As I’ve been writing more about anxiety and panic—for dogs and humans—I’ve been talking about it and thinking about it more, too. Something has emerged from all those conversations and ponderings: a million little tactics we come up with to cope. Ask anyone about this, whether they have a dog who’s scared of the vacuum […]
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How to Teach a Dog to Come: Make a Vocab List
June’s 7-to-9-month hormone surge (blerg) and her small bouts of increased courage (yay!) are leading to a little defiance issue. You know the one. I say, “June come!” a command I taught obsessively when she was a scared, squirmy puppy, one I used to show off to my friends. She was so cute when she […]
Panic Hack: “I Feel” Statements Curb Communication Anxiety
There are a lot of moments in therapy, where you go, “That sounds too simple to work.” “I Feel” Statements are an example of this. So you try it because you are paying so much money. And then it works. Later you tell your friend about it and say, “There, I just saved you $200,” […]
Never be Afraid to Manifest, Jimmy Fallon Does It
I know the word “manifest” is so overused, your brain is shutting down. But wait. Jimmy Fallon does it. And not in a fru fru West Coast way. Here’s how I found out: NPR replayed a Fresh Air interview with Jimmy Fallon today. For the record, Jimmy never used the word “mainfest,” but he told a […]
Easy Meditation: The Lazy Woman’s Way to Meditate Daily
Easy meditation: It’s a bit of an oxymoron. I’ve been trying to start a meditation practice for at least a decade. Certainly since Eat, Pray Love came out, and that was 2006. I had plenty of starts and stops, but when a new challenge arises, like moving, having a baby, or starting a new job, […]
How to Dress for Joy
When my daughters were two and four years old, they went through a fairy phase. I don’t mean they liked fairy toys and drew pictures of fairies—I mean my daughters believed they were actual fairies. And who was I to convince them otherwise? During the fairy phase, the only thing my daughters ever wanted to […]