PASSION FOREVER

  The co-pay is the just cost of ingredients when you use baking as therapy. While not a fix for serious mental health issues, baking cakes, cookies, breads, and other goodies can help you ease anxiety and stress. Talk about flour power: Mounting scientific evidence proves that baking is one of the best forms of self-care. Even mental health pros swear by the therapeutic effects: “I consider this one of my greatest mental health strategies. I have declared Sunday ‘baking day’ for more than 15 years of my life," says Tracy Thomas, Ph.D., psychologist and founder of Dr. Tracy Inc., an emotional training company in California. "I go into a baking zone for a whole day and just bake my buns off, pun intended,” Thomas says. But why, exactly, is baking so good for your brain, your mood, and beyond? Preheat your ovens and read on for the top six reasons from Thomas and Nicole Beurkens, Ph.D., author of the best selling book Life Will Get Better and the founder and director of Horizon...

  Kids are incredible little beings. Endlessly strange, honest, fun, surprising. They rule, OK? I don't have any children of my own and honestly, I don't know if I ever will. In the meantime, while life goes on (as it has the annoying tendency to do), I'm extra thankful for my role in four kids' lives as their aunt. Being an aunt offers the joy of spending time with children without any of the major obligations. It's one of the most win-win situations I can think of. Recall your own aunt(s). Aunts, as a people, have a special wizardry. They're the women who gladly accepted your first wayward attempt at cutting hair. They're the women who let you name their cats Hanson, Clarissa, or something else awful. The women who taught you to match your toenail polish with your underwear at a questionably young age. (Hi, Aunt Amy). They had an endless supply of sour gummy candies and never yelled at you for leaning back in your chair. They took you on adventures and ins...