emma

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so this conflict causes unpleasant feelings of unease or discomfort.1

It is the great cycle of existence, entrapped in the chains of duality.

But non-duality whispers, it’s all one play, sweetheart. The villain and hero were always the same actor, just wearing different wigs. (Bazzinga!)

One word to describe Marseille : horny. The conversations are like the tightly knitted al fresco tables, everything slightly too close for comfort. The city has a brutal sexuality to it. Everything in it seems near seconds away from climaxing, and sweating in the process. It has a grittiness to its landscape—no smooth curves inside, every surface... See more

We’ve confused avoidance with maturity when it’s actually fear dressed up as boundaries. Real boundaries require communication. They require the courage to say, “This hurt me,” or “I need this to feel safe.” Avoidance is the opposite of that; it’s hiding. And I’m tired of calling it love when it’s really just running away.

I thought about myself laughing with my friends on holiday when maybe I’d forgotton to reapply a specific expensive face-only SPF, or from smiling too much with my nephew, or maybe they’re from when I’d met someone I liked and stayed awake too late being happy. All of these memories engraved into my face. These lines were actually just the cost of... See more

There are better questions to ask:

• What do I actually value?


• Who are the people I admire?


• What makes me feel most alive?


• What makes me feel disgusting?


• Who do I secretly envy?

I am a 28-year-old woman. I do not need an aesthetic to make myself easier to digest for the micro-trend-obsessed Internet. I need a value system.

The Middle Ages, at least as reimagined by the 1960s, offered a pre-capitalist, enchanted world of communes and troubadours. Although we now stereotype the Middle Ages aesthetic as a sort of grey porridge full of nuns, this isn’t accurate. Historian Jacques Le Goff describes “big jewels inserted into the boards of book-bindings, glowing gold... See more