The focus has been off workbooks for a long time in Early Childhood Education because the idea is that children should be free to play in a non directed scheme, but kids get tired of that easily when there is a shortage of toys and they know that a teacher is willing to really teach.

When kids first get that first workbook, you have to wonder why all the free play is better than trying new skills on paper. Kids love workbooks at age four and five and then by the time they are nine or ten, they despise them – and well they should. A workbook is thing that teaches “how” not why or what or when or where. That’s why a workbook is a useful tool in Early Childhood because it teaches HOW. By the time a child is nine or ten, it’s time to move on to a more hands on and research approach to learning – but that’s a whole other topic!

I was recently sent a new BIG ALPHABET WORKBOOK for ages 3-5. I’d say it’s a good book for any parent wanting to teach their child HOW to work on paper. It’s colorful and big, and it covers a lot of things kids will do in kindergarten and in some better preschools. It’s produced by School Zone Publishing Company. It’s written by Joan Hoffman and Barbara Gregorich, and i give it a great big green light.

This book is a go for children who have learned their letters and are ready to start to process to read. I’m not sure I would use this as a first book. It would be frustrating to a child who has not learned the alphabet.

The counterpart book is a math readiness book that is approximately the same level. For kids who know how to read a number, it’s a green light. This book is called Math Readiness Stickers 123. It’s written by Jennifer Neumann and illustrated by John Kurtz.

These books would be a great extra help for parents teaching at home. They are fun, bright and the kids are going to love them. They would be wonderful for small in home day cares as well.

I like both the books and will give them to Miss Amy for her class. It’s perfect for our 4-K which is kindergarten for four year olds. I thank Kristina Godfrey for sending me these books and making me aware of them.

You can find this book at The School Zone

baltimoresun.com

The next big thing: smaller schools

In Baltimore County, add-ons losing support

By Liz Bowie

Sun reporter

June 22, 2008

Comment: All I can say is duh. But I can add that smaller must begin with Early Childhood. These huge warehouses that house 200-300 little kids are a hazard to the developing child.

Across the nation, urban school districts are breaking up large schools and replacing them with smaller ones. In Baltimore, new high schools with as few as 400 to 500 students have been carved out of old ones with enrollments of 2,000 or more.

Now support for small schools appears to be taking root – at the neighborhood level and the school board – in neighboring Baltimore County, which like many suburban districts has long favored large schools.

Vocal parents upset about crowding in the Towson area and elsewhere have demanded new, smaller schools rather than additions to existing ones. Sparked by those complaints, the school board recently reversed course and withdrew a proposal to expand Loch Raven High School; the county has also agreed to build a new 400-seat elementary school in the Towson area rather than expand a school.

The school board, meanwhile, is taking a closer look at research on school size.

“The current board, I think, believes that an overly large school presents problems,” said JoAnn C. Murphy, president of the county school board.

County Executive James T. Smith Jr., who supported building additions at two schools this spring rather than new schools, said in an interview that he has never had a conversation about school size with the county’s school superintendent. He also said he has no opinion on optimum size for schools, though he believes schools with 2,000 students are too large.

Over the past decade, the county has added additions of 400 to 600 seats to seven high schools, turning several into schools of 2,000 students or more. This fall, Vincent Farm Elementary will open in the northeast part of the county with a capacity of 700 students, much larger than an average elementary school.

Achievement

The switch to smaller schools by urban school districts is supported by research indicating that they might boost student achievement.

Craig Howley, an Ohio University researcher and a proponent of small schools, said “a suburban community that is building high schools over 1,000 is making a mistake.” Achievement “degrades” for all students at schools with enrollments exceeding 900, he maintains.

Just how big a school should be has been debated for the past half-century when the first proponents of large high schools extolled their cost effectiveness, large course offerings and opportunities for sports and extracurricular activities. Schools for as many as 3,000 and 4,000 students were built in the 1970s across the nation.

But many urban districts began rethinking that strategy, particularly when graduation rates dropped, violence and fighting rose, and achievement declined. These problems prompted some educators to conclude that large urban schools were unmanageable.

Even suburban districts began to question whether bigger was really better after the killings at Columbine High School, a large suburban school in Colorado. The size of the school was a contributing factor because students did not feel as close a connection to their teachers and other students, according to one report.

