Mental Health

How to stop being hard on yourself as a parent

How to stop being hard on yourself as a parent

When you hear that inner mom-guilt voice whisper, "you're not good enough," here's what to say to yourself instead

Parenting is hard enough without a pandemic to navigate. We should be congratulating ourselves for just getting through the day, instead of us beating ourselves up for not measuring up to the Pinterest post next door.

We all want our child to internalize the best of us and leave the rest. That's why modeling self-love and kindness for yourself is a gift you give your child. Lead by example and you will end up raising a compassionate adult, with healthy boundaries and lots of love to give.

The Loneliness of Smartphone Addiction

The Loneliness of Smartphone Addiction

Cell phone addiction is when, instead of choosing to use our phones, they are just somehow always in our hands, glowing their electric blue promise of being the answers to our every need and desire. They create a dopamine fix of pleasure that keeps us hooked, lusting for next like, engaging text, or candy crushed.

People are addicted to social media now more than ever. We think it will fulfill the Covid sized hole in our social lives. Some connection does happen online, but more often than not, readers leave feeling deflated by how much fun Everyone Else seems to be having. Then, ironically and tragically, we stayed logged-on, scrolling for the happy thing that will bring us up again, or at least back to our baseline.

Illuminating Stories of Color: 6 Shows to Watch Now

Illuminating Stories of Color: 6 Shows to Watch Now

I love how so many artists are finally being given a platform, to expose all the hidden ‘isms that are somehow so much more glaring under Trump. From #MeToo to Black Lives Matter, I hope we’re on a roll that doesn’t end, until we are completely free from all pervasive systems of injustice.

I wanted to take a moment to highlight some great programs that provide beautiful insight into ugly truths:

How to Navigate Family Disagreements on COVID-19 Risk - From AdventHealth

How to Navigate Family Disagreements on COVID-19 Risk - From AdventHealth

You’ve been doing your part to keep your family safe by quarantining at home, washing your hands and cleaning household surfaces regularly. Most of your loved ones have been careful to practice social distancing and wear a mask in public settings.

But what about that relative who doesn’t practice the same level of care? If you’re stressed about their refusal to take the dangers of coronavirus seriously, those feelings are warranted. Differences in understanding the risk of COVID-19 have been straining family relationships since the pandemic began.

With the holidays approaching, these arguments might escalate if you don’t address them ahead of time. Here are 10 steps you can take to navigate family interactions when you disagree on the risk of catching or spreading COVID-19:

Beyond Mental Health: Journaling & Immunity

Beyond Mental Health: Journaling & Immunity

Stress is an inevitable part of our lives (especially these days). To many, it may be obvious that how we handle stress, can make a big difference in our mental health. It’s perhaps less obvious, how proactive stress management, can support our physical health.

Family's Here...to Stay: When Extended Family Moves In

Family's Here...to Stay: When Extended Family Moves In

There are a lot of advantages to having extended family close at hand (it takes a village!), but it would be helpful to understand that it will also bring some challenges. Here are some tips for mindfully navigating a smooth transition.

1. Self-Compassion…

2. Nuclear Family Meeting…

3. Establish Ground Rules…

Mindful Integrity: An 8 Week DIY Mindfulness Course

Mindful Integrity: An 8 Week DIY Mindfulness Course

During times of great upheaval, there’s a sense that we should “to live today as it were your last.” This sounds really appealing, but what does it really mean?

Spiritually speaking, living each day as your last isn’t bestowing worldly possessions and checking-off bucket lists, but about holistic integrity. As Adlai Stevenson famously said, “it is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.” The following are topics of contemplation, calls to action and operating instructions for more mindful living. Try using one of these teachings a week as a focus for your meditation, as journal prompts, or for deepening conversations with loved ones.

