Recently, while allowing myself a rare hair appointment, I read an article about the many traits and habits of highly successful individuals. One of the most common traits is resilience- something that is, I believe, a learned response to adversity. Our very nature is to throw a fit, pout, and stomp our feet when something …
The holiday season is upon us, and though it is touted as the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” it can become a time of elevated expectations, stress, and strife. The lines are clogged at the malls and grocery stores, everyone’s in a rush, and patience runs thin. It is, for many, the most stressful …
Ready to add something back to your life that gives you joy? Me too. I’ve missed baking! I have been doing a low-carb diet recently, so I made a low-carb cheesecake for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin cheesecake is one of my favorite varieties (though I have never met a cheesecake I didn’t love). Leave it to me …
“True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to not build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.” -an excerpt from this article about true self-care. Now, you might be hard-pressed to find someone who likes salt baths and chocolate cake more than me…but Brianna Wiest (author of above …
How do you talk to yourself? Do you speak to yourself like you would speak to your best friend, or are you harsh to yourself? Do you ever think to yourself, “I can’t do it,” and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy? How do you respond when someone gives you a compliment? Have you ever …
How do you define yourself? Most of us define ourselves by our roles at home, careers, relationships/orientation, faith, etc- there are thousands of ways to define ourselves. But let’s be real for a minute: they are all labels. They may describe you, but they do not define you. You are more than a label. We …
Interacting with other people is, inherently, very complicated. To be in community with others can be both a blessing and a curse; let me explain. Not everyone you meet is going to be “for” you. This realization, for me (a habitual people-pleaser) was a difficult one. No matter how hard you try, there are going …
This was my life, just a few years ago. It was a turning point, a moment to inspire change. I submitted this essay to Medical Economics, but it was not accepted. It still meant the world to me. In A Heartbeat January 2017 There is nothing quite like a health crisis to make you reassess …