Health - Beating Stress by Relaxing

Evaluating the causes of stress and learning new ways to handle or cope with stress can help improve many chronic conditions, including the various forms of arthritis.

Perhaps through deep breathing, taking a 10-minute walk, pausing to read a magazine or even Psalms in the Bible are all ways to relax. I personally have to give myself permission to relax since I'm on a commission-only basis and I have 6 kids and a grandchild in the house.

Or, enjoy daydreaming. Here's an episode where a guy named Don (look familiar?) is trying to escape the pressures of his special needs children when he meets an attractive woman in a restaurant. It's a demo segment from a proposed web series called "Hey, Dad."

Relationships: Marriage - how do you keep it fresh?

Late at night, the phone's ringing and we've been running all day . . .

NOW WHAT?

Our 18-year-old on a Sunday night took a girl to a movie and now he wants a ride home. Our other 18-year-old who said he'd pick him up is at a movie . . . and . . . aaaargh!!

These are the type of interruptions which can kill intimacy in a marriage. It really takes endurance and a sense of delayed gratification to stay communicating and stay together. That's what I'm learning . . . but it also takes deeply appreciating the one you're with . . . and last year, during an especially tough time, I really felt like bailing out on the stress of our home life . . . but instead, I thought of the traits that amaze me about my wife and I wrote about them on this article:


Admiring my wife

Marriage and Affairs: Ever thought about one?

Then maybe you should read Affairs to Remember by Andrea Landry.

As Kenisia sits in her doctor's office contemplating about her husband, Thaniel and his best friend, Keanu, she is literally torn between two lovers. One's her best friend and the other is the one she's committed to for the rest of her life. Should she leave Thaniel for Keanu or is she really tripping? Landry uses a flashback approach with the "Affairs To Remember" as Kenisia brings the readers into her past world of former lovers, crazy situations with her Baby Daddy's and living her life, struggling as a single Mom. During her past relationships, Kenisia is like every other young woman, dating and enjoying her life, and always looking for the next fun guy to kick it with, until she is blown away by Thaniel and his unconditional love for her and her sons, King and Dorian.

Author Andrea Landry, a resident of Bakersfield, CA, took a year to write her second novel, Affairs to Remember, published by Publish America at www.publishamerica.com.

"Between life and work," she told me, "I'd write a few things, then put it away, and then write more. When I was off from work due to illness I finally had time to finish the story."

She also relied on the input from people she asked to read the chapters and make comments.

"I write what I'm thinking and feeling," she said, "then I go back to fix things. The biggest obstacle I had [in writing the novel] was having the characters fit and make sense. I would have other people read to see if the story made sense to them and if they liked it.

Landry's first novel was The Trouble with Marriage. She's currently working on two more novels simultaneously and - good news for her writing career - she has a publisher waiting for one of them, What's in a Name, to get completely written.

Affairs to Remember is available online through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders.

It's also available through Affairs to Remember

Money, Kids with Don and Suzanne

So if the writer's guild goes on strike - don't fret . . . here's episode 1 of what I can envision as an online series - "Hey! Dad" - the ups and downs of a man who balances the challenges of adopting special needs kids, his marriage and career: