When you think of wellness, maybe your mind forms an instant picture. You’re on the beach, taking in the crashing waves and salty breeze with a pair of sliced cucumbers cooling your eyes. Beside you is a frosty, tropical drink, sweating in the sunshine. Maybe you’re even meditating. Free of cares. Healthy.  Happy. Optimistic. Unhurried. But almost as instantly as the image arrives, it dissolves, taken over by reality. A sink overflowing with dishes. Toys strewn around the hou

Finding clarity (and wellness) through writing, with words or pictures.

Keeping a journal or committing to a free writing practice can be a soothing—even meditative—activity that helps to bring clarity, alleviate stress, boost mood, hone focus, and improve overall wellness—at any age (even if the “writing” begins, for our youngest writers, as drawing pictures). But what if your chosen writing tool is also equipped with powerful distraction capabilities? How can you develop a healthy writing practice without getting sucked into distractions (and b

If your family is embarking on a journey to improve overall wellness, first aid is a fantastic place to start. If you read Is Your Family’s First Aid Kit Ready ? , you know how empowering it is to learn first aid and to be prepared. Learning about first aid and preparing a kit is such a hands-on process that it also sends a clear message: We’re doing something new here. We’re getting serious about taking care of ourselves and each other. My Favorite Medical Handbooks It’s alw

A few weeks ago, my husband asked me if I had a tissue. “Sure,” I said. Of course I had a tissue. I had a backpack full of useful stuff, right? I dug through my bag, rummaging for a tissue underneath discarded grocery lists, schedules, and reminders. Past about twelve pens. Beyond my wallet, a few random toys, crumpled wrappers, receipts, a couple small books, and a collection of brochures we’d picked up over the past several months. Not a tissue in sight. But aha! There was

Finding stillness , as anyone trying knows (especially during the month of December), is an active process. It’s far easier to be still in your mind, for example, while your body is racing around than it is to be still in your body while your mind is racing. So what can we do besides run around searching, searching, endlessly searching for quiet and peace and stillness? Instead of putting all of our effort into attempting to block the noise out , we can invite the quiet in .

My favorite childhood Christmas memory is one I can pull up from my mind as easily as a photo stored on my phone. I don’t even have to try, actually, because it’s the first image that pops into my mind when I think about the Christmas season. I remember a teenage me, complete with braces, braided pigtails, and flannel pajamas, baking Christmas cookies in the kitchen with my mom late into the night on Christmas Eve. After everyone else had already gone to bed, the two of us st