Self-Care and Grief

Hi there! My name is Caroline, and I am the Social Media Assistant at 1N5. I am 25 years old, a Cincinnati native, and a mental health advocate. I want to start by saying that I truly leaned into my self-care journey about four years ago when my mom passed away from stage IV lung cancer. As a perfectionist, people …

Choose To Pour Your Energy Into Yourself And What You Need To Heal

Where are you investing your energy? The other day, I was at Target and these two women were spending so much energy fighting with the customers, cashiers and managers. They were upset that the woman in front of them didn’t come prepared to the store with her coupons. They very well may have been in a rush or had already …

You Can’t Pour From An Empty Cup

I’m Lindsey, a math teacher in Cincinnati and I am obsessed with my job and my students. I am also a mom of two little girls, a wife, sister, daughter and friend (obsessed with all of that too). In general, I am a super passionate person which can easily lead to high highs and low lows.  I am very fortunate …

You Are Whole And Worthy As You Are And You Always Have Been

There’s been a lot going on in my family. Unfortunately, my father-in-law passed away two weeks ago and that’s been shocking and challenging for us all. It’s felt so unfair that we have lost yet another parent in such a short amount of time. Through all of this, I’ve had to find ways to support my husband, deal with the …

Moving Forward Is Moving Forward

I was back in my Wednesday morning routine, running on a treadmill at my favorite fitness class with my favorite instructor, doing what I do. I pushed the button and let my feet start rolling but today I wasn’t feeling it. A couple minutes in and I thought, do I leave now or leave in a couple songs. I wasn’t …

One Day Joy Will Feel More Joyful

I never really thought about losing a parent until thinking about it was my only choice. I never really thought about the immense impact the loss would have on my life. Nothing is quite the same, yet everything has to move forward and that never quite makes sense to me. I have a few friends who have lost parents, who …

Plan time by yourself, no interruptions.

I’m a single 25-year-old black woman. I moved away from my family after graduating from college with a BA in Political Science. I’m currently a Program Director for a non-profit organization that focuses on comprehensive community development.  At first, I used to think that in order to practice self-care, you had to spend tons of money. However, self-care really is …

Slow down and focus on what’s important to you.

Slow down and focus on what’s important to you. This has become my new focus. I have always been someone who is a go getter and who often adds more to my plate than I can handle, but still find a way to get it all done. Becoming a new mom has proved that I am just not capable of …

Learn Yourself to Love Yourself

Learn Yourself to Love Yourself…Sounds good doesn’t it. What does it mean? How does one go about learning themselves? Even from an early age we spend plenty of time learning. We learn things to survive, we learn the people around us, and we learn all about the world we live in. How much time do we actually spend learning ourselves? …

Make Your Mental Health Come First On Your To-Do List

We all have 24 hours in a day. How are you choosing to use that time? Wow – so much pressure in what should be a motivating statement. When I think about 24 hours, it gives me anxiety, because there are somehow never enough hours in the day to get everything done. The days I work from home, I get …