Resilience is a skill you can learn.

Bring yourself back to the present.

📷: Repost @lewishowes ...

Resting isn’t just about sleeping or binge-watching Netflix. Real rest involves disconnecting from the demands of the world to connect with yourself. It’s about finding activities that rejuvenate you – whether it’s reading a book, taking a walk, or simply sitting in silence.

During rest, the body undergoes tissue repair, muscle growth, and the release of hormones needed to maintain physical health and prevent illness and injury. Rest improves concentration, mental clarity, and creativity, and getting enough rest is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and dementia.

We live in a society that glorifies busyness, where being overworked is worn as a badge of honor. But busy doesn’t equal productive. Busy equals exhaustion. Rest improves our productivity, not detracts from it. 🙏 ...

Strong negative emotional reactions such as anger, fear, and frustration can damage your health when they become how you habitually react. They also disrupt your productivity and creativity, and can harm your relationships.

Where in your life are you most reactive? Is it at home? Work? With a specific issue or person?

#mindfulmonday #mindfulness #mindset #resilience ...

Drop a ♥️ in the comments and tag a friend who you want to send a smile. ...

Raising a child with mental illness and Autism has been my resilience-building breeding ground. We began therapy when Evan was just 11-months old, and he has been in one form of therapy or another ever since. The lessons we have learned from countless therapists have been invaluable.

It’s hard to believe that Evan is turning 21 this month! I am so incredibly proud of the fact that he still asks me to share his story. He understands the shame and stigma attached to mental illness and Autism and wants to help change that. As a mom, this is my proudest accomplishment.

On the days when I doubt my own strength, I look back on the lessons I’ve learned (and the ones I’m still learning):

1️⃣ Unconditional love

Raising any child is hard work. Raising a child with Autism is a true lesson in unconditional love. It’s easy to get angry with the people in our lives who suffer from Autism or another mental illness. They can be irritable, forgetful, irrational, difficult, and sometimes violent. But, I’ve learned that love is not dependent on behavior, especially when it is someone who is close to you.

2️⃣ Acceptance

When you have a child, you have dreams for his/her future. When it doesn’t turn out that way, you have to give yourself space to grieve. Learning to accept what is rather than what could have been has become a life-changing practice for me that I use in a lot of areas of my life.

3️⃣ Empathy

All people want is to be loved and accepted; it is a fundamental truth. I honestly cannot even imagine how difficult this has been for Evan, but I have learned to try to see things through his eyes, understanding that he is doing the very best he can.

4️⃣ Support

You cannot do this alone. It takes a village of family, great friends, and therapy pups. I credit my support group and my teachers at @namicentraltx for helping me survive some of my roughest times.

Join me this month in helping build awareness and acceptance for people with Autism. #worldautismmonth ...