For the last 20 years, Loretta LaRoche has been delighting readers, audiences, and PBS television viewers with her wacky and wise insights about life, love, and the insanity of the modern world. Now, in her most deeply personal book yet, Loretta addresses the most exciting challenge that we all face—one that she now finds herself facing every day: How do we age well? And can humor, dignity, honesty, wisdom, and other virtues ease the path? Our society is youth obsessed: Beauty products, special exercises, designer vitamins, plastic surgery, and certain medications are promoted as “the” ways to enhance life. While these formulas may have some merit, they’re not enough to prepare us to have a rich, authentic life filled with passion and juiciness. Why do we wait until we’re almost dead before we focus on how to age well? Every school system in the country should be preparing us for the inevitable process of aging and how to do it well. Our parents, our schools, and the media should all be teaching us that aging is a process that begins at birth . . . not something to be feared and avoided. Those who continue to be hardy and live long and healthy lives understand that the real path to vitality requires connection, playfulness, flexibility, grace, tenacity, resiliency, curiosity, learning, and good humor. With her trademark humor and practical wisdom, Loretta tackles how to live a long, healthy, juicy life—using herself and many of her friends and mentors as metaphors. Filled with practical advice, lifestyle skills, wisdom, and spirituality, Kick Up Your Heels . . . is a mental health spa that will inspire you and your family to live with joy, harmony, and peace while you still have the time!

Loretta LaRoche has delighted readers, audiences, and PBS television viewers with her wacky and wise insights about life, love, and the insanity of the modern world. In her most deeply personal book, Loretta addresses the most exciting challenge that we all face—one that she now finds herself facing every day: How do we age well? And can humor, dignity, honesty, wisdom, and other virtues ease the path? Our society is youth obsessed: Beauty products, special exercises, designer vitamins, plastic surgery, and certain medications are promoted as "the" ways to enhance life. While these formulas may have some merit, they’re not enough to prepare us to have a rich, authentic life filled with passion and juiciness. Why do we wait until we’re almost dead before we focus on how to age well? Every school system in the country should be preparing us for the inevitable process of aging and how to do it well. Our parents, our schools, and the media should all be teaching us that aging is a process that begins at birth . . . not something to be feared and avoided. Those who continue to be hardy and live long and healthy lives understand that the real path to vitality requires connection, playfulness, flexibility, grace, tenacity, resiliency, curiosity, learning, and good humor. With her trademark humor and practical wisdom, Loretta tackles how to live a long, healthy, juicy life—using herself and many of her friends and mentors as metaphors. Filled with practical advice, lifestyle skills, wisdom, and spirituality, Kick Up Your Heels . . . is a mental health spa that will inspire you and your family to live with joy, harmony, and peace while you still have the time!

Loretta La Roche has helped millions of people find ways to lighten up and overcome stress. Now, in Life Is Short—Wear Your Party Pants, she gives you the tools you need to not only reduce feelings of tension, but also to bring joy, passion, and gusto into your life. Her techniques are a brilliant blend of old-world common sense and the most contemporary research in brain chemistry, psychology, and mind-body studies. Loretta gives you dozens of proven techniques for recognizing the ten simple truths that will lead you to an intense, happy, successful life: resilience, living in the moment, optimism, acceptance, humor, creativity, moderation, responsibility, meaning, and connection. Loretta’s wisdom evolved from her own life—one filled with the demands of being a single mother of three; of starting her own business when she was broke; and of the wacky invasiveness of her Italian family. She’s like all of us: real, flawed, stressed out, and on edge. Her magic comes from an ability to not take herself too seriously, and to always shift her focus away from the self-destructive and toward the truly important things in life. In her work, Loretta has seen tens of thousands of people who live their lives as if they’re sitting in a waiting room, hoping that their turn comes up next. This book will show you that life is not something to be endured, but is something to be truly appreciated. We need to remember how to access our inner abundance, which allows us to be heart-centered, joy-filled human beings. As Loretta says: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift—that’s why they call it the present."