Refocus on Your Ambitions, Create a Vision Board

Jessica Headley, Ph.D., LPCC-S 06/07/2021

Vision is crucial to our success. Driving your car during heavy snow or rainstorm isn’t comfortable, especially when you have old windshield wipers screeching back and forth. Or, if you experience the double whammy: the bad wipers and the “Oh no! I’m almost out of windshield wiper fluid” moment. You can’t see as clearly as you need to and panic sets in. For our own safety and sanity, you may decide to pull over to the side of the road until the storm passes. The experience of being caught in a heavy storm while driving can be a metaphor for life — it can feel scary, may take special maneuvering, and sometimes causes you to stop and re-evaluate the situation. You may even find yourself…

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Categories: Institute of Women, Wellness & Work, Self-care, Skill Building & Professional Development, Wellness & Personal Growth

Tags: Focus, Goals, self-care, Vision Board

Jessica Headley, Ph.D., LPCC-S

5 Exercises for Practicing Self-Compassion

Have you ever beat yourself up or said unkind words to yourself? If you’re like most of us, your answer is probably “yes.” Especially as women, we tend to be our own worst critics, and we usually treat ourselves in cruel ways that we’d never treat other people!But there’s a different way. Self-compassion is the practice of being kind and understanding with ourselves — not only when we succeed, but when we fail, too. Here, we’ve compiled 5 exercises you can use to start practicing self-compassion. These practices are based on extensive research by Dr. Kristin Neff, a psychologist who specializes in self-compassion. Try to incorporate them into your daily schedule as much as possible. You can use these 5 exercises at any time, day…

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Gina Messina, Ph.D. 02/28/2022

woman looking up at sky thinking, showing mental performance

Mental performance and you: 10 things you need to know

Our mental performance, how we think, analyze, and perceive the world, influences how we work, tackle challenges, relate to others, manage stress and more. Where we choose to put our focus has a tremendous impact on how we feel and perform in our day-to-day lives. Julie Jones, Mental Performance Coach and Institute instructor, specializes in helping people boost their mental game, and in teaching them how mental training, positivity and self-awareness can help us do better in our jobs, our personal lives, as leaders, as athletes, and as members of the community. As a former Division I softball coach, Julie specializes in training athletes in mental performance techniques. The same brain strategies that can help a softball player improve her swing can help us all…

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Institute Editorial Team 08/02/2021

Stop Riding Life on the Default Setting

It might not be obvious to any of us on a day to day basis, but the world has radically shifted in the last 50 years. We’re watching as understood norms and structures are collapsing right before our eyes – either through corruption or a mass awakening or both. Is college really the best way to get a higher education?Is the American dream of buying a home with two kids and a white picket fence really sustainable?Do the police actually protect us or are they a part of the problem we see today?Is Democracy stable against tyranny and uprising?Do we really need banks and intermediaries or can we democratize and digitize money?Why do we think staying in the same career for 30+ years is the…

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Institute Editorial Team 05/31/2022

fruits and vegetables representing calories and micronutrients

Calories vs. Micronutrients & Why We Need Both

Calories and Micronutrients are critical to understand for our health; but most of us don’t know the difference. Ever wonder why it is so hard to maintain a healthy weight, especially as we get older? You are not alone. According to the Center for Disease Control, 42.4% of Americans are obese, with many elements coming into play. Among these elements are biological factors, like our genes; environmental factors, including those people we interact with; and modifiable components, like the food choices we make. I like to use the analogy of a car when I’m explaining nutrition. The gasoline we put into our car is what makes the car run. The car’s fuel is analogous to macronutrients that make our body’s run. Macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins…

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Lynn Ulatowski 01/10/2022

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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