🌿 Self-Care: Who Has Time for That?!
By: Dr. Christa Drakulic, Postdoctoral Fellow
Has anyone ever told you that you need to take time for yourself? 💭
You might think, “In my spare time,” or, “What a joke - I don’t even have a minute to myself.”
Busy lives can make it feel like every moment has to go toward responsibilities. Work, family, relationships, errands, appointments... the list goes on. 🗓️
But here’s another way to think about it:
✨ Taking time for yourself can be as little as a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days - whatever is manageable for you.
What matters isn’t the length of any single moment of self-care. It’s making self-care an intermittent, ongoing part of your life - giving yourself opportunities to recharge, relax, and recover when life starts feeling overwhelming. 🔋
And self-care can be pretty much anything!
💙 Examples of Self-Care
💅 A manicure, pedicure, or massage
💇 Getting your hair done
☕ Taking time to enjoy your favorite coffee or tea
📚 Reading a book
🎬 Catching a movie
👨👩👧👦 Downtime with family or friends
🧘 Meditating
🏃 Exercising, jogging, or taking a walk
🙏 Prayer
🎨 Doing crafts, painting, drawing, or coloring
🌱 Signing up for a group or class that interests you
🏡 Decorating or organizing
🎵 Listening to music
And that’s definitely not an exhaustive list!
📅 “But I Don’t Have Time…”
If you’re someone who isn’t used to downtime - or you’re always on the go - but want to try building self-care into your routine, consider actually scheduling it.
Put it on your calendar. 📆
Set a reminder. ⏰
Treat it like an appointment you intend to keep.
This can help make self-care a habit - and remind you that taking care of yourself deserves space on your calendar, too.
❤️ What About the Guilt?
One more thing: some people feel guilty taking time away from their responsibilities.
Try reframing it.
You’re not shirking your obligations. You’re setting yourself up for success. 🌿
Taking time for yourself doesn’t just help you recharge. It can help you show up more fully - and more effectively - for the people, responsibilities, and things that matter to you.
✨ You don’t need an entire day off to practice self-care. Sometimes, you just need to give yourself permission to take a moment.
If this resonates with you and you’ve been thinking about starting therapy, feel free to reach out to learn more. 💙
Love Needs More Than Communication - It Needs Novelty ✈️💞
By: Dr. Jennifer Merthe-Grayson, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Most couples think relationship problems start with poor communication. And sometimes they do. But sometimes the deeper problem is simpler: the relationship has gone emotionally flat from too much sameness. 🔁
That is where novelty comes in.
Novelty is not just a bonus in love - it can be a lifeline. It is not about chasing constant thrills or trying to turn your relationship into a rom-com. It is about bringing back curiosity, energy, and presence. When life becomes a loop of errands, work stress, dishes, calendars, and sleep, couples can start feeling less like romantic partners and more like efficient co-managers. 🗓️🍽️😅
Travel often changes that.
There is something powerful about leaving the familiar together. In a new place, even small moments feel more alive. You have to make decisions together, adapt together, laugh together, and sometimes get a little lost together. 🧳🌍🚆 Your partner is no longer just the person across from you discussing bills or dinner plans. They become the person sharing street food with you in a city neither of you knows, helping you navigate the wrong train platform, or reaching for your hand in a place that feels brand new. 🤝✨
That shift matters.
In couples therapy, people often focus on what is wrong: the conflict cycle, the resentment, the misunderstandings, the distance. And yes, those things matter. But there is another question worth asking: what has become too familiar? What has gone stale? What in the relationship has stopped feeling alive? 🛋️💭
Novelty can interrupt that pattern.
Travel is one of the clearest examples because it pulls couples out of autopilot. It invites surprise, flexibility, play, and attention - all the things long-term relationships quietly lose when routine takes over. Not because love is gone, but because there is no room left for discovery. 🧭💫
Of course, travel is not magic. A plane ticket will not fix betrayal, erase resentment, or solve chronic disconnection. In fact, travel can expose a couple's patterns very quickly. One person wants a detailed itinerary, the other wants to wander. One gets anxious when plans change, the other shuts down under stress. A missed flight or delayed check-in can suddenly become about much more than travel. 😬✈️
But even that can be useful.
Sometimes a new environment shows couples exactly how they function together. It reveals where they are rigid, where they are reactive, and where they still know how to be a team. Seen that way, travel is not just romantic - it is revealing. 🔍❤️
And the bigger truth is this: you do not need a passport to create novelty.
A relationship does not always need a dramatic reset. Sometimes it just needs new energy. A new neighborhood to explore. A dance class. A day trip. A recipe neither of you has made before. A restaurant where you cannot pronounce anything on the menu. A plan that makes both of you feel a little more awake and a little less automatic. 🍝🚗🎶🌆
Because love needs safety, yes. But it also needs movement. It needs surprise. It needs moments that make two people see each other again instead of simply managing life side by side. 💕⚡
Sometimes the most healing question a couple can ask is not, "What are we doing wrong?" but "What have we stopped exploring together?" 🧡