Play can be in everything. Humor and freedom in everyday life makes life worth living. We are bombarded with burdening energy and the “More Monster” so why do we work, learn and grow if there is no fun along the way? If I have to wait for the end of something to celebrate and the road was miserable and the road is the longest part who cares?

Join me and my guest, author and speaker "Dr. Play", Howard Papush as we explore why the concept of recess was so important to us as children and why it's still so very much needed in the workplace and how to use Play to think “Outside the Box”. How in touch you are with your child-like qualities and how to enhance them.

Here’s what “Dr. Play” has to say … “A January 1999 article in a special business career section of the Los Angeles Times entitled, "To Think Outside Box, Get Into Sandbox", suggests that employees have to learn how to "make work into child's play" if they wish to be more creative and innovative in their careers.

There's a great deal of research to back up this theory. Psychologist Donald MacKinnon at the University of California/Berkeley did a body of study on the subject of creativity. His findings-creativity is not a talent; it is a way of operating-a mode of behavior. He described the particular facility as "an ability to play" and concluded that the most creative people are "child-like", for they are able to play with ideas and to explore them.

Children, who possess what social philosopher Arthur Koestler called, "innocence of perception" have an innate ability to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Their imagination is uncorrupted by outside constraints. In play, they bring passionate attention to activities.”

“Dr. Play” offers programs/seminars/breakout sessions for businesses that include interactive discussions, revealing quizzes, guided meditations, and dynamic experiential play exercises that will aid you in thinking "outside the box", opening your eyes to a new creative world.

1. Why a sense of joy seems to be absent in many parts of our society.
2. Having a more balanced approach to one's day and one's work.
3. A new and more exciting definition of "creativity."
4. Why being in touch with your inner child is so valuable.
5. Guided meditation back to our childhood and the way we played when we were kids.
6. RECESS--a series of interactive, cooperative games that unleash waves of energy, laughter, and self-esteem, build trust, teach support, encourage risk-taking, provide acknowledgement and validation, reveal commonalities, and spark creativity.
7. Discussion of the games, the ways individuals participated in the activities, and how one can change their style, communication, and attitude to be more effective in their lives.
8. Specific strategies to deal with ongoing stress in one's career.
9. Reorganizing your work space to create more joy in your environment.
10. Employing these methods in your home life--better relations with your mate, your children, the family, and the neighbors.
11. A series of empowering messages to remind you to take recess every day


About “DR. PLAY”, Howard Papush

Nationally known as "Dr. Play," HOWARD PAPUSH uses his unique communication and facilitation skills to teach organizations how to build a binding sense of group harmony and community. He also helps people get more in touch with their creative souls and provides individuals with tools to aid them in managing their stress levels.

He is a former broadcasting executive who, for more than 25 years, worked closely with some of the most famous personalities in the history of the television industry. They include Johnny Carson, Barbara Walters, Ralph Edwards, Dick Clark, Allen Funt, and "Howdy Doody."

He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech and Communications from Queens College of the City University of New York. While an undergraduate he held the title of Director of Student Activities, and was selected for inclusion in the national publication, Who's Who Among Students In American Colleges And Universities.

Check out Dr. Play’s Book: When’s Recess? Playing your way through the stress of life.

Feeling hassled, anxious, overworked?
Not having enough fun?
Need to laugh more?
Want to feel young forever?

For more information on programs by Dr. Play visit: http://www.letsplayagain.com

Join Mona Miller and her guest Catherine Vivo, President, California Quake, A Women’s Semi-Professional Tackle Football Team

Even in play time, operating outside the box can be a fight.

This Sunday, join me in welcoming the California Quake, a Semi-Professional Women’s Tackle Football team. Now, they know how to play outside the box in a big way and have fun while doing it. Catherine Vivo, President of the California Quake and some of her players will join me live in the studio this Sunday. It’s Super Bowl time Women Style!

What makes a person want to play outside the box?
What does it take to play outside the box?

Anything that is motivating with camaraderie and passion is all we need to play outside or inside the box!

Catherine (Cat) Vivo, President of the California Quake football team gives us a peek at what made her play and work outside the box.

Cat says, “Football is important to me because . . . Football is in my blood! We have this saying 1440. It's one thousand four hundred and forty minutes in a day we think about football! I love to watch and play this sport. There is a sense of adrenaline, camaraderie, motivation, great friends and a passion. On top of football being an amazing sport, it's women playing football.

