Wellness Podcast

In this week's episode, I talk about what a "touch tree" is, a concept that I learned from the author Glennon Doyle, and I give some examples of touch trees for me in my life. Action item: find something that is a touch tree for you and find a way to remind yourself to go back to this thing each day or as often as you need (post-it note on your laptop that says "Breathe" maybe?).

In this week's episode, I talk about a book I'm almost finished reading by Susan Cain (author of Quiet) called "Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make us Whole." For me, the thesis of this book is that sadness and "negative" emotions are not bad/to be avoided and can actually make our lives more meaningful and better. I talk about some ways our "negative" emotions help us (creativity, connection) and some examples of things we can do to help us feel these negative emotions. From writing our emotions in a journal to just giving ourselves time for a good cry, with sad movies or sad songs (or whatever works for you), we can help by giving ourselves space and time to process our negative emotions a bit more. Action item: if you are going through a hard time, give yourself some time to cry and feel those negative feelings. If you are not having a hard time right now, the next time someone tells you THEY are having a hard time, instead of using toxic positivity to shut them down with "at leasts" (ex: you lost your job but at least you have a lot of marketable skills) instead just sit with them and give them space and time to be upset by saying "that really sucks. Can I sit with you for a while?"

This week's episode is short and sweet, inspired by one of my children when he was 2 years old saying "it's OK to be different, and, I promise, it's OK to be different" when "reading" a book to me one day. I talk about how important it is to just love what you love and don't let anyone tell you that it's not OK. Action item: just keep going out in the world and loving what you love and just keep being whoever you are. That's it!

In this week's episode, I talk about things that we do to numb our feelings vs things that we do that bring us true comfort. I define what these two things are- numbing helps us NOT feel our feelings (not good) vs true comfort helps us restore and nourish ourselves, and be more resilient in the long term! But the difficulty in this is that ANYTHING we do can be for numbing or true comfort, so I can't just give you a list of "true comfort" 2 do's and send you on your way. I give a few examples of some things that I have had to tweak a bit to give me more comfort than numbing (TV, alcohol, etc.), a few things that only bring me true comfort (writing in my journal, going for walks) and things that I pretty much only do for numbing (Nutella spoons, sadly). Action item: when you are doing an activity, pause during (or after) and assess how you feel- do you feel like you wasted your time/that you wish you had stopped earlier? Probably numbing. Or, do you feel-better? Rested, calm, like what you did just helped you? Then it's true comfort!

In this week's episode, I talk about how important it is to experience joy and to enjoy our lives, even and especially during dark times. Sometimes I think we think that if the world is an awful place, then all we should be doing is reading the news and sitting and moping on our couches. But the people that do this are the people that do not have the energy to get up and make the world a better place. I suggest that instead, we double down on the things that bring us joy- that hot cup of coffee, a long walk in the sun (or clouds, whatever), playing with our kids without our phones, whatever it is that brings us joy. Then and only then will we be able to give our time, help our neighbors, give our money, whatever it is that will help us to help the world to be a better place. It's like they say on the airplane "put on your own oxygen mask first" before helping children and others who can't help themselves. Action item: this week, focus on finding some things that bring you joy, no matter how small.

I just wanted to give a quick last episode of the year, where I talk about how life actually IS just hard, you're not making a mistake or doing it wrong if things are hard. This is basically a pep talk for the end of the year. Action item: Push in whatever ways you must (I have to finish some grading!), rest in whatever ways you need (I went to bed at 8pm this week!) and slack on whatever you can (do you REALLY need to wrap all those presents perfectly?). Thank you for listening, and I'll be back in a little over month at the end(ish) of January when I have students again!

In this week's episode, I talk about my 2 biggest pieces of advice for surviving the holidays this year. 1) Lower your expectations! This means not expecting everything to go perfectly when it never (ever) has before and expecting people to be who they are. If your dad never wanted to go to a museum before, he's probably not going to want to go this year either and that's OK! 2) Set yourself up for success. This for me is mainly about setting your schedule, dropping or doing a crappy job at some things you normally do well, and trying to chip away at your 2 do's list instead of trying to finish everything all at once. Action item: write a list of no more than 3 things that you'd like to do this holiday season to consider it a success (and preferably choose things that were already going to happen anyway/traditions/things your people love or things you can do by yourself that only you control). And be even more careful about scheduling yourself time to get all the things done, including scheduling yourself some downtime! I promise you, your body will take it for you anyway by getting sick or watching 4 hours of TikTok videos!

In this week's episode, I talk about an idea that I've been thinking about for a while- the concept that "this too shall pass." What I mean by this is just that sometimes, having long term perspective that something awful or just even a little difficult that is happening in your life will, eventually, pass and you will come out stronger in the end for having lived through it, can help so much. I talk about how making it through the pandemic was a life changing experience for me. I talk about how we can think of this as a "both and" situation - rather than, forget about all your worries and brush all the awfulness under the rug, we can appreciate that things are awful right now while also understanding that we will not feel like this forever. And we can also take action in our lives right now to feel better- we can help our small communities, our people, by giving our money, time or both, we can be brave but wisely, not jumping in head first. Action item: Whenever times are tough, we can think about future us, who will be so much smarter and braver and stronger after these hard times. We can forgive ourselves, take care of ourselves, hug our people a little longer and at the end of each day, close our computers, turn off our phones (whatever works for you) and say enough. I've done enough today.

In this episode, I talk about how at this point in my college semester as a professor, I am always super overwhelmed and behind on many things. My plan for when I am at this point is to just move the needle on a few important projects to make myself feel better, and then to sort of reward myself/take a moment to appreciate what I've done! Moving the needle just means moving a project forward even a little bit, however long that means (5 minutes, an hour and a half, whatever will work for you for each project - it's going to differ by person, project, etc.). I also suggest tricking yourself into getting started by dividing a project up into smaller parts (I will only grade 2 papers today instead of "finish grading"), leaving yourself breadcrumbs (stop in the middle of a sentence, leave yourself notes for next time you get started so that you know what documents to open and where to begin tomorrow or next week, etc.), and rewarding yourself with a treat (a walk around the block, call a friend, make a nice dinner or go out to dinner instead of cooking if you can, etc.). Action item: find 1-3 things this week to just move the needle on a bit and take a few minutes to reward yourself in any way that helps you!

In this episode, I talk about the reasons that I love winter. Even though I know this can be an unpopular opinion (especially if you live somewhere really cold during the winter), I think it is important for our mental health to really find reasons to enjoy each of the seasons that you have in the place where you live (whether that's 1 or 2 or all 4). I talk about hygge, the Danish word for basically comfort and coziness, that involves 1) appreciating simple things and 2) being at home. As an introverted mom of 2 (potential) extroverts, I can really get behind staying in, lighting a candle, reading a book or watching a movie on the couch under a blanket, and making hot chocolate. But for me, living in Colorado, winter is also about skiing, and going for long walks in my winter boots, enjoying the snow, sledding, and also museums and spending time with family during holidays. Winter is about rest, slowing down and maybe saying "no" to things sometimes to just enjoy your own home/couch! Action item: either make a list of things you love about winter, or just take a moment to appreciate the things when they happen-count them as a delight or express gratitude for what you love about the coldest, darkest months of the year. It will help your mental health- I promise!