Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
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Today's headlines often carry an overwhelming amount of bad news. Whether your information is coming from TV news, your local paper, the internet or conversations with friends, odds are good that most isn't good news. All that bad news can bring stress that can certainly affect your waistline and other factors in your life. Simply hearing about bad things can raise the levels of anxiety and stress you're experiencing. When our stress levels increase, it's a natural reaction that we look to things that will comfort us, even...
Americans are entering one of the busiest, and most stressful, travel periods of the year. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, travel to a destination 50 miles or more away increases by over 50 percent for Thanksgiving and by almost 25 percent for Christmas and New Year’s. While that additional travel adds up to even more cars on the road, and usually longer lines at airport TSA, it doesn’t necessarily have to mean more holiday travel stress. Travelers can actually lower their travel stress by simply acc...
Testing is a fact of life for students from elementary through high school. Whether it’s a school system required standardized test or an exam or quiz from the teacher to measure progress and understanding, tests can be a source of stress and anxiety for many students. There is no cure to remove all the anxiety from testing, but there are strategies to reduce stress levels and to maximize test performance. The starting point is being physically prepared for not only test-taking, but all aspects of the school day by being w...
Today’s streets and highways are more crowded than ever. Drivers almost anywhere these days often encounter bad drivers, traffic jams and road construction. The stress and anger that go along with driving frustrations is a fairly common occurrence, but when they build to the point that a person become an aggressive driver themselves, it’s a real problem. “Road rage” is generally described as uncontrolled anger at the actions of another driver. In extreme cases, it’s more than simply being angry and upset. It can lead to a...
Parents like to think they’re the most important influence in their children’s lives, and that’s probably true up to a certain age but then the outside world, in the form of school and friends, intrudes. By the time a child is a teenager, it’s almost a certainty that the opinions and actions of other teens are playing a large role in decisions about everything from clothing choices to hairstyles to academic efforts. Peer pressure is natural and, in many cases, can be a positive thing. But it can also be a negative, especia...
With the new school year just underway, it’s an excellent time for parents to have a serious discussion with their children. No, not that awkward sex talk but a conversation just as important, one about illicit drugs and the dangers they represent. With marijuana now legal, either medically or recreationally, in all but four states, it has helped reduce the negative stigma, especially for young people, that once applied to all drugs. For many teens, these changes in society may have them thinking that other drugs, whether i...
Whether you're a highly-paid executive or have a lower-level position, you still head to your job each day and try to do your best. But is that job doing its best for you? While most of us need that regular paycheck in order to survive, it shouldn't mean being miserable in order to earn a living. If your job isn't making you happy, it's time to ask some serious questions and to consider the possibility of a job, or even a career change. The process starts with simply looking at how your current position is affecting you. Do...
One of the hardest things for many parents to deal with is their children’s demand for more freedoms as they grow into teenagers. After years of making most of a child’s decisions and putting their child’s needs first, parents find themselves confronting a young adult who wants the freedom to face more of the world on their own. On some level, of course, parents recognize that their teenagers need increasing amounts of freedom and responsibility. It’s a natural part of the developmental process. At the same time, parents...
Seeing a physician isn’t embarrassing if someone has the flu, a high fever or other serious health problems. No one criticizes people for seeking medical help for a physical health problem, and indeed, most people would find fault if they didn’t seek medical help. Yet people often find that mental health issues bring very different reactions. People sometimes see mental illness not as a health issue, but as a serious defect, as something that marks a person as weak, unstable or perhaps even violent or dangerous. Such rea...
Yes, you enjoy that glass of wine with dinner, or a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon. Is this a problem? In most cases the answer is no, but for a growing number of people, consumption of alcohol doesn't stop with just a couple of beers. And that can be a problem. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 15 million Americans over the age of 18 are affected by alcohol use disorder, meaning they abuse or have a problem with alcohol. It's estimated that more than 88,000 men and women in t...
Though California is the world’s fifth-largest economy, we must expand economic prosperity. With over 20 percent of our population living below the poverty line, we have the nation’s highest poverty rate. Our skilled labor shortage means that high-paying jobs often go unfilled and our job creation infrastructure, including career tech education, is lacking. Bi-partisan legislation, Assembly Bill 2596, will require the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GoBiz) to produce an Economic Development Strat...
As people grow older, they tend to forget more often than they once did. Although memory loss is a natural part of the aging process, experts have said it usually isn’t problematic for most people until after age 70. It doesn’t mean that someone might not be forgetful, even though 70 still may be a ways off. Everyone has memory lapses, regardless of their age. Even teenagers forget things, like cleaning their rooms or that English assignment, but as people get older, they notice more the frustrations that forgetting can bri...
Do your summer plans include one or more visits to campuses of schools being considered by a teen in the family? Such tours can be very positive and helpful experiences, if done right. The best approach is to do some planning before any college visit. Try to evaluate whether the schools under consideration are really good options for the student. Does a school offer the programs that meet the student’s interests? Is it large enough, or small enough, to feel right for them? Is it affordable for the family, and does the s...
