When you look back on the past year, what feelings come up? Maybe feelings of gratitude — for the relationships you’ve built & strengthened, a successful year at work, or the growth you experienced personally. Maybe last year was a particularly trying one, and you feel the heaviness of sadness, loss, or worry. 

Whatever this past year looked like for you, the start of a new year is a season for reflection on the past and a hopeful look towards what’s ahead. When you close your eyes and picture yourself a year from today doing this same activity, what do you hope to have accomplished? How do you want to feel? What are your goals – and what actions do you need to take to achieve them? 

With these things in mind, you can now set your resolutions accordingly.

New Year's Resolutions are a hot topic at this time of year. While great in theory, they are notoriously challenging for people to achieve and sustain. The good news? Failed resolutions tend to have two things in common. That means...

How To Gain Control In Times of Uncertainty

By: Audrey Grunst, LCSW

Change and uncertainty can feel scary and overwhelming. But, change is a fact of life. It can be big or small, planned or unexpected – and it can carry with it both negative and positive feelings. That’s what makes it so complex. If you focus on learning how to cope ahead during times of uncertainty, you will gain control of your emotional responses and likely be able to tolerate the ebbs and flows that inevitably come with life. 

Are You A Responder or A Reactor?

Have you ever considered if you respond to situations or react to them? Imagine being at work and you receive an email from your boss about a big change in process that will add a lot more work to your plate. Is your knee-jerk reaction to fire off a scathing email response, storm out of the building, bang your hands on your desk in exasperation, or run to a co-worker and immediately start complaining about how management could possibly be doing this to yo...

Free Your Mind Through Creativity

By: Audrey Grunst, LCSW

Creativity shouldn’t be stressful, but for many people, the thought causes anxiety. #Spoileralert: you don’t have to be an “artist” to use creativity to express yourself. Creativity is a state of being and art therapy is a powerful tool that helps people express themselves! It’s time to take your inner words and learn to release them through art expression. 

Go with the Flow

A "flow state" is a mental state in which a person performing an activity or task is fully immersed in a feeling of energized attention, full participation and sense of fulfillment.

The idea of flow has been well researched and shown to exist within many different forms. It's a healthy state for our brains to thrive, grow and recharge! 

Flow comes from many different places, and for most it’s when you’re feeling hyper focused and relaxed while doing something. That could be playing a musical instrument, working on a physical and repetitive task, playin...

Mental Health Experts Share Their Top 3 Tips for Surviving The Holiday Season 

By: Brittany Polacek, LPC & Audrey Grunst, LCSW

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” a song that rings throughout elevators, restaurants and shopping malls at this time of year. But what if it’s not how you actually feel? Instead of feeling the joy and cheer, you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, anxious, disconnected, lonely or stressed. We are all continuing to navigate the transitional period of the pandemic in 2021. This holiday season may be your first time traveling, or seeing extended family, or attending a large gathering, and so even if the holiday season has always been a joyous experience in the past, this year may feel different ⎼ and that’s okay! Mental health experts Audrey Grunst, LCSW & Brittany Polacek, LPC are here to help with their top three tips to surviving the holiday season.

3 Tips For Surviving The Holidays

Tip #1: Create Boundaries

Boundaries are rules or limits that we...

An Open Letter From An Educator To An Educator

By: Stephanie Smith

What we are experiencing is hard. Regardless of what your iteration of pandemic teaching has looked like, I know it’s been challenging personally and professionally. I know you’re worried about your students, their progress, and their social-emotional well-being. I know you’re trying somehow to embrace a new normal. 

I know you’re tired. I am, too. 

I get that we can’t pour from empty cups, but for just a moment, can we pause? 

Self-care cannot be something to check off the list. Self-care is not one-size-fits-all. 

Self-care is not an initiative. 

Cultural shifts that value teacher mental and physical wellness take time to fully impact the system. Incredibly, the conversation is starting. It’s helpful that many see our value in a new light and want us to be well. 

But, a slow shift is not enough right now, and we’re third-year pandemic-teacher-tired. 

So, what can you do to feel better and take care of yoursel...

More Peace, Anyone?

By: Stephanie Bersh, Simply Bee Resident Yoga Teacher

I had the pleasure of co-hosting a wellness workshop with our therapist Jacqueline Ritz, LCPC. We created this workshop in response to the overwhelm and stress so many of us are feeling as our lives return back to a busier state post-pandemic.  As a provider for mental health, we understand how much of a toll stress can place on our emotional state and physical bodies. Our goal was to share tools that would help us manage that stress and find more peace to quiet the constant chatter and to-do list in our heads.

As we joined together on the mat, we spoke about the shift back to busy schedules and overly demanding days. We shared our struggles to quiet our minds and the exhaustion felt from overactive thoughts rooted in stress and anxiety. 

Jacqueline started with a breathing technique called Wim Hof that had us move through multiple cycles of deep breathing and a long hold at the end of the breath cycle.  We a...

COVID-19: A Story Of Hope

By: Audrey Grunst, LCSW

The COVID-19 pandemic crashed down on me like a fierce mid-afternoon thunderstorm.  It was unexpected, jarring and left me soaking wet in disbelief. It seemed that no matter where I turned, the rain surrounded me. At first I accepted the rain, then I refused it, then I briefly tricked myself into using playfulness to temporarily deny the reality of what was happening. But then I was forced (quite literally) into shelter and forced to fall on my knees and surrender to the storm that has still yet to pass.

Every day this week, I wake up in hope that it will stop raining—but I look and only see flooding all around me. I pray for relief—but I am only met with uncertainty. The despair creeps in and I can no longer fight the rain. But even in dark hours when the rain is beating down on me, I force myself to find my inner voice of hope. Sometimes, I hear a little whisper that tells me that I will survive. I hear the whisper in the dark hour...

Embracing The Uncertainty

By: Audrey Grunst, LCSW

The universe is calling to reorganize your life.  Your life has a funny way of revealing what next steps of growth are required of you. It is hard to change the path you have been on because to change your course of direction is a call to walk into the unknown. The unknown place is like dropping you off into the woods with no compass to guide you. When you arrive at this unknown place you look outside of yourself, for a trail carved into the earth by somebody else. This unconscious urge to find a forged path will always be your initial response to crisis but this is not the task at hand, the task is to discover your own course that includes physical, mental and emotional skills that will serve you now and far beyond.

It’s time to stop looking around to see if someone else has figured it out. It’s time to turn inward and discover that it is your job to figure out your own strength and aptitude to move forward.

“You might be tempted...