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" The NASCAR Racer: Deborah Renshaw-Parker, 30 HER HIGH-WIRE ACT Deborah Renshaw-Parker&amp;#039;s office is a candy-apple red Dodge pickup. The 12-year NASCAR racer is one of only two women who compete in the Craftsman Truck Series, and on the track, she trusts her split-second reaction time to help her maneuver around every sharp turn and truck wreck ahead of her -- at speeds of up to 200 mph.  But Renshaw-Parker&amp;#039;s stress isn&amp;#039;t limited to her time behind the wheel. &amp;quot;My husband and I live our weekends in a traveling motor home -- and when I step out of it on race day, I hit the ground running,&amp;quot; says this tough competitor from Bowling Green, KY. (Her husband is the motor-sports director for a NASCAR team.) &amp;quot;There are driver meetings, radio interviews -- my day keeps going until the race starts.&amp;quot;  HER STAY-CALM SECRETS See the future. The second she wakes up on the day of a race, Renshaw-Parker takes a few minutes to mentally run through the chaotic -- and electrifying -- hours ahead. &amp;quot;I visualize everything that&amp;#039;s coming up,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I see myself setting up, practicing, and placing in the top 15.&amp;quot; No matter how much the pressure builds while she&amp;#039;s racing, this imagery keeps her calm and centered. &amp;quot;If I visualize top results, I&amp;#039;ll get top results,&amp;quot; she says.  Plan ahead. Of course, visualization will only get you so far when you&amp;#039;re this close to driving your truck into a concrete barrier. Knowing that she&amp;#039;s prepared for trouble long before it strikes helps Renshaw-Parker chill out when 30 other pickups are swarming around her. &amp;quot;I make sure to keep my safety equipment in tip-top shape,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Knowing I can rely on my helmet, fireproof gloves and shoes, and neck-support system keeps me relatively calm and focused while I&amp;#039;m on the track.&amp;quot; What&amp;#039;s the lesson for you? Whether you&amp;#039;re juggling your kids&amp;#039; after-school schedules or tackling deadlines at the office, don&amp;#039;t deny yourself the tools that can make your life work better -- from your PDA to your Diaper Genie.  Know when to let go. When her what-if fears do start to get the better of her, Renshaw-Parker calls on a little fatherly wisdom she&amp;#039;s been given. &amp;quot;My dad is the most positive person on the planet,&amp;quot; she says, reciting one of his most comforting adages: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t worry about things you can barely control.&amp;quot; Once she lets herself accept that there are certain pressures she&amp;#039;s powerless against, Renshaw-Parker can focus on the factors she does control.  Tune out the tension. A favorite piece of music can transport you far away from even the most nerve-jangling situations. When on-the-job stress reaches its boiling point, Renshaw-Parker turns down the heat by popping in her earphones. &amp;quot;My brother burns me CDs of motivational music -- everything from country to Eminem,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll download them to my iPod and take it with me on practice and testing days.&amp;quot;  Put it on paper. Jotting down a to-do list before a race gives Renshaw-Parker peace of mind, because it ensures that no details will slip through the cracks. &amp;quot;Once I accomplish each task, I can mark it off my list -- and out of my brain,&amp;quot; she says. The Intrepid Reporter: Claire Shipman, 44 HER HIGH-WIRE ACT Being a working mother of two is hard. Being a working mother of two and knowing you could be assigned at any moment to cover a breaking news story halfway across the globe is wrenchingly hard.  In May 2003, when her son was only a year old, Claire Shipman, the senior national correspondent for Good Morning America, was sent to Iraq. While this Washington, D.C., mom was ecstatic to land such a plum assignment, the dangers of the job weighed heavily on her mind. &amp;quot;Being a mother gives you a renewed sense of stress,&amp;quot; says Shipman. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m constantly thinking about what an assignment might mean for my children&amp;quot;-- not to mention for her life as a whole. &amp;quot;After having a few days of an adrenaline rush from an assignment, you just crash,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like you&amp;#039;re coming down off a high.&amp;quot;  HER STAY-CALM SECRETS Have a power breakfast. The right diet helps Shipman cope with whatever the day dishes out. Years ago, she noticed that the pastries and -- we kid you not -- chocolate bars she was downing for breakfast were causing severe spikes and dips in her energy levels. And that made it tough to stay levelheaded, even on relatively calm days. Now, she packs in the protein first thing in the morning to keep her engine humming all day long. &amp;quot;Bacon, eggs, leftover Chinese -- I force it down,&amp;quot; she says.  