written and filmed by Linda Lin, RCC RCAT

↑ Trying something new!

For those who enjoy longer-form content to pair with my newsletters and blog posts, I've just launched a YouTube channel where I'll be talking through topics I'm exploring and sharing in a different format.

This is a new medium (and challenge!) for me, so if you find the content helpful, a like or subscription would mean a lot and encourage me to keep creating more! ✩˚ ༘

I hope this blog post finds you in moments where time feels like a meadow, or where you’re nestled somewhere you really like.

This time last year, my friend Leah challenged me to take a full month off work while we were creating our healing money anxiety art therapy course. The relevance of this exposure alone shook me. We travelled to China together, but I couldn’t honour the non-working part.

Then, an intrusive thought that was supposed to pop in and out, came true: Decipher was in crisis. Our studio was reported to be flooded by rainwater 3 days after I left for my break. I put on that leadership hat as the practice founder and parentified eldest daughter, replying to bureaucratic calls, took on some clients on the whim, 4am in China Standard Time. The anxiety voice insisted that I had to fulfill these roles and expectations to get through this. My mind locked in by crisis managing even though I was trying really hard to take a break.

 
In major contrast, one of the essence goals that made it onto my 2026 bingo card was to go analog. On my bingo card, I had written that I wanted to take two months off work (!!), wean off screens, and spend more time with analog media like filming for fun, and returning to things I really love → liberating imagination and creativity, unlocking maps of the world, and taking in philosophical pauses.

"Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished" - Lao Tzu

Fig.2 West Lake, Hangzhou — golden hour on the water

So what happens on a full month on analog?

There was more of whatever this feeling is: "the next step appears because we moved, not because we tried to make sense of it first” and building on roles outside of being a therapist.

Procedural learning. I didn’t consciously notice it during my break, but after last year’s office flood incident and after co-creating a course on healing money wounds, going analog naturally helped me step out of crisis responding rooted in fear. I fully stepped out of my usual role of monitoring emails and everything happening back at home. This allowed my body to implicitly learn that not everyone and everything is dependent on me, and leadership doesn’t look like constant vigilance.

I’ve always loved philosophy of culture and in ethnography. Arriving in Lijiang, Yunnan, for the 2nd time (my 1st was last year), I interviewed my mom, who had finally returned to her birthplace for the first time in over 60 years (after years of me urging her to reconnect with her roots). I dug up books and history around my family's lineage (a NaXi clan from Lijiang) who lost their wealth during the cultural revolution and ethnic minority cleansing. Hence complex money wounds and inherited anxiety. 

Going rogue/off screens helped me see the world in another way. Like adopting rituals that support me to experience the flow and pace I’ve been craving. From fight and flight → rest and digest, without binary lines.

Fig.1 among a field of canola flowers in Jingdezhen

The month was full of creative, liberating moments like doing things just for fun! I noticed my creative voice sparking with more confidence (stepping out no matter how dressed up I am, dancing midway when a song gets stuck in my head, cracking jokes without filtering). There was less pressure to take things seriously or shape myself around a specific image or identity (like a “therapist” or “the older sister”), or to meet the demands of the algorithm. In these moments, my attention feels like it is sacred and actually belongs to me again.

 Going analog helped me create glitches in the system. Capitalism handed all of us a bag of rocks and told us “this is the kit we need to survive”. Grasping onto internalized strategies like ableism, production and optimization over welfare, fatphobia, or taking time here on Earth too seriously… aren’t things I actually value. They’re inherited. Forcefully fed. Learned and rehearsed from a place of fear. Even though internalized thoughts will still appear through the course, I can discern what's mine more clearly and that makes the time I spend with myself so much easier.

I felt the depth of this: diligence without context isn't discipline, it's constant numbing and busywork. The goal was never to optimize myself into exhaustion. It's always been ease, alignment and a slightly unhinged feeling of being genuinely, embarrassingly alive.

This month felt like a different pace: a kind of attention and a life that doesn’t need to be constantly monitored to be lived. I honoured this principle, "说到做到" translation “following through with my promises” throughout the walk.

I don’t think going fully analog is the point. 

I’m more curious about what parts of this I’ll carry forward.

And for now, that’s enough. 😌

Putting these feelings into words for you, in case you haven’t already named them for yourself.

Thanks for tuning in, friend ✮⋆˙

written by Linda Lin, RCC RCAT

FEAR is the number 1 theme I’ve been witnessing throughout therapy sessions these days. 

