Brandi-Ann Uyemura

It was mostly well hidden. It was in all the dark shadows and cobwebs that threatened to push me over the edge from neurotic to emotionally imbalanced. But every once in a while, it appeared, rising to the surface of my smiling face. It showed up when I lost something; it didn’t matter what it was or how insignificant. The fear of never finding it threw me into an inconsolable fit.
“It’s all right. We can always buy another one,” my mom would say in desperation. But I felt like I was spilling...

To honor our new Literary Season Online, offering a fully online season with 6 virtual conferences (spanning one week each month, October through March) full of world-class keynotes and faculty, engaging panels and workshops, individual consultations, Late Night Live literary events, networking and more, we have started a guest blog series. For us, it’s important to create a space to celebrate both the established and emerging writers who’ve attended our conference, and share their stories wi...

Getty/Marta Shershen
A spiritual advisor can fill a basic human need. Connection and spiritual guidance are essential for continuing along a spiritual journey.
Josephine Robertson is an ordained Episcopal priest who offers spiritual direction to clients. She says we’ve always searched for connection and spiritual guidance from wise elders. While this desire hasn’t left us, this type of intimate relationship often has. “We don’t necessarily have an older, wiser person in the community who woul...

Getty/fona2
A spiritual companion is much like a psychologist for the soul, there to support you on your spiritual path.
A bewildering array of options exists for those seeking spiritual guidance. An online search can turn up varied terms, including spiritual director, spiritual advisor, spiritual companionship, and spiritual guide.
While it’s easy to become overwhelmed, Reverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares sees these terms as often interchangeable. He is the executive director of the 31-year-ol...

Getty/Daria Shevtsova
A small way we can get out from feelings of overwhelm and helplessness is by using our dollars to support people, organizations, and values that are important to us.
These gifts were recommended by advocates, activists, and change-makers. A small way we can get out from feelings of overwhelm and helplessness is by using our dollars to support people, organizations, and values that are important to us. These gifts might even return the holidays to what they were really me...

Getty/Gemelbarra
Jin Shin Jyutsu isn’t well-known, but the practice promises whole-body healing, either with a practitioner or at home.
In the family of energy healing treatments, Jin Shin Jyutsu isn’t as well-known as reiki or other techniques. Alexis Brink, the Jin Shin Institute director and the author of The Art of Jin Shin, is on a mission to change that. “Because there’s so little known about this art, my intention is to make it more accessible, to make it a more household name.”
Brink ...

The doctor said, “Sputtered.” For weeks, I devoured the word searching to understand it, to see if it held answers to what was happening to my infant son. On dictionary.com, there are several meanings, but in general it meant to strongly emit or eject anything such as food or saliva. To me it sounded banal and routine as if it were merely a scraped knee, a fallen ankle, or the way the pediatrician described it as a pause in an otherwise perfectly healthy engine.
When you are a new parent reco...

As I continue to grow into myself as a mother, I'm learning that everyone's going to have opinions. It sometimes feels like toting a kid around is like wearing a sign that says, "Criticize me," because people know you're vulnerable.
Maybe they've made their own parenting mistakes and have regrets. Maybe they're full of shame for the way they raised their own children. Maybe they're just having a bad day and your kid just knocked them over.
It took me nine months to become a mother, and years ...

You can tell a lot about the dominant culture by the stories that are told and those left untold.
Inside my inbox was evidence of that. A newsletter featured a story of a woman memorializing her mother through an annual Christmas cookie tradition. My grandmother’s version of that cookie was manjū , sweet Japanese baked goodness filled with red beans.
She slaved over the stove in the kitchen, a dragon’s lair of heat. It took her hours to finish it and she usually did it alone. My mom, aunts, u...

“Tell me about your day mommy.”
My three-year-old sits in his high chair with a serious expression on his face. I stare at the peach fuzz on his babyish cheeks, the Mickey Mouse pitch of his voice. I know how fast it goes. I also have a one-year-old and already forget how my older son was at his age. I’m downloading all of it not in an app or photo, but in my memory. But I don’t want to just remember, I want to freeze frame it so it’s as vivid, crisp and perfect the way it is right now.
It’s ...

“One day you will wonder what was so important that you put off doing the most important things. ‘Someday' can be a thief in the night.” – Deborah Brown
“You can’t bring that back with us,” my husband said pointing to the travel shampoos and lotions in our medicine cabinet.
He was also referring to the closet of clothes I would save for some day (when I was thinner, hipper and bolder) and a bookshelf with books I “should,” read. To him, they were potential signs of a hoarder. To me, they were...

Divorce can be traumatic for both parents and children, but consistent empathy and love can help your kids navigate this trying experience

It starts slow, at first, almost unnoticeable until—like a small wave that builds rapidly in speed and intensity—it knocks you over. That seemingly innocuous experience that catches you off-guard, leaving you in a pool of helplessness, raw emotions, and an inability to manage what could be handled before is called overwhelm.
We live in an age when overwhelm is a normal part of our vernacular; not saved for trauma and rare tragic events, it’s a daily occurrence as common as brushing your teeth...

Many times I’ve looked over at the mom with the quiet well-mannered kids and wondered, “Am I the only one who’s a mess? Why does every other mother seem to have it together?”
As a freelance writer with ten years of experience and counseling psychology graduate degree, I knew how to listen and be empathetic.
But all I knew about “parenting strategies” consisted of time out tactics and the “children should be seen and not heard” mindset I had been raised in.
After spending much of 2017 research...

When conjuring up interesting pau hana activities, cooking may not come to mind first. But CookSpace proves you can burn off steam (literally and figuratively) and have fun, whether you’re a novice cook, a top chef wannabe or just enjoy pairing food and drink.
CookSpace is an interactive cooking studio with live culinary activities ranging from private and corporate events, to classes for cooks of different ages and skills. The idea was cooked up in 2013 by the foodie minds of Melanie Kosaka ...