I went on a very successful weight loss journey in 2020, losing 19 kg (~42 lbs). This was the culmination of years of frustration at my weight and my inability to feel healthy, energetic, and whole.

In 2021, I have regained ~4 kgs. A small part of that is working out with very heavy weights, and a big part is eating for comfort. I have somewhat spiraled back into the old habits that led to frustration.

But I’m not sweating it at the moment. There is no panic, and I’m okay with putting on a little weight.

The reason for…

I’m a child of fantasy, having grown up on cartoon violence and outlandish, mystical storytelling. I love foreign planets, strange dimensions, larger-than-life characters, and beasts of different configurations.

The power of imagination is the greatest superpower we have. It allows us to tell stories and experience a different reality, a reality that doesn’t exist and might never will. It allows us to experience feelings over non-existent people, and share a connection with each other like nothing else does.

So it’s difficult when you see someone bastardize that for profit.

Godzilla vs Kong is Legendary Pictures’ 4th film in their “MonsterVerse,”…

Last week, in a meeting with a friend and a colleague, in a heated moment, I verbalised a desire that I couldn’t acknowledge before — “I want to become a limitless well of positivity.”

In the days since, I’ve ruminated on that. Positivity, by itself, is empty. To become meaningful, positivity must be forged through pain. It must be tempered by loneliness, and cooled by love.

Self-improvement is a billion dollar industry when it shouldn’t be.

It’s successful because there is a genuine demand for it. People are constantly asking, “how do I make my life better? How do I become richer/ happier/ healthier/ more successful?”

The answers to those asks are more complicated than we might care to think. Life is intersectional, and the circumstances of your social status, race, gender and sex, education, wealth, place of living, age, and a thousand random events all merge to create a tangled mess.

In between all of that, you have an industry full of people mimicking the…

My friend Abhilash, a trainer, has a great story about professionalism.

A senior member of his audience once asked him about “these young people coming to work in t-shirts and jeans.” Abhilash tells that story in the context of conflict management, but a portion of his answer is about how formalwear has evolved over the years.

“Back in the mid-20th century, formalwear meant a 3-piece suit, and a 2-piece suit was considered casual. The shirt and trousers you are wearing would be considered unprofessional,” he shares.

The definition of professional-wear has evolved over the years.

What does the word “professional”…

As I write this, I’m getting ready for one of the most important meetings of my life so far. It could be a milestone in my career. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it for the last 3 days, and my anxiety is in full force.

I know I’m prepared for it. I’ve done my due diligence.

Anxiety doesn’t care about that, of course.

“What if it goes wrong?”
“What if I get turned down?”
“What if I get laughed out of the Zoom meeting?”

In a previous bite-sized essay, I wrote about long-term healing from anxiety. …

Video editing is fun.

As a skill, it has a high barrier of entry, because the tools can be very complex. That’s why I’ve always been attracted to it as a hobby — it was hard but rewarding.

A handful of times through my school and college life, I put together simple videos, in an attempt to learn this creative skill.

But until last year, I was frustrated at my lack of practice. I only made a handful of edited videos. …

Fighting off anxiety sucks.

As someone who suffers from anxiety so much he identifies with it, I regularly have to deal with vicious cycles of stress. That stress has real consequences, such as my short temper and my poor relationship with food.

As I grow older, I keep learning that dealing with an “anxiety episode” really just comes down to 3 things: acceptance, discovery, and redressal.

I used to deal with serious anxiety episodes 4–5 times a week. Now, I only get serious anxiety once every 7–10 days. Still bad, but it indicates progress. It indicates a possible long-term solution.

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