Mental Health

Disclosure :: This post is sponsored by Ochsner Baton Rouge.  Accepting Your Postpartum Body In today’s social media world, we are bombarded with what others are doing: what diet and exercise routines they are following, how they raise their kids, what jobs they have. This can cause many people to second guess themselves, especially moms, wondering if they should be on the same path as others. There is also a lot of pressure on moms to quickly get back to the way they looked before they had kids. Whether you gave birth yesterday or 15 years ago, your body helped bring life into this world, and that is something to be proud of and celebrated. Here are five tips to embrace your postpartum...

The journey to parenthood looks different for everyone. For some it is an unexpected surprise for others it is the culmination of years of struggle.  No matter which side of the spectrum you’re on there are a lot of unexpected emotions. For those dealing with infertility, it’s up and down, positive and negative. Infertility steals joy, sparks fear, and stokes feelings of failure and resentment. It crushes self-esteem and makes you question yourself, it pushes you down. It also teaches you to fight, and compassion and empathy, and gratitude. You feel so isolated. You feel like you’re the only one when really you’re 1 in 8. This is how I felt. Hope to Hopeless If you look at birth control statistics...

My best friend Katelyn and I have been discussing Twilight for a couple months now. Twilight was THE teenage romance series, while we were in middle school and high school. It is also a perfect example of emotional abuse, which, by the way, sets a great stage for physical abuse. Wind Goodfriend Ph.D. does a great job of naming a few of the thousands of examples of abuse Edward displays: He stalks Bella He encourages Bella to have as little interaction as possible from anyone outside his family He preys on her low self esteem He damages her vehicle so she can’t get away Before you go on assuming he was doing this to protect Bella, I just want to point...

On days like these, I get mad at simple things like a spoon dropping at the dinner table after I sweep. Why am I this way? One single room in my house is messy and I feel as though the entire house is destroyed, ruined. Why am I this way? Another day went by that I did not get to mop the floors and I can feel my body become tenser and angrier. Why am I this way? The laundry basket just got another clean load added to it. I don’t have time to fold them right now and I can’t stop thinking about it- it consumes my mind. Why am I this way? I worry incessantly about a single simple comment made...

I'm sure you've seen her (you probably know her)--the female who thinks nothing is beyond her own ability. The female who can wipe the sweat and trudge along, the female who can negotiate her way out of or into whatever her heart desires, the female who is unstoppable. These are the women who move mountains. They see an obstacle, and they get ready to jump it like an Olympic hurdler. Flat tire? She changes it on the side of the road in her heels and doesn't even chip a polished fingernail. Diaper blowout? Everything is cleaned and disposed of gracefully without even a sigh of disgust. Corporate negotiations? She brings cookies and makes sure that the deal benefits everyone involved....