Category Archives: Willing Ways Articles

Creating Your Ultimate Self-Care List

Creating Your Ultimate Self-Care List Feature

I think many of us, if not most, have a list of things we’d really like to do, but don’t, because we think we’re undeserving. Do you have such a list? It might not be something you’re even aware of. But it might linger in the back of your mind. You might get hints of[…]

27 Things People With a Positive Body Image Know

27 Things People With A Positive Body Image Know

I used to think that people who are thin and muscular (and thereby fit our odd, ridiculous Western standards) absolutely love their bodies. How could they not? I also used to think that I couldn’t love or even like or even accept my body until I lost weight, until I actually deserved to love it.[…]

Feast on Your Life

Feast on Your Life

In our society, restriction is perfection. It is beauty. Restriction is seen as a correct, desirable approach and path. We glorify it. We yearn to adhere to it. We see it everywhere. Restrict the number of calories and carbs you eat. Restrict the amount of dessert. Restrict your portions. Don’t even think about having pasta,[…]

Sharing Our Shame

Sharing Our Shame

I just penned a piece for our main blog about being ourselves, what this really means and what it really looks like. One of the psychologists I interviewed shared this story with me: A young man was deeply ashamed about his enormous debt from student loans and credit cards. He didn’t want anyone to know, including his[…]

Parenting For Positive Identity

Parenting for Positive Identity

Identity. It’s a complicated concept that defies easy definition. Yet it is at the heart of the lifelong question, “Who am I?” How we answer includes how much we value ourselves and how safe and competent we feel in the social world. Although it can and does change in response to life experience, the foundation[…]

Money Matters

Money Matters

“She’s my expensive one.” The mother sitting beside me at the local community pool points to one of her three teenage daughters. “She’s the one who just has to have clothes from the GAP. She won’t wear anything that doesn’t have a designer label. The others are happy with what we can get at Penney’s[…]

Teenage Anger

Teenage Anger

Teen anger takes many forms. It may be expressed as indignation and resentment, or rage and fury. It is the expression of teenage anger — the behavior — that we see. Some teens may repress their anger and withdraw; others may be more defiant and destroy property. They will continue their behavior, or it may[…]

Do You Need More Sleep?

Do you need more sleep

The answer is probably “yes.” The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has declared the national lack of sleep an “epidemic”. Let that sink in a minute. The CDC, the department focused on illness (and the prevention thereof), is using an incredibly strong term usually reserved for illnesses such as HIV and influenza. Yet, we throw away[…]

Reducing Stress: Coping With What You Can & Can’t Control

Reducing Stress Coping With What You Can & Can’t Control

Stress can lead us to skip self-care, bash our bodies and overeat. It can leave us feeling overwhelmed — and out of control. And that can seem like the worst feeling. Ever. You feel like you’re barreling through life on a train with no track, about to collide with anything and everything in your path.[…]