Personal – Jan 10

January 10, 2008

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage


Some Brand-Name Bloggers Say Stress of Posting Is a Hazard to Their Health

Dan Fost, The New York Times
Om Malik’s blog, GigaOm, regularly breaks news about the technology industry. Last week, the journalist turned blogger broke a big story about himself. Mr. Malik, 41, blogged that he had suffered a heart attack on Dec. 28.

“I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment that night and have been recovering here ever since,” Mr. Malik wrote. “With the support of my family and my team, I am on the road to a full recovery. I am going to be O.K.”

His heart attack – and his blogging about it – raises the issue of what happens when a blogger becomes a name brand.

“The trouble with a personal brand is, you’re yoked to a machine,” said Paul Kedrosky, a friend of Mr. Malik’s who runs the Infectious Greed blog. “You feel huge pressure to not just do a lot, but to do a lot with your name on it. You have pressure to not just be the C.E.O., but at the same time to write, and to do it all on a shoestring. Put it all together, and it’s a recipe for stress through the roof.”
(7 January 2008)
Sound familiar? Something to keep in mind if you are running at 110% at peak oil, sustainability, etc. This is a long-distance race, so one has to keep “pacing” in mind. -BA


Stress Management:
How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress

Helpguide
If you’re living with high levels of stress, you’re putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life.

The goal of stress management is to bring your mind and body back into balance. By adopting a positive attitude, learning healthier ways to cope, and changing the way you deal with stress, you can reduce its hold on your life.

In this article:

  • Taking charge of stress

  • Avoid unnecessary stress
  • Alter the situation
  • Accept the things you can’t change
  • Adapt to the stressor
  • Stress reduction tips
  • Making a stress management plan

(January 2008)
Anybody else feeling stressed out? I thought this information would be helpful for those of us who overcommit, feeling the cold breath of oil depletion at our backs. -BA

Helpguide was created in 1999 by the Rotary Club of Santa Monica with active participation by Rotarians Robert and Jeanne Segal following the tragic suicide of their daughter Morgan. Since then, a dedicated team of talented people have collaborated to create a free, non-commercial resource for people in need.”


Scenes from the Growing Food Crisis: On Finding My Work

Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
…So the question becomes, both for Aaron and I in our book, and for our society as a whole, how do we change that [the growing food crisis]? How do we change our food systems so that what we eat and what we grow keeps justice in mind? How do we put new systems in place that maximize food production and minimize inputs? How do we do this quickly, but with minimal destruction?

Those are incredibly hard questions to answer in many ways. And while we have some ideas and solutions for some of those questions and a host of others, we don’t claim to know everything. A lot of times, we feel like we don’t know anything at all. Which is why I will be writing a lot about food over the coming months here, throwing ideas out to my readers for comment and critique, thinking the questions through with your help.

I wonder sometimes if it is crazy for the two of us to take up the most basic questions of our society, to act as though we know enough to find a solution for such a vast problem. My training is in Shakespeare, poetry, language, history. Aaron’s is in landscape architecture and journalism. Shouldn’t this job be being done by someone more famous, more important, better trained, more knowledgeable? And, of course, it is being done by some people who fit those descriptions.

But when I feel least certain that we can do the things that are needed, when I most see myself as inadequate to the task, I’m reminded of four quotations that I’d like all my readers to look at, and think a little on. The thing is, I suspect a lot of us are in the same boat – we spent our lives preparing for a different world and life than the one we’re faced with. And now we know this stuff about peak oil and climate change and the world, and we have to do something. But how can we? How can *WE* do something, when we’re not trained, or prepared, or ready? When we’re not activists or leaders by nature? When we have fears and doubts and weaknesses?
(6 January 2008)


Tags: Activism, Building Community, Culture & Behavior, Health, Politics