Make Your Life Better

Life + Home

Kick Start Your Life
Stress, anxiety, and feeling overworked can get in the way of what we truly want in life—not just professionally, but personally as well. Erika Lyremark, a certified life coach and creator of the six-week Lyremark Bootcamp, says the most common reason clients seek her help is due to dissatisfaction with their lives. “Often they have too much going on and don’t know how to say no or they’re underwhelmed and not moving forward in life,” she says. Lyremark helps clients develop habits to manage their stress and anxiety, including not checking e-mail for the first two hours at work, eating healthy, exercising five days a week, networking, and learning to say “thanks, but no thanks” to certain commitments. 612-781-2909

Hire a Home Pro
Name a project you need done around the house, and Angie’s List can help you find some of the best pros in town to do it. Seriously. This isn’t a list of people who paid to get on it. They’ve been ranked and scored by folks who’ve used them. Heck, we’ve hired more than a dozen companies through AL, and all have scored near perfect tens. Our “honey, do list” will never be the same.

Get Better Sleep
We spend more time in bed than we do on our feet or our rear. But odds are your mattress is older than your car and most mornings you awake with discomfort somewhere in your body. You need a better mattress. There are a lot of misconceptions about the heavily advertised Sleep Number beds by locally based Select Comfort—but they are neither gimmicky nor particularly expensive. And we’ve yet to find an owner who doesn’t swear by them within days after taking ownership. Twelve metro locations

Make a Difference
Want to really make a difference in the life of a child? Become a mentor. Programs such as Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota and Big Brothers Big Sisters can help you partner with a child through structured or flexible programs; they even offer workshops on how to be a good mentor and leader. Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota, 81 S. 9th St., Ste. 200, Mpls., 612-370-9180; Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities, 2550 University Ave., Ste. 410N, St. Paul, 651-789-2400

Build Green
Four years ago, Jeff and Salena Gallo embarked on a home-improvement project that would make any eco-enthusiast green with envy. The Gallos’ Bryn Mawr home, nicknamed 5ive, is a multi- award-winning lean, mean, energy efficient, LEED–certified machine. With the help of Shelter Architecture, the Gallos built their home from the ground up, painstakingly assured that every aspect promoted a clean, earth-friendly existence. To learn more, visit shelterarchitecture.com/five.htm.

Live Longer, Adopt a Pet
Numerous studies show that pet owners live longer, happier lives. They have lower blood pressure and stress levels, and are generally happier. And while there are plenty of breeders in Minnesota who breed pets in a humane way, there are thousands of homeless animals in local shelters in need of a loving home. The Minnesota Animal Humane Society alone helps more than 20,000 pets find homes each year, and there are many more shelters to choose from across the state.

Foster a Service Dog
If pet adoption isn’t for you, Helping Paws is always looking for big-hearted volunteers to foster and train their service dogs. The Twin Cities–based organization places service dogs-in-training into loving households, an experience that is not only enriching for the family, but will make a difference in the lives of a person with a disability.

Health + Psyche

Quit Smoking with the Experts
Want to improve your health almost overnight? Quit smoking! Thirty-five miles northeast of the Twin Cities at Hazelden’s Dan Anderson Renewal Center, a team of recovering tobacco addicts wait to help. Your Next Step is a seven-day in-house recovery program that takes a mind-body-spirit approach that includes counseling, group discussions, motivational lectures, massage, acupuncture, and a long-term recovery plan as part of the package. $3,299-3,899, 800-257-7810

Stimulate Your Chi
If you can handle a mosquito bite, you can get through acupuncture—the centuries-old technique of placing tiny needles at exact points on your body to stimulate chi (energy) to help what ails you. It’s not a one-time fix, but those committed to a regular schedule will tell you that it has cleared up allergies, suppressed migraines, and relieved chronic pain. Ask your doctor about it. Many health groups—such as Allina—now offer acupuncture within their network.

Customize Your Workout
Whether you have a few pounds to lose or are looking for a total body change, the experts at Steele Fitness want to help make you the best version of, well, you. A team of master-level coaches, nutritionists, masseuses, and personal concierges is on hand to create custom workouts and lifestyle plans. And though Steele does everything with a certain amount of glam and flash, owner Steele Smiley insists that Steele Fitness has something for everyone. “This is an every person environment,” Smiley says. “Whether you can work with us once a month or four times a week, no matter how many zeros you have in your checking account, we can find a program that will get the results you want.” 714 E. Lake St., Wayzata, 952-476-8001; 3918 W. 49th-½ St., Edina, 952-285-8001; Graves 601 Hotel, 601 1st Ave. N., Mpls., 866-684-3723

