5 Steps for Thanksgiving Prep (+ Free Checklists!)

Preparing for Thanksgiving, whether you are hosting yourself, getting ready to travel to family, or just doing a Friendsgiving, always feels like a huge task. Thanksgiving is a big deal for a lot of people. As much as I love Christmas, I hold a special place in my heart for Thanksgiving—and everything that comes with it. I love Thanksgiving food; I love picking Thanksgiving outfits; and I love getting to spend time with family members I don’t get to see as often as I like.

That being said, Thanksgiving can be super stressful. If you’re traveling, you have a million and 1 things to remember; add in kids and it becomes easily 5 million and 10 things to remember. If you run your own business, if you are working full time, if you’re pregnant… stress on top of stress on top of possible toxic family relationships that can leave us exhausted and needing TLC… instead of refreshed.

This year, I want you to promise me that you will make sure to treat yourself with kindness and love at Thanksgiving. It can be a time of stress for lots of people, along with a disruption in routine. If you’re feeling low, make sure to treat yourself to some self-care and self-soothing activities so you can be rested and recharged.

1. Stock up on supplies in advance

Know you’re going to need like 5 bags of potatoes for your world famous mashed potatoes? Buy them now! Or buy 1 bag per week until you’ve got enough.

Know you’re going to need special activities for your toddler for a flight? Buy them now!

Get what you know you’ll need in advance, before it can 1) sell out or 2) stress you out. The closer we get to Thanksgiving, the more hectic the grocery store will be. I always do my best to avoid grocery stores the week of Thanksgiving; if I urgently need something, I try to replace it with something I do have and I try to have everything I’ll need plenty in advance.

Make a big list of everything you might need and go get it this weekend or during next week.

2. Make a list (and check it twice)

To repeat: make a list. I’ve included at the bottom of this post a PDF of my Thanksgiving checklists I made for myself! I also included some self-care and self-soothing checklists, as well as customizable options if you want to write in your own ideas. Make your lists, keep them close, and find comfort in knowing that, no matter how stressful this season is, you have options to make yourself feel better and reduce that stress.

Here’s a sneak peak of one of these lists:

3. Have self-care in place

For many people, Thanksgiving can bring up reminders of past behaviors that aren’t healthy or happy. Many of us have good Thanksgiving memories, but for me personally, Thanksgiving can be triggering for some of my more negative body-focused behaviors, such as restricting or working out excessively. If this is something you struggle with, make sure you have self-care routines in place to stay healthy. And remember: you can always remove yourself from a situation that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Here are a few suggestions for Thanksgiving self-care:

• Make sure to have your medication if you are traveling & take it according to your prescription.

• Ask a few friends to be on standby if you need someone to talk to. You can also ask your therapist if they have a phone number you can call if you need extra help or if you can email or text them.

• You don’t have to venture into your hometown and respond to every person you remember from your past. It’s ok to walk away.

• Practice breathing exercises in advance to calm your heart rate and help yourself stay calm in situations that might trigger you.

4. Add self-soothing to your routine

Self-soothing is a part of self-care. Sometimes, the media mistakes self-soothing routines as self-care, but the truth is, self-care often is unpleasant and doesn’t feel good. Self-care is going to therapy (which can be emotionally exhausting), whereas self-soothing is a behavior you do afterwards to feel better, like journaling, listening to music, or taking a bath.

As Thanksgiving approaches, if you struggle with the season, make sure to not just have your self-care routine in place (for both home and travel), but self-soothing techniques. Here are a few suggestions:

• If you’re traveling, take along a book you love to read and make sure you have music or podcasts that make you feel good to listen to.

• Have plenty of self-soothing supplies on hand like bubble bath, bath bombs, and scented lotion.

• Give yourself time to self-sooth as part of each day of the holiday. Taking 10-15 minutes every evening to do something to sooth yourself will make a huge difference.

• Download a sound machine app on your phone for soothing sounds to help you sleep or play while you journal, meditate, or practice breathing exercises.

5. Remember that perfection isn’t necessary

No holiday, no day, will ever be perfect. I think we all know that. If you forget a critical part of the meal, no one is going to really care that much. Just say, “oops, I forgot!” It’s not the end of the world. It’s easier to say that than to live it, I totally get it. That’s why I recommend practicing some deep breathing exercises beforehand.

