Handling The Hard Stuff

Tag: Self-Care

  • Your Inner Voice

    My inner voice can be super mean. The older I get the better I am at shutting it up, but there are still plenty of times when my inner voice tells me I’m useless and unlovable and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s hard to fight yourself. It’s hard to remember that that…

  • Perspective

    It’s hard to get a sense of progress when we’re just trying to hang on day to day. Taking a step back and analyzing our lives is virtually impossible when we’re in the throes of it. I like to take a single data point and compare where things are every year on that day. For…

  • Living with Pain

    Trauma and loss and regret can be so all-consuming. Often times those uncontrollable feelings come up out of nowhere. You think you have a handle on your pain and emotions and all of a sudden you’re ugly crying in the middle of a store because you see a shirt that brings back a memory. You’re…

  • Coping Mechanisms

    This is a time of year that is challenging for a lot of people with family difficulties or relationships that are ending. We self-heal in all kinds of ways. Other people may not understand why you’re doing what you’re doing and they may have a LOT of problems with your methods. Your coping mechanisms may…

  • Strike While The Iron Is Hot

    We don’t always have motivation to do things. Energy fluctuates, interest levels fluctuate, time and availability fluctuates. I have spent my life being a champion procrastinator. But lately I’ve been able to make small inroads on that front. I’ve found myself with more energy than usual lately – I don’t know if it’s vitamins or…

  • Take the Wins

    Do you ever find yourself in a situation where someone compliments you and you minimize or deflect it? I remember when I graduated from law school my aunt, a woman who had gone to business school at night while fighting breast cancer and raising two children under the age of five alone after divorcing an…

  • The Value of Placeholders

    Everything in life has a season. We are inundated with social media posts giving us the impression that everyone is living their best lives all the time forever. In reality, we’re all just trying to keep it all together. There is something to be said for temporary “settling” – a placeholder while you focus on…

  • You Deserve Respect

    I read a quote recently that just hit me hard. “Stop trying to prove you love someone by how much you can endure.” Oof. That resonated way too much with me. Moreso in my younger days, but even sometimes now, I have spent a lot of my life putting on a happy face and being…

  • Incremental Steps

    I get overwhelmed by a lot of “major life change” plans. And I get distracted and forget that I’m making “major life changes” a lot. This has happened with diets and exercise plans and investing strategies and a bunch of other things that I plan to change forever and just wind up going back to…

  • Be Curious

    You don’t stumble on passion. It’s not like a meet-cute and you just pick up a paintbrush and poof you’re a painter. You have to try things. You have to expand your horizons. You have to learn what you like and don’t like. Trying things as an adult is haaaard. A lot of us decided…