Questions 26-30
Myrna Blyth spent more than 20 years as a top magazine editor. So she knows a thing to two about how the media uses stress, fear and the ultimately fruitless pursuit of perfection to sell stories. In her controversial new book, Blyth offers some tips about how not to get spun by what you see or read.

Secret 1 Stress happens
Stress has become an all-purpose gimmick to get our attention. Many magazines and TV shows love nothing more than suggesting that we can't make it through the day without practically dying from stress. Yes we all have stress. But not all day, not every day. I find it downright insulting to hear that we can't keep it together when we're merely going about our good, if sometimes complicated, lives.
The newest research says that the best way to handle stress is not by checking into a day spa or a holiday resort where the end goal is stress reduction. That sort of binge-and-purge approach does little to keep us relaxed. Instead, we should simply acknowledge that life is full of little tensions because, hey, that's life. And we should handle it moment by moment the way people always have, by taking a deep breath and getting some perspective.

Secret 2 Check "balance"
Stop worrying about achieving balance in your life, especially when you have kids. Kids take up all available time — it's the basic law of parenthood. No matter how much time you give them, whether you work from eight to eight or are around the house all the time, you'll still feel you haven't been there enough for them. Here is the deal: while your children are around, you won't have time to put your life in perfect balance. That's really not so terrible. You are supposed to think more about your kids than about yourself. Trust me, you'll have time after they've left home.

Secret 3 Be fear less
When it wants to make a big impression, the media isn't shy about scaring us out of our wits. Reporting and pessimism have become totally intertwined in so many areas, especially in stories about health and environment. We're supposed to fear everything, from killer celery to weapons of mass destruction.
How to protect yourself from the effects of these constant guerrilla tactics? Kimberly Thompson of the Harvard School of Public Health suggests remembering that how we perceive and process information depends upon how it's presented, positively or negatively. If you hear about a small number of people stricken by a rare illness, it follows, doesn't it, that a large number of people (including you) are perfectly fine. Remember, almost all media scare stories are about something dastardly that happened to a very small group of people, like the unlucky women who happened to share the same infected foot basin in just one nail salon in California. In your fight against fear:
Compare the hype to the fact. A little healthy skepticism is in order.
Be wary of pictures. Just because someone's crying doesn't necessarily mean she's telling the truth.
Don't let impressive-sounding jargon convince you.
Watch the disclaimers. "Might" or "could" doesn't mean that you or your family are really at risk.

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