Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2018

43 www.CharlestonBrides.com | www.MPMcalendar.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com feature love and marriag proof of how prevalent pet love has become. For Cooper, helping pet owners love on their fur babies is good business practice. “For every family we work with, it’s not a pet, it’s another family member,” said Cooper. “You are your pet’s whole world. And to me, my dogs are my world.” In a world of relationship status updates, Match.com and dwindling good old-fashioned dates, pets are a link to solid, healthy love, Cooper said. “It’s a way to be healthy and active, and it provides a way to alleviate stress. Just petting a dog or cat will help you calm down. In this day and age, where everything is always on, a pet can be that break you need in your day,” she explained. “It’s a bond with someone who will love you unconditionally and be there with you.” Many of Cooper’s human clients are empty- nesters, and, for them, she said, a pet is a child. “The closest thing to unconditional love is a parent’s love for their children,” Steiner agreed, though he works exclusively with humans. “Everyone’s definition of love is different,” as Steiner put it, speaking on a break between sessions at Todd Steiner Counseling, where he guides individuals, couples and families through the many manifestations of love. “We have to ask, ‘What is love to you?’” When is comes to parent-child bonds, love can be a precarious dance between helicopter parenting, healthy encouragement and dependency. Overzealous support leaves children too dependent and unable to grow, whereas healthy support prods children in the right direction while allowing them to be independent. “Even parents and children can burn bridges,” said Steiner. “But it is the closest thing to universal love.” If anyone knows everything about Charleston’s parent-child sphere it’s Sarah Broad, the mompreneur behind the local division of PunchBugKIDS. In addition to coordinating PunchBug’s free online registry of all things kid-related – businesses, barbers, events, volunteer opportunities and even giveaways – Broad manages her own bustling household. No one could blame her for being overwhelmed. Instead, Broad said she makes a conscious choice to love herself with the goal that love will then reverberate out to her family and community. “As a parent, especially moms, we tend to feel guilty when we take any time to ourselves. One of the keys to not feeling guilty is accepting what we teach our children, “just try your best” and “be your best, kind self.” “Take a deep breath,” suggested Broad, “and tell yourself it is OK to not be Martha Stewart. It is important to keep it in perspective when things get stressful.” Love in Broad’s world means zooming out for a better perspective. It means parents taking time to treat themselves to something that puts them in a good mood, like a workout at Mount Pleasant’s HY/LO Gym. And it means putting good old- fashioned quality time in front of superficial measures, like a shiny Parent of the Year award. “At the end of long days will be the joy and amazement on your children’s faces as you simply spend time together, regardless of the dirty dishes sitting on the counter and papers strewn about,” Broad laughed. Putting true love in front of Martha Stewart- esque accomplishments is not an easy lesson to learn, though. That’s a fact another Mount Pleasant love expert, Eléa Faucheron, knows well. “Being busy is like being in love with junk food when you’re stressed out,” said Faucheron. As the owner of the personal coaching company Move Think Smile, she guides people back from burnout with a curriculum of self-love and balance. “The endless quest to get to the end of the to-do list is really addicting. It’s almost like junk doing. You can get a lot done and it feels good, but you have no space or time to be present to your life,” she said. “Are you really making the right decisions?” asked Faucheron, who experienced burnout herself as a small business owner. Now she works one-on-one with individuals and is publishing a book and e-course on burnout. One of the biggest remedies, she explained, is getting back to self-love. “A lot of people aren’t taught how to establish their relationship with themselves,” she said. “The World Health Organization named stress as the epidemic of the century.