Phil Milgrom’s workshops and presentations inspire you to bring more heart and humor to life. When you have your whole heart in what you do and open to the positive feelings of the heart, the result is powerful beyond expectation. As scientific research reveals, the intelligence and power of the heart brings clarity and peak performance: you work better, think better, feel better, and relate better. Putting your whole heart into your work does not mean sacrificing your time, family, and health. You save time because you work more efficiently. You improve your health because your heart, nervous system, and immune system work more coherently.

Likewise, when you bring humor and fun to life, you improve your:

• Morale
• Productivity
• Health
• Relationships

Phil defines a healthy sense of humor as a creative way of being and responding that generates:

• Insight
• Inspiration
• Stress relief
• Joy
• Fresh perspective

A sense of humor can help you find greater harmony within yourself, with others, and with the world around you.

Phil brings heart and humor to his presentations so that you can experience the rewards firsthand. His presentations and workshops are inspiring and humorous, educational and entertaining, engaging and fun. You leave with an experience you will always remember and with tools that will transform your life for the better.

Living Heartier, Healthier,
and Happier Ever Laughter

With this presentation, Phil explains what constitutes optimum health and invites you to explore the healing power of being good natured and the most effective ways to nurture your good nature. You will:

• Appreciate the importance of developing inner fitness as well as physical fitness
• Learn how to bring more heart and light to your life and to those around you
• Experience the benefits that heart and humor bring to your mind, body, and emotions
• Discover why it is said that one who gives and laughs most, lives and lasts most

Putting Heart and Humor to Work:
Transforming the Way
You Think, Work, and Live

This workshop encourages participants to bring more uncommon sense (thinking out of the box), more heart, and a healthy sense of humor to work. Doing so improves outlook, morale, productivity, and teamwork. It bolsters one’s defenses against stress.
     Contrary to what is often taught traditionally, fun and laughter do mix well with work. In the book In Search Of Excellence, an American business management "bible" since 1982, authors Tom Peters and Robert Waterman state that the one common characteristic shared by all the best-managed companies they studied was that employees were having fun and laughing often. In addition to enhancing morale and productivity, it improves health and reduces absenteeism. Workers become more engaged in their work and with one another, and as a result, a synergy develops that brings greater reward.

Living, Loving, and Laughing with Stress

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” —Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
     “Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.” —Stephen Covey, “Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit," Priorities magazine
      Success, health, and happiness depend little, if at all, on our circumstances. Most important is how we respond to our circumstances. We cannot control all the events that cause stress in our lives, but we can learn how to respond to them in healthier, more productive ways. We can connect with our inner strength and take care of ourselves in ways that protect us from the sources and harmful effects of stress. This workshop teaches you how to face life’s challenges with more grace, freedom, and success. You will learn to move from being under stress to being over it.

“In the same way that isometric exercises use resistance to build muscular strength, difficult circumstances that pull us away from our center offer us an opportunity to strengthen the spiritual muscles that bring us to our center. Physical muscles lift weight; spiritual muscles lift humanity.” —Phil Milgrom

Stress Management for the Caregiver

Caring for others can be exhausting, disheartening, and stressful. Most stressful is neglecting to care for yourself. When you don't take care of yourself, your ability to care for others dwindles. In this experiential session, you will learn simple, quick techniques for protecting yourself from stress and for rekindling your strength, patience, and well being. The little time it takes to care for yourself can bring you better times even in the worst of times.

Healing Happy Holidays:
How to Keep the Peace and Joy In
and the Stress Out

For too many people, the holidays bring anxiety and fear—fear of being shopping malled, party pooped, over invited, or not invited at all. While we know the holiday season is meant to be joyous and peaceful, we all too frequently end up depressed and stressed.
      With this presentation, Phil Milgrom helps you take the right steps forward for a season that is truly healing, restorative, joyful, and peaceful. The presentation will be informative and entertaining, inspiring and fun. You will leave with your heart lifted and your funny bones strengthened.
      Whether you plan to celebrate Solstice, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or Christmas, you will find a way to celebrate and recuperate during the season rather than having to wait until it is all over.
     Notice: If you have never engaged in laughter, felt cheerful, or experienced peace before, consult with your health practitioner before attending this session (or any of Phil’s sessions).

