Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about how Instagram was affecting teen mental health. In particular, some internal studies at Facebook (which owns Instagram) appeared to confirm that when teen girls used the site, they suffered poorer body image and were at increased risk for depression and eating disorders. But is social media…
Life Lessons From the Birds
I fell in love with birds when I took care of a conure (small parrot) for a friend while she was on vacation. Until that point, I thought birds were pretty to look at and sometimes lovely to listen to, but I didn’t believe they could exhibit much personality. I was happily mistaken. I have…
Tackling Hard Tasks
Generally, we avoid hard tasks, putting them off while we either do easier tasks or distract ourselves. This is understandable, as a hard task might feel daunting or overwhelming. Unfortunately, spending our hours on urgent but easy tasks versus difficult but important tasks is generally a costly choice. So let’s talk for a minute about hard…
Study Affirms How Compassion Helps Mental Health
As COVID-19 ricocheted around the globe, millions of us sought shelter in retreat. Not only were we quarantining at home, we were putting up internal walls against the suffering we saw in the world. For more than a year, it’s been easy to justify an inward focus rather than an outward one. But a new…
Silence Really Is Golden
Years ago, before a smartphone was clutched in every human hand, I posed a question to our 300-plus high school students. After years of working in a high school as a teacher and counselor, I noticed some changes in our culture that were causing me pause. I figured it would be helpful to hear directly…
Letting Go of Imaginary Needs
Live simply, like a child. An infant needs very little to be happy. Clothes, food, love, and a place to explore, that’s it. They have so few needs. And yet they’re so happy. Or when they’re not happy, it’s usually because one of their few needs is not being met. As these toddlers grow up,…
Rediscovering My Passion for Rocks
Amid school, career, marriage, and kids, we’re prone to forget about how spending time in nature completes us as human beings. So busy with life’s pressures and pleasures, we often forget the simple, natural things that will restore us and bring us real joy and peace. When furloughed from my job in March 2020, I…
How to Practice Self-Compassion
We’ve all been here before. You’re waiting in the lobby for a job interview or preparing for an important team meeting. You felt confident earlier. But, as the clock ticks closer, you begin to doubt yourself. Suddenly, your heart begins to pound. Your palms get sweaty. And, there’s an inner voice screaming that you’re going…
Create a Place for Everything That Matters
It can often feel like our lives are scattered. Like a house filled with clutter, our lives can feel like a huge mess. I’d like to share an idea for getting things in order: create a place for everything that matters. In our physical houses, things can get messy when we just put things in random…
A Way to Reframe Life’s Mundane Chores
It’s yet another day of washing dishes, picking up dirty socks off the floor, scrubbing remnants of glitter glue that have dried onto the kitchen table, and vacuuming crumbs that have been trailed all throughout the house. Some days it seems that the chores and picking up after my three young kids never ends. Every…
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