5 Tips On Surviving Mother’s Day When You Miss Your Mom

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5 Tips On Surviving Mother’s Day When You Miss Your Mom

When many people think of Mother’s Day, they often visualize beautiful flowers, heart felt cards, candy, and a special meal with their moms.  This is a great way to think about Mother’s Day!  However, for many of us, Mother’s Day brings about an increased sense of sadness.  Many people, like myself, no longer have their mom due to death.   Others do not have their mom with them due to other reasons such as incarceration, never knowing their mom, being estranged from their mom, or their mom no longer being cognitively or emotionally there such as having Alzheimer’s Disease.  No matter the reason, not having your mom is very painful, especially around Mother’s Day.  

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5 Things We Can Learn From Our Pets

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5 Things We Can Learn From Our Pets

As many of you know from my previous blogs, I am a HUGE animal lover-especially cats!  Ok, saying that I love cats is a major understatement, but you still get my point.  Have you ever just sat and observed animals for a while?  I have and it is one of my favorite things to do.  In fact, I have learned so much from just observing my pets and the animals that live outside such as the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks to name just a few.  Of course, I think part of the reason that they grace my presence is that I supply them with food and fresh water daily, but who wouldn’t stick around when provided with endless food and water!?!?   I have spent hours watching animals in their daily activities and as humorous as they are and as much fun as I get from watching them, I truly believe that we can certainly learn so much from them as well as enjoying their antics.  

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5 Tips On Adjusting Your Expectations Of Yourself

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Wow, isn’t this a new world we are all trying to navigate!  Covid-19 has quickly changed so much of our lives. Suddenly, many of us are working from home, with our kids at home too, without our typical supports and outlets.  Our kids have school work to do, while we are trying to do work, and we are trying to keep it all together running smoothly without going out in public too much.  We are all suffering from various forms of grief: kids who are missing their friends, plays, and proms, weddings postponed, baby showers cancelled, funerals postponed.  In the midst of all of this juggling and cancelled events, we are all living with the reality that our world has changed, and with that might come fear or anxiety related to all this uncertainty.  Change is hard for us all, let alone change in nearly every aspect of our lives!

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Overcoming the Stigma of Mental Health

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You have strep throat.  Although you don’t like going to the doctor, you do it.  You don’t hesitate too much about going except for maybe the fee associated with a medical appointment.  You don’t fear being judged for going to the doctor to get treatment for your sore, red throat.  However, if you are struggling with sadness or struggle with calming racing thoughts, you fear being judged about this.  Why?  Is it because many people don’t understand or believe in the severity and debilitating effects of mental illness?  When you have strep throat or perhaps a broken arm, it is quite easy to recognize and tell how much suffering one is experiencing.  However, with mental illness, the physical signs are typically not as noticeable. 

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Taking Care Of You

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Likely many of us are experiencing worry these days. Worry about finding toilet paper at the store when our family needs it.  Worry about staying healthy.  Worry about being off of work and our income being affected.  Worry about being isolated from others.  This new reality feels very different for us all-it’s very shocking.  I want to remind you to take care of you. I’d like to offer a few tips to care for your mental wellbeing during this time:

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