Wellness Podcast

In this episode, I talk about how creativity can help us in troubled times, about what creativity is (loosely defined), how it can help us (flow, community/connection, etc.) and give a few examples of some creative things I did this past week! Even if you don't think of yourself as a "creative" person, there are a ton of different creative things you can do (that don't even have...

In this episode, I talk about 3 things that ADHD can look like, in my experience from my own child, and what is actually going on. I am not an expert on neurodiversity but have listened to many episodes of the Beautifully Complex podcast that has included many expert interviews, and I'd like to think that I am an expert (at least) on my own child. I hope this episode helps all people who know some...

This week, I talk about what I did to help me get through what turned out to be a tough week: 1) Dance in the kitchen (or wherever) 2) Limit news (or at least read news that you trust) 3) Do something each week to take care of the world/your community 4) Take care of yourself in any way that you can (take a nap if you need it, a bath, watch funny TV, even sometimes stress eat chocolate and then fo...

In this episode, I talk about the why and how of making small connections with people in your life every single day. I explain a study that was presented on the Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, where commuters in Chicago were asked to either talk or not talk with other people on the train on the way to work. And surprisingly, the group who had (even somewhat awkward) conversations on the way...

In this week's episode, I talk about the things I am doing right now that I consider to be my "next right thing." This is from Frozen 2 when Anna is in a literal cold, dark cave, but just picks herself up and starts putting one foot in front of the other to just keep moving and figure out what to do. This is how the world feels to me right now but this advice works in times of sadnes...

In this week's episode, I talk about Part 2 of the book How to Break up with your Phone, by Catherine Price. I talk about first checking the data on how long you use your phone each day, to make you understand where you are at to begin, and also coming up with the answer to Guiding Questions including "What do you want to pay attention to?" Some tips include 1) sorting through your a...

In this episode, I briefly discuss the first half of the book I read over the break, called How to Break up with Your Phone, by Catherine Price. The first half of this book touches on why to break up with your phone. Some of the reasons include: they increase our anxiety, impulsivity, stress, depression, sleep problems, hurt our memory, focus, ability to think deeply and even our ability to form l...

In this final episode of 2024, I talk about a new definition of bravery/courage. The one we often think of is "being scared but doing the thing you are scared of anyway". I talk about an alternate definition by Glennon Doyle, that bravery is really "doing the thing that you know is the right thing, even if/when it is hard, even if/when you feel judged by others, even if/when you feel like you are...

In this week's episode, I talk about the 4 main benefits of asking for help, from Brene Brown and Dr. Laurie Santos of the Happiness Lab. 1) True friendship involves reciprocal helping (not just one-sided help). 2) Evolutionarily, we were made to help each other, to live in tribes, and if we were alone and did not help others and accept help from others, we died. 3) When we help others, it makes u...

In this week's episode, I talk about what to do when you feel like you cannot do anything at all, which is really just an episode on processing difficult emotions in real time (in this case, right after the 2024 presidential election in the US). I talk about using creativity, completing your stress cycle (hugs, laughter, crying, exercise), being with our people and checking up on them/showing up f...

In this week's episode, I talk about the 4 ways that I have found have worked for me in terms of loving my job over 20+ years (though this works for all jobs, not just ones we've had for years). 1) Never stop learning, 2) change, grow and tailor your job to what you love, 3) have multiple parts/components to your job (and think of them as such) and 4) having freedom of thought. Action item: think...

In this episode, I talk about some of the things I did this week to take care of myself after the worst week ever. Oh I forgot to mention in the episode that tonight (Friday, the day I am recording) is Friday night Movie Night and we are watching Coco! I talk about the difference between moving through our emotions in a healing way rather than numbing them, and my action item is to think about som...

In this episode, I talk about the idea that we don't need to have just one friend (or partner, or parent, or child, or whatever) who is all things to us. Instead, we can diversify and have work friends, and friends from our childhoods, and friends who are the parents of our kids' friends. We can have friends who love bike riding and friends who love going to the movies and we don't have to force t...

