Which Type of Support Is Right for You?
Surround yourself with people who support you. Find champions. Sarah Gavron When life becomes challenging, you might have the sense that you could benefit from additional support. But what does ...
Gratitude, Habits & Goals, Mindfulness
5 Emotional Wellness Habits to Adopt Today
You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. John C. Maxwell This is the time ...
Habits & Goals, Healthy Boundaries, Holidays, Seasonal, Winter
10 Things to Let Go Of this Year
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. Havelock Ellis It’s the last day of the year. You know what the means… ...
Grief & Loss, Holidays, Seasonal, Self-Care, Winter
When the Holidays Are a Struggle
Expectations are high this time of year. What you should do. Where you should be. How you should act. How you should feel. It’s enough to cause stress for even ...
Habits & Goals, Holidays, Seasonal, Winter
10 Acts of Kindness to Try this Season
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Aesop No doubt, you’re knee-deep in lists by now. Grocery lists. Gift lists. Address lists. (You might’ve even started ...
Healthy Boundaries, Holidays, Seasonal, Winter
10 (More) Ways to Say No (with Kindness)
When you say “Yes” to others, make sure you are not saying “No” to yourself. Paulo Coehlo When it comes time to say No to someone or something, many of ...
10 Holiday Boundaries to Set this Season
Last year, we shared a series of posts all about the value of setting holiday boundaries. In the first post, we highlighted how healthy boundaries “preserve your precious resources, helping ...
7 Tips to an Emotionally Well Holiday Season
As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, ...
How to Apologize More Effectively
Each day, we have the opportunity to learn something new, apologize for our mistakes, and become better. Lewis Howes It’s one of those little inevitabilities of life: Sooner or later… ...
10 Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry, and irritation. It is savoring; it is not taking things for granted; it is present-oriented. Sonja Lyubomirsky ...
Fall, Holidays, Seasonal, Self-Care
Self-Care for Kids: Helping Kids Learn to Treat Themselves
When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos. L.R. Knost This week, the kids in your life likely have ...
Anxiety, Depression, Mindfulness
10 Types of Thinking That Are Getting in Your Way
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Eckhart Tolle Ever had a thought that you ...
Caring in the Midst of Infant Loss
What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us. Helen Keller As a culture, we tend ...
Emotions 101: Improving Your Emotional Vocabulary
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. Robert Frost We’ve covered a lot of territory in our series on Emotions! We’ve: Separated ...
Emotions 101: Sharpening Your Emotional Intelligence
need to be comfortable talking about feelings. This is part of teaching emotional literacy – a set of skills we can all develop, including the ability to read, understand, ...
Emotions 101: 5 Myths about Emotions
I gave myself permission to feel and experience all of my emotions. In order to do that, I had to stop being afraid to feel. In order to do that, ...
Your Emotional Wellness: 50+ Ways to Support It
It’s a big day on the Sonder blog… Today marks our 50th post! We’ve had so much fun sharing practical emotional wellness guidance, tips, and inspiration over the past year. ...
Therapy 101: When a Loved One Is in Therapy
It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before. Anais Nin So, your loved one is in therapy. Maybe you helped them decide to try it. ...
Back to School, Fall, Relationships, Seasonal
Do You Work with Students? Commit to 3 Things This Year
I am enough of a realist to understand that I can’t reach every child, but I am more of an optimist to get up every morning and try. Preston Morgan ...
Back to School, Fall, Seasonal, Self-Care
Heading to College? Keep These 3 Things in Mind
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. Frederick Buechner Dorm supplies have been purchased. Good-byes have been said. Dr. Seuss has been quoted (and ...
Back to School, Fall, Relationships, Seasonal
Back to School: 3 Keys to Preparing as a Family
You know the signs. The weather is changing. The email communication has begun. Unless you’ve been spending the summer unplugged on an uncharted island somewhere (in which case, good for you), ...
Contentment: Turn What You Have Into Enough
No one can steal contentment, joy, gratitude, or peace… we have to give it away. Kristin Armstrong As the end of summer approaches, you might notice an antsy sort of feeling ...
Anxiety, Gratitude, Mindfulness
Having Anxious Thoughts? Give This a Try
Don’t believe every worried thought you have. Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate. Renee Jain Good old anxiety. It thinks it’s helping us (and sometimes it is)… …but often it’s just ...
Medication, Self-Care, Therapy
5 Ways to Help Your Medication Do Its Job
Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity. Hippocrates Once you’ve met with your medication management provider to talk through all of your ...
Preparing for Your Medication Evaluation
So, you’ve done your research. Given it some thought. And you believe medication could be an important part of your emotional wellness care? Congratulations! For many of us, it is. ...
Healthy Risk-Taking: 10 Simple Ways to Practice Vulnerability
Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness. Brené Brown A common myth about emotional wellness is that asking for ...
