Why Self-Care Matters Most When You Have No Time
“Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean me first; it means me too.” ~L.R. Knost We live in a society that celebrates pushing through; burnout is often worn as a badge of honor, and many job descriptions state bluntly, “Must be able to perform well under pressure and thrive in a fast-paced environment.” I’m very well aware […]
How to Improve Stress Resilience Through Metabolic Health
You’ve probably heard the advice: If you’re stressed, go for a walk. If you’re still stressed, go for another walk. While physical activity is often recommended to relieve stress, recent research highlights a fascinating connection: Your metabolic health, especially how well your mitochondria work, plays a key role in how your mind and body respond […]
How Can Families Cope With Stress Together?
Parenting is an all-consuming job—one that calls for constant caretaking, problem solving, emotional labor, and financial resources. Today, many parents are juggling all of these responsibilities with less emotional support than ever before. Given these pressures, it’s no surprise that parental stress is on the rise. In 2023, nearly 50% of parents surveyed reported feeling […]
Anxiety Sucks, But It Taught Me These 7 Important Things
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” ~Soren Kierkegaard Let’s be clear: This isn’t an article about positive thinking. This isn’t an article about how silver linings make everything okay. This isn’t an article about how your perspective on anxiety is all wrong. The kids call those things “toxic positivity.” No toxic positivity here. This is an article […]
Is It Healthy to Distract Yourself From Stress?
It’s a typical scenario. You’re faced with a lingering problem, like an argument with a friend, a looming deadline, or a difficult decision. You think you should try to tackle it, but all you really want to do is, well, anything else. In moments like these, we are often caught between two conflicting types of […]
Why Parental Stress Isn’t Just About the Parent
Parenting requires physical, mental, and emotional labor. It demands multitasking, patience, sleepless nights, and money. But unlike other types of work, parents can’t simply quit; there’s no HR program conveniently in place to offer guidance. And unlike parents of ages past, modern-day caretakers in the United States rarely live among extended households where relatives can […]
An Unconventional Path to Relieving Stress and Anxiety
What if you could reduce your stress and anxiety when dealing with difficult life situations by changing the way you think about the issue that is causing those negative feelings? Challenges are sometimes inescapable, but there is a set of questions drawn from the psychological discipline known as cognitive reframing, that has been shown to […]
Navigating a Nation on Edge: Resilience Amid High Stress
Even in what might seem a “mild” season of forest fires, the air feels charged, as though we’re walking on smoldering embers. Tensions are high—both within us and in the world around us. Fuses are short, demands pressing, tempers flaring, and even the sincerest apologies often seem to fall flat. We are living through a […]
How Self-Compassion Can Help You Deal With Stress
While we may have heard that it’s important to treat ourselves with kindness, sometimes this is easier said than done, especially when we’re under stress. When we’re facing challenging circumstances, we may fall back into less productive thought patterns, like ruminating or blaming ourselves. We may even worry that we’re going too easy on ourselves […]
Parental Stress at an All-Time High
Co-authored by Sarah MacLaughlin, LSW You’ve probably heard about the recent U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on parental stress. Parents and caregivers feeling stressed is not a new phenomenon. However, today’s levels of stress have parents at a breaking point, with 41 percent of parents saying that most days they feel so stressed they can’t even […]