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    • The Keto Diet
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Anxiety

Anger Management for Kids | Learn how to teach children self-control with these anger management tips for kids. From coping skills and behavior charts to fun kids games and effective stress relief tips and toys, teaching children to control big emotions isn’t as hard as you might think. We’ve even rounded up 26 super fun anger management activities for kids that feel more like play than work!

Anger Management for Kids: 8 Meaningful Ways to Calm Big Emotions

Taking Care of You: 6 Ways to Improve Emotional Health | Looking for self-care activities for women to boost your physical, emotional, and mental health? We’ve got 6 simple tips to help you maintain your emotional health on the regular as well as 20 simple but effective self-care activities to help you feel good and love yourself when you can’t afford therapy. Perfect for adults, for moms, for college students, for teens, for groups, and for individuals, these ‘all about me’ DIY ideas are for you!

Taking Care of You: 6 Ways to Improve Emotional Health

33 sensory diet activities for kids with autism and/or sensory processing disorder | With occupational therapy tools and ideas, this collection of fun activities is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school-aged kids, and can be practiced both in the home and in the classroom at school. Perfect for parents and teachers alike, we’ve included proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, visual, olfactory, and oral motor activities to address all your child's needs!

Sensory diet activities: 33 fun ideas for kids who need sensory input

Self Esteem Activities for Kids: 11 Fun Ways to Develop Self-Respect | If you’re on the hunt for games, crafts, teaching tools, and therapy ideas for girls and boys to help develop self-esteem and self-confidence, you’ve come to the right place! Perfect for parents, teachers, and even elementary school counsellors, this collection of self-esteem activities for kids is perfect for children in preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, and beyond.

Self Esteem Activities for Kids: 11 Fun Ways to Develop Self-Respect

Anxiety in Children: 12 meaningful ways to calm an anxious child | Raising an anxious child? Looking for anxiety relief for kids? Perfect for parenting and school, these anxiety truths will give you ideas to help understand your child’s feelings and come up with effective stress management tips to help her cope with life. We’ve also included 13 relaxing activities for kids!

Anxiety in Children: 12 meaningful ways to help your anxious child

Looking for the best GAPS recipes for kids? Look no further! From simple breakfast and lunch ideas to fruit snacks, desserts, and creative ways to get kids to consume bone broth, we’ve rounded up 50+ GAPS recipes that are perfect for children and families alike. Using ingredients like coconut oil, almond flour, honey, and maple syrup, these recipes might be dairy free, sugar free, and low carb, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious!

GAPS Recipes for Kids: 50+ Delicious Ideas the Whole Family Will Love

Learn how to teach children self-control with this collection of self-regulation strategies and activities for kids! Whether your child struggles with impulse control as a result of ADHD, autism, or another developmental challenge or delay, or just needs some coping skills and tools to help calm down in the classroom, we have 7+ ideas to help teach your kids about self-regulation, as well as 30 self-control activities to develop and encourage appropriate self-regulatory behavior.

How to Teach Children Self-Control: 7+ Self-Discipline Strategies for Kids

How to Prevent Bullying of Kids | Looking for ways to stop bullying? Whether you’re the parent or teacher of special needs kids, elementary school kids, teens in middle school, or high school students, we’re sharing 9 tips to teach you how to prevent bullying of kids with autism and other developmental disorders as well as 15 inclusive, team building anti-bullying activities to help educate, protect, and empower our youth!

How to Prevent Bullying of Kids with Autism: 9 Ways to Stop Bullying

Autism and Behavioral Problems: 6 Anger Managements Tips for Kids | Autism and anger can be all-consuming. From explosive meltdowns to self-injurious behavior, it’s essential for parents to equip their children with the coping skills they need in the classroom and beyond. We’re sharing our best self-discipline and self-control activities as well as other tips and tools you can use to calm an angry child.