In this week's episode, I talk about my top 5 favorite study tips! If you aren't a student but just having a busy week, these can be useful for you as well. 1) Consider spaced rather than massed studying (spread out your studying rather than studying all at once) 2) Plan out your breaks 3) Eat healthy 4) Exercise (and don't beat yourself up if it's like 10 minutes a day) and 5) Study smarter, not...

In this episode, I talk about how there are actually 3 components of real self-care, not just pedicures and baths. 1) solitary self-care (like pedicures and baths) but keeping in mind what actually helps YOU personally, not what you think you "should" be doing. 2) Social activities and volunteering (even in your own job) and keeping in mind that people generally like us more than we think they do...

In this week's episode, I talk about The Book of Delights and The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay, and the practice of searching for delights each day in our lives. I also over-use the word "delight" many, many times, for which I do not apologize (OK maybe a little bit). I define delights (anything that brings us joy or pleasure), and give some examples of my own delights includi...

In this episode, I talk about healthy ways to express our anger, from a book I recently read called Raising Good Humans by Hunter Clarke-Fields. This book explains that anger is an energy that moves through us, and we have to express it but in healthier, less destructive ways. The 5 ways I talk about, from Raising Good Humans, are 1) walk away 2) talk yourself down 3) shake it out 4) strike a pose...

In this episode, I talk about my family's weekly tradition of Friday night movie night. I explain what we do and how it helps me to stay grounded and feel safe even in this crazy world we are living in these days. Action item: find an activity that can be YOUR Friday night movie night, with the following characteristics: 1) tradition/stability (something you do routinely at the same time/day e...

In this week's episode, I talk about a book I read over sabbatical, called The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, by Catherine Price. I define "fun" using Catherine Price's definition of playful, connected flow, give some examples of events in my life that were "so fun", and of some of my own "fun magnets" (family, friends, adventure, being outdoors, learn...

In this episode, I talk about the 3 things I did over my sabbatical that were not work and how we can apply them to our everyday lives! First, I got through a backlog of a ton of non-work to do's in my life (painting, getting a new air conditioner and furnace installed, etc.)- what you can do in everyday life is Power Hour! From the author Gretchen Rubin. The second thing was do more of what y...

Welcome back everyone! I'm back from sabbatical and here to talk about enjoying the little things in life. In this episode, I talk about my summer and how I (finally!) got the chance to enjoy the summer, for the first time since I was a kid. My kids and I partly used this list from Generation Wild: https://www.generationwild.com/the-list but also just made up our own fun things to do. Often ch...

In this episode, I talk about why it is important to say no (particularly at this time of year, when the holidays are upon us, as well as finals/end of the semester if you are in the academic or teaching world). I talk about Brene Brown's phrase, "clear is kind, unclear is unkind" and how we think that saying yes when we mean no (or just don't have time) is kind when really the o...

In this episode, I talk about activity pairing, one of my favorite tricks for sticking to my habits. This comes from James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, and the idea is to pair two activities together to form a habit of doing them together. These can be one activity you love with one you don't love so much (ex: washing dishes with listening to your favorite podcasts) or an activity you alre...

In this week's episode, I talk about triggers, or emotional responses to an object, person or memory that are more severe than what the event itself would call for. These can be due to events that have happened recently or past events that we need to work through but the key is that our response does not match the level of the original event (a 3 event calls for a 3 response- aw man, not a 10...

In this episode, I give us all a 5-minute break! We sit up straight (but not too tensely) in our chairs, take deep breaths, tense all our muscles and let them go, hug ourselves, put our hand on our heart, do gratefuls, and then I let you go to either 1) watch a short funny tik tok video (or whatever video) 2) listen to a song and dance 3) chat with someone near you for 2 minutes. Have a great day...