Spa Week Daily & Yogi Elena Brower have issues a challenge – can you stop everything, sit and breathe for five minutes every day?

Somehow, this challenge spoke to me. I have been trying to make a conscious effort to breathe deeply. I’m a stress monger and find I take short, rapid breaths in my attempts to keep moving and get everything accomplished. I have let it get so bad that I have an ache around my middle.

It’s hard to stop and take those deep, healing breaths.

Here’s what you need to do – pledge to breathe consciously for 5 minutes a day every day for 2 weeks. Sit by yourself and listen to your inner talk. Breathe without judgement in no special place and at no special time.

Elena’s breathing tips:

TIP 1: Oxygenate as much as possible, breathing through your nose as much as you can, as that cleanses the breath most efficiently and leaves you with the gold.

TIP 2: Particularly when you’re feeling sad-mad-tense-scared-doubtful, breathe fully into your belly until you feel more settled in your heart and your mind.

The official 2 week challenge began Aug. 11th but in my normal functions of running behind while trying to keep up, I’m a week behind. The important thing is not when you start this but that you start it. I’m starting today.

You can RSVP to the event on Facebook and be entered to win a $50 Spa Week Gift Card. You can also share your story of success or struggle on their wall.

I’m also including Elena’s 11 Tips for Being Remarkable. I’m printing it off and reminding myself everyday. All 11 traits I’d like to practice on a daily basis -

Note: I have not been compensated in anyway by Spa Week for this post. This is something I believe in, am doing myself and want to share with my friends.

I admit it, I hold companies to high standards of customer service. I really think most of us do. If we choose to give some of our hard earned money to a company for a service or product, we expect that company to respect us and give us the service we deserve in exchange. There’s always another store or brand waiting in the wings, ready to scoop us up and give us better service.

I have experienced so many bad customer service events I could fill my blog up with them. They’ve made my blood boil, made it memorable and inscribe a bad feeling about the company forever in my mind. There are many bran

ds and stores I will not patronize again.

Bad customer service today is as common as rental car desks at the airport.

Speaking of rental car companies at the airport, I recently had a bad customer service

experience with a rental car company at the Oakland Airport.

Before ever stepping foot in the Oakland Airport, I had made a conscience decision not to let my blood boil over bad customer service. The high blood pressure just isn’t worth it and it is going to happen over and over again. It’s part of life. Deep breaths. Not deep feelings. Don’t take it personally.

As I was signing my credit card receipt at the Dollar Cars rental counter in Oakland I realized the charge was a lot higher than what I had on my rental agreement. I asked the guy behind the counter. He scratched his head and made a call. My agreement showed a $135 rate, the computer showed $212.

The guy handed me the phone. I spoke with a woman who explained to me that my rate was $212. I explained that I showed $135. She explained it was $212. I explained…you get the picture.

I asked her if there was anything she was going to do to make this right, She placed me on hold. She came back and informed me the rate was $212. She also told me to take my grievance up with Expedia (where I booked it). I ended the call

and walked from the desk. They were not going to back down and neither was I, even if I was stranded in another city. Even if I needed a car to leave the airport. Even if I was going to have to pay more than $212 somewhere else.

We tried two other car rental places that quoted over $300. Our last try was Enterprise. They couldn’t match the rate on the paper but came very close. Raul tried hard to help us out as our daughters ran around the car rental area, begging to leave it. Enterprise was our hero. They sympathized with us, then helped us out and got us on our way.

Dollar looked bad. Angry, but not boiling, I sent out a Tweet –

That night I sat on hold with Expedia for 20 minutes before giving up.

We went to a remote area of northern Calfornia and I didn’t have an Internet connection for several days. When we returned, I checked my Twitter account. I had a message from @DollarCars asking to contact them about my experience.

I also wrote an email to Expedia, which was responded back with a form letter –

After several DM’s back and forth on Twitter with Julie @DollarCars, an email with a scan of my reservation, three phone calls and a week later, I spoke to Jacqueline, a customer service person at Dollar.

She apologized and told me the agent should have honored the rate. She had no idea how I

had received the lower rate, as it was not the published rate, but nevertheless it should have been honored. She let me tell her about my experience and the frustration I felt. She told me she would speak with the manager in Oakland to make sure this wouldn’t happen again and would find out who I spoke with on the phone to correct that end.

Jacqueline is also sending me a voucher just in case I’d like to try Dollar again. I smiled when she said she understood I probably wouldn’t want to give it a try in Oakland, but hoped I would try another location.

She followed the basic rules of customer service –

1. Listen to the customer, let them rant
2. Apologize
3. Sympathize with the customer
4. Make it right

I would never ever ever want to be in customer service. It’s a hard job. Listening to whiny,angry, disgruntled people all day and taking it all with a smile. Some get cussed out and besieged upon by customers. They have to put up with

a lot. But as Jacqueline demonstrated, customer service is also rewarding. I hung up the phone feeling good. Yes, I had a bad experience and had landed a bad customer service person at the start, but I was treated with respect and sympathy in the end. One customer service agent lost a customer. Two fabulous customer service people worked hard to bring back that customer. Thank you Dollar Cars, I’m impressed. And Enterprise, thank you for treating me with respect from the beginning and helping me out in my time of need. I haven’t forgotten it.

As an aside, I will be booking my travel through each company vs through a website like Expedia. No one knows where my “bad” quote came from, but if there is a chance a company will not honor an Expedia rate in the future and Expedia will only send me a form letter, I will not gamble with my travel budget in hopes of saving a buck. Deal with the company directly.