Autism and Behavioral Problems: 8 Tips to Cope with Aggression in Kids

Vestibular System Exercises for Kids | If you’re looking for fun and easy sensory integration activities for autism, we’ve got you covered. We have 16 occupational therapy approved ideas to help improve your little one’s motor skills both at home and in the classroom. Perfect for kids of any age, these core strengthening activities offer a fun way to help develop your child’s vestibular system!

Sensory Integration Activities For Autism: Vestibular System Exercises

How to Potty Train a Child with Special Needs | Potty training a child with autism and other special needs like sensory processing disorder and speech delay can be extremely challenging. From visual schedules and sticker charts to sensory safe products and ideas, we’ve got 11 tips to help parents and special needs kids overcome the challenge of toilet training.

How To Potty Train a Child with Special Needs: 11 Tips That Help

Autism and parenting: 8 Tips to Cope with Caregiver Fatigue | If you’re the parent of a special needs child and you want to find ways to cope with mom burnout, we’re sharing 8 simple tips you can start implementing today to teach you how to be happier and how to be a good mom to your child with ASD. Whether you’re a stay-at-home or working mom, these ideas will help you deal with parental fatigue so you can find the joy in motherhood, even on your toughest days.

Autism and Parenting: 8 Tips to Cope with Caregiver Fatigue

Fidget toys – more specifically, fidget spinners – are all the rage these days, inspiring kids and adults everywhere to figure out how to make a fidget toy themselves. Whether you’re looking for DIY ideas for kids or for teens, big hands or small hands, to help with stress, ADHD, anxiety, autism, or sensory processing disorder, or just to get creative juices flowing with students in the classroom, this collection of DIY fidget toys will NOT disappoint!

How to make a fidget toy: 17 DIY fidget toys for kids

A calm down jar offers a fabulous way for kids (and for adults!) with special needs like autism, sensory processing disorder, OCD, and anxiety to learn the art of self-regulation. We’re teaching you what calm down jars are, and how and why they work, and we’re also sharing 17 DIY calm down jar recipes you can make at home for cheap. We’ve even included some glitter-free calm down jars to inspire you to be creative!

How to make a calm down jar: 17 DIY calm down jar recipes we love

Looking for the best fidget toys for kids with special needs like autism, ADD, ADHD, SPD, OCD, and/or anxiety? Look no further! We’ve rounded up 11 of the best fidgets for children to help keep little hands busy while promoting a sense of calm and improving focus and concentration. Perfect for strengthening the muscles in the hands for motor skills like handwriting, these fun fidget toys will help children, teachers, and parents both in the classroom and at home.

11 of the Best Fidget Toys For Kids with ASD, ADHD, and SPD

Want to know how to be a better person so you can be happier with yourself and in your relationships? We’re sharing one simple tip that will teach you how to be a happy and positive person in only 5 minutes a day! We’re true believers that happiness doesn’t happen by accident, and if you’re up for our gratitude challenge, we’ll teach you how to be happy and give you the motivation you need to be the best version of yourself each and every day!

How To Be a Happy and Positive Person in Only 5 Minutes a Day!

Looking for social development activities to help aid with early childhood development? We’ve got you covered. With 18 fun learning activities to choose from, this collection of ideas will help improve social skills for preschool, kindergarten, and school-aged kids both at home and in the classroom. Whether you’re a parent or teacher, have children with special needs, or need social emotional development ideas, these social development activities are a great place to start!

How to Improve Social Skills: 18 Social Development Activities for Kids

Looking for EASY gluten free and dairy free recipes for kids? Look no further! We’ve rounded up 24 allergy-friendly breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and healthy snack recipes your little ones will love. From Zucchini Banana Oatmeal Pancakes to Paleo Pizza Crust, cooking and baking allergy friendly recipes for kids has never been more enjoyable or rewarding. Make sure to try the Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal – it’s to die for!

24 Simple Gluten Free and Dairy Free Recipes for Kids

Child won’t poop on the potty? You’re not alone. While some parents are able to toilet train their kids early in 3 days (or less!), other children are more stubborn and require a little more TLC before they’ll poo in the toilet. From rewards and sticker charts to books and magical potty training seats, we’re sharing 8 of our best potty training tips to help your little one stop withholding his poop once and for all!