Find Inner Balance
Using ancient Chinese techniques to balance your body’s energy, or qi (chee), Eden Prairie’s Master Chunyi Lin, founder of Spring Forest Qigong, is considered to be one of the world’s best healers. Through a combination of breathing, gentle movements, mental focus, and sound, loyalists say they have realized how to achieve weight loss, freedom from chronic pain, even lower cholesterol. 7520 Market Place Dr., Eden Prairie, 952-593-5555

Try Improv For A Laugh
One of the most important rules taught at Stevie Ray’s Improv Company is to always say yes. When you negate in improv, it prevents the scene from moving forward, the energy ends among the performers, and you end up being the jerk of the stage. This cardinal rule of improv can also be applied to life off the stage—when confronted by your co-workers, your in-laws, or even by the law. Saying, “Yes, and . . .” will take you further than “No.” Plus, Improv classes are a great way to exercise the right side of your brain while buffing up your confidence—a way to unlock inspiration and imagination and tap our inner-goofiness. Think of it as a cross between a group therapy session with really funny people and an adult playtime. $180 for an eight-week session, 612-825-1832

Learn to Meditate
There is more to meditation and inner calm than the deep breathing in your fitness yoga class. Learn to truly meditate at the Shambhala Center of Minneapolis, which teaches mindful meditation techniques developed by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master. You can also attend workshops, classes, and open meditation sessions with instructors on duty to help with your practice. Shambhala Center of Minneapolis, 2931 NE Grand St., Mpls., 612-331-7737

Downward Dog in Mexico
If the weather remains on the track it has been for the past few months, you’ll be more than ready for some sun, sand, surf, and yoga. Sign up for Corepower Yoga’s Haramara Yoga Surf Retreat in Sayulita, Mexico. The seven-day program is filled with daily yoga practice, guided meditation, three-daily meals made from fresh, locally sourced foods, and two beginner surfing lessons. Other excursions include a mountain bike tour, sunset sailing, zip lines, horseback riding, snorkeling, massage, and a whale-watching tour. February 21st-28th. Packages (not including flight or ground transportation) start at $1,750 per person.

Career + Money

Be Your Own Boss
Ever thought about changing career paths or starting a business of your own? Many of our favorite locals got a little help from WomenVenture when starting their new endeavors. The local organization offers classes and services in areas ranging from creating a business plan to financial management to job interviewing skills. Already succeeding in these areas? Put your expertise to use: Volunteer for WomenVenture and help other Twin Citians realize their goals. 2324 University Ave. W., St. Paul, 651-646-3808

Take a Money Workshop
Unless you were a finance major, you probably didn’t learn how to manage and avoid long-term debt and set personal finance goals while in college. So there’s no shame in taking a class that will help you learn how to best handle your hard-earned money. Twin Cities–based financial consultant Ruth Hayden ’s classes for women and couples outline the financial basics, from learning the lingo to organizing cash flow to creating a working budget—everything you need to put your green on the right track. 651-690-3797

Get Fiscally Fit
Start your journey to financial security with the Financial Planning Series offered by Minneapolis Community Education. The five-session series covers everything you need to know to get yourself fiscally set, including basic tax tips, the fundamentals of investing, and the essentials of estate planning. $30. Feb. 23–Mar. 23.

Hire a Finance Guru You Can Trust
If you’d rather leave the finances to the experts, a financial planner can help you establish a budget, identify the changes you need to make in your spending, and help you establish good saving and investing habits to ensure that, come bear or bull, you stay financially sound. But how can you find one that you can trust? Visit the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors to find a fee-only certified planner. A fee-only planner won’t charge commission (so you keep most of your dough) and instead charges by the hour. Get the most out of your first visit by writing down your short- and long-term goals beforehand, bring along all of your financial information (bank statements, credit card statements, 401K summaries, tax information), and be ready to bare all.

Food + Travel

Eat Locally
Heard the term CSA bandied about the market, but are afraid to admit ignorance? Community Supported Agriculture is certainly the talk of the food world. Membership in a CSA offers you a simple and tangible connection to a local farm. In the spring, you purchase a “share” of the farm, which in turn provides you with fresh, organically grown food on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. Although most farms have a delivery option, many encourage you to come to visit the land that bore your food. The Land Stewardship Project publishes a local CSA directory each spring.

Be One with the Land
If you dream of farming and becoming one with the land, but can’t seem to give up your new condo, you might look into a farm stay. Take a drive to Dancing Winds Farm, where you can check into a bunkhouse—complete with a full kitchen stocked with local produce—and learn about the life of a lovely goat herd. Do as much or little as you want, play in the fields with the animals, learn how to make goat cheese, or just sit on the deck as the sun sets over the lush Cannon River Valley. Dancing Winds Farm, Kenyon, 507-789-6606