https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites daily 0.75 2025-12-29 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/dei-at-the-intersection-of-being-an-artist-and-scientist monthly 0.5 2025-07-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/f1d6565a-3a1c-4b12-803e-502f4bc78d4d/IMG_3484.jpg writing - designing at the intersection of thinking as an artist and scientist - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/9769cadf-a198-4fd9-800d-4b05ddeb9cc2/Screen+Shot+2022-05-15+at+3.34.23+PM.png writing - designing at the intersection of thinking as an artist and scientist - Make it stand out This image/chart is not an exhaustive or definitive list. It represents some of the ways I see transformative work taking shape at the intersection of thinking, wondering, and creating drawing from both artistic and scientific mindsets. In the iconic words of Leonardo da Vinci: “Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” As we engage in systems thinking, we begin to understand how a change in one part of a system reverberates throughout the whole. Efforts to create more just and inclusive environments require us to examine the deep interconnections between struggles and to question the assumptions baked into how our institutions operate. What if, instead of layering inclusion efforts onto existing structures, we reimagined how we build, research, design, and collaborate altogether? What if we approached complex challenges with more interdisciplinary tools combining data and empathy, creativity and analysis, structure and improvisation? This isn’t just a shift for those formally trained in systems change or equity work it’s a call for anyone seeking to bring more humanity, fairness, and intentionality into their everyday roles. The skills needed may already be within reach, rooted in how we think, create, and connect in our work. The invitation is to lean into them and to do what you do, in a way that opens more space for everyone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/e4399ed0-b140-44b3-8a95-b97bc8740f0a/socialchange.png writing - designing at the intersection of thinking as an artist and scientist - We all have a role to play in pursuit of equity, liberation, inclusion and justice. There is a framework by Deepa Iyer that illustrates various roles in an effective, healthy and sustainable social change ecosystem and it demands different actors to carry out these roles, at different times. This outlook resonates with my own. I believe meaningful progress accelerates when people across sectors share resources and champion inclusive decision-making within their spheres of influence. This kind of work is inherently interdependent, interdisciplinary, and rooted in diverse lived realities. I’m inspired by how it's breaking down silos, encouraging collective leadership, and showing how open-source knowledge can lead to more resilient ideas and well-rounded solutions. There is so much we can learn from one another about building more cooperative, connected, and collaborative systems. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/46c93ef0-8693-495b-89e5-df0bd88b9858/wonder.jpeg writing - designing at the intersection of thinking as an artist and scientist - photo credits: Ontario Science Center credits: Ontario Science Center https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/codesign monthly 0.5 2025-07-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1627170042784-B9AW5GN9ZTSLR2JBMN5D/Screen+Shot+2021-07-24+at+4.40.11+PM.png writing - the limits of empathy and expansiveness of community. - Make it stand out This is a figure from the Convivial Toolkit on what co-design truly looks like vs classical design practice Collaborative > Extractive Uplift, empower and recognize the community of co-designers that contribute to your designs. This can look like granting access, providing adequate compensation, capability and skills building and forging relationships between participants. Have a high regard for reciprocity and mutual value exchange. A fair question to keep top of mind: what is the value that co-designers gain from this experience? How can they co-own the product or what will be offered to them in exchange? Proactive > Reactive When engaging with communities, build relationships early and don’t start with the solution. We might come up with a fully-baked solution and then bring in “users” to confirm and validate our approach. This may be in a testing phase or via a review gate before launching. By already having a defined solution, we risk having to go back and retrofit (which takes time and money) and reinforce existing power dynamics that, we, the outsiders (and designers) who have not experienced the problems, are the ones prescribing the solutions and it could be difficult for users to express that the solutions actually are not in service of their needs. By being proactive, co-designers are brought in at the very beginning of the process (or as early as possible) with continious exploration and relationship building. Facilitation > Expertise Hold your role as a practitioner and facilitator vs an expert. Lean on and trust community