What to Do When Your Child Won’t Poop on the Potty: 8 Tips that Work

Want to stop over eating once and for all? These tips are your ticket to learning how to NOT overeat so you can break free from the deprive > binge > guilt cycle once and for all. Tips 6 and 8 have been real game changes for me!

How to Stop Binge Eating: 12 Tips to Stop Emotional Eating

We all experience some levels of stress and anxiety in our lives, and they can cause lots of health issues, including headaches, knots in your tummy, and insomnia. Fortunately, there are lots of natural coping mechanisms that are both safe and effective - even while pregnant! - to help relieve stress without medications or expensive sessions with a therapist. Here are 10 things that work for us!

How to Relieve Stress Naturally: 8 Tips That Work!

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‘A NEGATIVE MIND WILL NEVER GIVE YOU A POSITIVE ‘A NEGATIVE MIND WILL NEVER GIVE YOU A POSITIVE LIFE.’ —Unknown
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As I was flipping through a magazine a few years ago, I read a study that has been a real game-changer for me.
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It went a little something like this:
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A research group studied feelings of tiredness in 2 groups of people. Both groups got the same amount of sleep and exerted the same amount of energy throughout the study, but the Test Group was led to believe they were more well-rested than they really were.
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The result?
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[Nearly] everyone in the Test Group reported lower levels of fatigue and higher levels of alertness compared to the Control Group, which led the researchers to believe our PERCEPTION of how tired we are plays a huge role in how we actually feel on a daily basis.
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I admit I was skeptical, but I’ve always found that when I stop focusing on the negative and concentrate on the positive instead, I can almost always talk myself out of feeling tired, moody, irritable, impatient, or whatever other negative emotion that’s plaguing me.
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I really believe there is something in the notion that we can change the way we feel simply by changing our perception, and that is more important now than ever.
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So the next time you wake up feeling exhausted and cranky, try changing your mindset. Put the negativity down, choose happiness, and see where it takes you.
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I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
‘DEAL WITH YOUR FEELINGS.’ —Tanisha Herrin . ‘DEAL WITH YOUR FEELINGS.’ —Tanisha Herrin
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I started drafting a post with tips for staying positive when you’re struggling with motivation this morning, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish the post because I have been the exact opposite of positive and motivated the last few days.
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Ontario announced a 3rd stay-at-home order this week, and my sweet girl was a puddle of tears when I picked her up on Tuesday. Teachers were given a 10-minute warning to tell students to pack up their belongings, and while I held my daughter in the school yard as she cried, my heart broke for her.
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This has been hard on all of us, but it’s been especially difficult for kids. I can’t imagine how it must feel to have school, extracurricular activities, playdates, sleepovers, family trips, and holiday celebrations taken away as a child. I feel like all I’ve done over the last year is dish out one disappointment after another, and with no end in sight, it’s hard not to feel the weight of it all. 
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If you know me IRL, you know I’m all about finding light in times of darkness. I believe every situation is design to teach us something, and try not to stay stuck in the suck for too long, but this week was different.
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I felt really sad, and for the first time in a long time I realized that what I needed more than anything was to just feel all the feels. So I emailed my daughter’s teacher to let her know we were taking the night off from homework, shut my computer down, left the laundry in the dryer, ate peanut butter out of the jar (highly recommend btw), and polished off a bottle of wine with my husband, and it felt so good.
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We all woke up with renewed positivity on Wednesday, yesterday I wrote out a list of goals I want to tackle over the next 4 weeks, and today I feel more motivated and excited than I have in a long time. I feel blessed, grateful, and ready to handle this lockdown like a boss.
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So instead of writing down all of those tips I planned on sharing with you today, I wanted to remind you that sitting in discomfort and allowing yourself to feel sad isn’t always a bad thing. Just make sure you don’t get stuck there for too long. 😘
‘FILTERS ARE GREAT, BUT GREAT SKIN CARE IS BETTE ‘FILTERS ARE GREAT, BUT GREAT SKIN CARE IS BETTER.’ —Unknown 
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#ad
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Do your hands crack in the cold weather?
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Mine do. ⠀
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And this year has been particularly bad. Between my regular cooking and cleaning routine, buying and renovating a new home, and all of the required pandemic-related hand washing and sanitizing, my hands physically hurt at the end of each day. I’ve lost count of how many cracks I’ve dealt with so far this season, and right now I have a doozy on my right thumb that makes simple tasks like buttoning buttons, texting, and typing feel impossible and painful.
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I once read that beautiful skin takes a commitment and not a miracle, and this couldn’t be more true. I have battled with my skin for as long as I can remember, and I know exactly what I need to do to prevent - and treat - dry, cracked hands. But when life gets busy, I simply get lazy, and it doesn’t take long for it show on my skin.
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The good news is that it typically only takes me a few days to get things back under control thanks to my friends at @yoronaturals 🙌🏻
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Their Organic Manuka Skin Soothing Cream does wonders when it comes to healing cracked hands, and their Remedy Wear gloves are my secret to overnight healing! Instead of strategically covering every crack with cream and a bandaid, I just apply a generous amount of Manuka Cream to my hands and pop on a set of gloves  before crawling into bed. Works like a dream!
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(And YES, the gloves stay put alllllll night long!)
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If pandemic protocols are leaving your hands dry and cracked, click the link in my bio and use code GWEN for 10% off my favorite YoRo Natural products!
‘A woman with a voice is by definition a strong ‘A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.’ –Melinda Gates