Here’s a breathing exercise I like:

• Breathe in and imagine you are filling a pitcher at your sink. Let it fill all the way to the top.

• Breathe out and imagine you are pouring the pitcher of water down the drain. Pour it all the way out.

That one is my favorite because I like to imagine the sound of the water. You can also find lots of great apps on your smartphone that help with breathing and meditation.

Do you feel ready for Thanksgiving? I’m getting excited, but also nervous. If you’re feeling like me, I hope you grab these free checklists—I know I’m already using mine to get ready!

How I Use Daily Harvest to Offset the Hectic Holidays*

I have a very sensitive stomach.

This has been a relatively new realization for me, even though I’ve had stomach problems my entire life. I was always prone to stomach aches as a child, always complaining that my stomach hurt. (Forrest has recently started doing this and, man, I’m sorry, kid!) I was a very picky eater and I tended to gravitate towards foods that were very easy on my stomach: toast, Cheerios, crackers. Basic, simple carb-based foods that weren’t super flavorful.

Fast forward to the last few years and my stomach issues have changed. For years, every time I visited Danny’s parents in Idaho, I would end up with a stomach ache, having to lie down for hours. At least I knew the cause for this one: I was eating way too much food in a short span of time. And none of that food was good for my body. (We’re talking multiple fast food trips here, people.) However, I still didn’t think I had a sensitive stomach.

It’s been only in the last few months that I realized the foods I eat, and tend to gravitate towards, don’t make me feel very good. Today, we know there are no good foods and bad foods, that diet culture is bad, and that fundamentally it’s ok to eat however you want most of the time—with an eye towards gentle nutrition (like making sure you aren’t malnourished and are getting essential vitamins and minerals). But it goes without saying: if you eat food that doesn’t make you feel good 24/7, you aren’t going to feel good.

When I first started getting Daily Harvest smoothies (and working with Daily Harvest), I did so with the intention that I just wanted some quick options for breakfasts for myself. I love smoothies, but putting them together myself is a pain. I know that seems really whiny—how hard is a smoothie?—but whatever, this was my struggle. I loved Daily Harvest instantly, not just because the smoothies are fast (that’s a fact), but because drinking them made my stomach feel about 400 times better than it did in weeks. Plus, I started to feel like I had more energy.

Here’s why I personally love Daily Harvest:

• Convenience: I know for some people the cost of Daily Harvest seems high. $7 per cup! But when you think about what comes in each cup, to assemble them yourself or even make one smoothie of the same ingredients, would cost a ton of money! Plus, they are delivered right to your doorstep, in recyclable materials.

• Fast & easy: when I make a smoothie, I don’t want to spend a ton of time cutting things up. It’s 3 easy steps to having a smoothie: add liquid; dump into a blender; and blend. I have a quick dinner for myself in just a few minutes, which is all I need.

• Unique recipes: These smoothies let me try things I would never try before (watermelon & beet root smoothie? Love it!) without feeling bad if I don’t like them (and then have 100 lychees or whatever leftover). Plus, you get a variety of fruits & veggies in every cup, so it can boost your energy and make you feel good about eating something super delicious.

I’ve made a lot of changes to my lifestyle in the past few months. Working from home exclusively now, I have to stay on track day-to-day without anyone else to keep track of my time. I’ve started wearing blue blocking glasses to help my migraines and my sleep patterns (they help!), as well as using night shift on my phone most of the time. I’ve started using ergonomic work solutions, a standing desk. You name it, I’ve tried it to be healthier. So why not change up what and how I eat to feel better about myself too?

Health isn’t a barometer of good and bad, of course. However, I knew that my low energy, migraines, and more had to do with what I was eating (and in that similar vein, also related to my anxiety and depression). So, I decided to change things—and Daily Harvest has helped me do that.

During the holidays, it can be easy to start eating a lot of foods that don’t make us feel good. I love Christmas cookies, pumpkin pie, and mashed potatoes as much as the next person—but those are heavy foods that can leave my stomach feeling gross and my body sluggish. Added a Daily Harvest smoothie in the morning or as a snack before a holiday dinner makes me feel at least a little bit better at the end of the day.

If you want to make sure you have plenty of delicious, healthy options available alongside your favorite Christmas treats, be sure to use my code PAUSES for 3 FREE cups in your first order from Daily Harvest. Click here to order! (I highly recommend the Pineapple + Matcha smoothie! It’s my absolute favorite.)

