Sad songs can really cause pleasant emotions

If you ever have managed like crying listening to "Fix You" by Coldplay (just us?), new research can have an explanation why.

Scientists at Tokyo University of the arts and the Institute of Brain Science RIKEN in Japan found that listening to sad music reality can trigger positive emotions. He explained that sadness has skyrocketed since art is not the same type of sadness caused by an actual sad event and in fact it could actually feel welcome.

"Emotion experienced by the music has no direct danger or damage in contrast to the excitement experienced in everyday life. Therefore, we can even enjoy unpleasant emotions such as sadness, "wrote the researchers in the study. "If we suffer from unpleasant emotion evoked through everyday life, sad music could be useful to relieve the negative emotion".

The small new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, including 44 people, some of whom were musicians and some who had no special training in music. The study participants listened to a happy piece of music - Granados Allegro de concert in g major - in major and minor keys, in order to combat the "happy effect" songs composed in major keys tend to have. They also heard from two pieces "sad" music, "Separation" of Glinka in f minor étude de Blumenfeld "Sur Mer" in g minor.

The researchers had the study participants rate 62 different emotion-related words and phrases when they heard the different pieces of music, based on the emotions that are perceived in the music, as well as the emotions that felt when listening to music.

In fact, a discrepancy was found between perceived emotions and the emotions that I felt listening to sad music. Perceived emotions were the saddest and most tragic, while real emotions felt were more romantic and less tragic.

Earlier this month, HuffPost women reported on an upcoming finding in the Journal of Consumer Research, showing that sad or angry music prefer to listen after a negative experience that a person (such as a break-up). HuffPost women reported:

The researchers found that when the negative situation another person - as in a break, for example - participants strongly preferred a friend empathetic and sad music. Two further experiments confirmed that the participants experience emotional distress related to other people were much more likely to prefer sad music experienced the anguish of non-issues with other people. As you probably don't want surrounded by cheerful people when your heart is broken, they don't want to listen to Selena Gomez saying that "come and get it".

For an explanation of what sad songs can make us cry, click on HuffPost & culture.

You are a fan of the sad music, or prefer more optimistic melodies? Tell us in the comments!

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What It Really Means To Woo White Voters

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COLUMBIA, SC - JUNE 28: Senator Rand Paul speaks to supporters during a Republican Party BBQ on June 28, 2013 in Columbia, South Carolina. Paul is attending fundraisers and meetings with local tea party groups. (Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

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I have a visceral reaction to conservatives arguing that Republicans should forget about trying to lure Latinos by passing immigration reform, and focus on turning out white voters instead.

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Vivian Norris: You Have to Be Really Stupid to Stir Up This Hornet's Nest: Pro-choice Women in Texas Angry as Hell

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There is something I just do not get about what Rick Perry and his fellow GOP are doing in Texas. They have decided to cheat the anti-reproductive health care bill's way through so openly that a woman would have to be blind not to know what is going on at the capitol in Austin. In other words, any pro-choice woman worth her integrity is going to have to act. It is as if Perry and co, with their pockets full of unregulated corporate cash, have decided to go full government intervention and regulation on women's bodies. Anyone who knows anything about a Texas woman when you get her riled up, must be scratching their heads as it is obvious Perry has taken on a battle he will not win in the long run. Or, as one male Texan Democrat, Beyrl Armstrong, stated, "I have a mother, I have a wife, I have nieces. It's real important they be treated as competent human beings who can take care of themselves. These women are pissed off. Don't kick sand in a Texas woman's face, it's not going to work."

In other words, I think the real reason to vote Perry and his fellow GOP out of office is because you have to just be plain stupid to make so many women in Texas as angry as they are right now. It also demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the poor, the disenfranchised women in rural areas, who will have basically no access to reproductive health care of any kind if this bill passes. How stupid can it be to legislate against what medical professionals, specialists in women's reproductive health, have declared as they denounce this GOP lead bill.

I feel for the pro-choice women in Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina and elsewhere (except Oregon it seems which is the only state whose rules around abortion have remained intact over the past 40 years) who have recently had affordable access to reproductive health care curtailed. In fact, in some cases women will most likely not have access to birth control, breast exams, STD testing, and may also have to leave their home state to get an abortion.

