Health & wellbeing
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Strength and temptation
“Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands — and then eat just one of the pieces.” ~Judith Viorst, author In any endeavor, success depends on discipline — otherwise defined as inner strength, as today’s quote suggests. If you want to build muscle, you must stick with your daily exercise plan. If you want to get published, you have to keep writing and submitting your work. If you want to kick a bad habit, you must be diligent about changing your routine. Personal discipline is hard. Temptation is everywhere. Oh, how easy it is to give up or get lazy — to…
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Can we be alone without social media?
“Changing social media is not enough. We need to change ourselves. Facebook knows how to keep us glued to our phones; now we need to learn how to be comfortable with solitude. If we can’t find meaning within ourselves, we are more likely to turn to Facebook’s siloed worlds to bolster our fragile sense of self.” ~Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT Earlier this week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared that age 13 is too young for children to be using social media platforms. “Based on the data I’ve seen, I believe that 13 is too early.…The skewed and often distorted environment of…
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Back in the flow
“It can be tempting to prolong certain agonies. There’s the sympathy vote to start with, and if you haven’t felt well or you’ve been through a difficult period, you certainly can’t be expected to work full days or do your own laundry. But bouncing back as soon as you’re able means getting back into the stream of life. This is where the opportunity is.” ~Victoria Moran We all have different ways of coping. During periods of grief or illness, I tend to nurse my deepest wounds by myself. When I’m really down, I decline activities or events that usually spark joy for me — because I hate to dump my…
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Dry January
“Like a garden, you can choose to either let yourself wither and struggle to find your own light, or you can learn how to give yourself the light you need so that all your colors shine brightly, beautifully, and more boldly.” ~Jennifer Ashton, M.D., M.S., The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier & Fitter — One Month at a Time As Chief Medical Correspondent for ABC News, Dr. Jennifer Ashton knows a thing or two about health and wellbeing. So, when I saw her Self-Care Solution at the bookstore late last year, I didn’t hesitate to purchase it. I’d already promised to make some serious changes in 2023…
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Time management
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’ is like saying ‘I don’t want to do it.'” ~Cheryl Richardson There are many things I don’t do because I don’t have time for them. For instance, I’ve put off scheduling certain medical tests and reading all those epic novels that appear on lists of great books that I “should” read. But when I slow down and get honest with myself, I often realize that it’s not a matter of lacking time. I’m usually avoiding something (or putting it off) out of fear, laziness, or sheer disinterest. Truth is, most of us find the time for what we truly…
