5 Essential Ways to Take Care of Yourself This Holiday Season

Saya Des Marais 12/20/2021

How will you take care of yourself this holiday season? The holidays can be merry, festive, and jolly 一 but they’re rarely so 100% of the time. “‘Tis the season to be jolly,” but for many people, it’s also the season to be stressed, anxious, sad, or overwhelmed. During this time of year, it’s more important than ever that you practice meaningful self-care practices to protect your mental health and get through those tough family gatherings with grace and your sanity. Here are 5 essential ways to take care of yourself this holiday season, from putting up boundaries in your schedule to not overindulging in the desserts. Avoid overscheduling. The holiday season can get chaotic quickly if you say yes to every invitation. Family is…

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Categories: Self-care, Wellness & Personal Growth

Tagged: holidays, self-care, Trending

Saya Des Marais

working from home; working moms need to prioritize their health

7 Tips to Help Working Moms Prioritize Our Health

Working moms need to prioritize our health. With many of us heading back to the office and yet another change to our routines is disrupting our lives, our overall wellbeing is suffering. Add balancing your job with motherhood — childcare, packing lunches, dishes, laundry, and more — it is critical that we make time for self-care and move our health to the top of our priority list. Many working moms avoid or even forget about self-care because they simply don’t have time for it. If this sounds familiar, stay tuned. These simple tips will allow you to put your health at the top of your to-do list without finding extra time for it. Why It’s Important for Working Moms to Prioritize Our Health Oftentimes, we…

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Institute Editorial Team 08/09/2021

woman showing stress, compassion fatigue is valid.

Compassion Fatigue is Valid 一Here’s How to Beat it

Compassion Fatigue is Valid. Here’s How to Beat it. If you’re in the helping profession, you’ve probably heard about – or even personally experienced – compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a very common experience, similar to burnout, in certain caretaking professions. Some studies suggest that women may be more vulnerable to compassion fatigue than men. We’re here to tell you that compassion fatigue is completely valid and normal; if you’re experiencing it, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person or employee. Here’s everything you need to know about what compassion fatigue is, why it’s valid, and what you can do about it if you’re going through it. What is compassion fatigue? Compassion fatigue, sometimes referred to as secondary trauma or vicarious trauma, is an…

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Saya Des Marais 10/26/2021

Kakeibo: The Art of Financial Mindfulness

By Gina Messina, Ph.D. About a year ago, a friend introduced me to Kakeibo, the Japanese art of budgeting and applying mindfulness to our spending, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. You see, I am a major contributor to our consumeristic culture. I see something shiny and I think I have to have it. A friend jokes that she hates going shopping with me because I have to pick up and touch everything on the shelves (although I’ve eliminated that practice due to COVID!). Like so many of us, I am easily persuaded by marketing tactics. Now that we so rarely spend cash, it feels like I can simply swipe a card, click a button, or use my fingerprint and suddenly I have a new…

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Gina Messina, Ph.D. 01/24/2021

woman sitting at table thinking about self-care and work-life balance

4 Self-Care Practices to Disconnect from Work

Why do we need self-care practices to disconnect from work? As we cope with the stress of phase 2 of the pandemic, many women are headed back to the office. Finding a healthy work-life balance seems to be more difficult than ever. Imagine this: You finally leave the office after a long day at work. You’re exhausted, and can’t wait to get home. But in the car, you start thinking about that project you’re working on, or that client, or that meeting tomorrow. You’re filled with worry and self-doubt, and you can’t stop thinking about work the whole way home. You get home and you are still thinking about it. Your body is physically at home with your family, but your mind is still at…

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Saya Des Marais 09/06/2021

How to care for yourself while taking care of others

Caregivers, this is for you. Even before the pandemic, more than 16% of the US population was providing unpaid care to an adult 18 years or older, including family members with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Women make up about 75% of those caregivers, and they put in the work while juggling jobs, children, and ongoing domestic-task overload. With nearly 23 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US, caregivers are under additional pressure to care for and protect their loved ones. If you’re a caregiver, the stress may seem relentless, and you may be: having trouble sleepingunder/over-eatingself-medicating with alcohol or drugscanceling (or not even booking) your own doctors’ appointments That’s because when you’re a caregiver, caring for yourself tends to happen only after everyone else’s needs…

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Institute Editorial Team 01/24/2021

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