But now the right wing has attempted something really stupid; they have brought their campaign to eliminate access for all of the above, to Texas. Well, let me tell a thing or two about Texas women: They are strong, tough and used to big ole men with guns trying to run the show. Many of these women, like Wendy Davis, are extremely smart, extremely realistic, and know from hard, real-life experiences exactly what they are dealing with when it comes to conservative politics run mostly by men. It's sort of like women in Naples or Sicily, when they are outspoken, they are some of the most incredibly brave women around, because they are dealing with a paternalistic mafia-like control system which, and let's be honest about this, is not unused to killing off anyone who challenges their well-entrenched control structure. The more evolved men in Texas also need to be supported as they too have grown up surrounded by some pretty exaggerated male "role models." But many of these same men have also come to appreciate and love strong women. And by the way, anyone who thinks you have to be a militant feminist, man-hater with hairy legs to be pro-choice (as many of the comments on my last piece implied), take a look at Senator Wendy Davis. She is now being criticized for being "too hot"-hell you can't win with these folks. It demonstrates how threatened they feel, but the reality is, all voices need to be heard and respected.

I grew up in Texas knowing more people who had died horrifically violent deaths than anyone I know from outside of Texas. You have to learn to defend yourself and your rights or you could end up silenced or even dead. I also grew up inside of a Republican political reality, spent lots of time as a child in many a Republican campaign headquarters, and in Austin at the capitol. There used to be a lot more moderate Republicans in Texas. That appears to have changed. It changed, in part, when the religious right took over parts of the state, when religious organizations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, became more about women obeying their husbands than about tolerance and inclusion. Churches the size of baseball stadiums began springing up, almost like a corporate equivalent or God's monopoly on the way of thinking. Or as one female relative said as she left the Baptist church and became an Episcopal, "They expected you to hang your brain up outside the door before you entered. You could not question." Yes, there would always be "those liberals in Austin", a few feminist mayors of Houston from time to time, but the face of Texas was also becoming one which was frighteningly not tolerant, and I would argue, not very Texan.

A lot of what used to be the norm in Texas, is also evolving however, and this is what is frightening the GOP. In fact, the very changes which are also making Texas a more progressive, interesting and diverse place are what scares the Good Ole Boys and will eventually hinder their way of doing things. But if you can redistrict these dissenting liberal voices out of existence by basically nullifying their votes, then there is something which is not only not democratic taking place, I would argue it borders on fascism, as well as outright misogyny. It is all about losing control, and if there is one thing these hardcore right wingers hate, it is losing control.

As my godmother said to me last night on the phone from Seattle (where she and I both escaped to years ago to get out of Texas), women in Texas have grown up knowing what they are up against and it makes them extremely resilient. But I argued that I was tired of always having to be on guard and permanently tough and wanted to live in a place where I could use my energy to move forward and not always be fighting for basic rights. Yet I knew my godmother had a point. Women who are constantly forced to deal with this kind of macho behavior and whose rights are threatened daily, are also those women who are fighting for all of us. We need to stand with them.

Recently I considered returning home to Texas, but I have a teenage daughter. I was not about to have her have to live through perhaps even a less tolerant version of the reality many of my generation grew up inside of, that too would be stupid. But I also wondered if it might not toughen her up a bit, make her better prepared for much of the "real world" where women have to fight for their voices to be heard every single day, and where the voices of many have almost been silenced.

Those of us who have been Texans for many generations, and who recall how it used to be, both the good and the bad, know that real Texans are not born they are made. This struggle for basic rights will shape this generation of Texas women and men. People will be talking about Senator Davis' filibuster for many years to come. Those who have made, and will make the trip to the capitol in Austin to make their voices heard, will become politicized forever. They will not forget the energy and solidarity which we have witnessed.

When President Obama, the son of a single mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who struggled to educate herself, him and his sister, (and in fact made sure that they had access to the very best education the U.S. could provide and who died worried that she had no health insurance), sent that Twitter message reading, "Something special is happening down in Texas tonight." He knew exactly what women have fought for, and it was surely in solidarity with the memory of his mother and all she did for him that he sent it. He is also married to a strong educated woman and has two daughters. He knows what this situation in Texas means for women and for the country. Perhaps we should follow his mother's example, and put the emphasis on education, and legislate for better access to education so that future generations don't make the same mistakes Perry and the Texas GOP are making.

If you want to see the future of America, look at the men and women who have mothers who have worked, been educated and had careers and fought for women's rights. If you want to see men who truly respect women, look to men like President Obama. If you want to see women who are our future, look to women like Senators Wendy Davis and Leticia Van De Putte and others who are ready to stand up and fight for all of us.

