“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” ~Anne Lamott You know that familiar routine: an exhausting day at work, a long commute, children, errands, messages, dinner, and notifications. And then—finally—rest at the end of it all. A soft, welcoming couch that curves in all the right places. A new episode of…
“It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day, that’s the hard part.” ~ BoJack Horseman If you’d told eighteen-year-old me where she’d be at twenty-eight, she would have laughed nervously and changed the subject. That was her move, by the way. Laugh it off. Deflect. Eat another biscuit. She was…
“Love life more than the meaning of it? Yes, certainly.” ~Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov When I was a child, there was a special moment during dusk when the old sodium lanterns switched on in the streets, morphing the world from one of saturation into one of yellow monochrome, and it always made me sad. One such day, my dad…
“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 For years, I felt like I was always one step behind everyone else. Not in a way I could prove. Not something visible or measurable. It was quieter than that—persistent,…
“Sometimes we fall for the same mistakes because we haven’t learned to love ourselves fully.” ~Unknown As long as I can remember, my relationships followed the same script. At first, there was charm. Attention. Sweetness. Intensity. That intoxicating feeling of being seen and chosen, sometimes for the very first time. Then, slowly, the cracks appeared. It started small. A…
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~Carl Jung I was sitting in my therapist’s office when she asked me a question that made me freeze. “Tell me about the last time something good happened in your life.” I opened my mouth to answer, then stopped. My mind went…
“An empath is a person highly attuned to the feelings and emotions of those around them. Empaths feel what another person is feeling at a deep emotional level.” ~Leah Campbell When I learned the word “empath” about ten years ago, it felt like the most amazing relief. I thought to myself, yes, that’s me! Finally, an explanation as to…
“The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it.” ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross My friend Diana’s WhatsApp profile picture is of herself hugging her dog, Zibby. Every time her name comes up on my phone, there they are. The two of them in a…
“Emotional abuse is any pattern of behavior that undermines a person’s sense of self-worth and reality.” ~Beverly Engel At first, the changes were small. I stopped wearing that outfit everyone liked because they said it didn’t look good on me. I let certain friendships fade because it made him uncomfortable. I laughed less at things he didn’t find funny….
“One of the hardest things I’ve had to understand is that closure comes from within. Especially difficult if you’ve been betrayed by someone you love because you feel like you gotta let them know the pain they caused, but the peace you seek can only be given to you by you.” ~Bruna Nessif A photo of my father handing…
