5 New Holiday Traditions to Create With Your Children
5 New Holiday Traditions to Create With Your Children

If you’re like many parents, you may be struggling to figure out how to make the holidays special this year. You’re looking for parental support when it comes to navigating changing holidays. After all, the chances are good that they won’t be exactly as usual.

The pandemic has disrupted many traditional holiday activities. Concerts and performances are canceled or virtual. Big family gatherings likely won’t happen. Instead of enjoying a huge turkey dinner with your grandparents, you may be having a smaller meal at home. You get the picture.

But you still want to ensure that the holidays are special for your children. You want them to create good memories that will last for decades. Despite the pandemic, you can still make this happen. Creating new holiday traditions is an excellent way to start.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness
How to Navigate the Holidays With a New Romantic Partner
How to Navigate the Holidays With a New Romantic Partner

The holidays hold so many emotions, so many expectations, and so many traditions and activities. If you have a new partner, you may be trying to figure out how to navigate the holidays.

How will the relationship affect your usual holiday activities? What expectations will there be for gift exchanges? Should you meet each other’s families if you haven’t already?

All of these factors can easily make you feel anxious. There’s always excitement and anticipation when you’re with someone new. But you don’t want to mess things up, either, and take steps too early. Likewise, you don’t want to make them feel left out. How do you figure out how to navigate the situation?

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Pathways To Wellness
Consider Premarital Counseling and Save Your Marriage Before It Starts
Consider Premarital Counseling and Save Your Marriage Before It Starts

If you’re still months away from the big day, the idea of going to counseling together before the wedding date may sound silly. After all, you might wonder, why do you need counseling?

Perhaps you’re blissfully in love and eager to commit yourselves to each other. You know you love each other and are ready to go all-in. Problems don’t exist in your relationship, or at least not any that would require counseling.

Yet many relationships experts recommend what is called premarital counseling. This type of counseling is designed to help both of you enter marriage with practical relationship skills and a deeper understanding of what’s ahead of you.

It’s not about fixing problems so much as it is about being better empowered for the good times and the bad. Consider premarital counseling as a necessary part of your pre-wedding planning, and you’ll be off to a good start. That said, here are five ways this vital step can be beneficial.

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Premarital CounselingPathways To Wellness
Love Feels Like a Roller Coaster, But Why?
Love Feels Like a Roller Coaster, But Why?

Sometimes, love feels like a roller coaster ride. We might experience it when we first start to develop romantic crushes in middle or high school. Our young emotions are a rapid cycle of yearning for time with our crush, feeling hopeful, and worrying they won’t like us back. Additionally, our feelings coincide with the new hormones that are carrying us into adolescence.

However, in “normal” love relationships, we experience these feelings only in the beginning, when we’re infatuated. If our love object doesn’t like us back or already has their own love interest, we mourn briefly but then move on.

When we find someone who feels the same way about us, we enjoy the emotional excitement and intensity. This stage can last a few weeks or a few months. And we’re okay when this initial rush stabilizes into a calmer, more stable relationship. Our partnership grows into something more than the rushes and crashes of emotional intoxication.

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Obsessive LovePathways To Wellness
Being “Lovesick” Is Real – 3 Ways to Navigate the Unknown
Being “Lovesick” Is Real – 3 Ways to Navigate the Unknown

It can happen without warning. You meet someone briefly, or even only know them from afar — and you’re smitten.

Maybe it’s the barista who occasionally prepares your order or someone who works in the same building you do. It could even be a celebrity whom you’ve never even seen in person. Whoever it is, your emotions and thoughts become focused on this person like a laser beam.

They dominate your waking hours and even the hours when you should be sleeping. Your heart aches for attention from them; you dream of them always. You think you’ve fallen in love. And even though they show no signs of reciprocal feelings, you can’t get them out of your mind.

There is a word for this. It’s called being lovesick or suffering from obsessive love. Some people call it limerence. And living with it can cause your life to feel upended. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help navigate the unknown.

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Obsessive LovePathways To Wellness
Understanding Prenatal Anxiety, Its Symptoms, and Your Risk
Understanding Prenatal Anxiety, Its Symptoms, and Your Risk

Most people have heard of postpartum depression or even the “baby blues” that can occur after giving birth. But prenatal anxiety is sometimes often overlooked.

No question, finding out you’re having a baby is one of the most exciting news someone can receive. It’s also natural to experience worry, stress, and even fear as you go through your pregnancy. That is especially true when your pregnancy is not what you expected.

Feeling guilty about those fears or worries will only lead to more worrying. As a result, it’s crucial to recognize that prenatal anxiety is an actual condition.

