don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Is there a wellness pill? No, but there ought to be -- how else will those of who wish to spread good health and quality living ever attract a mass audience to such lifestyles? The usual routes involving the three dimensions and 14 skill areas of self-management promoted at this site seem much too challenging for vast numbers of fellow citizens. If only there were a "one-a-day wellness pill" that would provide the same benefits as all that exercise, disciplined dining, and attention to key principles in many areas of personal excellence. Then, all who need an easy, painless, no-sweat method requiring little or no personal exertions would have a convenient way to join the lifestyle revolution. All they would have to do is take a pill. Such a pill should, naturally, be very small, coated for easy digestion, inexpensive, tasty, and readily available with no side effects. We must not, after all, ask too much of those who seek wellness without sweat or effort.

For such a magic bullet, I would think that people would pay a fortune, or as much of one as they had. It's a wonder no drug company has offered one, as yet. While no magic pharmaceutical giant has come up with such an elixir, two women have come close.

Meet Linda Mackenzie and Barbara Savin. These ladies have invented a wellness spray! Really! They are marketing their spray for road rage prevention. It's a brilliant concept. It sounds better than a pill. Their new spray is promoted as a way to control stress, which is portrayed as the cause of road rage. They identify four kinds of stress implicated in road rage -- environmental, physical, emotional, and nutritional. However, they also acknowledge that road rage occurs, basically, as an overreaction to a situation. Good for these clever ladies.

After all, this is the key to understanding stress in the first place. It is not the event or circumstance that causes stress, but the way you respond to it that makes all the difference. Which brings to mind a few lines in Samuel Pepys Diary (March 26, 1665): I am at a loss to know whether it be my hare’s foot which is my preservative, or my taking of a pill of turpentine every morning.

Just so with the spray, but what's the difference if it does the job, or appears to? To deal with stress, according to Ms. Mackenzie and Ms. Savin, you must first acknowledge and then release it. Sounds like good advice. To speed the releasing, their "nutritional supplement company" offers bottles of "road rage mist" in the form of a two-ounce herbal vitamin spray. The product is "Reduce Road Rage" (trademarked). By spraying our product into the mouth, the driver takes the first step in acknowledging road rage. Our safe, effective formula then begins to support calmness, which helps reduce driving stress naturally. Without decreasing alertness, Reduce Road Rage works within a day, with best results usually occurring within a week or longer with continued use.

It’s not quite a wellness pill, but it sounds pretty close.

Of course, if it's going to reduce road rage, a quicker acting mist might be in order. For skeptics and those who can't for whatever reasons bring themselves to use a wellness spray for road rage reduction, the alternative might be three deep breaths at the first sign on anger, on the highways, and anywhere else a little relaxation might be in order.

Be well. Look on the bright side and breathe deeply.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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