We’re actually much more free to be who we want to be than we’re taught to think. — I recently came across a little factoid that surprised me: Blue and pink were not considered masculine and feminine — respectively — until the 1940s. “Even then,” wrote Jeanne Maglaty in a 2011 Smithsonian magazine article, “it took time for popular culture to sort things out.” Here’s what a 1918…

Instead, we should blame our hyper-individualized, isolating, alienating capitalist society. — Another day, another mass shooting — this time in a wealthy Chicago suburb. Why is this happening? Why do so many young men want to cause so much pain? I don’t pretend to have all the answers. …

Many cisgendered men feel like there two options right now, either stay quiet or “mansplain.” But there’s another way. — Here’s why pro-abortion (cisgendered) men should be speaking up right now: This is an opportunity to practice talking about something we likely know little or nothing about without pretending like we do. As boys, we got the message from adults that we should always be in control of ourselves (stoic)…

Women, queer, and trans people are courageously doing the work to grow as human beings. Us men have some catching up to do. — Men — those of us who’ve been socialized into masculine behaviors — have it bad right now. There, I said it. We die by suicide much more frequently, even though women are diagnosed with depression two to four times as often. …

As the poet and activist adrienne maree brown writes: “Focusing on what I [can] practice [brings] me back into the realm of possibilities.” — It’s paradoxical, but something I heard recently about hope being pointless filled me with… hope. It was said by the writer Pico Iyer, about the writer Elizabeth Gilbert: “Her sense of hope [is] based not on a confidence in happy endings, but just the conviction that something makes sense —…

The vagus nerve influences things like our breathing and heart rate, making it a big driver of our mental health. — For years, I’ve wondered what’s actually happening inside my body when I meditate. The body, not the brain. There’s tons of research on how meditation makes us think more clearly and with more focus. …

What pandemic heartbreak taught me about appreciating things. — After hugging me, Kelly* held out an envelope with a stamp depicting the cherry blossom trees we hadn’t been able to visit. “You seem bothered,” she said. “I thought that was everything there is to say,” I said, once again admiring her ability to read my emotions. “Should I open…

My ex-girlfriend didn’t mean it as an ultimatum — but it might as well have been. — She didn’t mean it as an ultimatum — but it might as well have been. Years ago, a romantic partner all but forced me to go to therapy. “Maybe you should talk to someone about that,” she said, after I’d complained about a recent visit with my parents. …

I’ll always remember my dad warning me about yellow jackets: “They get more aggressive in the fall. They’re about to die.” — I’ll always remember my dad warning me about yellow jackets. I was 7, maybe 8, and he’d just swatted one away as we threw a football in the front yard. “They get more aggressive in the fall,” he said. “They’re about to die.” It turns out, he was half right…