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Meet the Experience Life team, and get a behind-the-scenes look at how the magazine comes together each month.

My Vision (Board) for the Future

By Jocelyn Stone (@jocelynstone) / February 5, 2013

I’ve been meaning to make a vision board for years. Pilar’s been on me since last fall to put one together. And I have this deep-seated, although unfounded, belief that big things are going to happen for (or maybe, to) me in 2013. There’s just one problem.

I hate arts and crafts.

I’ve tried, I swear I have. More than once I’ve gathered a pile of old magazine, scissors, poster board and glue sticks, and spread out on the living room floor, ready to set my destiny. I’ve even gotten as far as ripping a few pages out of the magazines. But eventually, I get distracted by my dog or frustrated because I’m not cutting perfectly straight lines, and I move on to something else. Being crafty is not my thing (unless it’s possibly in a sneaky way) and not even a strong desire to set my life goals can overcome that.

Playing with technology, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

Last week, my coworker, Courtney, was sharing her experience about a vision board app that she had recently tried on her iPhone. She prompted me to remember that several years ago I had come across some vision-board software on Oprah.com. I knew that I had played around with it for a while and I had saved at least the start of a board, but I wasn’t even sure that the program still existed.

The next day I decided to check the site out and there it was (now, with more pictures added, above), my unfinished board from years gone by. Not surprisingly, the few images that were there still accurately reflected what I’m looking for out of life — I’m nothing if not consistent.

The program is pretty easy to use. You can find it at www.oprah.com/packages/o-dream-board.html, along with a slew of articles on how to determine your passions, set your goals and create your vision board. I believe that you can create a board right away, but you will have to sign up for an account in the Oprah community to be able to save it.

After you create a new board, you can add the images and words that best represent your goals. There is a pretty large selection of pictures and words on the site that you can use, and the program lets you write out other words and phrases of your choosing. You can also upload your own pictures from your computer.

Once you’ve finished, you can print the board on paper, or save it to your computer as a jpeg file. Et voila — your own vision board! I’ve printed out several copies that I’ve put up in my cubicle at work and several places in my house, and I’ve made the board the wallpaper for both my personal and work computers.

I still want to do some more work on the board over time. And, this is only the first step in a long list toward setting and achieving my goals. Still, it was a fun way to spend a winter weekend.

Do you have a vision board? I’m hoping to put together a slideshow of Experience Life team members’ boards, and if you’d like to send me a picture of yours (email me at jstone2@experiencelife.com), I’d love to add it to the mix. And, if you’re like me and you have never gotten around to making one for yourself, check out the program at Oprah.com and see if it’s for you.

Happy visioning!

An Optimized Website!

By Jamie Martin (@jamielmartin) / January 31, 2013

I promised in my previous blog post that this time I would be writing about how I got into teaching prenatal yoga — that, however, will just have to wait! Today, I’m really excited to talk about a project that our team has spent the last several months working on: optimizing ExperienceLife.com so it has a responsive design.

“What the heck is responsive design?” you might be thinking to yourself. “And why do I care?” Well, let me explain.

If you have a mobile phone or tablet, and you’ve visited ExperienceLife.com over the last year or two on that device (whether via our awesome “101 Ways” app, our newsletters or a random Google search), you probably noticed that our site was not optimized for mobile browsing. You had to use those fingers to pinch the screen and make the text bigger so you could read an article. You probably hit a button or link unintentionally because it was so small and tough to grab. Well I’m happy to report that is no longer the case!

As of 10 pm CST last night, ExperienceLife.com is optimized so that it will respond to the size of the device you’re on — basically, the site detects where you’re browsing from and then “snaps” to your device’s screen size. Rather than giving you a whole new experience, though, it keeps certain characteristics of the parent size (like navigation, for instance), so you can easily find your what you’re looking for.

So if you’re used to seeing this on our desktop version:

You’ll now see this when you visit via an iPad or similarly sized tablet:

And you’ll see this when you come from a handheld device:

Much improved, right?! There is still some clean up to be done and some quirks to be resolved, as is to be expected with the launch or re-launch of any major project, but we’re so excited to FINALLY be tablet- and mobile-friendly. Many, MANY thanks to our Twin Cities-based developer, Garrick Van Buren, for making this happen (and for his endless patience with our very nitpicky, detailed team!).

If you see anything strange on the version you’re viewing or have feedback in general, please feel free to email us at experiencelife@experiencelife.com — we’d love to hear your thoughts and do anything we can to further improve the experience.

Happy browsing!

