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Tell Your Story Through Journaling: Your First Kiss – A Memory You Never Left Behind

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Tell Your Story Through Journaling – Let’s Talk About Your First Kiss A journal series for women who are ready to tell their story. There are moments in life the brain simply refuses to let go of. A first kiss is one of them. Science has a lot to say about why. When two people share a first kiss, the brain releases a powerful mix of chemicals all at once. Dopamine creates that rush of excitement. Oxytocin builds a sense of deep connection. Adrenaline kicks in, making the heart race and the body feel suddenly, completely awake. The lips alone contain more nerve endings than almost any other part of the body, sending signals to multiple parts of the brain simultaneously. It is no wonder that more than 90% of people carry the memory of their first kiss with them for the rest of their lives, often recalling it more clearly than milestones that came much later. Some moments are just built differently. And the brain knows it. Here is your prompt for today: Your first kiss: where were you, ho...
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The Joy Series: Joy vs. Happiness – They Are Not the Same Thing

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  The Joy Series: Joy vs. Happiness –  They Are Not the Same Thing Post 2 of the Joy Series   People use joy and happiness interchangeably all the time. I did too, for most of my life. But somewhere in the middle of the hardest years I have ever lived through, I started to understand that they are actually two very different things. And once I understood the difference, everything about my healing began to shift. This is Post 2 of The Joy Series. If you missed Post 1 , I encourage you to start there, because my story is the foundation of everything we are building together in this series. But if you are here and you are ready, let’s dig into something that I think could genuinely change the way you live your life.   Happiness: The Beautiful Visitor   Let me start with happiness, because I do not want you to think I am diminishing it. Happiness is wonderful. It is real and it matters and we should absolutely chase it. But here is what happiness actually is: it is...
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Why Does This Recipe Call for THAT Oil? A Home Cook’s Guide to Cooking Oils

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  Have you ever noticed that one recipe calls for olive oil, another says to use avocado oil, and a third swears by coconut oil? It can feel overwhelming, or even like it doesn’t really matter. But the truth is, the oil you choose can make or break a dish. It affects flavor, texture, and even your health. Let’s break it all down. As a member of Home Chef, I’ve had the pleasure of cooking an incredible variety of meals from their rotating menus. One thing I noticed pretty quickly: almost every single recipe calls for olive oil. It got me thinking. What happens when I run out? Can I just grab whatever is in the cabinet? That curiosity is exactly what sent me down the rabbit hole of cooking oils, and I’m glad it did. Here’s what I learned. The Key Concept: Smoke Point Before we get into specific oils, you need to know about the smoke point . This is the temperature at which an oil stops shimmering and starts to smoke. When an oil hits its smoke point, a few things happen:   It be...
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Morning Motivation. Fear of the Unknown; Brodie and the Grocery Bag

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Monday Morning Motivation:Fear of the Unknown Brodie and the Grocery Bag On your typical day, my dog Brodie is not afraid of bags. He is not fearful of handbags, grocery bags, or trash bags. He is not even scared of tea bags. But this was not your typical day. It was cold, and the sky was gray. There was a slight breeze, just enough to transform a plastic bag into an object of fear, at least for Brodie. We were taking one of our multiple daily walks when Brodie’s confident gait altered. His tail went down, his fur began to stand on end, and I heard a low guttural sound that I only heard when the UPS truck stopped in front of the house. I scanned the horizon in search of the cause of this behavior, and there it was, a small plastic grocery bag in a bush swaying in the breeze. I knew what it was, and because of this, I felt no fear. On the other hand, Brodie saw something that he could not interpret, and because it was an unknown, he was struck by fear. Do I think that we will never expe...
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The Joy Series:When Joy Goes Silent

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  Post 1 of the Joy Series The day my husband of 37 years walked out, joy didn’t just fade. It vanished. Completely. Like someone had quietly switched off a light that I had no idea how to turn back on. I had no idea it would take me more than a decade to find the switch again. I want to tell you that story, because if you are reading this and joy feels like a distant memory right now, I want you to know something before we go any further: the fact that you are still looking for it means it is not gone. It is waiting. And the fight to get it back, as long and as hard as that fight may be, is absolutely worth it. What Joy Actually Is The Oxford Dictionary defines joy as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.” But here is what I have learned from living inside the absence of it for years: that definition is incomplete. Joy is not just a feeling. A feeling is temporary. A feeling comes and goes with your circumstances. What I discovered, through a long and painful journey, is tha...
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