Combating Climate Anxiety by ENGAGING

Combating Climate Anxiety by ENGAGING

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got the climate on my mind. The dreadful climatic news swirls around me left and right. I don’t know what to do. The more I investigate it, the more afraid I get. As such, I often feel stuck or paralyzed about what I should or even could do. Should I walk to school instead of taking a car? How do I best conserve water? Did the food I’m eating come from a sustainable farm? We are constantly faced with environmental dilemmas, but we often follow our habits—sustainable or not.

Reshaping Life's Path: How Life’s Challenges Spark Personal Growth

Reshaping Life's Path: How Life’s Challenges Spark Personal Growth

While none of us enjoy setbacks, it’s important to remember that on the journey of life, every challenge is a stepping stone towards personal growth. While facing adversity is never easy, it can significantly transform you, shaping a more resilient, insightful, and compassionate individual. Today, My Best Self 101 explores how the obstacles we encounter can lead to profound personal transformation and ultimately, a richer, more fulfilling life.

Grit: My Experience on a Cattle Farm

Grit: My Experience on a Cattle Farm

As a child growing up on a cattle ranch nestled in the Northeastern Idaho mountains, grit was a physical presence. Grit was the wind blowing dust and debris into my eyes, nose, and mouth. Grit was the ring around my ankles and between my toes when pulling off crusty socks. Grit was sand and dirt in every bite of a sandwich pulled from saddlebags during a long cattle drive. Grit was everywhere, covering everything, as persistent as the smell of fresh manure. It was washed off in freezing mountain streams during hot July summers and again in steaming showers at the end of long, hard days.

Self-Compassion Breeds Confidence

Self-Compassion Breeds Confidence

Why am I like this? My thoughts move at 100 miles per second. I’m dumb, I’m not capable, I’m not beautiful enough. I am too lazy. The people around me seem to have everything together all the time. There is no escaping this anxious, stressful reality. My spiral begins to feel uncontrollable and panic sets in. Suddenly, my husband walks into the room and tells me I am beautiful and hugs me. He tells me about his day and how he missed my smile. My thoughts ease and I am immediately encircled by his warm, intentional embrace. Feelings of love and comfort rush over my body and the crippling feelings are replaced with encouraging ones. I feel capable, beautiful, and heard. Because I received comfort from my sweet husband, I feel capable of offering the same love to myself. I am reminded of my worth. My confidence grows and I see the miracle of the day.

Gratitude Sundae: Building a Life Filled With Sweet Appreciation

Gratitude Sundae: Building a Life Filled With Sweet Appreciation

When I think about gratitude, I imagine it like an ice cream sundae. Hear me out—gratitude is the base scoop of ice cream, the foundation for all the sweet, wonderful toppings life can offer. Without it, the dessert of life feels incomplete. But when you add that scoop of gratitude, everything else—joy, connection, resilience sticks a little better and tastes a whole lot sweeter.

Lessons on Forgiveness: Who Are You Really Hurting?

Lessons on Forgiveness: Who Are You Really Hurting?

My grandma once told me a story, and while she has told me plenty of stories, this is one that I remember often. She said, “When your grandpa and I were first married, we attended an activity for couples. One of the activities was for each of us to write down a list of things we wished we could change about our partner. When they started the timer, my pen started flying across the paper. I probably came up with a good list of 30 things, and I was excited to see what Grandpa had written. When it came time to share, Grandpa flipped his paper over, and on it, he had simply written ‘nothing.’ I was so ashamed of my list of 30. How could he forgive me of all my flaws while I hung onto his?” As I have watched my grandparents’ relationship over the years, my grandpa is still more content in the relationship, and he is quick to love, while my grandma often complains of being trapped.

Creativity and Well-Being: Why Making Art is Good for You

Creativity and Well-Being: Why Making Art is Good for You

Think about the last time you were feeling down or mentally unwell. In that moment, what did you do to make yourself feel better, if anything at all? I remember one of the last times I felt down and a little lost in life; it was during the Covid pandemic, just after we had been told that we could not go back to school and needed to stay home, away from all our friends. I was devastated that my senior year had taken such an unfortunate turn. I was looking forward to my last semester of high school, my one and only prom, and of course my graduation. These events were no longer promised to me, and I my mental well-being was suffering. I remember feeling this way, but instead of throwing myself a pity party, I decided to try and make myself feel better. My youngest sister is an arts and crafts connoisseur so I asked her if she would teach me a craft that I could do with her. We ended up painting with watercolor and making friendship bracelets for several days and these activities made me feel so much better.

Pause, Breathe, Disconnect: A Mindfulness Guide to Digital Wellness

Pause, Breathe, Disconnect: A Mindfulness Guide to Digital Wellness

Do you ever feel that you can never get away from your screens enough? Often, it feels as if we are attached to our screens from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep at night. The average person in the United States was shown to spend just over seven hours a day on devices with internet access (Kemp, 2024). This has resulted in Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) becoming a chronic issue in the population. While screens are indispensable, overuse can harm mental well-being. Mindfulness provides a science-backed way to mitigate these effects. 

Contribution: You Have Something to Give

Contribution: You Have Something to Give

Ever since I was a child, I wanted what I did to matter. I wanted to make a difference in the world. At times, there was a clear path to what that looked like, and at other times, it wasn’t so clear as to what or how I could make a difference. I know many people feel the same, as evidenced by the countless contributions of others. Contribution is something you do or, more specifically, something you willingly give for the betterment of someone or something. Another word that is often associated with contribution is generosity. However, I think of generosity as the orientation or motivating force behind the desire to contribute in meaningful ways. In other words, generosity fuels the desire to act, which leads to contribution, and contribution can result in feelings of generosity that motivate us to do more or keep going.