Notes on eating the whole gummy, the resulting anxiety, and my surprising antidote
“Check my pulse,” I turned to my partner, Alex, who was lying in bed beside me. We had eaten weed gummy bears hours earlier. He was doing fine and I… well, I was asking him to check my pulse.
“It’s really fast, isn’t it?” I asked, wrist held out in…
How to resist fast-paced consumerism by making shopping decisions that bring you happiness in the long run
Some jobs only exist to enable you to shop from your couch — and they pay quite well. A whirlwind of targeted advertisements, strategically timed sales, and enhanced shipping logistics can overpower your good sense if you don’t take a step back. …
For when you need guilt-free rejuvenation
Oftentimes we shop in order to surprise ourselves; we want to walk away feeling renewed by what we’ve discovered and acquired.
One study on product-evoked emotions found that a driving force behind our purchases is that we think they’ll have a transformative effect on our lives. …
Escape (or return) to the real world.
In her book, Wild, Cheryl Strayed recounts her experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail after the loss of her mother and the breakup of her marriage. …
A guide for minimal and sustainable wardrobe shopping
The most sustainable clothes you can buy are ones that you’ll wear at least 100 times. Their eco-consciousness is second only to hand-me-downs, vintage, or thrift. Even “sustainable” brands become resource drains if you buy a different sweatshirt for every day of the month.
Think of this task as a foundational habit for well-being
The click-and-fizz noise of a Diet Coke can opening was the soundtrack of my childhood. My mom used to drink around 6–8 cans a day even while she was a high school health teacher (and knew the adverse health effects).
Oftentimes, our making unhealthy decisions isn’t for a lack of…
And why you should give up on it.
Following the 2016 US election, I started paying more attention to what my mom’s cousins had to say on Facebook. Before then, I had scanned over their (often sexist or racist) ramblings, but suddenly it became more relevant.
I started sincerely engaging with them. I wanted to learn. I thought…
The first step to creating a cozy living environment is reducing chaos.
The coffee table in my home was built in 1990. It’s a solid oak rectangular storage box. My grandparents bought it for my parents from Amish furniture makers in Indiana, and it has traveled from their home, to Chicago, and now all the way to Boulder, Colorado.
Like many people…
The slow initial growth experienced by start ups can mirror your personal growth, too.
For a start up, innovation can take years of low or no revenue before it hits a crucial inflection point. When charted against time, this growth line has been called a hockey stick growth curve.
For the first few years, growth seems dismal over the flat hockey stick blade. It’s…
This is why my political perspective has shifted dramatically in the past several years.
On her website, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sells a $58 sweatshirt that says “Tax the Rich.” A friend of mine recently reposted a video of billionaire Kevin O’Leary wearing this sweatshirt and joking, “inside of every socialist there is a capitalist screaming to get out!”
I sent her a question about…
