The deeper beauty of spring is its process. In winter's last days, as the sun warms the earth, each root and branch awakens to the patterned memory of who it is and what it can be. Life stirs and nat...

Echo was a flea-bitten gray horse, with brown speckles everywhere, and crystal clear hairs in her mane and tail. We met in October, 1976, when she was a broodmare on an Arabian farm in New York State. A beginner at riding doesn't usually start out with a novice horse, but I fell in love at first sight of her. Somehow, over the years, we learned how to have great times and not get in trouble. We enjoyed trail riding and had fun doing dressage, too. Echo loved to be ridden and to gallop across field. She was always as eager for my companionship as I was for hers.

We all suffer from stress from time to time but the degree to which it affects our lives has a great deal to do with how we cope with it. Unfortunately, in all too many cases people often unwittingly compound the problem rather than solve it.

Stress of often called the silent or quiet killer. We cannot see its destructive path yet over time the impact to our vital organs can be significant if efforts to reduce stress are ignored.

The perception that in order to be accepted in society, we need to 'be somebody,' often involves the desire to create results from a combination of personal desires and external pressures from friends, family and society. Whenever we make choices for success that are influenced by external pressures and not from internal wisdom, personal conflict stress related symptoms can occur. This article sets forth a thirty-second stress reliever.

In modern society there are so many pressures on our time and lives that it can seem difficult to be able to find time for relaxation. Even if we do find time we may have so many thought and anxieties going through our mind that it seems difficult to be able to switch off and enter into a more relaxed frame of mind. Many people consciously want to be able to relax and these are a few strategies that will help the process of relaxation.