It’s time to get real…   Also, I need you to know that when I sit down every week to write this, it’s like I am sitting down with a best friend whom I’m about to tell a secret.   These words come straight from the heart. Often I cry while I write. It’s so damn cathartic. Words are my love language.   Words - as long as I can put them on a screen and not speak them out loud - are therapy to me.   I’ve been asked before how I write and the most immediate answer always is:   I d

I don’t know about you but I personally think this is the ultimate mindfuck.   Pardon my language. But it’s true….   Ever wanted something so bad you couldn’t stop thinking about it, you were obsessing over it, analyzing it, strategizing, stuck in “if this, then that” loops in your head?   But it just. Wouldn’t. Happen.   As hard as you tried, pulled out all the tricks  - nada.   It’s almost like you were pushing it away by focusing on it so much.   There’s a name for that…  

So last week, I kind of left you hanging, I know.   I have my reasons...   The truth is that the story I actually wanted to write is this one 👇🏼, but then I stopped to wonder:   Why does it feel like it’s the hardest thing I have ever done? (And spoiler: continue to do).   Sometimes, not all the time, and ESPECIALLY not at the same  time when things actually are  hard, but sometimes it makes sense to understand  what is actually happening in the brain when there’s something

You know what one of the most frequent yet hardest questions I get (and ask myself) is?   It's this:   HOW?   We hear things like…   "just be more grateful"   "oh don’t take it personally"   "just let it go"   …thrown around all day long.   Maybe you’ve even said them to someone.   I certainly have in the past.   But then I remember, it’s not only very easy to say that to someone if you’re not actually in their emotional state, it’s also pretty useless, maybe even harmful?  

Happy second day of spring, let’s talk about being stuck.   Yes, on the day when (I wrote this) we officially leave the dead of winter behind us, the sun is getting warmer, sprouts shoot out of the earth and flowers remember their bloom, that’s when you want to talk about being stuck, Melanie??   Exactly, that’s exactly  what I’m gonna do.   Let me tell you about the last few days I had.   It’s indeed felt “springy”, blue skies, nothing but sunshine, crisp air telling us to s

Tell me I’m not the only one who has felt like this, actually, I know I’m not…   Have you woken up in the morning after what you thought was an ok  amount of sleep but you felt like you didn’t sleep at all?   It’s not even that you were awake a lot, tossing and turning, no, it was just like,  sleep didn’t work?   I have certainly been there, and when it happens I am always reminded that rest is actually multi dimensional.   I hate to break it to you, but sometimes, “Oh, I’m f

So apparently we have now entered the year of the fire horse and if you don’t really know what that is supposed to mean then I can tell you this:   Yeah same.   I don’t exactly know what that means but according to the Chinese zodiac system that’s the year we are in now, as of Feb 17th that is.     What was last year? You may ask…   The year of the snake.   Ok, ok but why does any of this matter? Or better - why should any of this matter to me?   Great question.   The short a

The time has come, I am opening up about what I have learned from a recent, yet ongoing personal (and also very global) experience. So take a sip of your ginger ale, lean back and...   What experience, you ask?   A cute little Canadian show turned record breaking cultural phenomenon called *drum roll*: Heated Rivalry.   I'm still flabbergasted...   Who knew a TV show could even do anything remotely like this to us?   How did it happen that hundreds of thousands, heck millions

You know how sometimes you think someone is the love of your life but things just don’t work out and maybe part of you keeps wondering why for the rest of your life?   WHYYYYY?*   *insert dramatic sound effect.   Ok sorry, I know, maybe this was a bit much to start a very innocent newsletter with.  Or maybe I am also just confusing real life happenings with the beginning of almost every rom-com plot...   But you know what the answer is to this very non-dramatic, all caps WHYY

Oh dearest reader… it’s very important that I start this week’s newsletter with this: Please, fail. Yes, you read that right. I hope you fail at things. Let me back up. You know when I felt the most miserable in life? Well, aside from that one time I had some street market food in Indonesia that didn’t agree with me (I'll spare you, it's TMI) - it was when I felt stuck. When I was in a promising career that had me hide tears and in the bathroom stalls a little too often, that

