Hello, my friend!
The vibe this week was rest. Everyone who came through my door craved quiet — an antidote to summer chaos.
↓ In today’s email:
- This week’s inspiration: When you can’t see your own face
- Latest blog post: The Art of Energetic Boundaries
- What I listened to this week: Jia Tolentino on AI and the new beauty standard
This Week’s Inspiration: When You Can’t See Your Own Face
My newly postpartum and pregnant women wanted to discuss postpartum depression this week.
It’s in the zeitgeist because of the Clancy trial. Hundreds of women stood outside that courthouse in pink, crying for better postpartum psychological care.
It’s great that there’s no shame in talking about postpartum depression anymore. But with its ubiquity on social media, it’s catalyzing outsized fears — sort of like women becoming fearful that they’re infertile. It’s good we’re talking about it, but the over-proliferation of content makes everyone feel that something bad is about to happen to them.
What I’ve done is tell my clients about my own postpartum depression, in 2005. And that if they need anything, I’m here.
If you’re in it right now, or someone you love is: Postpartum Support International has a helpline at 1-800-944-4773, and 988 is there any hour of the day. I’ve also written about postpartum mood disorders and what actually helps.
Latest Blog Post
The Art of Energetic Boundaries
Other than PPD, what are we going to talk about this week?
In the vein of energetic boundaries: what influences us most? For many of us it’s social media, making even the most genetically blessed feel bodily cursed.
Just a couple weeks ago, a New Mexico state court judge declared Meta a "public nuisance," ordering the company to pay $567 million into a state fund. It feels a bit like those early days of Philip Morris being held responsible for cigarettes making people sick.
So this week we’re talking about how to energetically cleanse ourselves from negativity. Hurray! It’s the force field I put up when a client is about to tell me something harrowing, the slab of Larimar I wear over my heart on the days it feels vulnerable, the copal and palo santo, why I never wear my work clothes home, and the Civil War ghost a client informed me is patrolling my alley.
What I Listened To This Week
Jia Tolentino on Fresh Air
While social media may be bad for our psyche, it’s also saying there is one way to be beautiful. A homogenized beauty standard that looks like a "sexy baby tiger," according to this interview.
AI and social media are creating a new beauty standard, and people are going to great lengths to achieve it in real life — deep plane facelifts that actually lift the whole face off its bone scaffolding, moving it two zip codes north.
What that means for us, and for our daughters who are watching in the wings, is a worthwhile discussion. It’s a very thought-provoking podcast.
Full disclosure: I am on social media. That’s part of being a business owner in today’s world. That said, I hope my content makes people feel seen, understood, and not less than.
Listen to the interview here →
Photograph by Andrej Lišakov.
Wishing you a wonderful week! All the best,
Dr. Catherine