3 Tips for Staying Motivated During NaNoWriMo

I’ll say one thing about NaNoWriMo that might be a little controversial: I don’t actually think it’s that much of a challenge.

Put down your pitchforks. In terms of a challenge for writing, it’s not that much of a challenge literally, on paper. If you, like me, are paid to write, then writing 1,666 words a day isn’t a stretch. On average, one of my blog posts in 1,000 words or so; if I write one and a half blog posts a day, I meet that goal easy. If I write a marketing strategy for a client, they average about 5,000 words; I have tripled that. If I write email marketing for a client, at 300-500 words per email, I meet that goal in 4 emails or so. If you think about NaNoWriMo in pure word counts, it’s really not that hard.

The challenge, of course, always mental. People sabotage themselves by editing through NaNoWriMo, deciding they don’t like a plot line or a character or how they’ve written something. It goes without saying: NaNoWriMo is not the time to perfect your story. Save that for December, or better yet, January! NaNoWriMo is about word vomiting 50,000 words into existence.

I had a minor tiff with someone in a writing group this past week who was upset at people talking about NaNo being an opportunity to just get 50,000 words out. “I write with intention,” they said, “with the idea that I won’t need to edit it at the end.”

Whew! Girl, have a seat! No one cares!

If you write with the intention that you’ll never need a 2nd draft, first of all, good luck with that. (It’s literally not possible. Every story you’ve ever read has been meticulously edited not just once or twice, but 10+ times. I guarantee it.) But if you go into NaNoWriMo with that mindset, you’re going to have an even worse time. Why? Because you’ll get behind fast; you’ll second guess yourself; you won’t be able to meet the goal.

So how can you stay motivated during NaNoWriMo to just write, write, write without second guessing what you’ve written? Let’s talk strategies, my writing darlings!

1. Write Without Looking.

Don’t go back and read what you’ve written. Period. End of story. If it helps, once you’re done with a scene… turn the font color to white so you actually can’t look at it. I followed this tip for my first 2 NaNoWriMos because the urge to go back and change things was so strong.

Basically, the less you go back and read what you’ve written the better. If you need to remember a specific detail (did I say the walls were grey or green?) then search for it using the search function in your word processor… don’t start reading past scenes. You’ll only get stuck in the quagmire of self doubt. Remember: it’s a first draft, not a last draft. No one is asking you to write a perfect novel… just 50,000 words.

2. Use Placeholders to Advance the Plot if you Need To

Sometimes, when I’m writing, I’ll get stuck. I need to write a transition scene, but I can’t think of one yet—but I do know exactly how I want the next scene to go. So, here goes a placeholder: [TRANSITION SCENE] or [KEYWORD SCENE].

Placeholders are the perfect solution from getting stuck on something for minutes, hours, or even days. If you stick in a placeholder, you can quickly hit your goal and give yourself time to think of that scene, then go back and add it in. This method isn’t perfect; you can use placeholders too much (cut to me with a word doc of ALL placeholders, scream crying into the abyss). I limit myself to one per chapter, with the intention to go back and fill it in within at least two or three days.

3. Follow Your Outline

Oh, you don’t have an outline? I won’t judge you for being a pantser; my first NaNoWriMo was a pants situation. About halfway through, I forgot my main character’s last name and I had list the single sheet of notes where I’d written this information. So I wrote a new last name. Is this novel good? No. Does it have a plot? Also no. Do I recommend this method to anyone who wants to actually finish NaNoWriMo? Definitely no.

I’m a firm believer in planning. I even have a free NaNoWriMo guide to write the easiest possible outline in the world. If you have an outline, you’ll never get stuck; you’ll never find yourself 10,000 words in wondering where to go next. If you have an outline and character details in place in advance, you’re going to be fine; your only challenges will be mentally getting over a few hurdles.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Tell me how you’re doing!

5 Things I've Learned About Being Resilient

Originally, I had this post in my editorial calendar as “things I’ve learned since I was laid off". But as I started to write, I found myself thinking over and over and that again, this puts the focus of my life at this moment on being laid off.

Was it terrible? Yes. Sometimes, it’s hard not to just be filled with a blazing, all-encompassing anger that controls my life day-to-day.

My therapist keeps reminding me, though, that I’ve gone through terrible things before and I’ve always made it out ok. I survived being fired, struggling to find a job, graduating from college amidst my grandfather’s illness, and much more… and I survived all of it, even on the days when I thought I wouldn’t be able to. The only difference now is that I have Forrest.

