As your life becomes more stressful and busy, decompressing, de-stressing and relaxing can also become a bit more challenging. When dealing with that kind of stress, taking a nap isn’t always enough. To me, at least, relaxing that actually brings in ease and calmness was something I had to learn. My self-care rituals for stressful days don’t always involve simple things like taking a bath or curling up with a book. When I experience high levels of stress, my mind is often all over the place and no amount of trashy TV or dark chocolate can slow it down or tune it out. The first step to learning how to bring in that ease and sense of calmness during those tough days is teaching yourself to embrace a passive attitude of sorts. You need to learn how to “turn off” and focus on your body; your breathing, those tense muscles, the thoughts and all the different scenarios racing through your mind. 7 SELF-CARE RITUALS FOR STRESSFUL DAYS RE-EVALUATING YOUR PRIORITIES Even though it might not seem like it, this is a huge part of self-care and, pretty much, the whole idea behind it. Are you paying attention to the right […]

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Wouldn’t it be amazing if keeping your vibes high and positive was always easy? The truth is, sometimes even something really small can ruin your day. Like someone else making a stupid comment, something not going the way you hoped. A lot of those things might seem insignificant… but they’re just enough to throw off your positive vibes. So… how do you deal with it? How do you de-stress, unwind after a bad day, and turn a bad day into a good one? Well, first thing’s first… you have to protect your energy. If that doesn’t work, then you need to allow yourself to unwind, relax, and de-stress. HOW TO UNWIND AFTER A BAD DAY TURN OFF YOUR PHONE We all have become so dependent on technology. When you aren’t having the best day, constantly checking your phone, especially when it comes to social media- can frustrate you even further (because let’s face it, we all sometimes play the “comparison” game and when you’re sitting in your kitchen, crying because you had a crappy day, you don’t need to see someone else having a blast in Belize, sipping on mimosas). Disconnecting once a while can do wonders. Had a bad day? […]

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How often do you allow things, situations or people “get” to you? I had one of the most frustrating phonecalls a few days ago and ALMOST allowed it to ruin my entire day. You know, in the recent months, I’ve probably seen more doctors than I have in my lifetime. Some I liked, some I loved, and others not so much… There was one, whom from the moment he entered the room, I knew I didn’t like. A bad vibe, horrible bedside manner, dismissive attitude- call it what you want. I just knew it wasn’t going to work. Obviously, that one visit to his office was the only one for me, since it left me feeling upset for days. I had to call his office a few days ago and the person who answered the phone was probably one of the rudest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to deal with- and trust me, having done work in criminal law in the past, I’ve heard it all. I could not get a word in, had to keep asking “can you please let me finish?” and couldn’t even explain the reason for my call. I spent 2 minutes on the phone […]

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Okay… so I secretly despise the word “balance.” I mean, what does that even mean, to have “balance” in your life? It’s one of those buzzwords that we love to throw around, pretending we all have (or want to have) our shit together, 24/7. No. We (well… at least, most of us) don’t have our shit together, all the time. Things go wrong, we get angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, lost, things come up… and we often just feel this need to have everything figured out. You see someone else juggling work, family, school, home life, whatever, in this seemingly effortless fashion and you start feeling inadequate. That secret formula which you can use to make everything work out smoothly? Well, it just doesn’t exist. Yes, there are tools that help you stay organized, calm, less-stressed, more peaceful, but the truth is, you sometimes just can’t help but feel… like you need to quiet your mind a little. Don’t you sometimes wish, that you could stop listening to your brain? I mean, just for a little bit. Like on those days when you get in your bed at the end of the day, and instead of unwinding you keep re-living your day, you worry about […]

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As much as you’d like it to be, the world isn’t this calm, perfect, fairy-tale place. Discomfort, loss of control, change, pain, overwhelm; these are some of the things I’ve been dealing with this past year. First, I lost one of the closest people in my life, right before Christmas. Then, I went through my treatment that took quite a physical toll on my body and then finally, in June, I was rear-ended and just recently found out that I will probably end up with a permanent injury that can potentially leave me living with chronic pain. If I were to use one word in which to describe the way I’ve been feeling these last few months, it’d be “tired.” I was so tired. Man, was I tired. I’ll be honest here. I don’t even feel like the same person anymore. While usually I love being organized, active, having everything under control, I felt like everything was falling apart. Like the control I’ve had over my life was slowly slipping away. I had so many things planned for this year, none of which I was able to cross off my list. There was a short time when I’d ask myself […]

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