Cycles of Depression and How to
Cycle Your Way Out of Depression

Everyone knows that depression is not limited to economies: it can and does hit a significant number of individuals. Reports indicate that approximately 20 million Americans are suffering from depression at any given moment today; depression is 10 times more prevalent now than it was in the 60's. In this workshop, Phil Milgrom introduces you to the "New Deal" approach to overcoming depression. You will better understand the common causes of depression and learn ways to live with it and to lift yourself out of it.

Play for Healing, Rejuvenation, and Wholeness — A Workshop That's Just for Fun

Many great philosophers, healers, educators, and business leaders have exulted the value of play for wholeness, health, learning, and productivity, yet today play is often shunned as useless and a waste of time. The closest many of us get to play is alongside a sports field or in front of a TV set as spectators watching others play. Highly competitive sports activities are usually open to a selective few, and they can often bring out the worst of us. Instead of enjoying play, we end up fighting to win and losing the fun.
     But there is a better, healthier way to play that we must keep alive, and which will help keep us vibrantly alive as well. Leo Buscaglia once said: "The human need to play is a powerful one. When we ignore it, we feel something is missing in our lives." In this playshop, you will explore that missing piece and bring to life your playful genius.

Humor as a Faith Lift:
Humor, Health, and Holiness

As a visiting lecturer to churches, synagogues and church groups, Phil has presented this as a sermon. He teaches how humor can uplift us — giving us a leap of faith when the spirit sags. Humor offsets the gravity of life, reduces the negative effects of aging, and keeps us loose when life seems to do all it can to make us tight. Humor can bring us closer to one another, and closer to our Source. Scriptures such as the Bible, Koran, and Talmud, as well as the teachings of native Americans, glorify humor and good cheer. A Japanese proverb states: "Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods." This presentation is an opportunity to spend time laughing with the gods!

What to Do When Your Back Goes Out
More Often Than You Do

If you are someone whose back goes out more often than you do, do not despair! You are not alone: 80% of us will have a back problem sometime in our lives. Next to the common cold, back pain is the most common malady in the United States. In fact, low back pain is the leading cause of restricted movement and disability between the ages of 19 and 45.
     Many people who suffer from severe back pain believe that their only resort is surgery. This is tragic, because the amount of pain one suffers has little to do with the efficacy of surgery. Despite extensive medical literature on unsuccessful surgery and evidence that repeat procedures rarely improve outcomes, there are numerous examples of patients who have had as many as 20 spine operations. What's more, surgery for back pain is twice as frequent in the United States as in most developed countries, and five times as frequent as in Great Britain.
     What alternative do we have other than surgery? Phil Milgrom, a yoga teacher since the mid-seventies, explores the answer to this question, introducing to you the best practices for helping relieve back pain and for keeping your back healthy (and the rest of you, including neck and shoulders!).

Add More Years to Your Life
and More Life to Your Years

"Youth is not a time of life… It is a state of mind. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." —Samuel Ullman
      Longevity is not meant to be a goal in itself. People can live long lives but still be miserable. When you live well with heart and soul, the years are more likely to be plentiful. But more importantly, they are going to be joyful for you and for those you come in contact with. Here, Phil Milgrom introduces the principles of living a healthy life that bring more cheers as well as years.

How to Worry Less
in Times That That Would Have You Worry More

”Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” ~ Corrie ten Boom, survivor of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and knighted by the Queen of Holland for her heroics
      The word "worry" comes from an Old English word that means to choke or strangle. That is what we do to ourselves when we worry. In this workshop, Phil Milgrom teaches you how to empower yourself rather than choke. He teaches you how to be free from worrying while still being able to care. Worry comes from the head while care comes from the heart. Worry burns you out (and keeps you up all night), while care energizes you (and what better sleep is there than knowing you cared?].
     Phil teaches you how to control and quiet your mind so that you can gain greater clarity and vision. Worry itself is a form of visualization: negative visualization. In worry, we foresee negative outcomes—the worst thing that can happen. It is good to anticipate potential mishaps; however, the problem with worry is that it usually goes on endlessly without bringing about anything positive. If athletes did that, they would never succeed. Athletes are trained to visualize success. They discipline their minds to imagine perfect execution of the task to be performed. The high jumper visualizes a fine leap, not a bumbled one. The baseball player imagines hitting a homerun, not a popup. Likewise, we can visualize what we would like for our work and lives. Our thoughts and hearts have great power over us. Phil teaches you how to harness that power.