Before, when things were bad, I had some responsibility, but not much. Now, I have an entire little person to stay functional for and that makes the pressure that much greater. Also, after becoming a mother, I felt overwhelmed by motherhood; I found it at times isolating. It took me a long time to learn that you can love being a mother (I do!) and also recognize that it is a thankless, difficult, and often unpleasant job. It’s not all bad, but sometimes, it’s pretty bad. It can leave you drained.

So when I went back to work, it helped me have a second part to my identity again. I have never wanted to be all mom, all the time. I think if I did, it would leave me exhausted and depressed. It might work for some people, but it doesn’t work for me; I needed more and my job, in so many ways, was the more that I needed.

I’m removing the emphasis from being laid off. I get to tell my story exactly how I want to and part of that means rewiring in my head what that looks like and sounds like to myself. I got laid off—that’s bad. But I think what that actually feels like to me is losing a part of my identity that was helping me to offload the stress of being a mother.

As I started writing, I realized I was talking more about resiliency and inner confidence—not necessarily that I was laid off. Part of the last few months has been rebuilding my identity, figuring out who I am as a professional without an “official” job title (or job, period!), and wrestling with everything that comes with it. This isn’t really fun work (trust me), but it’s been important. And while I would never pretend everything is fixed and perfect right now, I do feel better in many ways than I have in a long time.

All this is to say: when I was laid off in July, I realized I needed to work on being more resilient in my current life. I’ve been resilient in the past in a hundred different ways, but I have really struggled with it the last few months. I wanted to write about resiliency, about what I’ve learned not just this year, but in the years past, and how we can all work on being more resilient.

1. Resiliency is only a little about choice.

“Would you judge me if I canceled X today?” I text my husband at least once a day. It’s usually something small, like an oil change or a work out class. He always sends back: “you can use your energy however you feel fit today.” This is his nice way of saying: if you don’t have the energy to do whatever it is you’re asking about, don’t do it.

We all use our energy for different things, prioritized in different ways. One thing I do every single day, even if I don’t feel capable of doing anything else, is make my bed. It makes me feel good; it makes my bedroom feel cleaner; it’s how I will use a tiny smidgen of energy because it’s important to me. Things I won’t use my energy on if I’m feeling low are: working out; emptying the dishwasher; or vacuuming.

When I went to a therapy appointment recently, I was dressed nice because I had a meeting right afterward. The week before, I’d been barely functional; just really wallowing and feeling bad. My therapist’s first words were: “you’re choosing to be resilient. I see that and I admire that about you.” That day, I had the energy to get dressed (even though I did not feel like it at all) and make myself presentable, because I had an obligation. That’s a form of resiliency.

But sometimes being resilient isn’t really about choosing to do those things. It’s about choosing not to do those things. Sometimes, resiliency might be this: making the choice between showering & getting dressed, and actually finishing a client project you’re on a deadline for. If you have enough energy for either one, you’ll probably do the one that makes you money—but doesn’t necessarily look externally like resiliency.

2. Being resilient isn’t always a badge of honor.

Let’s return back to that time my therapist told me I was resilient and that she admired that about me; right afterwards, she said, “you know, you don’t always have to be so resilient.”

Sometimes, our ability to pick ourselves up and get on with this is something to be lauded. We should feel proud that we got dressed enough to take our kids to school, to make a client meeting. We should feel proud that we used our energy to meet a deadline. But sometimes, it’s not something to wear proudly; forcing ourselves to continue going along with our day (going to work, pretending to be happy or fine) is just hurting us in the long run. It’s ok to take time, to focus your energy on healing and getting better. Sometimes, resiliency is something we use to avoid focusing on what’s hurting us.

3. Like a muscle, resiliency is something you strengthen over time.

We all know someone who has never really had anything very bad happen to them. No traumatic family deaths, no big career shifts. At once, it’s very easy to be jealous of that life; what would it be like to never have something go absolutely topsy turvy one day? To wake up and just be… fine?

But everyone, eventually, has an event in their life that will throw them for a loop and require them to become a little more resilient. Mine, right now, is being laid off; I’d gotten complacent in many ways and now, I have to learn to build an identity that isn’t just about being a working mom. Even the people you look at and think, “they’ve never had anything bad happen” will eventually have something bad happen, unfortunately; and they’ll need to learn to be resilient too. The brilliant thing is: the more you practice resiliency, and healing yourself when bad things happen, the better you get at it because you have the mechanisms and knowledge in place to know what to do.

