The Science of Being

What makes a person feel real? Is it the memories they keep? The people they've touched? The heartbreaks, the longings, the quiet moments no one saw? This book isn't about fixing you. It isn't here to offer a five-step method for healing or productivity. It's an invitation—to slow down, to reflect, and to finally understand why you feel the way you do. It blends neuroscience with raw emotion, pulling from trauma theory, attachment science, psychology, and memory research to explore how we become who we are—not just in isolation, but in relation. To others. To silence. To love. To absence. To presence. To touch. This book offers a map for those who have felt too much for too long and still couldn't explain why. For those who've loved and lost themselves in the process. For those who feel invisible in rooms full of people. For those who hold their breath in relationships, bracing for impact even when everything looks fine. For those who want to understand why certain people stay inside them even after they've gone. Through long-form essays, each chapter offers a soft, intelligent exploration of what it means to be a system shaped by contact—how our bodies remember, how longing rewires the brain, how creativity is both survival and freedom, and how connection isn't just something we crave, it's something we are. It doesn't claim to have all the answers. But it does offer language for the things we thought we had to endure alone. Perfect for the emotionally curious, the deep-feelers, the ones who've done the inner work but still don't have the words. If you've ever wanted someone to explain why you grieve things that never even happened, why you chase closeness but fear intimacy, or why a single sentence from years ago still haunts your body—this book is for you. Come as you are. Bring your questions. Your softness belongs here.