Field Notes: Resources to Cultivate & Motivate
Teachings and tips for anyone to reference during difficult times, stressful workdays, and moments when manifesting your true self.
The Resistance & Repair of Simone Biles
Through her resistance and repair, Simone Biles has fully earned the athlete title of the Greatest Of All Times. By prioritizing her self care, mental health, and wellbeing, she gives all of us permission to do the same.
Handling the Rocky Return to Normal Life
How to handle the return to post-pandemic life if you are returning to independence after living with family
Supporting Physician Wellbeing
Physicians are facing enormous burdens due to the pandemic and related life changes. With physician suicide twice that of the general population, it’s clear that physicians often feel alone in bearing the burden. Please reach out to the Physician Support Line - we are here specifically for you.
How to talk to kids about anti-Asian hate
With the surge in anti-Asian violence, parents are left wondering how to talk to kids about racism against Asian Americans. Here are some tips, with links to my story on NBC as well as an interview with MSNBC.
“Zoom Fatigue”: Why We’re Exhausted
Feeling exhausted after all day Zoom meetings? There’s a reason for that zoom fatigue. Here are some ways to help ease your work from home days, with my interview for the Washington Post
Helping our children through social isolation
How to help children who are feeling isolated? With school closures, limited activities, lack of playdates, children can act out, withdraw, and become depressed.
Are we depressed? Or demoralized
Many are talking about the mental health problems created by the pandemic, with fatigue, burnout, depression, anxiety, and suicide rates increasing. But many people are not depressed - we are demoralized, but it’s a term our society doesn’t talk much about. Here are ways to manage demoralization.
What should not surprise us about refugee situations
Community tension, family violence, and grief and fear among children and parents are common in refugee situations. We should not be surprised, but rather proactive to prevent, to ease refugees lives.
Advanced asylum considerations
For many asylum seekers, having a psychological evaluation that shows the effects of persecution and migration on mental and emotional health can be useful in the legal proceedings for asylum. Feel free to watch my presentation to UCSF’s Health and Human Rights Initiative conference.
Managing election anxiety
With the election less than a week away, many are holding both the anxiety about the future of this country, with constant media coverage, uncertainty, and a heated and volatile election. Here are some ways to help manage election anxiety
Building confidence
Whether we have a job interview, are going on a date, or asking for a job promotion, there are times when we feel insecure and could use a boost of confidence. Here are practical ways to quickly feel more confident.
Having difficult conversations about disappointment
there is a lot of disappointment in this year. Weddings postponed, funerals unattended. Birthday parties and playdates cancelled. A wedding is not just an event, it’s symbolic, takes lots of planning, and behind the event hides the desire to be celebrated and to share love among your closest circle. For kids, sleepover parties and teenage trips are cancelled, leaving many disappointed. Here are a few tips on how we can talk to family and friends, about our decisions to cancel these events that all have so much meaning behind them.
The hidden human trafficking crisis of the pandemic
Children are being exploited every day for sex and labor, and trafficking is worsening during the prolonged pandemic.
Helping kids (and parents!) adjust to life at home
Parents and children are struggling at home together all the time. With schools and offices closed, how can we lower the stress to support our kids (and parents!) during hard times?
Mental Health During the Pandemic
The mental health effects of the pandemic are large, from depression, anxiety, low motivation, stress, low energy, poor sleep, hopelessness, and ennui. We can build resilience during this time.
Talking with college students about risky decisions
Students heading back to college face a return to COVID-19 risk factors. How do we talk to our teenagers and college kids about risky decisions when they go to school? Hint: be humble to neurobiology.
Refugees and forcibly displaced children during the COVID-19 pandemic
There are an unprecedented number of refugees, forcibly displaced children, and migrants globally - how are they managing the mental health and social stressors during the pandemic?
Depression during the pandemic - the new normal?
Nearly one-third of Americans are experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety. Recognizing when and how to help is key to getting assistance. Here are ways to manage resentment, feeling overwhelmed, as well as considerations on what to do if you’re concerned about a love one.
Create Boundaries to Push Limits
When people are feeling stuck with emotional exhaustion, it’s a sign that one’s personal boundaries may need to be strengthened.
Keep schools closed and shift discussion to America’s broken social system
We need to shift the conversation to addressing why we are placing all our social needs on schools. We burden teachers/schools to solve homelessness, hunger, poverty, abuse, and caretaking, while also tasked to educate. All with little funds/resources.