Copyright © 2001 by Margie Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Blogger’s Note: Margie wrote this shortly after September 11, 2001. This article is still a timely way to reframe our “brave new world” and provides perspective and a process for responding to challenging, world-changing, and/or crisis situations.

Several weeks now have passed since September 11th. We will undoubtedly always recall when we first heard of the tragedy, who we were with, where we were. In one form or another, we, along with our fellow Americans, have been grieving since then. We have checked in with family and friends who are either in NYC, Washington, DC or Pennsylvania or who may have known people involved. We’ve sent money and given blood. We’ve been participating in one or more of the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of candlelight vigils held in communities around America and hanging flags in our offices and homes in an effort to unite further with our fellow citizens, and, yes, with ourselves.

And now, we’re told that the best thing to do is to return to “normal,” to continue our lives as before. Yet some of us are wondering what that concept means: what’s “normal”? How do I begin to live what I knew as a “normal” life again? Even Daniel Shorr reflected on National Public Radio on September 24, “How can we return to normal when life is not normal at all?” (more…)

Copyright 2004 Margie Ingram. All rights reserved.
Blogger’s Note: This article was written in the Spring of 2004. Since the only constant in life is change, we wanted to share this timely and timeless article with you.

Transitions: they’re a part of nature. They are all about us. Seasons change, and this time of year, children are graduating, young couples are marrying and people are selling their homes and moving.

Transition is also a natural part of our human world and is a topic that I have been leading programs on for the last 24 years. Along the way, I have realized that “learning about,” “teaching about,” and “living through” these experiences can go hand-in-hand-in-hand.

(more…)

By E. J. Haley for SPICE magazine, January 2006

We’ve all heard it before, but where personal wellness is concerned, laughter really is the best medicine. And it’s that kind of medicine that Margie Ingram and her partner, Dr. Joel Goodman of the Humor Project, Inc., are prescribing to affect a positive difference in the world.

Based in Saratoga Springs, The Humor Project, Inc., was founded in 1977 “as the first organization in the world to focus full-time on the positive power of humor.” Recently, Ingram turned her 30 years of expertise into a focus on a growing trend in social and professional transformative counseling – life coaching. The aim of life coaching is helping people to make life-changing transitions and gain successes in their personal and professional lives.

(more…)