moods, mental health + self care

In the summer with the sun setting later, many people tend to stay up later and enjoy the warm evenings. Kids most likely do not have early-morning commitments like they do during the school year, so they are able to accommodate this later bedtime by sleeping in late the next day. However, when summer fades…

I am a 22-year old college senior, barely out of my teens, reading articles about the decline of mental health in adolescents. I barely felt equipped to deal with my mental health in college, even with the emotional tools of someone in their 20s. I hear adults, from young to old, talk about their youth…

Sleep is most definitely not for the weak. Instead, we should be saying sleep is for the strong! Teenagers should get 8-10 hours of sleep per night, and this is a rule that should definitely be followed. As children enter adolescence, their circadian rhythm shifts. Circadian rhythm is the body’s natural clock that controls when…

So many of us feel pressure to be perfect. Sometimes it comes from adults in our lives, sometimes it comes from inside ourselves, and sometimes it comes from comparing ourselves to our friends. Perfection is literally impossible because we are human beings and the thing that is common to all human beings is that we make…

We know, we know. Every person over the age of 35 is busy telling us to get off our phones! They say that we spend too much time on our phones, that we’re rotting our brains, and that our phones make us dumber. These folks don’t seem to realize that phones help many people feel…

Comparing ourselves to our friends or to people we see on social media can sometimes make us feel badly. We worry that everyone else is prettier, thinner, or smarter than we are. We believe that they are better athletes, more popular and have happier families than we do. We feel like everyone else is having…

Here are some tips for using social media and chatting online to uplift yourself and others, in addition to engaging in safe practices: Image by Cottonbro 

We want to make ourselves feel better, but sometimes the idea of that seems overwhelming, especially when we aren’t in the best mood already. What are some ways for us to take care of ourselves emotionally?  Here’s a quick and easy list to check in on how well we’re taking care of ourselves and where…

Journaling about your feelings or even about events happening in your daily life can help reduce stress and calm an overthinking mind. Putting emotions and thoughts into words can make life feel a little more manageable, and writing can be a helpful practice even when you don’t feel sad, angry, or upset. It doesn’t have…

Almost everyone needs more sleep than they realize… and than they get! For tweens and teens, most need between 8 – 10 hours per night. Why? It turns out, teens with low stress levels are more likely to say that they get enough sleep or have high quality sleep. Teens with high stress levels are…

Whether we’re eating at a restaurant, at home, at a friends house, or while traveling, it is important to keep in mind healthy eating habits that will keep us feeling happy and well. Here are some facts about healthy eating that might surprise you: All foods can fit into a balanced diet and you don’t need…

There’s no “right way” to meditate. But however you do it, meditation can help calm you down, during and after. Some people meditate while sitting still, others on a walk; some spend three minutes, others an hour. Do whatever works! You don’t have to be alone on a mountaintop in a far off country in…

We hear the words stress and anxiety all the time in our lives: blasted on social and traditional media, and uttered by our friends and our families, too. While they are often used interchangeably, stress and anxiety are not the same thing.  Stress is a psychological response to something external, like a big test coming up or…

Everyone feels sad sometimes, and that’s okay. Most people describe sadness as feeling empty. We have all lived it – it’s so common, in fact, that it can be hard to describe in words. But the let down that is often paired with a punch-in-the-gut sensation or tears (or both) is universally human. When we…

A guide to the common signs of depression and what to do if you are grappling with it: With depression, feelings of lingering sadness or emptiness are compounded by physical symptoms. This can go in a downward direction – like low energy, low appetite, or low motivation – or depression can manifest as doing moreof something, too, like…

A guide to your emotions… Sadness is a reaction to a particular circumstance or experience that causes pain or upset – how you might feel when a family member passes away or when you end a romance. It’s a temporary emotion which will go away over time. Depression is a deeper, longer-lasting form of sadness….

There are lots of coping strategies for stress and anxiety. That said, it can be very hard to remember these in the heat of a stressful moment. In fact, it can feel annoying or overwhelming or even frustrating to hear advice about how to cope right in the middle of an already stressful moment. That’s why planning…

Anything that moves the body can help with stress and anxiety. Sports, workouts, walks, yoga, dance-a-thons, running games, jumping rope… the list goes on and on. Moving – especially when the heart rate goes up and there’s some sweat involved – is provento help with stress, anxiety and depression. If you don’t believe us just ask…

Have you ever heard the adults in your life say that you have “raging hormones” right now – beyond annoying, what does that even mean? Well, it’s a reference to the hormones that were responsible for your body’s transformation through puberty, the very same hormones that often get blamed when we’re feeling frustrated, angry, sad,…

Hormones are natural chemicals produced by the small glands scattered around your body, but they travel to other organs to do their job. Humans make lots of different hormones, including thyroid hormone (produced in the thyroid gland in your neck) which helps take charge of metabolism, and growth hormone (produced in the pituitary gland in…