Our mission statement is: The Quake organization provides women athletes the opportunity to play tackle football. We aim to lead by example, through our determination and perseverance while making a positive impact in our community. We are honored to make our contribution to yet another pivotal accomplishment for women in sports, which courageous women before us have embarked.

Running the football organization is a dream come true. I've always loved this sport since I was a kid. I even had the pleasure to play during my first year in high school with the guys. After my first year playing women's tackle football I knew I wanted the opportunity to run a women's football team. I've been working behind the scenes with management for 3-4 years and this year I finally get to implement my ideas, provide an improved program and to allow women to continue having an opportunity to play tackle football. It's absolutely overwhelming but I love every second of it!”

To Come and See, participate, donate money or time to this organization go to: http://www.CaliforniaQuakeFootball.com or Call: 562.606-1700 Quake Hotline


Up Coming Events:

February 25th California Quakes have a Comedy Fundraiser at 730pm at the Gaslamp Restaurant in Long Beach. Their very own Quake player, Jennie “Nutty” McNulty is a professional comedian and a few of her other comedian friends are doing a fundraiser to raise funds for their River City Bowl (Scrimmages) in Laughlin, NV

March 15 is the River City Bowl (Scrimmage Tournament) in Laughlin, NV 10:30am against four other teams: Las Vegas Showgirlz, Santa Rosa Scorchers, Redding Rage & Tucson Monsoon

March 29th First Annual Quake Festival promoting health, fitness, sports youth and formally introducing our team to the community. There will be food, vendors, products, entertainment and so much more. Details to be posted on the site.

April 12th First Home Game at Cabrillo HS in Long Beach against the Tucson Monsoon at 6pm tickets are $5

Before I learn about:
Foreign Lands
Reading
Math, Even & Odd Numbers

I need to know myself as a:
Foreign Land Inside
Learn how to Read myself
Know how to be and feel Even & Odd

This processing can be taught from the very beginning of life.

At 2 years of age I have seen children learn how to:
Process anger, fear, and hurt
Understanding the differences of what a thought and a feeling are because they know they are not the same.
How to talk about their thoughts and feelings and own what is their responsibility with ideas of what to do differently.

By school age: children know how to begin to separate what is their truths and how to depersonalize and not take on words, feelings or actions that do not belong to them.
They learn how to ask questions of others versus boss or tell others what to do.
They know how to release anger, fear and hurt and turn it into wisdom by learning something and then changing something about themselves, not others.

Becoming empowered is actually stronger than the reactive behavior of acting powerful. Empowerment is from the inside and no one can take that away from them.

Children can actually learn to understand parents, teachers and other adults as well. Understanding all perceptions is wisdom and children are very natural at it. (This is very important to teach because if children and adults really learn how to listen to themselves they will learn how their intuition works which is the true way to teach children to say "no" from the inside, out.)

I have not spoken about my non-profit organization,“Communication In Human Behavior, Inc.” until now. This non-profit's mission is to teach adults and children the art of self processing in our educational, religious and judicial systems. We need help and are open to any type of support, monetary, educationally, administrative, etc. Anyway you can help we will welcome with open arms. (Please see the Non-Profit page on my website www.monamiller.com)

This topic got hot for me last week when I was triggered by the cartoon South Park. There was an episode where the children were performing acts of oral sex as a game at 10 pm on a weekday. Yes many children and teens are awake and watching television at that hour. Parenting is hard enough, but when music and television is teaching sex, violence and harsh language as everyday life………no wonder condoms are necessary in junior high and schools have to put up signs that read, “No weapons allowed on premises” and addiction is the only way to have “connection” with most friends, which of course is actually “disconnection”.

Because South Park is a cartoon, children will be drawn to it. Children and teens copy what they see whether they like what they are doing or not. And this information on television and a regular network is too much for children to discern and process in a healthy way. I know my teen was up at 10 p.m. because he just got home from work. He luckily can process but still it took 2 days to explain why that's not funny. We actually know kids where that has happened to them and have been effected deeply. Without help to process these incidents there can be an adverse effect for their entire lives. My son finally got it and remembered his childhood experiences where he was hurt and how he was affected even with processing skills.

