Japanese empathy towards boredom snacking — I was recently asked by a reader, “I once read this Japanese word, “Kuchisabishii” — would you mind sharing the meaning of it?” Ah, yes. Kuchisabishii. I’ve been hearing it a lot more these days in Japan, sometimes over Zoom calls and sometimes thrown around the house. When I catch…

Visit a McDonald’s in Japan and you’ll understand why — Whenever I talk to someone who has visited Japan, an ex-pat who has lived there or a tourist just passing by, they will more often than not mention something about the fast-food chains there. “If they tried to pull the same stunt in the United States, there would literally be…

For people stressed or intimidated by fitness culture — In the United States, I’m often bombarded with images and ads of fitness culture. Athleisure is the craze, and it seems that the majority of people are members of gyms like Anytime Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, or LA Fitness. Any decent hotel or typical college campus has free access to…

How to find real rest and relaxation — When you imagine someone resting, what do you visualize? Perhaps you would describe a person on the couch, or a person curled up under the covers in bed. Maybe you’d imagine a person lounging in a hammock, or suntanning on the beach. If you were to ask a Japanese person…

Finding beauty and care in the clutter — What is your favorite sound to wake up to in the morning? Birds chirping. Why do you think that is? I don’t know, something about it is relaxing. When we think about how to navigate anxiety and stress, many of us think that we need to be implementing a drastic…

Lessons from the changing seasons on the key to taking care of your health — When we try to adhere to strict health goals– such as a certain weight or waist measurement– we often find ourselves particularly struggling with the idea of having to maintain it. We work hard to reach our health goals, and the irony is that the harder we work to grasp…

If you want to find a lifestyle of freedom, and not restriction — When you type in ‘healthy’ in Google, do you know what definition comes up? It is quite literally defined as, ‘in good health’. It’s a seemingly simple concept– to be “healthy” — but the truth is that many of us haven’t spent that much time thinking about what this means…

A culture of being busy may be wounding our souls — “I am so busy.” I am not exactly sure when I found myself in a position where this statement felt like a 2-in-1 boast and complaint. Perhaps I first started feeling this in high school, when having a social life, good grades, and sleep all seemed to be working in…

Finding contentment and comfort in how I look — There was a time in my life where it was very difficult for me to feel good about the way I looked in my clothes– feeling great was something of a rare, and often brief, occurrence. It did not matter if I was overweight or if I was perfectly slender…