There was news yesterday that Hewlett-Packard bought the Palm Co. When I heard this news it made me a bit sad. Why? Because I have been a Palm user for over ten years, back to before Palm Pilot became a household name for any hand-held device. Now I know I’m not the only one who gets emotional about products, or am I?

Well in any case, this just got me thinking about the everyday stuff that causes us emotional stress. Stress is a major factor in our health and can be a catalyst for serious health conditions. Of course, I can easily relate this back to spinal health. When you get stressed, our animal instincts think we are being attacked or are in physical danger. It sets off a number of physical reactions in the body, i.e. increase blood pressure, increase heart rate, increase hormones in the blood. Another important consequence is muscle contraction, your body does this to get you ready for a fight or to flight.

But when your body is exposed to repeated incidents of stress and thus muscle contraction, this leads to your muscles staying in that contracted state. Muscle spasms and tension become much easier to occur and to cause problems. So, what can you do? Well, your family doctor may have told you in the past to “avoid stressful situations” or “don’t worry so much”. To me that is totally useless help! You can’t avoid stress. It is all around us! You can only control how you let it effect you and try to find ways to manage it. Exercise, meditation, healthy hobbies are just some of the ways to manage life’s stresses.

By the way, after hearing about my beloved Palm company news, I took my son to his baseball game. Seeing him have fun and playing with other kids made me happy and I forgot about everything else. Bye-Bye Palm, you will be missed…