expertise and lived experience. Trusting community expertise means granting shared decision making and for communities to have equal power (if not greater power) in what the outcomes are. As a facilitator, hold the container and facilitate activities that offer tools/frameworks for community members (co-designers) to express themselves, collaborate and participate in ways that are flexible with a variety of mediums. No DEI practitioner is an expert of every community and all topics (even those who claim to be). DEI leaders should not be relied on to view content through a inclusive lens (as a check-box), because it is impossible for any one person, no matter how extensive their practice, to be able to do this effectively if they are not involving community members most impacted. There are cultural nuances, language considerations and other conditions that matter that a single “DEI expert” who is not part of the community can ever fully comprehend. Direct and equitable engagement with diverse groups is often the missing link that results in harmful design. Open source > Closed source Meaningful progress on complex social and organizational challenges can’t happen in isolation. Because we operate within interconnected systems, lasting change requires collective effort across individuals and institutions. When strategies and practices are treated as proprietary or withheld, it slows down progress and can even cause harm. To move forward, we need to let go of scarcity mindsets and be willing to share ideas, tools, and learnings openly across communities. The hardest part often isn’t knowing what needs to change, it’s in how we follow through: unlearning old habits, working in new ways, and taking responsibility for outcomes. Whenever possible, make your resources accessible, and encourage others to adapt and build on them with proper credit and recognition. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1627169366530-WNEHF156P7BGPLCO4OO9/design+justice.jpg writing - the limits of empathy and expansiveness of community. - Make it stand out Design Justice Principles: [image of a growing plant] We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems [image of three breaths of air] We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process. [image of seven dots] We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer. [image of a rising dove] We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process.* [image of a brook with rocks] We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert. [image of puzzle pieces] We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process. [image of open hands] We share design knowledge and tools with our communities. [image of a solidarity fist] We work towards sustainable, community-led and -controlled outcomes. [image of vines in the shape of a heart] We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and to each other. [image of five flames] Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1627245864429-1U9LIAYYYQF9HYS1P9BV/unsplash-image-ajzN2AYNi1U.jpg writing - the limits of empathy and expansiveness of community. - my journal excerpt from 2009 titled ‘empathy’. re-reading this now I realize what assumptions I might have made. I didn’t get curious, but instead created a story about a stranger based on observable qualities. As you read this, consider, is it possible you may have ever done the same? Late Sunday evening I stand in line at the store behind a homeless man buying a big bottle of brandy with his last twenty dollars, and a sick feeling consumes me when I wonder why he spends the money on booze and not on a haircut, or why he won’t use it to find a job, I question why the alcohol appears friendlier to him than working towards a better future, until I realize this man may not believe there is anything left for him in this world, and how familiar we all are with the feeling of not wanting to try anymore, of convincing yourself you are too far gone past the point of no return to want to spend time or money on the future when the past has been so much less than kind, so I empathize. And I don’t tap his shoulder to interrogate him, I say nothing, I smile. I am not judging him for buying the bottle. I understand the struggle of just being awake, and it’s okay if it helps him to forget who he is and why he doesn’t want to remember anything about reality when he wakes up, just for one night, because we’ve all been there. As I leave, he watches me go, and I think he knows exactly what I was thinking, or at least I hope he does, because I try to put myself in his shoes for a minute and they are not comfortable and it is not at all comforting to know he will wake up in the morning with less money in his pocket and less hope than before. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1627168406658-UF8LYL87GDRDB63CGQNV/Screen+Shot+2021-07-24+at+4.13.11+PM.png writing - the limits of empathy and expansiveness of community. - Make it stand out I can’t take off my blue lenses and just exchange them for your rose coloured lenses. Instead, I would be overlapping the lenses, and when we do that, we create purple. We can never completely remove the lenses through which we experience our world. Our lenses will exist as filters and influence any work we do and all things we design. We all carry biases that will seep their way into our work. The surest way to mitigate individual bias is to work in diverse groups and have multiple people engaging with the problem or design with their unique lenses. