Stress is awesome (in moderation)
“Wasn’t that awesome?!” our team captain came bounding into the locker room.
Painful. Intense. Exhausting, sure. But, awesome?
Coach had run us so hard I thought I’d puke. I was dying! And I was freaking out a little that my lungs and legs were burning SO bad.
She loved to push herself. She had a much more positive view of physical stress than I did. She knew stress wasn’t always bad or toxic. She had a healthy stress mindset. I had yet to develop that.
transitions
The first time the word transitions caught my notice, I was a recent college grad, teaching on a Caribbean Island. I was on the adventure of a lifetime!
On this particular day, maybe three weeks into my grand adventure, I felt deflated.
Swamped. Out of my depth. Sad. Overwhelmed.
Until I read an article that changed my perspective. Suddenly my overwhelm was no longer a sign of weakness. It felt… legit. Reasonable, even.
Transitions always involve an ending
It was my first Thanksgiving home in years. When we went around the table naming what we were thankful for, I faltered.
I did have much to be thankful for, yet other feelings preoccupied me. I felt adrift, disoriented, misunderstood and a bit disappointing. And I couldn’t quite grasp why.
I’d been so excited to come home. And yet, I didn’t feel at home at all. This was the place where I used to belong and was used to belonging, but I no longer fit.
What an exec learned when he no longer had the luxury of time
Children spell love TIME, they say. However, consider 1. the quality of your “quality time” will tank if you are driven by guilt or fear of time running out. …4. these words from a dying man.
Still hoping your to-do list will make you a super Mom?
If it’s on the to-do list, it’s important. Maybe? Maybe not? This is just one of the bad assumptions I’ve made about my to-do list. No wonder they aren’t working well for me.
What makes motherhood so hard? The problem of “ideal parenting”
Parents feel pressure to do parenting right—from sleep to food to screen time. When the ideal approach is presented as the only option, it feels like anything less is bad parenting. Emily Oster argues that second bests exist and some are better and safer than others. Knowing this enables us make better decisions and feel less stress as parents. Let’s stop making parenting harder than it needs to be and discover the power of second bests.
Is travel with kids worth it? 7 lasting benefits of family travel
You might be reluctant to travel with young children, I get it. No one wants to be holding a screaming baby on an airplane. But before the naysayers convince you to retire your travel plans until you’re an empty nester, take a moment to consider the benefits of family travel.
Let’s start in a taxi. We’ve just landed in Hong Kong.
What bamboo can teach us about adjusting to motherhood
and how that can help us better understand the transition from career to motherhood
how using my calendar differently is making our afternoons less frantic
Being late is the worst, but getting everyone where they need to be ontime can be a struggle. After too many frantic afternoons, I’ve changed how I use my calendar app. It is helping us stay more sane and get to the soccer field on time!
What are you carrying? Our unrealistic expectations about ourselves as mothers.
We hold onto things, don’t we? Not just clothes, but roles, identities, expectations, labels. They’re familiar and they’re ours. So, we keep carrying them.
But some of those things are just weighing us down. They no longer fit our lives and they are HEAVY. It’s time to unpack. Motherhood doesn’t need to be this hard.
How to read more often even if you have lots of kids and no time
Reading legit decreases stress levels. Solo parenting 5 kids, I REALLY need that. Also, I have no time. So, I need to make the most of every fleeting, quiet moment. These 10 strategies will help you read more often, too.
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