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Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military!
Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military!™
Join us to learn how to Increase Your Energy,
Decrease Your Stress, and Go for Your Dreams!
An "as we can get to it" newsletter/ezine with
ideas, resources, stories and inspiration so you
can Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military™ written by military spouses for
military spouses!

January 2003 Issue
Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer, Editors

By subscription only! Welcome to your next issue of Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the Military™
You are receiving this ezine because you requested a subscription or because we thought you might be interested based on our interactions with you before the ezine was even an idea. Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of this ezine.

Feel free to forward this to other military spouses you know who want helpful information to creatively craft a life that works for them while moving with the military.

PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will never distribute your address to anyone. Period. Promise.


In This Issue:
Some ideas during deployments
Another energy/health tip: Time for Tea
We watch the news as units deploy, sharing tearful or bravely smiling farewells with their families.
We hear from our friends by email or telephone that their spouse has indeed joined in the latest deployment. And it takes us right back in time.

Deployment
We’ve both dealt with long deployments of our spouses. And our experiences were similar in some ways and totally different in others. We think that is true for all the military spouses dealing with deployments right now. Since we are all so different, and since we are in different stages of our lives, there is no way to share ideas of dealing with deployment that will work for everyone.

What we thought we’d do is share a few things that worked for us and others, as well as a few that didn’t. And to ask for additional ideas/resources from those who have dealt with deployments in the past or are doing so now. We’ll share those ideas in our book and other ezines, articles and workshops. If we tried to share everything we know, this would be the longest ezine in history and you wouldn’t have time to read it. So we’ll start with a few ideas and add others at a later date.

Kathie: When I found out my husband was going to Bosnia during the war there, I went through disbelief and anger and fear. Let’s face it, deployments, especially to a war zone, are the hardest part of this military life. And yes, I had thoughts of "What if he dies?" "What if he steps on a mine and is never the same?" I don’t think you can help having those thoughts. I found that two things helped me. One was to talk about those thoughts with other spouses and to journal about it — to get the thoughts out so they didn’t keep spinning in my head. And two was to come up with a worst-case scenario plan. What would I do if either of those things happened. Once I’d thought that through and had a plan I somehow was able to let the thoughts go or at least keep them in the background.

When Greg left for Bosnia, we had just arrived in Germany and moved into a small town off post. I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t have a job. Without kids at home, I could easily have chosen to isolate myself. I can be a bit of a hermit, especially right after a move. I realized that that would make his deployment seem endless.
So I chose to do a few things to keep myself occupied.

1. I’d just started building a speaking business in the States, something that didn’t seem very possible to pursue in Germany. But I decided what I COULD do is spend my time doing lots of research and workshop development, to spend time on developing the writing I wanted to do. This was before access to the WWW so I took advantage of the Post Library to do my research.

2. I decided I needed to connect with others to get through this time, so I started attending various functions like wives coffees, and a German-American wives group. With the conversations that resulted I ended up with a regular column to write and information that put me into doing lots of workshops through the AWAG program (American Women’s Activities program.) And I made friends.

3. Since Greg wasn’t part of a unit, there was no Family Support/Readiness Group. We had no communication except for very erratic mail. So I found out there were two other Heidelberg military in Bosnia, I met their wives and we agreed to meet weekly to share any news we had. I knew from Greg’s deployment to Panama that it’s important to be able to talk with other people who are going through what you are going through.

4. I know my tendency is to eat when I’m alone and depressed. And I have a tendency towards depression. So I decided to head to the gym regularly. Exercise always helps. Getting out helps.

5. I decided to do what proactive things I could to help Greg survive his time in Bosnia. Since mail was the only communication, I wrote regularly and tried not to talk about fears or problems he couldn’t do anything about. I sent some care packages. And I did a form letter to all of our annual newsletter list of friends asking them to write him when they could. I figured mail call is an important thing in times like that.

Those decisions turned that deployment time into a very positive productive time for me. I dove into my work since I had only my own schedule to be concerned with so I could work late into the night when I felt like it. I got a great start forward in this seminar and writing work that has become so important to me.

Time for Tea
I attended a workshop put on by another military spouse who has done most of her research on nutrition. Monica Dixon, Ph.D., R.D., has a great book out called Love the Body You Were Born With! and is working on another.

She had lots of great tips to share about diet and exercise. Many are things Holly and I have shared for years but I learned new things as well. At the end she handed us each a teabag and said, "here's one simple change you can make that can greatly impact your health." Drink tea.

