mental health

I have been seeing “Small changes for big movement”, “Little steps for great strides” and similar quotes, flood my social media these days. 

I gotta tell you, I am loving it! 

I have carried this daily mantra for years. I initially picked up the phrase, “small things often” from the Gottmans in regards to relationships and it has changed the way I approach my life. 

I imagine the next big thing you will start seeing is talk about our limbic brain and the powerful presence it plays in our li…

 What do airports and viruses have to do with becoming a parent?

Remember how exciting it used to be to go pick up a friend or loved one at the airport?  

You used to be able to walk right up to their gate, watch their plane land through the window, and surprise them with a great big hug the moment they emerged from the jetway.

Remember how easy it used to be to fly somewhere?  

You used to be able to pack whatever toiletries you wanted into your carry-on, without thinking abou…

 Here’s something funny that both new motherhood and a pandemic have in common: It’s easy to lose track of what day it is. 

For most of us, we don’t have those usual time markers. No Friday evening happy hours after work. No school buses making their usual stops on our street. Nowhere to rush to. Weekly grocery shopping trips are now done with the click of a button at home instead of a pleasant Sunday outing.  

In spite of all the changes, there’s still plenty to do. Dishes and laundry m…

Earlier this summer, I had to make a really hard decision. I decided to let go of my Happy With Baby office space.

I stewed over this idea for so long. It consumed my thoughts for a long time. It might seem silly, but for me, it was really emotional. I loved my office. It was a result of a lot of hard work in building my business first. I wasn’t always in this office space. I had a few different office spaces before this one and upgraded gradually over time. You know, if you do it right, you st…

Sheltering in place during a pandemic weirdly has a lot in common with having a new baby at home.  

OK, generally, I don’t encourage comparing one person’s struggle to another, but I have to admit that there are a lot of common themes that seem to be coming up for people lately. 

The new moms I’ve worked with over the course of my career often say that they’re tired all the time, that new motherhood is lonely and isolating, that they’re ashamed to admit they’re bored at times, that all the day…

Right now, the present moment is so challenging for so many of us.  

Some of us are adjusting to new parenthood during a pandemic without the support people we were banking on to help. As if new parenthood wasn’t isolating and difficult enough. It is exhausting and bittersweet (if not straight up heartbreaking) work.

Some of us feel like this pandemic has put our relationships with our partners in a pressure cooker. As if our culture doesn’t already encourage us to expect our partners to be ev…

I had been planning on writing a blog post on grief for you for many months. Long before the Coronavirus was a word on the tip of everyone’s tongues. It was a post about the grief that comes along with motherhood.  

(I asked around and moms were all too eager to share what they missed most, from missing their pre-baby bodies, their friends, their freedom, the simplicity and spontaneity they used to have in their lives, the uninterrupted conversations they used to have with their partners, to tr…

These are unprecedented times, friends. (So unprecedented that I’m getting sick of the word!) So, if you’re feeling anxious, stressed, unsure, lonely or scared right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic….it’s completely justified.  

I want to support you through this, so as a start, I’ve compiled a list of resources and options to help you stay sane and manage it all. This is a long post, so hang in there. I promise it’s very skimmable and most suggestions are free and available to everyone.  

You…

I just learned that today, January 17th, is National Ditch Your Resolution Day. Did you know that was even a thing? I sure didn’t.

I mean, we all know that basically, every gym is going to be crowded in January and empty by March. We know that less than half of people who make resolutions don’t accomplish them by the end of the year.  In fact, according to U.S. News, 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by the second week of February!  

But still. The thought that there is a national holiday…

Everybody knows the holidays aren’t really about all the errands, all the stuff, or all the money spent. And yet, we find ourselves in this spot every year, battling holiday burnout with the connection we really crave.

This time of year can be hard for many of us, particularly those feeling the loss of a loved one, new parents who are too busy or sleep-deprived to have much of a social life (or because their friends have stopped checking in), some might even feel lonely in their own marriage.

Have you ever tried to start a gratitude jar with your family or a gratitude journaling habit that just didn’t stick?

It seems like everywhere you look, there’s an article or book all about the benefits of gratitude and how and why you should start up a gratitude practice. Trying to get through the stress of the holidays? Practice gratitude. Want to improve your health? Pr…

I’d never taken myself for one to suffer from anxiety. It was only in looking back at events in my life that I can now see what was actually going on.

Turns out, there has been a pretty consistent trend in my life: At every major transitional corner I’ve turned--every stressful point in my life--I’ve always gotten sick. I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill cold and flu kind of thing. I’m talking SICK sick. 

When I was in high school, I missed weeks of school due to severe illness. …