Over the last six months, I’ve experienced significant shifts in my recovery. I’m feeling it in my writing and illustrations, where I’m now able to convey things that previously defied articulation or required 42 million words. Looking back, my older
Wholesome Badass blog and avatar emerged when I first engaged a therapist to support me with inner child and mother wound healing work. With Mari Andrew as my inspo, Wholesome Badass Girl came to life to help me along my
The people I relied on for protection were the same people I needed protection from. They were also the ones teaching lil baby Magda about herself, relationships, and the world. And so she gravitated toward relational patterns imprinted on her
1. Identity — Who am I without the struggle? 2. Agency — The difference between reacting and initiating 3. The nervous system — When peace is unfamiliar 4. Desire — Discovering what I actually want 5. Dignity — Beyond defending
I can’t help but laugh in disbelief as I recall my initial encounter of Japan. I seriously took the bowing personally. Not joking. I was 22, and not an all an adult. My understanding of respect, deference, and what people
In my unlearning — and in forming an understanding of the kinds of love and energy that make sense and feel safe to me — I am having to unlearn a lot of the scary love that shaped me into
I’ve been reading about relationships—attachment, avoidance, conflict, repair, deflection, ego, intimacy. And I am noting things that feel true to me. Not rules. Not credentials I suddenly possess. Just observations about the habits and behaviors that seem to accompany loving
No Dimmer Switch I feel everything the most amount—the good and the unpleasant—constantly. Everything in high definition. I am a deep feeler, or as the archetype likes to say: thin-skinned, overly sensitive. Not a crime. Not a defect. But not