Maybe we don’t need to worry about doing Thanksgiving perfectly.

Relationships can have a big impact on our health. They can cause us significant stress, or conversely, help us live more joyful and resilient lives.

When we’re focused on the future and on just getting stuff done, we fail to appreciate what’s in front of us. This can be really stressful: we’re always worrying about what we need to do next, and feeling chronically late and under-accomplished. Checking one item off our to-do list just means it’s time to move on to another.
 

Many of us, especially if we work in an office, spend hours every day staring at a computer screen. Then we go home and turn on the television or fire up Netflix, and spend another hour or three decompressing after the day. Of course, this doesn’t even count any time we spend one-on-one with our smartphones. 

I like to joke that everyone needs at least nine hugs every day. That's on a regular day, of course. If you're having a hard day, double that number. Because really, what’s more comforting and grounding and reassuring than a good hug?
 

As a doctor, I think that most of us spend too much time on our phones, our computers and in front of the television. As a person, I understand, of course—I do plenty of that myself! But I also like to think about ways to mix it up and have fun that don’t involve staring at a screen.

This has been a tense week for most of us. Regardless of who you voted for, I think we can agree that the election season has been exhausting, draining, and stressful, and that we’d like to move forward.

One way we can move forward is by remembering that we each have the power to help heal our own communities and care for our friends, neighbors, families and selves.

Often, the problems of the world seem overwhelming. We see something horrible on the news, or read an article about a group of people suffering somewhere, and it just feels like too much. What can I do? I ask myself. Nothing really, I usually answer.

But I want to help, and I think I’m far from alone in that. One way that all of us can work to make things better is by thinking local. We might not be able to wave a magic wand and end world hunger, but each of us has the power to take action to make our communities a better place to live.