Current educational research suggests small schools might be more beneficial to students. The optimum size for a high school is 600 to 900 students, according to a study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis in 1997.

“We did find that the ideal size of a school did not vary by the social or racial composition of the school. However, small size was more strongly linked to achievement gains in more disadvantaged schools,” said Valerie Lee, a University of Michigan professor and one of the authors of the report.

Other studies have shown that students in small schools are more likely to be better known by their teachers and go to college.

‘Personalization’

New York, Chicago and Baltimore are just a few of the cities that have created small schools. Michigan is offering $3 million in state money to any school that wants to downsize or create new small schools of 400. To be eligible a school must have a graduation rate below 70 percent and the school must return 50 percent of the money if the school doesn’t graduate at least 80 percent of its students.

“I think there is a certain weight of evidence that has developed around the country,” said Chuck Wilbur, the education adviser to Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, over the course of the past decade, has donated more than $1 billion to cut up large urban high schools under the belief that students would perform better in smaller schools.

The foundation donated $12 million in Baltimore to break up existing high schools, and local foundations added $8 million more.

While results have been mixed at schools that were broken up, a recent study by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, showed that the newly created innovation high schools in Baltimore with 400 to 500 students have better graduation rates than other high schools in the city, with the exception of the elite schools.

Moreover, in two of the “innovation” high schools that graduated their first classes this spring, more than 85 percent of students had been accepted at a college, the majority of them four-year institutions. In Baltimore about 44 percent of graduates go on to college.

“I think that the size of a school matters. You can have strong large schools, but in schools that face challenges, personalization matters a great deal,” said city schools chief, Andres Alonso.

There are still those who support large high schools and say that they can point to any number of top high schools in the county that are quite large. High-achieving students, they say, will have a larger selection of Advanced Placement and honors classes in a big school.

One of Prince George’s County’s premier high schools is Eleanor Roosevelt, which now has 3,700 students.

And a number of top Montgomery County high schools are nearly as large.

But Howard County and Anne Arundel County high schools are smaller. In Anne Arundel, the enrollment is between 1,200 and 1,600. Howard County, another county that has grown rapidly, has decided to limit the size of its high schools to 1,400 students but is building elementary schools of 700.

“Success is not directly related to size,” argues David Lever, executive director of the state’s Interagency Committee on School Construction. “I think the more important factor is how the school is managed.”

But many educators say that it is more difficult to manage very large schools.

Troubled school

One of Baltimore County’s expansion projects was a 600-seat addition to Woodlawn High School, now the district’s most troubled high school.

At Woodlawn only 25 percent of students passed the biology high school assessment last year and only 37 percent passed English II. Those pass rates are below those of some of the new small high schools in Baltimore.

Smith, the county executive, said he would support the breakup of Woodlawn into two schools with separate staffs operating out of one building. But he does not think that the county has the money to build a new small high school on a different site to downsize Woodlawn.

Gene Bottoms, the senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, said that simply breaking up failing high schools does not necessarily improve the teaching.

But, he said, all things being equal, students in smaller schools are likely to be more involved in extracurricular activities and to have closer ties to their schools that result in higher achievement.

One of the problems with large high schools, Bottoms said, is that students tend to be segregated in different tracks.

The best schools are known for their top students, he said, but the success of the top 25 percent masks what is happening to the bottom 25 percent.

“It is much easier to sort students into pigeonholes and create low expectations for some students,” he said.

Meg O’Hare, a county school board member, said sometimes parents have been happy to get additions to their schools because the alternative was trailers next to the schools. But rarely are the core facilities – the gym, cafeteria and hallways – expanded to handle the extra students. The result, she said, is still too many students in the facilities.

Often, she said, the school board supported building a new school, but county executives have decided to allocate money for an addition instead.

“Things come into our budget that we didn’t put there. We always rolled over,” O’Hare said. “The school board is starting to stand up to the responsibility for adequate facilities for the public schools.”

She said the Loch Raven vote was the board saying: “Enough.” The county executive contends that decisions about school size are made by the school board.

