Have you ever been told you need to "clear your head" or "get rid of all the clutter"?

For many, including myself, the idea of sitting quietly with an empty mind seems impossible. If fact, this idea is often a barrier to any attempts to meditate or try mindfulness...

We're often kept from getting what we want in life more by the demands we place on ourselves than by the demands of others. Pressure, hassles and tension often come when what we want to do conflicts with what we tell ourselves is "right." We see a messy house and...

Eating can feel like an addiction. When you're overweight and trying to focus on healthy choices, as many are at the beginning of the new year, withstanding certain foods can be a battle.

But why? Cravings, once considered the body's way of signaling that we were missing important nutrients,...

According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise has a wide array of benefits including weight control, combating health problems and disease, improved mood, greater energy, better sleep, better sex and more fun.

When you take the mind-body connection one step further and study exercise and mental acuity, do you...

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world." - John F. Kennedy, inaugural speech

Our daily language is littered with metaphors. Many are familiar (for...

According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, chronic stress, that is the stress that interferes with your ability to function on a day-to-day basis, is reaching crisis levels. What the survey made clear was the impact that stress is having on our physical...

When we talk about bullies, we typically place them at school. Bullying in school and its devastating impact on those who are bullied has made its way into mainstream consciousness.

But, bullying doesn't stop at the school level. In one study, nearly 40 percent of respondents reported having experienced...

When is the last time you read a glossy magazine and gazed at the pictures of flawlessly decorated rooms, shiny cars or airbrushed models and actresses with perfect clothes and hair and felt inadequate?

We each have a certain way of looking at the world. How we grew up...

Stress can interfere with our ability to function. At high levels it impacts your physical health and can cause mental health problems such as depression.

When you're under pressure, the stress can be both overwhelming and debilitating. Often, when stressed, we suffer from symptoms while forging ahead...

Often there are warning signs when we're not connecting with others. If you've ever felt unheard, became angry when misunderstood, or accepted responsibility for actions that you didn't feel were wrong, then you are familiar with the disconnect that can often occur when we relate (or fail to relate) to...

Often we tell ourselves stories, half-truths or fiction about our emotional experience. For example, we might tell ourselves "anger is destructive" or "being angry means I'm out of control" or "anger is a result of a bad attitude."

We do this either because we have learned to think this way...

Does work stress you out? Are you drained and irritable at the end of the day? Or do you experience other symptoms of stress, such as nervousness, worrying about mistakes, getting stuck in unpleasant thoughts or nausea?

No one is immune to stress at work. It comes when you work...

If you are like many Americans, you experience stress on a daily basis. To better understand the stress faced by average people in America, the American Psychological Association (APA) conducts an annual survey to investigate the origins of our stress.

High stress levels can cause physical and psychological problems. For...

"I know up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights." -- Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, Dr. Seuss

Do you find yourself compromising your values to smooth out a conflict? Or do you worry about that someone...

Do you have an important goal that you just keep losing sight of? Or are you trying to make difficult changes that will ultimately lead to a healthier and happier life but can't seem to stay on track?

When we want to do something differently, say to save money, stand...

Acting confident doesn't mean that you'll always get your way. But let's face it: How you interact matters. In fact, how you act when you communicate may matter as much as and sometimes more than the words that you say.

Imagine someone asking for a raise. One person does...

We're often kept from getting what we want in life by the demands we place on ourselves more so than by the demands of others. Pressure, hassles and tension often come when what we want to do conflicts with what we tell ourselves is "right." We see a messy house...

Often we act as if our bodies and our minds are two separate entities. We exercise to keep our bodies healthy, for example, but give little thought to whether our physical state has an impact on our minds. Yet, both body and mind are a part of our whole selves...

Usually, when you are feeling stressed out, you have good reason. Life can throw things at you -- unexpected circumstances, loss, relationships turning out badly, discovering things are worse than you expected, being separated from loved ones -- that can be overwhelming and cause anguish. At times, it can feel...

What is the human stress response and why is it important?

When we talk about stress today, we are usually referring to the pressures we experience in daily life. These can be the pressures to earn a living, pay our bills, meet the demands of raising a family, live...