Author: Tatyana Maizel

  • Self-care

    Daily writing prompt
    How do you practice self-care?

    Self-care looks different for everyone. I prioritize self-care daily through my morning routine, daily walks and physical activity, spending time reading and with my family in nature, and eating well most of the time with a side of indulgence. Weekly, it looks like meal prepping and cleaning house on Sundays, with a pastry thrown in. Monthly, it’s girl time and me time with self-pampering, whether it’s getting my nails done, waxing, a haircut or style (depending on the month), and doing something new.

    Journaling or using voice memos to process thoughts and feelings helps enormously when I’m feeling overwhelmed and needing a sounding board; I realize I say some pretty intuitive and wise things when I take the time to listen.

    Self-care is gentle, and it’s a harmonious blend between discipline, fun, and relaxation. Discipline was once so rigid for me it started to look like self-flagellation/abuse, and I feel overjoyed to know I’ve slowly gotten to this point in my life to know when it’s appropriate and when to loosen the reins.

    A note on self-care: it does not need to be or feel like a chore. It should be something that brings us respite, joy, contentment, peace, and the like. Self-care is a radical act when the world around us asks us to suffer for their sake. I say, be radical. Be defiant. Make yourself a priority, because no one else will like you can.

  • Body

    Thought:

    My body: This is the one I’ve been given. I can fight against it, belittle it, scold it, alter it, pick it apart, hate it…

    Or – I can accept this is the body I’ve been dealt in the genetic lottery and take care of it to the best of my ability.

    Affirm: I am kind to my body, even when we don’t get along. I take care of my body as the only one I have in this lifetime. My body deserves compassion for all it’s endured, and I appreciate my body for all it can do and accept it for all its limitations. It may not be perfect, yet it is mine, and I can honor it and myself through care and positive habits.

    We don’t get to choose many things in this life. However, there is plenty we can choose and have agency over; our bodies are one of them: what and how much we eat and drink, our sleep habits, what we put on it, how we speak to it, how we change our thoughts to better support it, and to whom we allow access.

  • “And in another life, like my dreams, we would be friends.”

    A simple sentence I once wrote when a relationship didn’t work out, and I find myself revisiting it now as another relationship hasn’t worked out how I’d hoped. At 4:30pm, a glimpse of the dream smacked me in the face, and this statement followed closely behind.

    Not everything we hope for comes to fruition. Not every relationship is meant to withstand the tests of time. Not all people can join us on our journeys. So, I hold on to the hope that in another lifetime, things may have worked out differently, better even, and in dream states, these things can be true, and they can be enjoyed there. While waking up to the realization that we only got a taste of what we so desire may be painful, we can at least say that it happened somewhere; it did, in a sense, come true.

  • Favorite Quotes

    Daily writing prompt
    Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

    A few. These have shown up in my life when I needed them most, and they have stuck with me since.

    My maternal grandparents’ motto within their relationship: “Make a choice. If it’s not a good one, make a new one.”

    As I know it, my grandmother wanted a man in her life who could make a decision. Even if it didn’t feel quite right or always work out, they would figure it out along the way, so long as a decision was made.

    My paternal grandparents’ motto within their relationship: “If we can get through this, we can get through anything.”

    As I know this one, there is trauma within this lineage: religious persecution, mass genocide, familial discord and abuses; and more than once, they faced difficulties in their relationship as a pair that put them to the test. Most recently, my grandfather’s health, where he battled cancer for 16 years that eventually took his life; he fought until the end, until his decision to be done.

    Finally: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”

    A chiropractor friend bestowed this knowledge on me a few years ago. I had never heard the real version, always know it as “blood is thicker than water”. Upon hearing the unclipped version, it resonated so highly and gave me perspective I’d lacked. Our family is who shows up for us, puts in the effort, who we break bread with, endure hardship, risk, sacrifice, and rupture and repair. Our family is not always whom we are born to, but who we choose and who chooses us in return.