The problem of crowding in the northeastern portion of the county remains. Five high schools – including Towson, Hereford, Loch Raven, Perry Hall and Patapsco – have an enrollment that is 10 percent above the school’s capacity. The county executive’s office contends that that is not enough to warrant building a new school.

I’m very proud to announce our newest swimmers:

Jelly Fish ( Children who still have trouble putting their heads under the water)

CJ, Caroline, Zoe, Corey

Sun Fish ( Head dunkers who are still too young to swim in deep water )

Isaac, Nathan, Devin, India, Javeon, Zoey, Brady, Alyssa, Paige, Donovan, Luke, Reese, Emma, Jay

Whales ( Children who really swim in deep water but have not gone off the board)

Spencer, Phoebe, Mara, Sam, Nicholas, Stoggy, Madison, Cole, Addie, Skylar, William, David, Kanin

Sharks ( Children who can swim and go off the board)

Andrew, Austin R, Alex s. Dax, Hadley, Michaela, Aiden, Briauna, Dawson, Hannah, brycek, Alex H, Jackson, Alexis, Jack H, Morgan, Jack S. Austin W Wyatt, Adyson, Nikolai, Logan.

Here’s what we are going to do. We are going to Get spencer, Mara, Nicholas, Stoggy, Madison, Cole, Addie, David and William to move up to Sharks.

We are going to get Jay, Isaac, Nathan, Brady, Alyssa, and Emma to move up to Whales.

We’re very proud of our kids knowing how hard they worked this summer.

I’m not a soda drinker. I don’t even think soda is good for you. It is, however, good for your car engine and dissolving nails, so it has some purpose.

Yet recently we received an incredible new toy that I’m bonkers about. It’s called a soda maker and it’s from Soda Club. Instead of buying soda anymore for our punches at school, or soda for faculty who still need that fattening carbonation lift, we will be making it compliments of the soda club. That’s right, we can make our own soda right at school or at home or anytime.

The soda maker comes with a carbonation unit that makes a lot of soda! You use fresh tap water, and you carbonate it with three little pushes of a button. Then you flavor it with one of the syrups. But you know me, I’m going to experiment.

The soda maker makes carbonated flavored water as well as soda, so you can enjoy the fiz without the calories or the sugar. There are dozens of flavors to buy, and you can make about 4 cups at a time and it lasts as long as store bought soda. The ease of making it is seconds. With a soda maker on the counter, it would take about 25 seconds to make 4 cups of soda.

With the price of soda and all other food rising, this is a really good deal. Look up Soda Club for more details. We just love ours. This would make a fabulous gift for any soda drinker.

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He
didn’t want his mother to walk with him.

She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet
know that he was safe. So she had an idea of how to handle it.

She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the
mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn’t notice her.

She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be
a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following
behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighborhood girl he
knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little
friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every
day all week.

Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to
school all week?

Do you know her?’ Timmy nonchalantly replied, ‘Yeah, I know who she is.’
The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’

‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest,’ Timmy replied, ‘and her daughter Marcy.’

‘Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us? ‘

‘Well,’ Timmy explained, ‘every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm
with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much.

And in the Psalm, it says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all
the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!’

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift His countenance upon you, and give
you peace.

May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always.

From Susie E.

A lovely Miss Molly Antos sent me this note:

New “Funky Monkey Snacks” are freeze dried fruit – all natural, with no added sugar, preservatives, colors or flavors.

They are gluten-free, wheat-free and dairy-free. They come in four delicious flavors: Bananamon (banana and cinnamon – a personal favorite of mine), Carnaval Mix (banana, pineapple, apple, papaya and raisins), Jivealime (pineapple and lime juice) and Purple Funk (banana and acai berries).

These are perfect for Moms-on-the-go – they can take them to work, stuff them in lunch boxes or serve them to tv watching munchkins. It makes healthy eating convenient and affordable.

And I wrote Miss Molly back to say I’d love to try them. The snacks arrived at school, and I gave them to my daughter to take home to try on her three boys. I knew that Jack eats very little variety of food and would balk at something new. Bill will try them if Jack does, and Robby would end up eating most of them.

