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I've always loved collecting stationery; from notebooks, beautiful and sentimental greeting cards, to pens, stickers, and washi tape. I just never knew what to do with the supplies as they piled up and cluttered a corner of my house. Looking at a blank page, there's so many possibilities. It's hard to know where to start. One of my main missions for my last trip to Japan in late December 2025/early January 2026 was to check out their vast variety of stationary shops. I was in

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, parasocial relationships are "one-sided, unreciprocated sense of intimacy felt by a viewer, fan, or follower for a well-known or prominent figure (typically a media celebrity), in which the follower or fan comes to feel (falsely) that they know the celebrity as a friend." I've thinking about this recently as I was discussing with my partner how the ways in which we were raised are fundamentally different. He knew a life before the i

Have you ever tried to replicate a moment that gave you the same feeling of excitment and exhilaration as the first time? Was it ever truly the same? The first time I experienced this was back in elementary school. My friends and I had played a great game of four square on the blacktop at recess and I remember the sun at golden hour, the way the air felt, being on top of my game and just having a great time with friends. The next day, I came back to school, thinking recess wo

One of my favorite movies from my childhood is Kiki's Delivery Service, the classic Hayao Miyazaki film (of which I believe is part of the "core four" along with My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle). I recently watched the film in Japanese to improve my recognition of Japanese words since I know each beat and line of the movie so well, but I found myself getting emotional at certain points. Not only did it remind me of simpler times when I used to watch

It seems like productivity has become the most valued thing in society and in our daily lives. We always have to look like we're keeping busy and cram our schedules with stuff that either needs to get done or just because we're so used to constantly doing something that we get anxious without it. Maximizing our time has become a big issue of not being able to live in the present by always looking towards what's next on the agenda. I'm not one to judge though. I do have a prob

I would not be surprised if almost everyone didn't battle with their body image. Most of the time, we're not even in our own bodies and only pay attention to it when there's something to criticize. I have to admit, after I had a child, I didn't consider my body mine anymore and a lot of the comments I received after I had a kid was a version of, "Wow! You really snapped back!" instead of my actual newborn. Of course, it's a compliment, but a part of me hated that it's the fir

When I was young, my mom used to play tapes of Rodney Yee out on a beach with a glorious view, just at sunset with gentle waves crashing onto shore. He performed angular poses effortlessly in a fluid manner, and the videos finished with him laying in the sand in such stillness that made me wonder, "What is this person doing? He gets paid for this?" I immediately wanted to be part of that serenity and calmness. I would follow along with him but felt like a fraud in a way. I di

Sisterhood has been something that I've really struggled with all my life. I always gravitated having more guy friends, and my relationships with women in the past have been messy and rocky. I don't think many of us are surprised to know that a lot of daughters have strained relationships with their mothers. I am not an exception. My mom and I were very close up until I was 16. Then she got a boyfriend, one who was an incredibly bad influence on her and that I created boundar

I've been writing songs since I was about 12 years old. I've been writing in general for longer, but growing up, I wanted to be a musician. In high school, I even had my own band, and while the rest of the group wanted us to prioritize covers, I was hungry to create something of our own. Well, then life happened. I got distracted by boyfriends and tragedy that caused me to focus on survival. Then I had a kid and became completely out of touch with myself. It's only been the p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYUB3hruvDE&list=PLkQFNhNzetpGKzpj9tD8PJjeDhOS6u9QV&index=141 If the video comes up as unavailable, please try clicking on the link to take you directly to the video. I wanted to share a video featuring comedian Atsuko Okatsuka because she talks about a wide range of topics that have to do with well-being, including how she discovered to be more herself, the hardships of adjusting to life in America as an immigrant, her familial dynamic, and be

One aspect of wellness I wanted to touch on is how our senses can really impact our mood and state of mind. I'm sure it doesn't come as a surprise that sound, especially music, can change how you feel in an instant. We go to music as an outlet when we're sad, when we need something to pump us up, when we're angry, and when we need to be calm. Music can serve as an old friend who understands you with their lyrics and tone or help to change your energy completely. It's a great

I wanted to kick off this blog by speaking about one of my past experiences with grief - one so painful that I denied myself the ability to grieve, even though it was a major loss in my life. The loss I will be talking about is my childhood cat: Biggs. Yes, if you're imagining a very robust looking cat, then you'd be right. When I was 9, my dad found a post in the paper (yes, the paper) for a cat that just had a litter of kittens. We drove out to someone's backyard where I pi

Many people view personality traits as a fixed state of being. I have to admit that at one point, I thought so as well. The phrases, "Oh, you know how they are," or "That's just [name]!" has been used to accept each other, but in a way I find to be fairly dismissive and devoid of true understanding and compassion. Not only this, but there may be patterns of someone that are genuinely damaging to relationships and self-sabotaging to the individual. Many times that person is ou