Think small. &amp;quot;My unpredictable schedule gets more stressful to me as I get older,&amp;quot; says Shipman. Her secret to not freaking out when asked to hop a plane in half an hour: Focus on the task at hand -- as in, one assignment, one day, or one hour at a time. &amp;quot;I break things into small bites,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;An upcoming trip, the script I&amp;#039;m writing, the interview I&amp;#039;m conducting. If I keep thinking about how it impacts my whole life and what it will mean if the trip/script/interview doesn&amp;#039;t go well, that can be paralyzing.&amp;quot;  Be here now. While Shipman used to bring work stress home with her, she&amp;#039;s found that having kids helps her to &amp;quot;step back, slow down, and focus on the here and now,&amp;quot; she says. And one of the simplest ways she shifts into home mode is by shutting off her cell phone when she leaves the office. &amp;quot;What I hate most is sitting in the car in my driveway, frantically finishing calls so I don&amp;#039;t have to take them inside,&amp;quot; Shipman says. &amp;quot;I try to force myself to stop making work calls on the way home so that when I head through the door, my mind is where my body is.&amp;quot;  When she allows herself to fully enjoy her husband and kids (not to mention those no-work-allowed family vacations), Shipman finds it much easier to cope with her job stress. &amp;quot;After a great weekend,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;I feel refreshed and ready to get back to work.&amp;quot;  Hit the hay. When you have 50 hours&amp;#039; worth of tasks to cram into a 24-hour day, the inclination is to let sleep take a backseat. But Shipman refuses to let looming deadlines get in the way of a good night&amp;#039;s rest. &amp;quot;If I start to stew about something work-related at 8:30 p.m., I&amp;#039;m not going to be as effective dealing with it as I would be after seven hours of sleep,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I try to be in bed by 9:30 or 10 -- even if that means getting up at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for an assignment the next day.&amp;quot; The Working Mom...of Six!: Lori Martin, 37 HER HIGH-WIRE ACT Life at Lori Martin&amp;#039;s house is never dull. Her six kids range in age from 2 to 14 -- and she has a full-time day job. Martin, who lives in Lawrence, KS, works as a mutual funds representative for a financial company. Her husband works nights as a computer help-desk operator. He handles the child-care duties until he grabs some shut-eye at 3 p.m. By then, the couple&amp;#039;s school-age kids are home, and the older kids look after the younger ones until Martin walks in the door after work.  Adding to Martin&amp;#039;s challenges: Her oldest son, Tony, has Asperger&amp;#039;s syndrome, a developmental disorder marked by impaired language and communication skills. Dad homeschools Tony during the day, and at night, Martin records the boy&amp;#039;s tests and work on a Website, as part of a virtual school program, and prepares the next day&amp;#039;s lessons. Their older daughter was born with an even more dire condition: a chromosomal disorder called Smith-Magenis syndrome. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s a 3-year-old in a 10-year-old&amp;#039;s body,&amp;quot; says Martin. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s in diapers and always will be.&amp;quot;  As if all of this weren&amp;#039;t enough, Martin herself was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) last fall. &amp;quot;Right now, my symptoms are mild -- numb fingers, loss of balance, fatigue. Still, raising my crew isn&amp;#039;t easy, and adding MS to that makes it harder. But I do it -- and darn well!&amp;quot;  HER STAY-CALM SECRETS  Delegate. &amp;quot;Working plus taking care of my children can make life stressful, but knowing my kids can help makes it easier,&amp;quot; says Martin. &amp;quot;When they&amp;#039;re done with their homework, my 7- and 11-year-olds unload the dishwasher. After we have dinner, my boys -- ages 5, 7, 11, and 14 -- clean off the table, and my oldest son loads the dishwasher. And my 10-year-old girl helps me load clothes in and out of the washing machine and dryer.&amp;quot; Even her 2-year-old does her part, explains Martin: &amp;quot;She helps fold the washcloths.&amp;quot;  Laugh it off. &amp;quot;If you lose your cool over every little thing that happens, you end up getting totally snowed under with stress,&amp;quot; says Martin. Her daughter tosses food on the floor during dinner? No problem: &amp;quot;We just call our dog, Hoover, because he sits under the table waiting for stray scraps,&amp;quot; says Martin. &amp;quot;And there&amp;#039;s not a wall in this house that doesn&amp;#039;t have crayon all over it. Rather than repainting or cleaning it off, I date and initial each drawing so I can remember, &amp;#039;Yes, Tony did that when he was 3.