Self-care for the New Year

Make time for rest (and the outdoors) in '26.

Please take good care.

Happy Lunar New Year 2025!

 

After January 1st, we move into the next celebration of another yearly cycle.

• 2025 in the Chinese zodiac is the year of the Wood Snake
• The symbolism of the snake shedding its skin will hopefully translate into regeneration and renewal in these challenging times.
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• 心想事成      (xīn xiǎng shì chéng) 
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•  May all your wishes and dreams come true.

"Good Grief" for the Holidays: Charlie Brown, Anderson Cooper, and Podcasts

 

As the end of year approaches we hear the word "happy" a lot. 

Happy Holidays, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year. 

But this time of year is often anything but "happy" when it runs head long into memories of those who aren't with us. Grief runs deep. It is about yearning and missing. It's proof of our love. 

You may have heard the phrase "processing loss." Therapy, counseling, grief groups and empathic people are essential in the journey to understand the complex experience of bereavement.

Sometimes we aren't able to have a session or a meet up when the pangs get strong.

I'd like to recommend a relatively recent podcast series: "All There Is with Anderson Cooper."

https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/all-there-is-with-anderson-cooper

In 2022, Cooper, a well known journalist and reporter, began to record his feelings as he was going through the belongings of his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, who had died in 2019.

With her, Cooper had suffered the sudden death of his father when he was 10 and the death of his older brother by suicide when he was 21. He had suppressed his grief for decades.

With his experience as a interviewer, Cooper has used the podcast to explore his own complex reactions while speaking with knowlegable therapists and with fellow travelers in grief. Some of the participants are well known to the public  (i.e.,Stephen Colbert, Andrew Garfield, Whoopi Goldberg, Naomi Judd) and some not (i.e., Irene Weiss, a survivor of the Holocaust, Randy Shelin, father of a brilliant young man who died by suicide at 18.) 

There are 3 seasons of episodes and, if prefered, you can also watch the discussions on CNN's You Tube channel. The URL for an episode with an author and leadership trainer on grief, Francis Weller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWPA8oPyGs

Till next time, please take good care.

The Natural World: Not Black and White

"Blue" can be more than a subdued or sad mood.

Noticing the blues of water, skies and, yes, hydrangeas can bring calm to the mind and relaxation to the body. The research tying time spent in nature to improved mental health is robust.

Take a walk, a stroll, a run or a hike. Have a picnic or a play date. Yes, please take good care. 

(Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of Evidence, (May, 2021) M. P. Jimenez, et al., Int. J. of Environ Res Public Health; Vol. 18, Issue 9, 4790)

The Unexpected Gift: Appreciating Life's Nice Moments

 

While in midtown on an errand, I had the pleasure of running right smack dab into a 10-foot high 6-foot wide fresh floral display in the middle of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue. NYC is a wonderous place but this was an atypical sight. I guessed that the display was a remnant of the prior day's Easter Parade. On a busy block full of people, only 4 other individuals had stopped to look. It seemed other folks were buried in their thoughts or phones. Perhaps many were in a rush to their next appointment. 

They missed out on one of life's nice, unexpected moments. And it smelled nice, too.

Here's hoping you'll stop to smell the roses when they pop up in front of your nose....

Spring Ahead

"It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart."

Rainer Maria Rilke (1922)

Sonnets to Orpheus (Part One, XXI)

As always,take good care.

Happy Lunar New Year! May the year of the Dragon bring wisdom, good luck, innovation and honor to all who celebrate!