Staying Sane in an Insane World

Diablo talks to the experts about how to thrive in tough times.

Trinette Reed/Getty Images

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WEB EXTRA

QUOTE
Examine Your Values
Priya Raghubir, professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Times like this give you pause to think about your spending. That’s not a bad thing in the long run. One should always stop and think, “Do I need to change my car periodically, do I need the latest gadget in my house, does a child really need a $600 purse, does a boy need that expensive pair of shoes?”

ESSAY
Soothe Those Stock Market Jitters
Steve Butler, president of Pleasant Hill–based Pension Dynamics Corp. and author of 401(k) Today.

“Plan for a hundred years, but live each day as your last.” That mind-set offers one of the best antidotes for coming to terms with the stock market’s deluge.
For the vast majority of us, the drop in real estate and stock market values is only a loss on paper. It’s depressing—no question about that—but it’s never a “realized loss” until we sell in a panic. If this were our last day on the planet, we would hardly be battling voicemail or the Internet to liquidate our equity. Instead, we would want to be with our pals—appreciating our loved ones and even our pets.
A big loss on paper should prompt some introspection: “How important is that money to me today?” “How real was that statement back in September of last year?” “What’s important in life?” “What if I died in the dentist’s chair next week?”

TIPS
Eating Tips for Mental and Physical Wellness
Jamie Davidson is a Walnut Creek–based nutrition coach and author of three cookbooks on healthful eating, most recently Quick and Healthy Meals from Trader Joe’s. She also teaches classes on how to cook quick and healthful meals from ingredients purchased at Costco and Trader Joe’s.

• This is not the time to start a new diet. Eating according to someone else’s food plan generally sets up people to fail, and stress is not conducive to dieting. In fact, maintaining your weight is a good goal.
• When you are tired, anxious, pressed for time, and looking for convenience and comfort, it’s tempting to eat sweets and other high-calorie food and take-out meals. Sweets can increase levels of serotonin, the chemical in the body that elevates mood. But the effect is short-term, and burgers, fries, and other food high in saturated fat can leave you feeling sluggish and slow your thinking.
• Eat a breakfast containing complex carbohydrates and protein. Plan meals and snacks, and have a weekly meal plan and regular meal times. Use a slow cooker to have meals ready when you get home. Use partially cooked products that cut meal preparation time; buy healthful canned soups or chili to have on hand for a quick, hearty lunch or dinner.
• Limit caffeine and, especially, alcohol. Alcohol can lower inhibitions and cause people to be less aware of making good food choices. And it acts as a depressant, increasing the downward spiral.
• Get active every day. Walking, biking, dancing, or other exercise raises levels of endorphins that alleviate anxiety and depression and help with sleep.

QUOTE
Organize Your Space
Jean Chené, general manager at California Closets, advises cleaning out the clutter.

In a chaotic society, organizing your home or work space is one way you can exercise control. It gives you that sense of order, whether or not you believe in feng shui or that kind of energy. When you have all these things around, they’re a distraction, a clutter in your mind. This adds to that sense of things not being settled. Organizing your space allows you to be calmer and more settled.

QUOTE
What History Can Teach Us
Kathleen Frydl, assistant professor, UC Berkeley Department of History

Uncertainty is very much a part of the fabric of American life, and it is the present administration (rather than the election of Barack Obama) that represents the aberration, insofar as George W. Bush was able to depict extraordinary and complex challenges in simplifying and certain terms. Like others who have capitalized on a very understandable desire for certainty, George W. Bush won short-term political gains, but he retarded and very likely complicated a much larger political reckoning.  There is no escaping those challenges now.

TIPS
Navigating the job market
After getting laid off from his high-tech job in 2002, Ken Greenberg suffered both an identity crisis and the seemingly daunting challenge of finding a job in a shrinking industry. In his early 50s, he decided to not only switch careers but to start his own business, the Pleasanton-based placement service, Express Employment Professionals. Here are his tips for navigating the job market

•    Join a network to share job ideas and leads, to keep up your morale and get out of the house. Have people in your network or job club review your resume.
•    Try the Employment Development Department’s One-Stop Career Centers for counseling and “job clubs.” Some centers in the Bay Area have groups for professionals
•    Have a clear job objective. Not one that’s too general (“I want to work for a great company when I improve my job skills”) or too specific (“I want to work for Google.”_
•    Use an employment agency, which can serve as an extension of your network and explain to prospective employers gaps in your resume and why you’re a good fit.
•    Get advice on which Internet job boards are best for you, and only post your resume on a few so you don’t spend all your time online.
•    Prepare for your interview and be flexible but don’t say “I’ll do any job.”
•    Consider the job as a whole: pay rate, commute, quality of the company, long-term prospects, your quality of life.
•    In the current economic environment, be willing to consider less pay for a job at the right company with a good commute.
•    Be yourself!

ESSAY
Dig a little deeper to find out why life is truly blessed
Mariam Safinia heads the Pleasanton-based branch of The School of Practical Philosophy,  (www.practicalphilosopher.org), which is a member of a global family of schools dedicated to the study of profound principles for a deeper experience of life.

“In a time when the world is deeply concerned about the recession, it might be useful to search even more determinedly for the source of true wealth. That must be a life that is enriched by meaning rather than a life, regardless of how much or how little we have, that is marked by a fear of loss. The fact of the matter is that there is no end to desire, and when we are deprived of the things we desire, then we feel somehow impoverished.The answer to this quandary appears to be simple: reduce desire and learn to live with and enjoy what life offers. Suffering is caused by craving; if this is accepted then increased happiness must arise when there is a reduction in craving. In one way or another the difficulties now being experienced are the result of a disregard of the true principles of human living. Times like this provide us with an opportunity to reassess what we truly value and to foster those values, not only for our own benefit but also for the benefit of all.  If we feel a lack in our lives, another wise piece of advice encourages us ‘to give the very thing we believe we lack’. 
 
On a personal note, I have found adversity to be my greatest teacher and I can mark the periods of greatest personal growth with moments when life appeared to be totally hopeless.  I was sent to boarding school in England at the age of 14, when telephone calls were limited to desperate emergencies or a death in the family—so my parents and I relied on weekly letters, which took two weeks to arrive! So I learned to find my own strength, to find my way without the support of a family and to understand the consequences of unwise choices from an early age.  In 1979, our family, along with many others, fled the revolution in Iran.  We left behind a very comfortable life to start again from scratch in a foreign land. This time I not only found a new career through sheer necessity but discovered a great knack for business, which was until then unknown to me. 
 
In 1989, I faced a failing marriage, a property market crash in England, resulting in a major business failure, and the discovery of breast cancer.  This time the odds really seemed to have the advantage; but by then I had found the School of Practical Philosophy and was attending weekly classes.  I pulled through the cancer, restarted the business and remarried my husband after four years divorce. In 2004, after 25 years in England, my husband and I decided to move to the United States, leaving behind all our friends, our support network, and the known life to start again in  a new land and to be near our daughters and grandchildren. Everyone thought we were taking a great risk, at a time in life when we should be enjoying our stability and established life in London. 
 
I can truly say the last five years have been the most fulfilling in our lives.  Life is truly blessed; sometimes we have to dig a little deeper—search a little harder—and then we not only rediscover great meaning but in the process, we come to know who we truly are.”