Sticking to Your Family Goals

What’s your family goal this year? Whether you’re aiming to spend more time together, to be more active as a family, or to schedule one on one time with each other, it’s great to have an intent that the whole family can work towards. Only downside: it’s easier said than done. Navigating the hurdles of sticking to an individual goal can be hard enough. Trying to stick to goals as a family with three, four, five or more only magnifies those challenges. The idea of working towards a goal can feel enticing, exhilarating, and exciting at first – until, it's not. Once the thrill is gone, then you’re faced with the biggest hurdle: sticking to it. Life gets in the way and other to-do’s seem more important. Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your goal! Here are few tips to help your family stay on track and hold each other accountable…

End the Year with a Self Check-In

The end of the year is a time of reflection. It’s a time to look back on how we’ve changed, learned, and grown. We like to think about what we’ve accomplished this year and what we can improve upon in the year to come. We all have areas of our lives that we would like to enhance, whether it be our health, our relationships, our careers, or how we spend our time. By being self-aware and checking in with ourselves, we can make a plan to be an even better version of ourselves in the year ahead. It’s helpful to focus on the one or two areas of your life that you most want to improve instead of taking on everything at once. Here are some helpful prompting questions to get you started…

Making Gratitude a Daily Practice

Thanksgiving is the perfect reminder to be thankful. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with loved ones, shared memories and a warm meal together, and think about all of the little things we’re grateful for. But the holiday season shouldn’t be the only time we do this! Year-round gratitude can help boost your mood, your energy, your overall health, and so much more. So as we head into a long winter ahead, consider making gratitude a daily practice. We’ll show you easy ways to incorporate gratitude into your life. It’s not as hard as you’d think!

Challenging Perfectionism in Your Family

Does your child feel pressured by perfectionism? Do they do everything they can to get perfect grades, memorize all of their lines in the school play, or score for their team in every sports game? Whether we realize it or not, we tend to feed into our children’s desire to be perfect in a certain aspect of life or to know exactly what they are going to do when they grow up. Perfectionist tendencies can have a series impact on your child’s mental health. In extreme cases, this can lead to things such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. How can you help your child find balance in their life while encouraging them to do their best? Here are some tips…

How are your Thoughts Influencing your Emotions?

Do you ever find yourself jumping to a worst-case scenario or the worst possible conclusion? Do you ever feel like you are a failure if you received a low letter grade on one test, or received a little negative feedback at work? Maybe you and your partner got into a fight, and you immediately think that they are going to break-up with you? It’s more common that you think for people to experience these distortions in thought, or what’s referred to as a cognitive distortion. Cognitive distortions often lead to stronger emotional reactions than we’d like. Luckily, we have the power to control these cognitive distortions and in turn, minimize our emotional reactions. How can we do this? Let’s dive in…

Exercising Your Mental Muscles

Looking to add healthy habits in the new year? After the holidays, you might make resolutions to get to the gym or eat healthier. Positively fueling and working your body will make you feel stronger, but change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and consistency to notice these gradual changes. However have you considered improving your mental fitness? How do you flex those muscles to strengthen your mental health? Exercise and nutrition can boost your mental health through the mind body connection, but other strategies can also enhance your mental fitness game. Here are some exercises that you can start incorporating into your routine today...

Cultivating Gratitude

This Thanksgiving, many of us will be able to gather as we did prior to the pandemic. While this is definitely something we can be thankful for, we don’t need to wait for the holidays to acknowledge our blessings and embrace gratitude. We can practice gratitude every day of the year! In fact, incorporating gratitude into our daily routines can improve both our mood and our relationships. So what is gratitude, why should we practice it, and how can we make it a habit that sticks? Let’s dive in…

Why You Need to Stop “SHOULD-ing” Yourself

Do you ever find yourself saying “I should have” or “I shouldn’t have” done this or that? For instance, you might think “I should have gone to bed early.” “I shouldn’t have raised my voice and yelled.” “I shouldn’t have eaten that dessert.” Using the terms “should” and “shouldn’t”—or “should-ing” ourselves—impacts how we feel about those actions. Ultimately, a “should-ing” mindset can consistently put us down and inhibit our goals. So how does this one word have so much influence, and what can we do about it? Let’s explore…

How to Set Realistic Goals

Do you find yourself accumulating numerous goals to accomplish throughout the year that you still haven’t gotten to? It’s important to have goals; it shows your ambition, and it feels wonderful when you accomplish and even surpass your goals. However if you load too many goals onto your plate at once, it can start to feel overwhelming. The feelings of overwhelm lead to stress and anxiety, which can cause you to lose motivation and abandon your goals altogether. So, what can you do to achieve realistic goal setting?

What is Toxic Positivity?

