All posts tagged: Relationships

hand holding a red lipstick writing Bye on a mirror with the lipstick

How to declutter your life: 6 kinds of people you need to let go of

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Do you feel like your life is filled with clutter? Maybe you have too many material things, perhaps the number of responsibilities has encroached on your free time, or possibly you just have a lot of people in your life who drain your energy and stress you out. In any case, it’s natural to want to declutter your life and simplify things.
Often, our mental space is taken up by relationships that ‘do not spark joy’. So what do you do when you realise that a relationship is toxic and it’s time to let go?
If you want to know how to declutter your life, keep reading!

The Pressure Of Perfection: How to Help Kids Handle Stress and Anxiety

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In today’s society, children feel more pressure than ever before to be perfect. From academic expectations to social media, kids struggle to cope with the high standards that they feel they need to meet. This pressure often leads to stress and anxiety, which can have severe consequences for both the individual child and society.
Suicide rates among young people are on the rise globally. Studies show that depression is one of the leading causes of suicide among young people. Other factors include unmet needs and expectations, focus on success and productivity, lack of coping skills, and a sense of a lack of belonging.
One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to raise emotionally healthy children. This means teaching them how to regulate their emotions, set boundaries, and handle difficult situations.

hand painted valentine's day greeting card with love

Unique Gift Ideas For Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. We can all agree that the cliches, flowers and cute teddy bears that usually make up the bulk of Valentine’s Day gifts are passé. What are your options to stand out from the commercialised gifting options? I’ve listed some great ideas that are sure to impress. Whether you’re celebrating the day with your partner, a friend, or showing yourself some self-love, these will surely bring a smile.
There are many ways to make the day memorable for someone you love. If you focus on their joy, not just pricey gifts, you might be surprised at what you come up with. It can be as simple as making breakfast in bed or as adventurous as taking a day trip to a town afar—the most important thing is to show your partner that you care.

Cover of the book Call me by your name on a Kindle in a beach setting

Book Review: Call me by your name by André Aciman

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Call Me by Your Name is a highly sensual, somewhat nostalgic and sweet novel by André Aciman about the longings of young forbidden love. The main character, Elio, is struggling with his sexual identity. He is 17 and falls in love with Oliver, his father’s new research assistant.

It is a coming of age story about a young boy’s first love told from his perspective as a grown man reflecting on the summer that changed his life. You can feel the longing, love, and passion throughout the book. 


Call Me by Your Name has been adapted into a film starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. The smooth voice of Armie Hammer narrates the Audible version of the book.

Kindle cover of Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi with a bunch of pink roses on a white fabric

Book Review: Transcendent Kingdom

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Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom reviews were almost entirely positive, so I was at first worried that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. But oh! It did. It is a book about relationships with family and oneself, religion and race, love and loss, and mental health. The narration is by a young woman named Gifty. She was born in America to Ghanian parents. She has an older brother who overshadows her at every juncture of her life, but he is also her hero – someone she loves and looks up to. She talks about how her mother migrated to America in the hope of a better future for her firstborn son. Her father had followed reluctantly. After she was born, she could see the unhappiness in her father, who eventually chose a path away from them. “My memories of him, though few, are mostly pleasant, but memories of people you hardly know are often permitted a kind of pleasantness in their absence. It’s those who stay who are judged the harshest, simply by virtue of …

Gentle Parenting: Why we should all be embracing it

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Being a parent is the best role one can have in life. It gives you both physical and emotional satisfaction. Your child’s well being and happiness are all you think about when it comes to decisions related to your child’s life. Childhood is one of the most critical years in a person’s life. It’s also a time when parents can drastically affect their kids’ future by deciding how much influence they will have over them. Parents just want to see their children succeed, and they employ a variety of methods to shape their kids’ futures.  How much of your parenting behaviour is based on what you went through as a child? Have you told yourself that you turned out fine, and so will my kid if I hit them for the sake of discipline? Or have you gone in the complete opposite direction and cannot enforce any discipline at all? Were you listened to as a child? Did your thoughts and opinions matter? Were you threatened with dire consequences at the thought of disobedience? Were …

Lone black duck in a lake

Taboos: Seeking Therapy for your Mental Health

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Have you ever been to a therapist? Or thought about seeking out one? Would you tell people if you did? Mental health awareness is shockingly negligent in our society. So many of us are broken, and we’ve been told to just deal with it on our own. Seeking help for your mental health is seen as the absolute last step you can take before it is too late. I had studied to become a counsellor, but life took me on another path. It made me realise how helpful a counselling session could be for someone going through a difficult time. Over time, as life went by, I never gave another thought to it. Then I became a mom. Every emotion seemed intense and amplified. It was challenging to manage them all at once. Even with a supportive family, I felt I couldn’t express all I felt. I feared judgement and hurting their sentiments. After my first session itself, I felt such an enormous boulder had lifted off my chest. I could say whatever I wanted …

6 Common Parenting Mistakes We All Make

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The main lesson I learned about parenting is that it doesn’t stop. Once a parent, always a parent! Each of us has an idea about good parenting skills. What makes a good parent? Does anyone have an answer to that question that will go unchallenged by someone else? Each child grows into their own person with all the inherent imperfection that this entails. Healthy parenting recognises and embraces these perceived imperfections. Positive Parenting Parenting styles differ from person to person. It should also differ from child to child. Each child’s situation is unique, and they respond differently to the same things. While one child may throw a temper tantrum to get what they want, another might prefer to crawl under the bed and cry silently. Positive parenting is recognising how best to make kids aware of their own needs and feelings without forcing your own. As I learn everyday, it is a darned difficult thing to do. Inevitably, I make mistakes everyday and learn something about myself in the process. The world is full of …

father and son in playful embrace

Fatherhood: The changing role of the modern day father

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Fathers have a profound influence on their children by just being there for them and teaching values through actions rather than just words. The role of a good father is immeasurable. This is of course only applicable to families where fathers are present. When fathers are good role models, they set the behavioural standard for the child to emulate and for all other men in the child’s life. Fathers have many different roles in their children’s lives. Fathers need to make sure they do an excellent job in those many different roles. A father who is a good role model will help their children respect themselves and those around them. The changing role of the modern day father Many fathers limit themselves to a box when it comes to parenting. They see themselves as the hunter-gatherers but not the nurturers. Even younger parents, I find, are not able to see beyond this role. Changing diapers, feeding, teaching and learning activities, or even dealing with the child’s emotional needs are all delegated to the mother.  This …

Mom looking lovingly at her new baby in her arms

Mothers answer this: Does having a child ‘complete’ you?

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Short answer when I want to avoid further discussion: Yes Long answer: Yes, but only if you really wanted one in the first place and have some sort of a support system that will ensure you retain a basic level of sanity at most times, and at other times they will take care of you and the baby, because MY GOD the tiny things can be loud and deprive you of your most basic needs and make you want to leave everything and sleep peacefully for just one hour. But look how cute they are when they sleep…awww.  A new adventure, a new world to discover! That’s what becoming a parent has meant to me. I never knew I could love someone so much and that becoming a parent would change my life completely. I knew it was different and expected it to be difficult but nothing prepared me for it. When I was a kid myself, I loved babies. Then as I grew I understood it’s not all chubby cheeks and cute gurgles. By …