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Is this actually helping me feel better?
When I get anxious, I tend to run away from it by surfing Facebook on my phone. I feel uncomfortable and nervous and Facebook is something very easy and mindless. My mind sees it as an escape — a pressure release valve. I always picture Facebook as fun posts about my friends, like a fun little mini-vacation into the world of grown-ups. The thing is when I’m done, I often feel worse than I felt before. You never know what kind of content you’re going to get with Facebook, but there’s usually a lively debate or scary news feature that’s making the rounds. It can leave me feeling like I…
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A Model of the Creative Life
When I started running a few years ago, I did it for myself, but it has had a side benefit of making my kids interested in trying fitness too. They see me go for a run or a bike ride and they want to come too. They are all under 10 years old and three out of four have already run a 5k race, which wasn’t something I could do when I was younger. My youngest daughter wanted her own set of hand weights because she likes to do yoga and strength work on the mat with me. You often hear about how it’s important to model healthy eating and…
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Sleep is the best medicine
Sometimes when I am having trouble with my attitude or life in general, I realize I am struggling with the basics. It could be hunger, which is easy to fix, but often the simplest answer is deep down tiredness. If I haven’t slept well the night before, I will feel it the next day. With four young kids, often we have some issue during the night that causes broken sleep. Another key issue for me is bedtime. When evening rolls around, I want to stay up reading or surfing my phone. Sometimes the evening is the only time Andy and I can have an uninterrupted grown-up conversation. All these things…