Countdown Reason # 12: The Number of Kids with Chronic Conditions is Skyrocketing
I’ve written about how chronic pain is on the rise, as are rates of chronic disorders. But two new studies extend our knowledge about the prevalence of chronic conditions among Americans into an area that’s quite troubling: America’s children. One study, published in the journal PAIN found that “recurrent chronic pain is overwhelmingly prevalent in
Countdown Reason # 13: The American Stress Crisis
A new study released today by the American Psychological Association found, after studying 2000 Americans, that the day-to-day stress the average American is living with surpasses healthy stress levels. Americans say their daily stress is at a 3.6 on a 10-point scale. Just think of that for a minute in terms of the physical “pain
Countdown Reason # 15: YES, True
I don’t know why I thought of this today. Maybe because as I walked past my son’s room this morning it hit me, ping (really, I guess the word is pang), how empty his room will be when he leaves for college. Standing there, with my hand on the door, I had a sudden flashback.
Countdown Reason # 16: And Gratitude Helps with Pain
I have a good friend, a dear, dear friend, really, who I’ll call “K.” “K” suffers from an autoimmune disease. In the past five years she’s gone from daily injections of a multiple sclerosis drug that packs difficult side effects to taking no meds at all. She carries the most grateful, compassionate outlook of anyone
Countdown Reason # 17: Grateful at Home
A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology evaluated the relationship between how much partners felt appreciated, and how likely a marriage was to last over the years. They found that appreciation and gratitude between two people spirals up or down; the more a partner shows gratitude, the more their partner shows
Countdown Reason # 18: Bless
Recently, Stanford researchers put folks into two groups. One group went through a 9-week compassion course, the other didn’t. Afterwards participants who had taken the course were not only found to be more compassionate to others — they had more compassion for themselves. They liked themselves better by learning to be more compassionate to those
Countdown Reason # 19: Why Emotional Memories of Joy Matter so Much
We’ve learned so much in the course of our lives. Math problems, how to punctuate a sentence, set the table, use an iPhone, hit the right buttons on our blog dashboard or twitter (okay, the latter three are still not so easy for some of us!). But can you remember exactly when you learned how
Countdown Reason # 21: An Excerpt From The Last Best Cure!
For me, this is huge. You’re finally getting to see what I’ve spent the past two years of my life doing — researching, journeying, writing. I’ve described the book to you in a dozen ways but nothing can give you a better sense of what this book is about than delving into the book itself.
Countdown Reason # 22: This is Hard Work, And We Need Help Along the Way
I am sitting here in an odd position. I am in bed with the flu, but the stomach flu can also mean all sorts of very un-fun things for me with my autoimmune condition. If you know my work you know exactly what I’m talking about. So I am trying really hard to do something