My electric toothbrush has seen it all. I usually look in the mirror when I’m brushing my teeth, and for a while last fall, I often cried when I stared into my own eyes. I did my best to hold it together in front of my sons—most of the time, anyway. But the mask often cracked when I met…
“The only people who get upset when you set boundaries are the ones who benefited from you having none.” ~Unknown For most of my life, I lived with a quiet ache, a longing I couldn’t quite name but always felt. I wanted to be chosen. Not just liked or tolerated, but fully seen, wanted, and loved. That longing shaped…
“Emotions are not problems to be solved. They are signals to be felt.” ~Vironika Tugaleva We’ve been taught to package our emotions like fast food—served quick, tidy, and with a smile. Americanized feelings. Digestible. Non-threatening. Always paired with productivity. If you’re sad, journal it. If you’re angry, regulate it. If you’re overwhelmed, fix it with a three-step plan and…
“True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world. Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” ~Brené Brown Last year over lunch, my friend, Jess, confessed something to me that hit me right in my gut because I’d been there too—that exact same lie, that exact same fear….
“True healing is not a straight line. It is a spiral. You come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.” ~Barry H. Gillespie I used to believe healing would be obvious. Like a movie montage of breakthroughs… laughter through tears, epiphanies in therapy, and early morning jogs that end with a sunrise and a changed…
“You can plan for a hundred years. But you don’t know what will happen the next moment.” ~Tibetan proverb Some days it feels like a fog I can’t shake—this underlying fear that something painful or uncertain is just around the corner. I try to be responsible. I try to prepare, make good choices, take care of things now so…
“It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.” ~Brené Brown “You have burnout.” I listened to these three words in a trance, said thank you, and got off the call with the doctor. Part of me had known. The endless days I spent in bed staring…
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”~ Carl Jung My mom had always been invested in real estate. I remember snacking on open house charcuterie years before we finally purchased a house to flip—the first of four. By the time I was eighteen, we’d…
Have you ever felt like fat and food were your enemies? Like everything would be better if you could just lose weight—and eat whatever you want without consequence? I felt that way for much of my childhood and teens, when unresolved trauma and low self-esteem led to a long battle with food and my body. I struggled with bulimia…
“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” ~Eckhart Tolle In July 2023, my father died in a tragic accident. We were devastated—my sisters, my mother, and I. Or so I thought. What followed in the months after his death forced me to confront the truth of my mother’s emotional disconnection,…
