Welcome to the latest edition of the Living by Design personal development blog carnival. Here's my pick for this edition - thank you to everyone who contributed.

First up is new contributer Maria Gajewski, an excellent writer with a very thought provoking blog:

Maria Gajewski presents How to Cross the Gap From Knowing to Doing posted at Never the Same River Twice, saying, "Do you have a bad case of self improvement inertia? Learn how to overcome your resistance to change and get moving!"

David B. Bohl presents How to Live with Gusto posted at Slow Down Fast Today!, saying, "here is an ancient Hebrew teaching that upon our death, not only will we be called upon to account for our sins, but also for every permissible pleasure we refused. Mind you, this isn’t permission to act irresponsibly or immoderately."

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Your stress levels affect your breathing, but by changing your breathing you can flip things around and affect your stress levels - here’s how…

For many of us modern life equals chronic stress. We live with stress daily, we accept it as normal and when we talk to each other of our pressures and concerns we say: “tell me about it!” In other words, I have my worries and you have yours and such is life. But over time, chronic stress eats away at us from the inside, it makes our muscles rigid and tense, it weakens our digestive system, and impairs our immune response.

When Stress Feels Normal

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The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the second most common disease by 2010. Among the many research studies trying to pinpoint causes of depression, a growing number are reporting that our consumeristic lifestyle may be at fault.

Stuff vs Self: Materialism Blamed for Increase in Depression 

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Energy is a precious commodity. It's what we use to get things done, to work, to think, to get from A to B and to actively engage with our family and friends. When we are low on energy we don't achieve much and we don't feel so good about ourselves. So how can you look after your energy levels and avoid feeling washed out before you're halfway through the day?

The Energy Budget

Energy is like money, once it’s spent we have to earn more. We know that energy is earned by having a healthy diet and enough good quality rest, but what many of us remain unaware of is the fact that we may be squandering our energy, making bad energy investments, or hanging out with expensive company that will spend it fast and leave you with an energy debt.

Setting yourself an energy budget is a good way to keep your body running well without over taxing it.

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Harvard Medical School has just reported that there are now over 15 million American people living with Social Anxiety Disorder. That's a huge amount of suffering individuals, each and every one of them a unique person struggling with genuine anxiety induced symptoms like palpitations, feeling faint or dizzy, shortness of breath, sweating, and fear of losing control in social situations.

Healthline.com recommends 4 Techniques That Really Work to Reduce Stress and Anxiety. The techniques include deep diaphragmatic breathing and gradual relaxation.

Here on Living by Design we have some free relaxation MP3s designed to guide listeners step-by-step through breathing and relaxation exercises - when you're feeling anxious it's hard to figure out how to get calm for yourself and that's why we made these guided MP3's, the idea behind them being that you can listen to them and follow along while you get guidance and support on how to get calm again.

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