Today’s post is a bit of a luxury for me because I want to use several images as a photo journal. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words… so here are four thousand “words” to help me convey the feeling of utter helplessness I recently experienced while visiting my extended family in Costa Rica.

When my husband took this picture, he was standing beside the “living fence” in my sister’s yard. He noticed that, on this particularly windy day, someone had started a burn pile in the adjacent field… and walked away. No one (but Jeff) was watching this fire; there was no one to keep it under control.

Posted in anxiety, choices, stress 18 Comments »

All sorts of variables can put us in stressful situations. Some of them we create, others just happen. Either way, it doesn’t do us any good to get bent out of shape and full of angst when what we really need is to remain calm, rational and productive. Here are three possible stressful scenarios, and ten tips to help you remain calm if you find yourself in one of them.

SCENARIO 1: UNEXPECTED CRISIS – Sometimes you are going about your day and unpleasant things just happen. For instance, the guy in the picture above had just flipped over his truck on a Costa Rican highway. He could have been screaming and panicking; but instead, he decided to take the opportunity to have some breakfast. Calm… cool… collected. His approach was:

Posted in acceptance, inner peace, mental health, serenity, stress 30 Comments »