We live in a culture that boasts “toxic positivity.” Toxic positivity is a belief that no matter what difficult or upsetting situation you may experience, you should maintain a positive mindset. Consider the popular phrase “good vibes only.” While “good vibes” are not a bad thing, “good vibes only” negate all other human experiences that do not involve positive feelings. The phrase makes it seem like negative experiences or negative emotions should be avoided at all costs. As humans, we experience a wide range of emotions; we’re not always happy or positive and that is okay. In fact, it’s normal to have a mix of good vibes and bad vibes throughout the day. Learn more about toxic positivity and what you can do to get through challenges without suffering from the effects of toxic positivity…

Managing Negative Self-Talk

When you think about yourself, do negative thoughts instantly come to mind? Do you put yourself down over every little mistake you make? If you experience thoughts like this, you are engaging in negative self-talk—and you are not alone. Negative self-talk may not seem to be a big deal, but over time, they can make an impact on how you view yourself and how you feel. Your thoughts are powerful, and they will influence your emotions and behavior in the long run. Therefore, it’s important to manage negative self-talk so that you’re avoiding increases in anxiety and negative self-image. Here are some tips for managing negative self-talk…

Social Media Self-Care

Social media has become a significant part of our daily lives, as we check apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok on a daily basis. While there are many positive aspects of social media, there are drawbacks to these platforms as well. Social media can affect our mental health; when we compare ourselves to others and see how much happier other people appear to be, it can make us feel depressed or anxious, among other feelings. That’s where self-care comes in to combat the negative effects of social media. If the content on your news feeds is negatively impacting your mental health, here are a few tips to practice social media self-care…

How to Practice Gratitude

Are you interested in practicing gratitude? Have you heard about the benefits of doing so, but you’re not sure where to start? Let’s talk about gratitude. Gratitude is actively noticing and appreciating aspects of your life that you are thankful for. It’s sometimes like second nature to focus on the negative. When you think about the negative, it’s easy to forget about the things that you’re grateful for. So how can you overcome that tendency and shift your focus to one of gratitude? Here are some tips to increase gratefulness in your life…

Reducing Work Stress with DBT

Has your work been stressing you out lately? Do the demands of your job cause you to feel exhausted by the end of the day? If you’re looking for relief from work stress, DBT skills can help! Learning how to manage stress associated with work will not only improve your work environment, it will also enhance your quality of life overall. Start with these three DBT skills to cope with the intensity of your work…

Showing Up With Compassion

As parents, it is possible that you’re incredibly hard on yourself; this kind of behavior can be destructive. It is easy to imagine demonstrating compassion for those that you love. However, it’s far more difficult to show compassion towards yourself. The mindfulness practice for self-compassion will help you learn to practice self-compassion in your daily life. Practicing self compassion is one of the best ways to improve your wellness and your mood, as well as strengthen your relationship with your family members. Learn how to practice a self-compassion break in order to show yourself kindness, alleviate stress, and help you cope with the challenges of parenthood…

Fact or Feeling? What's Really Going On

As a parent, it may be difficult to separate facts from feelings. You sometimes find yourself acting on a temporary emotion when the evidence does not support this response. Consider using the skill, “check the facts,” next time you’re feeling that your reaction isn’t matching up to the situation. Check the Facts helps you to modify your response to a level that is appropriate for the situation, or to respond with a more fitting emotion. Before you act, ask yourself, is the way that you are feeling and thinking about a situation factual? Let’s explore how you can find the proof first…

Calm Your Mind With Mindful Breathing

Did you know that one of the simplest ways to calm your mind is something that you’re already doing every second of the day? That’s right—it’s all about your breath! When you feel intense emotions, your may instinctively try to slow down your breath. Being mindful of your breathing is as easy as that! Mindful breathing is a powerful yet underutilized tool that helps you calm intense emotions and bring awareness to your present moment. By mindfully breathing, you can create a relaxing effect on your mind and body. Consider these three types of mindful breathing techniques to promote a calmer mood…

3 Ways to Avoid a Winter Mood Slump

It’s mid January and all you can do is count the days until spring. Now more than ever, you’re longing for warmer days and you just can’t kick those winter blues. If it’s proving difficult to trudge through these chilly days, you’re not alone. You can boost your mood by incorporating these three helpful techniques…

GOODBYE 2020!

Many people are taking stock on the past year it comes to a close and we get ready to ring in 2021. I’ve heard people say 2020 was “crazy” or “horrible” or “the worst” year. In many respects, this is true. The pandemic sideswiped our stability, knocked us off our game, stole family members from us and basically forced us to rewrite our visions and redo our schedules. It makes sense that we are sad, that we have FOMO, and that we grieve for all we have lost or for what could have been. The pain is real and deserves to be acknowledged and felt. Without pausing to acknowledge our feelings, we might get stuck in them and worse, bring them forth into 2021. Here are 3 ways that you can effectively say GOODBYE to 2020 and welcome in 2021…

Lessons From 2020 to Carry Into 2021

There is no doubt that 2020 has been a year of adjustment. We have learned valuable lessons collectively as a society, and on an individual level as well. Whether they involved finances, social engagement, emotional health, or work, they taught us valuable insights that we may not have otherwise gained during a typical year. As this year begins closing behind us, let’s recognize the valuable lessons learned that we can apply for years to come. Here are three important lessons from 2020 that will be beneficial in 2021…

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