4. Resiliency is an experience, not an identity.

In the words of my therapist: “you’re entire personality cannot be that you work hard even when you are extremely unwell.” Basically, there is more to life than showing everyone you are extremely resilient and hardworking. No one is going to think you’re any less of a hard worker just because you take personal days, or make time for your self-soothing and self-care activities. Resiliency is something we do, an experience we have throughout our day… but it’s not who we are.

5. Some people are just more resilient than others.

This is slightly related to point 3: some people just go through more in their life and develop stronger skills at resiliency.

Some people are just naturally better at “springing back”, if you will.

And some people just aren’t.

I don’t like change, so I think my biggest struggle with resiliency is moving on and adapting myself to something new, and finding tools to help me make it happen. I don’t think I’m naturally resilient, but resiliency is something I’ve adapted to help me over time. The first time around when I was unemployed, I think I was mentally in a better place, but I was also significantly less resilient in many ways.

Being more capable of resiliency, again, isn’t necessarily a personalty trait. It’s just a fact of life.Some people are better at being organized; some people are just naturally better cooks; and some people are just very resilient.

How to Plan the Perfect Christmas & Stay Organized

Repeat after me: there is no such thing as a perfect Christmas.

Your Christmas might not look like a Hallmark movie (and good gravy, wouldn’t we all love an ornately decorated Victorian farmhouse mansion to cover in garland?). Your Christmas might not even look like the one from the Santa Clause.

Whatever Christmas you love, that’s the perfect Christmas for you.

For me, Christmas is this: the tree lit, watching movies on the couch with Danny, Forrest, and Remus, fresh cookies in the kitchen, a candle lit and smelling like either 1) cinnamon or 2) pine trees. That’s Christmas. When I was younger, Christmas was making sugar cookies with my mom, watching the old, classic claymation movies on TV with my brother, and waking up at 3am to open presents (and try to make as little noise as possible with my brother). Christmas every year can be something different, but I want to put the disclaimer here that, there is no perfect Christmas; there is no prescriptive Christmas.

If your Christmas a little Christmas tree with rainbow fairy lights and a Netflix binge on your laptop, then baby, godspeed.

No matter what your Christmas is, I want you to have the most perfect one possible.

For the last two months, I’ve been working on a Christmas planner for myself. I’m planning to make a BUNCH of embroidery projects for my friends & family this year, and organizing everything was starting to become… a lot. I had lists upon lists of thread numbers, patterns, fabric I needed to buy, hoop sizes… it was a lot. I was tired. So I started mocking up a gift planner sheet where I could record everything I needed.

Then, I started working on a planner for my decorations, to start cataloguing everything I had and figuring out if we would need to buy more lights (aka which of ours died during the year they were in storage). From there, I started making all kinds of parts to this personal planner: bucket lists, shopping lists, cookie backing lists, a memories sheet to add to my scrapbook. I showed it to Danny once I had it printed and he said: “are you going to share this on your blog?”

It hadn’t even occurred to me to share it, but I started digging around on Pinterest and there are some Christmas planners out there… but so many of them put the onus on gifts and buying and planning out your Black Friday. That’s not something I’m super interested; I just needed one place to keep my lists, keep a running tab on my embroidery projects (and who I’ve gotten a gift for and who I haven’t, so I don’t have to crawl under the Christmas tree to check), and maybe write down a few important memories.

I thought: why wouldn’t other people enjoy this?

So here it is: the Christmas planner of your dreams. It includes:

• 3 pages of gift lists to record who has a gift & who needs a gift (plus a notes section for any details, such as crafting supplies). This is perfect if you like making gifts, like I do!

• A decoration planner to record what you have where. Keeping track of decorations always feels like a chore. Come February, I end up realizing I’ve had bits of decor still up, with everything else packed away.

• A shopping list for home, work & school, and “misc” to help keep you organized when it comes to remembering if you need more flour or powdered sugar for those super important sugar cookies.

• A bucket list to keep track of movies that you must watch, activities that make your Christmas (trip to the Christmas tree farm, anyone?), cookies that you love to make, and more.