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  Plan time with yourself. When the daily grind becomes too nutty to laugh off, Martin steals away for a few moments of peace. &amp;quot;I grab a glass of iced tea, tell the kids, &amp;#039;Mommy needs a time-out,&amp;#039; walk into the bathroom or even a closet, and close the door for 10 minutes,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It doesn&amp;#039;t matter if they take every pot out of the kitchen cabinets while I&amp;#039;m out of the room. If I can rebuild my sanity during those 10 minutes, it&amp;#039;s worth it.&amp;quot; And at the end of the day, Martin takes a mini-vacation: &amp;quot;All the kids are in bed by 9 p.m., and that&amp;#039;s when I run a bubble bath, light a few candles, and stay in the tub until the water gets cold. I make sure to have a book that I can lose myself in -- Patricia Cornwell is one of my favorites.&amp;quot;  Recharge with friends. Martin loves to cut loose with the &amp;quot;M&amp;amp;amp;M&amp;#039;s&amp;quot;(the Missouri Moms), a group of 12 close friends who get together to share giggles, sob stories, and advice every couple of months. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll go out for dinner or to a comedy club, or do picnics at each other&amp;#039;s homes -- or just talk with one another,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;re feeling like you could grab one of your kids by the ankles, we moms can tell each other that without being judged. We all know everyone has days like that.&amp;quot; The Air Traffic Control Specialist: Kimberly Smith, 39 HER HIGH-WIRE ACT Perched in front of a radar screen at one of the nation&amp;#039;s busiest airports, Kimberly Smith is responsible for keeping up to 20 planes at a time in the air and flying right. Compared to some of her coworkers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX, who rely on medications to help them tame their anxiety and stomach ulcers, this air traffic control specialist swears that she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;not an easily stressed kind of person.&amp;quot; Still, Smith does freely admit that by the time she wraps up her demanding shifts, &amp;quot;my heart is pumping, my body is perspiring, and the adrenaline&amp;#039;s going.&amp;quot; And after all that excitement, Smith&amp;#039;s day isn&amp;#039;t done: She dashes home to prepare supper for her husband, 6-year-old daughter, and 3-year-old son.  HER STAY-CALM SECRETS Schedule playtime. Smith sees her kids as an escape hatch from her high-stress job; she&amp;#039;s a regular at the day-care center that&amp;#039;s across the parking lot from her office. &amp;quot;I walk over there during my breaks so that I can have fun playing with my son,&amp;quot; Smith explains. &amp;quot;I just love being there, rolling on the floor and blowing bubbles with all the kids. Doing that reminds me what really matters in life.&amp;quot;  Seek a higher power. Smith attributes much of her unflappable nature to her spirituality. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a Christian, and I believe that everything that happens is preplanned for us,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;Because I have rotating shifts, I end up working on a lot of Sundays, but I still like to go to church as often as I can. When I can&amp;#039;t go, we try to do Bible study at home. This helps me have faith that everything will work out the way that it&amp;#039;s supposed to -- even when life becomes nutty.&amp;quot;  Give your brain the night off. After hours of staring at a radar screen full of airplanes, Smith says, &amp;quot;I walk out to the parking lot and I can&amp;#039;t even manage to find my car -- my brain is totally fried from making so many decisions all day long.&amp;quot; Her secret to decompressing after an intense day on the job: &amp;quot;My husband will ask me something as simple as &amp;#039;Would you like to have steak or pork chops for dinner?&amp;#039; and I&amp;#039;ll say to him, &amp;#039;I don&amp;#039;t want to make any decisions tonight.&amp;#039; I&amp;#039;ll just hand over the reins to him and then I&amp;#039;ll go into the other room to watch Desperate Housewives or Grey&amp;#039;s Anatomy.&amp;quot; Know when you&amp;#039;re in over your head. When Smith does get overwhelmed, she&amp;#039;s smart enough to ask others for help. Four years ago, while pregnant, tired, and hormone-addled, she had a close call on the job. &amp;quot;When that happened, it really freaked me out,&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;I turned to my supervisor and said, &amp;#039;I need another pair of eyes with me right now.