Dave Balch

For some of us the holidays are the best time of year because of celebrations, family, and friends. For others, it's the worst time of year because of celebrations, family, and friends. Why the ...

I was telling a friend of mine about my new stress workshops and keynotes and my idea to bring them to local employers for their workforces. I don’t have much time or availability because of my ...

Isn’t it wonderful that it is so easy to keep in touch? Mobile phones, email, tablets, text messages, video chat… the list seems endless. If you need to get in touch with someone or if you just ...

I’m a realist. I want to help you reduce your stress and I also know that there are plenty of stressful situations over which we have no control; that’s part of the reason that they are as ...

I admit it; I’m a little obsessive when it comes to finding the best option and/or price on the Internet when I need something. It’s just so easy to find things on Google! Consider that ...

After a meeting in downtown Los Angeles, I spent over 3 hours sitting in traffic before I reached my freeway exit going home. I was fried. I couldn’t help but think of how lucky I am that I don’t ...

My stress was palpable: My wife requires full-time care because she is confined to a wheelchair as the result of breast cancer treatment As her caregiver I only have an hour or two of ...

It’s often said that, as we age, “Memory is the second thing to go (I can’t remember the first thing …)” And, true to form, here I am aging and forgetting. I’d like to share a few simple ways ...

I recently treated myself to an adventure. It wasn’t earth-shattering, but it was a spur-of-the-moment road trip to see the space shuttle arriving in Los Angeles atop a modified 747 aircraft. ...

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get someone else to do all of the things that you either don’t have time for, don’t know how to do, or just plain don’t want to do? Ahhh ... just think of it ...

Have you seen “Hell on Wheels,” one of the original new series on AMC? In a nutshell, it is set just after the Civil War and a confederate soldier is looking to exact revenge on the Union ...

Last night I was in the local drug store looking at greeting cards. There are three birthdays and an anniversary in the near future and we wanted to be ready. As I went through the cards, I ...

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The behavior of some people is really beyond my comprehension. Petty, catty, sniveling little busy-bodies ... and yet there is a lesson to be ...

One of my pet peeves is restaurant music that doesn’t match the cuisine. We often go to a Chinese restaurant that has a wonderful sound system broadcasting the sweet sounds of, you guessed it, ...

If you’re like me, you have too many things on your to-do list. Just looking at the list is stressful! How are you going to get everything done? Here are some things to think about for ...

If you want to add stress to your life, I can help you. Here’s a technique that is sure to do the job: dwell on the things that upset you from your past. It might be a mistake that you made ...

We often hear bromides like “90 percent of your worries never happen” and “Worrying doesn’t change anything” and yet we still worry. I’m not going to tell you to stop worrying, but I am going ...

It was one of those mornings. When I got out of bed I had spasms around my right hip and could barely walk. I had to get to my office for a phone call appointment, but it was downstairs and I ...

Some years ago my sister took a course at the French School of Fine Culinary Arts in New York City. They learned all about fine (and basic) cooking skills including everything from proper handling ...

Stuff happens. You can’t always be perfect and people don’t expect you to be. But when something goes wrong you have a great opportunity to learn a number of interesting things about people ...

Mother’s Day is this weekend and it always reminds me of something that a friend of mine did for his mother and mother-in-law. Actually, he did it for his entire family. He and his wife and ...

Here is my latest in a series of wonderful examples of a good attitude in the face of a terrible situation. Chris, my wife, took the dogs for a walk the other day. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be ...

April 22 is a big day for us every year. We met on April 22. We were married on April 22. And my wife Chris was diagnosed with breast cancer on April 22. That’s why my newsletter, Caring and ...

When was the last time you finished a conversation and slapped your head and said to yourself, “DOH! I meant to thank them for the gift!” or “I meant to apologize for ...” or “I meant to explain ...

In this age of effortless access to tons of information, it’s easy to admire people for one thing or another and to yearn to be in their shoes. There is no shortage of qualities or attributes to ...

We live in the forests of the San Bernardino Mountains, and several years ago we had a disaster on our hands in the form of dead trees. Over 1,000,000 (that’s not a typo -- one MILLION) of them. ...

Everyone who is too busy raise their hands. Hmmm ... Every hand that I see is raised! We are all too busy, and that’s stressful enough. Running back and forth, hither and yon to appointment ...

These are challenging times for many of us, and I’ve identified a way that we make it even worse for ourselves: the “Poverty Mentality.” A poverty mentality comes into play in two different ways. ...

If you’re a fan of the Seinfeld TV show you are probably familiar with the “Close Talker” (who, when talking to you, gets way too close to your face and seriously violates your personal space), ...

We often hear bromides like “90 percent of your worries never happen,” and “Worrying doesn’t change anything,” and yet we still worry. I’m not going to tell you to stop worrying, but I am ...

Did you know that you had a secret weapon to help you solve complex and perplexing problems? It is available to each and every one of us whether we know it or not, whether we use it or not. Do ...

Needless to say, it was a stressful time when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The stress continued through her nine months of treatment and then during the three recurrences as well. ...

Our home is next to the National Forest and we can simply walk through a gate in our perimeter fence to enjoy it, and enjoy it we do. Every day, twice a day, we take our dogs to this glorious ...

A friend of mine had just graduated from medical school. She was celebrating with a fellow student who had also just graduated, and they were at a nice restaurant. When it came to dessert, ...

It happens every year in late November: Orion appears in the early evening. What is Orion? It is generally accepted to be one of the most conspicuous and most easily recognized constellations ...

A client (“Sue”) was recently telling me about how frustrating it had been taking care of her grandmother in her declining yeas. As she slowly descended into the abyss of dementia, her behavior ...

It’s party season, and that means lots of socializing even with people you don’t normally spend much time with. Guess what? There’s usually a reason why some people aren’t high on your ...

We live in the forests of the San Bernardino Mountains, and in 2003 we had a disaster on our hands in the form of dead trees -- 60,000 of them. This is a very serious problem. Drought and insects ...

Every year the rain gutters must be cleaned before the winter storms. We have a lot of cedar and oak trees which are very messy in the fall. It’s amazing how much accumulates in a relatively ...

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no ... It’s my sister! She came to the rescue this year by hosting Thanksgiving. Here’s the story... We have hosted our family Thanksgiving for the last 5 years or ...

Do you know people who don't take care of their own needs because they are so busy taking care of other people's needs? Whether it's your spouse, boss, children, pets, friends etc., there is ...

My wife, Chris, and I visited Yosemite National Park last week. It’s a glorious place and Chris has memories from there all the way back to when she visited with her family when she was 10 years ...

Picture this: you have actually forgotten your worries for the moment and you are having a good time at dinner with your friends. Everyone is laughing, the conversation is fun, and the food is ...

No matter where you live, everybody has something to deal with. In the Midwest it’s tornadoes. On the east coast it’s hurricanes. In the north it is bitter cold. Here in the mountains of ...

For no apparent reason, my wife started falling. And, when she fell, she couldn’t get up on her own. At first we simply attributed it to her general weakness, caused by ongoing oral ...