Struggling to make time for self-care? These 15 micro-habits take 2 minutes or less.
Boost your energy, calm, and focus with these small, easily achievable actions.
By Kat Hong
Most of us have a self-improvement checklist. Exercise more. Stress less. Sleep better. Be more present. It’s a lovely list. But it can also be quite mean and vague. And it tends to sit there, quietly judging us, while we scroll our phones in bed at 11 p.m.
However, you don’t need an elaborate morning routine or a 45-minute meditation practice to shift how you feel. Science keeps arriving at the same surprising conclusion: tiny actions, repeated consistently, change lives. Not because of magic. Because of biology.
Instead of a grand, sweeping declaration like, “Stress less” (what does that even mean?), start small. These 15 micro-habits take two minutes or less. Some take ten seconds. All of them have real research behind them. Begin with one. See what happens.
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Image of a young boy holding a bag of garbage
Mom wonders if she should ‘manufacture hardship’ for her kids to build resilience. Other parents sound off.
Do kids today have it too easy?
By Heather Wake
It’s a challenge every parent faces: striking that precarious balance between providing for their kids while still fostering independence. In today’s world, previous generations‘ struggles are a thing of the past, making that balance even harder to strike.
One parent recently found themselves at a loss with this predicament. They took to Reddit to see if they should “manufacture hardship” for their kids.
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He made sure her grandfather was part of the special moment, even years later. 😭
In the second season of Freedom to Thrive, host Hector Flores explores the immigrant experience, and what we can all learn from it.
By Sarah Watts
Ifrah Mansour is no stranger to conflict.
A Somali refugee and current resident of Minneapolis, the multimedia artist and activist draws on her lived experiences to create work that explores trauma, displacement, and resilience. But like so many of the guests on Freedom to Thrive, an award-winning podcast produced by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Mansour doesn’t want to focus only on trauma; she also wants to celebrate the unexpected beauty she’s found during difficult experiences.
“One of the beautiful things about tragedies is that it activates hearts, and courageous people are born,” she says. For example, Mansour has noticed more Minnesotans than ever are reaching out to help the vulnerable, after the anti-immigrant crackdowns carried out by the Department of Homeland Security. “They are bringing food, they’re bringing extra clothes, they’re walking with people, and it’s just really beautiful.”
An older woman holding a suitcase.
Boomer grandma challenges family norms by asking why she has to do the traveling for visits
“Should grandmas be the ones on the road, or should families pick everything up and drive to her?”
By Tod Perry
When the holidays roll around, it’s time for families to decide where they will meet to celebrate. For the most part, parents with younger kids dread packing their bags and traveling to a family member’s house where things aren’t set up for young children. You fumble around setting up the pack ‘n plays, can’t find your bottle brush, and freak out because the electrical sockets aren’t child-proof.
However, many grandparents aren’t keen on enduring the mental and physical strain of traveling at an older age. So, who’s right? Grandma Jan, founder of Grandma Camp and a TikTok influencer who shares fun ideas for grandparents and grandkids, argued that parents should pack up their kids and visit Grandma.
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