Wellness Podcast

In this week's episode, I talk about things that we do to numb our feelings vs things that we do that bring us true comfort. I define what these two things are- numbing helps us NOT feel our feelings (not good) vs true comfort helps us restore and nourish ourselves, and be more resilient in the long term! But the difficulty in this is that ANYTHING we do can be for numbing or true comfort, so...

In this week's episode, I talk about how important it is to experience joy and to enjoy our lives, even and especially during dark times. Sometimes I think we think that if the world is an awful place, then all we should be doing is reading the news and sitting and moping on our couches. But the people that do this are the people that do not have the energy to get up and make the world a bette...

I just wanted to give a quick last episode of the year, where I talk about how life actually IS just hard, you're not making a mistake or doing it wrong if things are hard. This is basically a pep talk for the end of the year. Action item: Push in whatever ways you must (I have to finish some grading!), rest in whatever ways you need (I went to bed at 8pm this week!) and slack on whatever you...

In this week's episode, I talk about my 2 biggest pieces of advice for surviving the holidays this year. 1) Lower your expectations! This means not expecting everything to go perfectly when it never (ever) has before and expecting people to be who they are. If your dad never wanted to go to a museum before, he's probably not going to want to go this year either and that's OK! 2) Set yo...

In this week's episode, I talk about an idea that I've been thinking about for a while- the concept that "this too shall pass." What I mean by this is just that sometimes, having long term perspective that something awful or just even a little difficult that is happening in your life will, eventually, pass and you will come out stronger in the end for having lived through it, can...

In this episode, I talk about how at this point in my college semester as a professor, I am always super overwhelmed and behind on many things. My plan for when I am at this point is to just move the needle on a few important projects to make myself feel better, and then to sort of reward myself/take a moment to appreciate what I've done! Moving the needle just means moving a project forward e...

In this episode, I talk about the reasons that I love winter. Even though I know this can be an unpopular opinion (especially if you live somewhere really cold during the winter), I think it is important for our mental health to really find reasons to enjoy each of the seasons that you have in the place where you live (whether that's 1 or 2 or all 4). I talk about hygge, the Danish word for ba...

In this episode, I talk about Blue Zones, or places in the world where people often live to age 100 or later but are also healthy during this time. The 3 main lessons (from Dan Buettner, who was recently on the Happiness Lab) are that people from Blue Zones 1) eat more fruits, whole grains, vegetables and tons of beans, and less meat 2) live in walkable places where exercise is just a part of thei...

In this week's episode, I talk about how lately, when I finish a work project, I have been "treating myself" to things that mostly involve a little bit of extra time- leaving work early and going on a bit longer bike ride, taking a bath or reading a book for a bit during the middle of the work day. I have been thinking of it as giving myself a little "gift" and it has been...

In this episode, I talk about my adventures in Boulder, Colorado last week in the context of a book I read last spring called "Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life" by Professor Shigehiro Oishi. The premise of this book is that there are 3 main components to a "good" life, happiness, meaning and also psychological richn...

In this episode, I talk about how, as we age, we tend to do more of the same thing over and over, which actually makes us perceive time as moving more quickly. This is in part why children perceive time as moving more slowly- they are constantly in new situations and learning new things. In order to slow down time, we need to (like kids) do/learn new things and go to new places. But since we can&#...

In this week's episode, I talk about 3 more characteristics of ADHD, what they look like, what they actually are, and some ways we've been working on these at my house. 1) ADHD can look like difficulty with transitions 2) ADHD can look like rudeness and 3) ADHD can look like carelessness. I give examples of each from my life, what these things actually are (hyperfocus/executive functioning...

In this week's episode, I talk about "hustle culture" or the idea that our value as a person is directly tied to how much work we can get done in any given moment. That value does not carry over to tomorrow or next week (so as soon as we finish a big project or get a ton of work done, great, let's get started on the next big thing right away!). But this is not how our actual anim...

We often talk about "taking the edge off" as sort of numbing our feelings through alcohol, drugs, mindless social media scrolling, or online shopping (among other things). But this week, I wanted to talk about some of the healthy ways I've been "taking the edge off" this week- through exercise, creativity, hilarious TV shows, even fake wrestling with my 7-year old and of co...

In this episode, I talk about how gratitude can help us particularly in tough times, but how there are also ways that gratitude cannot help us during tough times. Gratitude always helps during all times, and keeping a gratitude journal or just thinking of things we are grateful for before bed can help a lot. And delights can help too, when you need something a little less serious- a peach straight...

This week, I talk about how to make hard decisions a little easier. I discuss 4 steps, including 1) pause and give yourself some time before jumping in to make a decision too quickly, 2) vent (feel your feelings, complain, maybe even wallow a bit in your sadness etc. for just a little bit) to get those feelings out of you and don't worry about trying to find a solution yet while you are still...

This week, as promised, I am talking about how to get through tough transition times with 4 pieces of advice from my own experience. 1) Have a secure/solid "home base" to return to- whether it is a place in your house/apartment/dorm room where you feel safe, re-watching/reading old TV shows/books you love, looking at pictures of things/people you love, a daily/weekly FaceTime with someon...

In this episode, I talk about the FUN I had at the pool (Playful, connected flow, by Catherine Price from her book The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again) swimming around the pool with my kids this summer! I talk about how, even if we don't have kids, we can remember what we used to like as kids and try it to see if we can't have a little more fun in our lives now. Bike riding, playing...

This week's episode is NOT to listen to around children! The episode starts with a story about my children and Santa/the Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy etc., which led my child to say, "well I guess there is sort of still magic in the world?" To which I said, of course there is! In this episode, I give some of my own examples of magic in the world, a definition of magic and also of awe and wonder (from...

In this week's episode, I give my 4 favorite pieces of advice from previous episodes on how to make it through a particularly busy/stressful/transitional period. If you are not a teacher or student, this advice can help for any busy or transitional period in your life, but for me, it's the end of the spring semester and summer break is almost here. 1) Quit what and where you can, from epis...

This epsiode is a continuation of week 145, where I talked about 3 things that ADHD can look liks vs what is actually going on. In this episode, I do the same and talk about 3 more things: ADHD can look like 1) risky behavior/impulsivity, 2) hyperactivity/fidgeting, and 3) forgetfulness. In each of the 3 parts, I give examples from my own life of my experiences with my child and a few things that...

In this episode, I define both "numbing" and "real comfort" and give examples of each. I talk about the lessons we can learn from Anne of Green Gables, who felt all her feelings all the time and why that is important to do (at least most of the time). Action item: if you find yourself doing something that doesn't feel right, just pause and think about how you feel and why y...

In this episode, I tell a story about past me in graduate school during an interview, feeling bad for the middle aged man who was driving me around in his old minivan. But now, I am that man, and let me tell you, don't feel bad for me! I talk in this episode about how middle age is not the worst time, and for me, the time of middle parenting (parenting kids who are school-aged, not toddlers an...

In this episode, I talk about 4 of my favorite ways to save money. Although this may seem like it's not related to wellness, I still think that spending more money than we plan to spend (or more money than we actually have) can really hurt our mental health, too. So, my 4 ways are 1) use the public library! For books, DVDs, etc. as much as possible 2) Use those memberships! From Costco to the...

In this episode, I define "hope" using Brene Brown's definition from Atlas of the Heart: Hope is a way of thinking or a cognitive process, not an emotion, that's made up of three components: goals, pathways and agency. I give an example of my own: my goal is to keep promoting what I want to see more of in the world: kindness, compassion, understanding, and strength that is not ab...