When I Feel Sad and Alone
How Dry January Improved My Brain Health and My Life
“You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better.” ~Dr. Daniel Amen
At the beginning of the year, I had this whole list in my head about the benefits of Dry January: drop a few pounds, sleep better, get those bright white eyes everyone raves about. The standard results you think you would get if you avoided alcohol for a month. But I should have known; my body had something else in mind.
Truthfully, the real reasons are much more complex. Alcoholism runs in my family. I’ve never thought I had a problem, but
Boundaries Begin Within: A Simple Insight That Changed My Life
“I used to tolerate a lot because I didn’t want to lose people. Now I set boundaries because I don’t want to lose myself.” ~Anonymous
I used to feel stretched and depleted in my own life, drained by obligations, and confused about why I felt overwhelmed even when everything looked ‘fine.’ At the time, I didn’t connect this exhaustion to boundaries at all. I simply knew the way I was living required a lot of me, even though I couldn’t yet name what this was really about.
For a long time, I didn’t have language for what was happening …
When Your Kindness Flows Easily to Others but Not to Yourself
“Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” ~Louise L. Hay
There it was—glaringly obvious on the page. An embarrassing typo stared back at me from the backside of a brochure I’d received from the printer. A brochure I wrote, laid out, and yes, gave the final sign-off to produce.
My stomach tightened as tears welled up in my eyes.
“You idiot,” I screamed silently at myself.
In an instant, flashes of similar mistakes I’d made over the course of a long career in communications rushed in, piling …
Moral Injury: When the People Meant to Protect You Fail
“Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.” ~Dr. Gabor Maté
Most people think trauma comes from what frightened us.
But not all trauma is rooted in fear. Some wounds come from betrayal—when something violates our sense of right and wrong, and we’re left to carry the cost alone.
This kind of injury doesn’t happen simply because something bad occurred. It happens because a moral line was crossed—by a person, an authority, or a system we believed would protect us. What follows isn’t just pain but a lasting …
How I Found Focus and Presence When Meditation Didn’t Work
“Meditation is a way of being, not a technique.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn
I didn’t think I was someone who “couldn’t meditate.”
I had read the books. I understood the benefits. I knew, intellectually, that sitting with my breath was supposed to help me feel calmer, more present, more myself.
And yet every time I tried, something inside me tightened.
My mind raced. My body felt exposed. Stillness didn’t feel peaceful—it felt like being left alone with something that didn’t know how to hold me.
So I stopped trying.
For a long time, I assumed this meant there was something wrong …
I Stopped Trying to Be Chosen and Finally Found Love
“You can’t perform your way into being loved. You can only reveal yourself and trust that the right person will love what they find.”
Finding the unmarked door, I stepped into a dimly lit room pulsing with that “Love Jones” energy. Neo-soul played low, red lighting cast shadows across faces, and the bass line vibrated through my chest. This was the kind of place where real conversations happened.
I was nursing a cocktail when he appeared beside me. Dark eyes, easy smile, the kind of presence that makes you sit up straighter. “What are you drinking?”
Within minutes, we’d moved …
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