Author: Jessica L Gardner
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Is my headshot a gigantic lie?
Like most people who use LinkedIn or have a professional presence, I had a professional headshot taken two years ago. While the photo is beautiful and I love it for a million reasons, I struggle with whether or not I’m being honest by having this photo out in the world as a representation of me. Like…
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Once upon a time, flying United really was flying the friendly skies
Like the entire country, I’ve been riveted to and horrified by the story of Dr. David Dao being assaulted and dragged off a United Airlines flight between O’Hare and Louisville for the grievous offense of being unwilling to give up his seat on an overbooked United flight. Today we learned that Dr. Dao has a…
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Hey! Hey! What do you say! The Cubs are gonna win today!
Today is Opening Day for the 2017 Major League Baseball Season and it finds the World Series Championship Cubs playing against their perennial rival the St. Louis Cardinals. The truth is that I have no idea whether the Cubs will win tonight. I certainly hope they do because like any good lifelong Cubs fan, I…
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I thought I was practicing mindfulness, but I wasn’t mindful enough
As I do about once every few months, earlier this week, I ventured out to drop off a bag of non-perishable groceries and personal care items to the local food pantry at my township office. I had a number of errands to run before a doctor’s appointment and was focussed on checking off items on…
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Which film will win the Oscar for Best Picture?
For the first time in my life, I have seen each of the films nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. In a typical year, I see one or two, if I’m lucky. Frankly, I don’t normally have much interest in the nominees, but this year the films grabbed me and I was compelled to see…
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Practice self kindness by taking a smartphone detox
Fellow ChicagoNow bloggers Beth, writer of Ups and Downs of a Yoga Mom, Nina, writer of You Know Neen, and Megan, writer of Stable Mable, and I are joining forces this week to practice self kindness with a smartphone detox. Popsugar‘s smartphone detox, which is the detox plan we are following, is a simple weeklong exercise…
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100+ Acts of Self Kindness
Step two in spreading kindness throughout the world in 2017 is performing one act of self kindness (aka self care) each week. Yesterday we discussed acts of kindness that we can perform for others. Today it’s time to focus on ourselves. Before we get into the list of possible acts of self kindness, let me tell…
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100+ acts of kindness for others, animals, and the planet
Step one in spreading kindness throughout the world in 2017 is performing one act of kindness each week for another person or people, animal, or the planet. The list of possible acts of kindness is endless, but to get you started, I’ve listed 100 of my favorite acts of kindness below. I’d love to hear…
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2017 is the Year of Kindness
After a tumultuous 2016, it’s time to get back to basics. And, in my opinion, nothing is more basic than kindness. Kindness to others. Kindness to ourselves. Kindness to our pets. Kindness to our planet. I am making a new personal commitment to kindness and I invite you to join me. Can you imagine the…
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My top 10 favorite experiences of 2016
As 2016 quickly draws to a close, I need to stop and reflect upon the joy I felt this year. In fact, especially this year. By just about every measure, 2016 was a difficult year for many people. Generation X lost many of our pop culture idols; a presidential election went wonky at the last…
Jessica L Gardner 