Soul II Soul said it best in 1989 with their song “Back to Life,” which is now quite pos­si­bly stuck in your head…I know it is stuck in mine! For those of you who need a refresh­er, the lyrics wise­ly state, “Back to life, back to reality…back to the here and now.”

This time of year, it is all about return­ing from the rhythm and feel of vaca­tion to our rou­tines and “real” life. Even for those of us no longer tied to the ebbs and flows of school years, there is a cer­tain sense of free­dom and a vaca­tion-life feel to sum­mer. As that winds down and we put our noses back the grind­stone, we have a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to estab­lish new, healthy rou­tines for our­selves. [Read More…]

Here is some­thing else that you should say yes to: breath­ing. Accord­ing to Har­vard Med­ical School, deep breath­ing can help you call on a “relax­ation response,” which in turn helps you respond to stress more suc­cess­ful­ly and pre­vent stress-induced anx­i­ety and depres­sion. Despite the fact that we breathe very much on the reg­u­lar (I hope so any­way!), some­times we need to think a lit­tle more about our breath­ing in order to see stress-fight­ing ben­e­fits. [Read More…]