Self Care – Page 3 – Melissa Schlies

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

Have I ever told you, fall is my favorite season? The beautiful colors the leaves on the trees turn mesmerizes me. The weather is finally cool enough to bake, which is convenient because I love almost anything baked with locally grown apples or pumpkin. And there is just something in the air that makes me want to walk downtown to the farmers market, or find a hiking trail nearby. Fall is fantastic. Only fall is also when, every four years, our country faces its most crucial election season. Yards are marked with candidate signs. Social Media is more politically charged [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-14T23:42:06+00:00October 15th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Conflict, Fear, Habit Making, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Relationships, Self Care|Comments Off

This Election Season, Don’t Forget To Love

Last week, Tony and I traveled through the Midwest to see family. For most of our trip, the highways and turnpikes we drove down were lined with big red or white barns and beautiful cornfields. Then, when we headed off those long stretches of road, there were more farms. Only this time, their homes, front yards, and driveways were dotted or emblazoned with red, white and blue— Political signs. Big and small plastic rectangles, with the words TRUMP or BIDEN printed in all capitol letters, hung from windows or stuck out of patches of dying grass. As if reminding us [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-11T22:04:53+00:00October 12th, 2020|Categories: Hope, Rejection, Relationships, Self Care, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Don’t Forget To Be Still

“When we feel like there isn’t enough time in the day for us to get everything done, when we wish for more time, we don’t actually need more time. We need more stillness.” —Christine Carter One of the scariest things to do, when we feel stressed, is to stop. To put down what we’re doing, and to cease our productivity. Only sometimes, what we need more than anything, seems to be the most counterintuitive: We need to take a break. Unfortunately, last week, I was reminded of this truth in one of the most inconvenient—yet effective ways: I pulled my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-08T00:06:06+00:00October 8th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Practice, Self Care|Comments Off

Three Things To Do If You Didn’t Get the Vacation You Needed

Earlier this week, I woke up feeling cold. It’s finally been cool enough to open our windows in Pennsylvania. Only one morning our windows were still open, and it was forty-eight degrees outside. It felt like I went to bed and it was summer time, then I woke up and Now it is fall. Where did this year go? In some ways, many of us can take solace in the fact that 2020 isn’t dragging its heels. As, let’s be honest—none of us will be sad to see it go. But probably like me, you too are feeling that in [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-16T20:53:52+00:00September 17th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Practice, Saying No, Self Care, Staycation|Comments Off

On Exploring Tuscany & Five Life Changing Facts About Self Care

For the next few weeks, I am re-sharing a few stories from trips we’ve taken, for all those of us who are missing travel terribly. It was a Tuesday, and we were in Tuscany.* We had driven over an hour to the small medieval city of Montalcino known most for its Brunello wine. Only the last thing on my mind was wine tasting or the way the sun warmly reflected off its streets made of stone. I had to pee. We’d found parking in a lot below the wall of Montalcino which meant we had to climb the steep hill [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-31T15:16:19+00:00September 3rd, 2020|Categories: Balance, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Self Care|Comments Off

Why Sleep Matters More Than We Think & How To Get More Of It

A few years ago, I was listening to photographer, Chase Jarvis, interview Ariana Huffington about her book, The Sleep Revolution. She began by detailing why sleep became such an important and personal crusade for her. She said it all started when she, herself, had a physical and emotional breakdown after consistently not getting enough sleep. And she spoke these words, that I haven’t been able to get out of my head: “Right now, we take better care of our smart phones than we do of ourselves. Like I bet everyone…right now knows how much battery remains on their smart phones—if [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-26T19:13:41+00:00August 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Depression, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Routines, Self Care|Comments Off

The Surprising Way to Keep Living in the Midst of Difficult Change

About twenty-five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” It makes me wonder what he would have thought of 2020. The year in which the only thing besides change that seems constant, is the spread of COVID. We still haven’t seemed to rid ourselves of it, so the changes to our daily lives have been endless. “The only thing that is constant is change.” --Heraclitus In our state alone, the rules of social distancing have been modified numerous times. Just last week, I learned I’ll have to take a COVID test [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-07-29T22:59:30+00:00July 30th, 2020|Categories: Change, Courage, grief, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Self Care|Comments Off

Five Reasons Not To Ignore Self Care During Times of Change

There are two kinds of change in this world: The change we long for and the change that finds us. Before 2020, the timing of these changes were typically different for each of us. For me, I got married after a lot of my friends but before all of my sisters. And when my first career was ending, some of my friends’ jobs were just taking off. But then COVID hit, and change found us all. Our world came to a stand still, and our lives changed in ways we are still discovering. Collectively we’ve all experienced trauma, while individually [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-30T15:30:26+00:00July 2nd, 2020|Categories: Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Practice, Self Care|Comments Off

When Pandemic Grief Hits You All Over Again

A few weeks ago, my sister texted me reminding me that as a family, that day, we were supposed to all be together, on vacation. Only, a few weeks before that, I had to cancel our reservations because the shelter in place orders for where we were to stay would still be in effect for our trip. Sure, we could stay in our hotel, but there would be no pool, no restaurant, and many of the attractions we were planning to visit would still be closed. You can’t tell four kiddos under five that the pool is closed. You can’t [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-24T19:44:22+00:00June 22nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, grief, Hope, Self Care, Social Distancing, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

Summer Reading Week 2020, Part 1: 9 Great Nonfiction Books!

One of the most surprising side-effects of social distancing, for me, was not feeling compelled—or at times even able—to read. As someone who can, in some seasons, put away more than one book a week, you’d think I’d have been excited for all this extra time to bury my nose in some printed pages. Only often, I couldn’t read. My brain felt overwhelmed by all the information we were getting on a daily basis. My heart was heavy for all those who were suffering, from all we were collectively losing, and—I was missing time with my dad. For all these [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-07T23:09:31+00:00June 8th, 2020|Categories: Good Books, Mental Health, Routines, Self Care|Comments Off

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

Don’t Forget To Be Still

Three Things To Do If You Didn’t Get the Vacation You Needed

On Exploring Tuscany & Five Life Changing Facts About Self Care

Why Sleep Matters More Than We Think & How To Get More Of It

The Surprising Way to Keep Living in the Midst of Difficult Change

Five Reasons Not To Ignore Self Care During Times of Change

Summer Reading Week 2020, Part 1: 9 Great Nonfiction Books!

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