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How to Avoid Holiday Stress Insanity
Personal note I believe in indulging in the different pleasures that the changing seasons bring, but sometimes it’s difficult to keep up. Christmas trees and music have appeared in stores, even before I have put out my favorite autumn decorations: a figure of a red...
What’s in your bucket?
Personal note In the last week, the air has been filled with swirling irregular shapes in orange, red, and yellow fluttering against a blue-gray sky. The wind whips these falling leaves into patterns that resemble small horizontal tornadoes, scudding across the...
Does persistence really pay off?
Personal note I spent much of last week in California, mixing family time with business appointments.It was heavenly; on Saturday a dear friend and I went down to the Ferry Building in San Francisco and browsed the wares of the creative street merchants who were...
What the heck is eustress?
Personal note I recently joined a TED talk group, and then missed the first meeting due to a frustrating maze of road repairs that made it seemingly impossible to get there. People e-mailed me a link to a YouTube video of one of the talks, in which the speaker...
Is Tech Stress Driving You Screaming Mad?
Personal note The leaves are turning brilliant colors of gold, orange and red, and soon will be dropping from the trees. In contrast, my life feels as if it were blossoming as in a particularly jubilant Spring. This week truly feels like the first week of the rest of...
Whose Deadline Is It, Anyway?
Personal note I wrote today’s article in 2011, and I’m recycling it because I am being crowded by deadlines again, as I’m pretty sure you are too as the Fall season kicks off, and I firmly believe that “Stress Makes Us Stupid." We need constant reminders of that, and...
Are your Bragging Rights killing you?
Personal note A lovely relaxed long week-end with a dear friend prompted me to think about how I am dealing with my own life, as well as about my clients who are abusing their bodies in the name of busy-ness. We had an urban staycation, with ample time to chat about...
What’s the difference between problem-solving and rumination?
I had occasion to explore this issue myself this week, when I discovered that somehow my utility company had switched the account number and name on the bill it sends to my home each month. Confidently and proudly paying my bills online on the first of each month, I...
Make It Easy On Yourself
Make it easy on yourself: Have you ever been caught in a race that never ends: one in which the big prize at the end is as far out of reach as it is when you started, and the small rewards along the way that might sustain you have gotten to be scarcer and scarcer? ...
Has the future got you in a tizzy?
For the past few weeks, we’ve had wonderful weather where I live. Mild temperatures, scattered showers, mostly at night, and low humidity. It’s perfect for everyone, including people who run or bicycle, garden, or work out of doors picking up the garbage, repairing...
What if barriers didn’t exist?
I heard a wonderful story last night, from a woman who has had a varied, interesting andfrom any standpoint, successful, life. Her secret? She didn’t know there was a glass ceiling! In fact, she wasn’t aware of most barriers that frustrate the rest of us. Here is...
Why can’t you say “NO”?
Personal note It’s August, and miraculously enough, where I live we are having perfect convertible weather: temperatures in the high 70’s with a slight breeze, blue skies with puffy clouds. A great day for driving with the top down, letting the breeze ruffle your...
What is life was a multiple choice test?
Personal note On these lovely summer mornings, I sit on my porch, sipping coffee, reading the newspaper, glancing up every now and then to enjoy the natural beauty all around me. Canadian geese parade through the park across the street, inquisitive duck couples...
What kinds of assumptions is your reality based on?
Personal note The big storm of two weeks ago continues to have repercussions on the lives of those of us who were in its path. Downed trees are gradually being removed, overwhelming email lists, building up during the power outage, have been reduced in size, and life...
What do you say to a Dementor?
Personal note June ended with a bang; heavy winds and driving rain brought down 5000 trees and left an estimated 610,000 people without power in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area. I was one of them. Along with the complete lack of light, air conditioning, cooking...
Who do you share your pain with?
Personal note Spring is morphing into summer: for those of us in the North Central area of the US, we are finally seeing summer, with ideal temperatures and soft breezes. If our prolonged winter brought sluggishness, this change has brought renewed energy to promote...
Is Stress a Choice? Or a Habit?
Personal note When we feel down and out, there is often a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, as if we had been sent to a decontamination chamber or an island for people who have something incurable. As I work with more and more clients, I am treated to a...
Are you a highly sensitive person?
Personal note I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of coaching this week, because I see so many people who are willing to continue on their stress-filled path, believing there is no immediate solution for their pain. So I’d like to ask you this: Do you … … ...
Want to know the best way to save your life?
Personal note Spring has brought with it a whirlwind of activity, both indoors and out. Once again, plants I have barely noticed have decided to take over entire flower beds. Not the same plants that did so last year, but another bunch. It varies each year; I have no...
Have you ever had a psychological sucker punch?
Personal note Our mercurial weather, with its frequent rain and wind alternating with sunshine, has helped me keep my nose to the grindstone and continue turning out the Workbooks I am planning for my two programs: The Confident Introvert and Be Your Own Best...
Are you carrying some introvert baggage?
Personal note Being different from other people is always stressful, and we’re all different from one another in a variety of ways. It leads to misunderstandings, and even worse, to some of us evaluating others of us as being deficient in some way. I often find...