The two words of the year I picked for myself at the beginning of 2025 were “Mindful” and “Fun”. I’ve been practicing reflecting on my educational activities with my students, and on how well a method works, for a long time. I especially perform daily reflection on what worked best with my current group of students. However, practicing mindfulness recently took a new approach, and jumped to a whole new level, due to applying techniques such as deep breathing, listening more to others when I would rather jump in to speak. I also wrote down my values and priorities to use them when I select future commitments or refrain from them. But FUN! Oh, FUN! I hardly ever practiced fun throughout my life. Setting up this word as one of the words for 2025 acted as a motivating goal, too. That was actually the whole point! It was a short and sweet mantra that popped up in my head much more often than it used to, reminding me to keep finding ways to make life more enjoyable, lighter, funnier. I listened to more stand-up comedy shows and I read jokes on the internet and through little books with jokes for school children. I created some jokes myself, usually a bit some that will sound a little sarcastic. How do you implement a plan for having more fun in your life?

I am thankful, grateful, and feel wonderfully blessed EVERY day of the year. As a former compulsive overeater, now in recovery, Thanksgiving is just another day for me, where I aim to practice healthy habits and avoid overindulgence with food. I will gladly focus on my people, on catching up, on encouraging and supporting each other, on quality time, on fun, jokes, and games. Some other principles I use to navigate the holiday regarding food (overeating, and the “sweet tooth”): 1. NO is a complete sentence when others push a food item. 2. I learned from last years’s holidays how just a tiny bit of indulgence raised my A1C way up. It was NOT worth it to almost undo/destroy the super hard work I did for the whole year before, the workouts, the healthier eating, and more. As a result, this year “indulgence” and “moderation” have new meanings for me, with emphasis on “very little”. I will define my moderation much differently, I will read food labels, I will calculate the calories, look up “serving sizes”, avoid salt and sugar, and others. What are some of your thoughts on this topic?

Then “Artificial Intelligence killed ______” (fill in the blanks). “Home delivery businesses killed _____”. Keep it going in the comments and have fun with it, they only have to make some sense to you.😃

What is your favorite movie so far? If just one of many is tough to pick, you can pick any movie or TV show, or even two, just as longs as you can give me an idea of what specifically made or makes that your favorite movie or TV Show. Mine is “Dawson’s Creek” TV show, first aired in 1999, with Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek. It’s the only TV show I watched more than twice. I actually watched it 6 times. I love it because those teenagers are so smart, are friends, support each other through growing pains, they love, have fun, create, cry on each other’s shoulders, and celebrate good times together. They all have proven to be incredibly talented actors from a young age, and they are all still acting, aging like fine wine.

Q: What is better to do first thing in the morning when we wake up? A: Whatever you want or need to, it is up to you, but specialists in health and wellness remind us that picking up the cell phone IS NOT a helpful habit. They recommend at least 30 minutes of phone-free time when we wake up. For some it may be deep breathing, meditation, affirmations, or prayer. For some it may be their usual morning routine, to include taking a shower, brushing teeth, or otherwise getting ready for the day ahead. If 30 minutes feels difficult to achieve at first, we can start with 15 minutes, or even just 5 minutes of no phone, no screen after waking up - - and build up from there. If our cell phone is our alarm clock and the only way to tell the time, it is very helpful to get a radio clock or a wall mounted analog clock, or any old-school time measuring device that can sit on our nightstand. The same principle applies to the 30 minutes before going to sleep. Turning the cellphone off, or placing it outside the bedroom, or placing it in airplane mode half an hour before going to sleep is paramount for brain health, for our mental wellbeing, and for our overall health. Please share your thoughts, if you wish to: What is your experience with morning and night routines related to cell phones/screens use, or lack thereof? What are the healthier habits you want to implement around these principles, if any?