A lot of us are going back to survival mode, while the western world of psychology calls this ‘dysregulation’. Whether it’s dealing with sudden major life transitions, many times out of our control, to the rapid changes of living in the world today, fear comes up hard and fast.

As a client calls it, "honestly our brain is just a meat sac with electricity".

Our brains get mushy and our feelings feel complicated when fear shows up. I see us grabbing at straws, searching for immediate relief, for answers, solutions, quick fixes as we navigate this territory. Then we try to cope with everything at once, and we end up self-sabotaging or freezing in overwhelm when things don’t go the way anxiety wants them to.

It doesn't have to be like that. 

Life shouldn't feel THIS complicated.

Here's how I am facing feelings like fear!

(in relevance to dealing with 2026, year of the fire horse)

1. Reminding myself, feelings aren't facts.

What if we didn't treat feelings, fear, rage, disgust, contempt, irritation, dislikes as verdicts? 

Imagine what it’d be like if we didn’t treat feelings as hard labels, like “this is just who I am” or “this is how things will always be”, but as guidance we can listen to, not obey.

Feelings always signal what matters to us.
They point to our unmet needs, unclaimed desires, and the ideas or beliefs we never consciously chose.

Kinda like when we're driving and we see a sign (the feeling) that says “slippery roads ahead”. This doesn't mean that we are bound to slip and fall so we gotta turn around and go home. We can drive or walk through with care, be mindful to go a little slower, or stay on parts of the road that feel safer.
 

I'd like to believe that feelings are always trying their best to guide us toward what hurts, what matters, and what needs care. They’re asking for our attention and trust.

At its very core, feelings want us to remember that we matter — that we are deserving of understanding, even when listening to this might change everything we once believed.

Pause for a moment. Take a breath.

Notice how these words land for you before you continue reading.

ᯓ :ִ ࣪✩ ݁∶⊹˖ᯓ⭑ᯓ :ִ ࣪✮ ݁∶ ᯓ :ִ ࣪✧ ݁∶

2. Practice the art of decision making.
 

Act before courage feels perfect. What if we focused on honesty instead of busyness, or the pressure to make everything “just right,” as if we were performing for a critical audience?

Building awareness. When we slow down, we can see ourselves more clearly like our values, desires, what we care for, and the unique energy we bring into the world. 

Part of presence building is slowing down and taking courage toward attempting. We don’t have to go far or move fast. The focus is more of that simple noticing and listening to what we need in the moment.
 

Practices like art journaling, using stickers and prompts, bibliotherapy and building in small rewards or celebrations, like a Big Paper Planning Day, have helped me build the courage to simply start. 

3. Your goals need to be neuro-informed!

Hate to break it to ya but did you know SMART goals increases fear and anxiety?

SMART goals may sound clear, functional, reasonable and responsible (due to surviving under a capitalist system)
…but people find that SMART goals work hand in hand with their anxiety and cognition instead of our energy and noticing what is happening in the present moment. 

An example like, “I have to go to the gym 5x this week.”
Our brain will do this thing by adding extra rules with it. 
“No matter what.” 
“Push harder than yesterday.” 
“Okay now increase the sets by 5%.”
Before we know it, the goal stops feeling motivating and we can't put ourselves to actually do it.

So why does demanding X amount by a certain time, in a specific way, make us anxious and self-critical?

It’s similar to how we overcomplicate our art, writing, and projects. We are trained to take pride in being driven by anxiety, perfectionism, the need to “look busy,” thinking that more effort will better ourselves so that we could finally meet our goals. 

Deep down, we know that all that pressure, all that busy-work rarely moves the needle and most often than not, we become frozen by overwhelm and FEAR.

That's because SMART goals originated from a place that was NEVER meant to be used for personal development! ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

SMART goals started as a management tool for organizations and the C-suite. It wasn’t built for emotional well-being since the beginning, but to keep employees in check.

Did you know? The A in SMART originally stood for Assignable, not Achievable 😒 That’s why they land so cognitively, cold, performance-obsessed when we apply them to day-to-day goals we have for ourselves. 
 

For many of us, SMART goals lead to disappointment, lower self-esteem, and spike our anxiety. Say we’re low in energy, but we set these goals when we were high in hope. The same SMART goals can then make us feel disappointed, “not good enough,” or “inconsistent” when life doesn’t go exactly as planned.

TLDR; SMART goals weren’t made in accommodation to emotional wellbeing, neurodivergence, context to our current energy level, or to nuances and sensitivities, and when times are multi-faceted (feeling collective despair as an example).