Wishing all the strong, bold, loud, messy, and amazing women in my life a Happy International Women’s Day! 
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When we found out we were having a girl, I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to share my love for fashion and beauty with a smaller version of myself, and had such a strong vision of the kind of mom I wanted to be.
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I promised myself I would be present, involved, loving, and empathetic, and that my sweet girl would wake up and go to sleep each night knowing there was at least one person in this world who believed in her 1000%.
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I thought I had everything mapped out, but failed to realize that being a ‘girl mom’ would require so much more from me. It’s not enough that I listen to her, support her, and encourage her to be assertive and to own her truth.  I have to model that behavior, too.
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And that’s not easy.
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I was raised at a time when women were encouraged to make themselves as small as possible - both literally and figuratively. 
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No one ever encouraged me to speak up when someone did wrong by me or someone else, and when I did start to find my voice as I got older, I was told I was ‘too much’.
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Raising a girl has forced me to challenge everything that was taught to me about being a woman. I want my daughter to grow up believing she can achieve anything and everything she wants in life, and that she never has to make herself small to make others feel more comfortable. She’s bold, brave, assertive, and loud, and she’s doesn’t apologize for ANY of it.
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And I hope she never does.
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My girl keeps me on my toes, but being her mom has already been the ride of a lifetime. I’m so incredibly proud of her and can’t wait to see the mark she makes on the world. 
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‘Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.’ –Unknown
‘HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING.’ —Jess Sims
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While some people love reading self-help books or listening to inspiring podcasts, quotes, mantras, and song lyrics are my jam. I spend hours upon hours scrolling through my social media feeds each week searching for motivational quotes and sayings, and I copy the ones I love most to the notes app on my phone so I never forget them. 
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I have a quote and lyric for pretty much every feeling and occasion, and if you follow me on stories, you know that I try to share something motivating and inspiring every morning. 
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I’ve recently been using short quotes/mantras to help me stay focused. Mantras are typically used in meditation, but they are also a fabulous tool to help you stay grounded. The idea is to pick a word or phrase with meaning to you, and each time your mind starts to wander, you repeat the mantra over and over to bring yourself back to the present moment.
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I use mantras to help me stay productive with work, to keep me motivated when I want to push myself during my workouts, to stay present when I’m overwhelmed and trying to do too many things at once, and to stop me from ruminating about the things that make me stressed and anxious. 
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If you’re looking for inspiring quotes and mantras to help you stay focused, present, and calm, here are some of my favorites!
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‘Be present where your feet are.’
—Unknown
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You don’t have to. You get to.
—Jess Sims
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Easy is bullshit.
—Christine D’Ercole
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Feel the burn, step closer to the fire.
—Emma Lovewell
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A setback is an avenue for a comeback.
—Alex Toussaint 
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Hold the vision, trust the process.
—Unknown
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No challenge, no change.
—Robin Arzon
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Acknowledge the fear and do it anyway.
—Emma Lovewell
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Impossible is just an opinion.
—Paulo Coelho
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Treat your body like it belongs to someone you love. 
—Hannah Marie Corbin
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Fix your ponytail and try again.
