Stress

In this article, I discuss the importance of focusing on tasks while maintaining balance in one’s life when pursuing goals. I recently watched a compelling documentary film entitled The Weight of Gold. Narrated by swimming legend Michael Phelps, the film featured the mental health challenges faced by several American Olympians in various sports. The common theme underlying the emotional difficulties of these athletes was the pressure they felt from focusing completely on their Olympic goals while having little balance from engaging in activities and relationships in other parts of their lives. This led me to consider the importance of combining focus on tasks to achieve one’s goals with having balance in the form of activities and relationships apart from these goals. In the following sections, I will discuss why this combination of focus and balance is important both for fostering good mental health as well as making it more likely you can achieve your goals...[more]

In this article, I discuss why performing activities to relax your body is fundamental to managing stress. One of the most common issues clients for which clients seek help is how to manage stress. When I work with clients on this issue, I help them to implement a ‘game plan’ for managing stress which consists of a set of strategies. A key component of this game plan for managing stress is performing activities which relax the body to relieve the physical tension which comprises the stress response known as ‘fight or flight’. In the following sections, I will discuss the activities you can perform which accomplish this goal...[more]

In a touching scene from the film Rudy, the title character expresses appreciation to his best friend Pete who has given him a jacket from the University of Notre Dame. It is Rudy’s goal to play for their football team despite being objectively too small and untalented. “You’re the only one who ever took me serious, Pete”, Rudy says which is followed by Pete’s reply, “Well you know what my dad always said: Having dreams is what makes life tolerable”. Pete’s comment captures the essence of the psychological benefits of pursuing goals and dreams. In the following sections, I will discuss why pursuing goals is important to your emotional well-being as described by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness.

In this article, I discuss strategies for overcoming adversity demonstrated by Team Canada in its epic 1972 hockey series versus the Soviet Union. Canadians recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series between a Canadian team comprised of NHL stars (with the notable absence of the injured Bobby Orr) and an opponent made up of supposed amateur players from what was then the Soviet Union. Millions of Canadians like me were riveted by this landmark eight-game sporting spectacle. The series holds extra special memories for me because I was fortunate enough to attend the third of four games in Canada which was held at the since-demolished Winnipeg Arena. I also vividly remember watching the last four games in Moscow from a classroom at St. John Brebeuf School and our teacher warning students to behave or else she would not let us see the action. What was expected by most experts to be an eight-game sweep by Team Canada turned out to be a titanic struggle. After falling behind two games to one with one tie in the first four matchups in Canada, the team found itself in an enormous hole by then losing the first of the next four games in Moscow. This presented the Canadian players and coaches with no choice but to face significant adversity which it had not expected. How did they fare in this endeavour? I will discuss the various strategies they used to mount a herculean comeback. In doing so, I will relate these strategies to situations in which people face adversity in various activities away from the hockey arena...[more]