If you suffer from anxiety, you may not realize that when your body responds to real or perceived danger, the fight or flight response triggers your tummy to flex and tense in order to either run from danger or to stay and fight it.  When this happens the tense stomach muscle pulls in and as it does it pushes the diaphragm (a muscle sitting just below the lungs) upward, creating a crowded situation in your lungs.  You may notice in your symptoms of anxiety that your breathing becomes short and shallow and this is why, because there is much less room in the lungs for getting oxygen i ..read more

Memories of winter and darkness by 5pm are breaking way now to spring, and as the days get longer, the moods and energy change for most of us.   That being true, this is a great time of year to consider creating a new walking routine to help cope with stress.  The cool of mornings, as well as the warmer evenings, are perfect for walking and unwinding as the change to spring and summer makes it easier to get out and stretch. The reason walking is such a good addition to any stress management routine is because it actually does make physical changes in the body that help counter ..read more

Finding meaning in life has a lot of different definitions to many different people, but it would be fair to say that when people do find meaning in their lives, it frequently comes down to what they devote most of their time, energy and attention to, even if that is just to find meaning in life.  So when contemplating about what matters to you the most, it can be helpful to take a good look at what draws your interest at any given time in order to notice what fascinates you, draws or holds your attention, and energizes you into action.  Meaningfulness is also guided by what we valu ..read more

It's a new year and fresh starts are always a clean slate, allowing a way to put some things behind you and begin again.  According to a new survey from Forbes Health, the top resolutions for 2024 are to improve fitness, finances and mental health.  So it's clear that people really want to do well, take care of themselves, stay out of debt and feel better emotionally and psychologically.  But where do we begin? Reaching these kinds of goals takes a lot of determination and consistency in behavior and schedule.  So finding ways to approach the problems of inconsistency and ..read more

It's that time of year again as we are in the heart of the holiday season, and though it is exciting and joyful for some, it can also be stressful for many.  Be it financial strain, the rush and hurry of shopping, or just the planning and scheduling to meet with family and friends.  All are potential triggers for a long list of mental health and addiction problems. The time-frame between Thanksgiving and New Years contains some of the highest levels of drinking during the entire year.  It's believed these excesses of drinking nearly double from normal use for many and tend to b ..read more

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering, feasting, and giving thanks, but giving thanks is a helpful exercise to get in the habit of year-round.  Recognizing what we are grateful for can help us move our awareness from the many forms of faulty thinking that tend to lead to depression and anxiety, and shift us toward a more consistent habit of thankfulness for what we have right now.  In any given situation we have the option to focus on what we already have before us and in our lives.  Because our brains are geared to watch for dangers, we sometimes forget how wonderful and miracu ..read more

Fall is a time of creativity, relaxation, and beauty as nature transforms into a colorful landscape of turning leaves and changing weather.  It's also a time when energy levels change, which is not too unlike the bear that prepares to hibernate and preserves its energy for winter.  But we humans still need movement and exercise even though our bodies would prefer to slow down this time of year, and finding the motivation for exercise is not always easy when days are shorter and temperatures begin to drop.  Yet exercise is key in reducing and maintaining levels of anxiety and de ..read more

Autumn is a favored time of year for many.  It's a time of beautiful changing colors as the season transitions from warm to cool, and a time for other kinds of transitions as well, such as what we crave to eat and drink, how our energy manifests, and of course what our mood may be.  As the days shorten and melatonin levels change in our bodies, this time of year can be a little more melancholy for some than for others.  Psychologically, it's the time of year for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  A time when some people are prone to depression and need a good plan in plac ..read more

Intuition.  Defined as "the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning."  In other words, intuition is when we just somehow know something and don't know why we know it.  We just do.   Intuition might have been misrepresented by Bruce Kasanoff when he wrote about it in his article for Forbes magazine in 2017 and used the title "Intuition is the Highest form of Intelligence", but what he might have been trying to say to his readers was that one thing we learned from the very intelligent Einstein--who by the way exist ..read more

Since COVID came on the scene many people have a heightened awareness of the concept of uncertainty and how it plays a role in our lives.  Uncertainty lies at the heart of many forms of fear and anxiety as we are never sure of any guaranteed security, consistency, or reliability of the foundations of our day to day lives.  So we build up the best expectation we can put together based on information, patterns, perception, and any other pieces of data we are able to apply to the situation in order to attempt to get a feel for how things might pan out.  From all of this informatio ..read more