Galia Collaborative

09/03/2026

The science we need. ☕️

09/02/2026

"We can’t bypass the sting of difficult feelings, but maybe there’s something that we can do to avoid keeping them alive longer or keeping ourselves from going down faster. I call this, very scientifically, stopping making things worse..."

Read the full essay from the Sunday Letter archives.

09/01/2026

Here's what I do: I get quiet for a moment and bring my attention to something that feels uncomfortable or unwanted. I generally start with a physical sensation, like noticing that I feel too hot or that I feel tired or sore. I find a place in my body that feels that sensation really strongly – like under my arms when I’m hot or behind my eyes when I feel tired – and I let myself fully feel it, for just a moment.

Then I start to bring my attention slowly outward, scanning the rest of my body until I can find a spot (at least one) where that sensation ISN’T present, or at least not as strongly. I might notice that my shins actually don’t feel hot or that my hands don’t feel tired. Maybe I started with the feeling of, “I am so sore,” but my mouth and my ears and my chest don’t feel sore.

Sometimes I have to really work at it to find where the sensations are different, and sometimes it’s easy and obvious.

After I’d practiced doing this with physical sensations for a while, I started to add in emotional experiences (which are really just physical sensations too).

I start out the practice with whatever I’d been telling myself, like “I’m so anxious right now.” And then I slowly scan around my body to see if I can find anywhere where there are sensations other than the energy of anxiety. Again, sometimes that's easy, and other times all I can come up with is my baby toe.

But that baby toe is something!

Here’s what we are training in when we do this practice…

First, we get good at recognizing that when we describe our experience, we’re telling a story.

We’re so used to describing one aspect of our experience as our whole experience.

I am… depressed, hopeless, stressed, lost, anxious, not good enough, behind, incapable…

Our mind hears us describing ourselves that way – making our entire essence about one aspect of how we are feeling.

That’s not to say that this feeling isn’t big or hard or doesn’t seem like it overrides everything else. But the reality is that there is almost always more to the story.

This practice helps us train in zooming out and scanning for what doesn’t conform to our habitual way of thinking.

It primes us to start questioning our first thought and to look for alternative experiences. In that way, it trains us for curiosity rather than certainty.

It trains us to find space around the painful parts.

The beauty of this practice and learning to finding space around the painful parts is this:

The pain doesn't have to go away (because often it won't). But when we practice looking for the rest of our experience, the pain no longer has to become the entire landscape. It can remain painful without becoming the whole picture.

The discomfort’s there. But so are my feet on the ground, the breath in my lungs, and a thousand other truths waiting to be noticed.

08/27/2026

So many opportunities to learn, heal, and breathe with us this fall! 🍂

08/27/2026

Change often doesn't come all at once, but it doesn't mean that you aren't evolving.

08/25/2026

Even couples who communicate well in other areas can find themselves avoiding talking about money. Or they find themselves in the same frustrating loops again and again. 🌀

Galia's couple's therapist and Fair Play certified coach, Rebecca Freking, IMFT, will be hosting a one-hour virtual session to help you:

➡ Ensure partners have a meaningful voice in financial decisions
➡ Have practical approaches for navigating differences in spending, saving, and financial priorities
➡ Learn the basics of the Fair Play Method, with specific ideas for applying its principles to your financial life as a couple

Join us individually or with a partner to learn strategies for more open communication, shared decision-making, and a financial life that reflects what matters to everyone.

More details below ⬇

08/20/2026

Another study is demonstrating that this practice may be a way to train your nervous system for greater emotional health, recovery, and strength.

Breathwork really does work for trauma, many studies show. And new data reveals that it can really help teens too.

08/20/2026

"In one particularly nauseating experiment, scientists provided research participants with blatant misinformation via a fake news article. Shortly after, they provided them with a correction with actual data to dispute the initially wrong information. Frustratingly, the correction often didn’t do much to counteract the misinformation. In fact, certain groups of people – ones particularly tied to an identity – became more tied to the misinformation once given the correction. They felt more certain it was true."

Read the full essay from the Sunday Letter archives.

08/19/2026

It's truly the best. 🤍

08/18/2026

The high-functioning woman learned early on to use her cognitive horsepower to override her overwhelming feelings.

She realized that just maybe she could outthink or at least outpace her emotions with her intellect.

But her emotions never went away. They just kept knocking more loudly at her door.

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As emotions intensified, so did the high-functioning woman’s efforts. She worked harder and more tirelessly to outrun them.

She wasn’t consciously trying to eliminate her feelings. It was just that every time a vulnerable emotion would arise, her mind had turned it into ‘keep moving!’

She thought she was listening to herself, and in a way she was. Her mind had just distorted the signal.

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Meanwhile, the high-functioning woman gets plenty of positive feedback from the world. A world that tells her – unknowingly – that her discarding of her own feelings is impressive.

A world that doesn’t recognize her restlessness, inability to settle her mind, or profound sense of aloneness.

A world that always just wants more of her.

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The high-functioning woman’s internal dysregulation usually just looks like another day doing everything everyone needs, while her psyche tries to not let her internal system collapse.

Because her emotion dysregulation looks like performance and protocols, no one sees the way she is collapsing until the wheels are really coming off.

And by then most people will say, “Of course she’s tired! She’s doing so much! She just needs a couple days off.”

But really she needs so much more than that.

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She needs to discover that she doesn't have to earn care by being capable.

She needs to know that she is more than what she produces, more than the version of herself the world applauds.

Most of all, she needs to learn that the emotions she's spent a lifetime trying to outrun were never the danger in the first place.

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This is the part that no one wants to hear…

The high-functioning woman often looks a little less ‘together’ before she looks more at peace.

For years, she has been bypassing her emotions with competence, productivity, and control. When she stops bypassing her emotions with competence, productivity, and control, those emotions naturally become more visible.

Not because she's getting worse, but because she's finally allowing herself to experience what has been there all along.

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She has to learn how to be with her feelings before she knows how to move through them. And from the outside, that can sometimes look like she's becoming more dysregulated.

But it's actually the beginning of something much healthier.

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Just like a child who has spent years holding back tears, there’s often a period where the feelings come more easily once they finally begin to feel safe.

It’s not because she’s becoming less regulated.

It’s because she’s no longer carrying the impossible burden of pretending everything is okay.