Tamar Chansky

"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." -- Thomas Jefferson

Yikes. Is that a solution, or the DSM-IV definition of social anxiety disorder?

The house lights dim, the stage is dark save for one spotlight, the kind that follows your every move. You...

There's a certain type of worry that is like no other. That's the kind where we, as parents, are worrying about our children. You can't concentrate; you can't enjoy yourself; you can't sleep. There's a pit in your stomach because in the back of your mind you know: All is...

When I was a college student back in the early 1980's we had a rather unflattering pre-exam period tradition. We all gathered on the front lawn of the school just as night fell and engaged in what is best described as a group-wail. Something like a cross between a primal...

"Bing-bing-bing!" What was that? That's the sound your brain makes when the "finishing things" circuits light up with excitement because you really, actually, finally completed something. It's like an internal hooray. Well, newsflash, that part of your brain just left you a note -- it says it's been feeling a...

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" There are a few more no's in the exact quote, but essentially, this is what the hippie in the movie Hair says when, in prison, he is being forced to get his hair cut. Take away the hippie's hair, and...

March is college admissions decision time, and it has families with high school seniors on the edge of their seats. Whether it's using all of your restraint not to tackle the mailman to see if the envelopes are thick (accepted) or thin (rejected or maybe wait-list), or hovering around the...

Valentine's Day is all about roses, chocolates and thou, and that's all good, but this year do something different for your spouse. Cut worry out of your relationship -- that unmistakable yet invisible interloper that trespasses on the sacred space you call home. Let's see how.

What kills romance? A...

I am a sentimental person. My husband is not. Which explains why I have saved every single text conversation we have had on our iPhones since buying them as a matched set over 2 ½ years ago. And, similarly, explains why, in short, he has not. I would never dream...

Just when it seemed that the laws of modern life couldn't get any more complicated--do you do facebook or just twitter (and, for the last time, what is twitter anyway?) -- we seem to be getting conflicting advice about what should be going on in the privacy of our own...

My PR-savvy brother and all of the other entrepreneurs out there just shake their heads at me in disbelief. They think of me as a lost cause. Yes, she wrote some parenting books, in fact really well-written books to help anxious and pessimistic children, and of course she wants tons...

It's after April 15, the taxes are in the mail, and now it's time to tackle the real challenge of spring -- little league. Well, not exactly, but all over the country, kids of all ages are gearing up for the new season of sports, from little tikes to varsity...

No, no, it's not what you think. I'm not going to complain about the redesign of FB and how it has ruined it forever. That's sweating the small stuff. The real problem is, I feel bad about my neck. Maybe not as bad as Nora Ephron does, but bad enough....

Is it possible in the worst of times to see the best possibilities? And if it is possible, is it desirable? According to a US News and World Report poll, a full sixty percent of Americans said that President Obama's inauguration made them "feel more hopeful about the next four...