I see this all time with clients who come in with depression, anxiety, anger management problems or other stress related issues. In some cases these individuals work out religiously and have healthy eating habits.

One such client, a single man I’ll call Tom, was employed by a company with a wellness program. Equipment was available but little focus was put on individual employees. Tom had stomach surgery scheduled due to intense pain that doctors could not diagnose. He gave up coffee, alcohol, and spicy foods. He blew up frequently at work and had few friends. Anger, negative thinking, and isolation cause stress and are hazardous to your health.

With Whole Life and Wellness coaching Tom learned techniques that brought him immediate relief and helped him relax. With coaching support he was able to move on to deeper learning and personal insight. After only a brief period of time Tom was a changed man. He cancelled surgery, was commended by his supervisor, and began actually enjoying his life.

Corporate wellness programs could be a big part of this process if they utilized wellness coaching, education and training in life areas other than diet and exercise. When people are stressed, they aren’t interested in diet and exercise. Individuals often wait until stress turns into major mental or physical problems before they do anything about it. Individuals who identify and manage stress early use fewer medical benefits, have higher morale, fewer accidents, and are more productive. Optimal health of employees impacts bottom line.

Engaging in competitive activities--trying to beat a rival, striving to gain control--shows up in an entirely different area of brain. Of course, this is also a very important survival skill, but it tends to come with its own tangible rewards--more food, more wealth, mate of your choice, etc.

I'm still waiting for research on highly competitive individuals. Do their brains light up in pleasure zone when they win? Is there some sort of shift that happens? What about sociopaths? Do their pleasure centers flare when they lie, cheat, steal, or harm someone?

There's just no end to thinking when you view world with a healthy dose of skepticism. Socrates observed that only thing he knew for sure is that he knew nothing. Sticklers are all too happy to point out that this, in fact, suggests that he knows that nothing exists, knows that he knows this, knows that he knows that he knows this, ad nauseum. By same token, if you are skeptical about everything, you must be skeptical of your own skepticism! Just when you think you've got something figured out, it's time to be skeptical again.

This isn't mainstream approach to thinking. We tend to like having ideas we can hang on to. We choose a couple of stable concepts, tie up a hammock and swing there contentedly.

That's one way to live.

Another way is to hang that hammock on a couple of sturdy ideas, sway there a bit, and then go off and find another place to swing. It's a lot more work, but you cover a lot more territory in process. Your intellectual journey may be arduous but infinitely rewarding.

Because there are limitations in scientific investigation and plenty of mysteries remaining, Skeptics keep in mind words of Albert Einstein: "All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike--and yet it is most precious thing we have."

Einstein believed in power of unknown and reveled in right to figure things out as best we can. He valued imagination over knowledge, but persisted in searching for evidence that what we dream can be described and reported scientifically.

Skeptics are cautious believers. They hope for magnificence, they dream of infinite truths and they doggedly pursue their right to be wrong. They are forever moving their hammocks and testing untried trees.

And they are downright evangelical about it.