In Between N.18

a list of ones

Hi there!

Here are the mid-month things I’ve collected and want to share with you. I’m still riding the longest wave (since the fires in LA or even prior?!). So if you’re anything like me, I hope you're finding moments to catch your breath, pause, and rest as much as you can.

Thank you for the intimate and heartfelt emails in response to my last newsletter. I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comment section below so we can continue the conversation here or just leave a heart. I’m still figuring out how to bring back the monthly gatherings. I miss them and am trying to find a sustainable way to make them happen again.

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One Sound

One Reflection

“As a culture we’ve become very, very uneasy about any emotional discomfort. We have come to equate being mentally healthy with feeling good.” - Dr. Lisa Damour

Something I often find myself repeating to clients—and making a clear distinction about—is exactly what Psychologist Lisa Damour is speaking about it. At first glance, increasing our capacity for discomfort doesn’t seem like what we hoped for. However, many of us grew up surrounded by discomfort and had to develop ways to avoid it. Now as adults, even a hint of discomfort—whether it’s a difficult emotion, a memory, a familiar pattern, or a trigger—can be incredibly hard to tolerate. The moment discomfort arises, we often react automatically, which can interrupt an important internal cycle. Along with this avoidance or resistance comes the belief that feeling good all the time = being mentally healthy. But in reality, being mentally healthy has more to do with the capacity to navigate life—its ups and downs—with awareness, flexibility, and curiosity as we move through different states. It means learning to tolerate our incompleteness, our lacks, our longings. All of our fullness.

One Conversation

On Being Podcast is coming back with a new season!!!

This was a beautiful conversation between Krista Tippett and Justin Vernon, of Bon Iver. He speaks with such vulnerability about his journey—moving through a sense of stuckness and pressure, and into something more open and alive.

One Scene

Every so often, I think about this scene—the way the dad’s eyes light up when he sees his son and tosses the paper aside. This availability. These words. This connection.

One Reading

Naomi Klein on the rise of end times fascism

One Story

I'm a longtime admirer of Jhumpa Lahiri, and this old story of hers often lingers in my thoughts.

The third and final continent

One Discovery

Honestly, some days, it's just about holding onto ominous positivity to survive...

One Recipe

I love chai tea (though I've never actually made it at home... but I'm planning to change that!). Here’ how

One Play

During spring break, I taught my daughter how to play canasta, and it felt like a rite of passage. My whole family loves playing and often gets together on the weekends, which made me miss them so much. Those long afternoons of playing cards, drinking coffee, and eating cake.

What have you been playing lately? How are you allowing time to be filled, not by ticking off tasks on your list, but by simply existing and doing something you enjoy?

One Wish

On that note….

One Breathing Practice

This is a good exercise for when we feel a sense of anxiety

1. Inhale slowly through your nose.

2. Open your mouth and exhale slowly, making the sound of the letter R—let it be a long, extended exhale.

3. Repeat 3–5 times, or as needed.

4.As you try this, notice if you can soften the muscles on your face - your jaw, eyelids, tongue. Let the face be as relaxed as possible.

One Reminder

Relaxing with impermanence with Pema Chodron

"When I didn’t resist, I could see the world."

One Instruction

I keep returning to these words, by Hélène Cixous from Coming to Writing

One Question

Take to the open sea…

What would you take to the open sea? What would you offer it—perhaps something that is too heavy, finished, or ready to be returned to you?

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with love,

Mariana