Has Covid Been A Silent Factor Of Divorce?

Have Divorces Been On The Rise Since Covid Started?

United States divorce rates have been increasing in the past few years. There are many factors that could contribute to this increase, such as financial instability or changes in social norms. However, there is a possibility that Covid might also be playing a role in the increase of divorces.

For one, the stress of the pandemic could be taking its toll on marriages. With people stuck in their homes, and so much worry and uncertainty in the air, it’s no wonder that some relationships may be starting to unravel.

Anecdotal Evidence For Covid Divorces

There is anecdotal evidence that suggests that Covid may be causing stress and tension within marriages. Hackensack, NJ Divorce Attorney, Rita Jerejian suggests that "Perhaps the biggest issue facing marriages in the face of covid-19 is the fear of the future and what covid-19 may bring." For example, some couples have a partner who lost a job and they are having difficulties making ends meet. Many couples have also been forced to spend a lot of time together in close quarters, which can lead to disagreements. In addition, so many people are now working remotely from home. 

This can lead to more tension in a marriage, as both partners are now struggling to balance work and home life with not much wiggle room for "me time". Let us not forget that there are also people who are unemployed or have lost their income because of Covid and they may be more likely to file for divorce as well.

No Concrete Evidence Yet

So far, there is no concrete evidence that Covid is responsible for the increase in divorces. However, the topic is worth exploring further. Divorce attorneys and therapists may keep a close eye on the role Covid plays in divorce rates since they are on the front lines of helping families navigate through the most difficult time. Researchers should study this issue in more depth. If it turns out that Covid is indeed causing more divorces, then steps need to be taken to address the problem.

Divorce Is Hard On Everyone Involved

Stephen Caplan, an Orlando divorce lawyer, believes that the increase in Florida divorces is due to a combination of factors. "The stress of Covid has definitely played a role in some marriages falling apart," he said. "But I also think that there may be other factors at work here, such as financial insecurity and the fact that so many people are now working from home."

Get Professional Help

Divorce is a difficult process for everyone involved, and it can be especially traumatic for children. And remember, if you are considering filing for divorce, please seek professional help. There are many resources available to help you through this difficult time. You don't have to go through it alone.

Thank you for reading! I hope this article provides some useful information. Please feel free to share it with your friends and family. 

Sources:

• NY Times
• CNN
• Psychology Today
• Orlando Family Law & Divorce
• Rita Jerejian Divorce & Family Law, LLC

Divorce Resources To Follow on an upcoming Blog, stay tuned.

Let It Go

Sometimes life can get a little crazy, a little complicated and a little overwhelming. The one thing
that I can share with you, the one thing that I know to be true...this too shall pass.

Whether it's work related or personal, trust me, it will pass, it always does. You may not see it right now, and you may not even see it tomorrow, but if you dig deep enough, you will come to understand that everything has an expiration date, including any turbulent water you may feel that you are drowning in now.

What Can I Do Now?

What you can do now is take a deep breath...yes, right now, take a deep breath.  Close your eyes and breathe deeply, until the only thing that you are able to hear is your own breath inhaling and exhaling. Do that for five minutes and then come back to the screen.

Now I need you to continue breathing and stretch your neck, tilt your head forward slowly, then slowly to your left, and then slowly to your right. Extend your arms our to your sides, making sure to stretch your fingers as far as they will go to either side. Once you're done, stand up and stretch your entire body, by clasping your hands and reaching for the ceiling while on your tippy toes.

Still breathing? Yep, you're still breathing.....and because you're still breathing, your heart still beats, you continue to live and you continue to dream. Whenever you get "that feeling", whenever you feel yourself becoming anxious, overwhelmed, worried or swallowed up by fear, take these same five minutes and give them to yourself. Whenever anyone has stolen your sanity, your strength, your heart, or your kindness....and you begin to feel as though there is nothing left over for you. Take it back!! Take it back and begin again.

Tomorrow Is Another Day

Tomorrow is another day, another opportunity to write a new chapter from scratch. I'm not telling you that it's going to be easy, but what I know, is that it can be done. You can renew yourself anew every single day. You can hit the reset button and start over. You can never ever change what has already happened, but if for some reason, something has occurred that has impacted you negatively, you can find ways to make sure that it never happens again, and you can start by taking care of yourself.

Those are my words of wisdom for today! Feel free to drop me a line at the email link on the top of this page. In the meantime, be good to yourself.

Peace be with you,

Casey

How to change your Comment Footer from "No Comments" to "Leave a Comment" on your Blogger template

I know how irritating it is to try and find a solution to this automatic "no comments" link at the foot of your blog posts. It's annoying and that's not all, having the link show up as "no comments" can be taken the wrong way. Folks reading your blog may assume that you have disabled comments, it is definitely not user-friendly or productive for your blog.

So, I searched the net for days, my frustration...well, you can imagine. Finally, I found a solution.
It may not be the most fabulous solution in terms of being aesthetically pleasing to the eyes however, it does the job.  Without deleting any code whatsoever, you can create a customized line of wording to include at the footer. Whereas, at the moment it may say "No comments:", you can change it to something more user-friendly like "Leave a Comment".

