Buying supplies, clothes shopping, meeting the teacher, setting up carpools and finding after school care are just some of the things parents have to do before school starts. The back to school season can raise parents’ stress levels for many reasons.
One definition of stress is, “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation” (Merriam-Webster). Stress can be good (planning a wedding) or bad (losing a loved one), but stress of any kind is hard on the mind, body and spirit.
Anxiety is a thief. It steals your focus and thoughts and therefore your time. I am not talking about anxiety disorders, though the same can be said about them. I am talking about the simplest form of anxiety—worry. I do not mean worry that causes chronic insomnia, ulcers, substance abuse or other major problems. I […]
Everyone is scared of something, right? Public speaking, heights, death, spiders, snakes—most people can name at least one thing that scares them. While unhealthy fear interferes with our daily functioning, normal or healthy fear has an upside. It keeps us from engaging in risky behaviors, which in turn, ensures our safety.
Have you recently lost a loved one? As someone who has lost people close to me and counseled others who have lost loved ones, here are three things I have learned. First, time does not “heal all wounds,” but things (meaning your thoughts and emotions) do get better with time, especially with the right support. […]
Years ago a woman named Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book entitled On Death and Dying. This book was inspired by her work with terminally ill patients and in it she outlined what she considered the five stages of grief. The five stages include: 1) denial, 2) anger, 3) bargaining, 4) depression, and 5) acceptance. Kubler-Ross […]
I once heard someone say that an addiction is anything—good or bad—you find appealing and really want to do, but the more you do it the less satisfied you feel. This is a very general definition of addiction, but it makes sense to me. Another simple definition of addiction is something that controls you instead […]
If you followed a trail of the majority of your time, money and energy, at the end you would find what is most important to you in life. What we find at the end of this trail can be good or bad. Sometimes it is something bad disguised as something good. And sometimes what we […]
Published in the Southwest Orlando Bulletin 5/2012 Efficiency, productivity and achievement are hallmarks of society. Many people feel that if they are not doing or producing something they are being lazy. The word relaxation often has a negative connotation in today’s world.
I could write at length about what I have experienced in my various relationships over the years. Instead, I am going to try to extract from my past and current relationships the most important things I have learned.
