Francie Costanza, LPC

11/03/2026

12/02/2026

Know Thyself -Aristotle

"When you’re in search of genuine love with another human, you’re not only 'getting to know them:'

You are getting to know more about yourself in a relationship with someone; who you are as a person when you are relating; how much you hide; how much of yourself you’re able to bring into a conversation.

Because if your goal is to meet someone and know them for who they really are, but you yourself are hiding, then you’re only getting to see who they are in relationship to the mask that you’re wearing.”

—Jovanny Varela, Things I had to learn before finding my person

Artwork by Kevin Finney

09/02/2026

Good stuff! 😀

06/02/2026

Especially these days…

Let the suffering of the innocent and the oppressed move you. Let it break your heart. Let it hurt. Deeply. The pain itself means your heart is still working! You are not numb. You are not detached, cold, or indifferent. You are not bypassing your humanity.
You hurt because your brothers and sisters are hurting. You belong to the same river of humanity.
At the same time, you must accept a limit to your hurting, if you can. Remember, you did not cause this horror. You cannot carry all of it without being crushed by it yourself, without being destroyed by the weight of the world’s suffering. You can only carry what is truly yours . . . .
Grief and anger have to be held in presence, not poured endlessly into your nervous system all day long without limits. That is not compassion. It is a fast track to burnout and helplessness.

Jeff Foster
Artwork by Ruth Evans Art

04/02/2026

Learn more about the DASH Diet, one of the healthiest diets, including which foods to eat and how to get started.

04/02/2026

Excellent! 👌🏼

01/02/2026

Psilocybin doesn’t just alter perception—it temporarily erases the brain’s unique signature.

New brain-imaging research shows that psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, profoundly disrupts the patterns that make each human brain recognisable as an individual. During the psychedelic experience, these patterns become so scrambled that different people’s brain scans are nearly indistinguishable from one another.

Using an advanced approach known as precision functional mapping, neuroscientists scanned the brains of seven healthy adults before, during, and for up to three weeks after psilocybin administration. For comparison, the same participants were also scanned after taking methylphenidate (Ritalin), a commonly prescribed stimulant.

The results were striking. Psilocybin caused widespread desynchronisation across functional brain networks, with the most dramatic effects seen in the Default Mode Network (DMN)—a system closely linked to self-reflection, autobiographical memory, and the sense of identity. As the DMN lost its usual coordination, the brain’s “neural fingerprint” effectively disappeared.

Even more intriguing, some alterations in brain connectivity persisted for weeks after the experience, long after the drug had left the body. This lasting rewiring may help explain why psilocybin is being intensively studied for conditions such as depression, addiction, and PTSD—where rigid patterns of thought play a central role.

Rather than simply “turning off” the brain, psilocybin appears to loosen its most deeply ingrained structures, temporarily dissolving the boundaries of the self and opening the door to long-term psychological change.

Source:
Siegel, J. S., et al. (2024). Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain. Nature.

01/02/2026

Good job! 👏

31/01/2026

Clearing the air as well as your mind…

I used to energetically clear my home when life felt heavy. I loved making my home feel lighter after a breakup or a tough week. Now I do it because the world won’t stop breaking my heart.

27/12/2025

Empathy take note! Long but informative. 🤔

14/12/2025

God is Love. ❤️

07/12/2025

Nice words for women of a certain age.