Why Everything Feels So Heavy Lately Lately, I’ve been asking myself a simple question. Why does everything feel so heavy? Not just physically. Mentally. Emotionally. The kind of heaviness that follows you from the moment you wake up until your head finally hits the pillow. For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me. I wondered why I couldn’t seem to keep up with everyone else. People my age were buying homes, getting promotions, raising families, traveling the wo

Dear Me, Remember why you started. People sometimes assume I create blogs, Cozy Critters, journals, and gentle reminders simply to keep myself busy. The truth is, that's not why I started. I started because creating them helped me heal, too. Every reflection I wrote, every chibi I designed, every gentle reminder I shared, and every blog post I published became part of my own self-care journey. These creations became little pieces of comfort that reminded me to slow down, brea

Some people meditate. Some people journal. Some people take long walks to clear their minds. For me, one of the most healing forms of self-care has been photography. Not because I’m trying to capture the perfect image. Not because I’m chasing likes on social media. But because photography gives me a reason to slow down and truly see the world around me. When Life Feels Loud Life can be overwhelming. There are deadlines, responsibilities, worries about the future, endless noti

Lately, I've found myself thinking about a stereotype that seems to follow every younger generation. "They're lazy." "They don't want to work." "They don't have the same work ethic." It's something I've heard said about Gen Z. It's something millennials have heard for years. And if history teaches us anything, it's that every generation seems to say the same thing about the one that comes after it. But I can't help wondering: What if we're asking the wrong question? Looking B

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned on my creative journey is that people aren’t looking for perfection. They’re looking for connection. In a world filled with AI-generated content, perfectly curated feeds, carefully crafted personal brands, and endless advice about finding the perfect niche, I’ve come to believe that authenticity matters more than ever. People are craving real stories. Not perfect stories. Not viral stories. Not stories designed solely to please an algor

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned on my mental health journey is that healing isn’t always about moving forward. Sometimes it’s about going back. Going back to the things that once made you feel alive. Going back to the hobbies you forgot you loved. Going back to the version of yourself that existed before stress, anxiety, responsibilities, and survival mode took over. For me, that journey started with self-reflection. As I shared in my recent post about self-awareness

People often assume my retail job and my creative work exist in completely different worlds. One involves helping customers, solving problems, and navigating busy shifts. The other involves creating art, writing blogs, designing products, and building a brand from the ground up. But the longer I’ve done both, the more I’ve realized they share something important: Neither is for the weak. Both require resilience. Both require patience. And both require the ability to keep show

There’s something painful about being looked at like you’re already failing before you’ve even begun. Not because people know you. Not because they’ve seen your work ethic. Not because they understand your mind or your struggles. But because the moment they hear words like: anxiety disability mental illness neurodivergent overwhelmed sensitive …they quietly decide who they think you are. And a lot of us carry that weight for years. People talk a lot about inclusion now. Aw

What Rescue Animals Quietly Taught Me About Anxiety I think one of the reasons I connect so deeply with rescue animals is because anxiety recognizes anxiety. There is something painfully familiar about watching a scared animal carefully scan a room before relaxing. The hesitation. The hyperawareness. The emotional shutdown after too much stress. Sometimes I look at anxious rescue pets and think, “Yeah… I understand that feeling.” A lot of people see rescue animals after th

More than anything, I need people to understand my anxiety and my mental health. Not as a label. Not as a trend. But as something that quietly shapes how I move through every single day—even when it doesn’t look like anything is wrong on the outside. Because from the outside, I can still function. I go to work. I do housework. I handle basic life tasks. I show up where I need to show up. I get things done. But what people don’t always see is what it takes internally to do tho

Some days it feels like I’m building a brand. Other days it feels like I’m just trying to keep up with my own life. And honestly… it’s both. There’s this version of “building a business” that looks clean on the outside—pretty posts, organized systems, everything planned out. The kind of thing that makes it seem like everyone else has it all figured out. But behind the scenes? It’s me sitting with ideas that don’t fully make sense yet. It’s second-guessing something I was so s

If you’ve been exploring my world online, you might’ve noticed I have two spaces: AbbyJuliJournal ( abbyjuli.com ) and AbbyJuliDiaries. And yeah… they’re intentionally different. They’re not duplicates of each other—they hold different layers of me. Let me explain. AbbyJuliJournal — The Heartbeat AbbyJuliJournal is my heartbeat space. This is where everything slows down and becomes intentional. It’s where I take what I’ve lived, felt, and learned—and turn it into something sh

Self-love wasn’t something I just “had.” For most of my life, I felt like I was too sensitive, too anxious, too stuck in my own head. I overthought everything. I doubted myself constantly. And honestly… I didn’t really like who I was. I didn’t realize how harsh I was being to myself until it started exhausting me. Living with anxiety made everything louder—every fear, every insecurity, every “what if.” It felt like my own mind was working against me. But somewhere along the w

Living inside my mind isn’t quiet—it’s layered. Some days, anxiety feels like a constant hum in the background, like something is about to go wrong even when everything is still. It speeds up my thoughts, makes small things feel overwhelming, and turns simple decisions into heavy ones. Depression is different. It slows everything down. It drains the color out of things I used to love and replaces it with this dull heaviness. It’s not always sadness—it’s more like emptiness, l

There was a time when I thought self-worth was something you could “figure out” and then just keep forever. Like a switch you flip and suddenly you’re confident, grounded, unbothered. But for me, it hasn’t worked like that. My struggle with self-worth has been quiet but constant. It shows up in overthinking, in second-guessing myself, in wondering if I’m doing enough or being enough. It’s not always loud—it’s often subtle. A thought here, a comparison there, a feeling that I’

My love for rescue pets was never just a phase—it became part of who I am. There’s something powerful about giving an animal a second chance. The way they slowly learn to trust you, the way they attach to you like you’re their whole world… it stays with you. That kind of bond changes how you see everything. At some point, I realized I didn’t just want to feel that connection—I wanted to create something from it. Read our story That’s how my brand was born. But I didn’t want t

Since high school, I’ve found that words alone sometimes aren’t enough to express what I’m feeling. That’s when I discovered digital collages—a way to blend images, textures, and colors into a single piece that captures emotions I can’t always put into sentences. Creating these collages has become my personal form of therapy. Some days, it’s a vibrant mix of joy and hope; other days, darker shades help me process sadness or frustration. Each layer tells a story, and each imag

Dear Me, I know things aren’t exactly how you pictured, but you’ve come so far. You got help when you needed it, you pushed through the hard stuff, and you’ve built a life you should be proud of. You probably thought you’d be a successful artist by now… well, you are in a way — you’re trying, and that matters. You probably thought you’d have moved out and be on your own with your own little cat family too. But in reality, you do have your cat family — just at home. And truthf