Marianna Jaross I built a life throughout my twenties that was based on adventure, learning, and travel. I was also working towards a career that ‘made sense’ (psychologist), while also being deeply uncomfortable at times with how we went about and conceptualised healing. I have taken a break so I can think about and work in different arenas. Growing up, I learned reiki and how to read tarot at around the age of eleven. My mother was a minister I was separated from. In my fir

Marianna Jaross Each developmental period brings about unique challenges. For many people, your twenties can be about experimenting, trying to meet the milestones you feel pressured to; and looking around to see what everyone else is doing. You are navigating young adulthood, the call of independence, ideas around study and career, and milestones you are filtering through. Dating? Marriage? Babies? Travel? A degree? By your thirties, you may have accumulated a whole lot of ex

Marianna Jaross I have spent a lot of my life in higher education, chasing opportunities and degrees with the thought that I would finally land in the place that felt right. The life I built hasn’t been sustainable. It has been characterised by burn-out, periods of rest, and not being able to function in the same way I am used to. I have gone from someone high energy and ever-curious to someone who still has these traits, but cannot maintain this pace in this season of life.

Marianna Jaross I have existed in a range of arenas pertaining to healing and spirituality. I was exposed to the New Age as a child, trained in Reiki around the age of 11, learned to read tarot, and my mother was a minister; with whom I have not lived since I was child. I trained as a psychologist, and I was also running off to ‘woo-woo’ workshops and women’s circles in my spare time throughout my studies; which had both opportunities for healing, and challenges. I have retai

Marianna Jaross Late last year, I allowed my registration as a psychologist to lapse, and it wasn’t because I was jumping into something new and shiny. It was the quiet space required for me to think about my career, and to recalibrate my body and what I want moving forward. I reflected on the fact that I had tried to make this career work for me in a variety of ways over several years, and how clinical practice did not always seem like the right fit. My body was also giving

Marianna Jaross Have you ever sat in the space between the old and the new? When your old life doesn’t fit anymore, and you’ve realised what does not align with who you are or what you want now. Typically, when we have reached this space; we have often exhausted every possibility to ‘make things work,’ to make tweaks, adjustments or significant shifts. When these don’t work AND we have the data to back this up; we can sometimes have to figure out whether it’s a case of ‘try o

Marianna Jaross Being a therapist doesn’t make me immune to the challenges of life, or the mental blocks or habits that can hold us back. I am starting slow, and starting again late in the year. I don’t want to wait until the new year, a birthday, or a milestone to start building some new momentum in a more supportive direction. 1.) Morning routine. We can fall into the chaos of our lives, the siren call of our phones, or the mental loops that we fall into when we wake up. Fr

Marianna Jaross There is a saying in Hungarian around life and our journey throughout it “sometimes being on wheels, and sometimes on foot.’” I like this, because it normalises the challenges we are inevitably going to experience. This is not to say that we can’t be a victim to systems, or that we need to ignore when other people don’t treat us well. Rather, this is about learning to move through the challenges, keeping the hope alive, and continuing to show up. There are no

Marianna Jaross The sacred void occurs when our previous life no longer fits us. When the universe is nudging and whispering “more” or “different.” We may be terrified, but this void is calling us towards our deepest alignment, living to our values, and showing up in a new way. We can feel a restlessness in our soul that is not because we are trying to run away or escape; but because our soul is demanding that we drop the mask. This is when the foundation of our life begins t

Marianna Jaross Most of us approach adulthood with a range of challenges: We may have come from a different background to others, we may have been bullied, faced family challenges, or a myriad of other challenges that would tempt us to shut down our hearts. Oftentimes by adulthood we have been wired to survive, rather than thrive. We walk around trying to please others, society, achieve milestones, without tending to our internal garden. From my perspective, there are some sm