Texas is such a big place that when people ask me where I am from, instead of simply replying "American", I proudly say I am Texan. Wendy Davis and Leticia Van De Putte make me extremely proud to be a Texas woman. I know that the country, and the world will be watching as we move ahead in the days to come.

Follow Vivian Norris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vivigive

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HuffPost Radio: BOTH SIDES NOW: After 9/11, Is Obama's NSA Really a Version of Hoover's FBI?

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Talk about 'Beyond Right & Left' -- when Franken-Rove clash with Scahill-Beck over the NSA program, knee-jerkers are confused. So Huffington & Matalin debate domestic snooping not by Hoover against protestors in the '60s but by Obama after 9/11 and Boston. Is Snowden an Ellsberg or Manning?

LISTEN HERE:

True, Bush's cherry-picked intelligence on WMD was abusive, Cheney's "unitary government" philosophy extreme and Rudy [Mr. 9/11] Giuliani a near-parody on terrorism...but it's also true that our intelligence agencies failed to "connect the dots" before September 11th. Seven years after USA Today and the NYT first revealed this NSA program, how can we now better enhance safety without shredding privacy? Then: women at work (again!); what's wrong with the HPV vaccine; what's wrong with the case against Zimmerman.

On the NSA & Snowden. We listen to Edward Snowden grandiosely assert he had the clearance to tap anybody and Obama respond, in effect, that our dangerous world means Ben Franklin was wrong to conclude that we couldn't sacrifice a little privacy for more safety. That right?

Not to Arianna, who highlights the HuffPo headline "George W. Obama" about our growing national surveillance state. "For Democrats to trust blithe assurances from a Democrat in the White House is meaningless...Of course we can't have 100% security no matter what we do and obviously Obama didn't want this debate since we're having it [only because of Snowden]. I don't trust Bush-Cheney or Obama-Biden."

Mary concurs that there's now "a major mistrust of major institutions...because of the surveillance state and the myriad scandals like the IRS and Benghazi. In the Bush White House, we tried to protect civil liberties as much as possible." While the NSA program is "a useful tool," she goes on to worry that a) aggregating all phone calls plus a FISA warrants system "is a hammer to kill a mosquito" and b) it would be preferable "to better target likely suspects and collect more human intelligence instead of just killing them."

Host: "Better targeting suspects would be nice but the whole point of meta-data analytics and algorithms is to look for calls or patterns that can 'connect the dots.' Sounds like you're against the Bush-Obama NSA program." Mary pushes backs that there's no simple yes-no answer as both women warn about potential abuses in the wrong hands.

Since the Supreme Court concluded in 1979 that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy when you merely send a letter (or make a call) & since we ok public cameras and TSA pat-downs for enhanced security & since we consent to Google, Facebook using private data to place ads, why not comparable information to stop bombs? Is this debate ultimately about disrupting or thwarting real threats against abstract, slippery slope, sky-if-falling rhetoric "Big Brother...1984...Nixonian...King George...Cointelpro...police state?" (Joked Bill Maher: "the only time Republicans complained about Big Brother was after we elected a 'Big Brother.'")

Which raises the issue of partisan trust. No D or R should give a blank check to a White House merely because of party label. But it seems rational to, say, trust an Obama over a Bush if the former runs as a "against-dumb-wars" constitutional law professor who's well-known as a deliberate decision-maker and twice handily beats GOP warriors associating with the Giuliani School. Don't we have elections to choose the person we trust with our lives and then live or die with the results (JFK-Cuba), with congressional, judicial and Fourth Estate oversight, of course?

Many ardent critics of Obama on Big Data are either a) liberals who conveniently refuse to acknowledge that there are plotting terrorists (I for one am happy my last subway ride with family didn't blow up) or b) conservatives who want it both ways depending on the event - robustly chiding 44 as weak-on-terror after say the Boston Marathon or as "over-reaching" if he continues a Bush program that appears to work (see 'Hannity' every night).

Arianna objects to comparisons between private use of data and public use "which can get you thrown in jail" (after a jury verdict). And she complains more generally about a national surveillance system that earns private contractors multi-billions and allows them to actually issue security clearances. Mary notes that "profits alone aren't a bad thing" and the reason for this privatization is because government has failed to follow the law previously. "And what's the penalty for violating the current law? Apparently not enough."

When asked how they'd ratify or change the current process - "what's your cost-benefit analysis?" -- each lauded the new debate and urged that we allow the process to play out.