4. Our identity builds when we see ourselves as consistent.

When we show up consistently, even in small ways, our sense of self starts to feel real, and fear becomes less relevant. Self‑perception forms when we are a certain way because we have acted that way repeatedly. 

Like when we set boundaries consistently, and it strengthens the way we see ourselves, while sustaining our relationships. A win-win-win!?!

Research shows that when our actions align with our values on a regular basis, the brain strengthens neural pathways that reinforce our self-image over time. Consistency isn’t about perfection, it’s about building a reliable story of who we are.

5. Simplify everything with essence goals.

Essence goals sound almost too simple, but they actually work. Instead of overcomplicating life with logic and overthinking, they guide us back to what really matters: our values and desires.

This is what essence means to me ↓

Essence is unwavering in self-advocacy and protection with unconditional acceptance of our values. 
Essence brings deep attunement like the way nature and land show up. Like a grounded tree or a portal accessing our intuition. 

I’d like to imagine that our essence has been with us our whole life.

 Essence goals are adaptive, discerning, and handles nuances. They focus on how we actually want to feel, live, and move through the world.

Instead of pushing past our capacities, we practice honouring our emotional reality!

Examples can look something like this:

“Move in ways that make me feel alive and strong this week.”

“Show up for my community with presence and solidarity.”

“Unplug easily and celebrate after each workday.”

So here’s to more moments of tuning into your innate wisdom (which is backed by science btw.ᐟ.ᐟ ) to support your emotional wellbeing.

Always in your corner,
Linda ♡

written by Linda Lin, RCC RCAT

Year end / holiday stress is so real. 

Many of us enter December already depleted, with our numbing or protective safety behaviours running on overdrive.

So I wanted to write a newsletter to validate some of these experiences and patterns I’ve been noticing. 

These patterns can be so familiar that they often go unnoticed, even when we know this season feels heavier than it appears from the outside.

Please note that language I use may sound ‘too clinical’ so if you’d like to personalize with different language/words to describe similar things, go for it!

The end of the year often asks us to push through exhaustion, emotions, and (over)stimulation.

This time of year often stirs up financial pressure to find the perfect gifts, brings complicated interpersonal or family dynamics to the surface, and encourages us to wrap things up or end on a high note. 

It’s easy to become overstimulated by end-of-year sales (side note: did you know we can be exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day?), while juggling invitations and obligations, both external and internal, and navigating feelings of isolation when we’re “supposed” to feel joyful, restful, and connected. 

The stress can affect our body weeks or even months before anything actually happens at all.

A lot of us are going through this month with our safety behaviours activated. These behaviours help us numb or cope with discomfort so we don’t have to fully feel or process it. 

Safety behaviours are any acts that reduce distress in the short term by anticipating or preparing for the worst, often increasing our perception of fears. They can be very sneaky, work alongside anxiety, and often go unnoticed, leaving us feeling confused, lost, and overwhelmed.

Some examples of safety behaviours I’ve noticed (not exhaustive!):

• Overcleaning or working overtime

• Bed rotting but not allowing for true rest

• Frozen in doomscrolling

• Retail therapy or overconsumption

• Comfort eating, or restricting/picking/counting/purging, or obsessing over food/”health”/body

• Exercising excessively with little to no recovery

• Always trying to fix ourselves without ever celebrating our wins

• Avoiding conflict by pleasing others (while we have no idea what our needs are)

• Rehearsing how situations will play out at future gatherings

• Replaying something you said or something unresolved over and over in our mind

• Hyper-vigilance or hyper-independence that feels “right”

• Fixating on rigid routines that fuel perfectionism

• Harsh internal dialogue when routines are disrupted or our goals aren’t met

• Numbing with something because you feel distressed or irritated at ourselves, others, systems, or the world

• Exhaustion from masking or showing up performatively at gatherings

• Texting back immediately even when we have no more capacity, or the latter, avoiding texting back for weeks

• Seeking reassurance from others for most decisions we need to make

• Intellectualizing or over-analyzing everything.

Good news is that there are patterns / wiring that we start to become more aware of! 

Here's what safety behaviours have in common:

• Coping, not processing: They keep us “safe” momentarily, but not in the long term.

• They play on our fears: Safety behaviours increase our perception of existing fears. They make fear feel more intense or obsessive, rather than helping us heal from it.

• They respond to urgency: Acting “before the shoe drops,” safety behaviours turn anxious thoughts into rules, rituals, or compulsions in the hope of preventing a consequence. These can be physical actions, mental acts, or rigid routines we feel we have to do in the moment—or else.

