The Happiness Myth

My son left on Monday for his first day at his actual school (Covid!)...I was sad. The old me subconsciously wanted to just go and stay busy so that I didn't think about him and miss him...and the me that knows MUCH better from my past experiences kept telling myself to let it out! Just cry if you miss him...no one will care, and then you'll feel better and be able to get things done.  Why do we do this?? Even after learning how important it is to "let it out"..."cry it out"...or whatever you want to call it...why do we allow ourselves to do this? Suppress...ignore...smile...move on...without ACTUALLY moving on? It still blows my mind that after my breakdown years ago because of this EXACT thing, I still fight with my old self.  Letting those feelings out is the most important thing we can do for our mental health and even our physical health! For myself, I've found I sleep better, have happier relationships, and my joints even ache less when I am allowi...

Lately, life has been busy. You know…life of a family with little ones…full-time working Mom and more than full-time working Dad. Having fun and going swimming on weekends and some evenings. Enjoying the warm weather and trying to fit as much in as we can during the times we are together as a whole family. A while ago I didn’t pass the English certification test that I needed to become a teacher. Time has gone by and I’ve found it very difficult to motivate myself again to study to re-take it. I knew if I just started studying, I would get in a groove again and be able to continue. But I kept putting it off! Then, I found time to study…but it was overwhelming. There is SO much to know for this test! Literature, 17 pages of TITLES of literature, mind you. Not only knowing the basic plot and summary of each piece of literature, but the history of what was going on in society at the time, who the author is and their background, parts of grammar/etc. It’...