Jamie Martin is the digital initiatives manager for Experience Life, as well as a yogi, aspiring home chef and book worm.

Issue Planning: September 2013

By Courtney Opdahl (@clewisopdahl) / January 29, 2013

We do a lot of collaborating at Experience Life, and thoughtful planning goes into each issue. The entire year is considered, starting with two big-picture concept meetings, narrowing in on topics of interest for each issue’s theme. Then we break each issue into smaller planning meetings, where editors can hone pitches, offer sources, brainstorm multimedia and online accompaniments, and get feedback from the team.

I’ve been using Evernote to keep track of story ideas, studies, stats, trends and other concepts I’m generally curious about. I can use the app on my laptop, iPhone and iPad (pictured below), since all the notes are synced, so when I’m out shopping at the grocery store, for example, I can note a new-to-me food to pitch for Confident Cook or a great-smelling shampoo for Worthy Goods. Later, when we are in a meeting, like we were today for the September issue, I was able to pull together all those ideas by searching for “September 2013 issue ideas.”

But some of our ideas come straight from our great readers. Case in point: We recently received a letter from a reader who was upset about a suggestion to use melatonin when struggling with sleeplessness. After doing some fact-checking, I discovered some controversy about the hormone, so I mentioned it to our health and nutrition editor, Anjula. And we pulled in our copy chief, Steve, to get his thoughts (he had come across the same video segments online that I had discovered), and our executive editor, Dave. Once we decided it needed further investigation, we found a home for it in News & Views for September.

The ideas can come from anywhere, and I think it’s especially cool when they make this kind of connection back to you, our readers. It’s the conversation coming full circle.

So, what stories do you want to read in an upcoming issue of Experience Life? Or what have liked in the magazine or wanted to know more about?

The Great Hair Experiment

By casielukes / January 24, 2013

This Christmas, I asked for used books from Amazon — because if there’s one thing I enjoy about a Midwestern winter, it’s the entitlement to stay inside, curl under a warm blanket with a cup of tea, and read. In other words, I go into “extreme hermit mode.” I digress …

One title I received is No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt, a resource I found while reading Beauty Makeover at http://ex periencelife.com/article/beauty-makeover/.

The authors cover products for hair, face, makeup, body, nails, and my personal favorite, “The Ingredient Blacklist.” They also outline the affects these ingredients have on your health. Although it starts a bit slow, the authors do a good job of easing the reader into the information, which is fairly disturbing, and providing healthy alternatives.

Take formaldehyde. Yes, the same substance used to embalm dead people. The Beauty Industry puts this substance in nail polish, makeup, bubble bath, baby lotions, hair dye, antiperspirant and shampoo. Classified by the International Agency for Research Cancer as a carcinogen, it can cause immune-system toxicity, liver problems, and be an irritant and allergen.

Who wants to be rubbing formaldehyde in their hair on a daily basis? Not me. Hence, my hair experiment. I have blonde curly hair. Curly hair I’ve tried to straighten my entire life — with a curling iron, flat iron, and clothes iron. I washed it daily with non-organic shampoo and conditioner. I attempted to calm it down with hair gel, hair spray, hair foam, hair oil. You name it, I’ve tried it. And you know what? It only got worse. It became dry, brittle, frizzy, and very, very unhealthy. (The food I used to eat wasn’t helping my cause either, another holistic aspect the authors touch on.) So I thought I’d try some of the suggestions in No More Dirty Looks for cleaning up my hair-care regimen.

I’m a skeptic, but I followed the recommendation to wash my hair backward. I wetted it down, put a quarter-size dollop of recommended conditioner into it, and let it sit. According to the book, our scalps produce sebum, a natural conditioner for our hair, which also protects us from infection. Since shampoo strips so much of it away, we begin over-producing sebum, causing our hair to appear greasy. Shampoo’s job is to grab and pull out excess dirt particles, making our hair feel clean. And it does its job well. So well, in fact, we need conditioner because it not only strips our natural scalp oils, it also strips all the helpful nutrients from our hair. This causes it to become overly dry, brittle, and more unmanageable. (I kept telling myself these things as I waited for the conditioner to soak in, imagining my roots being a greasy, nasty mess afterward.) I rinsed the conditioner out, used a bit of shampoo and a quick rinse. And it worked. My hair felt clean. It looked clean. And it dried in loose, soft, un-frizzy waves. The next day when I styled it, adding a few curls here and there with a curling iron, I had fewer fly-aways.

This technique is recommended by Horst Rechelbacher, the founder of Aveda (it also includes washing your entire body with conditioner, which I opted out of). Want to give it a try? Follow these easy steps:

Make sure you have good, organic shampoo and conditioner. (Some brands recommended by the authors include: Aubrey’s Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo, Dr. Hauschka Shampoo with Apricot and Sea Buckthorn, John Masters Organics Zinc and Sage Shampoo with Conditioner, Aubrey’s GPB Glycogen Protein Balancing Conditioner and Intelligent Nutrients Leave-In Conditioner.)
Wet your hair down.
Wash hair with quarter-sized amount of conditioner. Let it sit for a few minutes.
Rinse your hair.
Apply small amount of shampoo to hair, and rinse.
Towel off, and you’re good to go!

Feel free to visit http://nomoredirtylooks.com/ for more information! Also check out the links below for articles from Experience Life that offer more information about why we should all care about what’s in our personal-care products:

Beauty Beware: http://experiencelife.com/article/beauty-beware/
A Good Long Look: http://experiencelife.com/article/a-good-long-look/

Are there any special, pro-health hair tricks you swear by? I invite you to share them in the comments section below!

Come Fly with Me

By Heidi Wachter (@wachtergrrl) / January 22, 2013

I love (and am grateful for) going to exciting and fun places, but I don’t much care for airline travel itself. I tend to feel foggy-headed and nauseous during most of it. I also know planes are great incubators of various germs, an especially relevant concern during cold and flu season. It’s a bummer being sick, but especially so when you’re traveling.

I’m sure you’ve also noticed that airports have limited healthy eating options. It’s a sea of Big Macs, Whoppers, bagels, frozen yogurt and tiny bags of peanuts and pretzels.

The past few times I’ve traveled though, I’ve changed up some things to make it a bit more fun and healthier.

My pre-flight routine now includes using my neti pot to clean out my nasal passages. I also bought a nasal spray to take along as the neti pot is a bit cumbersome to carry in my luggage although it appears they do make travel versions. I got a tip on the nasal spray from some Experience Life twitter followers. It really does pay to be the community engagement specialist!

I follow up the neti pot process with a a series of sun salutations and stretches to get my blood flowing, calm my pre-flight jitters and to clean out my sinuses further.

I add a vitamin C with zinc tablet to my regular daily multivitamin, vitamin D and digestive enzyme regimen. I’ve actually been doing this all winter anytime I know I’m going to a party, the Experience Life office or any place it seems I may be in closer quarters with a lot of other people. So far, I’ve avoided getting a cold or the flu. That tapping sound you hear now is me knocking on wood.

Food wise, I pack my own snack bag. This helps me use up the things I may have on hand in my cupboard and refrigerator so that I don’t have to throw away food. What I end up eating is a little different each time depending on what’s on hand.

This trip, I found the following items in my vegetable bin and cabinet and they made for a pretty delicious and healthy alternative to the airport food options:

2 cups of raw almonds (I didn’t eat these all at once, but I knew I’d eat them at some point during my vacation.)
A KIND bar
2 clementines (more vitamin C!)
1 cucumber (that I sliced into wedges before I left home.)
A few slices of (a type of hard, cheddar) cheese along with some rice crackers.
2 squares of dark chocolate
The remainder of a bag of pre-washed spinach

I wasn’t sure how I’d like eating raw spinach with no dressing or mixed in with other yummy salad fixings, but it was actually really delicious and spinach is an excellent source of vitamin C and E, beta-carotene, manganese, zinc and selenium, making it an excellent antioxidant and travel companion.

My travel snacks were really good, but mostly they made me feel like I was doing something good for my body, which is just as important in my opinion.

Finally, after all the sitting on the plane, I did a little more yoga (I consider it a way to practice meditation on-the-go) at the gate to a few confused glances and a couple of smiles. I must be on to something here as I came across this article that reports some airports are opening yoga studios.

On my trip home, I’ll try out my nasal spray, pack my own lunch and do more yoga. This time, though, maybe I’ll ask if anyone wants to join me in a moment or two of pre-flight Zen.

Happy and healthy trails!

Heidi Wachter is the Community Engagement Specialist for Experience Life magazine.

Finding My Chi

By Jocelyn Stone (@jocelynstone) / January 17, 2013

(photo credit: adropp via photopin cc)

If you’ve read recent posts on this blog, you know that most of the Experience Life team participated in the Commitment Day 5K race here in Minneapolis. It’s been fun to hear everyone’s individual take on the race because, although we walked or ran the same route (in the same – 5-degree weather), it seems that each one of us had our own unique experience.

