Stress

Making Stress Your Friend

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I can show you where the greatest advancement of mankind comes under stress and strain, not comfort.

— Don Young

One of my favorite whines has to do with how I look.  Yes, I’m getting older and I’m showing my age (where I can’t help it), but that’s not what I’m referring to.

My problem is I’m showing my stress.  For all of us who are carrying a little, or a lot, of weight around the middle, there’s good and bad news attached.  The good news is that the weight that you’re carrying is less about a lack of discipline or an unwillingness to give up cake/chips/muffins/buttered popcorn, etc. than it is about the amount of stress in your life.  The bad news is that if Continue reading » Making Stress Your Friend

very-cute-puppy_04

Stay Here, Now!

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Originally published on December 16, 2009.


Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

— Dwight David Eisenhower

Last year, after Randy Pausch died of pancreatic cancer, Primetime aired Diane Sawyer’s interview of Randy, his family and friends. Much of the footage was of conversations that took place prior to Randy’s death. In addition to the phenomenal courage and the deliberate way that the Pausch family planned for and dealt with Randy’s death, one interchange between Diane and Randy’s wife, Jai, has stayed with me.

Diane and Jai were talking about how Jai was making it through each day. Jai replied that in therapy they had discussed how we humans tend to project into the future. When she watched Randy and kids play, she would go to Continue reading » Stay Here, Now!

Thank You

Goodbye to 2011

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Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.

— G.B. Stern

The end of the year is such a rush with the holiday madness and business deadlines combined.  It’s easy to get lost in all the busyness.

In my family, because we’ve all scattered to the winds, getting together for the holidays necessitates at least one full day allocated to travel to the festivities which just adds to the general craziness and the sense that there’s not enough time.

By the time we get to the New Year, I’m ready to get a cup of hot cocoa, a blanket, a good book, an animal to keep me company, and just Continue reading » Goodbye to 2011

Families welcome
Creative Commons LicensePhoto credit: Valerie Everett
Are you getting stressed out with all the holiday falderal? Want to feel better? Then do a little good every day… it’s easier than you think.

For somehow, not only at Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.

— John Greenleaf Whittier

Has holiday busyness hijacked your Christmas spirit?  Are you feeling stressed instead of jolly, exhausted instead of joyful?  Ready to throw in the towel?  Before you do, consider this instead: Do a little good every day.  Yes, I’m really suggesting that you wedge another To-Do into your already-maxed-out day!  Why?  Because when we’re Continue reading » The Best Way to Relieve Holiday Stress? Do a Little Good!

Doors

Caught in Ellie’s Hall

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Every wall is a door.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ellie has written in the past about how sometimes she struggles finding a way forward.  I am at that point right now.  To go back to Ellie’s post, Where the Hell’s the Door Out, I’m stuck in a hall and haven’t got any idea how to get out.

My entire life has been filled with family conflict of one sort or another.  Sometimes it was me conflicting with my parents.  Sometimes it was my parents choosing to attack me or one of my siblings.  Over the last few years, the conflict was with my Continue reading » Caught in Ellie’s Hall

Cup o’ Inspiration

cup with steam swirl

Take a short break and consider the following:

“Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life.”

Marilu Henner

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Recommended Reading

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Image of Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
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