• A memories page to record the best things that happened, everything you did, and your memories of Christmas day right away. This page also includes a section of things to remember for next year, like that your kiddo loved a specific movie or song!

• A page just for Christmas Eve & Day to write down your plans. This page actually has two sections for Christmas eve because I found I needed much more room than was available! But you can use the second section for notes or Boxing Day!

I keep mine in a folder on my desk, but I plan to laminate the pages once Christmas is over to save in our family binder. You can keep yours loose leaf if you want, put them in a binder, cut them up to stick in your planner—whatever works!

I hope you love this planner as much as I do. To download, click the button below—it will take you to a separate landing page, but don’t worry! Your planner is well within reach.

Thanks for reading & happy holidays! If you’d like more planners like this one, let me know in the comments!

2 Free Winter iPhone Background Wallpapers

In the meadow we can build a snowman

and pretend that he is Parson Brown!

Halloween is OVER! Done! Finito! And you know what that means?

That sound? In the distance? What is that?

It’s me, slam dunking my pumpkins into the garbage can and throwing my Christmas decorations.

I love Autumn. I do. I love it! But I think I might love Christmas just a smidge more. And I am of the belief that Christmas starts November 1, no question about it. It does not help that the weather here has been freezing cold. I want a fire (we’re getting a fireplace installed SOON). I want a Christmas tree. I want Christmas movies. I want it ALL! The whole shebang!

Friday morning, I woke up and immediately searched out some winter-y iPhone wallpapers on Pinterest. The results were… not my favorite. I didn’t want anything too Christmas-y yet, but I didn’t want it to be Thanksgiving themed. I decided to make my own, because why not?

You have two options to choose from: blue mountains & green pine trees. Both look lovely (if I do say so myself). To download, click the buttons below. Happy November! Stay warm!

How a Shanti Bowl Can Help with Meditation

You might be wondering: Michelle, what is a Shanti bowl?

Well, let’s start at the beginning.

Ever since July when I got laid off, I’ve been struggling a lot with anger. Sometimes, I will get so angry, I just want to scream at somebody. I’ve never really had a temper before and while I think I can be a bit of a whiner (I just took a DNA test, I have a Taurus rising, yo I got whining problems, it’s the Taurus in me), I never would have called myself angry. I don’t like arguing or fighting; I’ve never raised my voice at someone in my life unless it was to stop them from stepping out into the street or something.

But after being laid off, I was angry. I was mad at everyone and damn if they didn’t know it.

My therapist recommended a lot of techniques to help me get this under control. I don’t like being angry; I don’t like feeling like I can’t control an emotion. I especially didn’t like that my anger was irrational and illogical; big things would leave me feeling blank (like finding out I would probably never receive payment for my 265 hours of PTO) and little things would send me careening over the edge (like finding a bug on the wall). I started doing breathing exercises and journaling and slowly, my anger started to get better.

But it was still there, like a tagalong friend that I didn’t want around.

So when Shanti Bowl reached out to me recently, I was excited. Shanti Bowl is a company that makes Tibetan singing bowls. It’s also a company owned by the same person who owns Prana Brush, which I reviewed here. I love being able to support small businesses, especially when I’ve had great results in the past. I’ve been using my Prana dry brush religiously since I received it, so of course I wanted to try a singing bowl!

Funny enough, Danny was perhaps a little bit more excited about the singing bowl than I was: he has used it in his classroom before to help his students practice mindfulness. It was him who taught me how to use it and who primarily plays it for me in the evening.

Here’s a full description of a singing bowl in case you’re still confused:

“According to ancient Tibetan teachings, the existence of singing bowls dates back to the time of Buddha. Singing bowls produce beautiful music which invokes deep meditative and peaceful states. Singing bowls are often used in yoga, reiki, music therapy, and sound healing. The rich harmonies produced by singing bowls help balance the body’s chakras, eliminate stress, and promote holistic healing.”

Basically: it makes a nice noise that helps in meditation, can help relieve stress, and help you feel better.

Sold.

One of the techniques my therapist recommended for both anger and anxiety was to take a big breath in and imagine a pitcher filling with water; then when you exhale, imagine pouring the pitcher out. Over and over, this is very soothing: imagining the feel, the sound of the water, everything. I have found that the singing bowl works especially well when I’m doing this exercise; the sound helps me focus on what I’m doing (breathing, imagining) and nothing else.