Take heart in knowing that you can learn to manage your anxious feelings and cope with the thoughts throughout your pregnancy.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness
Sanitizing OCD vs. Indifference: How to Strike a Balance
Sanitizing OCD vs. Indifference: How to Strike a Balance

Living through a pandemic hasn’t been easy. The initial confusion and fear from its early days haven’t improved much. There’s still uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus, and it hasn’t been well contained in the United States.

Flareups continue to occur throughout the nation. Some people get the virus and never realize it, while others die horrible deaths from it. People often have no idea where they picked the virus up if they do get ill. And we struggle much to prevent the spread.

While we used to walk through crowded places with no face coverings and little fear of becoming ill, we now fear the most basic social encounters. People are even being told to limit how much they talk while wearing a mask to slow the spread.

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TraumaPathways To Wellness
5 Safe Ways to Manage Anger During Quarantine
5 Safe Ways to Manage Anger During Quarantine

Do you find that you’ve been feeling more angry or frustrated in the last several months? Do you feel like the stress of life under quarantine is pushing you to the edge?

If you do, it’s understandable. After all, anger is a normal response when we experience considerable changes in our lives that are entirely out of our control. It takes time to adapt to significant changes in your routine and daily life. And some things naturally create more anger-inducing stress.

Massive amounts of time cooped up with your family — as much as you love them — can easily cause irritation and anger. Job loss, the loss of friends and family due to distance or death, and your regular life interruption are very frustrating. All of these changes may also lead to anxiety, which can manifest as anger.

But it’s essential to find a safe way to manage and discharge your anger to slow its effects or consequences. Fortunately, this is possible.

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AnxietyPathways To Wellness
3 Keys to Stop Overeating While Working from Home
3 Keys to Stop Overeating While Working from Home

Many Americans are now working from home as a result of the COVID pandemic. Of course, telecommuting isn’t new. But its quick rise as a result of the coronavirus has led many people to realize just how much easier it is to graze compared to when they’re in an office setting.

And while it’s easy to forage for sweets or other treats, it can be hard to stop. Overeating while working from home, has become a new issue. Fortunately, you can take proactive steps toward curbing this tendency.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
How to Navigate the Pandemic’s Impact on Teens
How to Navigate the Pandemic’s Impact on Teens

Their social circle and activities often define a teen’s life. Teens are in the process of creating their adult identity and dreaming about their future. They typically thrive on time with their peers. Recognizing the pandemic’s impact on teens means understanding that teens likely did not welcome the idea of missing out on life and being stuck at home with family members.

With the abrupt loss of their social life and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to imagine how severe the pandemic has been for teenagers. It’s been hard for everyone, of course, but its effects on teens are unique. Here are some ideas about how to navigate the pandemic’s impact on teens.

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Teen TherapyPathways To Wellness
Expect to Grieve Because of COVID-19 – Here’s Why
Expect to Grieve Because of COVID-19 – Here’s Why

How are you navigating the COVID-19 pandemic so far? Have you experienced the loss of loved ones, acquaintances, or colleagues? Did you expect to grieve in this way? If so, you already know the turmoil that this pandemic is bringing.

Or maybe you feel like you’re handling the COVID-19 pandemic pretty well. Grief and loss haven’t been a part of your experience so far. You’re surviving financially, enjoying more time with your kids, and liking the quieter pace of life. At least on the surface, that is.

No matter where you are right now, the reality is that everyone’s life has been and will be negatively impacted by the pandemic somehow. You may not be ready to admit it, but none of us will be able to avoid grief and loss. In simple terms, you can expect to grieve as a result of the pandemic.

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GriefPathways To Wellness
The Importance of Support in Chronic Illness Treatment
The Importance of Support in Chronic Illness Treatment

If you’ve been undergoing a chronic illness treatment, you probably know you need a support system. While support systems look different for everybody, their underlying importance is the same.

You need people and systems in place to help you manage life with a chronic illness. After all, there are so many things that need to be managed. Getting to and from appointments, being an active participant in your treatment plan, medications, dealing with everyday responsibilities, adapting your lifestyle as needed, and more can leave you overwhelmed.

Support often includes several elements: practical, emotional, social, medical, and possibly spiritual.

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Chronic & CatastrophicPathways To Wellness
How to Re-Discover Your Resilience During a Pandemic
How to Re-Discover Your Resilience During a Pandemic

We’re several months into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. By now, most of us expected that our lives would have returned to pre-pandemic normalcy. No one wanted to think that cases would still be rising, and states would be returning to lockdown this far into it.

