Alcohol: Health Benefit or Health Risk? Tara Gidus Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, ACSM-CPT I just want to start out by saying “Don’t shoot the messenger!” I always present topics based on research consensus done to date. The topic of alcohol can be quite charged for people. Those who enjoy drinking may tout the potential health benefits of alcohol, while nondrinkers or people who have experienced some loss due to alcohol may be more in-tune with the health or safety risks. I enjoy a drink occasionally myself, but I will admit that after reading more and more research on the potential risk I ha ..read more

10 Tips to Carry Yourself with Confidence Kelly Sayre, The Diamond Arrow Group I’m willing to bet that you’ve heard about the importance of first impressions. Whether it be walking into the job interview, meeting a prospective client, or giving a presentation to a group of people (even virtually!). How you walk into the room, make eye contact, the tone of your voice, and how well you listen, can all have a huge impact on creating a positive first impression. When you have self-confidence, the vibe you give off makes people feel at ease because they believe you know what you are doing. No on ..read more

Being Selfless Begins with Self-Care By Paula Meyer To serve others and yourself in harmony, you must give from an overflowing well of energy and love. Our bodies are tuning forks to the subconscious. If we listen, we will hear what we need to focus on and receive insights into our past and present. Pain in the body indicates a need to look at that area and explore what thoughts and beliefs contribute to that pain. Ignoring these cues allows them to seat deeper within our bodies, which leads to illness. Becoming aware of underlying issues allows us to take action. Unfortunately, many times ..read more

Three Healing Benefits I Found Using Art to Travel with Grief By Dr. Linda Shanti McCabe 1. If you get the bad feelings out, the good feelings can come in. This is what they used to say at my son’s preschool. Obviously, as a psychologist, I am going to say there are no bad feelings. But let’s be real: grief has a lot of bad feelings: anger, sadness, despair, numbness, loneliness, to name a few. If you don’t get those feelings out, they can destroy you inside. Depression is anger turned inward. And when regret, anger, and sadness are left to fester, they turn to bitter resentment. As one of ..read more

Me, Myself, and I by Paula Renninger The alarm bursts through the silence to tell me to get up and start another day. I was not asleep anyway. I do not want to start another day. But, I hear the cat meow for breakfast, feel the dog jump off the bed, and know the kids will need breakfast. Once again, I drag myself out of bed and mindlessly dress myself for another day of the lonely grind. I gently awaken my children and encourage them to get ready for school. Through groans and grunts they stumble around getting dressed, brushing their teeth and whining that they do not want pancakes for bre ..read more

Giving Yourself Permission to Take Care of Yourself by Melissa Pierce I could talk about self-care for days — it’s a topic near and dear to my heart and it’s a practice that moved me through the darkest parts of my grief. It got me to a place where I eventually had hope for the future. It’s been 10 years since Dave’s sudden death and sometimes I am brought right back to that time of shock, sadness, and loneliness. That time of barely hanging on until I hit rock bottom and I knew in my gut that I had to start taking better care of myself so that I could take care of my sons. Here’s what my p ..read more

Internal Self Care by Cyndi Williams, MSW, LCSW This month we are focusing on self care, and we started off with a challenge to add just one new habit to your routine for the month of September. If you’re like me, you’ve probably missed a day or two. I am focusing on drinking more water and I cannot understand why this is such a challenge, but it is! If you have taken on the challenge, I am so proud of you! Often we focus more on the outer or body-focused self care, such as getting our nails done, making time for a massage, or getting some exercise, and that is wonderful — but I want to inv ..read more

The Art of Self-Care by Paula Harris We hear the phrase “self-care” tossed around a lot in everyday conversation, but what does it really mean? For some, the phrase probably conjures up images of massages and pedicures. For others, maybe it reminds them of their weekly yoga class or a nightly meditation session before bed. For others still, perhaps it means balancing their checkbook or organizing their file cabinet. The truth is, there is no one set image of what self-care looks like — it’s different for each individual. First, it’s important to clarify what self-care is not. It is not inst ..read more

Prevention is Key Tara Gidus Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, ACSM-CPT We have all experienced the loss of our beloved spouses. Some losses came from a short or long illness, and some from a tragic accident, so we all know too well that good health and keeping ourselves safe is critical. As a health practitioner, I join the chorus of others who preach the word of prevention. I lost my husband to Stage 4 stomach cancer. While we do know some things that help reduce the risk of cancer, everyday people who are seemingly the picture of health can succumb to the horrible disease. While Stephen was in ..read more

Secondary Losses in Grief By Lisa Woodburn When we encounter grief and loss we primarily hear of the main loss — the person who died. What we don’t often hear about are the secondary losses. I didn’t even know what that meant until I experienced it. Secondary losses are the people and things we lose after our spouse dies or situations you have to deal with related to the death. These include co-workers of our spouse, or a business you owned together, friends that were more his than yours, his family, children, people you shared hobbies or activities with, neighbors, your friends, your cowor ..read more