Category Archives: Positive Vibes

Managing Anxiety

Leave a reply

20+ Years of Anxiety… and What Finally Helped Me Feel, Not Just Like Me Again – an Even Better Version of Me

For over half my life, I’ve lived with extreme anxiety. The kind that doesn’t just make you worry—it hijacks your day, your sleep, your relationships, and your peace. In my early 20s, I had panic attacks so intense I would nearly pass out. I eventually started seeing a psychiatrist, going to therapy, and that’s when I had a big realization:

I had lived through a traumatic childhood. And while I had brushed it off for years, my body and mind were carrying all of it. That trauma had manifested as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and OCD.

Since then, it’s been a journey—on and off meds, in and out of therapy, some seasons better than others. My anxiety especially flared up during and after both of my pregnancies and having my youngest during Covid just amplified everything.

But here’s the thing…

I’ve never wanted these challenges to define me. I want to break the cycle. I want to be the best mom I can be to my boys. And most of all—I want to show up for my life fully.

Now, over 20 years after being diagnosed, I can honestly say: I feel better than I’ve felt in decades. That constant, fluttery anxiety in my chest? It’s no longer a daily part of my life.

Yes—medications helped me and, as a nurse, I still believe in them wholeheartedly. But I’ve also found other tools that have helped me decrease my dependency and truly manage my mental health in a way that feels empowering.

I was previously on 150mg of Zoloft daily with Hydroxyzine and Propranolol for acute anxiety as needed. Currently, I’m down to 50mg of Zoloft daily and have not used the other two in MONTHS.

I’m going to share what I do now to manage my anxiety—from daily habits and supplements to mindset shifts and practical tools that work with my busy life (and not against it).

If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or like you’re just surviving—know that you’re not alone, and you can feel better. Below are 5 things I’ve done in the last 3 months to improve my mental health. And in the last 3 months I have DECREASED my chemical dependency on meds. I went from 150mg of Zoloft daily down to 50mg daily. I have not taken my other anxiety meds in over 3 months. And I feel BETTER that I have felt since my diagnosis over 20 years ago!

If you’re interested in more of my strategies for managing my mental health, follow me on Instagram – @scrubs_and_motherhood

For more information on the supplements I use, check them out here:

Happy Valentine’s Day

Leave a reply

Matt and I don’t necessarily celebrate Valentine’s Day, I mean we don’t go out and do anything really. Restaurants and places are too busy. And this year it falls on a Friday, so Matt works. I do try to do a little something for the kids. I have little gifts that will be set out for them when they get home from school. I like to think of Valentine’s Day as just celebrating love in general. I feel secure in my marriage and we celebrate love every chance we get in many different ways. I feel loved every day, and I hope I make him feel loved every day. This week he showed love by helping with household duties. This week I worked at the hospital a lot, and he picked up some slack at home. That makes me feel loved. Supporting my goals, hobbies, every crazy idea I come up with – that makes me feel loved. I’ve been on a journey to live a healthier lifestyle so a box of chocolates would not make me feel loved right now! Haha 🙂

Growing up I experienced a major “love deficit” from my biological mother. I know it has changed my love language and how I feel loved. Maybe I didn’t get it right the first time, but I now have a partner that shows me love every day in the way I need to feel it.

My first marriage was not “bad.” Nothing “bad” happened, maybe that’s why we have an amicable divorce. Sean and I are truly good friends and coparent in a loving way. I was still very broken when I met Sean, and my needs in that marriage were more than he could handle. He didn’t understand my love language or my “love deficit,” and that was not his fault. Our marriage felt like we were just good friends. So, we just maintained that friendship and let go of the romantic ties. He’s great at showing love as a coparent, teaching our son respect for his mother, and great at showing love as a friend. I’m so thankful we have a healthy coparenting relationship for our son. I have no regrets because we have a handsome, intelligent, creative, caring, compassionate son from that relationship.

We all have a reason to celebrate love today, whether you’re married, single, or whatever your status is. Good friends that love on you, your kids that love you unconditionally, parents that have shown you love all your life, or substitute parents that showed love, or maybe you are focused on yourself, self-care and loving yourself right now – we all have some form of love to celebrate today.

