What's New?

Kick Up Your Heels Before: You’re Too Short To Wear Them has arrived!

The wait has ended and now you can kick up your heels and enjoy my latest and most deeply-felt book yet!  Writing this book has truly been a labor of love (and necessity) as I deeply explored and researched the most exciting and inevitable challenge that we all face— How do we truly age well? And can humor, dignity, honesty, wisdom, and other virtues ease the path?

Our society is youth obsessed: Beauty products, special exercises, designer vitamins, plastic surgery, and certain medications are promoted as “the” ways to enhance life. While these formulas may have some merit, they’re not enough to prepare us to have a rich, authentic life filled with passion and juiciness. Why do we wait until we’re almost dead before we focus on how to age well? Every school system in the country should be preparing us for the inevitable process of aging and how to do it with grace and verve.

Aging isn’t a surprise; it’s been the natural order since the beginning of time!  Our parents, our schools, and the media should all be teaching us that aging is a process that begins at birth . . . not something to be feared and avoided. Those who continue to be hardy and live long and healthy lives understand that the real path to vitality requires connection, playfulness, flexibility, grace, tenacity, resiliency, curiosity, learning, and good humor.

With this book, I offer practical advice, lifestyle skills, wisdom, and spirituality for adding life and juice to your years – no matter what your age. I hope you’ll find Kick Up Your Heels Before You’re Too Short To Wear Them like a mental health spa that will inspire you and your family to live with joy, harmony, and peace while you still have the time!

Click Here to get your own copy today. 

Look Who’s Had Some Work Done ….

“Hey, Look me over and tell me if you like what you see …. “ It’s summer and everyone I know is embarking on some sort of makeover. Some are extreme, mine is virtual. The healing is faster, and I can still move my forehead.

Why a makeover?, you ask. Well, aside from wanting to stay looking hip and fresh, I am planning to expand my website and community to become a true resource center for more joyful living.

Over the course of my career, I have met so many incredible experts and gathered so many insights about positive psychology, neuroscience, mind/body medicine, and the links between laughter and learning – that I just have to share. If you haven’t visited my web world in a bit, come pay me a visit at the new and improved www.lorettalaroche.com. 

Please check us out and tell us what you like and what more you’d love to see.  I’d really love to hear the topics you’re most interested in and the types of resources you’d find most helpful. When you sign up for my online community, you will find a Talk to Loretta Forum. Let me know what you think!

In the coming months, we’ll be adding web-casts, community message boards with experts, audio clips, book excerpts, and we’ll be creating an amazing e-library of resource links and useful content that will help you lead your most healthful, informed and joyful life. There is no end to the possibilities, only the time available to realize them. Stay tuned for our e-surveys that will help us prioritize the new features that are most meaningful to the community. Visit often and help the community at lorettalaroche.com become the best e-neighborhood it can be!

Yes, there is Life after 50 in Boston

To this I can personally attest … They say 50 is the new 30, but I still feel 25! This year AARP is coming to my home town,  Boston, Massachusetts --  on September 6-8th with a fabulous 3 day extravaganza dedicated to life at 50+. Tony Bennett, Lily Tomlin and Rod Stewart, among others, will be performing and there will be an enormous number of fun and educational seminars all geared towards living your best life after 50. Part class-reunion, part home, travel, health and high-tech expo, part summer concert weekend and all fun, this is an event that is not to be missed!

This year’s convention will be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and I will be appearing in the Exhibit Hall in Booth #246.  I’ll be there: at 3:00pm Thursday, September 6th; 10:00am and 1:30pm Friday, September 7th;  and 11:00am and 1:00pm Saturday, September 8th.  I’ll be introducing my newest book – “Kick Up Your Heels Before You’re Too Short To Wear Them” and leading mini “get juicy” seminars. My juicy team and I will be hosting some terrific events and offering unique and fun give-aways. Please stop by to get juiced up! You can learn more about the full AARP event and register online today at:  http://www.aarp.org/events.

GET A LIFE: Rather than whine, be grateful for what you have

By LORETTA LaROCHE
Reprinted from Loretta’s “Get A Life” Column in The Patriot Ledger

I just came back from an early morning walk and I feel totally exhilarated by the smell of fresh air, the crystal-blue sky and the warmth of the sun. It sounds like the beginning of a romance novel except Fabio was not walking beside me, whispering in my ear.

I get very introspective when I walk. It’s not all good. Sometimes I spend part of the time going over things that annoy me and the people who cause me angst. This particular morning my mind was giving me a break from worry, and I was immersed in the feeling of freedom.

