January Q&A
On healing endometriosis, becoming a morning person, navigating your early 20s, and breaking the loop.
Hi everyone, I hope you’re having a lovely first few weeks of 2026. The New Year’s holiday always feels a bit disjointed, an artificial new beginning that ultimately doesn’t really align with the rhythms of nature (more on that here). Up until a few days ago, I still felt deep in hibernation mode, but have also been creating time to reflect on the past year, what I want to bring into 2026…
One theme that keeps coming up is the need for more discipline around our creative practices — a masculine container for the feminine flow, if you will. So often we over-identify with certain astrological transits, or stages of our cycles, to the point where they become excuses for avoiding the work that we must do. It’s okay if I stay indoors all day and mope, I’m in my luteal phase (even if we know fresh air and sunshine would make us feel better). Or, Everything’s retrograde; there’s no way I’m going to the party (even if we’ve been craving community). The work is in learning how to use the systems that support us, while also participating in the beauty, discomfort, and (inevitable) mundanity of daily life.
As AI and transhumanist technologies continue to accelerate, and we find ourselves more enmeshed than ever with our digital selves (a trend counterbalanced by the rise of analog culture and going offline), EMBODIMENT is certainly top of mind. By “embodiment,” I don’t just mean being present in our bodies, but also operating from a place of coherence and truth. Bringing in the energy we want to see in the world, in every single moment — from how we respond to a friend’s text to how we decide where to travel or move. As Human Design teacher Jenna Zoe often mentions, every decision we make is an opportunity to contribute to the elevation of human consciousness.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What type of world do my daily actions and choices reflect?
When or where am I operating from a place of fear or scarcity, rather than a place of love and full expression?
What are some small things that I can tweak to better align my external with my internal?
What have I been avoiding, and why?
On that note, I’m excited to bring more of my own voice into this newsletter. Guest interviews have long been the backbone of Health Gossip, and a few readers have (rightfully) mentioned my relative absence (is it giving Gossip Girl?). And I was so inspired by our recent Instagram Q&A that I wanted to start a more in-depth version on Substack.
Below: notes on endometriosis, mindful content creation, becoming a morning person, and more. If you have questions for the next one, feel free to respond to this email.
As always, thank you for being here. So loving what we’re building together xx
⭐ P.S. For a limited time, I’m offering 20% off annual subscriptions (that’s $48 instead of $60). If you want access to Q&As, the entire guest library, and all paid letters, lock in your rate here. ⭐
How to be a morning person? I’m always snoozing but I hate waking up late. I don’t know how to start building this habit.
The equation here is actually quite simple: prioritize your bedtime over your waking time, and do everything you can to get good, high-quality sleep.
I truly believe that no one is innately a “night owl,” they’re just dysregulated and/or running on stress hormones (I say this after working until 11pm last night). By toggling habits around light exposure, meal timing, caffeine intake, and movement, we can transform our sleep and, effectively, our lives — waking up without an alarm clock, feeling refreshed, energized, and excited to start the day.
Here are some practices to consider:
Get sunlight exposure within 30 minutes of waking.
This primes your circadian rhythm and tells melatonin to shut off so it can rise again in the evening. It’s also an instant energy and mood booster; in the winter, I’ve found that morning cold exposure feels almost like caffeine.
Live a full day, whatever that looks like for you.
Movement, connection, spontaneity, laughter — the quality of our days affects the quality of our sleep. This is why we never have an issue sleeping when we’re on vacation.
Eat only when the sun is up.
Eating a proper breakfast and lunch means less nighttime cravings, which can disrupt sleep. Early dinners are also paramount. Your body has a hard time sleeping when your stomach is full of food!Post-sunset, start minimizing blue light.
This is a great time to switch to candles and warm incandescent bulbs/infrared lighting, and generally make your space darker (darkness signals melatonin production, while artificial light tells your brain it’s still daytime). I also like to turn off my Wi-Fi router around this time.Use tools like f.lux and blue light blockers if you need to do computer work or watch TV.
Create a series of rituals that signal to your body that it’s time to unwind. Some ideas: taking a bath, reading, journaling (I love doing a “brain dump” before bed), putting your legs up on the wall, hopping on the Shakti mat.
If needed, incorporate supplements like magnesium glycinate, l-theanine, and glycine. A bedtime snack of gelatin, or a spoonful of honey, can also stabilize your blood sugar throughout the night.
Aim to get to bed by 9-9:30pm. This is the golden standard, according to circadian biology and TCM principles. Grandma-maxxing.
Try to be consistent with your waking and bedtimes, even on the weekends. Otherwise, we can experience a sort of “jet lag” effect.
For more on the importance of our light environments, I’d recommend checking out Nikko Kennedy, Zaid K. Dahhaj, and Sarah Kleiner (this podcast with Tristan Scott is also great). Seriously such a gamechanger, and something that I think even more people in the health space will be discussing in 2026. (Huberman already has.)
Advice for the girls just starting their 20s?
There’s a specific tension that characterizes our early 20s, a time when we simultaneously feel like children (pre-frontal lobe development) and like we know better than anyone who has ever lived. At this age, I was dead set on doing the opposite of whatever person in authority wanted me to — leading a more bohemian lifestyle, working the easiest job I could, moving through the world as if certain rules didn’t apply to me — while also assuming that if things truly got bad, someone would step in and take the wheel. The naivete of youth paired with the confidence of someone not yet proven wrong.
