Donelan Counseling

02/04/2026

Playing with ChatGPT tonight. What do you guys think?

01/28/2026

🙏

Rumination can keep your brain stuck in a loop. Therapists explain why it happens and share simple, research-backed ways to stop negative thinking before it spirals.

01/22/2026

🎯

01/19/2026

01/01/2026

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m not for a moment,
expecting this to occur,
for that is not possible,
a year must be all things.

Happiness must come and go,
like the tides and the winds,
just as sadness,
and all the emotions in between.

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you,
a baseline of peace,
of gratitude.

Because if you can sit with these things,
for the most part,
happiness will thrive,
when it does arrive,
and sadness will know its place in the mix.

If you can nourish these things,
daily,
you will also grow hope,
for it flourishes in such soil.

And hope is the key,
to this enigmatic state
of ‘happiness’ we seek.

When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you more happy days,
than sad days,
more joy than misery,
more laughter than tears…
and the wisdom to accept,
that they all belong.

Happy new year, my friends.
Happy new year.

Donna Ashworth

From ‘to the women’ 📕❤️

#2026

12/31/2025

A Willingness to Keep Showing Up

I step into this new year
gently, without resolutions,
with just a simple willingness,
to keep going,
to keep moving forward.

Not the bright, declarative kind of decision
that arrives with banners and promises,
but the quieter kind,
the one that asks for nothing grand.

No transformation.
Just an honest effort
to place one foot in front of the other,
without needing it to be a victory march.

To keep going isn’t strength.
It’s letting the days arrive as they are,
some heavy,
some hollow,
some unexpectedly kind.

It’s allowing grief, fatigue, memory, and love
to share the same room,
without insisting that any of them leave.

There is no list.
No reinvention.
No deadline for becoming someone new.
There is only the steady choice
to remain present,
to trust that willingness itself
is an act of grace.

So this year begins
not with resolve, but with intention:
the intention to stay present,
the intention to try again tomorrow,
the intention to simply keep showing up.

~ 'A Willingness to Keep Showing Up' by Spirit of a Hippie

✍️ Mary Anne Byrne

~ Art by Olya Haydamaka

12/31/2025

🎯

12/26/2025

"Christmas has a way of bringing everything & everyone closer… than we might want or even feel ready for.

Old dynamics tend to resurface during this time, like shadows from our past. Expectations tighten. Memories, both tender and painful, come back into our awareness. And even when the atmosphere is warm and jolly, something inside can feel unsettled. As if this season is asking something of us that we have not yet named.

If you’ve felt this during this time of the year, you know exactly what I mean.

Christmas means different things to different people. Yet for many, it’s not just a celebration but an emotional convergence:

A return to places, people, and patterns that shaped us long before we had language for them. A season that promises warmth and connection, while often stirring grief, pressure, or a sense of being pulled in too many directions at once.

If you have ever felt both grateful and overwhelmed during this time of year, you’re not alone.

What follows is an invitation to experience this season in a more conscious way, so we do not automatically fall back into old patterns and familiar habits.

—Excerpt from Gentle Reminder No 120: "Christmas is a Mirror: What this season reveals about devotion, belonging, and what you are truly anchored to."

I wrote a piece for those who have conflicting & mixed feelings about this time of the year. If you are someone who gets anxious or drained by the gatherings during this time of the year, I wrote this one for you 🫂🤍

Read the full piece: jovannyvarela.substack.com

With love,
Jovanny

12/24/2025

12/17/2025

🎯

10/15/2025

All the over thinkers here, this is for you.🥰

37.1K likes, 1233 comments. “3 NEUROSCIENCE STEPS TO STOP OVERTHINKING!”