Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A free wellness assessment

Whether you're a teen, in college, and adult, or an older adult, the National Wellness Institute has a free assessment that will tell you how you score in these areas:

  • Physical
  • Sexuality
  • Nutrition
  • Emotional
  • Self Care
  • Intellectual
  • Safety
  • Occupational
  • Environment
  • Spirituality

Monday, November 24, 2008

An online study of Jewish stress

It's like finding needles in a haystack, but for the one or two Jews out there who are stressed or worried there's a study going on right now at jpsych.com by Bowling Green State University PhD student, David H. Rosmarin, that "hopes to evaluate the effectiveness of two different treatments for stress and worry among Jews, delivered via the internet."

Qualifying participants for the 14-day study will be randomly assigned to receive 'treatments' that are spiritual-based, conventional, or no treatment. After you complete your assigned treatment you'll have access to the spiritual or conventional treatments for a year.

I can't tell you more details because I didn't qualify for the study ... not enough stress.


Looking forward to hearing back from those of you who do qualify!

(thanks to Lyn for the 411)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Not sure if you're happy? How much TV do you watch?

The NY Times just put out an article discussing a recent study about an activity that happy people do less of - watch TV.

This doesn't really surprise me because happiness tends to be an active, engaging state. And let's face it, there aren't that many amazing things on TV that leave us feeling upbeat.


Crime shows, news, reality TV, infomercials, lame sitcoms are the majority of what's available - these are not themes that lead us feeling upbeat - usually because we do it far longer than our interests really last.

Unlike socializing, going to church and reading newspapers (some of the other activities the study mentions) - where we take an active role, and when we're feeling done we move on, the shows keep coming, but it's hard to turn off the TV.

What can you do? (in increasing order of TV time)

  • Get out of the house
  • Throw out your TV so you're forced to do other things
  • Make activities around the home as easy to initiate as turning on the TV (and put reminders on the remote to remind you of them)
  • Set up a timer so you only watch a certain amount - turning off the alarm should require getting up
  • Only watch shows you find uplifting

More "Advice from the Experts"

I recently contributed to an response on Career Builder's CBCampus.com blog (a service to college students and alumni to assist in the job search process) to this post by a student seeking more options than what she found at the career services office.