Encouraging self-care among individuals is admirable, and it's crucial to recognize that self-care, in isolation, can often remain an aspiration rather than a consistent practice. It's in the embrace of community care that self-care becomes sustainable and transformative.

Making space for all emotions, including those we don’t want, is essential to our well-being. This can be especially challenging at work, where we sometimes feel we shouldn’t have emotions at all. Learn how engaging in your emotions at work can benefit your total-body wellness.

A both/and perspective offers a more flexible approach to living and working in diverse and complex environments. Living in the both/and means multiple truths can exist at the same time, multiple outcomes are possible, and another person’s experiences are as valid as yours. 

What does it mean when you are faced with an unexpected medical diagnosis from a practical sense? It might mean that your body needs to tolerate surgery, medications, side effects, or anxiety, resulting in changes to your daily habits and abilities

Despite best intentions, our conversations often go awry when our ideas are questioned, we feel like we are under attack, and, out of habit, we protect ourselves by rushing to resolve the conflict. However, not all conflict needs a solution and sometimes its better if it doesn't.

Tipping points are catalyzing moments that drive change. The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened awareness of historical and current inequities prompted critical self-reflection and assessment of our work-life balance—why we work, where we work, how we work, the type of workplace culture and environment we work in, and the impact of our work.

Despite this common belief, when talking to students in distress, we are more effective when we are active listeners. It is a path of less responsibility and greater effectiveness when we use active listening rather than the more commonly used approach of attempting to fix, make better, or solve.   Active listening helps students tell and expand their stories about their distress without our expectation that we will fix or solve the issues. Often students do not readily tell others about their struggles, so their stories largely reside in the vast, bottomless place of their heads, where they often grow to unreasonable proportions.

I am about to tell you something you probably already know: Exercise is good for your mental health. You have likely heard it before, and you might even believe it to be true. Whether you have been an avid exerciser for years, currently exercise, or have exercised in the past, your body rewarded you with the hormones that improve your sense of well-being and mood.

Last year, I was navigating a career transition as I was about to become the first director of sport psychology and student-athlete mental health at Iowa while also maintaining my clinical professor role within the Department of Psychiatry. At the same time, I was also preparing for my oldest daughter’s high school graduation and taking in all of her “lasts” as a senior while being flooded with emotions while vividly recalling many of her “firsts.”

I think about my impact on others. I also remember the people who have had an impact on my life by allowing me to make mistakes and grow with dignity. The professor who let me assert myself as a 20-year-old, colleagues who have tolerated my growing pains, parents who let thoughtless words pass. With the benefit of time and experience, their kindness is revealed to me, and I feel their grace in my life.