TOP

Since then I've done lots of added research into the
benefits of drinking black or green tea, and the
negatives to drinking coffee. Now, mind you, I love
coffee. I developed the taste in Germany especially
and now live in the land of coffee, Starbucks
territory, with a drive thru espresso bars on every
corner and coffee as central to life as it can be.

But the facts are clear that tea is better for me than
coffee. Coffee has negative effects on your brain,
raises your stress level, and oh yes, can increase
problems of incontinence. I know when I've had to
go without coffee one day during train travel I get
headachey and nauseated. I notice that whenever I'm
sick, especially if I have a sore throat, I can't
stomach the thought of coffee but I do want tea. I
guess my body has been trying to tell me something
all along.

So I'm changing my ways. I started by making my
coffee half regular and half decaf. Then I cut back
from my common 3-4 cups a day to no more than
two and started drinking tea at lunch and in the
afternoon.

Now I'm down to one cup of coffee a day and plan
soon to drink tea only. Okay, I'll still drink decaf
coffee if I'm having a scrumptious chocolate or
other dessert or if I have a chance for Kaffee und
Kuchen in Germany.

But I’ve learned to love tea too. Plus there is really
something very calming about sitting down to have
a cup of tea. There's a bit more of a ritual to it.
The antioxidants in tea have been shown to reduce
your risks of cancer and of heart disease. There is
even evidence that drinking green tea helps you lose
weight.

Hey, it's one health habit that's relatively easy to
change. Might as well start with an easy one.

Copyright 2003 Hightower/Scherer

Share your story:
As part of our research for the Follow Your Dreams
While You Follow the Military™ book, we are
collecting stories of military spouses who have done
just that — created a life, a program, a business, a
career that allows them to pursue their passion as
they live this military life. We’ll share some of
these stories in future issues.

Do you have a dream to share? Either, one you want
help with, or a success story to inspire other military
spouses? Email us at kathie@jumpintolife.net (and
you’ll get a free Joyful Living booklet in thanks for
writing.)

Fun Products
While we work on our Follow Your Dream While
You Follow the Military‘ book, we have some other
products that can help you create and live your
dream! To order any of these call Kathie tollfree at
866-569-5695 or email or fax in an order— see
contact info at the bottom. And, yes, I can take Visa
or MC (does that make us professional or what?)

The easiest way to order is to go to the product part
of the website, www.jumpintolife.net, and download
an order form to fax or mail or call in.

Creative Living Audiotape Set: (2 tapes,12 minutes)
- on the joyful living concept & goal achieving
tools, tips & resources) $12

Your Enchanted Life: A Journal of Discovery &
Delight (a playbook full of exercises & action
steps) $18

Simple Joys: Little Things That Make a BIG
Difference (a pocket-size book with one idea per
page) $6
*similar ideas in a booklet that can mail in a #10
envelope are in the Joyful Living Booklet $3

Magic Rainbow Glasses
(see the good in Everything) $6

As Is (pewter pins)
Show the world you are already quite wonderful just
the way you are – faults and all! $25

A Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the
Military Workshop at your post/base?
We do four-hour workshops for military spouses.
(These have been called different things in the past
— Joyful Living, Creative Living, Jump Into Life —
we’ve finally settled on what it’s really About —
Follow Your Dream While You Follow the Military.)
We’d love to do all day sessions or 2-3 day retreats
someday too. We have LOTS of information to
share.

Here’s what other military spouses are saying:
"Wunderbar! I have gained worthwhile & valuable
information on how to turn my dreams into reality.
I wish I had a seminar like this to attend 15 years
ago." –Gwendolyn A. Williams

"This was the best thing that happened to me
in Germany!"—Alicka Ampry-Samuel
If you know someone who hires trainers for your
base (often the Family Advocacy Office or ACS),
send us a name and address and we will mail a full
information packet. We’d love to come to your
location.

Feel free to forward this ezine to other military
spouses. We are also happy to have you use any of
the articles in your newsletters providing you ask us
first and then provide us with a copy for our records
and celebration!


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Contact Us:
Kathie Hightower & Holly Scherer
Follow Your Dreams While You Follow the
Military Seminars
kathie@jumpintolife.net
2908 N. Warner Street, Tacoma, Wa 98407;
Tollfree: 866-569-5695;253-761-8161;
fax253-759-4009

Or contact Holly directly in Memphis at
901-756-7391 or email her at
schererjh@earthlink.net

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