Controlled, dominated, manipulated, neglected — these are not feelings we expect to come across when we decide to share our lives with someone. Yet, too many of us have untold stories of being emotionally suffocated by someone we consider our closest.

From experience and observation, I know how easy it is for a chain of compromises to establish a new normal — where we deludedly accept unfairness as an inevitable (and even essential) component of a romantic partnership.

It doesn’t have to be so. It shouldn’t be so.

This is for those in need of an awakening, to snap out…

We keep telling ourselves that we are maturing with age, that we are learning to do better as we read advice pieces and go through life. We go on looking at other people’s business and think too highly of ourselves when solutions to all their problems stand staring at our faces.

The way we deal with our own problems often says otherwise.

Why else do we find ourselves frequently in the same bitter spot — opposing, bickering with, and scoffing at someone we claim to love?

As inevitable as they seem, trivial fights with our loved ones — where we…

One of our soul’s most profound desires is to find a stranger to one day call our closest, and keep them for life. Yet, tentacles of toxicity creep into our most prized connections, leveraging our feeble grasp on emotions, our oversight, and myopia, to cause us incalculable harm.

Whatever our strategy — prevention or cure — we need to know the diseases first. The trick often comes down to how problems do not appear as problems until it is too late. This is to help you to detect them early enough.

If our relationships were religion, these would be the…

Communication is key. It isn’t all words, though. A lot of times we can communicate more, and better, without using words at all. Words, more often than we think, can hinder rather than help a thought from getting across.

I am not taking a radical route like Depeche Mode who sang, “Words are very unnecessary. They can only do harm.” Instead, I’m picking from memories, both pleasant and prickly, to make a case for why in some situations silence is indeed a superpower.

Superpower may sound too hyperbolic, but it is no easy feat to conjure the attention, patience, kindness…

When life feels stagnant, fresh can easily turn stale. Bound within the same four walls, robbed of the familiar indoor-outdoor balance, lines blurred between work and leisure, keeping our lives interesting has become increasingly difficult.

The same is true for romance.

Even couples who never experienced a heightened interest in chocolate, red and roses on V-Days years past may be due for a rekindling of their fire. Shut out from the world out there — with restaurants, theaters, and airports off-limits — it’s the perfect opportunity to redefine this celebration of love within your familiar confines.

Here are 17 steps…

First, let’s get the “huh?” out of the way.

Recently, my favorite Swedish coffeehouse chain announced an offer. For a 149 SEK/month subscription, you can have any amount of coffee or tea you can practically drink at any of their 400+ locations all over Sweden. The only caveat — no more than a cup an hour, controlled through the app linked to your user account.

“Okay. So?”

Since the pandemic began, this place became a no-go for me. A big cup of melted Belgian dark chocolate every once in a while was not worth the risk.

Luckily, I found a…

Nina (not her real name) had an acute comparison problem.

She would spend many hours every day scrolling through social media updates of her colleagues, former classmates, cousins, and ex-boyfriends (and their current partners) — smirking, sulking, squirming — and end each day with the bitter conclusion that her life fell short of awesome compared to theirs.

Ironically, the people she compared herself with worked jobs she wouldn’t do, worked harder than she ever did. They had ambitions she didn’t value. …

I’m over 30. Still, whenever my elementary school teacher Mrs. Rumana addresses me as beta (meaning son or child), I feel like a fifth-grader in her class.

Being congratulated by her for every achievement, cheered by her for my endeavors still feel just as good — although we haven’t seen each other in nearly two decades.

The teacher that I am today is in constant pursuit of reincarnating within myself the qualities I found among teachers like her whom I’ve had the privilege to be mentored by.

And that includes my own parents — my eternal educators — who are…