Articles

• Special Report: 10 ways to destress
• How to Survive Your Office Party
  For anyone who's ever attended an office party or other obligatory event, you know only too well the fear and anxiety that often accompany it.
  
  In fact, a good number of clients whose jobs require that they
  attend office parties have ...
   
  
• Conflict Resolution 101
  It all started in the waiting room of my dermatologist's office.
  
  There I was, innocently leafing through a three-month-old copy of Newsweek, when a stylish-looking twenty-something woman entered the room. She sat down, took out her cell phone and started punching buttons...
  
  
• Come on, feel the noise...
  Like many New Yorkers, I live in a high-rise building with dozens upon dozens of neighbors. 
  
  Some are quite friendly and bid me a cheery "Hello" when we meet in the compactor room to dispose of our empty milk cartons and outdated Newsweeks. Others are grumpy and look right through me while we wait, wordlessly, for the elevator...
  
  
• 10 Tips for a Stress-fr'ee Summer
  For me, summer means three things: 1.) taking a break from my crazy-busy schedule; 2.) seeing James Taylor perform at the Jones Beach Theater; and 3.) eating as much ice cream as humanly possible.
  
  
• Worry No More: 5 Easy Ways
  Two weeks ago, I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned, moved this way and that. No matter how hard I tried, sleep would not - could not - come. Too many cups of coffee, perhaps? A gory ER episode? A jarring, after-hours phone call? Nope. I was engaged in the oldest activity known to (wo)man: worrying.
  
  
• Spring Clean Your Life: 6 Easy Steps
  I'm not sure what got into me last weekend, but, before I knew what I was doing, well, I was cleaning my house: dusting; de-cluttering; bagging up clothes for the Salvation Army... the full Monty of domesticity. My husband, a neat freak by nature, thought he'd died and gone to heaven.
  
  
• How to Say NO – and Mean It!
  Are you a pushover? You know: a person who can't say no? Or, as my handy-dandy desk dictionary defines it, someone who is "easily taken advantage of" or worse: "defeated." Ouch!
  
  
• 6 Ways to Be a Better Friend
  A few weeks ago I got a phone call from my friend Jeffrey, who lives in the Boston area. After chatting for about 45 minutes about his day job (in the health-care field) and his acting gigs (he's a gifted actor and comedian), we moved on to discuss his wife's job, family, the housing market... the usual stuff old friends chew the fat about on a Tuesday morning.
  
  
• 10 New Year's Resolutions to Keep NOW
  1. Be nicer to loved ones. If you are my husband, daughter, parents, friends and relatives... that means you! I vow not to snap, pick at, be rude to or in any other way ...
  
  
• 8 Ways to Beat Holiday Stress
  As we gear up for the holidays, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and under stress. After all, there's so much to do, and so many details - major and minor - to organize and oversee: There are presents to buy (and wrap!); a home to decorate; food to prepare ... You can have a stress-free yule if you have the right tools, and the right ...
  
  
• Gratitude: 5 Ways to Express it Authentically
  Like most crazy-busy women, celebrating my good fortune doesn't happen all that often, if at all. I know I'm lucky, but I don't dwell on it. Not only does giving thanks tend to feel somewhat self-serving and self-indulgent, there's something slightly cheesy about purporting to being grateful. It feels unseemly, somehow.
  
  
• 7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity
  You’re no Frida Kahlo but love to paint? No Anne Tyler but writing is your passion? Or maybe you can’t act your way out of a paper bag but dream of performing Lady Macbeth to a packed house (even if it is community theater)?
   
• 5 Easy Ways to Deal with Difficult People
  There are people out there who are... oh, how can I diplomatically
  put this?... ready, willing and able to drive the sanest, most
  patient person on  Planet Earth absolutely and positively NUTS.
   
• The Divas' Guide to Relationships: 7 Lessons from the Superstars
  Relationships have their ups and downs: their ecstatic highs and their abysmal lows. Navigating your way along this proverbial
  Freeway of Love, however, can be a tough nut to crack. For
  inspiration, I've turned to seven soulful songbirds for their sassy
  attitude and kick-ass advice...  
   
  
• Make Room for “ME”!
  The concept of “Me Time” is nothing new: We’ve all heard ad infinitum about the importance and merit of carving out a chunk of time to concentrate solely on your own wants ... the question remains: Once you make the effort to find the time necessary to really focus on yourself, what do you actually do with it?
   
• Stop Wasting Time: 10 Terrific Timesavers
  With 24 hours in a day, eight or more of which are spent in your pajamas, it’s possible – no, make that probable – that you’re not accomplishing as much as you’d like. Chances are, you feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
  
  
• 7 Ways to Self-Appreciation
  Being “Self-ish” involves self-care and self-appreciation; self-liking instead of self-loathing. It also means that before you can be nice to others, you’d better be damn sure that you’re nice to yourself.