There I was, perched on the edge of my therapist’s sage-green sofa, delivering what I believed to be a truly Oscar-worthy monologue about my feelings. I had just told a close friend that her ‘tough love’ text messages felt less like love and more like small, digital papercuts. I was breathless from my own courage. […]
How Personal Branding Became the Least Authentic Way to Present Yourself
Last Tuesday, I blew three hours trying to boil my entire personality down to a color palette. Not just any palette—an authentic one. Something that murmured approachable but sophisticated without screeching I typed “millennial branding colors” into a search bar and panicked. I ended up with a dusty terracotta, a washed-out sage, and a shade […]
Why You Should Stop Trying to Fix Yourself and Start Accepting That You Are a Mess
Last Tuesday, I found myself crouched on the kitchen floor at 11:43 p.m., eating cold pasta straight from the Tupperware while doom-scrolling a listicle called “10 Morning Habits of Highly Effective People.” I had set my alarm for 5 a.m., fully intending to become one of those people—the kind who meditate, journal, and sip lemon […]
The Difference Between Self-Care and Self-Comfort and Why It Matters
The Candle That Started a Small Argument With Myself Last Tuesday, I wound up in the grocery checkout line clutching a $22 candle scented like “oat milk and existential relief.” It sat right next to the impulse-buy chocolate and a magazine swearing I could have a flatter stomach by Friday. I was spent. My brain […]
When a Sheet Mask Becomes a Chin Strap: Self-Care vs. Self-Comfort
I keep replaying this one Tuesday night. 9:47 PM. I was wrist-deep in a bag of salt-and-vinegar crisps, wearing a sheet mask that had migrated so far south it was essentially a glistening chin strap. A candle flickered on the coffee table—something called “Monk’s Retreat,” which smelled like a yoga studio’s waiting room—and I was […]
The Difference Between Self-Care and Self-Comfort and Why It Matters (Says the Woman Currently Eating Cake in the Bathtub)
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, mainly because I found myself at 10:42 p.m. on a Tuesday, sitting on the bathroom floor, eating leftover birthday cake directly from the container with a fork that may or may not have been clean. I had a face mask on. A candle was flickering on the […]
How to Accept That Not Every Day Needs to Be Productive and Most Will Not Be
The Morning I Tried to Be a Morning Person and Failed by 8:14 a.m. I woke up on a Tuesday with the kind of resolve that usually fizzles before my first sip of coffee. My alarm didn’t just ring; it sang a gentle, optimistic chime designed to mimic sunrise over a Scandinavian fjord. I had […]