Just Breathe! Reduce Anxiety With This Simple Exercise

It might seize you in the middle of the night, or perhaps at the beginning of a work meeting, or maybe while driving your kids to soccer practice. Wherever it happens, it can overwhelm you. Your mind won’t stop running. Your body is tense. Your heart is racing. You can’t breathe! You can’t relax and enjoy yourself. If you have ever felt a combination of these sensations, you have probably felt anxiety—a common experience among adults and adolescents. Whether you accept it or not, anxiety is part of a normal, healthy life. Diagnosable anxiety disorders, however, are different than normal, everyday anxieties. A hallmark characteristic of an anxiety disorder is excessive fear or anxiety about a real or perceived threat (DSM-V). According to t...

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Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples: Healing and Creating Connections

All of us, from cradle to grave, are happiest when life is organized as a series of excursions, long or short, from the secure base provided by our attachment figures. – Dr. John Bowlby Have we really cracked the code on love and romantic bonding? Perhaps. Scientists, poets, and lovers have long grappled with the question: “What makes romantic love work?” Through the work of Dr. Sue Johnson and the development of Emotionally Focused Therapy, it looks l...

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Our Brains, Our Bodies, Our Relationships

As I work with individuals and couples, I like to educate them on how our brains and our bodies impact our relationships. Understanding the correlation between these elements seems easy enough, however, I often get the question, “How do I change my brain?” The answer to this question is a great starting point to create healing and allow new interactions to take place. Our brains are wired for connection. Each interaction we have either strengthens or weakens the connections in our brains, thus influencing the relationships with those around us. The ability to allow one or two more heartbeats before reacting or responding to one’s partner is the ultimate goal. The better you are able to emotionally regulate (by allowing more heartbeats before reacting)...

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The Five C’s to Obtain Financing

With a growing, stronger economy, many small-business owners are looking for loans to expand their operations. An owner may need working capital to support the company’s growth, want to consolidate debts into one loan on more favorable terms, or purchase additional real estate and equipment. Regardless of why a small-business owner is looking for financing, lenders usually apply the same rules to assess the financial wherewithal of the business. Financial institutions assess the quality of the potential loan by testing the “Five C’s” of credit. The “C’s” are: character, capacity, capital, conditions and collateral. As a business owner, here are the five areas to consider as you prepare to obtain financing and assess ...

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Make Family Meals a Routine Success

Backpacks, sharpened pencils, and carpools. Check, check, check. The new school year is underway, and in a few more weeks most families will be settled into their new normal routine for the school year. Are regular family meals part of your routine? Consistent family meals are just as important to your student’s academic and social success as homework and study sessions. Research is replete with the developmental benefits including better performance in school, fewer risky behaviors, and fewer eating disorders among kids who share meals with their families. When kids and adults are engaged in food preparation and sit down to eat together, everyone eats mo...

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The 3 Simple Rules of Building Wealth

Legend has it, Albert Einstein was once asked what the greatest invention of all time was. His answer? Compound interest. I am often asked when and how an individual can start investing.  Those who follow these three simple rules will have the potential to improve their lives significantly. Rule #1: For compound interest to be truly powerful, it must have the benefit of time. The more time, the better. Think of it like a snowball rolling down a hill. It starts out small and then gets bigger and bigger the longer it rolls. For example, compare two investors who each put away $2,000 a year and earn 10% annually. The first investor starts ...

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Roots of Knowledge: Documentary Film Series

The phrase “Where history comes to life!” has been used to describe everything from museums to battlefield re-enactments, from stage shows to the big screen, and almost everything historical in-between. Now, this oft-used phrase will introduce a highly anticipated documentary film series, focused on the Roots of Knowledge project. In our last issue of Utah Valley Health & Wellness, we shared an article introducing this wonderful art project, which, through a stained-glass art wall display, will tell the history of the world through the advancements of man’s learning and knowledge. As we stated in that article, the stained-glass art wall will be unveiled on ...

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What You Might Be Missing

At least once or twice a month, I see patients well into their thirties, and even forties, who inform me that they have never had an eye examination. They claim that their vision has always been very good, and that they have had no need for a comprehensive examination. They are also very surprised to walk out of our office a week or two later with their new glasses—and can’t believe what they have been missing! Many wonder, How long have I been struggling to see? Could I have performed better as a child in school, and even sports? The school years are a very important time in every child’s life. All parents want to see their children do well in school, and most parents do all t...

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How I Got My Head Back in the Game

It was December of 2010. I was sitting on a training table inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, making a phone call to my wife. She had given birth to our first child a few days earlier, and I was calling to reassure her that everything was alright. It was one of the last games of the season, and our second meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The only thing I recall about the incident was getting ready to catch the ball, and then being face down in the turf with the Colts’ training staff around me. It was an all too familiar scene to the first c...

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Senior Fitness: Adding Life to Your Years

What if I told you there is something you can do for just thirty minutes a day that will significantly improve your happiness and well-being, and add years to your life? Would you do it? Well, that “thing” is… you guessed it: exercise. Although exercise and physical activity are among the best things you can do for your health, some older adults are reluctant to exercise. Perhaps they are afraid that exercise will be too hard, or that physical activity will harm them. But studies show that “taking it easy” is much more risky. Lack of physical activity can lead to more visits to the doctor, more hospitalizations, and more...

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