Personally, I had just barely enough energy after the race to make my way home, flop on the couch and take a two-hour nap. When I woke up, my lower limbs were stiff, my body felt like it weighed 1,000 pounds and my brain was so foggy, I couldn’t have carried on a semi-intelligent conversation. My only coherent thought was, I hope I never have to do another 5K — ever. And that was just from walking. Running has never been my thing.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Danny Dreyer, creator of ChiRunning and ChiWalking, for the Contributors’ Page that I write for the magazine, and he told me that with his system, you can actually have more energy after a run than before. “In fact,” he said, “I ran 17 miles yesterday, and I had to come home and find things to do to wind down.”

Hmm.

We talked more, and Dreyer explained in more detail his blending of running (or walking) with elements of Tai Chi to create the flow of “chi” (or energy) throughout the body. I was (and still am) intrigued — with a healthy dose of skepticism. (I kept saying things like, “In theory, that is so cool!” and Dreyer would just laugh at me.)

But, I admit it: I’m very fascinated. Run a few miles, and have even more energy afterward — can you imagine it? Needless to say, I’m off to start reading ChiRunning, and once the snow and ice melt, I’m going to see if I can start putting this “theory” into practice. Just think of all of the things I’ll be able to do with my extra energy!

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even enter another 5K this summer.

Illustration Creation: Thanks, but No Thanks

By Stephanie Glaros / January 15, 2013

Sketches, revisions, and final art for the article “Thanks, but No Thanks.”

One of my (many) goals in 2013 is to be more social. My husband and I are homebodies, and it’s sometimes easy to forget that we humans are essentially social beings. On the other hand, sometimes we get invited to social engagements that we just don’t want to attend for various reasons: sounds like too much work and/or money, have more pressing things to do, it’s been a long day, etc. The article “Thanks, but No Thanks” (Jan/Feb 2013) addresses the challenge of saying “no” without feeling guilty, or worse, making up a lie.

For the illustration, I called Aaron Leighton, whose graphic style and upbeat tone seemed perfect for the assignment (you may remember him from “The Art of Conversation” in our July/August 2012 issue).

For many illustrations, one of the big questions I ask myself is whether we should illustrate the problem (feeling stressed about having too many social invitations) or the solution (saying “no” gracefully). There’s no right or wrong answer, and Aaron offered us a sketch for each. We decided to go with the solution, and only asked him to adjust the colors.

In the end, the final illustration (bottom right) perfectly captures a woman saying “no” with confidence and grace.

Inspired to Make Mistakes

By Jamie Martin (@jamielmartin) / January 10, 2013

In addition to working full-time as the digital initiatives manager for Experience Life, I also teach one or two prenatal yoga classes per week at Blooma, a prenatal yoga studio here in the Twin Cities (my next blog post will be about why I got into this, so stay tuned!). As I was preparing for my usual Wednesday evening class last week, I went in search of an inspiring passage about the New Year to read during savasana, or final resting pose. Upon googling “New Year, inspiring quotes,” thousands of results were returned. It only took a few quick clicks and page scans, though, for me to find this one by author Neil Gaiman:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to make everything perfect (at work, at home, in my creative pursuits), that I freeze when they’re not just so. I hold back instead of pushing forward, instead of allowing myself to fail — to make mistakes.

So inspired by the passage above, I’m dedicating 2013 to taking more chances and putting myself out there in ways that are uncomfortable, challenging — even scary. This year, I’m going to make mistakes, learn from them and grow.

********************************************************

Completely unrelated to rest of my post above, here’s a picture of a delicious lunch I made myself at the office earlier this week — one that fellow editor Anjula Razdan said I had to share here. I found the recipe for the “Avocado Chicken Salad” on Pinterest, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The green salad, hummus and lentil crackers were team leftovers. YUM!

For the avocado chicken salad recipe, visit BecomingBetty.Blogspot.com.

Rethinking Resolutions

By Courtney Opdahl (@clewisopdahl) / January 8, 2013

Mainstream media can be irritating sometimes. Or all the time, depending on your perspective. And I say this as a person who has dedicated her education and career to media.

It’s a topic I examine frequently with my husband, who’s in sales — the lines of journalistic integrity, reader/viewer demand and thus sustainability of the publication or program, and responsibility to the greater good. What you need to know, what you should know and what you want to know. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. I’ll leave that complex conversation alone (although, if you want some fascinating opinions, check out Poynter.org).

