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The Bledsoe Firm JustFamilyLaw.com | 949.363.5551 OCTOBER | 2023
Strategies for Strengthening Mental Health Amidst Life's Challenges MINDING YOUR MIND
Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increased focus on mental health and why improving and maintaining it is important. Although it might not always seem like it, we live in a stressful time. Our country has developed a hustle culture, where everyone is expected to stay productive at all times and give their all to every task that comes their way. When you turn on the news, anchors bombard you with horrifying statistics and graphics that can make you question the world and where our priorities lie. And then many experience additional stress if they’re going through a divorce. No wonder we’re desperate to improve our mental health. When your mental health is robust, you experience a plethora of benefits, including improved mood, reduced anxiety, clearer thoughts, and increased self-esteem. We build better relationships, perform better at work, feel more confident, and improve nearly every aspect of our lives. Most of us know how vital solid mental health is because we’ve experienced poor mental health firsthand. It’s difficult to climb out of depression or reduce our feelings of anxiety when our mental health is lacking. It’s not always easy to determine which tactics to deploy to improve your mental health when feeling down. That’s why I’ve assembled a list of strategies you can implement whenever your mental health needs a boost. Participating in these practices every day will only help your mental health grow stronger. Start a gratitude journal. A great way to offset negative feelings is to focus on the positives in your life. Think about the things that make you happy and grateful,
and write them down in a journal. When you wake up in the morning, start each day by writing down three things you’re thankful for and one thing you hope to accomplish that day.
Write down another three items at night, including at least one positive interaction or activity that happened that day. Doing so will help you start and end each day with an upbeat vibe.
Disconnect from your devices. Smartphones have brought many benefits into our lives, but it’s easy to forget how all-consuming they can be. We’re always on our phones, looking at social media or
scouring the internet. Social media can be incredibly damaging to our self-esteem, as it’s easy to get lost in posts of people who have “more success” than we do. If you feel envious of others, disconnect from social media immediately! The same goes for the news. If all the negative stories news corporations report overwhelm you, turn off the TV and avoid their websites. It’s incredible how much disconnecting from negative news can flip our perspective. Find a support system. We all need people who will stand by our side through thick and thin, listening to our worries and offering advice if warranted. While this might include your closest friends and family members, you might have to go outside your usual sources to find the support you truly need. Invest in your hobbies and find like-minded individuals who will encourage and motivate you to be the best version of yourself. They’ll help you during the good and bad times. We should take just as much care in maintaining our mental health as our physical health. By improving our mental health, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to and feel good while doing it! —John Bledsoe
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INJURY-FREE RUNNING
Surprising Habits Hurting Your Brain Health
Everything we think, feel, and do involves our brains, so keeping them healthy is worth our time. But doing so might require more from us than a nutritional diet, exercise, and occasional sudoku. Everyday habits can profoundly affect our neurological health, and some will likely surprise you.
have more difficulty reasoning and forming memories. Fortunately, neuroplasticity also means we can choose to change. Mindfulness, stress relief, purposeful positive thinking, and therapy can all help us learn to turn negative thoughts around. It will improve brain health, and we’ll likely feel happier, too.
Checking Our Phones After Waking Up Many people have their phones in hand before they even get out of bed, but this morning routine could be doing significant damage. Immediately inputting so much sensory information causes our brains to miss crucial stages in the natural waking process. The dopamine we get from checking messages and likes also primes our brains for more, creating further distractions throughout the day. Experts suggest waiting an hour to check your phone, but if you can’t last that long, every minute you delay counts. Engaging in Negative Thinking Did you know poor mental health impairs our ability to think clearly? The same is true with patterns of negative thinking. Neuroplasticity means the input we give our brains shapes and changes how they function, and negative thinkers
Spending Too Much Time Alone Humans are social creatures. So, while our
brains need new challenges and information to stay sharp, they also crave social interaction. Spending time with others improves our mental health and ability to form memories. Socializing also keeps our brains active, which neuroscientists believe might fight dementia. Specifically, older adults can have trouble switching between active and daydream states, but social interaction will help sharpen that skill. Alone time is crucial, but too much of a good thing can be dangerous. Make sure to interact with friends and family often or find ways to meet new people whose company you enjoy.
AVOID DIVORCE DELAYS TIPS TO STREAMLINE THE PROCESS
Prepare to compromise. If you genuinely want a fast divorce, then you want a mindset indicating you intend to settle. By keeping your emotions in check and staying professional, you and your ex may come to an accord quicker than you think. Stay organized. When you meet with your divorce attorney for the first time, you should bring a whole host of documentation with you. You need at least two months of income, assets, and debt documentation. Start documenting interactions with your spouse and children, and keep that information in a safe, easy-to-access location. Work with an attorney who understands your options. Spouses fighting over everything and attorneys encouraging such behavior to ramp up their billable hours can be sanctioned under California Code § 271. This allows you to recover attorney fees from your ex if the court agrees they are holding up the process on purpose or are being unduly unreasonable. An experienced family law attorney can protect your rights and remind the opposing attorney of the statute and the benefits of working together.