Creativity: Your Secret Emotional Wellness Weapon
Keep your eyes open. Listen. Follow your curiosity. Ideas are constantly trying to get your attention. Let them know you’re available. Elizabeth Gilbert Do you consider yourself a creative person? ...
Habits & Goals, Healthy Boundaries, Relationships
Forget Work-Life Balance, Aim for This Instead
Work-life balance… that’s a debilitating phrase because it implies there’s a strict trade-off. It’s actually a circle. It’s not a balance. If I am happy at home, I come into the ...
Mindset: Why Yours Matters
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows ...
Sadness vs. Depression: What’s the Difference?
Sad hurts, but it’s a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different. J.K. Rowling Ask just about anyone what depression means to them, and ...
Depression, Self-Care, Therapy
Suicide Prevention: 3 Practical Steps We All Can (and Should) Take
At any given moment, you have the power to say: “This is not how the story is going to end.” Christine Mason Miller Unless you looked closely, you may have ...
Medication: 7 Questions You Might Be Asking
Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must ...
Habits & Goals, Healthy Boundaries, Seasonal, Self-Care, Summer
How to Enjoy a Holiday Weekend without Sabotaging Your Routine
Every summer, like the roses, childhood returns. Marty Rubin For many of us, this weekend kicks off a cherished hallmark of summer: The holiday weekend. Be it rest and relaxation ...
When Healthy Hurts: Understanding Orthorexia
There’s a significant difference between being highly motivated to feel your best and obsessed or preoccupied with health. One feels empowering, practical and reasonable, and the other creates anxiety, guilt, ...
Holidays, Relationships, Seasonal, Spring
After Mother’s Day: 5 Things You May Be Feeling
What keeps me going is that quest for just being able to be present and be myself. Not for people, but for me. Janet Mock This weekend, you likely celebrated ...
Modern Mindfulness
Earlier this year, we highlighted the value of switching off and stepping away from our devices in the name of emotional wellness. Inspired by the National Day of Unplugging movement, it ...
In Our Nature: 3 Ways to Revisit this Emotional Wellness Resource
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir In trying hard to live our best story, we’re constantly on the lookout for the next, ...
Positive Thinking: Is It Always Best?
Every day brings new choices. Martha Beck As the passing days and changing seasons… (…or UNchanging seasons…) …bring events and circumstances that we can’t necessarily change… It’s natural to shift ...
Depression, Gratitude, Relationships, Seasonal, Winter
Cabin Fever: A Survival Guide
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. Albert Camus Spring is here! …or so they say. The calendar says it’s April. Spring break ...
Therapy 101: Who Goes to Therapy?
We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to. Brené Brown Imagine a world in which we talked about emotional wellness as freely as we ...
Gratitude, Healthy Boundaries, Relationships, Seasonal, Spring
Navigating Spring Break as a Family
Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again. Gustav Mahler Spring break is here! You made it! So, ...
Emotions, Gratitude, Self-Care
Laughter: It’s Not Medicine, But It Sure Can Heal
No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It’s very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits ...
Habits & Goals, Healthy Boundaries, Relationships, Seasonal, Self-Care, Spring
Spring Cleaning for Your Emotional Wellness
The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don’t. Marie Kondo It’s about that time again… The clock has sprung forward. ...
Habits & Goals, Healthy Boundaries, Mindfulness, Relationships, Self-Care
Unplug Your Way to Emotional Wellness
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Anne Lamott This Friday marks National Day of Unplugging. An invitation to enjoy a 24-hour global respite ...
Abuse and Trauma, Back to School, Relationships, Seasonal, Self-Care
3 Ways to Promote Emotional Wellness in Schools
When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments — tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become. Louis Pasteur Less than two months ...
Emotional Eating: What’s “Normal”?
Emotional eating. You’ve heard the term, but what does it actually mean? Definitions vary widely, but most of them focus on the concept of emotional overeating (i.e., the practice of consuming large ...
Gratitude, Seasonal, Self-Care, Winter
Self-Compassion: 4 Ways to Start Practicing It Today
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. Jack Kornfield Self-love may seem an essential component of emotional wellness. After all, if we can’t love ourselves, how can we ...
Healthy Boundaries, Relationships, Therapy
How to Help a Loved One: Limits
Letting go helps us to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to ...
Healthy Boundaries, Relationships, Therapy
How to Help a Loved One: Respect
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. Thomas Paine NOTE: This post is the 2nd in a series on How to Help a loved ...
Emotions, Relationships, Therapy
How to Help a Loved One: Empathy
Empathy is the hard part. The rest is mechanics. We’re not wired to walk in someone else’s shoes, it’s not our first instinct. Showing up with empathy is difficult, hard ...