Thus bringing me to introducing my client, life coach and guest Christine Hassler. This is what Christine has to say, not having an understanding of self processing was challenging on every level –physical, sexual, mental, emotional, financial and spiritual. Because I never learned how to deal with my anger, I kept all of it inside resulting in migraines from the age of 12-23 (23 is when I began to learn processing!).

Because I never learned how to deal with any of the hurt, I endured during my adolescent years, I was totally insecure and either came off as an arrogant brat or a quiet, cold introvert, I was always in high or low ego to compensate for my lack of understanding of good and bad. Furthermore, I pursued a career that wasn’t my truth (working in the entertainment industry) because I always longed to be popular and never learned how to process my feelings of not being accepted so I went after a job that I thought would feed my thirsty ego. Financially, I suffered from lack of processing because I often lived with a fear of never having enough money and lived in a mindset of lack rather than abundance which led to a lot of stress and to often working too much without boundaries. Emotionally, I hurt from a lack of processing because instead of learning how to feel and understand my feelings, I shut them down and became very depressed and judgmental. This led to the dissolution of an engagement, loss of friendships, and a belief system that I was “broken” that stuck with me until just the past year. I was also a late bloomer and because I was so ashamed about that, I disconnected from my sexuality which continued into my adulthood and marriage. Finally, a lack of processing shut me down spiritually – because I was not living in truth and love, I lacked any connection to me inside or my spirit.
Overall, an understanding of processing has changed my life and awakened me to who I truly am. I feel like processing is as necessary as breathing because if I don’t do it either I suffocate or I suffocate others! I was fortunate enough to meet Mona Miller almost ten years ago and learned to self process in my early twenties as it has paved the way to a life of truth and love.

The goal of the non-profit and this show today is to expose us all to the education of intellectual and emotional understanding as the communication of human behavior is ever evolving. The basic principles are seeing lies and truth spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually, and financially with self awareness and integrity stimulating an evolved standard of living.

Additional projects will include scholarship programs; youth group sessions, a community center for anger management, and educational classes. We foresee communities being greatly impacted, because the program has proven itself very successful. We know the change will come - one person at a time.

There is a story where a man sees many starfish washed upon the shore. The man on the shore throws the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Another man comes running by and says, "Hey buddy, you’re wasting your time. You’ll never get all those starfish back in the ocean." The man says, "Maybe not, but it sure mattered to that one!" So today we begin…

Christine Hassler Bio: Christine left her successful job as a Hollywood agent at twenty-five to pursue a life she could be passionate about. In 2005, she wrote the first guide book written exclusively for young women, entitled Twenty-Something, Twenty-Everything: A Quarter-life Woman’s Guide to Balance and Direction. Her second book The Twenty-Something Manifesto: Quarter-Lifers Speak out about Who they Are, What they Want and How to get it stems from her five years of experience working to “transform the twenty-something experience.” A life coach, she specializes in relationships, career, and self-identity with a counseling emphasis. As a professional speaker, Christine leads seminars and workshops for audiences around the country, including on university campuses through CampUSpeak. She has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, and PBS (view), as well as various local television and radio shows, speaking about life issues and Expectation Hangovers™ — a phenomenon she identified and trademarked. She lives in Los Angeles.

Check out Christine Hassler's website: www.christinehassler.com

Upcoming Mona Miller Shows:

01-27-08: California Quake Women’s Professional Tackle Football Team: President, Cat Vivo and some of her professional football players are coming in to kick off our pre super bowl show.

02-03-08: Howard Papush “Dr Play”: He is a former broadcasting executive for more than 25 years is now nationally known as "Dr. Play," He uses his unique communication and facilitation skills to teach organizations how to build a binding sense of group harmony and community. He also helps people get more in touch with their creative souls and provides individuals with tools to aid them in managing their stress levels.

Is Eating an event or an interruption?

Do you think about your next meal before you’re done with the one you are eating or do you forget to eat?

What happens when you live to Eat and food is your enemy?

Is food a friend or foe?

Do you find that food is in the place of your lover or spouse’s position? Do you need to divorce or break up with food to let real love and intimacy in?

No matter what your relationship is to food there is an emotion attached in some way, be it good, bad or indifferent.

Join me and author Karen Koenig as we explore the gastronomic realm of Food and Feelings and how it affects how we feel, behave, believe and eat.


About Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed.:
Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed., is a psychotherapist, educator, writer, and motivational speaker who has specialized in the field of compulsive, emotional, and restrictive eating for over 25 years. She is a co-founder of the Greater Boston Collaborative for Body Image and Eating Disorders and a former member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association.

