On my own journey to learn about my roots, I realized that they are broader than my direct lineage. I was born in the United States and my parents were born in India. And I’ve slowly been trying to learn more about my ancestors, in the capacity I can.
But I realized that my lineage is both narrow and broad. There’s my direct bloodline, and then there’s the communities that surrounded, and continue to surround, me. Who we are is influenced by others in society.
Here are a couple resources that preserve and raise South Asian voices and are helping…
I’ve seen a lot of talk about the power of resiliency. It’s often discussed in a way that sounds heroic. It’s romanticized as a skill or quality that feels magical. We might imagine someone who has lost it all and then, in a moment, they find the will to move forward despite challenging circumstances.
The Problem with the Resilience Narrative
I don’t think rising out of difficulty is a bad thing. But I do think resiliency is often spoken of out of context. If fails to acknowledge the conditions that required the individual to become resilient in the first place. Being poor, not white, disabled, queer…
As a librarian, I often tell people that there are more questions than there are answers. This might seem counterintuitive because libraries are often synonymous with answers, however, there are always spaces and gaps in information.
Similarly, while what you answer during an interview is important, the questions you ask are even more important. After all, you are also interviewing the place you might work, and it’s important to know what’s important to them. By asking certain questions, not only will you learn the answers, but you’ll indirectly learn other information.
Here are three questions you can ask during a…
There are many times I’ve been proud of myself in my life. I was proud of myself when I got high test scores. I was proud of myself when I landed certain jobs and when I got promoted. I was proud of myself when I got published in certain publications. I was proud because I felt I had accomplished something through my own hard work.
But I’ll also say that in school, I was a “smart” kid, a smart kid who subconsciously looked down on people who weren’t in advanced classes. It wasn’t until my 30's that I realized that…
I’m no meditation expert, but I know that meditation isn’t easy for everyone. I honestly don’t think it’s ever easy at first. And even if you do it every day for almost two years, like me, there are still times it can feel like the first day.
But the point of meditation isn’t to never feel distracted. The point is to return back to it and know that you can always return to your breath and to yourself whenever you choose. And in these pandemic days, a sure thing is a nice thing.
I’m going to offer some meditation tips…
But be mindful if they are.
The question of passion and career are so often dependent upon each other in society. I say this as someone who has always tried to figure out her one passion in life, only to learn that this is a problematic desire. I made this video about this exact global conundrum.
Aside from the fact that we can be multipassionate, or a multipotentialite as coined in this Ted talk, we also don’t have to turn our passions or hobbies or interests into side hustles. The “hustle” has been glorified by capitalism as a way to “have it all” when the 9–5…
I’ve asked them too.
When I used to go to Al-Anon meetings, I marveled at how I didn’t know what almost anyone I met did for a living. Nobody asked. It was the type of environment where profession wasn’t centered. You’d only find out by happenstance because someone mentioned it in passing.
It always amazed me that no one asked “What do you do?” since this is usually one of the first questions people ask each other when they meet. While this isn’t one of the questions I’ll go into detail in this article, it does have classist connotations. …
See what I did there?
There is a lot of writing advice out there that encourages writers to use numbers in the title of their articles, creating what is called a “listicle”. For example, this piece that in Better Marketing provides 6 reasons to use numbers in your title:
- It makes the article sound authoritative
- It lets readers know how much time they need to invest
- They suit our brains
- Google loves numbers
- It provides structure for the writer and reader
- The numbers back up the numbers
Feel free to dive into it to se the rationale. Some of these reasons are human and some…
The pandemic forced many workers to work from home. Some welcomed the change, enjoying being at home with their pets or having a chance to sleep in. Others weren’t sure how to balance their family life, having to monitor remote schooling while remote working and juggle other family demands. And many didn’t want to mix up their personal and professional spaces. These are all valid reactions to this unusual predicament.
Pre-pandemic, it was easier to delineate your personal and professional lives. Now sitting in our personal spaces while working a profession is a bit fuzzy. A meeting can be interrupted…
With a new year comes resolutions, goals, projects, and the to-do’s you didn’t do during the pandemic because, well, there was a pandemic and the inequities that followed behind. Everything felt overwhelming, on top of the tumult of the world around us. And, if we’re honest with ourselves, it still feels that way.
Sometimes we forget that to get sh*t done in challenging times (and even non-challenging times), we might not want to take the standard route of creating priorities, buying a planner, or waking up ten minutes earlier every day.
Here are three ways you can get sh*t done…
