Have you heard of the “curriculum” trend on TikTok? Adults whose school days are long behind them are creating playful semester-long lesson plans to dive deep into subjects they’ve always been curious about. From the history of coffee to rom-com studies, this trend turns everyday curiosity into a structured and joyful way to learn.

But beyond being fun, research shows that lifelong learning benefits your brain, mood, and resilience. Here’s why it matters — and how you can make your own “curriculum.”

What is the TikTok Curriculum Trend?

On TikTok, the “curriculum” trend is all about making your own syllabus around a topic you want to explore.

Examples include:

• The history and culture of coffee

• Rom-com studies 101

• Intro to photography

Instead of passively consuming content, people are creating structured plans — just like a college course — where they can dictate the pace, select their materials, and reflect on what they’ve learned.

Why This Trend is Good for Your Brain

• Lifelong learning builds your cognitive reserve. This is your brain’s resilience against stress and aging (Harvard Health; Wang et al., 2017).

• Novelty strengthens brain pathways. Learning new things keeps neural circuits flexible and boosts self-efficacy — your belief in your ability to handle challenges (Field, 2009; Bandura, 1997).

• Small wins improve mental health. Completing small goals, like finishing a book, releases dopamine in a healthier way than endless scrolling (Volkow et al., 2009).

In other words, treating life like a curriculum helps your brain stay flexible, engaged, and resilient over time.

How to Create Your Own Curriculum

1. Pick 2–4 topics you’ve always been curious about (hobbies, history, science, literature, or anything that sparks your interest).

2. Build a syllabus. Decide what books, podcasts, videos, or experiences you’ll use to learn.

3. Track your progress. Take notes or reflect on what you’ve learned, and set small goals.

4. Optional: Share your journey. Sharing online or with friends can keep you motivated and accountable.

From a Therapist’s Perspective

As a therapist, I see how valuable curiosity and self-directed learning can be. Creating your own curriculum reminds you that learning doesn’t stop after school — and that deep dives into topics you love can spark joy, confidence, and meaning.

In a culture that often pushes constant productivity and achievement, this trend reframes learning as something playful and nourishing for your soul.

Whether you’re studying rom-coms or philosophy, embracing the TikTok curriculum trend can strengthen your brain and improve your mental health. And if you want support in building intentional practices — whether in learning, relationships, or self-growth — therapy can help.

✨ I offer online therapy for adults in New York & Florida.

Attachment styles aren’t fixed boxes. They are adaptive strategies that your nervous system uses to stay safe and connected. One of the most important — but often overlooked — parts of attachment is pendulation.

What is Pendulation?

Pendulation describes the natural swing between different attachment responses.

You may notice it if you feel anxious and clingy one moment, then suddenly shift to avoidant and wanting space the next. Or you might feel securely attached in one relationship, but more anxious or avoidant in another.

This shifting is not random. It’s your nervous system adapting to the environment, stress level, or the people you are with.

Why Pendulation Happens

Attachment is dynamic, not static. Your nervous system constantly scans for cues of safety or threat (Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory, 2011). Pendulation can happen when:

• Stress increases: You might swing from avoidant to anxious when you fear losing someone.

• Trauma is triggered: Old patterns resurface as your body tries to protect itself.

• Context changes: You may feel more secure with a supportive partner but shift in relationships that feel unpredictable.

What Pendulation Means for Healing

Many people over-identify with a single “style,” believing they are just avoidant or just anxious. Pendulation shows us that attachment is flexible.

• These shifts are not regression — they’re adaptation.

• With therapy, awareness, and supportive relationships, pendulation often softens.

• Over time, you may experience more stability and security, even if you still notice shifts.

Why This Matters

Understanding pendulation helps reduce shame. Instead of seeing yourself as broken or inconsistent, you can view these shifts as part of how your body seeks balance.

Recognizing pendulation can also help you:

• Communicate more clearly with partners.

• Notice patterns without over-pathologizing.

• Approach your attachment style with curiosity instead of judgment.

Bringing it Into Therapy

Therapy offers intentional space to notice these swings with compassion. Instead of getting stuck in labels, you can explore what your pendulation is telling you about your needs, boundaries, and nervous system.

👉 If you’d like to explore your attachment patterns, I offer virtual therapy for adults in New York and Florida.

Reset your brain and body without leaving town.

Why Micro-Vacations Matter

Research shows that short breaks aren’t just nice to have — they’re essential. Even brief pauses can boost mood, reduce stress, and improve resilience. The good news? You don’t need a plane ticket or a long weekend to recharge. Micro-vacations — small, intentional pauses built into your daily routine — work too.

