Just Say NO to the Mom Jeans!

By Kristen K. Brown

“I only wanna wear a dress and dancing shoes!”  These are common words from my 2.5 year old every day before school.  As I slip on my elastic-waist mesh shorts and perfectly worn in men’s’ gray Hanes t-shirt, my work-from-home uniform, I wonder if I’m doing myself justice by wearing comfortable clothes instead of fashionable ones.  And if I were to elevate my style to be trendier, even at home where only the dog sees me, would it also elevate my self-confidence and happiness?

Andy Warhol said, “Everything in your closet should have an expiration date on it, the way milk and bread do.”  But what is the timeframe before it’s time to purge the old to make room for the new? 

5 Reasons Gardening Is Good For You

By Kristen K. Brown

Some people can’t imagine why some other people love digging in the dirt.  It’s a messy job that gets our clothes, hands, and, inevitably, face, dirty when wiping the sweat from our brows.  It requires patience while we wait for our plants, flowers and produce to reach their full potential.  It takes time to dig, water, weed and prune to keep our plantings beautiful.  So why do so many people love the act of gardening when it’s messy, time-consuming and requires unending patience – sometimes even years of waiting for full bloom? 

The benefits of gardening greatly outweigh the downsides.  For so many, gardening is therapeutic. The act of being outside communing with nature offers peace and solitude because we are connecting with the Earth in so many ways.  And being in the garden is often a place of silence where we can reflect or meditate without distraction or outside demands on our time.  Here are just a few benefits of gardening.

Creativity 101: Find Your Spark

By Kristen K. Brown

As we age, most of us spend more time working, raising kids and managing our lives than playing and being creative.  Those carefree days of coloring, reading, writing finger-painting and craft time decrease as our responsibilities increase.  This morning, my two-and-a-half year old daughter asked, “Mom, color with me please.”  I was wrapped up in a work email and said, “I can’t right now.  Mommy is working.”  After a few minutes, I looked over at her and she had proceeded to color all over the white kitchen wall with marker.  Now, I could have been upset.  But I wasn’t.  It was my fault for letting her have the markers. (Luckily, they were washable.)  And it was my fault for not paying attention to her and taking five minutes to color a picture instead of working on a work email.  That got me thinking about creativity and why, as we age, we let go of the simple pleasures that can be so beneficial for our minds and bodies. 

Movies for Stress Relief

By Kristen K. Brown  

Movie awards season is upon us!  We have viewed the playoffs of the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.  But in a couple of weeks is the big Kahuna of them all – the Oscars – where the best movies of the year will compete for gold.  And as a warm-up, on Friday night will be the Spirit Awards, an annual celebration of the accomplishments in independent film. 

So how does this relate to health and wellness?  Movies have the power to transform us.  We sit in a dark theatre or our own living rooms and find ourselves crying, laughing, afraid, amazed and every other emotion a human being can have simply by the power of the images, words and sounds on screen.