I'm down here again, on the kitchen floor, with a tear soaked face and my knees to my chest. I’m sitting here staring at the street light that’s cascading across my living room wall. I find myself here every once in a while when I hit another block and am tired and exhausted from doing it all. It’s difficult to keep pushing forward to create something new and always striving for bigger and better. Instead of moving forward, I often end up standing still in a place that won't budge. In these moments, I can’t seem to fully move forward, but I refuse to go back. I wonder if I’m ever going to get ..read more

Having social anxiety in public settings, around people we don’t know, can be extremely difficult. Having social anxiety amongst our closest friends and family can be just as big of a nightmare. Friends and family who don't struggle with social anxiety might not fully understand the impact that it has on nearly everything we do. Therefore, they may not understand when our anxiety starts to affect the relationship that you have with them. Social anxiety can cause the person experiencing it to isolate themselves. They often want to avoid the crippling feeling they get when being overstimulated ..read more

By Annika Lepik For nearly a decade, I was not living in my body. It was as if I was stuck in a state of sleep paralysis and could not fight my way out. I lost all control over the ship and passed the wheel over to my romantic partners. Deep down I knew how my lifestyle was impacting me, but I could not muster the strength to break free. As a woman, I can firsthand express the frustration I feel toward the male-centered society that we live in. That is not to say that men are patriarchal creatures that should be furiously destroyed. I believe that such a mentality poses a danger to society. St ..read more

By Casey Raffle It’s no secret that social media has changed our world in drastic ways. Social media has its benefits, such as the ability to stay connected with others despite physical limitations. At the same time, the type of connection social media provides can seriously warp our view of ourselves and others. Most people tend to display only their best selves—the selves they want to promote—while hiding their struggles and failures, leading us to make false comparisons with our own lives. Copious research has shown that social media can harm our sense of self-worth, and young women are esp ..read more

By Katherine LeCompte Last week, I was running a group therapy session on coping with anxiety. One of my clients asked, “OK, what even is anxiety? I know I am anxious, but what is actually happening to me?”  This was a great question and one that really resonated with me because many years ago, I wondered the same thing. I, too, struggled with intense anxiety and panic attacks, so much that it was really affecting my life. At one point, my anxiety was so severe that I felt as if I were dying, and I went to the hospital. The ER doctor told me I was having panic attacks, and on the way out ..read more

By Michaela Toth Grief is a wild ride. One minute you are happy; the next minute you are experiencing the grandest heartache you have ever felt. Another minute you are calm; the next you are cursing the world. A day, a week, or a month later, you are accepting what happened. Then, suddenly, you are in extreme denial. When you experience grief, your emotions will fluctuate from the deepest lows to the most extreme highs with everything in between. But the most important thing to remember with grief is that it comes from a place of love. My father was diagnosed with colon cancer in the fall of 2 ..read more

By A’bria Robinson For most of my life, I thought of myself as being mature beyond my years. I spent most of my childhood with my grandparents, soaking up their wisdom. Through those experiences, while gaining many lessons, I truly thought that I had people and relationships all figured out. It’s been through my work in a service profession that I’ve unlocked a major key to living a full life: releasing expectations.  As a family life specialist, I’ve had the honor of serving 38 children and families by creating treatment plans and providing tools to help them thrive. Many of these famili ..read more

By Yashu Kapila, CEO of BugRaptors  Who is your role model? Why?  I have always believed that you can find your role model in anybody. In my career field, it could be a true veteran of the corporate world or a rookie just on the verge of beginning their career. We can always learn something from someone else—morals or teachings that help us progress in different areas of our lives. For example, when I ponder the many extraordinary women working in the corporate sector, I often think of Indra Nooyi, former chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo. At the same time, I can envision happy and enth ..read more

By Parul Yadav I have always desired to learn more about how we function within a society: where our information comes from, how different cultures communicated in the past, and how the structural dynamics of various industries work. Growing up in a middle-class Indian family, I had particular insight into the patriarchal mindsets that have allowed gender disparities in the workplace to prevail. Throughout my time in university, I held constant in my vision to work toward changing these perceptions, despite hearing countless arguments discouraging women from pursuing leadership roles. Drawing ..read more

By Dana Rohal Anyone can listen to what you say, but being heard is totally different. This is something we all hope for but can seldom feel as a person, a friend, a spouse, an employee, and especially an adolescent or teenager. It is easy for others to listen to respond, or easily dismiss what you have to say to meet their own needs or agendas. As a teen, you face so many different influences—family, peers, teachers, coaches—and navigating through this while trying to learn to become your authentic self can feel overwhelming. You are forming opinions about the way you feel based on your envir ..read more