• They've worked before: At some point in history, these behaviours helped you cope and feel safe. That’s why they’re so familiar, and may even feel safe and comforting.

• They dislike uncertainty: Safety behaviours often show up when situations are unpredictable, unresolved, or ambiguous.

Some practices I’ve been using for long-term care and support instead of safety behaviours:

• Catching, disengaging, and redirecting from my safety behaviours toward what actually matters. For example a fear I’m working through, always feeling responsible for my team, is gradually being redirected into the belief that I am becoming a stronger leader and team member.

• Making, creating, or crafting something with my hands (great for slowing down). 
  
  Enter our giveaway to drop in access to Off Screen Hours and an art journalling kit here: a special collab with 1912 Amax Stationery.
   

• Reducing screen time on my phone, using apps like Opal to block distracting social media during the week for more mindful consumption.

• Allowing 15+ minutes of boredom each day to check in with my nervous system and mind-body.

• Eating food that keeps me satiated, exciting, and simple (base repetitive, toppings rotated!).

• Moving in ways that make me feel strong while allowing ample recovery time. Lately I’ve been enjoying low-impact, high-intensity workouts (iykyk!).

• Inviting friends to do mundane activities: dog walks, grocery shopping, co-working, cooking a meal together, or asking them for help (this one is huge for me).

What have you been practicing? 

Below I'm sharing my fave reflection questions that really help slow me down (fyi they can go deep)!

Since we tend to be reflective during this time of year, I’m inviting us to journal, discuss with a good friend and/or make some art to check in with ourselves if safety behaviours have been showing up.

Get your tea, pens and stickers ready! ⊹

• What signals do my body give me when I feel safe, and when I feel overwhelmed?
• What are my safety behaviours? List them out and try calling them out. (see above for some examples)
• What are my go-to ways of avoiding or distracting from conflict or discomfort?

• What feelings have been harder to feel lately?
• Are there parts of me that learned to stay quieter/numb/unnoticed to stay safe?
• What does this protective strategy/response want me to know?
• Where do I notice myself toning down or editing parts of who I am, especially around others this season?
• What has it taken for me to arrive here, and what needs acknowledgement and care?

In a society designed to keep us numbing, with no time to slow down, where rest is mistaken for laziness and bursts of anxiety are mistaken for productivity, our awareness is rebellion. Slowing down to notice our limits, finding ways out of misery and fear, and understanding our grief are acts of resistance. And this resistance doesn’t have to feel endless or scary.

If you’re needing some extra love and support navigating these complex experiences, our team is here for you!

May this season of reflection lead us to explore moments for rest, awareness, and connection to support us into the new year. Take good care, First name / friendsee you in 2026 ♡

Sincerely, 
Linda

Enter our giveaway before the end of the year (Dec 31st, 2025) for a chance to win: 
📓 Drop-in access to weekly Off Screen Hours (Friday workshops until Feb 2026)*
🖋️ An AMAX journaling kit — Hitotoki notebook + Pentel brush pen set

written by Maryam Dada, M.A., RCC
mildly edited by Linda Lin, RCC, CCC, RCAT

I started watching the hit show Severance on the recommendation of one of my besties who works in the corporate world. The show, which is currently receiving a lot of attention for its sci-fi portrayal of ‘work-life balance,’ depicts the lives of corporate workers at Lumon, a Biotech company. These employees have undergone a surgical procedure, known as severance, that allows them to mentally separate their work life from their personal life. An implanted device causes employees to lose all their memories of the outside world, which then creates a split personality— the “innie” who works at Lumon, and the “outie” who gets to live their personal life.

We’re going to be exploring the importance of mind-body connection, explain the role of our nervous systems (specifically the ANS), and what it looks like to live an ‘embodied’ life.

What Is Severance Really Saying About Work-Life Balance?

As I was watching, I couldn't help but think of all the different mental health implications of a severance procedure while also recognizing the appeal of getting some separation from work and the very coveted ‘work life balance’… especially under late-stage capitalism. 

Severance is set in the near future where getting this medical procedure is certainly controversial but also advertised, encouraged, and appealing for many. 

The main character, Mark, was a history professor at the local university whose wife died in a car accident. We learn that Mark chose to work for Lumon because it was easier than grieving his dead wife; which of course, is not the healthiest solution for grief and loss, but it does humanize our main character and sets the premise for some pretty important mental health questions. Namely, can work-life balance be achieved by splitting our personalities?

