Blog Posts by Sarah McColl, Shine staff

Yesterday I stood on a lushly green college campus and watched as 500 fresh-faced twenty-somethings threw their caps into the air. It was an event appropriately filled with pomp, circumstance, and century-old traditions still firmly rooted in place. But as my husband and I drove out of the bucolic small town and back to the big bad city, we got to talking about the importance of ritual and tradition, and how they both seem to vanish in adulthood.

Our early lives are filled with ceremonial doors to pass through, with the beginning and end of each school year (not to mention semesters and midterms) providing structure and a feeling of progression for the first eighteen years of our lives. Then, without warning, we are thrust into a world with its seemingly never-ending progression of days, commuting, working, and paying bills until the next big punctuations of marriage, childbirth, and death. Fun, right?

This is why bringing rituals into our everyday lives is such an important--and

I wouldn't mind my own personal Oprah: someone I could sit down with who could help me identify my goals, live my life's purpose, and become self-actualized and Zen-like. And in our own way, that's what Real-Life Makeover is all about: helping you to transform your life in the way that works for you (we're still working on the Zen part).

Enter Coaching Sanctuary, a new online community life coaching site that brings the coaching experience to those of us on a budget. Here, co-creator Bettina Jetter gets us started on questions to ask ourselves, how to form a game plan, and some Real Talk about how change really happens (hint: there's no magic pill).

ASK YOURSELF TWO QUESTIONS

1. What gives me joy and energy?

"Women are outstanding supporters of their family and friends, and they're great team players. But when it comes to focusing on themselves, taking some time for themselves, and identifying what they like doing, women don't always serve themselves as well," says Jetter. Get

The aging process sometimes seems like nature's cruelest joke, but a new study shows there might actually be an upside to growing older. On average, survey respondents reported being less worried after 50, with people in their 70s and 80s the least likely to report negative emotions.

The findings shocked Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside who studies happiness. "That's really surprising that people in their 80s are happier than in their 70s and 60s. That's almost shocking, and not consistent with everything I've seen."

Less ground-breaking results of the study, perhaps, regard the emotions of ages on the younger end of the spectrum, in which respondents reported being less stressed and angry in the years after their 20s. Those who have lived through their 20s would likely say that it wasn't the buffet of free-wheeling fun we see on TV. Reality check: twenty-somethings are at the beginning of their careers with lower-paying jobs

Who isn't seduced by the idea of possibility? And when it comes to our wardrobes, the idea of one purchase yielding numerous results is pretty appealing, especially when you've got a clothing budget the size of Rachel Zoe's wrist. We rounded up some of the cutest wardrobe multitaskers in the form of dresses that become skirts, tops that become dresses, and reversible pieces that go from pretty to professional. How's that for options?

I have a meeting coming up this week that's got me a little worried, and I spent more time this weekend than I care to admit letting those worries set up shop in my thoughts. Worry can have it's place in life --- if it encourages us to act and incites life-improving change (my worry could have gotten me super prepared for said meeting, for example), it's serving its purpose. But if worrying has just become habit, with idle fretting and rumination a general way to cope with the world at large, it might be time to nip it in the bud. Here are five ways to deal with worry in your life:

1. Accept uncertainty.
   Oftentimes, worry can be a persistent fear of the unknown. But what's so great about certainty? Think of those movies in which characters ask to know the future of their lives from an all-knowing oracle, only to then feel like prisoners of that knowledge. Ask yourself some questions: Is it possible to be certain about everything in life? How could uncertainty be helpful? If

When I was little, I used to ride around the neighborhood on my Huffy 8-speed pretending I was 90210's Kelly Taylor in my red BMW convertible. The wind would whip through my hair, and I practiced my haughty smile at intersections. Even childhood play isn't always as innocent as it looks.

Later, when I was the picture of an awkward preteen, my bike stood for freedom. My parents were freshly and bitterly divorced, but if I could get on my bike and ride to the library to check out Go Ask Alice for the third time or climb the hill nearby with a grassy overlook, I could coast away from all of that.

A lot of us have that attachment to our bicycles when we're young. We're small and beholden to our parents decisions about bedtime, what's for dinner, and pretty much everything else. But if we have a bike, we can steer the way ourselves. It's a pretty powerful taste of freedom, and why, even though I never ride it, I have a red vintage Motobecane leaning against the living room wall.

May is

When a book not only turns on a light bulb but shines a spotlight onto the way you feel about food, it's hard to begin to write about it in the usual pithy blog ways. The internet isn't all that well-suited to dramatic proclamations, but with a book with a title as heavy as Women Food and God, it seems we have no choice. So here goes: If you've ever been on a diet, hated your thighs, zoned out with a bag of potato chips, or felt that you could get your life clicking along if you could only lose 5, 50, or 100 pounds, you have to read this book. And given those parameters, that should pretty much mean all of you.

I first read an excerpt of Women Food and God in a magazine. And for as many times as you've heard that your issues with food aren't really about food, this was the first time that someone could articulate these ideas in a way that made me go whoa. It's not just because you had a crappy childhood or because you have low self-esteem (all those things usually play a part, too).

Foul Play Soundtrack/ParamountWatching Goldie Hawn in Foul Play on Sunday night, I was confronted with my new hair: bouncy, feathery, but still modern, it's a 'do that says "fox" loud and clear. But contrasted with Hawn's character's buttoned-up librarian look of tweed blazers, long skirts, shetland sweaters, and peter pan collars, it's a style as understatedly sexy as ever. And this got me thinking: what are some of the most underrated fashionable movies?

Movies, especially old ones, are a great way to infuse your wardrobe with a new shot of style because movie looks are so fully realized. A team of people came up with storyboards and sorted through racks of clothing to come up with a cohesive look that matches a character. That's the kind of wardrobe support most of us long for.

But if you're looking for inspiration, movies can be the best place to get it, and I'm not just talking about the Edith Head-designed glories of Rear Window or Diane Keaton's still-badass rumpled look in Annie Hall. What about the