Unwind Before Rewinding

It’s been a long week for some of you. If you need help exhaling, watch what this woman has to go through to enjoy a glass of red wine:



[Many thanks to the Lull reader who sent this video to me.]

Feeling Good

“Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.”

—Jane Wagner

A Little Something from Hallmark

Sometimes the best thing to do is just look in the mirror and say,
“What shoes go with this stress?”

Unemployment Weighs Heavily on My . . .

Well, unemployment has weighed heavily on me both physically and psychologically for some time now.

But lately I've been waking up in the morning in pain: Every part of me aches. I don't even want to get out of bed.

At first I attributed it to skipping my exercise routine; then to excessive physical activity. But last night I finally figured it out: stress.

I wear my stress around my neck and in my shoulders, as many people do. But a few times over the years, it's escalated into an emergency trip to a massage therapist because my jaw locked up. On one such occasion, the massage wasn't enough. So I went to a dentist to see if I had some scary infection or other dental-related problem.

And that was when my teeth told their tale of nightly horrors: I was grinding and clenching them to the point that I had substantially changed my bite.

The dentist fitted me with a custom guard to prevent further damage and to shift my bite back into place. (By the way, my dental insurance plan saw this as a vanity procedure and wouldn't help pay for it.)

I've not worn the guard all the time, but I still have it. So I put it in last night before bedtime and Voila! This morning those aches and pains have vanished!

Of course, this doesn't mean the stress has vanished—only that it can't cause collateral damage.

Waking up with one problem solved is a great way to start a day. Now if I can just write the perfect cover letter to get that job . . .