It’s that time of year again. Thanksgiving and the other holidays are here.
With that said, here are the top 10 things to be thankful for when you’re in the midst of dealing with a toxic family member during the holidays.
And they just might apply to you too.
Are you stressed out? I’ll admit life can be stressful at times.
According to WebMD, a little bit of stress is good. Good stress can help you be your best. It can help you perform better at an interview, focus more on an exam, or run faster in a race.
Stress also causes your heart to pump blood faster to your muscles in case you need to metaphorically flee from danger, which is good instinct.
However, if you experience stress on a regular basis, your heart doesn’t get used to those daily jolts to your system. This is a problem that may put extra pressure on your heart as well as cause a host of other issues, such getting sick more often.
While being stressed out isn’t good for your emotional, physical, and mental health, stress seems to be a normal part of life. It ebbs and flows just like waves in the ocean.
If you’re stressed out right now or headed in that direction, come with me on a quick journey through the things I do to help kick the stress from my life, at least for a little while.
So you just got the axe. Or, maybe you’ve been unemployed or underemployed for a few days, weeks, months, or even years and it sucks.
I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been there multiple times. What I’ve learned is each time is different depending on how you felt about your job, the company, your coworkers, etc.
Even if you somehow felt the sense of impending doom coming, you’re never really prepared for when it actually happens, are you? I know I wasn’t.
So what’s a person supposed to do when you’ve put your heart and soul into a job and you get canned? Well, if we were to remove the fact that you’ve been professionally crushed and let down by your now-former employer, you would just update your resume and start the job hunt.
The problem with this answer is that you’re not a robot. Whether you knew it was coming or you were completely blindsided by the lay off, you’re going to need some time to recuperate and how to explain your unemployment to your next potential employer.
In the midst of all this unemployed chaos happening in your life, other people and feelings will emerge that may make this nightmare even worse for you.
Let’s seriously talk about the negative things that you could face after you get the axe. In some cases, these things could be MUCH worse than being let go from your job, unless you know how to handle them.
Does this skirt make me look fat?
I’m a pizza face.
Why did I do that? I’m so stupid.
Yeah. I’ve said those things about myself too. And it’s not pretty. Why do we feel compelled to say such nasty things about ourselves? It only reinforces our toxic body image. If someone else were saying those things to himself or herself, what would we say? That’s right. We’d say, “Cut it out!”
So why do we still insist on saying these toxic things to ourselves? I’m not a psychologist, but I feel like this self-deprecation is a habit. A habit we’ve learned based on how the toxic people in our lives treat us. And I call it a habit because, even long after we kick the toxic people to the curb, we’re still saying hurtful and demeaning things to ourselves that only continue to reinforce our toxic body image.
How do we fix this self-deprecation habit that is slowly – and not so silently – stealing our energy, confidence, and self-esteem?
Ever since I got married my husband and I started a tradition of going food shopping on weeknights instead of leaving it for the weekend.
For starters, we don’t like going food shopping in the first place and, more importantly, it’s less crowded on weeknights than on the weekend.
On these nights it’s often difficult to cook dinner at home because time is of the essence. With that in mind, we started going out for dinner prior to our food shopping adventures.
Some nights we go out for Chinese food, other nights it’s Mediterranean, and sometimes we go to Chick-fil-A.
Last Monday night we happened to stop there and – to our surprise – we saw the Chick-fil-A cow. Even though I’m fortysomething, I still get excited when funny things like this happen.
Name calling is a disease that infects us all. All you have to do is turn on the television or get online to see it in action.
Let’s face it. There are no lack of words and phrases to call out the fact we’re not perfect.
Over the past few months, I can recall at least 10 to 20 different insults, just off the top of my head, that talk about women in a negative light, such as crazy b*tch, butter face, fattie, and others.
While women bear the biggest brunt of the insult game, men have been called their fair share too, such as sissy, pervert, douchebag, and more.
I know there are a lot of other raunchier names I could have listed, but I’d like to keep it clean, or as clean as I can keep it having already mentioned a few insults that make me want to vomit. Okay, let’s keep this article moving…
For decades it bothered me when people called me names. I didn’t understand WHY people felt the need to fling insults. And, for a time, I was using them too, mostly out of being called them myself as well as sheer frustration and anger. It wasn’t until recently that I learned all this name calling had nothing really to do with me after all.
Here are the 4 reasons I discovered why people call other people nasty names:
Seinfeld has got to be the best comedy ever aired on television… at least in my lifetime.
If you haven’t watched the show, stop reading this post immediately and go watch a few episodes. You should be able to find reruns on cable or, if you’re more of an on-demand kind of person, Hulu may be your best bet. Don’t worry. I’ll wait. (Caution: Spoilers Below)
On the other hand, if you’ve watched a couple episodes or you’re already a Seinfeld junkie like me, let’s continue.
Going to work can be a chore, but we do it anyway. We do it for money, personal and professional growth, power, camaraderie, and more.
For those people with low self-esteem, we become akin to mice at work. We do a lot, but stay under the radar for one reason or another. Instead of touting our greatness, we’re okay being marginalized.
How does this happen? Mainly because your boss and coworkers start to take you for granted. They don’t fully acknowledge your contributions and neither do you.
Do you do these five things at work?
I get it. Work is tough. Work is exhausting. Work can even be grueling. Work is well… work.
If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who truly loves your job and can’t wait to start the day, kudos to you. I’m jealous.
However, an informal survey taken over my 20 years of working says you’re in the minority. If you, like me, feel otherwise about your job, it may not be something you pop out of bed for in the morning.
Despite the lackluster feelings you might have for your job, try to keep your opinions contained. If you feel the need to vent (I know I do), try talking to your significant other, friends, former co-workers, or even a therapist. You can feel secure knowing they have your best interests at heart. In a nutshell, you can trust these folks.
As you’re figuring out whom you can turn to for support, here are seven things you should never ever – under any circumstances – say to your boss.
It seems like our body image is assaulted on a daily basis, don’t you think?