Contact Phil today to schedule one of his acclaimed presentations for your workplace, classroom, health institution, or gathering!

“...You have a very special way of engaging the audience and keeping their attention... We found the many tips and techniques you shared with us to be very helpful; especially how to use the power of fun and a sense of humor to deal with the stresses of our daily lives... The evaluations returned to us by the audience were some of the most positive we’ve compiled, both in terms of positive reaction to the content of the seminar and to the speaker. We thank you for bringing your warmth and humor into our lives."

Sheila Coleman,
Hewlett-Packard Corporation

“I REALLY enjoyed your talk at UMASS, ‘Putting Heart and Humor to Work.’ Thank you so much... Your workshop was one of the few I have ever attended that kept the audience attention 100%! You have a very animated way of presenting that is rare."

Joanne L. Park, Public Affairs and Publications, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Main Campus, Worcester

“Phil was such a wonderful speaker, his presence was so positive that you couldn't help but smile and feel good about yourself. Afterward, I felt alive and full of life! This seminar was really good therapy.."

Terri-Lynn, Participant,
St. Francis Care Health Education Program,
Enfield, CT

“...I was very impressed with your presentation, Phil. Your deep spirituality, keen sense of humor and sensitivity toward others made for an evening that was truly one of both humor and healing."

Sister Madeleine Joy, S.P., Mercy Hospital, Springfield, MA

“Everyone is still talking about what a wonderful time they had thanks to your program. You were energetic, funny, and insightful. What a great evening!"

J. Cmero,
St. Paul's Unitarian Universalist Church, Palmer, MA

“That was the best lecture I've been to in 50 years."

Will Earley, Retired,
West Brookfield, MA

“As one of our most popular speakers in the Senior Wellness Series at Fallon Community Health Plan, Phil Milgrom has a way of captivating his participants. I use the word participants because he involves all of the people who come to hear him speak. Creating topics that all age groups can relate to is a task that can be very difficult; but people from the ages of 24 to 90 can utilize Phil’s advice and make their lives much happier. I use Phil’s tips on a daily basis to make sure that I don’t let the stress of work and life get in the way of living my life."

Meredith Forts,
Community Relations Associate/
Senior Wellness Coordinator,
Fallon Community Health Plan

“Thank you very much for your fabulous presentation at our annual conference for the Oregon State Bar Association’s Worker’s Compensation Section! Your message is very important. From you, we all learned so much about what is most relevant and important: passion, laugher, love. You tailored your presentation to your audience beautifully. You have a great sense of humor!"

Betsy Wosko,
Organizer of Conference, Oregon State Bar Association

“Thanks to Phil! The presentation was terrific, exactly what we needed. We are plotting the future of our organization with layoffs in sight. With such a very tense and anxious undertaking, we were in dire need of his guidance. It was enjoyed thoroughly by all. It was very nice to leave each other at the end of the day with smiles on our faces rather than frowns. The whole experience was great."

W. Myler, Manager, Compaq Computer Corporation

“You were a resounding success! They talked about your presentation for the first half of the next meeting... From the audience reaction during your presentation, you had them from hello. You also had them in stitches like I've never seen. Thanks so much for coming, Phil, and for giving so much of yourself to the group."

Jeanne Rainoldi, Program Coordinator, Moving On

"My group's current stress was related to a project deadline cut in half. Well, in the afternoon we learned that the project's volume had also increased by 70%. Fortunately, your presentation in the morning helped us take a different look at the challenge and begin the process of collectively looking for new ways to approach it. Given the project's change in scope in the past few weeks, maintaining a sense of humor is essential.

You were a great success and just what was needed. Thanks!"

Jim Hobbs, Manager District A Public Provider Reimbursement Unit, Center for Health Care Financing, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Palmer MA