From Dr. Jane's Notebook


Stress Management through Summer management


            One of the problems of aging is getting old. It would help if we had a guarantee of health and happiness… maybe a warrantee on our body parts. While there are a million ways to improve your looks on the outside, it is also critically important to remain (or become) youthful and become even more beautiful on the inside. To improve the way you feel on the inside, consider the following ideas.

            Shift gears and rebalance your work versus play ratio by making plans for play time after work. Make dates with your spouse, dates with your kids, make a list of family field trips and put them on the family calendar. It is wonderful to be able to work hard in order to support your family, but families also need to recharge their batteries and re-synchronize their knowledge of one another and their relationships. Summer is a great time of year to exercise a different set of muscles, emerge stronger and become well-rounded as a person.         

            There is another way to stay young on the inside that comes through redefining how we think about ourselves. Not long ago in a television special, my favorite poet Maya Angelou shared one of the secrets of her success. To paraphrase, Dr. Angelou said that ‘every day, she expects to make about 100 mistakes. So imagine how good she feels when at the end of the day, she has only made 86 mistakes!’ She would consider that to be an excellent day!

©Copyright, 2006, Jane R. Rosen-Grandon. All rights reserved.

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