Ok, is Snowden an Ellsberg or Manning - will he end up being lionized or imprisoned? Mary says he should be prosecuted for "treason". Arianna seems to agree with Ellsberg that Ellsberg is more like Snowden than Manning. (The Pentagon Papers leaker was indicted and his case later thrown out after a hung jury and disclosures that the government had engaged in illegal wiretapping and break-ins.) His 1971 disclosure was a classified history of the Vietnam conflict that revealed numerous examples of government lies; so far, authorities don't know much about the accuracy of Snowden's claims of "abuse...and criminality.")

On Working Women and on Rape: when will GOP Learn? PEW released a survey showing that women are the primary bread-winner in 40 % of all families (including single-moms) with children under 18, and a quarter of all married couples with young children. And we listen to Erick Erickson (founder of RedState.com and occasional BSN panelist) and Lew Dobbs maintain that it violates the laws of nature and is "anti-science" for liberals to urge women to work because two-income families supposedly are more likely to lead to more broken families.

Consensus alert! "This is such a ridiculous, retro argument," argues Mary. "It's a false choice to say it's either, neither, or both." Each family has to decide and balance work and child-rearing for themselves. "It's wrong to say a wife working reveals a bad man while a wife not working means a bad feminist. "

Arianna agrees that this is a wrong and "antediluvian debate" both because of course women should be able to choose their work and home life but also because "there's a third women's revolution beyond Friedan and Steinem about women in the workplace accepting men's definition of success and stress. It's not sustainable for anyone to work 12 hours a day -- change in the workplace is in everyone's interest."

Also this past week, the House Judiciary Committee voted out a bill to prohibit abortions after 20-22 weeks of conception, with its author, Rep. Trent Franks (R - AZ) saying that "the incidence of rapes resulting in pregnancy are very low" (30,000 a year). Mary is asked whether elected Republicans should take a class on how to avoid using words like "rape" and "abortion" in proximity which serve largely to continue the record 2012 gender gap. She objects to any implication that the GOP is "Cromagnan" here rather than taking a principled stand for human life after viability. Arianna disagrees with the Judiciary abortion bill (unpassable and "grandstanding") and thinks that comments about rape are foolish but marginal.

Quick Takes: HPV, Zimmerman, Turkey. Increasing number of parents don't vaccinate children against the sexually transmitted HPV virus because of concerns about promiscuity and safety. Mary stresses that parents, especially moms, have to make the final gut decisions since the shot is too new to be able to know conclusively that there aren't problems -- Arianna too worries about too little generational testing.

They both worry that Prime Minister Erdogan moved too quickly and militantly to clear out protestors from Taksim Square concerned about the growing Islamic state in Turkey and both express concern about the racial aspects of the Zimmerman trial since there are no eyewitnesses and one of the parties is dead. Arianna deplores how, at the least, the defendant appears to have "been trained from youth how to look at black people with suspicion." From a different perspective, Mary urges that "we have to move past the vitriolic hurling of racism in these situations." Whatever the verdict, should "stand your ground" state laws be reconsidered in light of this tragedy. Mary thinks not.

Mark Green is the creator and host of Both Sides Now.

Send all comments to Bothsidesradio.com, where you can also listen to prior shows.

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Fron Nahzi: Albanian Elections: Promises of Change, Really?

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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Campaign. Much like the 1963 epic American comedy, the runoff to Albania's June 23 national elections has brought together a cast of old and new characters from Albania's ongoing democratic evolution. They are scrambling from one end of this tiny country to another like Keystone Cops. They all promise EU membership, an end to corruption, and to do away with unemployment (an estimated 28 percent of youth is unemployed). Most recently the ruling party has upped the ante by promising free visas to the U.S.

The cast is led by the aging Sali Berisha, a self-appointed guardian of democracy, current Prime Minister, and the leader of the ruling Democratic Party. His challenger is young Edi Rama, Chairman of the Socialist Party, former Mayor of Tirana, and one who prefers steak tartare in a country where well done is the norm. Both leaders claim a vote for their party will lead to change in the country. Berisha's slogan is "We Are Change and We Are Moving Forward". Rama has countered with the slogan "2013: The Year of Change", as in "let's get rid of Berisha", and for good measure he has flung the notion of "Rebirth" in the slogan.

In the wings there is the nationalists Red and Black Party, which was doing surprisingly well in the polls until its leader demanded $100,000 from party members to have their names placed on the ballot. Party members fled the movement and so with it collapsed Greater Albania. Then there is the newly created New Wind/Fresh New Democratic Party led by Bamir Topi, former President of the country. A relative unknown, Berisha handpicked and propelled Topi to the Presidency. Topi took a position against Berisha and soon found himself out of a job. Topi has taken his revenge against Berisha on the campaign trail where he hopes his Fresh Party will unseat the old man. Fresh may get a few seats in parliament but doubtful enough to rouse the winds of change.

