• The scene is of a busy walking street in Paris. A woman walks away from the camera and we wonder how she feels about her own ability to communicate her feelings. How well does she know herself and as she walks into the crowd we wonder, how many people are really good at communicating how they feel?
    Perspective and Growth

    Naming Your Feelings: Build Emotional Awareness and Strengthen Self-Advocacy

    May 27, 2025 - By 

    Communication is one of the most important skills you can build. It’s worth improving every single day. Healthy, effective communication promotes self-advocacy, helps you create healthier relationships, avoid miscommunications, and move through life with more clarity and ease. But communication isn’t just something you practice with other people – it’s also something you practice with yourself. The communication you have with yourself depends on how well you can name your feelings. Having a strong emotional vocabulary changes everything: it deepens your self-understanding, strengthens your self-advocacy, and empowers you to meet your needs more effectively. In this post, we’ll talk about…

  • A woman sits alone at the beach, silver linings and rays of sun break through dark clouds. The image is optimistic with notes of sadness. It's a great representation of what it's like to be an empath. It is a metaphor for how being an empath can be heavy and difficult at times, but it's possible to stop absorbing other peoples energy.
    Emotional Awareness - Healing & Inner Work - Perspective and Growth

    How to Stop Absorbing Other People’s Energy: A Guide for Empaths

    May 20, 2025 - By 

    Have you ever been in a large group of people – maybe a work happy hour or out Christmas shopping – and suddenly felt your energy shift? Perhaps you started feeling stressed, anxious, or frustrated for no apparent reason. If you identify as an empath, these moments probably happen often. It could be as simple as someone in your vicinity carrying a heavy emotional load, and suddenly, you feel it too. While being an empath allows you to experience life deeply, it’s essential to recognize when you’re picking up other people’s emotions. Read on for more perspective on how to…

  • We are looking a a city view, through broken fence. This image represents the core ideas in this blog, which are walls, barriers and boundaries. Does this fence represent a wall, barrier or a boundary? And does the hole in the fence mean that the viewer is breaking through those defenses to discover emotional freedom?
    Boundaries & Self-Respect - Emotional Awareness - Healing & Inner Work - Perspective and Growth

    Emotional Defenses After Conflict: Walls, Barriers and Boundaries

    May 13, 2025 - By 

    Everyone experiences pain at some point in their life. Whether you’re talking about things like loss, or disappointment, or learning that your best friend really isn’t a friend to you after all – pain from these moments teaches us something. Everyone reacts differently to painful lessons; some folks take it in stride and use that discomfort to create meaningful change in their lives. Others hold on to the pain, and sometimes they take protective measures to ensure they don’t get hurt again. In this post, we’ll discuss the difference between walls, barriers and boundaries. When it comes to protecting ourselves and…

  • A group of people are standing around and the image is blurry. This blurry image relates to seeing your relationships with people in a new, perhaps uncomfortable way. As a people pleaser, this might be the beginning stages of what it feels like to let go of the need to please.
    Boundaries & Self-Respect - Confidence & Self-Worth - Emotional Awareness - Healing & Inner Work - Perspective and Growth

    Learning to Let People Down: A People-Pleaser’s Guide to Disappointment

    May 3, 2025 - By 

    People-pleasers are often described as “nice”. Beyond nice, however, people-pleasers are sensitive, emotionally attuned and often deeply empathetic. The problem occurs when empathy becomes your way of survival; when you unconsciously believe that other people’s comfort is more important than your truth – it gradually depletes your self-worth.  People-pleasing is a survival strategy, and we do it out of fear – fear of disappointing others, fear of abandonment. Fear that if we don’t make other people happy; we aren’t lovable.  The Unseen Burden of Pleasing If you were conditioned to view approval as the same as love, you likely learned…

  • A girl stands in a scarf and hat, smiling. She seems to be considering the idea of being more open to her emotions. She is contemplating the idea that her emotions are much more complex than simply good or bad.
    Emotional Awareness - Perspective and Growth

    Giving Your Emotions A Name: Moving Beyond “Good” Or “Bad”

    April 29, 2025 - By 

    Emotions are an essential part of the human experience, in fact, it’s our emotions that make us human. We feel our feelings all throughout the day, but how often do we really take time to understand what we’re feeling and why? Most of us have been conditioned to categorize emotions as “good” or “bad,” but the reality is, emotions are far too complicated and nuanced to use such a binary approach. Moving beyond the “good” vs. “bad” emotional framework allows you to better identify and understand your emotions, and get to know yourself in the process.  In this post, we’ll…

  • A man is walking across the street, he is looking over at the camera, smiling. He might be the exact person this post is for, someone who feels the need to people-please, and doesn't realize that he is enough just as he is.
    Boundaries & Self-Respect - Confidence & Self-Worth - Emotional Awareness - Healing & Inner Work - Perspective and Growth

    Being a People-Pleaser and Sacrificing Self-Worth

    April 26, 2025 - By 

    We live out certain patterns in our lives, and sometimes we aren’t even aware that it’s happening. These are repeated behaviors we have been acting out for a very long time, and yet we have no conscious awareness of them. Being a people-pleaser is a manifestation of one of those patterns. On the outside, it can look like simply being helpful, offering a friendly smile or giving of your time to those who need it. However, on a deeper level, it can stem from fear, a desire to be enough, and a belief that our worth is dependent on how…

  • Boundaries & Self-Respect - Emotional Awareness - Healing & Inner Work - Perspective and Growth

    How to Forgive Yourself: Getting Started

    October 25, 2024 - By 

    Forgiving yourself is a vital part of emotional healing, but it’s something many of us don’t talk about. When we think of forgiveness, we often focus on forgiving others—perhaps a past boss, a friend who hurt us, or a family member who let us down. But what about you? Self-forgiveness is just as crucial, and it’s time to turn that same compassion inward. In this post, I’ll walk you through how to forgive yourself, let go of guilt, and stop holding yourself to impossible standards. Why It’s Hard to Forgive Yourself We often struggle to forgive ourselves because we’re taught…