Alternative medicine trend or science-based healing? — Last year, my 20 year-old son injured his lower back. Forced to resign from his mechanics apprenticeship, he lost over a year of his life to chronic pain. …

I can say now that being a mother has been the best thing I have ever done. But I couldn’t always have said that. — I was twenty-one years-old when my first son entered the world. He came early; two weeks before his expected date and with such haste the midwife delivered him before the doctor made an appearance. After him, there were three more — my second son and two daughters, all within six years, all with their own birth stories, their own personalities, their…

We can either control ourselves or love ourselves, but we cannot do both — I recently caught up with a friend whom I’d not seen in perhaps a year or so. As she walked into the café I barely recognised her. She’d lost an astonishing amount of weight since we’d last seen each other; my regular-sized body feeling enormous alongside her significantly reduced frame. …

I know the days are long, and hard — but see all you have already accomplished with the empty hands you were given. — Dear heart, I see you. I see the path your weary hands forge into new territory. I see the struggle inside this wilderness of change — the resistance you feel as you work harder than anyone will ever know, or see, to be the catalyst for change. To be the one who liberates others from…

Why are we still making our bodies the most important thing about ourselves? — Women are more than bodies, the Instagram caption reads. The image is of a plus-sized woman wearing a red ruffled bikini and posing provocatively for the camera; the soft rolls of her stomach and dimples of her thighs a reminder for those of us who fit outside the cultural standard…

Can the culture of objectification ever really be changed? — It’s the final week in January, one of the last days of the summer holidays, the last I will spend at the beach with my children before a new school year begins. There’s a slight offshore breeze blowing; a wave peels gently along the shore break. It’s overcast but warm…

And I would like to extend a warm thank you to Hallmark for reminding me that without a significant other, how truly worthless my life is. — As school holidays come to an end and my children return to their regularly scheduled programming, I return to my computer in the hope of remembering how to place words into actual sentences after relishing in eight weeks of hot girl (aka as lazy-girl-who-didn’t-leave -the-couch) summer. At my desk, sun…

In the barren ground where you once stood, I came to understand there must be winter. — When I chose to let you go, there was no great moment of triumph. There was no earth-shattering epiphany that changed my life, where music played and the universe conspired to bring everything together for good. There was no conflict, no turmoil, and no struggle. No internal argument. No weighing of pros and cons. …

I never saw weight gain as an issue — until it became my issue. — Diet Culture: A rigid set of expectations about valuing thinness and attractiveness over physical health and emotional well-being. A few months ago if you’d asked if I thought diet culture affected me, the answer would have been no. I mean, I’ve watched Taryn Brumfitt’s Embrace documentary three times. My Instagram…