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/how-the-model-minority-myth-failed-me monthly 0.5 2021-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1619421789550-WLJI5HTHO5BP6QOLGUOU/child.gif writing - not your model minority employee - Journal excerpt: 2012 There are kids out there who have never grown out of being someone their parents told them they should be, they are handstitched apologies to their ancestors with post scripts that say, “Sorry you didn’t accomplish what you wanted to, I will do it for you,” and there’s nothing wrong with legacy but having a meter stick placed in front of you and being trained to reply with “How high?” like a dog, when asked to jump is uncomfortable, seems like trying to force success and forge life into the shape of a standard your soul doesn’t know how to mold itself to, and I wonder where the dreams of listeners hide when they do what they’re told and day by day, their own free will washes away like pebbles being shaped by the tide, effortlessly, as if this is what the water was meant to do: Smooth the world in its own image, round all of the edges of rocks out until there are no more arrowheads, no children sharp enough to make their own decisions, cut their own incisions into the layers of the earth, leave their own scars and legacies behind, I wonder if some parents know that they are trying to turn their children into themselves, if they understand that people are more than cells to put long lost dreams in, are not prisoners you should train to walk in a straight line, stay in just one state of mind for the rest of their lives, I wonder if all of your ancestors would weep if they saw you doing something that makes you unhappy for the sake of family— would they realize that it is one thing to respect your elders, but another entirely to become them? That being someone you are not leaves bruises buried deep beneath the parts of you that you wanted to use to make something beautiful. And I wonder if they know: Being someone you are told to be is a lot easier than being someone you want to be when the path is already set for you, the footsteps are fresh before you, but being who you really are takes bravery; heart and soul, and if they wanted you to do great things, they’d only ask you to unlock what is already within you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1623637134237-POW6J907JPCUXFU425KG/https---bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com-public-images-24d43cd6-95ff-476c-bcfb-dcd950abcf19_1124x516.png writing - not your model minority employee - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/designing-a-workplace-that-is-diverse-equitable-and-inclusive monthly 0.5 2025-07-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1611549459328-RHVQEYOO4V5POJDQGAMN/How-to-Make-Your-Marketing-More-Diverse-and-Inclusive-%E2%80%93-And-Why-You-Should-2000x1200.jpg writing - built different: redesigning work to actually work for everyone https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/7nnpoko8dh3hy4528ne8c2sniiv930 monthly 0.5 2020-12-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1603248808932-NWNBPCBXXXH3MKDODKSA/image-asset.jpeg writing - how are you? really, how are you? - journal excerpt: not myself lately when I say I am not myself lately you have to believe me because I don’t ever arrive late or have a hard time leaving the bed, usually trade soaking up the world for soaking up safety, I don’t make excuses and avoid love and leave work or lectures early, I don’t use the word coward– but here I am and all of this and more has my name attached to it, so when I say I am in a chrysalis I never meant to be in, I mean I never intended to hold myself captive inside myself like this, don’t know who’s pulling the strings or if I’m becoming things I’d still like time to be, I was ripped up and put back together the wrong way, and like Frankenstein’s monster, I am wandering and reaching for all the wrong things, and unsure of how to feel about being made up of so many pieces of other people, am still trying to find fractions of what I thought I was scattered on a kaleidoscope floor, and you have to believe, when I say all this to you I’m not even sure if it’s me who’s holding this pen. