Category: Love and Relationships
Loving in the “Absence” of Love
Anyone who's ventured into the dating world knows that only the lucky few emerge completely unscathed. Most of us are bound to face a disappointment or two, to make a mistake or two, to have had our hearts broken or to have faced the difficult decision of breaking someone else's. You win some and you ...
Letters from Past Loves
I continue to be amazed by the various times I've received what I call “letters from past loves" … or rather, long text messages that read like letters from people who are no longer in my life in the same capacity, but who continue to mutually share a profound reverence and gratitude for the fact ...
Top 4 Lessons I Learned from the Past Year
A part of me was somewhat reluctant to look back at the past year—not because it was particularly atrocious, but because it was tinted with a bittersweet note. Looking back at wonderful memories also reminds me of the people I shared them with who are no longer in my life in the same capacity they ...
The Myth of Needing to “Have Everything Together” Before Being Worthy of Love
I used to think I had to have everything together before being ready for a relationship—like I had to be completely healed from all my past traumas, to have resolved all my existential crises, and to know exactly who I was and what I was doing with my life in order to be worthy of ...
Learning to Tell the Truth, Even If It Hurts
Early childhood experiences led me to believe that my real opinions and feelings didn't matter. I learned that the quickest way to gain approval was through compliance and agreeableness, and that I was responsible for regulating people's emotions for them, even if it meant abandoning myself. Whatever would cause less friction, keep the peace, or ...
Nostalgia: Reverence for the Moments that Shape Our Lives
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” – Dr. Seuss It's crazy how smallest things can trigger a sense of nostalgia. Like the smell of cigarette smoke, reminding you of the first time you moved out of home to live in that dingy apartment that you adored, ...
Challenging Your Assumptions and the Need to Predict
In an effort to minimize risk, we all have the tendency to predict possible outcomes and plan accordingly. To make these predictions, we can't help but draw from past experiences and preconceived notions of the world in order to keep ourselves safe. And this is not always a bad thing. Predicting and falling back on ...
Embracing the Messiness of Life
Having just moved into a new apartment, I naturally have the desire to keep it clean and tidy. My kitchen is a prime example: when I first moved in, I restricted my movements to keep it as spotless as possible, only to realize this was holding me back from actually doing anything. In order to ...
Top 3 Life Lessons from Partner Dancing
Last weekend I attended my first three-day congress for a partner dance style called Brazilian zouk, which consisted of back-to-back workshops and nightly dance parties known as "socials". Only since returning home have I begun to process the full weight and significance of this experience, which I'd like to share with you now. It sounds ...
We Can’t Always Protect Other People’s Feelings & That’s OK
Yesterday I accidentally upset a woman by texting very briefly in the movie theatre (mind you, I was texting underneath my jacket with my screen dimmed to maximum, but I guess she still caught a glimpse of the glare). It was the kind of text that needed an urgent reply, but I get it: people go to ...
Celine Diaz: Real Talk 