Dogs are joy made alive. I’ve always loved dogs. Their infectious excitement and loyalty have made them constant and welcomed companions in my life. “When Love Wags a Tail” by Carmen Leal is a collection of essays about people’s true stories about adopting their own rescue dogs. If you love dogs, you'll love this book.
Read MoreSelf-improvement is hard. The good news about it is that there’s no direct real answer for how someone can improve their lives. Here are five seemingly stupid self-help tips I used to think were ridiculous or just straight up didn’t understand until I started practicing them and found that they actually greatly improved my life.
Read MoreHappiness is a funny thing. Once we have it, we can’t seem to have enough of it. We always want more and fight to have as much of it as we can. The desire to be happy seems to be an endless ambition of humanity. But as “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin taught me, happiness doesn’t always make you feel happy.
Read MoreAuthenticity is hard to achieve. You not only have to recognize the personal qualities that build your sense of self without external intervention, but you also have to be honest with accepting them. It can be a difficult journey that requires work to uncover and practice your true values through the mess of external values imposed through your environment.
Read MoreCan learning how to cook make you a better person? Maybe. For me, learning how to cook has become reflective of my self-growth journey to becoming a better person. I also get to enjoy delicious meals along the way that's not just butter on my TV dinners so wins all around, honestly.
Read MoreMy anxiety has been a consistent monster I’ve hidden away for most of my life. For the most part, this monster was hidden because I didn’t recognize it existed.
Read MoreIs social media really a way to connect with other or does it isolate us further by forcing social comparison on us? Reflecting on my own history and relationship with social media, I contemplate why I can never escape the platforms.
Read MoreInspired by Katherine May's “Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times” novel, I reflect on the concept of wintering and how going inward, using introspection, solitude, and self-care helps me endure the season of winter.
Read MoreThe Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki explores the concept that items hold importance in our lives as humans do and thus the death of my beloved laptop invokes a reflection on grief and the personal self-growth I have experienced with this object.
Read MoreThe story of how the YA paranormal comedy novel "How to Survive a Ghost Story" was developed from the initial novel inspiration to the self-publishing process.
Read MoreThere’s few things more ironic than creating content about retiring from creating content. I’m aware of this. But two years after retiring from content creation, I have some thoughts about my previous “career” in content creation and how retirement has treated me so I hope you don’t mind if I share them.
Read MoreAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, The Boys, Dolly Parton, Mexican Gothic, Buzzfeed's Worth It, and more all make my list of my favorite things that made the trash fire year 2020 bearable. Did your faves make the cut too?
Read MoreFor as long as I can remember, one of my biggest pet peeves has been people reading over my shoulder while I write. I don’t know where it came from. Maybe my perfectionist nature caused the peeve, knowing fully well that the first draft should never be seen by any eyes aside from my own let alone while I was actually writing said first draft.
Read MoreOne year ago, my first book How to Survive a Ghost Story was published. One year ago was also when I vowed to never self-publish again because good lord self-publishing is tough.
Read MoreThe Top 10 Things to Happen with TheMaddness22 on YouTube.com in the year of 2017. Spoilers: A lot of good and awesome things.
Read More(Eminem playing softly in the background) "Looks whose back, back again."
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