All articles of

Georgia Lepenioti

Writer

March 27, 2023

Let'x Explore Personal Boundaries!

Since we were kids, we were taught by our parents, and the culture around us, what is right and what is wrong, and about what acceptable behaviors look like. From these “rules”, we created values and personal boundaries. Boundaries are invisible barriers that help us ensure physical, emotional, and psychological safety. We all have them, but many of us struggle with defining or respecting them. As a result, we can feel exhausted, disrespected, emotionally drained, and underestimated. 

March 6, 2023

Perfectionism: Do We Set Ourselves for Success or Failure?

We all have that friend or family member (or ourselves) that has excessively high standards and overly critical self-evaluations. Doing everything perfectly is so pivotal to them, that sometimes they do not start at all, ending up procrastinating. What does perfectionism look like? How does it work and how does it make us feel?

February 6, 2023

Self-Forgiveness: Why Is It So Hard?

Most of us have been hurt by others several times. And of course, this comes with a lot of pain, anger, and sadness. And then, being full of negative and painful feeling, we feel the need to blame the responsible ones. Those feelings can haunt us, until we manage to forgive the one who hurt / betrayed us. Forgiveness does not mean that we forget the harm and the pain we suffered or that we should rebuild the relationship with those that hurt us. Forgiveness means that we let go of the resentment, anger, guiltiness, shame, and sadness, accepting the whole experience and moving on [1]. Forgiving the others can be quite challenging. But what happens when the perpetrator is us? What if it us that caused all the painful, guilty, hostile, and shameful feeling? According to research, it is much harder to forgive ourselves that the others.

January 2, 2023

Are These Mushrooms Magic? The Psilocybin Psychedelic

You have all probably heard about the famous “magic mushrooms” or “magic truffles'', which are legal in The Netherlands. Since I live in the Netherlands, I have heard way too much information, positive and negative, about these hallucinogens. Prompted by my own curiosity, I did research on the substance contained in these “fungi”, and ended up finding many studies related to psychology! The substance is named psilocybin and although it is dominated by a cultural stigma attached to its hallucinogenic effect, numerous studies have proven that it has potential therapeutic benefits for some mental conditions. Let’s take a closer look.

November 14, 2022

The Stigma of "Virginity"

While scrolling in anonymous forums to read people’s opinions about issues that still pose taboos, my attention caught the topic of the stigma of virginity in adulthood. It seems that "prolonged virginity" is deeply stigmatised, perceived as something negative and unattractive. Not only do people feel ashamed of being virgins, but they are also afraid to date someone that does not have sexual experiences. Let’s take a closer look.

October 3, 2022

Generalised Anxiety Disorder

We all feel anxious and nervous sometimes, especially when life becomes hectic, or stressful. We might worry about financial, health, work, and family issues. However, in some cases, anxiety can become excessive and can interfere with everyday functioning and with our daily activities. This excessive worrying can be perceived as uncontrollable, disproportional to the actual dangers, and intolerable. It might be a sign of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, a highly prevalent disorder, which is associated with persistent suffering and considerable impairments.

June 13, 2022

The Journey of Spiritual Awakening

The notion of the spiritual awakening has been around for centuries and can be observed in a variety of cultures and religions around the world. There are many explanations of what a spiritual awakening is. But the main point behind all these descriptions is that one finally awakens to their life with a new sense of being and purpose in the world. It is like they turn on the lights in a room that has been dark for years.

May 16, 2022

Emotional Risk-Taking in Romantic Relationships

Emotional risk-taking in romantic relationshipsWe might all have caught ourselves trying to avoid getting emotionally involved in a romantic/intimate relationships. By saying this, I mean that instead of being in the present moment, and feeling what we would naturally and normally feel, we try to avoid and get rid of those big sensations. We probably prefer to stay in our comfort zone than be emotionally exposed and vulnerable. And to justify this, we can easily come up with many excuses such as “people always hurt you”, “I have been hurt in the past”, “I should be careful this time”, “I should not seem weak” etc. So what is emotional risk-taking? Find out below!