Health and Wellness Archives

How Ready Are You for Change?
How Ready Are You for Change?

Change, Expectations, Health and Wellness, Reflections, Resilience

How Ready Are You for Change?

The switch to standard time last night ushered in a blustery fall day here in Minnesota. It’s an hour before sunset and the dry leaves rip off the trees in a fury and shape-shift patterns in the yard. The squirrels search beneath the piles and scurry off to bury their treasures. The cardinals and blue jays descend as a team as soon as the wild turkey and feral cat run off for the night. Last night after dark the opossum snapped his razor-sharp teeth into the nose of a hefty raccoon twice his size, both vying for the single can of leftover shredded chicken cat food and turkey breast trimmings. Winter in Minnesota fosters competition [...]

Janice Post-White2024-07-09T13:43:23-04:00November 6th, 2022|Categories: Change, Expectations, Health and Wellness, Reflections, Resilience|Tags: accepting and adapting, changing circumstances, keeping perspective|

Making Sense of Chaos: How our Brain and Immune System Respond to COVID-19 and Stress

Socrates contemplating, By Anastasios71 on Shutterstock COVID-19 and emotional stress trigger inflammatory immune responses. And then our brain changes. It does matter what we think and how we process events in our life. What has your month been like? Were you able to focus on something important to you or do something fun and energizing? Did you accomplish what you intended to this month? My May 1 calendar note read, “Make sense of chaos.” I don’t remember what was going on astrologically to trigger this directive, but this was the month’s message for me. I set out with intention. A year ago in May, we lived in a peak of uncertainty with rising COVID-19 [...]

Janice Post-White2024-07-09T13:43:34-04:00May 30th, 2021|Categories: COVID-19, Health, Health and Wellness, Psychology, Stress|Tags: Brain, COVID-19, Emotions, Immune System, Stress|

Regrets: What To Do When We Have Them

istockphoto by stereohype “Have no regrets” my friend murmured after I shared my angst over decisions I faced as my father approached death. That was a decade ago, and I’ve been mulling over regrets ever since. Is it even possible to live life without the remorseful “I can’t believe I did/said that” torment we inflict upon ourselves? And how do we move on from this all-too-human self-criticism? I revisited regret this week. For my writing class, we were to write a scene in which a character does something despicable and then rationalizes his actions. I take my homework seriously—even after all these years—and I contemplated the assignment all week. Despicable is such a strong [...]

Janice Post-White2024-07-09T13:43:37-04:00February 19th, 2021|Categories: Health and Wellness, Life Lessons, Parenting, Psychology, Resilience|Tags: Compassion, Forgiveness, Letting go, memoir, Regrets|