The Sassy Shrink

04/24/2026

Part two is live.

I went to DC expecting notebooks and nametags. I came home with a stranger-turned-breakfast-companion, a new tool for my toolkit, and an uncomfortable truth about the difference between real connection and the kind we perform online.

If you read Part 1 last week, this is the rest of the story.
If you didn’t, you can start here. Either works.

Full essay at the link in bio ☀️

04/23/2026

You’re trying to predict a nervous system you grew up around.

Anxiety is often just pattern recognition looking for a job.

If you grew up tracking someone else’s moods to stay safe, your brain didn’t stop doing it just because you’re an adult now. It’s still scanning. Still rehearsing. Still asking “is she mad?” about people who aren’t even in the room.

That’s not a thinking problem. That’s a nervous system doing what it was trained to do.

You can retrain it. Just not with logic.

04/23/2026

Your nervous system isn’t malfunctioning. It’s doing exactly what it was trained to do a long time ago.

The work isn’t forcing it to be calm. It’s building enough safety that it finally, quietly, believes you.

That kind of slow is allowed ❤️

04/20/2026

Your mother wound doesn’t need a dramatic origin story to count.

Start small. Ask yourself what you actually want today. Answer honestly. 🖤

04/20/2026

Your mother wound doesn't need a dramatic origin story to count.

Start small. Ask yourself what you actually want today. Answer honestly. 🖤

04/17/2026

I waited in a long line for this photo.

Yung Pueblo had just given the most honest piece of advice for couples walking down the aisle that I’ve ever heard:

“Hang on.”

That’s it. No five-step framework. No poetic monologue. Just hang on.

Because real love isn’t the soft lighting and curated captions. It’s the grip. It’s holding on when your partner changes. When you change. When life does what life does and doesn’t ask for your permission.

I’m in a loving relationship and I’m not married, and somehow that stripped-down truth felt more grounding than any wedding toast I’ve ever heard.

Real love isn’t polished. It’s practiced.

I cried twice at this conference. He was responsible for the first time.

New essay up on Substack— give it a read 🤍

04/16/2026

Jealousy feels gross. I know.

It gets a bad rap, treated like evidence that we’re small, bitter, unevolved.

What if we looked at it as information instead?

When you see her glow-up, her relationship, the life she’s building and feel that pull… your body is clocking something. Get curious about it, non-judgmentally.

What’s it pointing at? What’s it trying to tell you?

Don’t shame it away. Listen.

I spent years calling myself petty for feelings that were actually my intuition trying to get my attention. It wasn’t until I stopped listening to everyone around me and started listening to me that jealousy started making sense.

It wasn’t a flaw. It was a map back to me.

04/16/2026

From Friday’s essay. More soon.

04/14/2026

It’s 2am. And you’re rehearsing it again.

The conversation you didn’t have. The one you wish you had.

This isn’t a sleep problem. It’s a nervous system carrying too much, for too long, with no one to hand it off to.

You don’t have to keep rehearsing alone.

Link in bio ☀️

04/13/2026

You’re not lazy. You’re not negative. You’re not “too much.” 

You’re carrying something that was never meant to be carried alone.

Some of y’all don’t need another mindset reset. You need a person. A nervous system. A hand on your back.

Support is necessary. It’s biology.

You don’t need a better attitude. You need real support.

🤍 if you needed to hear this today. No need to explain.

04/11/2026

04/10/2026

Nobody walked into the hard conversation feeling confident. They walked out that way.