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Self-care & risk-taking: tea with Jennifer Louden
Self-Care
When I was about to release the first edition of The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal: How to Reclaim Rejuvenate and Re-Balance Your Life in 2005, I reached out to a few wise voices for an endorsement. Jennifer Louden was at the top of my…
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6 ways to find comfort in uncertain times
Self-Care
Last week I had a brush with someone I’ve known a long time who acted uncharacteristically rude and unkind. While their behavior was immature and irrational, rather than rise up to counter him, I just walked away and let it be. This…
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Men need self-care, too
Self-Care
This past Sunday afternoon everyone in our family had competing desires: my son wanted to have a friend over, I wanted to get a massage and my husband wanted to play at a house concert with his band. We juggled and all ended up getting our…
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Self-care is a journey, not a destination
Self-Care
This past weekend my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. We got married 16 years ago, thirty days after my healthy 60 year-old mother died suddenly from the flu. My father had died four years earlier at age 56 from a heart…
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7 ways to stay connected to your partner
Self-Care
Everywhere I turn my friends are navigating choppy waters in their most intimate relationships. This makes my heart hurt, but I can relate. Lately, my husband and I have been feeling out of sync and stressed out from parenting our wonderful,…
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Things to do when life feels hard
Self-Care
I was visiting with a dear friend this past weekend who shared she’s battling depression. “It comes and it goes. But when it returns, I often freeze and forget what helps me most; all my great self-care practices fly right out the window,”…
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9 ways to reclaim our humanness
Self-Care
The other morning my husband and I were milling around in the kitchen making breakfast and lunches and preparing for school and work. We looked up and saw our 13 year-old on his computer. My husband took a peek as he walked behind my son’s…
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5 tips for choosing a therapist
Self-Care
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. Carl Jung
In the past month I probably received at least ten requests from friends asking for referrals for great therapists.
Whenever these calls come in, I try and get my friends…
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Self-care is not self-improvement
Self-Care
I was lying in bed Sunday morning reading from author Anne Lamott's beautiful little book Small Victories. In one of her stories about parenting, she shares with a little self-deprecation, but mostly tenderness, how she doesn't bake for…
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7 good reasons to ask for help
Life & Career Coaching, Self-Care
I'm preparing to launch a new nonprofit organization in Austin this week focused on supporting parents of teens; the underlying premise: community is medicine. I have many motivations for starting this initiative, but ultimately I have…
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Are you ready to FEEL GOOD?!
Self-Care
A couple weeks ago I came down with a violent 48 hour stomach bug. After my illness, as I slowly regained my strength, I continued to feel "off" for days afterwards. My mood and energy level were low, my joints felt stiff and I had lost…
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What is uniquely yours to do?
Self-Care, Women's Retreats
“I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do,…