The First Place I Felt Heard
Before astrology and tarot, there were books. A reflective piece on growing up emotionally unseen, finding sanctuary in reading and writing, and learning to witness myself through words.
Personal Essays & Becoming
My lived experience: raw, reflective, human.
Why We Love a Public Downfall: The Psychology of Online Witch Hunts
A reflection on digital mob culture, projection, and why public scandals trigger collective outrage in the age of social media.
What Is a Memento Mori Calendar? A Life-Changing Practice in Facing Mortality
In 2020, I started using a memento mori calendar, a grid that represents every week of an average human life. What many see as morbid, I’ve found to be deeply life-affirming. In this reflection, I explore how tracking my life in weeks has reshaped my relationship with time, mortality, Stoicism, and intentional living.
How My Saturn Return Led Me to Astrology (And Finally Leaving the Corporate Path)
How my Saturn Return reshaped my career path, led me to formal Hellenistic astrology training, and helped me understand misalignment and purpose.
The Body Keeps the Score Review: Trauma, Nervous System Healing, and My Journey Through Cancer
When I first read The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, I expected a clinical discussion on trauma. What I found instead was a profound reminder that trauma is not just psychological, it lives in the body, shaping our nervous system, breath, and sense of safety.
Years before reading it, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. While medicine addressed the condition, I had to confront something deeper: unprocessed grief I had carried silently for years. My body had been holding what my mind could not.
This reflection explores how trauma is stored in the body, why talk alone isn’t enough for healing, and how safety, community, and embodied practices help the nervous system relearn trust.
Healing is not mystical. It is physiological, relational, and deeply human.
Guan Yin and the Practice of Compassion: What She Taught Me Beyond Books
A reflection on Guan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, and how her teachings on presence and softness shaped my spiritual path.
A Million Little Pieces and the Truth About Ugly Healing
A reflection on A Million Little Pieces and what addiction, shame, and messy recovery teach us about resilience and rebuilding.
Finding Meaning in Suffering: Lessons from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
A reflection on Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and how trauma, lung cancer, and childhood dysfunction reshaped my understanding of purpose.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult: What Fiction Taught Me About Compassion and Silence
A reflection on Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and what fiction teaches about bullying, compassion, silence, and moral complexity.
When Breath Becomes Air: What Lung Cancer Taught Me About Time, Identity, and Meaning
A reflection on When Breath Becomes Air, lung cancer, mortality, identity, and what it means to live fully before time runs out.