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A Vet Answers: What Do I Do For Puppy Separation Anxiety And Puppy Blues?
A Vet Answers: What Do I Do For Puppy Separation Anxiety And Puppy Blues?

There were so many things that I couldn’t have imagined would come with puppy parenthood — long nights, unexpected “do we think he actually ate that?” accidents, and lately a big focus on both our puppy’s mental health and our own.

We got Chauncey last spring when we were already a few months into lockdown in New York City. Given his age (he’ll be 1-year-old on March 9th!) the only world he’s really known includes us being home all the time and having very limited contact with other humans or the outside environment. We didn’t realize just how much this small world setup would impact him until he got all his shots and was able to start going on walks in NYC. He hated it. We would have to drag him to make it as far as the corner and we’d both be frustrated and anxious that we would just turn back around and go home.

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blog, wellness, mental healthVivian Nunezpuppy, puppy blues, puppy anxiety, puppy separation anxiety, separation anxiety, mental health, puppy parent, new puppy, vetComment
How The Artist's Way Is Helping My Mental Health And Creativity
How The Artist's Way Is Helping My Mental Health And Creativity

I’d seen The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron on bookshelves for years, but had never picked it up. To be honest, I only picked it up in January because it was the main read of a class I had signed up for through Literary Arts. Sifting through their website a few months ago, I was drawn to the course because it said it was dedicated to helping students cultivate a writing habit, which is something I felt I was missing.

I could have never imagined what the first six weeks of the class - and of working through The Artist’s Way - would actually entail. True to its name, it is a recovery workbook and it weaves into more than just your creative life. I still have six weeks to go in the program, but I have already felt such a shift in my own process.

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blog, mental healthVivian Nunezcreativity, creative, mental health, the artist's way, julia cameron, creative block Comments
The Benefits I've Seen From Taking Daily Vitamins (Love Wellness Review)
The Benefits I've Seen From Taking Daily Vitamins (Love Wellness Review)

Towards the end of last year a few things became abundantly clear to me:

  1. I am closer to 30 than I am to 20

  2. I had no real physical health routines that grounded me in the midst of life changes

  3. My body had taken a big toll over the last few months because I was walking a lot less

I’m so committed to my mental wellness routines that I sometimes forget I live in my body and that a part of that is a responsibility to nourish it in the right ways. Every part of our being is interconnected and ignoring one part sends ripple effects through them all. I know this because at the end of 2020, I was feeling the most sluggish, bloated, and uncomfortable in my body that I have ever felt.

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blog, wellnessVivian Nunezdaily vitamins, physical health, wellness, mental healthComment
My February Mental Wellness Routine
My February Mental Wellness Routine

January was one of the hardest months I’ve had in the last year. I am definitely hitting my COVID wall. All I could think about these past few weeks was how much I missed the old routines that were so mine a year ago and now are nonexistent. It hasn’t helped that the days in Portland are so short right now. At its worst the sun was rising close to 8am and setting by 4pm. The grey cloudy skies got old pretty quickly and I missed the sun, warmth, and just a visual reminder that life didn’t look like how I felt.

The strain I’ve felt on my mental health is something I’m working to relieve. As a result, a lot of my February mental wellness routine is catering to where I actually am versus where I wish I was (in sunny Mexico and feeling like life was great and COVID-free). While part of me is frustrated because I wish the same things would work all the time, the truth is that my routines have to iterate to respond effectively to my mental health.

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blog, mental healthVivian Nunezmental health, mental wellness, yoga, writing, journaling, the artist's way, therapy, routine, habitsComment
How To Stop Failing At Journaling
How To Stop Failing At Journaling

I have to be honest - the title is clickbait, mostly because I don’t actually think you can “fail” at journaling, but I do think that most of us think that we do. I have stopped and started journaling so many times over the last few years. Each time I started for a different reason and stopped for a different reason.

The most harmful perspective we can own when trying to journal is that there’s only one way or one reason to do it. Each of us are navigating so many different lived realities at any given moment, if journaling is a tool we’re using to navigate those times then it’s bound to be as unique as our circumstances are. It can feel like because there’s a label for it “journaling” that it should be as structured as “eating” in that you do it at a specific time and for a specific amount of time.

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blog, personal growthVivian Nunezjournaling, journal, growth, personal growth, mental health, creativity, writing, habitsComment
January Reads: 3 Books On Connection, Hard Lived Experiences, And The Biology Of It All
January Reads: 3 Books On Connection, Hard Lived Experiences, And The Biology Of It All

January was a rough month. Apparently I’m not alone because we’re all seemingly hitting the same COVID wall, at the same exact time. In an effort to try to bring myself some joy and comfort, I’ve been working to list out the better habits that have come from a whole year mostly at home. I wrote about my list making habit earlier this week.

At the top of that list is that I’ve been making more and more time to read. I spent so much of the beginning of my career hustling to be as productive as possible and traveling a ton that if I got through one book a month it would be a miracle. Now I’m getting through so many and they’re bringing me joy in different ways.

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blog, personal growth, wellnessVivian Nunezbooks, goodreads, the anatomy of grief, the power of ritual, the beauty of what remainsComment
What We're Trying To Ease Our Puppy’s Anxiety (Plus Our Own Puppy Blues)
What We're Trying To Ease Our Puppy’s Anxiety (Plus Our Own Puppy Blues)

Our puppy struggles with anxiety. I struggle with a lot of puppy blues as a result.

