am in a place that is unfamiliar, uncomfortable and new. That is not bad; it is just different. I can get through it. I can come out the other side and be enriched because of this experience."

In the end, you will expand and extend your comfort zone. You will take a risk, do something you think you could not do, learn something new and, hopefully, enjoy the wonder of the world.

TODAY Show (NBC)
Please check website, www.drdaleatkins.com, for updated listings.

Sixth Annual Women's Health Conference
March 9th: 12pm: Keynote Speaker: Sanity Savers
Mystic Marriott, Groton, CT
Please go to www.womenandfamilylifecenter.org for registration details.

House of the Redeemer
March 13th: 6pm: Topic: Sanity Savers: Tips for Women to Live a Balance Life
7 East 95th Street, New York, NY.

Sanity Savers Salon
March 17th: 7:30PM: Issues in Aging
Private Home, 9 Duck Pond Road, Wesport, CT

Women's Alliance Group
March 19th: 12:30pm: Topic: Sanity Savers for a Balanced Life...No Matter What You Are Facing
All Soul's Church, at 80th and Lexington, NY, NY

Exercising Your Memory

Are you finding that you are more forgetful these days, and can't recall things like you used to? Before you jump to conclusions and diagnose yourself with dementia or early Alzheimer's (which may run in your family) fit in a daily mental workout.

Play mentally challenging games like scrabble, bridge, crossword puzzles or Sudoku to exercise your mind. Practice name recognition techniques like pairing someone's name with a physical characteristic, mentally review your shopping list even though you have written it down, mentally "scan" the area of your table at a restaurant while silently noting where you placed your handbag, attache' case, eye glasses, umbrella, jacket, etc., and when you are about to leave, slowly review the "mental scan" and gather up your things.

Whether or not you are predisposed to memory loss, you cannot lose by developing memory-sharpening skills.

For many parents, the resolve to be mindful in parenting often flags once the day gets going. Schedules can't stop, but you can flow with them. Remind yourself that the key to mindfulness is balance. Reserve and reinstate your energy. When you get close to the edge, breathe. When you feel yourself losing it, excuse yourself if you can and move your arms, shake your body, say a loud "HA" from the depths of your belly and the soul of your being. Regain your center and then return to "the mission." Instead of racing from one thing to the next, remind yourself to slow down and breathe.

Think about the following tips to help you stay calmer during the day after school through bedtime time zones.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Eleanor Roosevelt