These times are stressful. No doubt about it. The headlines yesterday and today revealed almost 200,000 more jobs lost; the bipartisan effort is non existent as Republicans are fighting Obama’s stimulus package and other potential legislative fixes. The stock market continues on a variable day to day indicator of investor lack of confidence in our future. Yet, the newly installed President forges on to make a difference. I don’t know if he is right or wrong but I do feel confident he has learned the historical lessons well and like most Americans, I believe in him to make change for the better.

Add to this, the affect of seasonal ailments, financial issues, and what to do about healthcare, and we have an accumulation of stress that compounds the stress in meeting day Read the full story

There are lots of outside negative influences on our lives today. Effects of negative presidential campaign advertising have been studied but most refer to the impact of this type of campaigning on the voter turnout but not on emotions. To see more about negative campaign ads in this 2008 presidential campaign and the emotional responses they reap, read my blogs here and here.

But today, we deal not only with fear inducing negative campaigning but also extensive media coverage of a rapidly declining economy that has reached world wide proportions. This can lead to anxiety and even depression. Today, I thought I would reprint an article that appeared in the Erickson Read the full story