Category: Uncategorized

Claustrophobia can make a small elevator, a plane seat, or an MRI scanner feel like there is no air left in the room. Your body may react as if danger is right in front of you, even when you know you are physically safe. I had to be in an MRI machine while it scanned…

Equanimity, it sounds like a big, distant word, but it speaks to a familiar need: staying steady when life feels like too much. I’ve learned to stay calm through meditation. Before, I didn’t know how to handle a stressful situation. I would cower in the corner because of the anxiety. I’ve learned to deal with…

Emptiness. It can feel like waking up with a heavy fog inside you, even when nothing looks wrong from the outside. You may feel numb, disconnected, unfulfilled, or unsure who you are anymore. Emptiness filled my whole body. I thought I was giving up on my life, but it was a cry for help. Others…

Determination is the small inner fire that says, “I am still here,” even when fear is loud and your heart feels tired. It can carry you through anxiety, depression, grief, emotional overwhelm, and the heavy kind of self-doubt that makes every choice feel impossible. I was so determined to fight all my demons with mental…

Bleakness can make an ordinary room feel empty, a familiar morning feel heavy, and the future feel impossible to trust. Grief, anxiety, depression, illness, loss, and uncertainty can narrow life down to one hard hour at a time. I felt bleakness, or lost hope when the anxiety hit me. I didn’t know how to combat…

Connection. It doesn’t always arrive through a long heart-to-heart or the perfect words at the perfect time. Sometimes it arrives when someone sits beside you, makes you tea, or lets you rest without asking you to explain every feeling. There were people I felt connected to, but in actuality was distant from me. I don’t…

Kindness can arrive in a moment so small that it almost seems ordinary. A text that says, “I’m thinking about you.” A stranger holding the door when your hands are full. A person choosing a softer response when they could have snapped. Yet kindness often reaches farther than we can see. It can affect the…

Desolation…what is it? It can feel heavier than sadness, like emptiness has moved into every room of your life and locked the door behind it. You may feel numb, isolated, grief-struck, or certain that nothing can improve. Before the attempt on my life, I felt completely empty and withdrew from everyone instead of reaching out…

Love. It can look flawless in a photo, wrapped in a romantic caption, a surprise trip, or matching smiles at dinner. Yet real love has dishes in the sink, misunderstood texts, anxious nights, and days when neither person has much to give. It has healing, routine, doubt, laughter, conflict, and the choice to try again…

Jadedness can make hope feel unsafe. After enough stress, disappointment, grief, or emotional exhaustion, you may stop expecting good things because expecting them once hurt too much. I felt jaded by life itself. All the odds of physical, and emotional abuse when I was young by someone everyone trusted, left me not understanding what was…