MSI Press Blog

  Coming soon!  21 Ways to Stay Alive When Your Job Is Killing You  (Kingman and Wise). Book Description: Are you burned out, broken down, or just barely surviving the workday? You're not alone—and you don’t have to stay stuck. In  21 Ways to Stay Alive When Your Job Is Killing You , leadership veteran Kingman and clinical psychologist Wise team up to deliver a powerful guide for anyone drowning in toxic work culture, impossible expectations, or soul-crushing stress. Through raw, relatable true stories and practical, evidence-based insights, they offer a lifeline: 21 transformational strategies to reclaim your health, sanity, and sense of purpose. This is more than a self-help book—it’s a survival manual for modern professionals. Discover what’s really wearing you down (it’s not always what you think) Learn how to set boundaries without burning bridges Rebuild your confidence, clarity, and control Find the courage to stay—or the freedom to leave Whether you're in cor...

  EMOTIONAL INATTENTION “He who looks outside dreams. He who looks insides awakens.” --Carl Jung   “It seems like almost everyone has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) these days!” We live on overload, constantly bombarded by information and driven by the fast pace of life. Adult Americans on average spend ten and a half hours a day watching TV, listening to the radio, or using their smart phones and other electronic devices (Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, 2018). We are driven to succeed and push ourselves to keep busy and productive. To survive, we learn to multitask. We strain to keep all the balls we are juggling in the air. We want more and more, yet never seem satisfied. While technically only a few of us, about 6 percent, can be diagnosed with ADD, our culture keeps us distracted, impulse-driven, restless, and running in circles. So preoccupied, we never learn to listen to ourselves. I propose that the high-stress and instability of the American family contribute to ano...

  Excerpt from 10 Quick Homework Tips (Alder & Trombly) TIP # 1    HEAD OFF STRESS BY BEING PROACTIVE "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." ~ Chinese Proverb   Why is this Important?   One of the biggest reasons, if not THE biggest reason, that kids and parents alike feel stress about homework is that their family simply has no concrete plan for how, when, and where homework will get done.  Kids may not act like it, but they need, and even like, having rules.  They feel better, safer, if they know exactly what is expected of them.  Think about your daily life, at work or at home.  Do you feel more confident, more calm, on days that you are unsure what your boss will want from you, when you don’t know what you are expected to do, or where you should do it and with what tools… or on days when you know exactly what is expected of you, where you know just what to do, where, when and how? ...

  In one Star Trek episode, the crew cannot enter REM sleep -- and as a result, violence emergences. That episode is based on scientific research. And it explains a lot about caregiver burnout  and anger . When a spouse or other family member suffers from cancer, needs for care do not occur only during waking hours. Often, it feels like 24/7, and a family member who serves as caregiver can find himself or herself unable to react calmly in the face of chaos and immense stress . Sleep provides a time to renew emotional balance. Sleep deprivation leads to deprivation of balance, calm, perspective--and ultimately, emotional control. Here are some details about the relationship between sleep deprivation and anger  from the National Institute of Health. Here are some details about the relationship between sleep and mood from Harvard University research. And here is some evidence of the relationship between anger, aggression, hostility, and sleep deprivation , also from NIH....

  (diagram and contents of diagram from Beth Frates via Twitter) Literature gives suggestions for caregiver as if life is calm and caregivers are never angry or stressed out (implying that it is wrong to be so). The reality is that even in the best of circumstances, i.e. the existence of good support systems, caregivers do burn out . Thinking that other caregivers do not and that it is wrong to be angry or somehow even to instinctively respond with an unkind word or behavior is somehow is unique and makes one a bad person creates quite a guilt trip later.  In normal, circumstances, caregivers become sleep-deprived. Sleep deprivation leads NATURALLY to short tempers, frequent frustration, and, yes, bad decisions. Individuals' decisions that are made while sleep deprived cannot be thought of as intentional or well considered. At one point, I was so sleep-deprived that I fell asleep and drove off the road and into a field of cabbage (fortunately, I was not on a major highway), w...

  Book description: It's not easy to know what to do with yourself when you're grieving, anxious, angry, ashamed, or just feeling stuck. This little book offers a simple practice for releasing and relieving negative emotions, to help bring about a more compassionate, centered way of being with whatever is happening. Written by a psychotherapist and Jewish interfaith minister during pandemic times, The Little Book That Listens is like a series of Oracle cards with messages that comfort, encourage, uplift, and redirect. The power of self-healing is here for you. Book Review from Amazon - view more reviews there: I love this book of insight and tenderness towards Self. It felt like the language composed a maternal embrace, each page a reassurance from a high source, that I was loved. The book has received 10 reviews, all 5-stars. You can read the reviews and purchase the book from  AMAZON .   Julia Aziz has also published a book with MSI Press, Lessons of Labor .  To re...