Now, like I said, be forewarned, it is not the most beautiful aesthetic, but that's not really what I was going for and at a minimum it is a temporary solution.  After updating the HTML code (very simple stuff here folks), this is how my comment footer looks:

As you can see, it now says "Leave a Comment" just before the words "No comments, So Far". Again, it is not the ideal solution that I was looking for, but unlike Wordpress, where the developers of the actual theme or plugin are available to offer support, I had zero luck with finding assistance anywhere on Blogger or any other forums. My theme is Ethereal and it is one of the basic themes that Blogger offers. If you go and dig up the Ethereal theme you will notice that mine looks completely different and I assure you that it is the same exact one. The difference between the way that my Ethereal theme looks and the way that the Ethereal Theme options appear on Blogger, is that I went ahead and customized it with colors and backgrounds etc.

Here is what my original Ethereal Theme looked like:

I started out with Pink for the Girl Talk theme however, I have since changed the name to "Let's Talk" and thought that it would be less sugary and sweet, and more cut and dry to serve my purpose. As you can see, the tabs were all over the place and the side-panels were super wide. I minimized the panels and changed the background. Once I minimized the side panels and expanded the blog, the tabs fit in quite nicely.

Getting back to this code:

You'll want to go into your Theme and select "Edit HTML", have no fear, I have very minimal experience with HTML and if I can pull this off, so can you. Make sure that you backup your blog or copy and paste the entire contents into a blank page (for insurance purposes), BEFORE you make any changes or additions.  Once you're inside the HTML, you'll want to click on the "Control" and "F" Key's at the same time. That will bring up a little search bar at the top right hand of your blog's html (see below). You'll need to search for the following code: commentLabelFull  You can go ahead and copy it, and then paste it into that little search box at the top right hand corner. As you can see on my image below, I typed in "Leave A Comment...", I added 3 periods, in order to create space. The next thing you want to do after adding "Leave a Comment..." before ":" is to go down four lines to and add the words "so far" or any other language you plan on adding.

There you have it folks, if you're stuck with the Ethereal Theme, feel free to use this information to change your comment footer from "no comments" to "leave a comment" or any other text that you wish to add.  I haven't figured out how to completely rid myself of "No comments" and therefore, this is a temporary fix that will hopefully keep traffic on my site, and allow more users to interact with the comment box.   If you need simple help for small items that you have seen me implement onto the site, feel free to leave a comment or contact me for more information. I will be happy to help you.

Good luck and thanks for reading, if you have found this post at all helpful, feel free to share it, and of course, don't forget to follow me on Twitter/Google+ etc.

Until next time,

Casey

Treat people the way that they treat you

Give as good as you get and you'll never be disappointed. I have a person in my life who literally calls me for every little thing. Now mind you, this doesn't bother me. I realize my role here and I don't mind giving anyone a shoulder to lean on. It just so happens that I was unavailable to this individual for the first time ever and this person took it upon themselves to badmouth me.

Part of me wanted to giggle, Out of 100 times, I have been there 99 times and this one time that I couldn't, I was the bad guy? Or in this case, the bad girl.

What it made me do was question the worth of this "friendship" to me. Do I really need someone in my life who takes and rarely gives?

How often do you find yourself lending a shoulder or a hand to someone who always seems to be
emotionally needy? In those moments, when you check-out for a few breaths and think to yourself "i'm never going to get these minutes back", do you ever want to hit the pause button and say "dude, get a grip, the world cannot revolve around you". It happens to the best of us.

Personally, for me anyway, my conduct with a person lays solely on their treatment of me.  I don't suspend reality and buy into everything that I hear. I let my opinion rest only on my personal interaction with a person and I will treat you accordingly.  If however, I find that I am being taken advantage of, needless-to-say, I will more than likely let a friendship go.

In cases where you find yourself rescuing an emotionally needy person, you're really only enabling them to use you as a crutch. I realized that I can sometimes be a crutch and not a friend. A friend will tell you when it's time to get over yourself, while a crutch will run to your aid and think that they have helped you.

In closing, I'm just going to say that I now recognize my "crutchy" and enabling behavior and yes, it took a "needy" person to complain about me in order to make me see it. Granted, that helps me more than it will help the needy but the important thing is that I have learned something that I will use as a tool going forward.

What is beauty?

This is something that has been contemplated for ages.

But really, what is beauty as it relates to human beings? Is it aesthetic? Is it cultural?

To me, beauty is a thing, a force if you will, that comes from the inside. It is a living force inside of us that comes out in different forms and expressions. Its a combination of our personality, the way we deal with the world around us and the love we share with people.

Beauty to me is a laugh, a smile, it's something of a seed that flowers when it comes into contact with the outside world.

Forgiveness is beautiful, respect for ourselves and others is beautiful, consideration is a thing of beauty. Am I making sense?

Beautiful people to me do not have be on the coverpages of Vogue or People magazine. I see beauty in everyday people and things all around me, every single day.

Learn to see it and appreciate it, recognize it and learn to feel lucky that you had the opportunity or have the opportunities to see and experience them.

Have a beautiful life by being able to see the beauty in all things and people.

This is what life is about. A huge part of that is knowing how and learning to LOVE yourself and your birthgiven right to live the most beautiful life that you can possibly live.

Don't let the small things muddy up your perceptions, it's easy with so much going on and with all the daily and weekly tasks that we have thrown at our feet, but take a breather, understand that you are blessed (whatever your religion) or that you're lucky (whatever your beliefs are).

Have a beautiful day,

Casey