I love tarot cards and am actually an avid collector. I think that tarot cards hold a lot of potential for self knowledge, growth, and even healing. I know that most people put tarot cards into one of two camps. The first believing that these cards are just cards and do nothing more than provide fake messages. The second believing that these cards are a bridge to evil.
I think it’s really to dismiss tarot as one of these things than to actually learn about tarot. These cards started off as a card game and slowly became synonymous with divination…
I am 22 years old. I graduated from university in May. I was rejected by most grad programs I wanted to go to. I moved back home. With my catholic parents. As a queer woman. I am also a writer who mostly does poetry and short stories who also hasn’t written anything in months. Most of my friends don’t live anywhere near me and even if they were close, we are all living through a pandemic right now.
That leaves me pretty alone. While I’m thankful for my girlfriend and her daily facetime calls, I still feel like I’m drowning…
If you were anything like me when I started getting my feet wet in the spiritual world, then I’m sure you’ve asked yourself this question before. Everyone talks about raising your vibration or frequency without getting into the nitty gritty of what that actually entails. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just about “love and light”. In fact raising our vibration has less to do with positivity and more to do with self care and growth.
First lets start off with what I mean by frequency or vibration. Everything on earth vibrates at a certain frequency and that includes humans…
Mindfulness, spirituality, and healing are all centered around the same thing. The process and journey of reflection, questioning, and radical acceptance of all the things we hate about ourselves, things we rejected, and the experiences that molded our personalities.
That’s where shadow work comes in. What is shadow work you may ask? First, “[t]he shadow, according to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, consists of those parts of ourselves we choose to repress or hide that we don’t like.” So shadow work is the practice of going to those darker parts of ourselves and confronting them.
The essential idea is commiting to…
Cutting someone off is always a hard decision to make and an even harder one to execute. While there are more conversations now around ending relationships with toxic family members, there is still so much more that needs to be talked about. For instance, how do you hold up that boundary, how do you interact with with others who still hold relationships with toxic individuals. These are all topics that are difficult and painful, but still a vital part of this conversation.
I think often times, people aren’t prepared for all the aspects of cutting someone off. Moreover, most conversations…
Manifesting is the journey of using one’s subconscious and thoughts to impact one’s reality. Manifestation works largely with the Law of Attraction which states that like attracts like. Meaning that by controlling your thoughts and subconscious, you can align yourself to the energy of the things you want and bring them into your life.
Lately, I’ve seen this topic come up a lot all over the internet. From instagram to tiktok, many people are learning how to use manifestation to cultivate a life that they dream of. …
Meditation and mindfulness look different for everyone.
Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the US. According to the ADAA it affects about 40 million adults in the United States and 36.9% of those people never receive treatment for it. Given that we live in production centered society, it’s not a surprise that most Americans deal with this kind of mental illness. Now throw in the pandemic we are currently in, and it makes sense that many people are dealing with more aggravated symptoms, or are experiencing them for the first time now.
It also makes sense that many of us with anxiety have…
Cottagecore is a term used to describe an aesthetic or lifestyle. It’s full of flowers, homemade bread, gardening, and floral/hippie/vintage goodness. I have always been on the girlier end of the spectrum when it came to my gender presentation and after falling deep, deep into tiktok, I came across this “look” and I fell in love with it. It’s basically all I ever wanted but had no idea there was a community behind it.
A few months later and I am a fully fledged cottagecore lesbian who makes her own jam, bakes copious amounts of bread, has a growing crystal…
One of the things I heard very often, was that no one could ever picture me angry. As if anger just didn’t belong in my body and there was no way that my sweet demeanor could ever change into something other than “nice”. For a very long time I took it almost like a compliment. Like I was better, more in control, and that’s why an negative emotion like anger didn’t fit with who I was. It was a weird source of pride, that’s for sure. I know I am not the only woman or femme that has felt that…
The dangerous effects of biases and discrimination
Picture this: There is a girl. She is young and wearing a floral mask. She is waiting in line behind a man who seems to be nervous. Her mom is watching from afar in order to keep her distance from the ER doors. The girl waves, trying not to show how worried she is. The girl is also incredibly weak. Her chest has been hurting for the last three days with no respite. Her heart rate is almost at 120 and she struggles to even walk. Once she is admitted, a physician's assistant informs her that it’s probably all in…
Giselle Flores Alvarado
I’m a Brown student pursing a BA in literary arts and on my way to an MFA in creative writing. I write and read about love, identity, and womanhood.