Back in November is when we first had the “official” conversation with our puppy’s vet. Our biggest comment to her was honestly that we just wanted our pup to feel safer and more excited moving through life. Back then everything from a walk to a car ride felt like we were triggering his trembles and shakes. Leaving him alone hasn’t been an option for us since we got him and his stage-5 clinging makes it hard for us to work effectively at home. We knew that nothing would change over night, but we wanted to be on a better path.

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blog, mental healthVivian Nunezpuppy, puppy blues, new puppy, puppy parent, puppy anxiety Comment
Write A List Of What Is Helping And Hurting Your Creativity
Write A List Of What Is Helping And Hurting Your Creativity

I am drowning in the dark gloomy days of Portland. At the top of my list of things that are currently hurting my mental health, creativity, and overall quality of life are gloomy days I cannot control. On the right side of a column is a long list dedicated to all that is helping me in this exact moment.

One of the ways we trip up when assessing our quality of life is to measure it up against the ruler of what used to make us happy or to only notice the things that used to make our days harder. While those details are amazing to have in our back pocket as context, the only way we’re going to address our right now is to notice our right now.

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personal growth, blogVivian Nunezcreativity, personal growth, mental healthComment
How To Start Dating Yourself During COVID
How To Start Dating Yourself During COVID

I forgot how to date myself. My long days in coffee shops, wanderings into little shops, or traveling (oh man, traveling!) were all replaced by couch time and more couch time. It didn’t happen all at once - it happened across an entire year.

I was looking through the pictures in my phone and at the top of 2020 it’s image after image of a daily life I miss so much and that is still whiles away. I won’t be back to London any time soon. Working out of a different coffee shop every other day won’t be a part of my regular routine for as long as COVID is a part of my regular routine.

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blog, wellnessVivian Nunezdating, solo date, self care, mental health, personal growthComment
Week 1 Of Yoga With Adriene's Breath 30-Day Challenge
Week 1 Of Yoga With Adriene's Breath 30-Day Challenge

I started taking yoga classes back in 2019. I only ever took one per week and the level was ultra-beginner. I loved it. My goals when practicing those yoga classes weren’t (and still really aren’t) about acing it, but instead about learning what “practice” actually means.

A bit of that intention was lost during lock-down. Since lock-down started last March, I’ve turned to YWA videos on days when I needed something specific, whether it was to stretch or to simply feel calmer, but I had a hard time sticking to a regular practice. I’ve landed on it being a perfection thing for me, something I’m actively working on in therapy. I grew up always striving for perfection, but now that I’m settling into my late 20s, I’m especially craving different things than what that perfection has ever offered.

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blog, wellnessVivian Nunezyoga, mental health, mental wellnessComment
My January Mental Wellness Routine
My January Mental Wellness Routine

I’ve had a lot of big conversations lately about the importance of showing the process, not just of the extreme hard moments, but also of the moments when you’re building so that the hard moments don’t hit as hard.

Whether you’re navigating your mental health or grief, it can get hard. Days that randomly surprise you with all the feels usually aren’t the same days when you’re objectively learning what makes you feel better. Who has the bandwidth for that when you’re just trying to survive?

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blog, mental health, lifestyleVivian Nunezmental health, mental wellness, self-careComment
An Escape From Everything — Getaway House
An Escape From Everything — Getaway House

I didn’t know where we were going for my birthday. Tyler had planned it all. It was amazing. Not only because it’s really nice to have someone else take on logistics, but because I am huge on birthdays (big days in general) and adding thoughtfulness to make a moment out of them.

A month ahead of my birthday, all I knew were the dates I had to block off on my calendar, that we were going somewhere where I probably wouldn’t have phone service, and that it was COVID-safe.

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blog, wellnessVivian Nunezwellness, self care, grief, mental health, getawayComment
The Mental Health Holiday Hack To Keep In Your Back Pocket
The Mental Health Holiday Hack To Keep In Your Back Pocket

Every year I approach the holiday season with trepidation. I have this feeling that settles in like I have been here before and have never been here at all. Mostly because each holiday season is different. Yearly my mental health toolkit acquires more tools on how I can cope with the month of December, but it’s any one’s guess if the old tools will work.

The one hack that has never failed me during the winter holidays, death anniversaries, or other hard grief day is this — make plans you can break.

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blog, mental healthVivian Nunezmental health, holidays, grief, self careComment
Intentions I'm Bringing Into 28
Intentions I'm Bringing Into 28

In an ode to 28, I’ve published two posts that I think pick up where I am right now in my life. The one below is the lighter one. If it feels like I wrote it while listening to Taylor Swift’s “Long Story Short”, well, it’s because I did. It gives you a snapshot of where and how I’m trying to build most of my days.

This essay on Medium is the same but different. It speaks more to all the work I need to put in to get to a place where I can even write things like the below.

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blog, personal growthVivian Nunezbirthday, wellness, mental health, intentions, personal growth, self growthComment
Self-Care Gift Guide 2020
Self-Care Gift Guide 2020

One of my cousins has this personal tradition that to me always seemed revolutionary — every holiday season she buys a gift for herself. Wild.

Coming from a family that’s so centered on others and never coming in contact with the concept of self-care until I was much older, she was my prime example of how happy it could make you to give yourself a gift. Once I started having more room in my disposable income to treat myself during the holiday season, I took my cousin’s tradition and made it my own.

Gift guides during the holidays lean more towards what you can gift others in your life, below you’ll find a list of wellness products or other suggested acts of self-care that can help round out your own holiday self-care plan.

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blog, lifestyleVivian Nunezmental health, self-care, self help, personal growth, holidaysComment