November is typically a surprisingly stressful month for me. I tend to find extra pressure to put on myself to have something to show for my efforts before year’s end, and to set myself up for success in the coming year… all while having increased family obligations and fewer daylight hours (which always challenge my ability to stay awake and stay motivated).

On top of these pressures, like you, I have been processing the stress and emotions of the roller coaster ride that is #2020 which includes the choice to move my mother from my hometown to my current town…

It’s election day in the United States of America. Say what you will about 2020… it certainly has been fantastic for voter turnout! With early votes blowing 2016’s total votes out of the water!

It’s also been a bang-up year for blood pressure and heartbreak.

If you are wisely choosing to take a break from consuming social media, and avoiding watching the election results roll in, but not sure how to occupy your brain — here is a list of things you can do instead of consuming massive amounts of stress producing prediction, commentary and toxic reactivity.

1. Bake cookies
2. Bake…

Now more than ever before, we are poised to misunderstand each others intent, meaning and perspectives. With the communication of ideas happening with greater frequency in places like twitter and facebook, it is easier now to assume someone is wrong, ill-informed or just a plain a-hole.

If you’ve followed any of the psychology or journalism focused on how we form and keep opinions over the last 50 years then you know how unreasonable reasonable people can be! …