Many consequences come into play whenever a divorce drags on for an extended period of time. You’ll likely spend way more money and struggle to move on with your life. Because of this, many people want to finalize their divorce as quickly as possible. Here are a few tactics that will help speed up your case. Set realistic expectations. So many myths about family law float around that it’s easy to walk in with many misperceptions. You may have heard someone say their ex “took everything,” so now you’re wondering if you can do the same or find yourself on the receiving end instead. In most cases, “took everything” actually means “I’m not happy with my divorce settlement.” Remember, the purpose of a divorce is to dissolve a marriage, not to punish your spouse. Discover what’s important to you. Once you’ve reset your expectations, you’re in a great position to start determining what you might really want out of this divorce. Is it to be the primary custodian of the children? What are your non-negotiables? What can you live without? Be sure to express your desires to your attorney.
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W ord S earch Candy Costume Gourds Halloween Haunted
DIVORCE AND DECEIT
Moon Raven Tricks Vampire Werewolf Witch Zombie
Is Your Spouse Hiding Assets?
JALAPEÑO POPPER MAC AND CHEESE
Inspired by TasteOfHome.com
In an ideal world, when two spouses no longer wish to remain married, they can work in good faith with each other to end the marriage. Yet divorce can bring out the worst in nice people, and some people aren’t very friendly from the beginning! People are especially prone to do unethical things when marriages fall apart and assets are at stake. Unfortunately, these things happen. Hiding assets is one of the oldest divorce “dirty tricks” in the book. Often, the process of hiding assets begins long before the actual divorce, as one spouse begins to hide things with the intention of starting the divorce process once they have finished concealing assets. A spouse can hide assets in countless ways. They may conceal large amounts of cash within a safe deposit box. They may transfer assets or property to friends or family as a gift or sell them below market value, with the intention of the other party holding them until after the divorce is final. People have been known to use offshore bank accounts, shell corporations, and all manner of financial trickery to hide assets. Another method that has become more common is a spouse hiding assets in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. Given that these currencies were developed to preserve anonymity, they are a natural avenue for someone looking to conceal assets maliciously. If one spouse has remained largely in the dark while the other spouse has handled the accounts and the budget during the marriage, they may have little or no idea what they actually own. This spouse is especially vulnerable to being deprived of an equitable distribution of property because of hidden assets. You will need an attorney who is experienced enough in litigation to help you use the process to uncover any hidden assets. Our firm is prepared and experienced enough to help people who feel their spouse is hiding assets. Give us a call today to see how we can assist you.
INGREDIENTS
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2 sticks butter, divided
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2 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour 5 cups milk
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
8 oz cream cheese
1 lb bacon, chopped and cooked 8 jalapeños, seeded and chopped 1 lb macaroni, cooked 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
3 cups shredded white cheddar cheese, divided 4 cups shredded pepper jack cheese, divided
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DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 2. In a large saucepan, melt 1 stick butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until fully absorbed in butter. Whisk in milk slowly. 3. Once sauce thickens, stir in cream cheese and shredded cheese until melted, reserving 1 cup of each shredded cheese. Add seasonings, bacon, and jalapeños before removing from heat, then combine pasta and sauce. 4. In a small skillet, melt remaining butter and stir in panko. 5. In a greased baking dish or skillet, add macaroni and top with panko and remaining cheese. Bake for 30–40 minutes and serve warm.
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Inside
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Tips to Improve Your Mental Well-being
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Are These Bad Habits Hurting Your Brain? Effective Tactics to Expedite Your Divorce Case
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The Battle Against Hidden Assets Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese
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Active Adolescents: Empowering Teen Fitness Goals
EMPOWER YOUR TEEN WITH FITNESS GOALS A PARENT’S ROLE IN CREATING HEALTHY HABITS
Countless adults struggle to set fitness goals, so it shouldn’t be surprising that many teens don’t know where to start either. Parents can be a critical source of motivation and support for young adults as they create healthy habits. Whether your teen is a natural-born sports star or a bit of a couch potato, you can help them be more purposeful about exercise and fitness.
But even more important than their goals is their motivation. We only achieve something with a compelling reason to drive us. Whether your teen’s goal is strength, weight loss, endurance, or something else, ask why it matters to them. Don’t be surprised if your teen’s motivations center around their looks — after all, we live in a very appearance-conscious society. But you can both acknowledge the pressure
Your teen probably won’t stop caring about how they look in bathing suits, but having these conversations is crucial. Adolescence is a particularly vulnerable time for developing eating disorders, so discourage calorie-counting or obsessive exercise. If you are concerned about your child’s relationship with food or fitness, you should speak with their doctor. Ideally, the focus should be on the benefits of physical activity. Talk about the reasons you make time to exercise. And if you don’t move as much as you should, see if your teen would be interested in joining you in becoming fit together. Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children’s relationship with fitness. Help them understand the lifelong advantages of being active so that the habits they create now follow them well into adulthood.
The process begins by discovering what drives them. If your teen is already active, ask what they enjoy and what goals they have for themselves. For those more reluctant to break a sweat, discuss whether they’re happy with their fitness level. Are they satisfied with their current level of activity? Do they think it will continue serving them well as they age?
to look a certain way while reminding your kids that their health is more important. Many reasons to exercise focus on avoiding negative emotions like insecurity, so help your teen flip their perspective and concentrate on how they want to feel in the future.
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