Micro-Vacation Idea #1: Sensory Reset

Your brain craves novelty. Stepping outside, changing your environment, and simply noticing light, color, or sound can reset your nervous system. Take a few minutes to really tune in to your surroundings — the feeling of the air, the sound of traffic, or the colors of the sky.

Micro-Vacation Idea #2: Ritualize a Pause

Everyday rituals can be surprisingly restorative. Try coffee at a café, journaling in a park, or taking a short walk without your phone. Creating a repeatable practice sends a powerful message to your brain: this is a moment to reset and breathe.

Micro-Vacation Idea #3: Indulge in Play

Play isn’t just for kids. Watching a midday movie, wandering through a museum, or trying a hobby class can shift your brain chemistry and spark joy. Small doses of play build flexibility, creativity, and resilience into your day.

The Bigger Picture

Vacations refresh us, but everyday pauses accumulate in a meaningful way. When you step out of autopilot and create intentional resets, your brain and body thank you.

Therapy can also function as an intentional reset — a space to reflect, recharge, and realign. If you’re curious about weaving more balance into your life, I offer virtual sessions for adults in NY & FL.

From boosting mood to easing stress, being around others does things for your nervous system that no screen or AI can replicate.

Humans Are Wired for Other Humans (Even Strangers Count)

Psychologist Robert Zajonc described the mere presence effect: simply having another person nearby can improve focus, motivation, and performance…even without direct interaction. Whether it’s working in a coffee shop or walking through a busy street, your nervous system responds to human presence.

Connection and Co-Regulation

Our brains and bodies are designed to regulate in connection with others. Research shows that being around calm, supportive people lowers stress hormones and even regulates your heartbeat and breathing. (Allan Schore, 1994; Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory, 2011). This is why you often feel calmer sitting with someone safe, even in silence.

The Toll of Isolation

Chronic loneliness has been linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and physical illness. But everyday connection (chatting with a barista, making eye contact with a neighbor, or sitting in a busy café) protects mental and physical health. These small moments matter more than we think.

Why Embodied Presence Matters

Digital interactions can’t give us the full picture. Eye contact, tone of voice, posture, and micro-expressions communicate safety and warmth in ways screens or AI cannot. Technology can simulate words, but not the nervous system-to-nervous system regulation that happens face-to-face.

Artificial vs. Real Connection

Artificial connection might feel safe and controlled, but it doesn’t give us the richness of embodied, human presence. Real connection, even in its imperfection, is what helps us feel fully alive.

Bringing This Into Your Life

Next time you’re tempted to stay in, try a solo activity in public: sit in a café, bring a book to a bar, or spend an hour in a library. Notice how your mood shifts just from being around other people.

Therapy is one form of intentional, consistent presence. If you’d like to explore your relationship with connection and how it shows up in your life, I offer online sessions for adults in New York and Florida.

When people first learn about attachment theory, they often treat it like a personality test: “I’m avoidant.” “I’m anxious.” “I’m secure.”
But here’s the truth: attachment styles aren’t fixed traits. They’re not hardwired into you for life, and they don’t define your capacity for love.

What Attachment Styles Really Are

Attachment styles are adaptive strategies — patterns you learned early in life, shaped by your relationships with caregivers, that helped you stay connected and safe in the ways you knew how.

Over time, those same strategies can show up in adult relationships. But unlike personality traits, they can shift — sometimes gradually through healing, and sometimes in response to life events.

You’re Not “Just One Style”

Most people are a blend. You might lean more anxious in some relationships and more avoidant in others. You might even notice shifts within the same relationship over time.

Why Styles Can Change

Attachment is dynamic. It can shift due to:

• Healing work — like therapy, self-awareness, and secure relational experiences.

• Life experiences — new relationships, breakups, or changes in support systems.

• Trauma or feeling unsafe — which may cause you to swing toward more protective patterns.

Pedulation: Flipping Between Styles

Some people experience what’s called pedulation — moving between anxious and avoidant behaviors, sometimes within the same relationship. This isn’t “regression.” It’s your nervous system adapting to perceived safety or threat.

You’re Not a Label

You might have avoidant patterns, but that doesn’t make you cold or incapable of intimacy.
You might have anxious tendencies, but that doesn’t make you “too much” or overly dramatic.

Attachment theory is most helpful when it invites curiosity, not self-diagnosis. It’s a lens for understanding — not a box to get stuck in.

Ready to Explore Your Patterns?
Working with a therapist can help you shift toward secure attachment — not just label yourself.
If you’re in New York or Florida, I offer online sessions for adults who want to understand their relationship patterns and create healthier, more fulfilling connections.

You’re doing all the right things — staying productive, meeting deadlines, keeping everyone happy. From the outside, it looks like you have it all together. But internally, there’s a constant hum of worry, pressure, or self-doubt that never seems to quiet down.

