Excerpt from Five Good Minutes with the One You Love

Even the busiest people can begin to reconnect with the sources of life and love in a relationship if they learn to inhabit the present moment with sensitive and caring attention. Through simple, mindfulness-based practices for stopping, relaxing, connecting, and staying here, the momentum of hurry and worry becomes less compelling. Something else more precious and sustaining returns. The opportunity for a different experience arises. Exploration of deeper, more positive feelings suddenly seems possible, even easier.

Excerpt from Parenting through the Process in Helping Your Child with OCD

Most children with OCD are and want to be “good kids.” Many, however, struggle with anger and irritability. Some have developed a habit of throwing tantrums. Anger and irritability are frequently side effects of living with OCD. Think about it: how do you feel when you are in a room with a radio pounding, people demanding something from you, and a television blaring? Thinking, listening, and functioning are extremely difficult because of all the extraneous noise. In such circumstances you probably feel angry and stressed and want to scream, “Be quiet!” because you can’t hear yourself think. This is similar to how children with OCD frequently feel.

Patty James, MS, co-author of More Vegetables, Please!, shows how to make almond milk.

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by guest blogger Michael A. Thompkins, Ph.D., author of Digging Out

Over the years, most clinicians and researchers have diagnosed people with a compulsive hoarding problem as having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), in part, because many people with OCD report some hoarding behaviors. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that it may not be accurate to classify compulsive hoarding as OCD for a number of reasons.

Patty James, MS, co-author of More Vegetables, Please!, shows how to make salmon rolls.

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Excerpt from Women Who Worry Too Much

Worry is a catch-22 for many women. It leaves them feeling wound up, on edge, and filled with self-doubt. But at the same time, a part of them secretly believes that they need their worry to manage their lives and ward off disaster. They feel stuck in a never-ending double bind, caught between a rock and a hard place. For this reason, many women find worry to be the less of two evils.

By guest blogger Duane Brown, Ph.D., author of Flying Without Fear.

Recent airline accidents may have made boarding an airplane more of a challenge for people who are afraid to fly and may have persuaded others that flying should be avoided altogether. The purpose of this note is to examine reports about these accidents and offer advice to fearful fliers.

excerpt from The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide

“The major stress I experienced after college involved this feeling of, ‘Oh my God, now I’m actually supposed to do something with my life! What the hell do I want to do?’” says Ricardo, a twenty-six-year old from Los Angeles. “I continue to feel scared because of an overwhelming need to come up with some sort of plan for affecting the world. I enjoy my job, make a fair amount of money, and have a lot of friends in the city, but there’s a constant pressure that I should be doing more, doing a better job of living up to the promise of my college education. I feel I should be leading mass social movements, changing the world, or at least using my mind to push forward truth, beauty, and happiness. There’s a sense that a nine-to-five job is a bit of a disappointment. To whom? My parents? College? Myself, I guess. I think the major stress after college for the highly educated is that we feel like we’re suddenly done with the dress rehearsal. Now we’re supposed to use everything we’ve learned and do ‘amazing’ things. It’s often hard to figure out even how to begin.”