—Unknown
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👇🏻 What quotes and mantras keep you focused and present when you’re overwhelmed or anxious?
‘ALL GREAT CHANGES ARE PRECEDED BY CHAOS.’ — ‘ALL GREAT CHANGES ARE PRECEDED BY CHAOS.’ —Unknown
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f you’ve been following me on stories, you know we moved to a new house a couple of weeks ago. I was going to document the whole thing, but moving during a global pandemic in a city that is completely locked down with a child in virtual school is… 🤪
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This was the biggest move I’ve ever undertaken, and my Type A personality really struggled with how little control I had over everything. Lists and schedules are my jam, but it seemed the harder I tried to keep things on track, the quicker they fell apart.
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I eventually decided to just embrace the chaos. I allowed myself to let go and just enjoy the excitement of it all and it ended up being the smoothest, most enjoyable move I’ve ever experienced. We’re still waiting on furniture deliveries and have lots of painting to do, but since no one will be visiting us for months (years?!) on end given the state of the world right now, there is absolutely no pressure.
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And that feels great.
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If you’re struggling, here are 4 things that helped me find order in the chaos that has been our lives for the last several weeks:
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✔️ EXERCISE. I start every single day with a hard workout to get those feel-good endorphins flowing. It makes me feel accomplished, helps me work through whatever is on my mind, and sets the tone for the rest of my day.
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✔️ ENERGY MANAGEMENT. I do all of my most pressing tasks when my energy is high and my mind is clear, and save all of the monotonous, mindless stuff (think: responding to emails, meal prep, folding laundry) for the evening.
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✔️ NEVER TOUCH SOMETHING TWICE. Once I ‘touch’ a task, I deal with it then and there so it’s taken off of my plate, rather than ’touching’ it multiple times and allowing it to take up extra energy and mental space. This is one of the best productivity tips I’ve ever read and it’s been a life-saver for me lately! 
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✔️ DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT. I struggle the most with this, but the last few weeks have been a great exercise in challenging a lot of my Type A tendencies.
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👇🏻 How do YOU stay on track when you feel overwhelmed?
‘SELF-CARE ISN’T SELFISH.’ . If you met me I ‘SELF-CARE ISN’T SELFISH.’
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If you met me IRL, you’d probably [hopefully?] never know I suffer from anxiety, and would likely assume I’m just a high maintenance, high strung, Type A personality. All of those things are in fact true, LOL, but what you may not realize is that each of those traits of mine are the result of years of feeling anxious and worried and stressed.
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I grew up at a time when we were taught to keep our struggles to ourselves, and when I think back to grades 3 and 4 when my anxiety was at it’s absolute worst, it pains me to remember how much I suffered in silence. I feel proud that I was able to overcome some pretty tough stuff on my own, but I refuse to let history repeat itself.
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I will not raise my daughter in a world that stigmatizes mental illness.
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According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 38% of Canadians say their mental health has declined since the start of the pandemic, and people already struggling with their mental health were 2 times more likely to say their mental health has declined further. 
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One of the biggest hurdles for anyone suffering from mental illness is overcoming the stigma. It is the number one reason why people living with mental illness do not seek help.
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Today is #BellLetsTalk day and Bell will donate 5 cents to Canadian mental health programs for every applicable text, local or long distance call, tweet or TikTok video using #BellLetsTalk - all at no cost to participants beyond what they would normally pay their service provider for online or phone access. 
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MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS.
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Let’s end the stigma.
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