Consider the source. When you get information, look at where or who it’s coming from. Do you trust them? Are they an expert? When someone criticizes you. Do they know why they’re talking about and are they taking chances themselves. Pay no attention to hecklers.


15



“Tell me the story of your day.” (Works better than “how was your day?”


5, 6, 10



Give yourself a break from thinking about yourself.


13, 16, 21



Build something beautiful.


13, 21



“Anger is a wonderful catalyst but a terrible companion.” - Brene Brown


15, 21



Create tech-free zones and times.


10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 21



Painful or unpleasant emotions can’t grow if you stay in the present. (Easy way to do this is to focus on your breathing.)


10, 13, 16, 21



Enroll in a CPR course. Re-certify every year.


13



When you feel like you’re on fire with anger or fear, if you can’t shake it, put that fire to good use.


14



Learn how to sail together


12-15



Blessing for the Brokenhearted: Poem by Jan Richardson ___________ "There is no remedy for love but to love more." – Henry David Thoreau ________________________ ________________________ Let us agree for now that we will not say the breaking makes us stronger or that it is better to have this pain than to have done without this love. __________Let us promise we will not tell ourselves time will heal the wound, when every day our waking opens it anew. ___________Perhaps for now it can be enough to simply marvel at the mystery of how a heart so broken can go on beating, as if it were made for precisely this— as if it knows the only cure for love is more of it, as if it sees the heart’s sole remedy for breaking is to love still, as if it trusts that its own persistent pulse is the rhythm of a blessing we cannot begin to fathom but will save us nonetheless.


20



Give baby a banana before bed and they’ll sleep through the night. (Obviously once they’re on solid food.)


1



There is so much darkness in the world - keep pushing back against it every way you can. Be a force for good.


14, 16, 21



Stay away from anything or anyone that denies or disparages a person’s humanity. (Or a group’s humanity.)


12-21



Most brilliant TED talk I ever saw on living authentically. Step one: decide what you don’t give a f*ck about. Step two: don’t give a f*ck about those things. Always be kind and polite but never be sorry for not giving a $@!#% about stuff you don’t give a $@!#% about.


14, 21



Plan a trip to New York City to see Hamilton.


15



Don’t ask for anything until you’ve done what has been asked of you.


5



Look into YMCA “family camp” in PA.


7



Things are rarely black and white. Most situations (and all people) are complex. A nuanced approach is necessary to understand them. You can’t learn - or love, if you’re judging.


17



My worst fear is that I will be unable to reach you when you’re in pain. All I want as a parent, what my whole job boils down to, is to be there when you need me. How can I help you?


13



Guard your health and fitness as if it were your most valuable possession. (It is.)


14, 17, 21



Ask them “what would it take for you to_____?” (Keep your room clean, stay on top of your homework, feel like you had more control in this situation, etc.) Instead of nagging or lecturing, just ask.


13



“First the pain. Then the waiting. Then the rising.” Glennon Doyle


16, 21



I highly recommend you read The Crane Wife by CJ Houser.


15, 17, 19, 21



Healing doesn’t mean becoming the best version of yourself. It’s learning to love even the worst parts about yourself.


17, 21



Isometrics for “punishment” (wall sits, arm lifts, planks, etc.)


5



Be weird. Be happy. Be you. xoxo


12



There is a cost and a duty to everything we own. Rachel Maddow


16



Send thank you acknowledgemnt for gifts received


1-21



1

ADHD hack for studying or projects- Leave yourself notes about where you left off.


13, 21