WRONG! All the boys loved the crunchy snacks, and they ate all four bags upon arriving home from the pool. My Miss Molly said that they are attractive, taste good, and are a no mess clean up, and that’s saying something from a mother with three little boys. Because they are a healthy snack, they could eat as much as they wanted. So all around, it was a huge success.

This has a green light! Go for it, moms!

We had a really nice time at Mammoth Cave on Friday. It’s some of our parents’ and teachers’ favorite spot. It takes a while to get there, but it’s well worth it. Our timing was really quite good, and although we got lost coming home, we did arrive on time. Miss Sandy was upset that she had missed the turn, but that’s all part of the adventure!

We had a good lunch. Kids seemed to eat – even with their parents on board! We had our usual, and lots of kids asked for salami which surprised me. One day last week we forgot the peanut butter, and the children ate the sandwich meat instead, and on Friday, far fewer asked for peanut butter than ever before, so that was interesting.

I made a shrimp and crab salad for the parents, and a hearty chicken salad as well. It was well received.

One of the things that I use in salads is the new Hellman’s Olive Oil mayo. It’s a lot healthier than regular mayo. Sandwich salads are always better with a mayo that is sugar free because sugar disguises the taste of the food. When making tuna salad, I use Star Kist solid white albacore tuna. You get a lot more for your $$$ and it just tastes better than cat food tuna. The egg salad is made from farm eggs with the orange yolk, and mayo – that’s it. People always comment on how much they like my salads, and I think the reason is the simplicity. Sometimes doctoring something only makes it heavy with too many tastes going on.

We arrived at the cave in splendid time, and descended the long road down to the opening. The cave has a lovely mouth, and is quite beautiful.

The cave was its usual pristine cool dark place, and the children seemed to enjoy the experience of climbing long stairs, squatting to get through and by and over terrain you simply don’t find up top. A lot of our children have never been there before, so it was a good teaching and learning day.

Next year we will be taking the Niagara Tour. We’ve done this one twice, and it’s time to change it. I liked the Niagara Tour because of the tight spots and all the turns.

Overall the kids were well behaved. There were three who should not have come. We will remember that for next time.

Field trips are a gift for good behavior. We will be sending home a letter on Monday to that effect.

This week: We will finish our sewing projects. (Kudos go to the following children and adults for learning how to crochet on the trip: Jennifer, Tracy, Briauna, Micheala, Hannah, and Morgan. I brought little bags with crochet tools, and the kids worked diligently until they finally conquered it.)

Tuesday will be a swim day, Wednesday too, and Friday we are arranging a tour of Ellis Park and we will watch the horses race in the first race.

Pax,

Judy

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard; I could tell
from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was
well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head;
he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the
hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: ‘I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.’

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: ‘He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 – he’s trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?’

Stress and your health — it’s not just about being happier

Comment: this is an excellent article for women of every age. It’s a godsend for mothers. Enjoy. I love these women; they do a lot of good and they are beautiful writers.

by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

If there is one thing that almost all of my patients — young and old — have in common, it’s stress. There’s no denying that we live in a stressful world. From daily time pressures, to the stress of a toxic environment, it can sometimes seem like we’re swimming in a pool of stress and gasping for air. Along with the more obvious stressors, emotional stress — stress from the stories of our lives — often goes unnoticed, and can sit at the root of many health issues.

The sad truth is that stress is probably the most significant contributor to disease — and it is the most difficult to treat. The World Health Organization estimates that by the year 2020, psychological and stress-related disorders will be the second leading cause of disabilities in the world. It’s fascinating to me that something which can be perceived in our minds can have that kind of effect on our physiology. But if we look at the science, it makes perfect sense. Stress — real or perceived, acute or chronic — affects your health. It changes hormonal pathways and the way neurotransmitters relay information. If these disruptions remain ongoing, there are serious implications for your body. The good news is, it’s never too late to do something about stress.

Part of what makes stress so difficult to treat is that what’s stressful for me and what’s stressful for you can be entirely different. And we often need to dig a little deeper than simply attending a stress management workshop or trying to get to yoga once a week. Let’s take a closer look at this hidden health hazard, on the surface and deeper, so you can work on maintaining your overall health — and youth — by reducing stress.

