Seek with Ser

24/04/2024

The revolution is not in the comments section ✌🏼

Read my new post on Substack: “Are you Being Radicalized: Red flags to look out for.”

Link in bio 🔗

19/04/2024

Asking and saying no in relationships is about counterbalancing 3 things:

1. Your objective goals
2. Your relationship
3. Your self-respect

Depending on the weight of each of these, you’re gonna approach the conversation differently. Context matters!!!

Don’t forget to save the slides so you can revisit later! This framework has been so pivotal for me in my own interpersonal effectiveness.

I highly recommend enrolling in the 16 week DBT skills group training with .psychology to learn more valuable communication and life skills.

This training has been a game changer for me & I believe everyone could benefit! Contact .psychology for more info or comment “DBT” and I’ll put you in touch 🙂

(Not a promo post, I just really believe in this method).

👉🏼Where do you usually land on the “asking and saying no” scale?

28/10/2023

New post on my substack

The fascists are closing in

08/10/2023

I’m so exhausted I can’t articulate my words. My brain and my heart hurt. I don’t know the geopolitics of this conflict well enough to form an opinion. But I come from a humanitarian perspective when I say that what Hamas has done is wrong, just wrong. Yes, any human being can be pushed to the point of murder—does that mean we should?

I think of it like this: if Armenians were to rise up against Azerbaijan and started indiscriminately killing and r@ping Azeri women that would be ABSOLUTELY AGAINST MY MORALS and something I would never support under any circumstances. That is not political resistance, that is straight TERRORISM.

And at the same time we can acknowledge that the Israeli government is a war-mongering, far-right militia that needs to be held accountable for its crimes against humanity towards the Palestinians (and Armenians, while we’re at it).

Y’all, foreign policy is corrupt and complicated. Innocent civilian lives should NEVER be condoned as collateral damage in political negotiations. We have to drawn the line somewhere. Once we support terrorism, we are going south as a society. It‘s very hard to walk back from there. We don’t want to go there.

Please be mindful of the posts you’re sharing. Knee jerk reactions to complex and devastating humanitarian crises are not helpful or effective.

Condemning domestic terrorism committed by Hamas does not mean you condone Palestinian oppression and apartheid.

Denouncing the Zionist authoritarian regime does not mean you’re antisemitic.

Nuance and discernment y’all. Please practice it. 🙏🏼

I pray for the innocent lives that were lost and my heart is with Palestinian and Israeli families who are mourning their loved ones. There are no winners in war.

06/10/2023

Snippet from my substack:

It’s almost poetic how much life imitates art. It would be funny if it wasn’t so dark. Perhaps there is some comedic relief in it, if you’re into that sort of thing.

While conspiritualists are concocting fantastical narratives about imminent zombie doom, the viral TikTok “math” trend reflects our collective struggle to make sense out of senselessness where things just don’t add up.

What’s logical and reasonable often gets lots in the sea of misinformation, internet echo chambers, and capitalist propaganda.

That’s the thing about dystopia. It highlights the paradoxical nature of reality where we mistake abstractions for real entities.

Dystopian narratives often involve inversions of societal norms, values, and realities. These inversions can reveal the darker aspects of human behavior and societal trends, where what appears to be "positive" or desirable may, in fact, be the result of underlying absences or distortions.

In the context of misinformation and conspiracy theories, this paradox is evident when people treat abstract, unfounded claims as if they were concrete truths and in doing so they completely miss the plot.

Read the rest on the link in my bio or comment “Zombie” and I’ll DM you.

Enjoy and please subscribe if you’re not already! 💜

25/09/2023

SWANA communities are seriously tired of our indifference and hypocrisy.

And yes, I am holding myself just as accountable here because although I am Armenian, my Eurocentric features have protected me from the discrimination and prejudice that my SWANA sisters and brothers have faced and continue to face.

Seriously, what’s it going to take to cut through the noise of our social media feeds and bring this atrocity to the forefront of the conversation?

I don’t have the answer to that. But I do know that we are doing ourselves a serious disservice if we’re not at least willing to ask the hard questions.
They
In my substack newsletter, I ask these hard questions and also point to important call to actions.

Here are some below:

✊🏼 Follow as they document their lived experience of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh. Witnessing their stories humanizes a political conflict and let’s them know that people around the world care about their plight.

🤳Follow as they are independent activists on the ground doing important work to document and provide humanitarian aid.

💵 DONATE to nonprofit organizations like that are providing much needed immediate humanitarian aid to displaced Armenians.

🗣️SPREAD THE WORD. Armenians are at a critical point where we need momentum and awareness. Please SHARE this post and others like it.

Check my highlights for more and use the hashtags below.

Please don’t sleep on this! We need your voices, your dollars, your eyeballs, and your support.

💔💙🧡

We can’t do everything, but we can do something! Every small action matters! THANK YOU ✊🏼

11/09/2023

The more I unlearn and deprogram from toxic capitalist x patriarchal standards of success, femininity, personal growth, etc., the more I realize how much of it I had internalized. I spent this weekend cleaning, organizing, and relaxing and no part of me felt FOMO about that. Good riddance.

