Category: Wellness

Many of you have never spent this much time with your partner. Welcome to my world.

I’ve been working from home with Mr. H since 2017. Not just working from home together…we run a business together. When we first started our business that fateful year, chuckles, murmurs—and probably some divorce bets—rose from the crowd. Everyone thought we were going to straight-up ruin our marriage.

Well, we survived. We’re on track to celebrate our 15-year anniversary in a few weeks and our business is still around.

When COVID came into our lives, we were oddly prepared for it. We had already been spending the majority of our time at home together—because of the nature of our work and because of our commitment to ditching alcohol for a while.

In a weird way, we were self-quarantined before the COVID quarantine. That didn’t necessarily make things any easier, because we certainly mourned the months of pre-lockdown isolation when we could have been interacting more with humans. “For fun,” we also moved across the country during the pandemic.

I’m not a marriage therapist or a relationship coach, but I have a decent amount of experience being a shut-in with my husband. During various quarantine conversations, I noticed clients and friends started dropping hints that they wanted me to reveal our secrets to shut-in marriage success. Here you go…

Continue reading “How to Keep Your Marriage Healthy During Quarantine” →

When was the last time you really asked yourself: How are you doing? Not in the same way you throw around “how are you doing?” as a glorified greeting in everyday conversations.

You’ve worn out the question that way, like all the rest of us. Over the years “how are you doing?” lost its true sense of care and curiosity, becoming as numb as the canned responses to that rhetorical question…

• I’m good.
• Fine. And, how are you?
• Doing great. Busy, but great.

Most of the time we don’t give ourselves a chance to answer the rhetorical “how are you doing?” because we never ask it. Instead, we focus on a very different question: What are you doing?

Continue reading “How Are You Doing?” →

In month five of not drinking alcohol, I knew I was a different person. My hairstylist confirmed this when I walked into the salon for my appointment. I’ve been seeing her for years, yet she suddenly didn’t recognize me.

The last time I saw her for a hair appointment was month one. Back then giving up alcohol was yet another “booze break experiment” I had committed to.

But, that day in month five, my hairstylist gave me the funniest look. An awkward silence lingered in the air in the tiny salon reception area. Normally, it’s a cheerful “Hey, lady…how have you been?”

She was about to ask me if I needed a walk-in appointment when I said “hello” and broke the spell.

“Britt! Shit, I didn’t recognize you for some reason.”

I knew what the reason was. I was a different person now…inside and out.

Continue reading “6 Months Without Alcohol and Life is Beautiful” →

I was on my way to the spa when I halted on the sunny sidewalk to grope around the inside of my canvas rucksack. I confirmed that my fear was warranted. I had forgotten my optional clothing.

Never before would I have called this buns-out little number a modest garment. However, when you’re wearing a bikini at a clothing optional spa, you’re pretty much wearing a nun’s habit.

Why partake in a clothing optional spa if you’re uncomfortable with being naked? Great question.

Continue reading “My First Clothing Optional Spa Adventure” →

How you start your day is how you shape it. If you don’t start your day the way you want to, someone else will shape it for you. This applies to anyone: a student, a professional, an entrepreneur, or a parent.

The term “golden hour” defines this fragile moment in time. The golden hour is a critical time for saving a life and savoring a life.

In the medical industry, it is “the first hour after the occurrence of a traumatic injury, considered the most critical for successful emergency treatment.” In photography, it is roughly the first hour of light after sunrise, and the last hour of light before sunset, when the quality of light produces optimal photographs.

Photographers sometimes call it the “magic hour.”

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