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Why self-recognition feels impossible sometimes Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt like you were seeing a stranger? Not in the physical sense—thought that happens too—but in the deeper sense of not recognizing the person staring back at you. Like you’re wearing a life that doesn’t quite fit, playing a role you never…
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“To essay is to try – and what greater act of courage is there than a woman trying to name her truth in a world that has silenced her?” – Anonymous The essay form is having a feminist renaissance. But this resurgence isn’t about the stiff academic compositions we learned to write in school. It’s…
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Book Review: Weyward by Emilia Hart Have you ever felt like there was something wild and untamed inside you that the world kept trying to contain? Something that whispered of older ways, deeper knowledge, power that didn’t fit neatly into the boxes of society built for you? If so, Emilia Hart’s debut novel Weyward will…
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Why emotional labor and performed wellness are draining us “How are you?” my coworker asked as we passed in the hallway, and without thinking, I responded with my automatic “I’m good, thanks!” while my internal monologue was running something more like: I’m overwhelmed by deadlines, my anxiety is through the roof, I had a fight…
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I picked up The Mountain is You during one of those periods when I was clearly getting in my own way but couldn’t quite figure out how to stop. You know the feeling—you want something, you have the capacity to get it, but somehow you keep creating obstacles that prevent you from moving forward. Brianna…
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How ‘being yourself’ became another performance. Ever notice how the harder you try to be authentic, the more artificial it feels? There’s something deeply ironic about the amount of effort that goes into “just being yourself.” We’re told to live our truth, show up authentically, and stop pretending to be someone we’re not—but what happens…
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Why affirmations and bubble baths aren’t enough Have you ever walked through the self-help section of a bookstore and felt slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of products promising to help you love yourself? There are books about falling in love with yourself in 30days, guides to radical self-acceptance, and approximately seventeen different versions of…
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The problem with our obsession with emotional resilience I used to think emotional resilience meant bouncing back quickly from difficult things, like one of those inflatable punching bags that pops right back up no matter how hard you hit it. I thought resilient people were the ones who could experience loss, trauma, or disappointment and…
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The toxic positivity epidemic and authentic emotional processing I was having coffee with a friend last week, telling her about a difficult period I’d been going through—work stress, family drama, the general weight of existing in the world right now—when she interrupted me mid-sentence with a bright smile and said, “Have you tried just thinking…
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How Mary Elizabeth Braddon invented sensation fiction and got erased from the literary canon I was scrolling through a list of Victorian bestsellers when I came across a name that stopped me: Mary Elizabeth Braddon. According to the article, her novel Lady Audley’s Secret was one of the most popular books of the 1860s, outselling…
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