A first heartfelt entry in German, celebrating 5 years spent abroad in Switzerland, and reflecting on the slow, almost imperceptible process of a foreign place becoming familiar through small moments, and on the sensations that can make a place feel like home.

An introduction to the new feathered friendship in my life. The story of my remote adoption of Marita, a rescued egg-laying chicken living at Hof Narr Zurich. This piece celebrates this new chapter of giving back to what matters and the role of sanctuaries in providing rescued farm animals with peaceful, dignified lives.

A small subset of highlights and personal milestones from an eventful year, including graduating with my PhD, moving into a new home, learning to assemble furniture, and adventures in the mountains. Selected moments representing a fraction of a year filled with countless new experiences, emotions, and memories.

A few successful results and recipes from many experiments in the kitchen as a non-chef who favors shortcuts, healthy ingredients, fusion of cuisines, and intuitive cooking over strict recipe adherence.

Rediscovering a childhood favourite comic and reflecting on simple, silly delight, and on how adults have traded spontaneous, guiltless laughter of childhood for guarded, conditional amusement demanding complexity. An affirmation that the ability to reclaim simple, thoughtless joy still exists within us.

My first experience and experiments with cooking for myself, after I moved abroad for my doctorate.

An old entry on the joy of exercise, venturing into new territories, and personal growth.

‘Just breathe!’ Why is breath so popular as a medium for grounding and healing the perils of the mind? This article is an exploration of breath as an ever-present alternative to the distractions we use to escape discomfort.

Some reflections on cultivating mental comfort and resisting everday and long-term emotional distress. Six key strategies for achieving mental peace by shifting away from common sources of emotional discomfort like rushing and perfectionism.

Intuition guides us in ways that are difficult to quantify, and often impossible to explain. This article is a contemplation on intuition’s subtle roles and presence in everyday life.

Strategies for managing mental clutter based on reading and personal experience, in a progression from simple, practical techniques to deeper ongoing introspective work like examining hidden beliefs, detangling illogical thought patterns, and understanding the origins of emotional responses.

Some thoughts on the nature of mental clutter, its causes and effects, and common manifestations in modern day life. An examination of how multitasking, information overload, and lack of emotional boundaries contributes to mental disarray, and an argument for structured emotional management.

An essay challenging the conventional view of early humans as primarily meat-eating hunters, arguing based on scientific evidence that they were more accurately ‘starchivores’ who relied heavily on gathered plant foods, particularly cooked starches, for the majority of their calories and evolutionary brain development.

An essay that examines the anthropocentric biases, subjective beliefs, cultural norms, and material interests in science have shaped our understanding of nonhuman animals, paralleling historical biases against marginalized humans, and introdues the emerging fields of Animal Studies and Critical Animal Studies.

An essay based on a presentation I made for my German language course exam and on my reading of the German translation of a book on Esther the Wonder Pig and her adoptive parents. A moving story on how one pig’s colourful personality inspired millions to reconsider their treatment of farm animals.

An essay on modern culture’s glorification of travel as superior to material consumption and masking its reality as a form of consumption, often with comparable environmental and status-seeking motivations to luxury possessions.

A first step in financial literacy: some notes from my self-study of the fundamentals of assets and investments.

Resistance training offers rewarding benefits of better functional strength, stronger bones, improved mental health and quality of life. Despite us slowly moving past the days of discouraging women from lifting weights, some new some sad, sexist and shallow trends have emerged in the women’s fitness space. This article comprises some of my thoughts on them.

An analysis and review of the film Robot 2.0. Despite having a unique concept and picking a bold cause, the film takes a disappointing course of action in its latter half.

“Until the lion learns how to write every story will glorify the hunter.” An essay on the importance of insider perspectives and lived experiences in the field of sociology, based on the work on well-known feminist theorists.

An image I captured that combines a picturesque sight of the sky with a sad ton of unmanaged garbage.

A detailed reading of Charles Dickers’ ceelebrated novel, an analysis of its message, a listing of some of my favourite stanzas, and a detour explaining why I take the time to do this exercise in the first place.

A book description-cum-review of one of my favourite books ever, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, written in B1 (intermediate)-level German. This was a fun and challenging exercise in German, which also allowed me to revisit the book’s themes.

The most striking thing about this piece is its ability to tell so complex and intermingled a story, with fantastic events and creatures, tragedy, suspense, and a medley of human states, all in the form of aesthetic poetry. This article is my brief set of comments on it.

A reflection on intellectual freedom and creativity through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s acclaimed feminist novel, written during, and influenced by, the uncertain and anxious times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A detailed revisit and review of the neuroscience bestseller ‘You Are Not Your Brain’, including a condensation of the key definitions and concepts it explains. This second part focusses on the authors’ proposed four-step solution to overcoming unhealthy responses and habits.

A detailed revisit and review of the neuroscience bestseller ‘You Are Not Your Brain’, including a condensation of the key definitions and concepts it explains. This first part focusses on the formation of bad habits in stressful situations.