Relationship honesty, Skin picking, Addictive music

Listen to Relationship Wisdom

Listen to world-renowned therapist, Esther Perel, answer the question, "Is there such a thing as too much honesty in relationships?" in this 10-minute video.

Why this matters for your mental health

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Esther Perel, explains how too much honesty in a relationship is cruel. 

How do you tell your partner that you're unhappy?

Why is your partner so mean to you? 

Is it okay to leave my partner? 

Why do I feel so trapped in my relationship? 

These are all issues that bubble up in our relationships, and we need to know how to deal with them. 

Perel is one of the wisest people I've ever listened to when it comes to relationship advice. Seriously, she's amazingly wise and candid.

Read + Understand

Listen to all the emails and articles you don't have time to read with a free trial of AudioRead.

Why this matters for your mental health

There is so much information I want to read, but I don't have the time.

So, I've been looking for a solution.

Enter text to speech. There are more and more apps popping up that allow you to convert text into audio. 

But most are way too expensive for what they do. 

I discovered AudioRead a little over a month ago, and now I pay $2/month for 5 hours of reading time. It's more than enough time for me forward several emails to the service. 

They also have a Chrome extension to convert articles that way as well. 

I love to stay up to date with the information sources I curate for myself, but it can be seriously overwhelming when I get behind. 

This service has decreased my anxiety so much, and I now consume more of what I love.

Understand the Ukraine situation by reading what happened with Russia and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

Why this matters for your mental health

History repeats itself, unfortunately. 

What's happening in Ukraine is horrific, but the Russian tactics are almost identical to what James Michener describes in his book, The Bridge at Andau, published in 1957. 

I'm halfway through, and it's helping me understand so that I can best decide what to do next. 

No one person can end a war a good friend and mentor reminded me, but we can all educate ourselves. 

This book is helping me way more than reading what people post on social media.

If you need wisdom--not noise--to make sense of this current tragedy, read this book.

Enjoy a seriously hilarious, uplifting book about beating perfectionism and finishing more of the projects that you start.

Why this matters for your mental health

I have to hand it to Jon Acuff. He understands humor writing. 

The fact that he's a business writer makes this book all the more interesting. 

I've read tons of self-help and business books, and this definitely earned five stars from me. 

Acuff provides lots of practical approaches for ending perfectionism. 

This is a rare self-help book that is both entertaining and incredibly useful.

Learn how people like me deal with skin-picking and other body-focused repetitive behaviors.

Why this matters for your mental health

I deal with skin picking, now known officially as excoriation disorder. 

You may know it as its old name, dermatillomania.

It took me many years to admit that what started during puberty for me had become a problem. 

It's brought on by my OCD and anxiety, and it has been especially bad lately with my tendency to get lost in existential anxiety.

I try not to beat myself up too much about picking at my skin because shame continues the stigma, which makes it so much worse. 

I found this article life-affirming and helpful. (Thanks for sharing, Mom! 😁)

Learn + Experience

Get coffee-shop productivity even when you're not in a coffee shop with free coffee-shop-sounds service, Coffitivity.

Why this matters for your mental health

I can be so productive in coffee shops. 

There's something about the blur of sounds that helps me focus. 

Knowing where you are most productive can help you feel better about yourself as you get more and more work done.

If you're the kind of person who needs some background noise as you work, then you need to check out Coffitivity. 

It has a number of coffee-shop tracks you can stream. 

Take it from me, it's almost as good as the real thing. If only they could stream some coffee into my mouth as well...

Sympathy and empathy are not just for humans. See how they apply to websites as well in this informative breakdown.

Why this matters for your mental health

How many times have you been on a site and had no idea what to do next? 

How much time have you wasted clicking around pages that make no sense? 

The Internet is everywhere now. 

I'm a big believer that information--and especially mental health information--should be designed with accessibility in mind. 

I try to practice what I preach with this newsletter.

How you say something is just as important as what you say.

I discovered this song on Apple Music's Mexico Top 100 list. 

Mon Amour came out last summer in Spain, but it's the remix that skyrocketed to the top of the charts in multiple countries. 

It's been at the top of Apple Music's Mexico 100 most-played list for months for a reason. 

The duet / dueling voices approach to this song is so musically pleasing.

Even if you don't like music in other languages, you won't be able to stop yourself from playing this on repeat.

Listen to zzoilo and Aitana sing the remix by watching the video below.