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Unlike some of the other specialists she works with (most of them men), who aren&amp;#039;t too keen on asking for a helping hand, Smith has learned to accept assistance willingly. And the same goes when she&amp;#039;s at home. &amp;quot;My family all lives fairly close by, and it&amp;#039;s no big deal to ask someone to come and watch the kids,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;A huge de-stressor is accepting the fact that you&amp;#039;re not Superwoman.&amp;quot; The ER Doctor: Ophelia Sanders, 36 HER HIGH-WIRE ACT  &amp;quot;When I finish a shift, I&amp;#039;m spent, emotionally and physically,&amp;quot; says Ophelia Sanders, M.D., whose ER stints can last 14 hours. She must be prepared for every medical case imaginable -- from cardiac arrest to head-on-collision injuries. &amp;quot;My scariest moment was probably the time they brought in an 8-year-old who&amp;#039;d been hit by a car,&amp;quot; says Sanders, who works in Los Alamitos, CA. &amp;quot;He had a severed spinal cord and was bleeding in the abdomen. Even the nurses freak out with kids -- and with the parents there, you have to be even-keeled and seem like you know what you&amp;#039;re doing right away. The boy died in the ICU. In these situations, I don&amp;#039;t feel the bulk of the stress going into the situation. I feel it after the patient has gone.&amp;quot; HER STAY-CALM SECRETS Talk to yourself. A life-or-death injury may demand tremendous technical skill, but what truly makes Sanders&amp;#039;s anxiety levels soar are &amp;quot;the patients who really don&amp;#039;t belong in the emergency room,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;One woman was very angry about the fact that her daughter had to wait to be seen for a rash while other critical patients were being seen first -- specifically, a man who was having a heart attack and an infant who had been mauled by a coyote.&amp;quot; How does Sanders keep problem patients from getting under her skin? &amp;quot;I say something to myself before every shift, like, &amp;#039;Give me the strength to show all patients compassion,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I think of it as kind of like a little mantra. It&amp;#039;s amazing how just a little phrase like that has the power to change my attitude and take my focus off the negative.&amp;quot;  Act the part. No matter how dire the scene on the stretcher in front of her -- and no matter how much it rattles her -- Sanders keeps her voice composed and steady when she speaks to her medical team. &amp;quot;When a critical case comes in, people often start yelling and walking around in circles,&amp;quot; observes Sanders, recalling an evening when a nurse frantically noted that a patient&amp;#039;s heart rate had plunged to the 30s. &amp;quot;I said, &amp;#039;Yes, I know, but other than that, the person is doing okay. Let&amp;#039;s just continue.&amp;#039; When I act calm, I instantly feel more calm. And people really respond to that -- everyone&amp;#039;s more productive.&amp;quot;  Learn to compartmentalize. Sanders is just as deeply affected by stab wounds, compound fractures, and tearful family members as the rest of us. But she learned back in medical school that keeping a level head means that you shouldn&amp;#039;t think with your heart. &amp;quot;I remember treating a gentleman who was having a stroke,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;His wife kept telling him, &amp;#039;You can&amp;#039;t leave this family.&amp;#039; It was very touching to hear. But I knew that I couldn&amp;#039;t allow myself to get too emotionally involved. It&amp;#039;s not that I don&amp;#039;t care about these patients, but I can&amp;#039;t get to the point where I&amp;#039;m devastated at the end of my shift.&amp;quot;  Though compartmentalizing your emotions isn&amp;#039;t easy, it is a learnable skill. Whenever the pressure&amp;#039;s really on and your feelings are threatening to get the better of you, remind yourself that staying in control is your top priority. Tell yourself that you just need to navigate the rough seas first -- and that you can go ahead and let yourself cry as soon as you hit dry land.  Doctor yourself. Sanders loves going on long drives because they allow her to sit still and decompress. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll take a drive for a half hour or even an hour,&amp;quot; she says. Another stress Rx that she swears by: Sweat it out. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ll go running and think about the things that have happened with work, home, and life in general,&amp;quot; says Sanders. &amp;quot;By the time I get home, I&amp;#039;m released from a lot of the tension I&amp;#039;d been feeling.&amp;quot; She also relishes more meditative workouts, such as yoga: &amp;quot;The beauty of it is that you don&amp;#039;t actually have to think about anything at all, other than the pose at hand.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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