The key player is Ilir Meta, the Janus head of the Socialist Movement for Integration, a splinter party that broke ranks with the Socialist Party in 2004. With a steady 5% of the popular vote, Meta has taken the role of king maker. Since 2009 he has shared a bed with Berisha. Meta served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Berisha's government. He was caught on video tape by one of his own party members demanding kickbacks for a state tender. Berisha quickly came to his rescue. Against the testimony of independent criminal experts and the cry for justice by both European and US diplomats, Berisha and his courts determined the tapes were altered and had the case thrown out of court. Meta walked away with pockets lined of money and into the arms of Edi Rama. No surprise his party's slogan is "Walk Faster". It's doubtful Rama will be able to keep pace with him, as some insiders believe Meta has already begun a dastardly plan to steal the Socialist Party away from Rama and become Prime Minister.

With a seven point lead in the most recent polls, Rama's Socialists are expected to win the elections. But Albanian political campaigning does not begin or end with the elections. They are an all season sport. Losers never quit complaining and the winners never quit boasting. Promises made during the elections are quickly forgotten and a finger pointing policy is quickly adopted. For more than twenty years each party has promised to change the country but not one party is willing to change. And the only kind of change the public would like to see is less cash in their leaders' offshore bank accounts and more change, as in cash, in their own pockets or... a free visa to the U.S. Oy vey!

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Alejandra Ruani: Do You Really Want The Top Job? 7 Lessons Gloria Feldt Taught Me About Our New Female Power

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"The most confounding problem facing women today isn't that doors aren't open, but that not enough women are walking through them," argues Gloria Feldt, best-selling author of the book No Excuses and founder of the movement Take The Lead.

So, what's the solution?

In my recent interview with Gloria, she explains how you can let go of that outdated male-oriented definition of power, overcome your internal resistance to having a successful career and feel fulfilled in all aspects of your life.

Gloria believes you really can have it all.

In the next few paragraphs, she'll teach you how.

Lesson No. 1: Don't give away the power to define yourself.

Alejandra: One of the first things that stood out in your book is your regret about giving away the power to define yourself. Tell me about that.

Gloria: Even if you've done what other people think are amazing things in your life, that doesn't necessarily mean that you've come to terms with embracing your own potential. I had lived the first part of my life doing what I thought the culture of the time wanted me to do. I wanted to be the perfect wife, the perfect mother, and then I became a community volunteer. I wanted to do all those things perfectly well, but I didn't do it starting from my own intention. There's nothing wrong doing things for other people, it's a good thing, but I think you can lose yourself in it. In order to realize your potential, you need to define yourself first, before someone else defines you. We are all going to be defined. Better to do it for ourselves in a way that is authentic and meaningful to us than to allow others to present us to the world.

Lesson No. 2: It's not your lack of ambition. It's your lack of intention.

Alejandra: Let's talk about your 'Hillary moment.'

Gloria: In 2008, I was asked by Elle Magazine to write an article about women running for office. That was at the moment when it appeared that we might have had our first female president. The article was supposed to be optimistic and positive. Instead, what I found was that only 18% of Congress is female. It's not because they can't win. It's because women don't run. If women run, they're as statistically likely to win as men. Despite the fact that there are now dozens of organizations spending millions of dollars every year to recruit and train women to run for office, they're still 40% less likely than men to even think about running for office. There's been some research and the conclusion was that women don't have as much ambition as men. But, after interviewing women all over the country, I concluded is that it's not a lack of ambition at all. If a woman sees an injustice or if she feels that something is not right for her children or her family, she will do almost anything. She doesn't seek power for power's sake. So, I concluded it's not a lack of ambition, it's a lack of intention. There's something that men have: Baby boys bounce out of the womb knowing the world is their oyster. They don't question whether they have the right, whether they should run for office or whether they should be CEO. It's assumed. It's so much part of the culture. It's the standard when it comes to 'leader.' Women are still the 'other' when it comes to being a leader. We don't see ourselves as leaders and we don't have that intention in the same way that men do from the moment of birth.

Lesson No. 3: If you want to lead, don't think about how others feel about you.

Alejandra: What's holding women back?

