When ‘Gentle’ Becomes Exhausting

Gentle parenting promises empathy, connection, and calm—but what happens when it leaves parents burned out and boundaries blurred? In her essay “My Misadventures in Gentle Parenting” (Maclean’s, 2025), Kayla Huszar shares how striving to stay endlessly patient and validating eventually drained her energy and eroded her authority. Her story highlights a growing truth among modern …

For the Helpers: Beyond “Compassion Fatigue,” Five Ways to Care Well

When caring feels heavy, it’s rarely “too much compassion”—it’s too little self-compassion. Here are five ways to care well without carrying it all. Therapists often talk about “compassion fatigue,” but in a recent article by Gabor Mate, he argues our exhaustion stems less from caring for others and more from neglecting compassion for ourselves. When …

What Your Hands Are Saying: The Two-Hand Check-In for Calm

Hands do more than wave hello—they quietly broadcast how we feel. New research from Birkbeck shows that people read emotion more accurately when they see both hands in their natural positions, not a single hand or a distorted pair. Why? Our brains seem to process the shape of each hand and the spatial relationship between …

Lessons From The Dying

End-of-life doula Diane Button distills lessons from the dying (from her practice and new book What Matters Most) showing how proximity to death sharpens priorities: people focus on connection, healing, spirituality, and being remembered, while everyday joys become more visible. Here are some of the takeaways: Love and RelationshipsBeing with the people who matter; making …