Whenever I see words like “rapid,” “quantum,” or “instant,” in personal development jargon, it’s like an instant repellent. I’m at a point in my life where slow and sustainable are attractive and I no longer need to make myself wrong for not chasing ambitious goals of overnight success.

I’m in the season where not everything has to be a ‘teachable’ moment, a life lesson, or a sign that I’m on the right path. How unnecessarily complicated, and exhausting.

There’s a soft, ‘feminine’ kind of surrender that comes with letting go of the idea that I’m not a hero, or an archetype. I’m just a human, I’m just me. How liberating.

My life matters because it does. Not because I’m the main character of my own story. Not because I’ve turned my pain into my ‘purpose.’ Not because I’ve manifested and achieved great things. Not because of my intelligence, strength, or resilience. But because I’m a human. What would happen if we all made peace with our humanity? Could it ever be enough?

Capitalism doesn't seem to think so. Society likes to dress things up—even something as personal as femininity—into romanticized, idealized labels that are often caricatured and envisioned through outdated stereotypes. Why do we need all these labels? Why turn everything into a production?

I’ve learned that personal development is a process of self-discovery where we get to redefine success and personal growth on our own terms. Staying true to yourself and not chasing someone else’s ‘manifested’ reality is a form of resistance to the success industry that is constantly trying to get us to dehumanize, exploit, and monetize every aspect of our lives.

Be free 🕊️

Which slide spoke to you? What is your feminine urge being called to?
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For more of my writings, subscribe to my free Substack newsletter. 🔗in bio!
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🎨 Art by

07/09/2023

I know I talk a lot of sh*t about self-help but it should be reiterated that while I believe the self-help industry is toxic, there are still wonderful self-help authors whose work I appreciate and admire.

It’s unfortunate that the industry has been infiltrated by bad faith actors and opportunists but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Instead, we should approach with more careful consideration and a critical lens, which is what I try to promote on this page.

Hope this guide helps. Please let me know if you’d like for me to expand on it and I’m happy to create a free PDF version with more information on how I critically evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and credibility of self-help books. More than anything, it’s a great exercise on critical thinking and media literacy!

Do check out my last two podcast episodes on the Cult of Self-help Part 1 & 2 for a deeper dive & more insightful discussion.

Would love to hear ethical self help books and authors that you recommend! What else should I add on this list?

04/09/2023

As a follow-up to my last post and podcast episode about MCS, I’m writing a blog post on the new trend of “romanticizing your life” and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

These are some of the questions I’m interested in exploring through a psychospiritual lens within the context of our loneliness and narcissism epidemics that define our era.

I’d love to know how you interpret or relate to the concept of “romanticizing your life” and how it has shaped or evolved your personal growth, especially as it pertains to Main Character energy.

Let’s discuss 👇🏼

31/08/2023

The self-help industry has distorted our concept of self-love.

On the surface, it promises personal growth, empowerment, and transformation, all of which seem to align with self-love.

However, beneath this veneer lies a paradox.

The self-help industry often commodifies our inherent need for self-love by perpetuating the idea that we are inherently flawed and in constant need of improvement.

In its pursuit of profit, this industry sells us a prepackaged vision of what self-love should look like. It peddles an idealized version of self-love that tends to favor those who are privileged enough to “achieve” it.

This vision often portrays self-love as a state reserved for the successful, the beautiful, and the accomplished. It creates an unattainable standard that leaves many feeling inadequate, fostering a cycle of perpetual striving and discontentment.

Genuine self-love transcends these narrow confines. It's not contingent on external achievements.

Genuine self-love is rooted in self-acceptance, compassion, and authenticity. It embraces our imperfections and acknowledges that our worthiness is inherent, not “earned” through accomplishments or external validation.

When self-love becomes synonymous with optimizing our human potential, it loses its authenticity. It becomes a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

Genuine self-love is not a product to be bought or a goal to be achieved; it's a lifelong journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. It doesn't require us to constantly fix or improve ourselves but invites us to embrace our humanity, with all its flaws and complexities.

💭Thoughts?

29/08/2023

“The first time I heard of the concept of "self-love" was when I was wandering around aimlessly at a local art fair in Melbourne, Australia.

I had just been stood up by my date.

TBH, I didn't even like the guy, but the feeling of rejection pushed my already fragile self-esteem past its breaking point. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin and flush myself down the sh***er of the nearest porta potty. You know that feeling?

So, picture this: there I was, 7,500 miles away from home and infinite miles away from myself, obsessively checking my phone every 5 minutes (err, 30 seconds?) waiting on some rando dude to validate my self-worth. Feeling like the lowest of the low about myself while searching for the nearest escape route to my existence. And that's when I saw it: the psychic booth.

I don't know what compelled me to walk into that psychic booth. At the time, I was a hardcore atheist and didn't believe in the supernatural. I suppose it was a testament to how desperate and confused I felt. If the rando dude couldn't validate my worth, maybe this psychic could?

Boy, was I comically wrong. You know that moment in a movie when your compassion for the main character turns into second-hand embarrassment? But you can't help but feel amused because the cosmic joke is irresistible? That describes the story of my life when I sat down in front of the psychic for a reading: a cosmic joke.

