my MRI

Being benevolent is a lonely, yet important self-imposed job that we often chose The child who grew up feeling unseen learns to our into others hoping that, one day, someone will pour into them. They become the caretaker, the fixer, the one who gives without limits. But deep down? They’re just waiting for someone to do for them what they’ve spent a lifetime doing for everyone else.

Vision is a blessing and a curse. The curse and gift of seeing too much is the highest price most brilliant minds often pay. For they don’t just see the world - they oversee it. They notice the tiny cracks in conversations, the hidden connections others miss, the future unfolding before anyone else catches on. Their mind is always a few steps ahead, scanning not just what is, but what could be. It’s a gift: foresight, creativity, pattern recognition. But it’s also a curse: overwhelm, anxiety, the weight of carrying knowledge others can’t, won’t or refuse to see. To see too much is to live in a double-edged state perpetually - always aware and never at rest. And yet, this is where genius lies: in the mid that sees the storm coming and names its hidden order.

Expectation is the root of heartache. This isn’t original, but we owe it to ourselves to manage our expectations. If we don’t they will take over a create a world of their own that doesn’t actually exist.

Stop worrying that others think you’re strange. You will simply attract the correct people to you just by being who you are, naturally. By the way, you ARE strange and that is OK. We all are. Be stranger and embrace it! To borrow from Shrek, what makes us different makes us strong. Let your freak flag fly!

We should value our own happiness over and above valuing what other peo0ple think of us. In order to truly level the playing field, we should all see ourselves as fumbling children in the dark. This is true no matter what anyone will tell you. Only those who seek true authenticity and vulnerability (used as superpowers!) will be able to understand this truth, even in absence of the courage to express it. The more authentic we are to our spirit, the more bulletproof we become.

We likely have a natural ability to connect with people and facilitate meaningful change. Even if we struggle to put that into words. That is the work.

Stop automatically rebuking people’s kindness as manipulations. We should, instead, spend our energies on focusing on sender’s intent. Otherwise we are using our poor sense of self esteem, checkered history, anxiety or the like as a reason to keep love away. Why? What does THAT do for anyone?

Grief destroys neuropathways. When we experience a significant loss (remember: loss isn’t just death), the ways we normally do things can seem alien to us. While we are challenged with that grief, allowing it in to overtake us and teach us, we will feel lost. While we allow our loss to sink in (instead of stifling the incredibly important feelings by “staying strong”) we are letting ourselves experience and process the loss. In doing so, while we process and mourne as healthily as possible, our usual way of doing things will inevitably change. We should be gentle with ourselves. Those pathways are the incredibly important and most overlooked roadmap to the way we live.

Don’t attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. This is a variation of Hanlon’s Razor. This quote serves as a constant reminder to choose empathy over resentment, preventing me from taking others' mistakes personally. Adopting this mindset has transformed how I handle conflict by allowing me to approach misunderstandings with curiosity instead of anger. It creates a foundation of trust that makes collaboration much more effective. I live by this rule because it stops the cycle of negativity before it starts, keeping my perspective grounded in reality rather than assumptions. It is my primary tool for protecting my mental energy and fostering healthier relationships.

“Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before learned it.” - Maya Angelou. We often punish ourselves by judging our history through the lens of our current wisdom, unfairly expecting that we 'should have known better' before we possessed the tools to understand. This creates regret that serves only to keep us in the past rather than moving us toward growth. We owe ourselves the grace on our own journeys that we so freely offer to others. Accepting that we did the best we could with the knowledge we had at the time is the only way to truly make peace with who we are becoming.