Here’s a story for you about that 4 letter word: Ook and Mook, two cavemen, were out for a walk one day when a saber-toothed cat crossed their path. While Ook immediately turned tail and ran to safety, Mook thought the cat was cute and tried to scratch it under the chin. Needless to say, Ook wound up passing his common sense to his children, while Mook wound up passing through the cat. What does that mean for us? It means that fear is as closely tied to the survival of our species as eating.…
Fear talks to people. And when they listen, this is what can happen: Sheila loved to dance but she wouldn’t go out on the dance floor with her fiancé because she thought she’d look clumsy and ridiculous. Arnie knew he deserved a raise, but he was so nervous about approaching his boss, he never asked for one. Delia’s fear of bears was so great that she wouldn’t go on a camping trip with her friends. And their campsite wasn’t even in bear territory. Fear is that nattering voice inside our heads that says, you can’t,…
As life is opening up more and more now, it seems like a good time to check in. How are you doing? I was recently re-reading an article I wrote in March 2020 right after COVID-19 was declared a world pandemic. It’s about how to use our inner resources in challenging times. Interestingly, I found it still quite relevant, even though “things” are opening up and the infection rates are way down due to the diligence of the shut downs and the vaccination programs in place. So why would this time now be challenging if…
100 Things You Are Grateful For (or would be grateful to receive in future) This exercise is simple; just think and write out 100 things you are grateful for (or would be grateful to have some day). “100 things??”, you say! “Wow that’s a lot!” It may seem to be…and that may be the point. Too often, we are not used to using our minds and hearts to be aware of all we are grateful for in our lives. When you begin this exercise, it may be easy to come up with 20 items on…
My husband and I had an experience that was rather scary and to say the least-stressful. We were driving down the freeway in the HOV lane doing 69 mph when the car-a a 2015 Subaru Outback that has been well maintained-went into a screeching skidding stop! My husband did not have his foot on the brake. He was able to pull over to the shoulder, but we were still sticking out in the HOV lane a bit, as the shoulder was not really wide at that place. We were very fortunate that no one was…
It’s interesting that Stress Awareness Month has been held every April Since 1992. Even though its focus is on increasing the public’s awareness about stress and its health implications, we still need to keep bringing more awareness to this chronic health issue after all these years. If anything, it seems like there are more and more articles, websites, help lines, etc on this very prevalent topic. No doubt, people experienced stress in various forms long before our so called “modern culture” has, yet we are now more entrenched in environments that have us feeling overwhelmed…