There’s a Buddhist quote, “just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again”, that has been sticking with me for a while now. It feels very profound while at the same time too simplistic. It presents this idea that you can just step out of this past that you’re carrying around with you, as if we’re our smartphones refreshing to the latest software. It made me think about my own experiences and how many versions of myself there have been. How many “skins” I have shed throughout my life in order to get away from my past. Can you ever fully upgrade yourself away from a past version or do those glitches always find their way back into the system?

For a society that is more connected than ever, it sure seems as though we’re mentally more divided, anxious, depressed, and lonelier than ever. Is the flip side to this coin, addiction? And is it really worth it?

A couple weeks ago, the world celebrated World Breastfeeding Week and it felt like the perfect time for me to write about something that has been on my mind for a while now - breastfeeding. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with my journey during breastfeeding, so I wanted to get them all out here in case anyone else is going through the same thing I did. I believe that breastfeeding is amazing! It can be this magical moment with you and your baby and it has fantastic powers for mamas during postpartum. However, I do not agree with the perceived idea that it is the “right” way to feed your baby. It wasn’t until I became a mom myself that I realized just how much breastfeeding is pushed on a woman and idolized as the “best” way to feed. Which is just wrong on so many levels and I’ll explain why.

Momspeak - where we make it a point to only see the good and happy sides of pregnancy/childbirth and actively push out the bad through our words. Now, I understand this is a form of survival because let’s be honest, if we remembered childbirth and all the pain we went through - we’d all be an only child. So I get it! But at the same time, I wish women were a bit more candid with one another about their experiences. I wish we’d stop putting these rose colored glasses over pregnancy and postpartum so that those of us who have no idea what we’re doing, aren’t made to feel crazy. Motherhood should be bonding us together through our flaws and crazy times, not making us feel as though we need to match up to perfection.

How do you know when a friendship has run its course? I feel all too often we overlook friendships being just as serious as romantic relationships; when in fact, they are still a relationship where we give a lot of ourselves (typically) and expect to get some kind of connection in return. But what do you do when the friendship is no longer benefitting you? And I don’t mean in a manner of “their advice sucks!” or “they never want to go out anymore”. I mean seriously bringing negative energy into your life.