Over the last few months, I’ve noticed myself feeling “bad” a lot more than usual. Just down and kind of sad, you know?

And I can’t attribute it to any one thing honestly, it’s just a heavy fog that follows me around.

I don’t think I’m alone in this either. A lot of us are probably feeling the weight of collective stress that’s heavy in the air right now.

These last few weeks, I just got fed up of feeling this way. …

We’re now several weeks into isolation and time is behaving very strangely. Sometimes it gallops by, making it seem like I was only just having breakfast and now the stars are out already. Other times it seems as though it’s slowed to a crawl, like when March felt like a whole year.

The days of the week have lost all meaning. Tuesdays could be Fridays for all the difference between them. …

This piece is my fourth attempt of the day at producing a coherent piece of writing. Fifth if you count the attempt I made around 2 am last night.

I keep judging all my drafts, deeming them too heavy or too lighthearted or just not good enough. But today I’m determined to keep showing up.

I’ve been toddling around my apartment the past couple weeks, behaving mostly normally on the outside while internally feeling like a drowning duck who really shouldn’t be drowning because she knows how to swim but the lake has spontaneously turned into a waterfall and very little makes sense. …

Have you ever wondered what it is about the heroes that inspire you?

I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately.

What is it that I like about the people that I like? What specific characteristics do I find so appealing? What part of them do I consciously or subconsciously seem to want to emulate?

I don’t particularly want to be a professional football player or a YouTuber and yet there are people in both those areas that I really like. …

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Not because I haven’t had anything to write about but because I’ve been afraid.

I’m not even entirely sure what I was afraid of. Success? Failure? A bit of both, I’d say.

I recently made the decision to become more structured and intentional in my approach to writing. I wanted to devote more time to writing pieces that served others in a positive way.

Having made this decision, I found myself frozen at the starting line.

Plans made. Mind maps created. Goals set.

Fingers poised over a keyboard — frozen.

People complain about not having anything to write about. I was experiencing the opposite problem. …

Sometimes you’re just not ok. And that’s ok.

Sometimes everything around you is perfectly fine, nothing has changed on the outside, but internally you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of chaotic emotions with no land in sight; nothing to grasp on to for relief or escape. That’s ok.

Sometimes nothing around you is fine, life is throwing up curve balls every other minute and it’s all you can do to keep yourself upright and not break down sobbing again and again. That’s ok.

Sometimes nothing makes sense, you don’t know what to do or where to go or what the future holds and you think the uncertainty of it all will surely drive you crazy. …

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

The dawn of this new decade has me waking up to a very important truth that I think I’ve needed to hear for several years now. I’d like to share it with you today, in case you too need a reminder.

Honestly, it’s somewhat astounding to me that it’s taken me the better part of three decades to learn this lesson. Seriously self?

It stings my ego to admit this but I’ve spent so many years living for other people. I prioritized other’s opinions over my own, obsessed over their likes and dislikes, and completely abandoned my own self. …