Religious

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~Viktor E. Frankl I stood in my kitchen, staring at the leftover red velvet cake from my birthday party the night before. It was beautiful: layers of deep […]

“Hope is not a prediction. It is the choice to believe something good is possible before we have proof.” For most of my life, I lived with an internal alarm system that never turned off. I expected disaster around every corner—financial collapse, professional failure, health crises, humiliation, and loss. Catastrophic thinking wasn’t just a habit;

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh I want to shine a light on something that often gets overlooked in both the medical world and the mental health space. Something I didn’t have a name for until I lived through it myself.

“You are not your thoughts. You are the observer of your thoughts.” ~Amit Ray I was in the middle of responding to my third “urgent” email of the morning when I realized I hadn’t tasted my coffee. The cup sat there, half-empty and cold. I had no memory of drinking it. That small moment became

“The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.” ~Arnold Schwarzenegger The gym. Just saying the word makes some people break into a sweat—and not the good kind. Bright lights. Mirrors everywhere. What do I wear? That “everyone is staring at

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” ~Buddha There are seasons when life feels stripped of joy, when hope seems far away, unreachable, or unreal. Seasons when you wake up already exhausted, and it feels like there’s nothing soft left in the world—no beauty, no connection,

“You are not responsible for other people’s emotional reactions.” ~Susan Forward This morning, in our usual rush and routine heading to school, my son was looking for something, as per usual. I calmly asked what he was doing, and he snapped at me. That’s not uncommon. I stayed regulated and grounded to help him regulate.

“Healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” ~Pema Chodron I recently went on vacation with my partner, Jett. I want to tell you it was kind of a disaster, but the truth is, it was just life. I had a

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi On July 2, 2009, my life shattered with three words: “He is gone.” I thought my friend meant my love was away on a camping trip, but no. She meant he was gone, as in forever. My stomach knotted and my breath stopped. My body

“Many of our relationship struggles are not character flaws but survival strategies that once made sense.” ~Unknown Throughout my life I’ve often been described as confident and outgoing. I can be the “life and soul” of a party and am able to strike up conversations with a wide variety of people. But what nobody would have