A vacation is a chance to get away from the normal routine of work and demands of daily life. When done right, a vacation should be a period of relaxation, enjoyment and recharging. Research has shown that a vacation with close family and friends is a shared experience that makes everyone happy and continues to do so when they relive the experience afterward. But done badly, summer holidays can produce enough stress that some people need to return to daily life to rest up from that “vacation.” A relaxing summer holiday sim...
Summer family vacations are fun, unless you count that part about driving to the vacation destination with a backseat filled with one or more unhappy children. Children can possess a great sense of anticipation but often a low level of patience. An upcoming beach vacation has them excited, but the all-day drive to get there not so much. With a little planning and preparation, however, even a long car trip can be made more enjoyable, and certainly less stressful, for children...
Disappointment comes to everyone. As adults we, hopefully, have learned that when people or activities may sometimes let us down, we can keep such things in perspective and find ways to overcome our dashed hopes. But for children, disappointment can come in numerous forms. Even a seemingly minor hurt can often seem like such a complete disaster that the child truly has a difficult time accepting and dealing with it. And, in many cases, such as when a beloved pet dies or a close friend moves away, the hurt can be very real...
Life is full of changes. In business, in families and in relationships with friends, nothing ever stays exactly the same. While most change is gradual and easy to accept, sometimes people face a major transition, often unexpected, that can be potentially frightening and stressful. It doesn’t have to be. It’s a choice whether to view a change as an opportunity, or whether to try desperately to maintain the status quo and stay within a comfort zone. One step in making the most of change is to see it as a chance to add to or...
Being a parent is certainly an experience in extremes. There are times when it can be so fulfilling and rewarding for what has been accomplished as a parent, yet plenty of other times when the best a parent can feel is stressed and frustrated. Nearly every parent will admit to sometimes feeling over their heads in a job for which no one has trained them, but most people still find that being a parent is wonderful and challenging. And, when they approach parenting in a positive way, it’s possible to increase the wonderful a...
While the groundhog’s prediction this year of six more weeks of winter was right on target for many parts of the country, now that it’s firmly into spring, it’s a great time to start thinking about being more active. When most people think of exercise, it’s for the physical benefits it can provide, and there are many. Regular physical exercise can help trim waistlines, increase aerobic capacity, build muscle size, improve sex life and even add years to a life. But if that’s not enough to get people up and motivated to exerci...
When do people reach midlife? It’s a simple question, but a difficult one to answer. Adolescents may see midlife beginning at 30. Adults in their 40s may view 50 or 60 as when midlife begins. Although experts have said that midlife is usually somewhere between 35 and 65; age is only part of the equation. More important are the feelings people have of moving between youth and their senior years, and what they do with those emotions. Midlife period isn’t necessarily just calendar-based. Often, it’s more seeing that they no lo...
Most people, most of the time, want to be nice, to do what is asked and to please those asking for help. They usually try to be accommodating at work, with friends and with family members. But sometimes, rather than replying, “Sure,” when asked to do an inconvenient favor or to take on a task beyond our abilities, it may make better sense to say, “No.” It can often be difficult to just utter that simple “no.” People like to look responsible, helpful and capable; however, the reality is that saying “yes” to virtually every...
According to the dictionary, joy is the emotion brought on by well-being, success or good fortune. When we're feeling joy, we're happy and finding good things in our lives. While measuring joy might seem hard to do, there's one test you can try. Think about what your initial feelings are when you wake up in the morning. Are they about the joy and excitement the coming day should bring, or are they thoughts of dread and anxiety for all the pressures and responsibilities you'll have to face? If finding joy is difficult for you...
For most people asking for help can often be difficult. Yes, asking for advice on planting a garden is easy, but for a serious issue, such as mental health, people may find that they don’t want to admit to the problems they’re facing. It’s not hard to understand why they may be reluctant. Admitting that they’re struggling or feeling overwhelmed is like admitting they’re weak or inadequate. Most people learned as children that it’s important to be independent, strong and self-sufficient. That background makes it difficult t...
There are many factors that can have negative effects on us, but sometimes it's important to focus on those things that can actually improve the quality of our lives. Yes, exercise, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep all can contribute to better physical and mental health, but another even simpler antidote that is often overlooked is making sure to laugh frequently. Laughing is a natural part of life. As infants, we started smiling within our first few weeks and were laughing out loud within just months....
You may be someone who loves Valentine's Day, is totally indifferent to it or hates what an over-commercialized holiday it is, but regardless, it's still a good opportunity to think about the romantic relationships in which we're involved. This doesn't mean you have to run out and buy big boxes of chocolates or giant bunches of flowers, but it can be a good chance to examine your relationship and evaluate ways that you could make it better. Romantic relationships are delicate...