Creative Time Management

Leave a reply

As a busy mom it’s easy to feel overwhelmed constantly, never-ending to-do lists, you feel like your brain is an internet browser with 92 tabs open all at once. I have a few tricks to tackling those to-do lists. Many of the tasks on my to-do list, although they seem overwhelming, actually only take a few minutes. And there are times throughout the day that I have a few minutes, I just don’t always realize it. Also, multitasking – this simple skill can actually save you time.

Laundry

  1. Start a load in the washer every night before I go to bed
  2. In the morning, while my coffee is brewing, put that load in the dryer
  3. Fold and put away that laundry – doing a daily load keeps the mountain of laundry at bay, and makes it more manageable. Realistically think about it – how long does it actually take to fold that one load and put it away? Minutes. Not long! And think of how great you’ll feel when it’s done!
  4. Get the kids involved – Let them help! Logan has loved helping with laundry since he was little. I let him put clothes in the washer, pull them out of the dryer, and put away his own clothes. It’s fun for him, quality time with him, AND he’s learning some life skills. Blake has been doing his own laundry since he was about 8. I put sticky notes on the washer so he knows the settings to use. Are the clothes always perfect when they’re put away? No, but they’re clean and that’s good enough! I’m raising future husbands and I want them to be true partners to their future mates, like the husband I have – capable of sharing in the household duties!

Meal Planning/Prepping

  1. Online grocery ordering: This saves me money AND time. I do weekly Walmart grocery orders. It saves my usual items so it takes seconds to fill my cart with my weekly items. I also fill my cart throughout the week when I notice things we need. It only takes a few seconds to add it to my cart, by the time I’m ready to order my groceries it doesn’t take long at all!
  2. I meal prep a lot of meals – not just to eat healthy, but to save time. I might make a breakfast casserole at the beginning of the week to last for breakfast all week, or I make a big batch of breakfast items for the kids to eat throughout the week. Blake is capable of heating up his own breakfast, and it’s quick and easy to reheat for Logan. When I cook dinner at the beginning of the week, I will simultaneously sometimes cook another meal for another day. I’m already using the pots/pans – I make the most of my time, less dishes to wash.
  3. I use my crockpot. A LOT. There is so much you can do with a crockpot that you may not realize – let it do the cooking while you do other things!

The Simplest Tip – But Hardest – Replace Social Media Scrolling With Productivity

Ex: When I’m sitting in the car rider line for 10-15 mins before school lets out –

  • Make doc appts
  • Online grocery shopping
  • Pay bills

    Look for other opportunities throughout the day when you have 10-15 mins to kill. Today it seems our natural reaction is to go straight to our phone and scroll. Think of all the little tasks that seem so overwhelming, but actually only take a few mins. Squeeze them in if you can.

    Five Tips to Improve Your Mental Health

    Leave a reply

    Remove the negativity

    • Are you in FB groups that constantly have drama, you never post in them because you’re afraid of judgement, and if you REALLY think about it you get more negativity out of it than positivity? Remove yourself, or just snooze for 30 days and reevaluate.
    • Do you have a friend that is always a negative Nancy? Or maybe a friend that puts you down more than they lift you up? Reevaluate your friendships. Distance yourself from those that bring you down more than lift you up.
    • Are you addicted to true crime tv shows and podcasts? Yeah I was too. Take a break and replace with comedy tv shows/podcasts or positive mindset podcasts.

    Find the positive

    • By nature, we tend to focus on the negative. The bottom line – you can’t change what has happened, but you can change how you let it affect you.
    • Make a conscious effort to take a negative thought and turn it into a positive. Start small. Ex: “I had a rough day at work, it was so busy, people were rude, etc” à “I’m lucky to have a good job, at least I get paid for today, I have job security in my profession. And the rude people don’t come home with me – I get to leave my work at work and come home to my family.”