Marianna Jaross Have you seen the iconic movie Sliding Doors? Gwyneth Paltrow’s character enters two timelines; one where she catches the train, and one where she misses it. We follow her two timelines over the movie. We also have sliding doors of opportunity. This isn’t to prompt an existential crisis, but rather for us to plant our feet on the ground of our lives in order to identify and say ‘yes’ to the opportunities presented to us, while still using discernment. 1.) Iden

Marianna Jaross I like to read and draw inspiration from a variety of sources, and it is hard not to be slightly dazzled by Dita Von Teese; an icon of burlesque, beauty, and entertainment. She makes no secret of her love of all things beauty, and I find her attitude refreshing. 1.) It’s not about your bank account, or how you much spend. In the introduction of her book, Dita states: “Beauty, glamour and even luxury need not be determined by one’s bank account. True luxury is

Marianna Jaross I loved reading about the L’Oréal catwalk in Paris amidst Fashion Week. Jane Fonda, Viola Davis, Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson and Andie MacDowell graced the runway: A rewatch of the show (linked below) of them (and others) owning the stage made me reflect on attitudes towards beauty and aging. Women often get told that we are ‘over the hill’ after a particular age, and there is a whole subset of the internet that likes to talk about women’s diminishing value

Marianna Jaross I love how fashion can tell a story. We know stories of women being corseted to be a ‘desirable’ shape, we know when hemlines shortening mirrored a sexual revolution, and when clothes are used to communicate an aspect of our identity that might otherwise remain hidden. Fashion and stories go hand in hand. I don’t think this always has to do with the clothing itself: I think it also has to do with the energy that we emit alongside of the clothes that feel good

Marianna Jaross I have become curious about the intersection between style, psychology, and feeling good about ourselves. Specifically, the way in which we can use fashion and style as a form of positive behaviour activation, exploration, self-discovery, and creativity. In an interview with Gabrielle Arruda, renowned style consultant David Kibbe states: “Style is our visual language of presenting ourselves to the world. It is how we tell our story.” He adds that it “has to co

Marianna Jaross We can set ourselves up for success without waiting for the new year. I like a reset: Cleansing my apartment, decluttering, and making things beautiful makes me feel good. I also think it can call in new energy, help us to clear our mind, and ready ourselves for a new chapter. We sometimes wait until the new year to do this; even though resolutions tend to run out by February, and we are back in the same patterns and doing the same things over and over again.

Marianna Jaross 1.) It can feel clumsy. You can take a step forward and then back. Old thoughts, habits, and behaviours may resurface. Your routines might slip, you may fall into old ways of doing things, or life throws you a new challenge. Being on the path of being a person that you like and can be proud of is a process. Keep going. 2.) ‘Tests’ may pop up. Sometimes we are tested, accidentally or not. We may be tempted back into a previous way of being that was not helpful,

Marianna Jaross We have to come back to what lit us up when we were younger. Often, we try to squeeze ourselves into society’s version of acceptable: A square peg in a round hole. We absorb our family’s conditioning, our school conditioning, the norms that dictate who we should be, milestones that we are ‘meant’ to have reached. We put ourselves in boxes. Truly and deeply living in our alignment can mean getting out of surivival mode and addressing the following: We undo the

Marianna Jaross Have you been on a self-development journey? You read the books, listen to the podcasts, understand your attachment patterns, and resolve that you understand yourself. You try to eat nourishing food, move your body, understand your spiritual side, connect with others. If you are regurgitating what you already know, have reflected on, or changed, you are ready for the following step: That is doing the thing. The thing is the dream in your heart. Your most meani

Marianna Jaross We can strategise, plan, and do our best to steer our ship in the direction we want. Sometimes life has other plans. Whether this occurs in the form of a relationship ending, a redundancy, or some other form of change; we can be left spinning. You know the saying: We make plans, and God laughs. Here are some steps to support you: 1.) Grieve. It’s expected to feel disappointed, sad, scared, worried, and confused. You are grieving the path that you thought you w