Hello!

I'm in your inbox right now because you subscribed—thank you! I pinky-swear that this time together will be well-spent.

Lately, the news has been so heavy that I've been angry and a little scatterbrained. So I wanted my first offering to make you feel more organized, regain the feeling of action, and share how I've finally made meditation a regular habit.

Oh, and there's a dog singing Happy Birthday with me if you make it to the end.

Your friend,
Ali

Hack: Unscramble Your Unread Browser Tabs
​Convinced you have undiagnosed ADD like me? Chances are that you have a little problem with thousands of browser tabs being open on your desktop at any one time. In 2020, Google released a new Chrome feature to organize your tabs into groupings (but really, who was listening then?).

The free plug-in, Toby, outperforms Google's solution by creating a custom webpage of all your links that you really don't want to lose. Using Chrome, you can easily save a whole session into one folder or drag and drop links into folders. You can easily open or close these tabs without continually keeping them open and making your computer unhappy. Here's how.

Listening to: Being a Woman by Lake Street Dive
​In this song, Lake Street Dive takes a catchy feel-good tune, complete with strikes of the xylophone, and suddenly you feel like step-touching and snapping your fingers like your mother on the dance floor.

The lyrics, however, reflect on our dark times for women and our society as a whole. I've been using the song as a way to turn my tired apathy into action.

Being a Woman Lake Street Dive

Below: Participating in the Women's March in DC earlier this month with a march and sit-in at the White House, urging President Biden to use his executive power to regain and expand women's rights to reproductive health. Learn more about how to support the movement.

Long Read: From One Noisy Mind to Another, I Swear You Can Meditate

It’s 2022, we’re in another of the seemingly endless years of the pandemic and likely in the middle of our eighth existential crisis. We all know of the health benefits of meditation, particularly in times of stress and anxiety, so why don’t we just…start?

My article published today in Better Humans breaks down how to finally make meditation a habit (even for the anxious folks whose minds ping-pong!). In it, Emma Pellegrino, a psychotherapist who works with highly-sensitive people in the LGBTQ+ community, helps reframe the practice to make it feel more realistic, especially for folks like me that have tried—and tried—to make the practice stick.

Dog of the Moment: Scout

This week, snaggletoothed Scout has been crashing at my place. I knew she could do the normal doggo tricks, but I didn't realize she could also sing Happy Birthday! (Head's up: it's not in English and watching it may cause your dog to chime in!)

Need a Writer?
​I'm still accepting clients for project-based writing and content strategy projects. Reach out to me at ali@alihickerson.com to chat about what you need and if we're a fit!