In my 18th year, I found a grey hair. I was baffled and confused. I was 18 and I had a grey hair. Was this really how the aging process worked? Turn 18, things start to change.

Not long after that, I found another. And another. Every time I looked, I had twice as many as I had had the last time. I decided this was the time to start experimenting with hair color. I went dark brown. I tried light brown. Red. Dark Purple. Nothing too crazy but it was all experimental and fun.

Then I lost interest and let it grow out. The greys started showing up with a vengeance. I realized if I was going to look my age (mid-twenties) I was going to have to make hair coloring a regular thing. By the time I reached 30 and had my first daughter, I could tell by my roots that the beautiful auburn was gone. Completely replaced with grey. If I laxed, I would get a skunk stripe along my part. Not attractive. With a new baby, job and more I didn’t have time to keep up with it. I tried to part it differently, tilt my head backward when talking to people, and more until I had a chance to cover it up. I didn’t like it, but it was a part of life for me. If it grew out a little too much, life didn’t end. I’d get to it when I could get to it.

I even had a person that I worked with at the time tell me he had noticed something about me when we had both attended a party over one weekend. He said it was something he was going to use to hurt me when he needed to in the future. Yes, he was mean and he sucked. I was tortured by this threat. I couldn’t figure out what he had figured out about me that would hurt me at an opportune moment. Finally, he told me he had noticed I needed to color my hair. He saw grey roots. THE HORROR! I laughed and was so relieved. Grey hair? Seriously. Ew ouch. That hurts. Whatever.

Because I had gone grey so young, it never really bothered me. I enjoyed renewing myself every 6-8 weeks and putting on a fresh color. I don’t enjoy the process, but I love the results. I still slightly vary my hair color every time I color it.

I have had grey hairs all my adult life. My paternal grandmother shared that she had begun to go grey at 18 too. You can’t mess with genetics. Now that I’m approaching the end of my thirties, I know several women that have begun to find greys and are having a hard time handling the change. It is a sign of growing older. I saw the sign about 20 years ago. I’m not ashamed or upset by my greys. They are a part of me. Sure I cover them up, I don’t want to look old. But I’m not affected by them like other women my age.

As I get older, I get more comfortable with who I am. I’m figuring it all out. But not everything. I still have a long way to go on my journey. I just hope I can handle the wrinkles, the reading glasses, the age spots, the aches and pains and the rest of the aging process as well as I live with my grey.

I’m not someone to shy away from admitting I’m wrong or that I made a mistake. They say when you are going to make a mistake, make it big. So that’s what I did.

I’m the city editor for Denver Savvy Source. I held a contest to give away tickets to Disney on Ice this week in Denver. I put the wrong venue on my article. Ugh. Not only that, but my winner went to that wrong venue to claim her winning tickets. She was devastated, her kids were devastated and they missed the show.

She contacted me the next morning and my heart ripped out. I felt horrible. Awful. I wished I could turn back the clock and make it right for them. As a mom, I know what it’s like to handle that kind of disappointment with your children. It’s heart wrenching. Did I mention I felt awful?

Of course I had excuses for the mistake. I am a very detail-oriented person. Calendars up the wazoo, to do lists, planning, scheduling, double checking. I live my details. But when I posted this article, I was distracted. There’s a lot going on in my life right now…we’ve just put our first house on the market. Scary? Yes. Stressful? Immensely. I lost a good friend suddenly recently. There’s all the other life stresses and other issues to keep up with. And I’m working on overcoming a huge hurt. Auto pilot and out to lunch is an understatement.

That doesn’t excuse sending a family to the wrong location.

Fortunately, the Disney people are good people. Great people. They gave my winner a VIP ticket package for tonight. Thank you Disney…you prove once again that you are a class act.

For anyone in Denver who wants to see Disney on Ice it’s at the Denver Coliseum. Yes, I’ve doubled, triple and quadruple checked my facts. It’s at the Denver Coliseum March 10th-14th. And then it moves to the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland from March 18th-21st. Go to the Ticketmaster website for showtimes and ticket prices.

Discount Code:
Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for only $44 for weekday performances or receive $4 off weekend tickets by entering the code: MOM4 at: www.Ticketmaster.com or call 1-800-745-3000

(Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required for 4-pack; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each.Offer not valid on Front Row or VIP seating. Cannot be combined with other offers. Service charges and handling fees will apply.)

Just to pour salt in my wounds…I had been looking forward to this show for months. I’ve heard it’s one of the best Disney ice shows out there. But my children have been sick and I came down with it in time for the show Wednesday. My family missed the show. The wonderful Disney people offered us additional tickets for tonight, but it didn’t work with scheduling. Disney is a class act.

I am so excited to announce that I was chosen by Mom Central to be a Brand Ambassador for The View. I love The View and try to sneak it in when I can. I don’t get to see every episode due to my work schedule and children, but I watch snippets when I can and keep it recording on my DVR.

I have always enjoyed Joy Behar and her insightful comments. I haven’t had a chance to check out her new show, maybe I should put that on my DVR too.

The View made it’s best decision by bringing on Whoopi Goldberg. I have always been a fan of Whoopi, but find her voice of reason on The View so refreshing, positive and most importantly true. Whoopi speaks not to politics, politicians or what’s polite. She says it as it is, doesn’t hold punches and puts it out there. Maybe Whoopi should run for public office.

Joy and Whoopi are my favorites, but I love all the girls, their Hot Topics and guests. I can’t wait to hear what will be discussed each day on The View.

Now you can win a trip to New York City with a friend to watch a taping of The View. Fill out the Mom Central survey by February 28th for a chance to win.

For a schedule or more on The View, check out their website.

I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other The View branded items to facilitate my review.