How stress affects us

Let’s start by looking at the different kinds of stress. Short-term or acute stress is the kind of stress we feel when we’re rushed to finish something, can’t find a parking spot, or get pulled over by a police officer. Thankfully, this kind of stress isn’t permanent. It comes and goes with the threat. But you might recognize some of the physical symptoms listed to the right when this type of stress falls on you.

Long-term or chronic stress, is stress that stays with us for months or sometimes years. In my patients I’ve found that chronic stress can be strongly associated with our life stories — whether it be traumatic events from childhood or events that have affected us as adults, emotional stress plays a large role in the ongoing stress that can lead to disease.

In both acute and chronic stress, the power of the mind-body connection is clear. What we perceive as a stressful or dangerous situation — whether it truly is dangerous or not — has implications in the body. For example, if you’re standing in the street and you think you hear a truck coming, your body physically prepares you to move out of the way, even if the sound is something else entirely. Likewise, our past emotional experiences can color the way we see current situations. If your father had a volatile temper that scared you as a child, you will likely feel scared as an adult when a boss, a husband, or some other male authority figure gets angry, even when that anger isn’t directed at you. So the stress we feel as children can repeat itself and have a lasting effect on how we think and experience life as adults.

And there is no doubt that chronic stress affects many systems in the body. To list just a few: We now know that psychological stress disrupts blood sugar metabolism and can lead to diabetes. Chronic stress also affects the immune system, increasing our risks for autoimmune-regulated disorders like allergies, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and hypothyroidism. Studies done in 2006 revealed increased cardiovascular disease with ongoing stress. Being under stress can also influence our perception of pain, sometimes dulling it and sometimes heightening it (again, much of the way we perceive both stress and pain depends on our histories ), as well as altering our neurotransmitters, often reorganizing the way we think and sometimes leading to anxiety disorders and depression. On top of everything else, stress can age our individual cells, making it more likely for us to suffer from age-related diseases earlier. In a study done on 58 healthy women, both real and perceived stress were shown to increase oxidative stress and cellular aging.

So you can see there’s so much more benefit to be gained with stress prevention and relief than simply feeling better in our heads. With the pandemic levels of stress in this world, researchers don’t have far to look for test subjects! As more and more of this research is bearing out, unbalanced stress takes a significant toll on our physical bodies.

The science behind stress

So how can stress lead to so many health problems? If you’ve read my articles before, the HPA axis probably sounds familiar to you. This axis is comprised of a series of hormonal responses and feedback loops between the part of our brains called the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland (also located in the brain), and the adrenal glands, which are located on top of our kidneys. When the brain perceives stress, the hypothalamus secretes hormone messenger molecules that in turn direct the pituitary gland to release a second type of molecule which then stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol and catecholamines. These hormones then shift the body’s resources to deal with the stressor at hand.

This response originally evolved to protect us from harm. If we were being chased by a predator or caught beneath a falling tree, the body could protect itself by shifting into “fight or flight” mode. Cortisol is released from the adrenal glands and causes our hearts to beat faster and our breathing to increase. The body is shifting blood, oxygen and an energy supply to the skeletal muscles and heart, and away from the digestive and reproductive organs. Problems arise when this response is chronically turned on at a low level. When the body has increased amounts of cortisol circulating in the blood for prolonged periods, it can lead to the health problems I mentioned above.

Eventually, if the stress response is turned on for years, your adrenal glands become increasingly fatigued. Women who come to see me with adrenal fatigue tell me they can’t even get out of bed in the morning. They sit in a chair and can’t get up, or they literally fall asleep mid-sentence. The state of adrenal fatigue is of concern because it leaves the body unprepared for a more serious event, such as a car accident, major injury, or even major surgery, where cortisol drops precipitously to such a degree that it can be life-threatening (adrenal exhaustion).

There are many ways to support your adrenal glands that will give you better physical and emotional health. (For more information, see all our articles on adrenal health.) The most powerful way to relieve your adrenal glands and protect your body from the negative effects of high cortisol is through understanding the root causes of your stress. I know this is not an easy fix! But when we truly understand where it’s coming from, we can work our way around it.

Where does stress come from?

