In Season 4, episode 4 of Parks and Recreation, Donna (Retta) and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) created the tradition of “Treat Yo Self” day. In this episode, they can be seen buying themselves whatever they want for a day. After the airing of that episode in 2011 the phrase “treat yo self” gained popularity. In fact, some people (including the actors themselves per a Google search) grew tired of the phrase after some time.
If this is your first election Congratulations on exercising your right to vote! If you are unable to vote, know you can make a difference in your community in other ways.
Election time can be scary. There is a lot of information and statistics thrown at us constantly, a lot of bickering and fact checking and re-fact checking and it can be exhausting to be a media consumer around these times. It can feel dehumanizing to watch the demographic or culture you belong to being critiqued and debated while the world watches. And yes, these people may control legislature, but us lay people create the culture and environment by how we speak, behave, and advocate in our day to day lives and for those around us. This advice from Madison Franz, a Florida Gulf Coast University Student in 2020, gave some great advice for affirmations during and post-election. They stay relevant today in 2024.
I would love to tell you that as a mental health therapist I have always practiced great self-care and never felt overly stressed or burned out. However, that is not the case. I have experienced seasons of stress and burnout and have had to walk through them and find support just like I am encouraging you to do in this month’s blog.
Many of us start the day with coffee and it is something that we often don’t think twice about. One cup of regular coffee is about 80 to 100mg of caffeine, depending on your beverage of choice. Espresso is about 75 to 150mg a shot. Cold Brew is around 200mg per 16oz serving. Medical guidelines recommend no more than 400mg of caffeine per day. Of course there are individual differences to this standard, but this recommendation comes with the understanding that anxiety, difficulty sleeping, headaches, migraines, and high blood pressure are all risks of over indulgence in caffeine. Simultaneously, moderate caffeine consumption has many potential positive health benefits such as improving brain function, boosting mood, increasing metabolism, lowering risk of stroke, heart disease, and liver damage, as well as boosting beneficial gut bacteria.
Stress, busyness and commitments of all sorts (those involving work or play) have become badges of honor in our society. Rarely are people praised for carving out time for rest or putting boundaries around what they will and will not commit to.
“I like to conceptualize triggers as landmines; we didn’t put them there and neither did the immediate circumstance that put you into this triggered state,” says Harlich. “When one gets stepped on, often nobody sees it coming, nor may anyone even know what landmine was stepped on.”
[Rachel Harlich is a psychotherapist specializing in LGBTQ issues.]
