The Days That Feel Like Too Much
How to get out of a funk (really).
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🎥 ‘Your Monster’ on HBO Max: A quirky riff on ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ if Belle were a theater actress battling cancer and the beast was the monster in her childhood closet… Okay, so not quite the same fairytale romance, but an unconventional love story (starring Melissa Barrera of ‘In the Heights’ and Tommy Dewey) that’s charming and full of behind-the-scenes Broadway moments.
🎧 “Wild Card” Podcast with Rachel Martin: Pick a card, any card. In this new(ish) podcast, journalist Rachel Martin has big life questions primed on cards that she offers to her hosts to pick at random. The result is a delightful, random assortment of questions that encourage her guests, mostly actors and a few writers, to dive deep (“Has your idea of success changed over time?”) while jumping around conversation-provoking topics (“When you were bored as a kid, where would your imagination take you?”).
📚 Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn: “I remember the era of the girlboss,” a mom laments to her daughter in 2050, “I lived through it.” It’s one of many ways Korn plays with the cyclical nature of history, specifically feminism and climate activism, in her new novel. The non-girlboss-girlboss in question is Jacqueline Millender, a billionaire who hails power over empowerment and is the director of The Inside Project in Manhattan, a climate change-resistant structure built around the city. is also set in the near-future, contends with climate change, and alternates between the perspectives of three women, including a Elizabeth Holmes-y billionaire. Needless to say, I devoured it and enjoyed Korn’s imaginative rendering of the not-so-distant future.
This isn’t a story about how a bubble bath and a walk turned my entire life around. But it is about how small, intentional choices helped soften the edges of a really hard day. And maybe that’s worth talking about.
A while back, I was waking up long before my alarm, heart racing, soaked in sweat like my body had been trying to offload stress in the middle of the night. It felt like I’d been dropped into a cold pool at 4 a.m., my nervous system on overdrive before I’d even had coffee. And the truth is, I was in a season of life that felt like a lot. Some of it was good—things I’d wanted, worked for, hoped for. But still, the pressure? Constant. And heavy. Like trying to walk through water with a backpack full of bricks.
My default setting when things feel like too much? Shrink. Go inward. Get quiet. I bury myself in my to-do list, cancel plans, shut down my feelings and tell myself to just push through it. Be better. Do more. Suck it up. I’ve gotten pretty good at disappearing into that mode.
But I’m learning—slowly, stubbornly—that maybe the way out isn’t to close off.
Maybe the way out is to soften. To stay open.
To let someone in. To go for the walk. To send the text. To cry.
To rest before it gets dire.
To move gently instead of hustling harder.
Hard days will still come. But I think there’s something powerful in remembering that we’re allowed to meet them with care, not punishment.
Not every fix needs to be huge. Sometimes the shift is just… less force.
More grace. More breath. More softness.
And when I do that? I start to feel like I can carry it again—without breaking myself in the process.
I hope you find some solace in this post—feel free to forward it to a friend who could use it, or bookmark it for a cloudier day. It will pass, I promise.
I would love to read some of the things you do to turn your day around. Share them below!
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