Blog Posts
HOLIDAYS CAN BE GREAT FUN. THEY CAN ALSO BE HELL. Expectations and obligations can turn what’s supposed to be a season of celebration into a nightmare. To help sustain you, here are some things I’ve learned the hard way. Apply as needed:
SET BOUNDARIES. Block off time during the day for yourself. No matter what’s on your schedule – cooking for a group of 30, finalizing the year-end recap or next year’s budget, wrangling a household of relatives with adorable but exhausting toddlers – find a few minutes for yourself: Turn off your phone while you take a bath. Sip a cup of tea – very slowly. Say “No” to the party you really don’t want to go to. Hide under the stairs and read a book. (Kidding. Sort of.) It’s crucial to replenish yourself, otherwise you’ll be miserable, overworked, underslept … and may end up so depleted you land in the hospital with pneumonia. Which would make nobody happy – except perhaps your nemesis, and that’s a holiday present you don’t want to give.
Special Note for people with families that won’t take “No” for an answer (even more crucial if your family is large):
Mere days into 2021 and we’re trying to process … horror. On January 6th, the president of the United States incited a mob of domestic terrorists to storm the Capitol, with the intention of stopping the certification of Joe Biden’s election win … and worse.
If 2020 was the Year of Relentless Heartbreak, what will 2021 be? I’m hoping it will be the year of justice. The year of confronting our country’s white supremacist past and the ways that past — still horrifically part of our present — poisons our society. The year of making substantive changes to ensure our democracy survives, and thrives.
Lately, the only way I can get to sleep is with this breathing technique (preceded, on occasion, with a glass of bourbon, or a lorazepam). It’s easy to learn and it’s surprisingly soothing. Let me know if you find it helpful.
Since 2020 has become the Year of Relentless Heartbreak, I wanted to share a quick anxiety-reducing technique that helps keep my stress levels from going through the roof: Box Breathing. I hope it helps you too.
Self-care can make an enormous difference in being able to handle the recurring drumbeat of horrible news without disintegrating into a puddle of tears. I can’t count how many times I’ve used Box Breathing in the past few months – literally cannot tell you the number. It’s wonderfully grounding and calming.
Box Breathing (sometimes called Square Breathing because of its four equal sides) is done by athletes, yoga practitioners, health practitioners, soldiers and everyday people to keep themselves calm and focused. Want to learn how?
We’ve all heard the crack about how gyms (and their upscale siblings, “Fitness Centers”) make a fortune because of people who – with the best of intentions – sign up, but then give up. Most of us have fallen into the trap of setting sky-high New Year’s resolutions, only to find they’re too much to bear/impossible to fulfill. But New Years’ resolutions don’t have to be an exercise in frustration.
YOU KNOW THOSE REUSABLE WATER BOTTLES you drink from throughout the day? (You *are* drinking water throughout the day, right?) Here's why – and how – you want to wash them every night: Each time you drink from them, bacteria go into the bottle. (Eww) And they breed if you don't wash the bottle. (double Eww – triple Eww in flu season) SIMPLE SOLUTION: When you get home…
I’ve tried more methods of hard-boiling eggs than I can count. Every single one has worked … for a while. BUT, to my surprise and delight, I think I’ve finally, once and for all, cracked the hard-boiled egg code (pun intended).
I’ve used this method consistently for the past few months and have gotten consistently excellent results. (I will not say “eggcelent”, I will not say “eggcelent”, I will not say “eggcelent”. Okay, I will.)
Part of the secret is to keep the water at a boil the entire time you’re cooking the eggs, which helps prevent the albumin (the thin membrane that drives you crazy when you try to peel off the shell) from sticking to the egg. The process is surprisingly easy once you know how.
Not long ago, Bloomberg ran a video piece* that made me angry. It purported to address concern for the environment, but really it was an example of narrow-minded, classist and defeatist nonsense. Think I'm being harsh? Let's take a look:
Bloomberg’s video maintains that most Americans can’t afford to make eco-conscious choices. As proof of this, they cite:
a $95 water bottle with a UVC light in it to kill germs, “so you don't have to wash it as much”;
a collapsible metal straw costing nearly $25, as an alternative to banned plastic straws;
a $150 comforter (which they erroneously call a “duvet cover”) made from recycled plastic bottles with a eucalyptus shell.
Really? If these are the products Bloomberg considers the best options to save the planet, no wonder climate change is kicking our collective butts. Meanwhile, they’ve completed ignored the small daily choices we can make — ones that don’t require plunking down large amounts of money and are kind to both consumers and the environment.
(I promise, once you get through the disturbing section — necessary for context — there’s good stuff: Easy alternatives and some of my favorite Healthy-Hacks!)
HOLIDAYS CAN BE GREAT FUN. THEY CAN ALSO BE HELL. Expectations and obligations can turn what’s supposed to be a season of celebration into a nightmare. To help sustain you, here are some things I’ve learned the hard way. Apply as needed:
Long before I was a journalist or a wellness coach, I was a sexual assault survivor. I wrote the post below after the Kavanaugh hearings — for survivors and those who care about making the world better.
In light of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, this subject is even more crucial. And painful. I hope you personally don’t resonate with it, but it’s almost certain that someone you care about does. Please read. Share. Remember. VOTE.
And if, by some quirk of fate, you are a Republican, I urge you to think deeply about your values.
How to drink a glass of wine without feeling guilty? First, don’t drink the entire bottle! Unless you have a few friends sharing it with you.
Seriously though, the world seems especially hard and unforgiving right now. Self-care is crucial if we’re going to get through this. So in between standing up for what is right, we need to refresh ourselves. Wine is an excellent place to start. (Unless you have a drinking problem, in which case <narrows eyes; makes Alec Guinness hand motion> This is not the blog you’re looking for.)