self-care Archives

Coping with Caregiver Stress: Self-care for Caregivers

Caring for an aging, disabled, or chronically ill loved one is a reality that many people face. Often, caregivers tend to live with chronically elevated stress levels and may neglect their own self-care – factors that raise the risk for negative impacts on both emotional and physical wellbeing. So it’s vitally important that caregivers take the time to also care for themselves. There are resources and strategies you can use to ensure you’re giving yourself the same care and attention you give your loved one.

Understanding and Practicing Self-compassion

Self-compassion is the practice of relating towards yourself with curiosity rather than criticism. It helps us adapt to life changes and challenges as well as strengthens resilience, emotional wellbeing, and psychological healing. Learn more about the transformative power of self-compassion as well as simple ways to put it into practice.

4 Reasons to Start Therapy in 2023

If you’re like most people, you might have rung in the new year with a list of resolutions. Whether that is through addressing eating habits, increasing physical activity, learning a new language, or decluttering your home office, resolutions are made to help us live our best lives. In all of these instances – and so much more – therapy can help. Mental health counseling can help you stick to your new year’s resolutions, explore hidden desires, build greater self-awareness, and even boost physical health.

Gift Yourself a Different Kind of Holiday – With Less Stress and More Ease

The holiday season is in full swing, which welcomes celebrations, traditions, family, and fun. Yet for many people it can also bring stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and over-indulgence. The demands of the holiday season can pile on and leave us feeling burned out, exhausted, and falling short of expectations. But it doesn’t have to be this way. After all, we’re in charge of how we approach the holidays. So what if we re-evaluated how we celebrate the holiday season to prioritize our health – and created a holiday season with less stress and more ease?

When Gratitude Gives Back: 5 Reasons to Practice Gratitude

The holiday season ushers in a time of gratitude and giving. We reflect on what we’re thankful for, what the year has held, and what’s coming in the near and distant future. This practice of gratitude is timely and seasonal – but it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few reasons why we should consider extending this season of gratefulness year-round, and three ways you can start today.

5 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health

woman getting fresh air, meditating, outdoors

In our busy lives, we all have moments where we feel like our mental health might be suffering. Especially given the ongoing experience with pandemic living, many people are realizing that stress, isolation, and uncertainty have taken a toll on their well-being. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we wish to remind you of 5 manageable ways to boost your mental health.

The Power of Vulnerability

By its very definition, vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Even when we try to control every aspect of our every day, we will be met with unexpected situations that require us to respond – with no script and no guarantee of perfection. We can try to avoid being vulnerable, or we can choose to face the uncertainties of life head-on, knowing that vulnerability often leads to greater intimacy, self-worth, and compassion for ourselves and others.

101 Screen-free Activities to Boost Your Mental Health

Taking a break from screens is vital for your mental health. Research connects too much screen time with increased depression, disrupted sleep, increased stress, difficulty focusing, and increased aggression. For children and adolescents, the effects are even more profound, with further impacts on cognitive development. Here are 101 screen-free activities from screenfree.org. Make a personal goal to check off a few of these activities this (and every!) week.

Health Implications on Women Caused by Pandemic Stress

Parents have unquestionably been hit hard by the pandemic. Between school closures and virtual learning, many parents have assumed the role of teacher on top of their usual household obligations and adjusting to working from home. And on top of that, parents are helping their children navigate their fear, anxiety, and depression around COVID and tumultuous societal events.

4 Mindfulness Exercises You Can Practice Anytime, Anywhere

Mindfulness is an ancient practice that encourages us to be engaged with ourselves and the world around us without judgement. Many of us are stuck thinking about the past or worrying about the future that we don’t spend much time in the present moment at all. Getting started with a mindfulness practice doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are four brief exercises you can try at any time, in any place.

Three Self-Care Tips if You’re Experiencing Divorce

Going through a divorce is often an overwhelming, scary, and lonely experience. The process of divorce is different for everyone – from circumstances that contributed to the marriage starting to dissolve, to whether you are the leaver, the one who was left, or if divorce was a mutually agreed on decision. Regardless, divorce causes a relational rupture between two people who once committed to each other for life, which requires substantial emotional repair and self-care.

Labor Day Brings New Beginnings

By Amy Clay, LPC, co-owner of Sunstone Counseling* Humans have long used seasonal changes to mark life’s transitions and often view them as a time to start fresh. In fact, the “fresh start effect” is a recognized phenomenon that suggests that people are more likely to focus on important goals following “temporal landmarks,” such as… Read more »