In my experience, this is the most important question we can ask ourselves, and many times the answer lies in our stories. Long-term stress can develop from experiences we endured as children that manifest themselves as emotional stress in the body. And research now confirms these experiences don’t just go away.

In 1998, groundbreaking research known as the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study, verified that our childhood experiences remain inside the body and can affect our lifelong health. Over 17,000 people were enrolled to assess the link between emotional experience and health. The study found that those who had experienced an adverse event as a child (see the box to the right) were between four and 50 times more likely to have adverse health conditions or disease as an adult. Yet there are still practitioners today who discount the impact our emotional lives have as primary stressors on the physical body.

One of my patients, Jane, had a three-year history of heavy menstrual bleeding, and had lost so much blood that she became anemic. She’d been to six different practitioners, had been tried on birth control, had a normal ultrasound, and no one could explain the cause of her bleeding. The question that no one asked Jane is: What is your story? After getting to know her, I learned that Jane had a long history of sexual abuse, and was also struggling in an emotionally abusive marriage. When we talked about these issues, I suggested counseling. About a year and a half later, Jane had the courage to leave her husband. And during this time her periods leveled out, she had no increased bleeding, and the anemia resolved. Other women have experienced similar problems. And the forms of abuse can be as subtle as being continually criticized or reprimanded for trivial things, such as not having dinner on the table by a certain time.

I don’t want this to sound like dealing with emotional stress is the only way to be healthy. But I do want women to understand that it is certainly a larger piece of our physical wellness than many believe. For more on this, see my article on how emotional experience determines your health. Or check out a book called Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mindbody Medicine. It’s written by one of my favorite scientists, Dr. Candace Pert, whose research details the molecular changes that occur in our cells when we experience different emotions. Our thoughts are so closely tied to our bodies, that we often have to dig into the past to resolve ongoing stress.

If you’re wondering how to start examining your own stress roots, it might be helpful to take a look at the work being done at McGill University’s Centre for Studies on Human Stress. Building on research dating back to the 1960’s, Dr. Sonia Lupien, director of the center, has come up with a “recipe” for stress which can be remembered by the acronym NUTS. The letters stand for Novelty, Unpredictability, Threat to the ego, and Sense of loss of control. Each of these situations lead to physical stress in the body, and the more of them you encounter, the more hyperactivated your body’s stress response becomes. But you can learn (or be taught) to recognize when you’re responding to one or any combination of these “ingredients,” redirect yourself, and stop yourself from “going NUTS.” This acronym works for both short-term stress and long-term stress, real threats or perceived ones.

While emotional or psychological stress plays a large part in our health, we can’t forget that there are toxic environmental stresses that your body is dealing with as well. Pesticides, heavy metals, processed foods, prescription medications — all of these put strain on your body and contribute to its stress load. You can read more about these physical forms of stress and some ways you can counter them in our articles on detoxification.

Women and stress — is stress in our nature?

When we opened the Women to Women clinic in 1985, we wanted to offer a place where women could tell their stories and find help on their path to wellness. We wanted to offer a kind of sanctuary where our patients didn’t have to feel the stress of their daily lives and could talk freely about their health and troubled pasts. The only problem was that we — four women, some of us mothers — were beginning to feel a tremendous amount of stress from our own responsibilities: running a busy medical practice, taking care of our children and families, and caring for our individual patients. We were trying, like so many women, to do it all.

As women, many of us have a maternal nurturing response that often puts us in positions where we are trying to care for everyone but ourselves. And some scientists believe this instinct strengthens during times of stress. The reasoning behind this theory stems from women’s evolutionary instincts to protect themselves and their offspring during threatening situations. Forming groups and social networks — known as the “tend and befriend” instinct — proved beneficial to survival of the species in counterbalancing the acute “fight or flight” response.

Modern society doesn’t do us any favors by adding an increasing amount of responsibilities to a woman’s role. We worked so hard to be “liberated,” but the reality for many women is that now we’re just expected to do everything! We simply can’t do it all. My colleagues and I learned first-hand that taking care of ourselves was essential before we could help anyone else. We have to learn to set up boundaries for the sake of our own health and learn the benefits of simply saying no.