In the evening, Danny will often play it while I lie in bed or on the couch and we just have a nice, quiet time together. It sounds boring, but for two people with a young child, who both work jobs that are stressful in different ways… it helps so much.

The best part about this singing bowl from Shanti is that it’s gorgeous! I keep it on a shelf in my living room and I have gotten so many questions about it from people when they visit or watch my Instagram stories. Here’s another quote from Shanti Bowl:

“Our handmade singing bowls are unparalleled in beauty and quality. Each bowl is carefully hand-crafted by skilled Tibetan artisans using traditional techniques. In accordance with an ancient Tibetan formula, our singing bowls are made of “panchaloga”, which is a Sanskrit word meaning a five-metal alloy that includes copper, zinc, iron, and traces of gold and silver. Our bowls create an incredible sound with rich, warm and vibrant overtones. Each bowl also comes with a gorgeous hand-carved wooden mallet. The result is a beautiful piece of functional art with incredible healing properties.”

Whether you are more interested in how pretty they are or how they can help you meditate (or you just want to make fun music), a Tibetan singing bowl would make a great, unique Christmas gift for someone in your life (or yourself, let’s be honest).

If you’re struggling with anxiety, anger, or depression, they can help so much with meditation and focusing in on your breathing, how you feel, and releasing the negative feelings you’re holding onto. I highly recommend it!

To learn more about Shanti Tibetan singing bowls, click here. You can also learn how to play a singing bowl (super helpful as a novice!).

Beauty Review: It Cosmetics Confidence in a Cleanser

Winter is a rough time for our skin. In the past week here in Oregon, the weather has gone from normal October weather to bitterly cold; I woke up this morning to the temperature being 22 degrees. 22 DEGREES! Fahrenheit! That’s low. My skin, of course, did not get the notice of the weather and therefore, was not fully prepared. I have thus been left with dry patches on my cheeks (typical), as well as my elbows, knees, ankles, and anywhere else that really feels like rebelling.

In short: I’m quite the sight right now, but I’m working on it.

One thing that has been helping a lot is the It Cosmetics Confidence in a Cleanser, which I’ve been using for about a month. I first got it in my Ipsy Bag as an add on sample, then decided for my birthday to buy a full size bottle. The sample size lasted me quite a while and the full size is 5 fluid ounces, which will probably last me quite a while. (This is all to say: when I talk about the price, I definitely feel like it’s worth it for the amount.)

Here’s what Confidence in a Cleanser promises:

“Developed with plastic surgeons, Confidence in a Cleanser™ is your skin-loving cleanser and serum in one game-changing product! This breakthrough one-step skincare solution gently cleanses and moisturizes while leaving your skin feeling soft, refreshed and perfectly balanced. Ideal for all skin types and ophthalmologist-tested for your sensitive eye area, this sulfate-free and soap-free facial cleanser instantly removes all traces of makeup—even waterproof eye makeup—and improves your skin’s vitality.”

Basically: if you have dry skin, oily skin, acne prone skin, or aging skin (or the very fun combination of all of the above) this is a great cleanser for you.

I have to agree. The thing I like most about this cleanser is how thoroughly it cleans my skin without feeling like I’ve just sucked all the oil off and out of it. It leaves my skin softer and smoother without being super harsh.

One thing to note: it does have fragrance, which I know is a turn off for some people when it comes to their skincare. It smells like citrus fruit to me, which I quite like. My skin isn’t sensitive to fragrance (although perfume does give me headaches), so I don’t mind.

I usually use this after I use Micellar water or jojoba oil to remove most of my makeup. As I’ve written before, this two-step process is often the best for me to get my skin actually clean.

I love how this cleanser makes my skin feel. It’s more moisturizing, which in the winter and fall can be a huge issue for lots of people. Combined with a good chemical exfoliator and a good moisturizer + sealant combo, it’s pretty much the dream cleanser.

In terms of price, a 5 fluid ounce tube (the size I’m holding) costs $29. The sample size (less than 1 fluid ounce) lasted me about 2 weeks, so I suspect this will last me 6-8 weeks, maybe up to 3 months. That’s pretty good! If you are diligent about your skincare, you end up using a lot of cleanser, so for this product, I feel like that’s not a bad price, especially as it comes from a prestige brand.

Have you tried a new product lately? Or have you wanted to try something, but haven’t? Let me know in the comments. What’s working for you lately?