Changing medical advice and economic worries are adding to the uncertainty. With all of this going on, it’s quite easy to feel overwhelmed. You may even find yourself feeling depressed and anxious.

Nevertheless, it is possible to strengthen your resilience during a pandemic to help carry you through this trying time.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
5 Tips for Interacting with People Who Have Opposing Views
5 Tips for Interacting with People Who Have Opposing Views

An infinite number of topics exist for people to disagree on.

There are the smaller ones, of course—where to have dinner, what show to watch, or which sports team is the best. Even these can cause hard feelings. And then there are significant issues, like politics, climate change, race relations, and how the pandemic is being managed.

Often, we hold our views very dearly. We’re passionate about our opinions, perspectives, and understanding. So how do we handle it when we encounter people who have opposing views?

Depending on your personality, you may thrive on debate and not experience any sense of embarrassment or anger when interacting with someone who sees differently than you do.

Many people, however, feel anxious just thinking about this situation. You may sense your pulse quickening, breath rate increasing, and muscles tensing when you imagine it.

There are things you can do, though, to help keep such conversations and interactions calm and maybe even productive.


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AnxietyPathways To Wellness
3 Ways to Reduce Stress When Parenting in a Pandemic
3 Ways to Reduce Stress When Parenting in a Pandemic

Let’s face it: parenting during the current COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges with it.

Parents have needed to educate their children from home. Activities, celebrations, and outings have been canceled. One or both parents may be working from home, or childcare might be an issue if remote work is not an option.

These struggles are even harder if you’re a single parent. Life has changed for everyone; adults and kids alike are experiencing stress as a result. Unfortunately, increased stress levels bring tension and irritability to the home.

If you’re overwhelmed by these changes, consider some of the following ideas.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness
Feeling Trapped in a Forced Life Pause? – 5 Tips
Feeling Trapped in a Forced Life Pause? – 5 Tips

Does it seem like the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced you into a standstill?

Like so many Americans right now, you may be feeling like your life has been put on a forced life pause, through no choice of your own. You’ve likely been at home, unable to participate in your long-familiar activities and routines.

You could be laid off or trying to work at home with distractions and cabin fever. Travel plans have been canceled, and kids’ camps and family reunions are postponed. Time with friends is a thing of the past. Along with millions of others, you’re waiting and wondering when you can get on with your life again.

Despite the frustration, there are some things you can do during this time of limbo.

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AnxietyPathways To Wellness
Is Social Distancing Making Loneliness Worse? – 3 Ways to Feel Better
Is Social Distancing Making Loneliness Worse? – 3 Ways to Feel Better

Have months of social distancing started to take their emotional toll on you? The chances are that it only took a week or two for you to find that you greatly missed your friends and social interactions and routines.

Social distancing has gone on longer than most of us likely expected it to. This experience brings challenges for even the most introverted personalities. Those who were already struggling with loneliness before the pandemic began may be feeling its effects even more so.

If you find yourself in this situation, take heart. You can take steps to feel better.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
5 Tips to Ensure Your Relationship Will Thrive in Tough Times
5 Tips to Ensure Your Relationship Will Thrive in Tough Times

When you first fall in love with someone, chances are you hope it’s going to last forever. Even if someone has gone through bad breakups in the past, deep down, they usually hope to find lasting love. Humans have an innate drive to connect. We need intimacy.

If you’re fortunate to be in a long-term, committed relationship, you likely know that you’re still going to struggle at times. Everyday life throws a lot at you. Keeping your relationship a priority can slide to the backburner when this happens. This response is even more accurate during tough times.

Thankfully, though, there are things you can do to ensure that your relationship will thrive.

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CouplesPathways To Wellness
Has Dating Changed Forever? How a World Crisis Impacts Romance
Has Dating Changed Forever? How a World Crisis Impacts Romance

If you’ve been dating and trying to meet people, the chances are strong that the coronavirus pandemic has altered the way you approach it. This situation might cause you to wonder how a world crisis impacts romance altogether, and you’re not alone.

Social distancing makes in-person dating extremely difficult, if not impossible. Perhaps you thought you were hitting it off with someone online but hadn’t yet met in person. Now, that connection has fizzled. Or, you were in a relatively established relationship but still want to maintain physical distance.

Nevertheless, dating apps have seen an upsurge in usage since the pandemic started, so perhaps you’ve noticed more potential matches. The romantic landscape has undoubtedly shifted.

It might help you to know how the pandemic has changed dating thus far and that a world crisis impacts romance in plenty of ways.

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CouplesPathways To Wellness