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Presidential Pastimes: Lessons From the White House on Handling Stress 

How American presidents found calm and relief while managing the demands of the highest office in the land
Presidential Pastimes: Lessons From the White House on Handling Stress 
President Ronald Reagan demonstrating the pitching form he used in the 1952 movie "The Winning Team" by throwing a snowball on his way to the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 1986. MIKE SARGENT/Getty Images
Jeff Minick
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Thomas Jefferson once called being president “a splendid misery,” a description even more applicable today. The office brings perks, power, and prestige, but also delivers a 24/7 workload, crushing responsibilities, and relentless criticism fire from the press and other critics. Many commentators have called the presidency the toughest job in the country, if not the world.

Given all the talk about stress in today’s culture, it struck me that we might look at how those who have held the highest office in the land sought relief from the anxieties and headaches of the Oval Office.

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.