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 ...
Habits & Goals, Seasonal, Winter
Habit Change in 3 Easy(-ish) Steps
Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. Charles Duhigg Resolution or not, there’s probably something you’re ...
3 Myths About Happiness (and What To Believe Instead)
Happiness. We all want it. But, so often, it eludes us. Why? Because most of us have no idea what actually creates happiness. Fortunately, the answers aren’t hiding behind a new gym ...
Habits & Goals, Mindfulness, Seasonal, Winter
25 Mindfulness Ideas to Try This Year
Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with ...
Habits & Goals, Mindfulness, Seasonal, Winter
Mindful Goal-Setting
NOTE: This post is part of a series on mindfulness. You can Part 1 and Part 3 here. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to ...
Mindfulness Basics & Benefits
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. Jon Kabat-Zinn NOTE: This post is the start of a series on mindfulness. You ...
Therapy 101: How to Prepare for Therapy
So, you know you want to begin therapy, but how do you actually prepare for therapy? You’ve thought about it, read about, maybe talked with some loved ones about it. ...
Therapy 101: 7 Signs You Might Benefit from Therapy
More than ever, we’re including emotional wellness in our understanding of what it means to enjoy a healthy, well-balanced life. For most of us, this probably means ongoing self-care practices, ...
Eating, Healthy Boundaries, Holidays, Seasonal, Winter
Holiday Eating & Boundaries
NOTE: This is Part 3 of our series on holiday boundary setting. Read Part 1 and Part 2. Does the thought of food and eating during the holiday season conjure ...
Healthy Boundaries, Holidays, Relationships, Seasonal, Winter
Saying No (with Kindness)
NOTE: This is Part 2 of our series on holiday boundary setting. Read Part 1 and Part 3. “No” is a complete sentence. Anne Lamott Setting boundaries around your time, resources, ...
Healthy Boundaries, Holidays, Seasonal, Winter
Holiday Boundary Setting: 3 Areas to Consider
NOTE: This is Part 1 of our series on holiday boundary setting. Read Part 2 and Part 3. You’re fighting through traffic when the phone rings… It’s your neighbor, inviting you ...
Handy Tool or False Alarm? When Anxiety Helps, and When It Hurts
We all experience it. Sometimes it’s fairly predictable, like the seasonal depression that arrives each year for many of us. Other times, it catches us completely off guard. We’re talking about ...
Fall, Holidays, Seasonal, Self-Care
The Trick is Treating Yourself to Self-Care
Self-care is never a selfish act. It is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can ...
Fall, Gratitude, Holidays, Mindfulness, Seasonal
How To Practice Gratitude When You’re Not Feeling Particularly Grateful
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie As we head further into autumn, signs of Thanksgiving are all around. ...
Depression, Fall, Seasonal, Winter
Seasonal Depression Treatment
It’s that time again… The days are growing cooler. The leaves are falling. The pumpkin-spice-everything is all around. But you just feel blah. While many of us recognize the mild ...
Why Mental Health Should Not Be the Focus of the Las Vegas Shooting (…and 3 Reasons It Should Be)
No sooner had the shots rang out than the speculation began: “…mentally unstable…” “…psychologically disturbed…” “…undiagnosed mental illness…” The Las Vegas shooting on October 1st has raised many issues that immediately ...
3 Myths About Emotional Wellness
Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind, and spirit— the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an effect on our state of well-being. Greg ...