If our work personas only exist at work, it sure would make it a lot easier to not bring work home, to not think about work after hours, or to work overtime. And for our main character, Mark, having the option of forgetting about his partner’s death, seems like a surefire way to not deal with it™. 

Although, I wonder how true that actually is. 

While a very interesting premise and story-line, with many different undertones about our society and the emphasis we place on work, and how human beings respond to and deal with trauma, or even the ethical implications about having what is essentially a clone…

I think one of the biggest considerations for me was thinking about what happens to our bodies. 

The Mind-Body Connection: Why Compartmentalization Doesn't Work

From a therapeutic perspective, we might be able to mentally compartmentalize parts of our lives and that kind of organization can certainly be helpful, however we cannot escape from our bodily sensations. 

The mind-body connection operates on the belief that our mental and physical health are linked (Pally, 1998). When we feel dysregulated or even discomfort, we are likely experiencing a mental and physical symptom. 

For example, when you are feeling anxious you might start to have racing thoughts, while also noticing your muscles tensing or your palms becoming sweaty, you could have butterflies in your tummy, or even be feeling nauseous.

Strengthening the mind-body connection is a gentle reminder that we are made up of not only our mental states but also our physical states. It’s acknowledging that our bodies are not simply vehicles for our minds, but that two work in tandem to keep us healthy.

Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System and Stress

When we work to strengthen that mind-body connection we are engaging in a form of emotional regulation and directly working with our nervous systems. 



The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

•  is our body’s command centre that influences everything from our breathing to our heart rate and how we navigate and understand stress (Gibbons, 2019). 

• The ANS can be thought of in two parts: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. 

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Our bodies’ fight or flight response that activates when we perceive a threat. It prepares our body by increasing our heart-rate, blood pressure, and by releasing adrenaline. 

Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): Our bodies’ at rest and digest. After a stressful situation, this system allows our body to slow and restore balance. 

ANS and the Severance Department: Our Bodies’ Aren’t Separate

Our ANS plays a big role in our bodies response to stress and furthers the importance of strengthening the mind-body connection. In Severance, characters who’ve undergone the medical procedure are only mentally compartmentalizing their lives. This means that if either the innie or the outie experiences a significant amount of stress or trauma —it will show up in the body for both of them. 

If the fight or flight response gets triggered for the innie at work, their outie will feel the effects of that in their body too. One could even argue that being severed doubles the stress, exacerbated by the fact that neither personality can remember what happens to the other. 

When we start to factor in mind-body connection, including how our autonomic nervous system plays a role, the curtain gets pulled back a bit more, and we see that ‘work-life balance’ for the characters in Severance is merely a mirage. 

Practical Ways to Cultivate an Embodied Life

Our bodies are central to our mental health, when we are living in ways that are embodied or simply, being in tune with the way our body feels throughout the day, we are more likely to engage in the kind of emotional regulation that activates the parasympathetic nervous system — when we are recalibrating and at rest. 

This is easier said than done and it takes practice. It’s a normal thing to want to compartmentalize, run away, or hide from our problems/feelings and a large part of that is societal conditioning to value productivity. 

One of the ways we can practice becoming more embodied is to give ourselves permission to exist, be, and/or live slower but with more intention. This is where somatic interventions like box breathing, grounding exercises, physical activity, or meditations can help by bringing us back into the present moment and creating an awareness of our body to develop a more holistic approach to our healing.

Further Reading on Trauma, Stress, and Embodiment
Invitations for further study

Bodies you can mirror when being in your own is just too much via Instagram @eroticsofliberation https://www.instagram.com/p/DGLGS6WssSC/?igsh=MWVmODAyM2oyYXBoNg==
Book: The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez

Podcast: The Meaning of Embodiment, with Prentis Hempill https://www.ted.com/talks/how_to_be_a_better_human_the_meaning_of_embodiment_w_prentis_hemphill

References: 

Pally, R. (1998). Emotional Processing; The mind-body connection. The International journal of psycho-analysis, 79(2), 349.

Gibbons, C. H. (2019). Basics of autonomic nervous system function. Handbook of clinical neurology, 160, 407-418.

About the Author: 

Maryam is a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Decipher. She is currently taking new clients! If you like to explore themes in tv, media, or literature and how it relates to your life or the different things you may be going though, she may be a good fit. 

Interested in exploring work-life balance and embodiment through therapy? Book a session with Maryam today—available online and in person in so-called Vancouver, BC.