Gloria: Girls are still socialized first to think about how others feel about them, and to be concerned about that. That's not a bad thing, but it works against you when in this whole field of leadership. It turns out that the dynamics are exactly the same whether we're talking about politics or business or the workplace, and even personal life. From the boardroom to the bedroom, you can say. The dynamics are exactly the same. It's our own relationship with power that holds us back. A culturally learned aversion to taking power.

Lesson No. 4: Your definition of power is the wrong one. Try this one.

Alejandra: We think of power as something not so positive...

Gloria: We have in our minds an old, outdated and no longer really functional definition of power: as the 'power over'-- the power to make you do something. So we, as women, at best we've been discriminated against, and at worst we've been raped and beaten. So, why would we want that kind of power? But we can change the definition of power in our own minds. From that outdated and hierarchical male-defined 'power over,' to an expansive, full of promise, innovative 'power to.' The power to make life better. For ourselves, our families, our communities, our world. The power to transform our work, our businesses, our creativity. Women will then say 'I want that kind of power.' As soon as we can change the paradigm of power in our own thinking and in our culture, we'll be in a much healthier place for women and for men. For children and for everybody.

Lesson No. 5: If you can't find female role models, become one.

Alejandra: Perhaps we don't have many examples to look at?

Gloria: We don't have many female role models in high-powered positions. If you can't see it, you can't be it. Women's history is not typically taught, even though there are some amazing women in history. I use the example of Ada Lovelace, who actually is the reason why we have computers. She created the first algorithms that enabled programming to ever happen. But the credit for her work was all taken by the man she was working with. Nobody knows about her. There couldn't have been a Steve Jobs if she hadn't done what she did. So, we need to learn our history and we need to understand that reaching equality is a long-term process. Even though now we have doors open and women can apply to any job they wish to, many women don't apply for them. Partly because they can't figure out how they can manage to take care of their families and go for that high-powered job. So, the problem is now that the doors are open and women are certainly capable of doing the CEO job or some other high-powered job. But she needs to take the lead and change the system.

Lesson No. 6: Don't follow your dream, lead it.

Alejandra: She's a mother who would love the top job, but holds back worried about having no time or energy left to enjoy her children. How can she overcome this internal resistance?

Gloria: One of the things that I do is to talk about what I call 'sister courage' -- the principles that I used in movement building to change any kind of system. For example, if you're in a workplace where you feel that having flex time would be beneficial and would make for a healthier workplace for you and other employees (including men), instead of isolating yourself and thinking it's your problem, you need to reach out. You don't have to figure out by yourself how you can juggle everything and miss your child's piano recital or something like that when you don't need to. Instead, use these very simple principles:

Be a sister. Reach out to somebody else who you think may have the same problem or who you may have heard talking about the same problem or issue.Have the courage to ask for help. We often feel isolated. We feel like we can't ask for help. Sometimes it's just a matter of asking and the other person is usually very happy to help out. Have the courage to put the issues on the table and talk about them. Join forces. If you think there needs to be some systemic change, then you need to get your facts together and talk to other people who share your concerns. Make sure that you all have the same message and the same information. Let's assume it is about flex time. There is now sufficient data to show that by giving employees flexible hours and by evaluating them based on accomplishments rather than by how many hours they sit at their desk, that actually morale goes up, and, more importantly, productivity goes up. So, there is your little mini-movement. You can go to your HR department or you can go to your CEO. You can present your case, and you'll most likely get some change.

The message is that we all have power. Even if you're not in a powerful job. If you have quite a few people that have the same concerns, together, you go talk to a senior person or HR, there's strength in those numbers. You can make change happen. We see that all the time out there in the world. We have reached a point where we have to take that responsibility ourselves.

Lesson Number 7: You deserve that leadership position, so take the lead.

Alejandra: Tell me more about your goal to bring women to a fair and equal share of top leadership positions by 2025.

Gloria: Just to give you a comparison, at the current rate, it will take 70 years to reach leadership parity. We need to speed things up. So, last year a colleague and I decided to form an organization which we call Take The Lead. One of our programs is a webinar series. I talk about women's relationship with power, explain each of the nine power tools and give women a template that they can use to solve problems or reach their goals. I invite you and all the women who're ready to take the lead in their lives and careers to subscribe to our newsletter and participate in our upcoming online events. Together we can make change happen.

Take Action Now

You've heard Gloria. Define your intention. Embrace your power to lead positive change. You might be the one who inspires the next generation of young professionals.

Join the conversation. What's your biggest frustration when trying to get ahead in your career? What is it costing you not to have this problem handled?

Add your voice in the comments area below. Be a sister...

Follow Alejandra Ruani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Health_Divas

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