The New Yorker Curates COVID Levity

The New Yorker Curates COVID Levity

It is not always easy to locate joy these days, but we must keep trying. Our spirits must be fed, not only so that we may persist, but so may help help other to do so. To that end, I’m sharing some examples that make me laugh/cry (craugh?). The New Yorker artists are brilliant at creating poignant levity from the ineffable. Here are my current favorites…

Boosting Emotional Resiliency During COVID-19

Boosting Emotional Resiliency During COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis, with its mandated social isolation and pervasive threat of infection, has created a kind of atomic fusion, a clash of mind-numbing monotony mixed with a steady undercurrent of existential crisis.

With the widest lens, this pandemic is a clarion call to see the deep roots of our interdependence. On a smaller scale, it shines a spotlight on the best and worst of our social structures; from the heroic dedication of our first responders, to the disproportionate deaths of our most vulnerable. Finally, on a personal level, we are all connected in the quest to stay flexible in mind and resilient in body, while we the illusion of certainty shatters around us.

The following are some mental health directives to help adapt to the daily (hourly!) seismic shifts in our internal microcosmos, without succumbing to despair.

Therapy as Emotional Coaching

Therapy as Emotional Coaching

One myth, stubbornly persistent in our culture, is that needing therapy means one’s mentally ill. In reality, most people seek out therapy for what I like to call emotional coaching. A holistic therapist serves as a translator between heart & mind, helping create a pause, between stimulus & response. Therapy does not have to be about what’s wrong, but about uncovering all that’s right.

Keeping Kids Connected During COVID-19

Keeping Kids Connected During COVID-19

Keeping Kids Connected During COVID-19: 8 Tips to keeping your child engaged with their friends and family while social distancing.

Keeping Cool for the Kids: Parenting through a Crisis

Keeping Cool for the Kids: Parenting through a Crisis

Keeping Cool for the Kids: Parenting through a Crisis. Six tips for managing the days of COVID-19 and managing your mental health while under quarantine.

Business Talk Radio Interview: A Professional Biography

Business Talk Radio Interview: A Professional Biography

I am excited to be interviewed this upcoming Monday by Business Talk, on TuneIn Radio. They asked a few deceptively simple pre-interview questions, which provided an opportunity to reflect on my career, my practice and where LiveWork Solutions is headed.

You Are a Spiritual Being, Having a Human Experience

You Are a Spiritual Being, Having a Human Experience

We are everything and we are nothing. In an infinite universe, anything and everything is possible. There is vastly more unknown than known and all of human history is but a sliver of Time.

Soft Addictions: Crutches Can be Useful, Sometimes

Soft Addictions: Crutches Can be Useful, Sometimes

Soft addictions are practices and behaviors we latch onto when we are trying to avoid unpleasant realities, painful truths, or mundane tasks. There is absolutely no shame in using a crutch when we need support, but there is harm continuing to ignore the problem at its root.

How to Prevent (or at least better manage) Holiday Stress

How to Prevent (or at least better manage) Holiday Stress

The holidays are supposed to be happy happy, joy joy. But, realistically, they’re more something like stress, fun, fun, stress. Read on for some helpful hints for making your holiday season more It's A Wonderful Life and less National Lampoon Christmas Vacation.

8 Ways to Stay Calm in Stressful Situations

8 Ways to Stay Calm in Stressful Situations

Life and work stress is inevitable, but we work to manage how much if affects us. Here are 8 helpful tips for staying cool under pressure.

Navigating Beauty Culture (NBC) comes to The Shames JCC on the Hudson

Navigating Beauty Culture (NBC) comes to The Shames JCC on the Hudson

If you are reading this, I suspect you are a strong woman, dedicated to healing. I believe you, as I am, are driven to love your body, but perhaps have come to recognize that the body hatred was branded onto our psyches. However, the same culture that created this trap, has armed us with the tools we need to free ourselves, it’s just a matter of looking in the right places. Navigating Beauty Culture (NBC) as a hybrid of Feminist Theory study group and body positivity support group.