If you’ve been following Experience Life for a while, you know that we buck trends (in fact, I’d like to think we set them, as is the case with cholesterol, a topic that I’m often pitched, only now, the blame in these press releases has started to shift to grain and sugar instead of food cholesterol). We value what works, we examine the research, and we focus on the interconnectedness of our bodies, minds, and spirits in relation to those around us. You won’t see a cover line about getting six-pack abs, nor will you receive a newsletter promising to help you ditch that muffin-top in 30 days. I read those magazines growing up, and man, did it mess up my perception of my body — and of beauty.

I thought beautiful was skinny and “lean,” like an underfed ballerina. Delicate. If I could be slight and petite like Audrey Hepburn, I’d be graceful. And those mainstream magazines reinforced this notion, convincing me to eat only 1,200 calories a day — no matter what my size or activity level — and push my body harder with a strictly cardio-focused routine, only lifting 5- to 8-pound weights for “definition.” During my sophomore year of high school, desperate to fit my size-4 body into size-0 jeans like the popular girl in school, I’d skip meals or only eat fruit, and would pass out frequently due to low blood sugar.

It’s hard enough to be a teenage girl without the suggestion to get “thinner thighs in 2 weeks” from those magazines. And the sad thing was, if you’re thinking it: These headlines weren’t just in women’s magazines in the ’90s. I found them in magazines marketed to teens.

So every year after Christmas, I’d pull together my favorite articles on losing weight and design a program for myself. I had a plan to win big at my New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. Looking back at photos makes me sad: I was a healthy, lovely child (well, except that sickly sophomore year when I wasn’t eating enough). Why on earth did I think I had to lose weight?!

When I’d fail at my resolutions, I’d feel defeated. I felt worthless. I wanted to make a miraculous change in my life and habits right now! On January 1! And the rest of the year I’d be perfect and awesome and victorious.

I’m 31 now, and not one of those New Year’s Resolutions has worked out as I wrote it. This isn’t to say that I’ve not accomplished some of my goals — they may have taken longer than a year to complete, or perhaps they changed along the way. And I don’t want to totally condemn the premise of New Year’s Resolutions. I believe the energy of renewal is empowering and the collective efforts this time of year can set you up for success. Setting intentions and working toward a new vision for 2013 is the stuff of bold and hopeful dreamers. And those dreamers, with determination, can make radical change happen.

But — and here’s what saved me — they don’t need to happen all at once. If the mainstream media has you all psyched, cool. I was jumping up and down, waving my hands in the air, feeling the vibes of a fresh start, too. But then I had to get real. I thought about what’s doable, how long these goals will actually take (I mean, it took me two years to lose 50 pounds, but in taking my time, I uncovered a parasite in my gut, a strong dislike of steady-state cardio in favor of weightlifting and interval training, and a new thought-process around food as nourishment — something that has always been lacking when I followed diets in the past).

As I’ve been pondering my own 2013 resolutions, I did some reading into our archives, and I came across this bit of advice from mind-body expert Jane Alexander:

People assume that if they’re going to make changes, they have to do it all at once starting January 1. My background in seasonal living tells me that’s all wrong. This really isn’t so much a season of action as a season of dreaming, imagining, examining and thinking. It’s a perfect time to curl up with books and journals, to explore options, to develop systems and lay the groundwork for changes we’ll embrace more fully in the spring.

It gave me permission to pace myself, dig in, and investigate the source of my goals before setting up a plan. Alexander recommends getting organized and journaling this time of year, and viewing your goals in terms of the entire calendar year (if you’d like to make small shifts in diet now, for example, go for it, but then maybe wait to try a detox until the warmer months when raw food might be more appealing).

Her advice is straightforward and even a bit simple, but for some reason, it was the yes, of course! recommendation that I’ve needed to read all these years. It helped me shush the mainstream push to take everything on all at once, and left room for consideration to priorities, needs and deepest desires. It was freeing advice, and it finally allowed me to forgive myself for all those lost resolutions and disappointments.

As Alexander says, if you do well with New Year’s Resolutions, great — keep going. But if my story sounds like yours, “give yourself permission to find something that does work. Invent your own ritual.”

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

By casielukes / January 3, 2013

Hello! I’m Casie Leigh Lukes, an editorial intern with Experience Life magazine. I’ve been with the magazine since June, when I moved back to my hometown of Spring Valley, Wis., from Greensboro, NC.

