[caption id="attachment_416" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photo Credit: Wendy Cunningham Photography www.wendy-cunningham.com[/caption]

The Greatest Stress Buster: A Mother’s Love 6 Tips for a Special Day

Caroline, my little five-year-old daughter was crying. She had scraped her toe trying to ride her tricycle up the driveway.  I went to console her, but she ran past me- straight into the arms of her mother.  I felt a little hurt. Yet, when I looked at the way her mother held her, the avalanche of love that surrounded her, and the way her tears had subsided. I realized that I coul.....(Read More)

Have you ever found yourself feeling like you want to explode inside?  It's that feeling of just having too much to do and not enough time to do it. You feel like you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off.  Often during times like these I may be getting a lot of work done, but I’m running on overload.  I seem to be going to explode. I’m sure you know know what I'm talking about. You wouldn't be reading this you didn't find yourself having the same experience. So I want you to know that I know what you're going through.  As a busy cardiologist, a public speaker, and a stress reduction expert I face similar problems. I sometimes have too much to do and not enough time to get it done. Let me give .....(Read More)

In America and the Western world we are taught over and over that we have to fight our way through challenges.  Although I would never suggest that we should give up when faced with a difficulties in life.  Yet, another way to deal with stress is to learn to accept it Now this isn't surrendering or throwing up her hands in the air or saying I can't do this any longer.  Rather we should work very diligently to keep our life in balance while we run our business, juggle home and family, or whatever it is that makes us feel out of control because of stress.   But as  Richard Carlson has said, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff."  We need to acknowledge that sometimes we can't change the events i.....(Read More)

The new year is here.  Time to begin working on a new you. It's a new you that can be stress free. What's great about the new year is that it opens up new possibilities. The new year is a time for renewal. It's a time when we can decide to change ourselves for the better. The beauty of the New Year is that it opens new possibilities for living. Life is constant change. As much as it seems that we stay the same we are constantly evolving, growing, and metamorphosing into something completely different.  What will be your evolution?  Will you choose to change yourself for the better?  Or will you let yourself be a victim to the hailstorms of life. For myself, I choose to make a change for the better.  You can too.  You can choose to grow in a new and beautiful way. Let me give you .....(Read More)

What is the best way to overcome your daily stress?  Perhaps you've never really thought about this question before.  You might be someone who feels stressed out and just assumes that it's natural. "Stress is a part of life, right?"  You might be saying. Yes, we could say this.  We could assume that stress is so common that it is a part of modern living.  Yet, what many people don't recognize is that stress can really affect not just our day to day activities, but it can impact our health and even our future. Did you know that illness has now been proven to be caused by stress alone.  It's true.  You can develop heart problems just because of stress.  Stress can aggravate asthma.  It can create stomach problems.  Anxiety, depression, migraine headaches, inflammato.....(Read More)

We all want life to be easy, free of turmoil and difficulty. We want life to go the way we think it should go.  In your mind you might have a picture that your life should always be peaceful. Yet quite often our lives are just the opposite.  They aren’t easy. Life is messy.  It’s filled with obstacles and challenges. When life doesn’t go the way we imagined it to go we experience this as stress.  Stress is the feeling, the inner perception that somehow the current of life is flowing against us.  It’s like we’re trying to walk up stream or into a heavy wind. For some people stress may just seem like a minor inconvenience.  Other people have a different perception of stress.  For them stress seems weighty, oppressiv.....(Read More)

Is stress making your life seem more and more hectic?  Perhaps it’s causing your performance to lag at work, leaving you feeling exhausted at the end of the day. Or perhaps your stress levels are creating problems in your relationships- with your co-works, children or even your spouse? You might even be wondering if you’re ever gong to get a handle on the stress in your life? Or how about more serious forms of stress such as anxiety or depression, have they been creating more troublesome issues in your life? Well, as a board certified cardiologist, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University, with over 25 years of experience in taking care of real people whose lives have been jeopardized because of stress, I'm here to tell you that.....(Read More)

Stress is a common problem in today’s modern world.  Almost everyone has been caught in the tenacious grip of life’s stress.  Many people think of stress as just something that happens, not something to be too concerned about. Yet, for others stress can seem overwhelming. Now, when I talk about stress, I don’t just mean the little inconveniences of life. Overwhelming stress is the kind of stress that really makes us feel like we're in a pressure cooker. It could be fear, depression, panic attacks, grief, the loss of or someone we are close to emotionally. Stress can also be from an illness or the stress we feel from taking care of someone who is severely ill. Stress can be mild or it can be so overwhelming so overpowering that can make us dou.....(Read More)

How long will you wait to start reducing the stress in your life? If you're someone who's suffering from feelings of severe overwhelm- perhaps your work environment is just too demanding? You may have anxiety about the economic future that lies ahead?  Or you could feel overstressed because of the demands of home and family?   Just how long are you going to wait to get started on managing and reducing your stress? As a cardiologist with over 20 years of experience in dealing with people who have actual heart disease, as well is having training working with people emotionally and psychologically–I know the consequences of ignoring stress. Did you know that you could have an actual heart attack if you ignore the stress in your life?  Or did you know that stress could.....(Read More)

We all feel the effects of stress, but what is stress really? Why does stress bother us so much in the modern world? If you thought about it you’d realize that we all get stressed out so easily- at work, with our families, emotionally something happens every week to make us feel stressed out. But what really is stress?  Did you know that our reaction to stress comes from our basic biological makeup?  It’s the process that is called the fight or flight reaction of the body. It's a natural response that we were born with to help us respond to danger. Our bodies adaptation to stress is related to the fact that we are really ancient creatures, with millions of instincts that run our bodies that we learned back from our caveman time. As Dr. Robert Sapolsky tells us.....(Read More)