Ah Valentine’s Day, that day of the year set aside for lovers and romance. Visions of Cupid in his cute little diaper with heart-shaped arrows flitting around making people’s soul mate dreams come true. Wait…what? A diaper? Who thought of that?! As a Mother, I assure you, there is NOTHING romantic about diapers… Anyway… I digress.

Valentine’s Day, the day of overpriced flowers, expensive chocolate and feathery lingerie. Thankfully, I am not stressed. No significant other means no searching through rows of ridiculously expensive cards to find one that expresses the right amount of “love” for a person I do not. So rather than concentrate on the whole V-Day hoopla, Andrea and I have put together our list of most hated “being single on Valentine’s Day drivel” for your entertainment.
(more…)

Dear Edmonton,

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…”

We’re proud to present the Love Letters to Edmonton writing contest.

Click here or on the image above to share your love letter to #yeg with us!

Contest is open now to March 14^th and multiple entries per person are encouraged.

Click here for official contest rules and regulations: Rules and regs – love letters

Prizes:

1^st:  A copy of the book “For the Love of Cities” by Peter Kageyama

2^nd: Chocolates from Kerstin’s Chocolates

3^rd: Three runner-up prizes of NextGen Swag

We look forward to reading your love letters & sharing the winning entries with all of our readers!

I’m working with a lovely couple who are having the same problems many couples have. Wilma doesn’t feel like she get her needs met and gets hurt, angry and critical. Her husband, Fred feeling criticized and attacked, gets defensive and either withdraws or lashes out angrily – both of which do nothing but add fuel to the fire.

Fred and Wilma came in for a few sessions and after a while they both agreed that they felt like they were “hamsters running around the same old treadmill, over and over again, blaming each other.” I told them that it’s worse than that. They aren’t just cute hamsters running along side one other, getting themselves tired and then ready for bed after a long hamster day together. They have become…

ZOMBIE HAMSTERS!

(more…)

February’s NextGen Speaks Out! theme will be relationships.

Relationships are more than just couples in love. They really come down to all sorts of connections we make each day. Some of those connections represent our inner circle. These are people who are close to our heart such as a parent and child, siblings, or the closest of our friends. Other connections fall into our outer circle. These connections are our acquaintances or friends such as coworkers or friends who aren’t “best” friends. Often we forget about that our relationships have greater reach than even that, think about your more ambiguous relationships. People also have an extended network that includes friends of friends or your social media “friends”. This group could also include people you’ve never met and for some people extends to their faith. This month we will be looking at relationships in the broader sense. We hope that you will find some humor and gain some insight through the blog posts. We may even inspire you to reflect on your own relationships to make positive changes.

We also want you to engage in discussion. Come on nextgener’s we know you have opinions and thoughts on these themes too. We’d love for you to comment, start a discussion, and share these posts with your networks.

Check back weekly as we will be adding new NextGen Speaks Out! posts regularly. We’re looking forward to it and hope you do too!

Disclaimer
NextGen Speaks Out, our guest blogging series, is envisioned as a hub for information and discussion. NextGen is a non-political, non-denominational organization focused on giving all nextgeners a voice. NextGen does not represent the opinions expressed by the individual columnists.

The tough get going; at least that is how the saying goes. Getting healthy and fit is not always an easy road to travel on. Even though I am a Leadership Coach and natural bodybuilder, I still find ‘being tough‘ isn’t always enough. I need motivation in my life to keep me energized, focused, and on the path of success.

I need to be inspired.

Inspiration brings light to my path when I find myself in the midst of a dark and lonely stretch in the journey. When obstacles, self loathing, and perceived lack of progress crowd in, I light the lamp of inspiration to see where I am going and remind myself that it can be done.

What are my inspirations and motivations?

(more…)

It’s too far away… I just do not have the time…. I really do not have the appropriate equipment to do it at home. Each one of those is a common excuse to either; not working out at the gym, or not working out at home. But if you could choose one or the other, which method is better: Going to the gym, or staying and working out at home? Each one has their own merits; it all depends on what you are looking for.
(more…)

Our bodies are meant to move, it feels good and keeps us healthy. Think back to when you were a kid, thrilled at the chance to run and play at recess. That feeling of freedom, getting to stretch your muscles, to chase after a ball or a friend….. Exercise makes your body healthy; your brain releases endorphins (chemicals that are reported to decrease pain and stress), your muscles get stronger, it just feels good.

There are many more benefits to moving around than there are for staying still.

(more…)

UPDATE: Visit the Edmonton Journal to watch all of the presentations from Pecha Kucha Night 12! We send a huge thank you to the Edmonton Journal, Ryan Jackson, and Kerry Powell for making this possible.

Edmonton’s NextGen presents Pecha Kucha Night 12, February 2, 212, at the Metro Cinema at the Garneau Theatre (8712 109 Street).

Doors and bar open at 6:30 p.m.; with presentations beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now at TIX on the Square; charge by phone at 780.420.1757 or online at www.tixonthesquare.ca.

Join the conversation on Twitter, hashtag #PKN12.

PKN12 features presentations on local ideas, projects and musings in the 20 slides x 20 second per slide format made popular world-wide by Klein Dytham Architecture.

A first for Pecha Kucha Nights in Edmonton, PKN12 features live music from Kevin Marsh and Jill Roszell.

(more…)

It’s the second week of January and for many, the excitement of their January resolution has already worn off. Perhaps you never started or it was more difficult than you thought or you actually didn’t even know where to begin! You’re not alone – 80% of people make at least one resolution come January 1^st and a whopping 88% of those people don’t make that resolution a reality!!

It doesn’t need to be that way though (and even though it’s not January 1^st, you could start again, no one has to be the wiser). Let’s look at the top 3 reasons people are unsuccessful and how you can be one of the 12% fulfilling your goal this 2012.
(more…)

Edmonton’s NextGen is a hub for connecting people, places, community and ideas together. We want to host conversations that empower our community by providing a platform for different voices that will spark interesting discussions based on ideas and opinions from various thought leaders in Edmonton. Our city is filled with talented, energetic and a community-oriented individuals who actively work to make Edmonton a better place to be for now and generations to come. 

We are getting our peers to help us out. We are happy to introduce our new guest blogging series “NextGen Speaks Out” . With a different theme each month, this feature will showcase a variety of Edmontonians who are influencers or “experts” on that month’s theme. The series is named NextGen Speaks Out because speaking out is defined as the ability to talk freely and fearlessly, about a public issue. With each new post we not only encourage our community to read and share the ideas and opinions brought forward by the guest blogger but also to also engage in conversation and discussion in the comment section or in other social realms.

January’s Next Gen Speaks Out theme is Health and Fitness.  Especially at this time of year, Health and Fitness is a theme on the forefront of people’s minds, whether as a result of a resolution to get healthy, becoming more fit, losing weight or because of a looming winter vacation to somewhere tropical. We anticipate that you will get informed, pick up tips, share your successes or setbacks, and maybe even look at it from a different point for view.

Check back weekly as we will be adding new NextGen Speaks Out posts regularly. We’re looking forward to it and hope you do too!

Disclaimer
NextGen Speaks Out, our guest blogging series, is envisioned as a hub for information and discussion. NextGen is a non-political, non-denominational organization focused on giving all nextgeners a voice. NextGen does not represent the opinions expressed by the individual columnists.