During my four years in North Carolina, I gained a passion for all things local: art, clothing, furniture, restaurants and food. I also changed my lifestyle. I went from subsisting off chicken nuggets, frozen pizza and Snackwells Fat-Free cookies, to eating mostly organic foods, real fats (butter, and coconut and olive oil), and more fruits and vegetables than other food groups (perhaps other than cheese!). I became protective of my sleep, rather than sleeping four hours a night. Instead of shopping with every extra dime I had for clothes, I began scaling back on purchases. I stopped filling every spare second of my time from 7 am to 3 am with school, projects, unpaid internships, work and a bit of social time. Now I fight for balance in my life — I exercise daily, take time to make and eat healthy meals, meditate, be present with those around me, sleep enough, shop less and continue to build my skills through internships and work. I watch endless documentaries on food, the economy, clothes, the environment, and human slavery. I desire to help people get and stay healthy.

Through my formal education (BA in English, Creative Writing and a MLIS in Library and Information Studies), and my education from those around me, I have realized how much power each individual has to make a mark on the Earth (whether negative or positive), and even more so, the importance of helping others when you’re in a position of power.

Through my experiences, I’ve been strengthened in my belief that everything in life is wildly interconnected. Even though I still love shopping, I find myself thinking more about where the items I’m purchasing have come from. Who made them? What are they made of? (Check out the Apparel Industry Trends Report for 2012.) This has translated from my first investigations of food: Is it real? What’s in it? Where was it grown? How were the people who grew and picked it treated?

I’m a lover of truth. And even though information can be overwhelming and poke at you until you make a change, if all the chips are on the table, you can move forward in integrity with the choices you make. The book pictured above, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Pulitzer-prize winning journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, is one example of a work that’s expanding my perspective, and challenging me to consider what changes I can make to help others.

Half the Sky is one of the most hard-hitting books I’ve read on the topic of sex trafficking — something I’ve been researching for six years. Covering sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality, the stories Kristof and WuDunn share are nothing less than bone chilling and anger invoking. And these things are not just happening in Cambodia, India and Nepal, but here in the United States as well (the Twin Cities in Minnesota, for instance, is the 13th most trafficked area in the United States: http://www.womenspress.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=2297).

Some examples accounted in the first 30 pages of the book include:

Women living in brothels, who are given no clothes or shoes (to prevent them from escaping or stealing money), receive consistent beatings, work 15 hours a day seven days a week, and occasionally escape to the police only to be taken back to the brothel (many officials are serviced for free);
Brothel owners giving young girls drug injections to gain compliance;
Girls rescued from brothels returning in desperate need to feed their meth addictions which were formed in the brothels

These realities are multi-faceted injustices to humanity that can seem hopeless. Some believe that caste systems and economics are to blame. Others are focused on the lack of education and oppression of women. Others say women choose to sell themselves to put food on the table when they feel all other avenues have run out. These are not isolated problems, but a complicated social, cultural and historical structure that are intertwined, creating a web that these girls and women are caught in.

So, if you’re interested, take a few moments to step back, see how the layers connect, and be a part of helping each other to help these women with the power you possess as an unslaved person. There are many organizations that are helping to rescue, educate and provide a healthy starting point for these girls, worldwide. Kristof and WuDunn depict sobering, but hopeful stories of triumph such as Srey Rath, a Cambodian teen girl who finally escapes a brothel (after being sold into sex slavery) and gets aid from American Assistance for Cambodia, to create a thriving retail business that supports her and her family.

At www.halftheskymovement.org/blog there are numerous endeavors to help women in these situations, including: Shutter to Think: Using Photography to Educate Girls Worldwide; Using Yoga Principles to Inspire Action Against Sex Trafficking; and Run-Away Bridesmaids Race to Fight Prostitution.

As I continue to journey through this book, I am hopeful that changes can be made and that I can be a part of them. It is naive to think that prostitution, trafficking, and lack of education for women in all countries can be entirely obliterated, but it is important to never stop trying. If we can provide a new life for just one person, it is worth it.

Visit www.halftheskymovement.org/ for more information on the book, documentary and movement.

A Few Organizations that Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Breaking Free: www.breakingfree.net

Civil Society: www.civsociety.org

End Slavery Now: http://www.endslaverynow.com/

Minnesota Girls Are Not For Sale: www.mngirlsnotforsale.org

Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org

www.humantrafficking.org

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Unedited

My Vision (Board) for the Future

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An Optimized Website!

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Issue Planning: September 2013

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The Great Hair Experiment

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Come Fly with Me

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Finding My Chi

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Inspired to Make Mistakes

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Rethinking Resolutions

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Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

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