Managing Stress and Grief During Holidays Experiencing stress and grief during the holidays can be difficult to navigate. Coping with these feelings involves reducing stressful situations, setting realistic expectations, honoring a loved one you’ve lost, practicing self-care, and knowing when to ask for help. Holiday Stress Tips To avoid holiday stress, prioritize your well-being by maintaining healthy habits like getting
Practicing Patience It’s often challenging to be patient due to a combination of factors, including our desires for immediate gratification, a culture that emphasizes fast-paced living, and the impact of stress and worry. Our expectations of quick results, coupled with the speed of technology and the constant connectivity it enables, can lead to increased impatience. Practicing patience involves developing the
Understanding and Managing Anger What Causes Anger? The question of why some shrug off annoyances and warranted frustrations and others can’t is not clear-cut. Anger is a fundamental human emotion tied to survival and is part of our nervous system’s “fight, flight, or freeze” response. Often these feelings arise when we are having difficulty with control which means increased anger
COVID-19 and the Holidays Under normal circumstances the holiday season can be a tricky time to maintain physical and mental health. With COVID-19 keeping many people indoors and isolated, there are even more barriers to wellness. Celebrating virtually or with members of your own household poses the lowest risk for spread, however, many are finding it especially taxing to make
Talking about Discrimination and Making a Change Starting a conversation about racism is not easy, it can be uncomfortable and emotional. If you have the opportunity, plan ahead before engaging in conversation. With the current state of civil unrest, specifically regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement, it is important to have these conversations now more than ever. Acknowledge people maybe
Balancing Home and Work During the Pandemic As the world moves towards reopening, outings remain limited and most of our time will still be spent at home. Between sharing space and dealing with stress for long periods of time, tensions at home may be running high. Parents are looking for means to balance competing needs and encourage their family to
How to Talk to Children About COVID-19 Currently, reports of COVID-19 have saturated all forms of media. From social media to news sources on websites and television, the coverage of the pandemic evolves as the days progress. The impacts of the current situation have led to school and childcare closures, quarantines, and bare shelves in grocery stores. For children, this
Social Apps: Keep Connected While in Quarantine COVID-19 has people across the globe social distancing or quarantined in their own homes. With in-person social interaction limited, many keep connected with programs on their mobile phones, iPads, tablets, as well as computers. This technology is new to some people who find themselves in quarantine. Below are descriptions of just a few common social apps you may want to consider using: Skype is a program that you can use on your
Staying Safe During COVID-19 Avoiding public spaces and working remotely can help to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but for many survivors, staying home may not be the safest option. We know that any external factors that add stress and financial strain can negatively impact survivors and create circumstances where their safety is further compromised. In a time where companies
Buffering Effects of Cyberbullying Cyberbullying has been blamed for depression, anxiety, suicidal thinking, and tragically, suicide itself among youth. The social platform most commonly associated with cyberbullying is Instagram. Research shows that the more socially connected young teens are to their parents and the more they engage in school/ community events, the more resilient and resistant to the effects of