    Gratitude Journal

    • Start your day by thinking of just one thing you’re grateful for. It doesn’t have to be big. But training your brain to start the day focused on gratitude puts your mindset in a positive mode for the day.
    • End your day the same way – this is also a good time to reflect on some negative thoughts you may have had during the day and think of how to turn them into a positive.
    • Over time, your brain will be trained to focus on the positive

    Be like Nike – Just Do It

    • Lacking motivation to get things done, then you feel lazy, then you feel down because your house is a mess, you felt unproductive, you feel bad about yourself, and it’s a snowball effect.
    • JUST START – getting started is the hardest part. Laundry to fold but you’re dreading it, feel like it wastes this precious small amount of time you have to yourself? Just get started – it usually ends up taking less time than you think. And once you get started, it gets easier to just get it done. Then you feel better about yourself and the mess!
    • Feeling sluggish, you know you need to get some exercise, but feeling lazy and don’t feel like getting ready? Just do it. In your pjs, who cares? Many times I’ve just thrown on a hoodie over my pjs and took a short walk. That small dose of vit D makes me feel more energized and is a huge mood boost! Now, if you sleep naked or in skimpy pjs maybe throw on a robe or something, don’t get arrested for streaking in your neighborhood. Does that still feel like too much work? Get down on your living room floor and do some stretching, sit-ups, 10-15 mins of physical activity – it will release endorphins that will improve your mood!

    Move Your Body

    • Those last points kinda go along with this – make it a habit to move your body every day in some way. Even for just 15-20 mins. Go for a walk, walk the dog, ride a bicycle, do some yoga in your living room, play with your kids outside.
    • Moving your body is not only physically healthy, but boosts your mental health. It releases those feel-good hormones that improve your mood and put you in a better head space.
    • Bonus tip: listen to The Mindset Mentor podcast while going for a walk – he has some amazing episodes, short and sweet, that are really inspiring and mood-lifting!

    Always on the Go!

    Leave a reply

    As a mom of 2 boys, I feel like I am always on the go. Logan is in Pre-K at an elementary school and needs to be dropped off around 7:15am, picked up 2:15pm. Blake is in middle school and rides the bus to/from school. On Mondays they have hockey, on Tuesdays they have basketball practice, Wednesday morning I drop Blake and his friend off at school early for Chess Club, Wednesday afternoon Logan has OT, Saturday is for basketball games – Logan at 8/9am, Blake 7/8pm. T-ball season will start up again when basketball ends, only Logan does that one, but it is usually 2 nights per week. Blake is in band so add a concert here and there. Oh, and I have to fit some shifts in at the ER at some point lol. And some quality time with the husband.

    I’ve been working on my mental health recently, and one thing I’ve started doing is changing the way I think about things – turning negative thoughts into positive. Instead of “I’m so tired, ugh I have to fill up my gas tank AGAIN, ugh I have to air out the hockey stuff when we get home, but I’m so tired…” I turned it into:

    “It’s a busy season of life, but I love watching my boys do things they love. I love watching them be active – so much better than screen time. They are learning valuable lessons about teamwork and discipline. I’m BLESSED to be able to afford a nice reliable car to transport them, I’m BLESSED to be able to afford the gas to transport them. And when it’s my turn to transport Blake to/from basketball, it’s just the two of us and I really enjoy that one-on-one time with him because we don’t get as much of that anymore. I’m GRATEFUL to have such a great coparenting relationship with Sean, and that all 3 of us get along well and work together to make sure the kids are cared for and get where they need to be.”

    As I type this, it is 6:40am on a Saturday morning. Saturdays are long, but I’m grateful to be alive on these long days. Logan has a basketball game this morning at 8am. Blake’s is later tonight at 8pm. Matt goes to work at noon on weekends, so he will miss Blake’s game. I have a sitter coming to stay with Logan because he goes to bed at 7:30pm. We try not to disrupt bedtime with him. Keeping them on routines, or as close to routine as possible, helps everything run smoothly.

    I challenge you to take one negative thought you have today, and think about how to turn it into a positive. One simple change in your mindset can make a huge change in your mental health and how you handle the day.