MSI Press Blog

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from   Pathways to Inner Peace  by Diane Dreher, currently available on pre-order. STRESS SKILLS WEEK 1, DAY 3 Today’s practice is a two-step process you can use whenever you’re feeling stressed. Your natural stress reaction can help you survive in an emergency—you can run away from a wild animal or jump out of the way of a speeding car. But most of the time, this stress reaction does not serve you. Problems with work, home repairs, bills, or relationships cannot be solved with the stress reaction of fight, flight, or freeze. if your stress reaction becomes constant, it can tense your muscles, shut down your digestive and immune systems, keep you from thinking clearly, and compromise your physical and emotional health. The good news is that instead of surrendering to constant stress, you can take charge of your life. By recognizing when you’re feeling stressed and responding more mindfully, you can create a new reality for yo...

  Anger, in its narrow form, is one of the stages of dying that Elizabeth Kubler-Ross identified quite some time ago in her book, On Death and Dying . People go through various stages, according to Kubler Ross (though her stages have been disputed ), the second of which in her model is anger (though she herself later stated that the stages are not necessarily sequential).  While anger of the patient was the focus of Kubler Ross and of most books and posts about cancer (and other dying) patients, my recent experience is that anger comes also within and from the caregiver, who had not planned on this life-changing (and time-changing) activity and likely is not prepared for it, whether it be lack of skills, lack of knowledge, lack of medical communication or options, lack of time to accomplish all that is necessary and thereby creating considerable stress, or lack of temperament/patience, causing anger to well up as a reaction to inability to control the environment and limited t...

  Difficult Relationships That Take More of a Toll As We Age Long-standing relationships that are chronically stressful begin to take a greater toll as we age. We know that chronic stress and mental anguish have a greater impact on our physical bodies as we age. Making a final attempt to mend difficult relationships or to let go and to stop obsessing about them becomes an essential task when you are on the cusp of old age. Mental distress robs us of valuable time and energy we need or want for other pursuits so it becomes essential to pick our stresses. Difficult relationships are not those friendships that seem to have a natural ebb and flow and enter and leave a life. Most of us have countless relationships that we can pick up after years. Difficult relationships, on the other hand, become tiresome, unbalanced, and demanding. If resolving a difficult relationship were easy, we would have done it long ago. However, we somehow have gotten entangled in old feelings, responses, hurts...

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Mental Management   What is a goal without a plan? A dream? Mental management techniques work at turning dreams into reality by requiring the setting of goals and establishing a clear and comprehensive (and do-able) plan. In his book, With Winning in Mind (2011, The Mentashowinl Management System), Lanny Bassham discusses the importance of setting goals and tracking progress. The right—and positive—mental attitude can definitely assist a person in accomplishing his or her goals.   Defining mental management Mental management is the process of being able to improve your progress or show your prowess  while under stress. Have you ever been under stress in a language course? Of course, you have! If any of these following circumstances apply, you could benefit from training in mental management: ·         You draw a blank on a test even though you know the ...

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Brainscape: Mental Management Mental Management   What is a goal without a plan? A dream? Mental management techniques work at turning dreams into reality by requiring the setting of goals and establishing a clear and comprehensive (and do-able) plan. In his book, With Winning in Mind (2011, The Mentashowinl Management System), Lanny Bassham discusses the importance of setting goals and tracking progress. The right—and positive—mental attitude can definitely assist a person in accomplishing his or her goals.   Defining mental management Mental management is the process of being able to improve your progress or show your prowess while under stress. Have you ever been under stress in a language course? Of course, you have! If any of these following circumstances apply, you could benefit from training in mental management: ·        You draw a blank on a test even th...