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/cultural-agility-unlocks-the-force-of-global-diversity monthly 0.5 2020-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1593642812648-NS7C0749NUYTS0SOYVR8/IMG_6771.JPG writing - cultural agility unlocks the force of global diversity - Journal excerpt: how to understand my mind when it frustrates you (clashing cultures) I do not think the way that you you do, with your graphs and lines and numbers and answers that are always right. I think in songs and light and colour and emotion. I think in correct spelling and punctuation and capitalization, but I will never think in x = z squared like you do. The solution to a riddle will occur to me long, long after you realize it. I think in cups of strawberry lemonade that spill over and get everything sweet and sticky. You think in black coffee at the same time every morning. You think in files, and I in messy journals. You always wear a watch set to military time, but I will forget what day it is. I lose track of time. A lot. But I will always remember your birthday, your favourite ice cream flavour, how you smile, and all the small details. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1593673294635-JMVTXHGOXO8ZESWNIX5T/image-asset.jpeg writing - cultural agility unlocks the force of global diversity https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/representation-how-to-do-it-right monthly 0.5 2020-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1589354885901-9IJT9IN39GAA7JL02C5H/Screen+Shot+2020-05-13+at+12.27.43+AM.png writing - representation: how to do it right - In grade 6, we had to dress like a celebrity. I wore a Beckham jersey as the actress from Bend it like Beckham because that was my only representation. Humble the Poet, Jay Shetty and Lily Singh on a late night show - I never expected an episode like this because I hadn’t been exposed to representation like this from my South Asian community on a late night NBC show. Representation matters. I wish I saw more of this growing up. Lily is the first Indian woman to host a late night talk show. Her first guest was Mindy Kaling another Indian woman who has paved the way for so many. And not only that, but Lily has an equal number of men & women writers. Did you hear that? It was the sound of a glass ceiling shattering! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1588630604546-6YIXBYIHOEEMXU2R4P9A/female.jpg writing - representation: how to do it right - White men writing brown girls: “She was breathtakingly beautiful. Like an exotic bird who was trapped in the cage of her oppressive culture. I could see the way her exotic brown-gold-blue-green-auburn eyes were calling me, asking me to free her, take her away from her oppressive world to my world, the land of freedom. I asked her "Have you read poems by Bukowski?" in English. She blinked her eyes exotically at me. Probably because she didn’t knew what poems or reading was since I read that her culture didn’t want any woman to read. I wished I could help her and show that such an exotic body did not deserve to be hidden behind such loose and drab clothes. But I returned home with a heavy heart and picked up my Bukowski book to read it again.” https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/childhoodptsd monthly 0.5 2020-05-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1587834362832-K0VN7FLOVV7QD2TZLIYW/image-asset.jpeg writing - childhood ptsd - Journal excerpt: when a picture of your abuser shows up on your timeline you do a double take, like noticing shape-changing shadows of strangers on an early morning train, you aren’t sure if you’re tired and imagining things or if that was the curve of a once-familiar face, his smile, a Cheshire Cat grin, his happiness, something to mock you, the 5-minute heart attack passes like an avalanche, rolling over so hectic and slow that it’s an eternity, I was never warned when I was younger that the healing process of some wounds is worse than the initial hurt, the blood and scraped knees confusion by all logic should be the most horrific part, but my eyes meet his and my body, turned stone as if by Medusa, my heart playing hopscotch with me jumping at an inconvenient interval, his actions, the sidewalk chalk I used as a child, only my hands do not seem to be in control of what is written on me, you scroll down, only to move back up, until now you convinced yourself he never existed, so your eyes shift, do not know which direction to look in, you want to stare back again, catch some meaning in this picture, invalidate your own shakiness, tell yourself ‘look at how many people love him, it’s not possible that he meant this, look at how good he is now,’ you try to quiet yourself again. but you think, what other girls are aching and scrolling and quieting themselves? who else doubts they have the right to be avalanche and unmetered and shaky? you scroll again. you keep moving. it’s the only thing you can do. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/soft-armour monthly 0.5 2021-01-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1586926601914-IZFT460NYOU6JCSIMDUZ/hard.jpg writing - soft armour https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1586912169690-RPM5XXOKX0TLCFRJ18FR/image-asset.jpeg writing - soft armour I truly believe softness and kindness is a sign we are healing our innermost turmoil and achieving a state of emotional intelligence where we can connect more compassionately with others. I think the root of all things is goodness and it is pure. But when people are hurt they hurt others. I do believe that all people deserve kindness. I’ve been tested with that a lot lately…when people are bad to me, I want respond with anger and it’s hard not to. But I only want to do that because they’re hurting me. If I just make myself realize before I react that they are just hurt, I don’t want to be hurtful in return. