Spending as little as 5 minutes in nature can improve our health. A multitude of studies indicate that being out in nature is good for us. This summer the Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia published an … Continue reading
Turn off the news! Too much exposure to negative news increases our feelings of distress. People who saw more than 6 hours of media reports after the Boston Marathon bombings were experiencing more distress that individuals who were actually present at … Continue reading
Your stress management is vital to your child’s happiness, health and success! Robert Epstein reviewed decades of research to find the 10 essential parenting skills. Then he analyzed them to rank the most important predictors of a strong parent-child bond and … Continue reading
Decrease stress on the way to work. Ride your bicycle ! This last week of May is Bike to Work week, kicking off June’s Bike Month. Have you been cycling to school or work, or just for fun? … Continue reading
With 50% of employees reporting that workloads prevent them from taking a lunch break and one third of employees feeling their boss expects them to work through lunch, we see there’s increasing pressure to skip lunch and keep working. Although … Continue reading
Are you juggling several activities at this moment? Checking e-mail while having a conversation, reading, or working on a project? Beware of multitasking as a way to deal with stress and time pressure. Multitasking decreases productivity. It divides your attention … Continue reading
Napping Day is coming up on Monday, March 12, the day after we start Daylight Savings Time. Even losing one hour of sleep has an impact on us. In fact, on the day after Canadians set the clocks forward by one hour, … Continue reading
News reports tell us that Canadians are spending less time with family, friends, and leisure activities, and that people are tyrannized by their to-do lists (even having lists for their lists!). Does this sound familiar? Be wary of those “should’s”. They … Continue reading
Constant activity is not the most productive way to live and work. George Shultz (U.S.A. Secretary of State, 1982-1989) took an hour each week to reflect on the strategic, big-picture aspects of his job. Sitting alone in his office with paper and … Continue reading
People who are resilient in difficult situations are those who : recognize “it’s bad now” are aware of a range of emotions – including “positive” ones! (even among the feelings of stress, frustration, fear, anger, guilt, … Continue reading
The most effective strategies to decrease technostress (the stress or illness caused by working with computers/devices/technology daily) are : Turn off notifications (from FaceBook, Twitter, etc). Constantly getting instant notifications can increase anticipation and anxiety (most commonly from a fear of missing … Continue reading
Did you have a relaxing summer? One that restored you? Sonnentag’s research into what kind of breaks provide us with the greatest degree of recovery concludes that the most restorative and restful breaks have four elements. How do your breaks … Continue reading
Do you get “flooded” during arguments? Dr. David Penner, Clinical Director at the Gottman Institute (home of relationship experts, and The Love Lab), gave a presentation in Seattle at the annual biofeedback conference. He shared their research on the physiological … Continue reading
A division of the U.S. National Institute of Health (the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health) has published a review of evidence concluding that relaxation techniques may be helpful for those with headache and migraine pain. After looking at U.S. … Continue reading