This is high-functioning anxiety — and it’s more common than you think.

Here are signs of high-functioning anxiety you might miss:

• You can’t relax, even when everything is “fine.”

• You replay conversations after they happen.

• You struggle to rest without feeling guilty.

• You fill your calendar to avoid being alone.

• You people-please to avoid disappointing anyone.

• Your anxiety looks like ambition or perfectionism.

• You fear failure even when you're succeeding.

• You avoid asking for help because you’re “the strong one.”

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

These signs don’t mean something is “wrong” with you. They’re often a reflection of early coping strategies that helped you survive but might be burning you out now.

Want help untangling the anxiety under the surface?

I offer virtual therapy for adults in New York and Florida who feel overwhelmed, stuck in their heads, or disconnected from joy. If that sounds like you, I’d love to support you.

→ Schedule a free consultation here
→ Learn more about how I work here

Both counseling and coaching are effective methods used to help individuals achieve their goals related to personal growth.

Counseling or therapy (the terms can be used interchangeably) directly addresses mental health issues that are impairing an individual’s ability to function such as trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. The focus of therapy is on healing and often involves processing past issues in order to reach a sense of resolution. Therapy tends to be an introspective process, meaning the progress and results of therapeutic treatment revolve around an individual’s inner, emotional world. In order to practice therapy, you need a master’s degree at minimum and a license to practice in the state that you are conducting therapy in.

Life coaching focuses on maximizing your potential, moving forward, and being future-oriented rather than healing or processing the past. Coaching helps individuals realize the vision they have for their lives and identify the action steps needed to achieve their vision. Coaches provide support, accountability, and problem solving strategies to help their clients move past obstacles to accomplish their goals. Although life coaches are unable to diagnose or directly address mental health conditions, the coaching process still has the ability to improve an individual’s quality of life in a powerful way. Many therapists often employ coaching techniques in their counseling work and some therapists (like me) also do life coaching work in addition to traditional mental health counseling.

 If you’d like more clarity on the differences between coaching and counseling or to schedule an initial session, feel free reach out to me through my contact page.

Every person deserves to have access to quality therapy but being bound to a physical location can limit you from receiving the kind of help you need. Studies have shown that online counseling is just as effective (if not more, in some cases) than traditional in-person therapy. Online counseling can be used as treatment for a wide variety of concerns including anxiety, depression, and relationship issues. While everyone can benefit from the convenience of working with an online therapist, the benefits could be even greater depending on your location and circumstances. Online counseling might be right for you if…

You have a busy schedule, work non-traditional hours, or travel often

It can be difficult to tell if therapy is effective if your schedule prevents you from regularly attending sessions. Since I began my online practice, I’ve had much fewer cancellations than when I worked at a traditional office due to my clients being able to schedule a session with me when it is most convenient for them. With flexible scheduling and the ability to connect virtually, all the client really needs to worry about is making sure they have a private, quiet space for an hour.

You live in an area where it’s difficult to travel for therapy

Whether it’s distance or heavy traffic, a challenging commute can be a barrier to seeing a therapist in person. Traveling or organizing a ride eats away at your valuable time and can turn the counseling process into yet another frustrating chore. Online therapy eliminates this inconvenience so you can focus on getting the most out of your experience.

You have difficulties finding childcare in order to attend therapy

This struggle especially impacts single parents and new parents. The hassle and expense of finding childcare prevents many people from attending therapy during a time when they may need it most. It can also be difficult to concentrate on self-care when you are worried about leaving young children at home. Online therapy allows you to get the help you need in your own space so that you can focus on prioritizing your needs in session.

You have a medical condition that prevents you from attending therapy

Medical concerns can be a huge barrier to adequately addressing mental or emotional issues through counseling. The symptoms of a chronic illness can be unpredictable and debilitating. Any medical condition that limits your mobility can make physically attending therapy a hardship. The option to forgo counseling often leads to an increase in psychological distress that can aggravate medical conditions. Online therapy has the potential to disrupt this negative feedback loop so that clients with medical conditions can still work to achieve their counseling goals without the physical strain of attending therapy in person.

You have privacy concerns

As much as society has embraced mental health treatment in recent years, there is still a stigma around seeing a therapist. If you work in a certain profession or live in an insulated community, you may have concerns about being seen physically attending therapy. Although there is nothing shameful about going to counseling, online therapy can be a way for you to get help privately without the added anxiety of walking into an office. 

The options for therapy are limited in your community

The recipe for success in therapy relies heavily on one crucial ingredient: the relationship you have with your therapist. Finding an online therapist that is the best match for your needs can allow you to have an optimal experience without being limited by location.

You care about the environment.

By eliminating the commute, you’re choosing the greenest option when you meet with a therapist online vs. in an office.