Dona Winger, BS, BCHN®

Shoulding on the holidays, part 3: Comparison

I got sucked into it just this morning. I was looking at one of the piles of catalogs and store ads that come in the mail this time of year, and there was a picture of a well-dressed couple in an embrace looking so utterly happy. It wasn’t so much a conscious thought as itContinueContinue reading “Shoulding on the holidays, part 3: Comparison”

Shoulding on the holidays, part 2: Expectations

I look forward to the holidays every year. Just the other day we took our annual trip into the hills to go tree hunting. It was a snowy day with big, fat snowflakes and being out in the woods was so quiet and beautiful it was like being inside a snowglobe. Every branch and bladeContinueContinue reading “Shoulding on the holidays, part 2: Expectations”

‘Shoulding’ on the holidays part 1: Guilt

Welcome to the holiday season! I absolutely love this time of year. I love the festive feeling, the events, decorating the tree, Christmas music, buying gifts, wrapping gifts, turkey dinner…I could go on. I even like dealing with the Elf on the Shelf. Having a little girl in the house makes everything that much better.ContinueContinue reading “‘Shoulding’ on the holidays part 1: Guilt”

Six ways to be more grateful every day

Gratitude is one of my favorite practices. This is because it is a really simple exercise that takes almost no time, but has far-reaching, multi-focal benefits. If you’re only going to do one self-care practice, this one will give you the most bang for your buck. Gratitude turns what you have into enough. It turnsContinueContinue reading “Six ways to be more grateful every day”

5 Hacks to reduce stress and increase your health-span

Who isn’t stressed these days? We are overscheduled, overworked, and overstimulated, we lack time in nature, we lack connection with people around us, and we are so used to being this way that we call this stressed-out state normal. According to the Whitehall II study (1), which followed the lifestyle and mortality of a largeContinueContinue reading “5 Hacks to reduce stress and increase your health-span”