As I walked, I began thinking how fortunate I was to be sauntering down the street of my own free will with all my parts working. I read a lot of news and I am often appalled at how much suffering there is in the world. Most of us are so fortunate. We live day to day, able to go from place to place without the fear of a suicide bomber turning our lives into a hell beyond belief. We don’t have to worry that groups of insane revolutionaries are going to rape our women, mutilate them and then keep them as slaves. Our children go to school, come home and feel safe in their beds, not in dread fear that they may be abducted and made part of an army of thugs. These and other atrocities go on every day, along with starvation and homes left behind for refugee camps with millions of inhabitants.

I know this isn’t very upbeat, but how can we possibly feel blessed by what we have if we do not think of those less fortunate? There is a study on gratitude that shows that when we realize how much we have in comparison to others, it provokes us into being more empathetic and giving.

It goes back to a saying my mother always reminded me of when I didn’t think I had what everybody else had: ‘‘I cried that I had no shoes, ’til I saw the man with no feet.’’

I really find that the level of complaining about anything and everything has reached major proportions; it’s global whining. I recently heard a group of people whining about how difficult it was to get the new iPod phone, which, by the way, costs about $500. I know it’s fun to have new gadgets, but how about some balance? All the stuff in the world does not equate to knowing you can walk out your door free to go wherever you choose and talk to whomever you want. All the brightly colored cell phones will not come to your aid as your family and friends will if you need help. I also doubt that you will be checking your e-mail at the end of your life.

I truly believe the best thing we can do to get through this life is to periodically review all that we feel is good and right with it. It will help us stay happier and healthier and perhaps drive us to think more about the universal we and less about the ego-driven me.

Squeeze The Day

Indulge in pleasure whenever you can. Eat dessert first, take a bath in the middle of the day, or watch a squirrel fall off the bird feeder.   

Upcoming Events

Loretta will be Opening the October 4th ‘Light The Night’ Walk for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on the Boston Common.

Shortly after my own daughter Laurie was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma last year, I became aware of the incredible resources and support that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society offers both patients and their families. As I learned more about the mission of this tremendous organization, I became increasingly committed to helping them continue their outstanding efforts to find a cure for these blood cancers and to improve the quality of life for all those who are courageously fighting these illnesses.
This fall, the Society will be holding “Light The Night” walks nation-wide. Light The Night is an annual Society event to raise funds for cures. It’s the nation’s night to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of patients and their families. Funds raised through Light The Night Walks support the work of hundreds of the world’s best and brightest researchers in their search for better therapies and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
I’ll be leading the October 4th, walk that begins on the Boston Common. This is a casual walk with no fitness requirements. Anyone can take part – children, adults and seniors are all welcome. Registration begins at 5:00pm and the walk itself begins at 6:30pm.
Light The Night is an evening walk to celebrate and commemorate the lives of people touched by cancer. Walkers hold illuminated balloons—white for survivors, red for supporters—and light the night with hope. The Walk culminates in a community celebration with music, refreshments and entertainment—where friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers and others come together to demonstrate their support for cancer patients.  I hope you will join me as we light the night together!

Learn more about the Light The Night walk and register online at: Click Here

Loretta is coming soon to a theatre near you:

October 6th  2007  -  Colonial Theatre, Keene, NH – 8:00pm
October 20th  2007 – Rochester Opera House, Rochester, NH - 8:00pm
November 4th  2007 – North Shore Music Theater, Beverly, MA - 7:00pm

If you’re thinking ahead … Plan to join Loretta and seven other Hay House authors including Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson and Marianne Williamson on the Hay House “I Can Do It” At Sea cruise to the Mexican Riviera from April 5th -12th, 2008. 
For details: Click Here

Kick Of The Month

Slow down to the speed of summer

Summer hit high gear. I felt the days whizzing by along with the need to savor special moments that only summer provides: trees swaying in warm breezes against impossibly blue skies, pints of fresh raspberries just bursting with juice, birdsong at dawn, lazy strolls for ice cream just as the fireflies start to twinkle, the sound of children’s laughter on the beach. I want to slow down to enjoy these pleasures one by one, day-by-day. My cat lazes in the garden batting at the occasional leaf or butterfly and I admire his ability to revel in his own laziness without any guilt.  This month, I invite you to think about all the special things summer means to you: both simple pleasures or meaningful traditions. Then, I want you to plan some guilt-free lazy time and savor each one of them. I promise the memories will keep you warm in the months to come. Click Here

Featured Product Of The Month

Kick Up Your Heels Before You're Too Short To Wear Them:

This month, we’re thrilled to introduce my latest book “Kick Up Your Heels Before You’re Too Short To Wear Them.” As a newsletter subscriber, you are eligible for a special 10% member discount.  Thank you and I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Click Here