You don't have set resolutions that will stress you out and you don't have to spend all your disposable income on self-care products if they aren't going to help you. On this episode, Amy Keller Laird, the founder of Mental, walks us through the expertly vetted products that may fit into your mental health toolkit and how to vet these products in the first place.

Traveling alone is one of my favorite things I’ve learned to do in my twenties. The experience of getting on a plane, landing in a new town, and learning my way around has become a healing, fulfilling practice. But, like any habit you want to build, it does take practice and some forethought.

I’ve been off the pill for almost a full year (this October) and there are so many things I wish I would have known before coming off. Unfortunately, wellness and women’s health in general are such hard topics to find information about on the Internet. I read a really great article in the New York Times this week that outlined just how poorly the healthcare system treats women and ways that anyone (but especially those who are oftentimes mistreated by the healthcare system) can advocate for themselves more forcefully.

As humans we’re amazing at one very specific thing, convincing ourselves that we are the only ones in the world going through any very specific thing. The experience doesn’t matter — it can be full on heartbreak or giddy blissful joy — we’ll exist in a vacuum all the same. It’s comfortable there, we get to process, enjoy, or suffer through those feelings without having to contend with others’ opinions on them.

I started a podcast last May just as Mental Health Awareness Month kicked off. It is one of the most fun projects I am currently a part of. On each episode I get to talk to experts, authors, creators, and coaches (most of them friends or people I’ve admired in the space forever) for an hour and then share that conversation with you.

This August my priority is about embracing and uncovering more of the parts of myself that had to go dormant through the pandemic. I want to fold them in with the parts of myself that I’ve recently discovered. I want to see what the hodgepodge of a Vivian who likes working out looks like when she goes on solo trips. I want to know how the part of me who has a deeper appreciation for storytelling and lyricism shows up when she’s going to a small Nashville writer’s round.

This feels like a Jay-Z, “allow me to reintroduce myself” kind of moment. I realized that while I have built a career around talking about mental health, I don’t regularly check-in about how my own journey with anxiety is going. If you’re new around here, I have been going to therapy since the end of 2013 and it was there that I realized that a lot of the “feelings” I had (and have had since I was a child) were actually anxiety.

Last week we took our first vacation in over a year. It was the first time I completely unplugged and didn’t touch my computer for days — even now, as I write this, I’m doing so on my iPad so that I don’t have to open my computer until after. (It’s actually one of the challenges I’m posing to myself, more below.)

Dr. Sarah Oreck is our new resident therapist on the podcast. I could not be more excited. For her first introduction, she’s unpacking what the last few weeks (if you can imagine it’s only been that long) have done to our nervous systems and trauma responses. She speaks on why it’s okay to focus on your immediate needs, even if the world is on fire, and how to navigate your first go at breathwork.

This week has been a fruitful one. I am trying to get better with folding in real life into my every day work life. I forget sometimes that I have the flexibility to make my schedule whatever it needs to be. I took longer, outdoor lunch breaks this week. I went into the city for lunch with my boyfriend one day. I took more walks. I keep feeling like I’m on the cusp of a lot of new beginnings and I think my decisions are reflecting the peace I’m feeling in my day-to-day life. I hope you’re finding peace in your days too. Now, onto this week’s links.

The founders of Little Honey Money, a new kind of registry, have different paths to motherhood. In this episode, I speak to Erica and Jhoanna about everything from Erica’s birthing experience, Jhoanna’s journey with IVF, and how they’re hoping Little Honey Money will bridge the gap of maternal care (both physical and mental health).

Financial literacy wasn’t as prevalent in my teens and early twenties as it is now. Whether I’m swiping through TikTok or scrolling on Medium, I’ll happen upon more than one writer or creator talking about financial freedom, generational wealth, budgeting, or getting paid what you’re worth. It’s amazing, but for someone who struggles with money anxiety (ehem) it can feel like a mountain you’ll never be able to climb.

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist, the New York Times bestselling author of “Maybe You Should Talk To Someone,” and the co-host of “Dear Therapists.” Our episode feels like the prequel to a really good therapy session. She sheds light on what you should expect from a therapist, how to engage your past and future without hurting your present self, and shares maybe my favorite podcast quote yet, “We always like to say: before diagnosing someone with depression, make sure they aren’t surrounded by assholes…”

I’m a very empathetic person and this is especially true whenever I learn about someone’s grief. Someone else losing a loved one tends to take me back to losing my own mom and it brings up this knot in my throat kind of feeling. Learning about the passing of 19 children and 2 adults in Uvalde, Texas this week has been really hard to start processing. Right now, those who weren’t personally impacted by the loss of life in Uvalde are experiencing something called collective grief.

Self-discovery is a life-long process, Vanessa Villela, star of Selling Sunset, advocates for doing that work. Between losing her sister and navigating grief to figuring what life in a reality show in real time, Villela has turned to the power of her mindset even more. In this episode she speaks to what she’s learned, what she hopes to pass along, and how she wants to use her platform.

I started showing COVID symptoms last week and almost a week later I feel like I’m finally beginning to turn a corner. The first few days were very scary — I had a fever that didn’t really break until day 3 or 4, no matter what we did. Once it did, it felt like the biggest win and like I could see the other side. Now, I’m dealing with a lot of congestion, a wet cough, fatigue, and a ton of brain fog.

It took me a very long time (almost 8 years) to realize that birth control pills just weren’t for me. The straw that broke the camel’s back happened last fall when I realized a new brand I’d started in April (with a slightly new formula) was one of the culprits behind an onset of depression. I finally made the decision to come off the pill at the end of September 2021 and have had 5 menstrual cycles completely off birth control for the first time since my early twenties.

Hi, it’s been a while.

This felt like the “right” first post to come back with because, well, it has been a while since posting on my blog and this is a bit of an explainer.