I had a few minutes to spare before my "appointment," so I pretended to be fascinated by the little trinkets 'n things that were on display outside the booth (meanwhile, coming up with hypothetical scenarios of all the ways I would tell off my no-show date if ever ran into him).

Amongst the ornate tarot decks, incense sticks, crystals, and other bejeweled amulets on display, one thing caught my eye and brought me back into my body: a little book with a BIG title, "When Loved Myself Enough."

I started flipping through the book:”

🔗Read the rest on my blog—> link in bio

17/08/2023

The culty-est aspect of the self-help/wellness industry is that its success hinges on the ability to convince people that there is only one true way to live well (with guaranteed outcomes that are largely based on anecdotal or circumstantial evidence).

They do this through promoting an “us vs them” attitude that gets reinforced through false dichotomies and other types of cognitive distortions.

Nuance is being able to acknowledge that issues aren’t always just one extreme or the other.

Critical thinking is being able to evaluate situations independently rather than categorically favoring one side or another.

Critiquing self-help/wellness industries does not mean we are advocating for “biG pHarMa.” The bigger here is about holding all industries to ethical standards and promoting evidence-based practices.

Exploitation should be address ACROSS THE BOARD.

Thank you.

31/07/2023

🥳New month, new topic!

This month’s “to debunk” topic is self-love. Or, more specifically, how pop-psych and new-age interpret self-love, which we know is chock full of hypocrisies, inconsistencies, and shallow waters.

Instead of leading us toward loving ourselves, new-age orients us toward a path of self-destruction. 😑

This is a topic that I have been studying (both academically and within my self) for yearsssss.

It’s perhaps THE topic I have turned over again and again until no stone has been left unturned.

It’s both a personal and also cerebral topic for me. I’ve been scrutinizing it from many angles that I can’t wait to discuss with others who have come to similar realizations.

I’ve studied the self-love literature so much I could write a damn book on it. Oh wait, I did! Ask me about my “Demystifying Self-love” ebook—I think you’ll find it v interesting 🙂

I also have a blog post, reels, and in true debunking fashion—a host of interesting studies and thought-provoking insights to share with you.

It’s gonna be a good month. Stay tuned ✨

What else would you add? Comment your thoughts 👇🏼

20/07/2023

It makes sense that when resources are scarce people tend to look out for themselves.

But research shows that when resources are abundant, people still look out for themselves.

This points to the reality that it’s not a resource problem. It’s a people problem. Specifically, the problem of greed.

How can we fix this problem?

13/07/2023

I used to get inspired by these “self-help” gurus who made it sound so simple to fix our problems with our mindset.

“Change your mind, change your life!”

Then I realized that working on our mindset takes time, energy, and resources.

And in our inequitable society, it is a privilege to have those things.

Instead of shouting at people to fix their mindset, I saw their mindset as a reflection of the larger systemic and social issues.

This is a systems-level approach to social change. And it is a much more compassionate, inclusive, and effective way toward collective liberation, if that’s your goal. 💜

I would love to hear your biggest takeaways from mindset psychology. What have you learned?👇🏼

12/07/2023

The new-age spiritual and self-help industries are bankrolling humanity’s self-destruction.

By equating ‘spiritual abundance’ with ‘material abundance,’ new-age spirituality promotes capitalism propaganda of endless growth, overconsumption, unsustainable practices, manufactured demand, and exploitation.

The relentless pursuit of ‘abundance’ prioritizes profit above all else and contributes to a culture of wastefulness and rampant consumerism.

The reality is that our planet has finite resources that humans are burning through at unsustainable rates.

Not here to tell anyone how to live. But promoting the narrative that ‘there is plenty out there and enough resources for everyone’ is incompatible with the reality that resources are limited and resource distribution is unequal and uneven.

Downplaying or undermining these realities is a massive disservice to the collective. Mind you, these are the same money cult ambassadors that believe ‘more money in the hands of good people will solve the world’s problems.’ Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy everywhere.

I just published a blog post about the Dark Side of the Abundance Mindset where I challenge conventional narratives around ‘abundance’ and its connection to wealth and success. I also shed light on the ‘abundance paradox’ and why the opposite of abundance is not scarcity, it’s greed.

🔗 in bio!

Your turn! What are some affirmations we should add to the Money Cult edition of abundance mindset?👇🏼🤑

06/07/2023

You can always count on me to point out the hypocrisy of new-age spiritualists who behave opposite to what they preach.

Abundance mindset is a huge one.

Exploiting, deceiving, taking advantage of, and manipulating people is not a sign of abundance.

Building your empire selling snake oil is not a sign of abundance.

Hell, even qualifying someone’s experience of abundance for them is not a sign of abundance.

Tomorrow on my Substack, I share my “abundance mindset” story and how it indoctrinated me into the money cult.

I’ve realized through experience and science-backed research, that the opposite of abundance is not scarcity—it’s greed.

To read this and more original think pieces, find me on Substack!

Substack.com/ or through the link in my bio 💜

Tell me, what contradictions of “abundance mindset” have you seen in new-age? 👇🏼