Explore all your options — stress management with the Women to Women approach

From my own experience and that of my patients, I’ve learned that untying the knots at the root of chronic stress offers us long-lasting physical and psychological benefits. But understand that this is a highly individualized process. To truly get at the root of what is stressing you out takes a lot of self-exploration and soul-searching. And I can tell you, no two women have the same experience in resolving stress.

In the meantime, you can offset your stress with some self-care fundamentals. These options at the very least diminish the immediate symptoms of stress. They can also help quiet your HPA axis, lessening the negative effects of cortisol on your body. Here are some basic measures you can adopt as you begin on your path to stress reduction:

• Start with quality nutrition. Caring for your body by eating three balanced meals and two quality snacks each day is one basic way to lessen the stress burden on your body. Cortisol is released when your blood sugar is low, so it’s best to keep your body well fueled with colorful fruits and vegetables, good sources of protein, and high-quality fats. To learn more about how you eat, what you eat, and when you eat affect your stress response, see our article on eating to support your adrenal glands.
• Fill in nutritional gaps with a high-quality multivitamin/mineral complex. In a perfect world we’d gain all the nutrients we need from a healthy diet, but with the advent of industrialized farming our food is not as nutritious as it once was. Taking medical-grade supplements provides your body with all the nutrients and micronutrients it needs to carry out optimal cellular function. And it will help take the burden off of an already over-taxed body.
• Explore relaxation practices. Acupuncture, reiki therapy, yoga, meditation and massage are just some of the many wonderful mind–body methods for reducing stress and tonifying the nervous system. Don’t ever feel guilty about scheduling time in for relaxation — it’s fundamental to balance, whether that’s in your stress hormones or your life as a whole!

If you have reached a point in your life where you are ready to uncover more deep-seated emotional stress, you have many helpful options. In my experience of working with women for over 25 years, I’ve found that resolving the emotional issues of the past is one of the most powerful ways to improve ongoing health issues. Here are some of the best options I know of:

• The Hoffman Quadrinity Process. This involves an eight-day workshop dedicated to profound healing and transforming negative thought patterns, actions and emotions, while working toward the integration of our four fundamental dimensions of being: intellect, emotions, body, and spirit. The Quadrinity Process is a superb way to resolve chronic stress for good — but note that this option requires a higher financial and time commitment than some others.
• “The Work” by Byron Katie. The Work is a process of inquiry designed to help people keenly identify and question their emotional suffering. Katie offers an informative website, has authored several books, speaks around the world, and conducts a nine-day program she calls “School for The Work,” which teaches you to unlearn the fear-based stories we’ve heard throughout life.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Finding a counselor or psychotherapist you connect with can be the key for some women to work through past emotional stress. My advice here is to be patient. Finding the right fit doesn’t always happen right away, and you may find yourself talking to several therapists before settling on the right person. Cognitive behavioral therapy is another method that can help you hone in on the exact triggers for your stress.
• The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). The practice of EFT is based on the belief that all negative emotions are a disruption in the body’s energy system. Similar to acupuncture, EFT stimulates energy meridian points by tapping them with your fingertips. One great benefit of this technique is that it can be done anywhere at any time. For more information, read our article on emotional wellbeing and the Emotional Freedom Technique.

About your health — every little bit helps

Taking steps today to reduce stress in your life has implications even greater than finding happiness and peace — it means you are preventing disease and preserving your health and longevity. With the incidence of stress-related illness and lost years of lives increasing every decade, we absolutely have to take stress seriously. Stress is a reality in our lives, but we don’t have to let it overpower us or prevent us from being our true selves.

I know from experience that taking time and energy to resolve or lessen the stress in your life isn’t easy. But if you do the work, I promise you will regain your sense of perspective and recover your health and wellness. As noted lecturer and author Dr. Joan Borysenko says, “We can’t find the light in our lives until we’ve gone back through the darkness….” I encourage you to find your inner light.

By popular demand I am posting my recipe for Ginger cookies. This is not the famous chocolate chip recipe, but even healthier:

2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 tablespoons molasses
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking SODA
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons ginger
.5 teaspoons salt

Mix all ingredients and form into balls. Roll each ball in white sugar to lightly coat.

Cook on a regular cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

These are beautiful to look at and even the pickiest eaters will love them.