The Balanced Life

In last week's column I addressed the topic of "How to Cope with Performance Anxiety at Work." The question that spurred this topic asked how to handle the stress of a job in a fast-paced industry where long hours, competition, and pressure come as part of the job description....

...usually the most sophisticated, sensitive, creative and intelligent people.

Nailed you, did I? Well, I assume you're in the sophisticated, creative and intelligent category. (I'm guessing that there are only a very few thick dullards who cruise this site.) That probably means you have large numbers of things stuck...

I need to confess. It's a secret I've never told anyone, but I've decided to confess on this blog with a simultaneous YouTube video and a national "Confession" tour (not to be mistaken with Madonna's "Confessions"--plural-- tour of 2006). I've sold my secret confessional to People magazine and the book...

Q: I am in a crisis. I feel huge distress. I'm not usually like this. Most of the time, I am a healthy, free-wheeling 70-year-old with lots of energy and spice. I have children and grandchildren and I love spending time with them all. At the same time, I have...

They run their businesses on everyone else's schedules. Today's "mompreneurs" do market research, line up publicity and assemble purchase orders within little windows of time sandwiched between carpool, naptime and grocery shopping.

"It is multi-tasking at its finest," explains Gabrielle DeSantis, co-owner with fellow mom Monica Hillman, of Gigi...

Dear Christine,

Your system has to be as good as your mind in order for your system to give your mind freedom. If your organization has leaks or incomplete processes and data, your mind will still be burdened with the task of remembering, retrieving, and reminding you. And (if you haven't noticed)...

The opposite of monogamy -- quick. Polygamy, right? Wrong. Polygamy is when one man has many wives (often with bad handmade dresses and a fierce need for some eyebrow threading). The correct answer is: polyamory -- literally, "having many loves." Doesn't sound bad in theory - lots of love, right?...

Any holiday with observances that include avocadoes, tequila and piñatas is one that we can get behind. Cinco de Mayo is an opportunity for us to celebrate the food, music and culture of Mexico, but for most of us, it's just an excuse to turn a mundane Monday into a...

"Noise is sound that we have not selected to listen to', says Dr. Alan Gertner, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders and Deafness at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. Further, he notes that during every hour of each day a sea of sound surrounds us, just like...

Q: Let me ask you what you think of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor and one-time religious mentor. We keep hearing and reading that Wright must be narcissistic. How else can one explain his apparent disregard of the damage that he is doing to Obama's campaign? Wouldn't...

I'm one of those women who craves the kind of advice Hungry Girl serves up each day. It's friendly and practical guidance on eating well and still being able to zip your pants. When a friend introduced me to HG's daily emails last year, I was hooked.

But as Lisa...

Dear Christine,

We've got to learn to declare things DONE. Especially when they're not. Not completed, that is, to the level of perfection or result that we initially visualized or committed to.

The world changes, and our creative focus changes with it. So do our standards. We will always maintain some...

Help me out here. Now Britney is bipolar? Every time some celeb does something bad (think Jean-Claude Van Damme or Mike Tyson), they later come out as diagnosed with bipolar disorder. So does "mental illness" have as symptoms throwing tantrums and partying? And does medication help with that really?
...

Most of us who are trying to eat healthfully make a concerted effort to avoid mayonnaise. We're all smart enough to know that anything made of primarily vegetable oil and egg yolks just can't be good for our waistlines or our poor little arteries! Now, we hope that you are...

When you look at the body as a holistic whole, the old '50s folk tune "The hip bone's connected to the thigh bone" makes critical sense. Researchers and medical providers are learning that that old song was true: problems at the bottom of the body (feet, legs) affect everything above,...

When I am alone, I can sleep crossway in a bed without an argument. - Zsa Zsa Gabor

Do you know what position you regularly take up in bed when you drop off to sleep? According to veteran sleep researcher, Dr. Samuel Dunkell, the position you...

I've always liked granola. But before my children were born, no one would have ever called me the earthy, crunchy type. I'll admit, I really didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about the environment. Yet a few months into this mom thing, I was surprised to find myself...

Dear Christine,