During the past three decades, she has counseled and provided Quit Fighting with Food workshops to hundreds of over- and undereaters. She has conducted professional trainings for institutions and organizations such as the Sarasota Adult and Community Education Program, the Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the Massachusetts Dietetic Association, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and Simmons College School of Social Work to teach therapists and nutritionists how to help their clients overcome their eating problems.

Her essays and articles have appeared in Positive Change, Attitudes, Social Work Focus, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The West Roxbury Transcript, Equal Times, Single Living, and The Newsletter for the Society for Family Therapy and Research.

She received a B.A. from Boston University, an M.Ed. from Antioch College, and an M.S.W. from Simmons College School of Social Work. She currently lives, teaches, and practices in Sarasota, Florida.

For more information about Karen Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed. got to: www.eatingnormal.com

I am so excited to welcome Gavin Frye to our show.

For the past 25 years Gavin has had the privilege of providing Soul-centered counseling and workshops to those who are moving through powerful changes in their lives.

Since our show is about affecting change and bringing on innovative and open people Gavin is a beautiful fit.

Gavin has discovered and teaches that:

Each of us has a unique and Natural Self, an eternal presence that longs to be known, breathed into, and lived from.

Difficult and painful transitions in life are often one of the ways our Soul has of getting our attention, of inviting us into a season of change and new direction.

Keeping our hearts open despite the pains and heartaches of life is a fierce proposition.

We can embrace vulnerability, not as a weakness, but as an ally and entryway into our depths and wisdom.

Opening to the power of love is the golden gateway to our deepest levels of fulfillment and to receiving the abundant blessings of Spirit.

Self-compassion is intimately related to creativity, for as we dare to tenderly embrace those places inside that experience pain, we open to the wellspring of our Soul's expression.

Risking visibility by genuinely sharing ourselves is one of our greatest fears – as well as one of our deepest prayers.

Nature can be one of our most profound teachers, for as we deepen our relationship with nature, we deepen our relationship with our own wisdom and inner landscape.

There is tremendous leverage available through participating in an on-going counseling partnership and/or workshop process with others devoted to living an authentic, heart-centered life.

I often find people are drawn my way when they are embarking upon what I call a sacred passage in their life – where they are consciously exploring new directions and new levels of fulfillment. These life changes are often triggered by painful discoveries about themselves and their limiting life patterns, or challenges in their marriage or committed relationships, or a growing dissatisfaction with their career expression, or perhaps they need mentoring and support as they open to new levels of inner guidance and creativity in their lives.

About Gavin Faye

Before telling you about my professional background and experience, let me begin by sharing a personal story with you.

I am one of those people who knew very early in my life what I wanted to be when I grew up. When I was a very young boy, I found myself continually fascinated by the fact that I rarely met any adults who still had a light shining through their eyes, who were genuinely happy, and who had the ability to truly pay attention to others and the world around them.

On those rare occasions when I encountered an "awake" adult, I found myself imminently curious and asking them all kinds of questions about their lives and how they were able to be different from most other adults. Thankfully, they generously shared with me some of the keys to their well-earned wisdom and life choices.

This fascination led me to set forth a prayer that when I grew up I wanted to be one of those adults who remained awake & alive inside. I am grateful to say that most days now I continue to encounter the world as a curious, childlike, and awake man, open to discover more wisdom and new ways to fully taste the precious gift of life I perceive we have been given.

By way of sharing some of my formal background and experience:

– I am a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in private practice in Southern California.
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– I have offered Soul-centered counseling and workshops for over 25 years.
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– I served on faculty for 16 years at the University of Santa Monica, co-facilitating the first year of USM's transformational Masters Degree program in Spiritual Psychology.
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– I specialize in supporting individuals and couples in career & life transition, with an emphasis on spirituality and creativity.
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– I have designed and facilitated a number of workshops, including:
* Sacred Passages: Birthing the Next Season of Your Life's Expression
* Soul-Centered Parenting: Guiding Your Family from the Wisdom of the Heart
* Embracing Our Innocence
* Turning Points: Discovering & Creating Your Life's Work

To contact Gavin Frye or to learn more:
Visit www.sacredpassages.com
E-mail: gavinfrye@sacredpassages.com
Phone: 805-498-7097