Wellness Podcast

In this episode (the last until late August), I talk about how to transition from a big project, the end of the school year, end of a holiday season, just any end of a thing, through a "cool down." By this I mean the opposite of a "warm-up" like you would do before exercising. For my own cool down, my favorite things to do are watch a movie, meditate, write in my journal, read...

In this week's episode, I talk about my introvert (manager) burnout, give examples of what I mean and how I am feeling right now, and give 6 tips to help manage this burnout. While I am a department chair/middle manager, this advice works for all introverts who are feeling exhausted/burned out right now from too many meetings, events, etc., at work, at home, wherever. Advice includes taking br...

In this episode, I talk about six strategies that work for anyone, whether it's the end of the school year for you, for your kids (Maycember anyone?), or just a hectic time for any reason. 1) Build in time for breaks, even super short ones. Maybe re-think what a "break" is (folding laundry and listening to podcasts?). 2) Make a schedule plan that you can actually follow. Maybe unders...

This week, I thought about what I wanted my college students to hear at this time of the semester (about a month left until summer) and it is this: move your body! I talk about 3 tips to get you started moving your body and to remove barriers to exercising every day. 1) Lower the bar to starting as much as possible- just aim for 5 or 15 or even 2 minutes a day if that is all you have, and remember...

In this week's episode, I talk about the best way I've ever learned to start a difficult project (writing an academic paper for example), pick up a habit I've been wanting to start (like weightlifting), or just get an annoying daily task done (think laundry or checking the mail). It's to "lower the bar." Also called "just open the document" by Dr. Cathy Mazak, t...

In this week's episode, for the first time since week 8, I touch on mindfulness again and being in the moment. I talk about focusing on being in the moment for good things, bringing calm and giving time to our kids (or pets, or friends, or to watching the trees and the flowers and the rain or whatever is going on in the physical world around you). I talk about trying to find just a few moments...

In this follow-up episode to my episode #50 from 5 years ago, I discuss the necessity of slowing down from time to time. This week, I was forced to slow down, because as I've said many times on this podcast, since I didn't slow myself down, my body did for me- by getting me sick! I give examples from media, including Parks and Rec (a TV show from the early 2000's) and Kiki's Delive...

In this week's episode, I talk about 2 ways that we deal with our emotions (from Brene Brown's work): 1) processing and 2) perseverating. Basically, processing is when we acknowledge and address our emotions constructively, either by working to resolve an issue or accepting something that has happened to us. Perseverating is when we find ourselves in what I like to call a "feelings lo...

In this week's episode, I talk about my adventures in weightlifting in 2026! I explain why I decided to start weightlifting (to alleviate some neck and shoulder pain and stop taking so much Advil each week- it worked!) and how (lots of YouTube videos and Googling and starting out SLOWLY which for me was just 1 rep of 10 with 5 pound weights). I also mention Peter Attia's book, Outlive: The...

In this week's episode, I talk a bit about my own history with anger, as a half-Italian whose family of origin is somewhat quick to anger. I talk about how during the pandemic I started meditating to yell at my kids less but then found myself not getting "good and angry" when things happened that actually required me to be angry. I talk about being angry at the appropriate level-that...

In this week's episode, I talk about the difference between being happy in your life (experiencing positive emotions on a daily basis) and being happy with your life (a more general sense of life satisfaction, fulfillment and purpose). I give examples of each and talk about how it is best to try to balance the two. Action item: my action item depended on if you are working on happiness in your...

In this week's episode, I talk about what a "touch tree" is, a concept that I learned from the author Glennon Doyle, and I give some examples of touch trees for me in my life. Action item: find something that is a touch tree for you and find a way to remind yourself to go back to this thing each day or as often as you need (post-it note on your laptop that says "Breathe" ma...

In this week's episode, I talk about a book I'm almost finished reading by Susan Cain (author of Quiet) called "Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make us Whole." For me, the thesis of this book is that sadness and "negative" emotions are not bad/to be avoided and can actually make our lives more meaningful and better. I talk about some ways our "negative" em...

This week's episode is short and sweet, inspired by one of my children when he was 2 years old saying "it's OK to be different, and, I promise, it's OK to be different" when "reading" a book to me one day. I talk about how important it is to just love what you love and don't let anyone tell you that it's not OK. Action item: just keep going out in the world...

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&#...