If I told you that lying on the floor for 20 min a day would change your life you’d probably call me crazy.   You might say something like, well running on the treadmill for 20 min a day will probably also change my life and I wouldn’t argue with that.   This is different.   So, so different.   ✨   A few years ago I was sitting on a park bench with some fellow students of my Yoga Nidra training when someone pulled out their phone and said:   Oh my God, the Google CEO is doing

Is it just me, or was this a weird year?   I will be honest, when I sat down to write this newsletter and thought about how 2025 and all the things that happened made me feel reflecting back on them, these words came to mind:   Chaotic. Strange. A lot. Weird. Confusing. Much too much. *so stunned I didn’t actually find words.* and the last expression that I personally think sums it up the best is: Wait what?*   *Spoken in a slightly higher pitch and using a facial expression

She woke up in fear oh my the year it’s almost gone did I tell everyone how much loved them? or was it just on their birthday?   When someone asks me are you happy?   Do I smile the biggest smile and say yes, yes oh I am so very blessed or do I drop my gaze, say of course I am, it’s just I wish I wasn’t so stressed, all the time I seem to chase from place to place and sometimes I am not sure what I am after or if it’s time that’s after me?   And there’s a little secret I don’

I have put off writing this one for a few weeks now.   So much so that I even skipped last week’s newsletter in case you noticed.   Honestly, there were many reasons as to why (from travel hickups to pre-holiday exhaustion and everything in between) but one of them is this: pure irony.   Why?   Because I just couldn’t get myself to sit down for it while the topic I want to write about is exactly that: sitting still.   Story time...   I was 24, walking back home from my weekly

Spoiler, it's not what you think it is. If you’re not a Yogi or have only been dragged into a yoga class by a friend that one time and the main memory you have of it, is those being the longest 60 minutes of your life, then I have great news for you:   YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO READ THIS.   I could go on and on about the history, explain how it’s been around for thousands and thousands of years, elaborate on why it is not a cult and technically also not a workout , though it doe

So last week I talked to you about how multitasking is really not uhm.. ideal? To put it lightly…   I am aware that I left you hanging with the fact that it “fries your brain” without telling you what you can really do about it.   This week let's change that.   Before I get into it however, I need to tell you something: If you’re looking for a simple 5-step-plan-flip-the-switch-to-a-new-life kind of thing, I’m not your girl.   In fact, you would really also not like me as a c

I wish I could get all my energy back that went down the drain because of this.   I bet you do too…   Actually, let’s be more dramatic about it, because I do believe it’s a tragedy:  if I could, I’d declare this one behavior pattern the number one enemy of state.   Was it Blackberry - not to throw punches - who originally thought it was a good idea to market it as “more freedom”  being able to write emails from the beach?   Well, you live, you learn but who really feels a sen

I think it was in a Glennon Doyle podcast where I heard her sister say:   I put the fun  in fun ction.   Even though I consider myself to be someone who at least has the capacity of being fun...   I felt that.   I spent this last week on Gran Canaria in Spain, mainly just keeping with my yearly tradition to avoid November in the cold country I call home. But also - in all honesty - I was ready for a change of scenery and really needed a break.   Plus, I craved more space to w

This is a real question.   Am I too sensitive or is this world just too flippin’ much??   I know I talked about the numbers end of the sensory overload we all experience a couple weeks ago, so there’s literal proof that that’s not made up.   So many of us live lives that look like the suitcases people lug back from a weekend Christmas shopping trip. Merely getting the suitcase closed takes one person sitting on top of it, and the other pulling on the zipper with rubber gloves

You know that feeling of putting off something important?   You know it’s coming, you know you can’t avoid it but part of you is just not ready to face it?   So you don’t think about it, maybe you even convince yourself it’s not that imortant or you’re really just making too big of a deal out of it.   Then you try to justify the status quo and find all kinds of reasons how you could probably make this work, it’s not really that bad is it?   All the positive aspects suddenly s