Krikorian - Zen Bender: a decade-long enthusiastic quest to fix everything (that was never broken)

Praise for Zen Bender

I laughed and related to every page of this crazy mission to fix everythingthat didnt need fixing. A wise, witty, and thought-provoking book that ends in just the place youd hope it would. A great read whether you have a Reiki healer on speed dial, or, well, not.

Marianne Power, author of Help Me! One Womans Quest to Find Out if Self-Help Really Can Cha nge Your Life

Inspiring and hilarious, Zen Bender perfectly captures our misguided quest for perfection, as well as Stephanies amazing spirit. I face the same daily struggles, so her writing really hit home with me, as Im sure it will with everyone who has tried (and laughed about) all the fixe s out there.

Patricia Velasquez, actress on Arrested Development and The Mummy , author of Straight Walk , supermodel, and UNESCO Art ist for Peace

Copyright 2019 Stephanie Krikorian

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover, Layout & Design: Morgane Leoni

Author Photo Credit: Erin Turner Photography

Mango is an active supporter of authors rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the authors intellectual property. Please honor the authors work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors rights.

For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:
Mango Publishing Group
2850 S Douglas Road, 2nd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at or +1.800.509.4887.

Zen Bender: A Decade-Long Enthusiastic Quest to Fix Everything (That Was Never Broken)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2019941762
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-029-5, (ebook) 978-1-64250-030-1
BISAC OCC010000, BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Mindfulness & Meditation

Printed in the United States of America

This story is factually accurate to the best of my recollection. Still, at times, Ive changed a name, or a situation, or been intentionally vague, so no story or conversation should be taken as exactly correct or that there is an exact person with the name given.

Im also a truth seeker who goes out of my way to give credit where credit is due. My biggest panic when writing this book was that I inadvertently repeated an idea that I read somewhere else. Most of this book is what I have gleaned from my own experience. As youll see from the pages youre about to dive into, I read and read and read and read a lot of articles on self-help and books on self-help. Ive tried to give credit where due for thoughts that inspired me, but no one but me is responsible for the content of this book.

Stephanie Krikorian

To Julia and Donald Krikorian for: Every. Single. Thing. This great life of mine and all of its joy is 100 percent thanks to you both.

To my moms late brother, Billy Harvey, for the most important introduction of my life. Without you, I might never have met and fallen for the bright lights of t he Big Apple.

Table of Contents

A New York magazine cover story in the summer of 2018, simply entitled 2008 , examined whats happened in the United States since the financial crisis, including a glossary of terms that have emerged as a result of the Great Recession. Along with One Percent , the Sharing and Gig Economies , Millennials , Occupy , and Survivalism , the term Wellness wen t mainstream.

The World Health Organization defines wellness as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. According to the Global Wellness Institutes website and various studies they have conducted, the global wellness industry was a $4.2 trillion market in 2018, up from $1.9 tril lion in 2010.

While I was on my decade-long Zen Bender, I made a generous contribution to this sector.

When I look back at my childhood, I feel nothing but profound happiness and gratitude. My upbringing was simple and uncomplicated, but pleasant and warm, thanks t o my parents.

My mom, Julia, was born to be a mom. My dad, Don, is a man of few words, but they are usually potent ones, with lessons buried within. Both have always been incredibl y supportive.

When I told my dad at a young age that I was going to be an actress, something that many parents might find objectionable, he simply said, First learn to waitress.

My dad was outnumbered. He (mostly) patiently put up with three yappy, opinionated, and strong-headed girlsJackie (older), Jennifer (younger), and me in the middle. He carefully navigated our all-female household. Briefly, my dad had another guy in the house, my male tiger fish, Otto (I assumed he was male, not sure why). Otto was the only pe t I ever had.

Rarely did my mom or dad interject in the bickering of the three of us. We were left alone to settle disputes on our own, probably in an effort to teach us to get along with other people later in life. While we didnt fight a lot, there were all-out wars over what we were watching on the television in our brown-wood-paneled rec room with wall-to-wall teal rug and textured plaster ceiling. Skilled at TV warfare, we would pull the knob off the wood-encased television set to prevent anyone else from changing the channel (long before TVs had remote control), thus preserving our viewing choice for as long as we wanted.

Jackie loved Little House on the Prairie reruns. I remember, vividly, walking in as she sat two feet away from the TV set, sobbing over Laura Ingalls Wilder and family. Jennifer loved The Love Boat , and the soap opera Santa Barbara the latter so much that she viewed the Capwells, the Lockridges, and the Castillos basically as family. I couldnt get enough of Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman .

Eventually, of course, that knob used for changing the channel got lost, probably slipped down the side of the textured green-and-blue-striped couch. My father replaced it with a set of pliers that he set on top of the TV, but that required some seriously fine motor skills to hook onto the internal prong inside the broken channel-changing mechanism. He urged us not to lose them. We did notthey were too critical to our livesbut those pliers, in a pinch, doubled as a weapon when hurled across the room. Nobody lost an eye.

In the summers, we went on big camping vacations. To me, it always felt high-end, even though it was not. Even when camping, the lessons and skill-building continued. One in particular was in confidence, and lumberjacking, I suppose. My dad, much to my mothers horror, during a summer trip to Western Canada, handed me an axe at age eight, and offered me a few bucks to chop a big log in half. I did.

Later, with the cash stuffed into my blue and red patent-leather snap wallet, I stopped to fold T-shirts at the local tourist shop in Banff. Dont ask me whyI just did. Satisfied with my impromptu clean-up, I left the store, and my wallet and my cash behind. We all quickly ran back in; the wallet was there, but the money was gone. I was never big on folding laundr y after that.

Every family has its own brand of humor, which might at times seem totally off the mark to other people. Ours was no different. When my sisters and I reminisce about the crazy things my dad used to say to us growing up, we always have a good laugh. We used to laugh when he said them ba ck then, too.