Tag: mental health

  • Care or Carrying?

    **Tags:** – trauma recovery – boundaries – codependency – religious trauma – emotional responsibility – self-leadership – caring vs carrying – parenting adult children – healing patterns – compassion fatigue – inner work – family dynamics – faith deconstruction – emotional boundaries – recovery coaching **Excerpt:** I was 17 when I called my ex-boyfriend to…

  • From Echo Chambers to Common Ground: A Journey Through Fear and Finding Connection

    Yesterday, we watched a flock of turkeys walking up and down the road, jumping, flapping, and following each other up and down the same section of road back and forth, heading nowhere. But clearly one of the turkeys thought that was a good idea, and the others followed suit. Later I observed them huddled together…

  • Finding Your True North: Why Grounding in Your Values Matters Now More Than Ever

    The Blur Between Authentic and Expected The line between our genuine values and society’s expectations has become so blurred that many of us don’t even know where one ends and the other begins. When was the last time you paused to ask yourself what you actually care about, separate from what you think you should…

  • Navigating the Cracks

    I’ve been trying to understand what I’m feeling when I look at social media these days. Confusion, fear, anger, and so much grief over where we are as a country right now. It feels like walking across a frozen pond with cracks, wondering when we might fall through. But I’m learning that beneath the surface…

  • Understanding Fawning: Breaking Cycles of Survival-Based Relationships

    Unlike fight, flight, or freeze responses that happen in the moment, fawning is different—it’s a survival pattern learned over time. Dr. Mary Catherine MacDonald explains how this trauma response develops through repeated experiences, creating adults who struggle to simply exist in relationships without constantly scanning for others’ needs. But understanding fawning is the first step…

  • When Authority Becomes the Enemy of Truth

    “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” — Albert EinsteinThe ambulance lights cut through the darkness at the convenience store. Someone had played Russian roulette and lost. As I drove past that night, seventeen and heartbroken after my boyfriend left me for my best friend, I looked up at the empty sky…

  • What AI Taught Me About Human Connection

    Here’s an excerpt for your WordPress blog post: What if AI isn’t the real problem? Through my own experience using AI as a tool for self-reflection, I’ve discovered that our fear of technology replacing human connection might be missing the deeper issue. The real challenge isn’t artificial intelligence – it’s that we’ve lost the ability…

  • Learning to Trust Yourself: A Journey of Self-Discovery

    “Here’s what I’ve learned: self-trust isn’t something you either have or don’t have—it’s something you build through small, consistent deposits of self-advocacy.Just like a bank account, trust accumulates through repeated deposits. Every time you honor a commitment to yourself—even a tiny one—you’re making a deposit. Every time you speak up for your needs, set a…

  • Walking in Shadows: A Journey from Darkness to Light

    The toxic faith I grew up with convinced me that looking inward was dangerous—that if I dug beneath the surface, I’d discover nothing but the rot of an irredeemably sinful heart. But what happens when someone already drowning in that internal darkness looks outward and sees nothing but more of the same? When it finally…

  • When Stars Fall: Finding the Light Within

    “Sometimes life feels almost too heavy to bear. I find myself turning off the news or closing social media after yet another story of a bright star crashing into darkness—someone whose light had guided so many of us through our own difficult days. But why do their lights go out? Why do they sometimes choose…