Blog

Building Resilience During the Pandemic: The Mom Show Podcast

I recently had the opportunity to discuss how moms can build resilience during the pandemic with Lindsay Aerts of The Mom Show. Living through a pandemic can increase stress and anxiety as moms face challenges such as canceled plans, loss of childcare, and isolation. Resilience is what helps us get through these and other difficult situations.

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Our Definition of "Good Mothering" is Bad For Mental Health

Preparing to be a “good mother” is emphasized in Primary, Young Women’s, and continues as a central thread woven throughout Relief Society lessons and discussions. Unfortunately, it turns out that many of our beliefs about “good mothering” are correlated with poor maternal mental health. When I first read findings from a study published in The Journal of Child and Family Studies that suggest that five specific beliefs about mothering–essentialism, fulfillment, stimulation, challenging, and child-centered–are correlated with poorer mental health among mothers with young children, I thought to myself, “These beliefs align with how we, in America, and in LDS culture define good mothering!”

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5 Ways to Cultivate More Optimism: Studio 5

We've all faked a smile to get past a rough patch, but there are ways to actually increase our happiness naturally. It's true that some people may be more prone to having a positive outlook- whether because of their genetics, environment, or upbringing. However, there are still strategies that all people can use in order to train themselves to "look up" a little more. Here are some ways to cultivate optimism in your life:

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