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1586909276838-0LM7J911Y71N64DDC6W7/image-asset.jpeg writing - soft armour - journal excerpt: you and I, we are not so different, we are soft, we are soft, and the world is hard, we grow smaller to try to protect our cocoons from wrecking balls, I know what it is like to hide your bruises behind closed doors, to bury your nose in books and sarcasm, to hurt like the end of a fishing hook, thinking you can defend yourself with jagged edges, you are not alone, but you do not have to become hard because the world hurts you for being born flower petal instead of thorn. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/privilege-superpower monthly 0.5 2021-04-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1586037803293-5EYJG5AVDZV3GCJNI8PZ/distance.jpg writing - your privilege is your superpower - “White privilege is me bringing up the murders of Black people to my family and them responding they don’t have time to worry about these things because it’s Christmas time and they need some relaxation. White privilege is being able to ignore issues like this because our life doesn’t depend on it. White privilege is being able to turn off the news and watch a TV show and pretend like nothing is happening.” My friend discloses to me over the phone. I am not White but we share the privilege of not having to discuss certain uncomfortable topics and I can learn about the tragic realities of others without direct lived experience . Like those from the Black community, I too have experienced real barriers and bullying due to racism, something foreign to my White friend. However, I hold privileges that my friend doesn’t by being straight (heterosexual). Privilege can be complex and is highly relative, and our human brains can have a hard time not categorizing people in neat boxes of ‘privileged’ and ‘not privileged’, and that’s the problem with discussions of privilege. We look around the room and either resent those privileged or feel guilt by association to privileged groups. When in most cases we are often both privileged and oppressed simultaneously, and if we stepped into our power of privilege to support those marginalized in that arena, we can start leading change. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1586039919299-QI81C913DV3U2XB6QNMU/image-asset.jpeg writing - your privilege is your superpower - journal excerpt: an authentic look at our stories: we are both the antagonist and protagonist We all say we want love, love, love, we bookmark Sylvia Plath and Bukowski’s words about wanting other people more than they could ever want us, we like to paint ourselves as lonely, unrequited lovers of an indifferent universe, but the truth is we have all broken hearts and we have all uttered the phrase, “I need my space,” and we are all culprits when it comes to hurting and being hurt, and this is not a one-sided argument: some days you are going to be the kicker and some days you are going to be the one being kicked, some days you will feel like you love too much and some days you will feel like no one could ever pay you enough to care about anyone again, so I suggest we cut the act, come clean, let the cat out of the bag, spill the beans– because we can all be hypocrites, we are all devils of deceit, and we are all angels, no one said we were innocent, only that we pass pain around like side dishes on Thanksgiving, and we all receive our helpings eventually. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/faith-over-fear monthly 0.5 2020-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1585446025240-WXI0PPCI3OXC5PR0HQ8C/image-asset.jpeg writing - faith over fear - journal excerpt: when my grandmother passed I think I know now why people pray why faith exists, why Christians cling to bibles and Muslims recite the Q’uran like it can cure disease and get them through the hardest weeks, I think I understand now why during the most trying times, we lower ourselves to the ground, get on our knees, and speak to the sky like rain from clouds is heaven’s way of crying for us— because when I left you for the last time knowing I don’t know when I’ll hear your voice again or see how your smile curves up like a crescent moon when you think you’re being clever, because when the doctor said he probably has more fingers than days my grandmother has to live, because when I left by your bedside after stroking your head with a heart clogged with confusion and fear I looked up at the stars and clasped my hands into a knot so I could ask the universe to be kind, and I knew I knew why people hold scriptures for comfort listening to prayers for wisdom and wear crosses around their necks: because sometimes we need the comfort that something much bigger cares enough to act as some sort of compass both when we are lost and found, but especially when we feel like we are losing, that sometimes the things we can’t fully understand are the things that bring the most clarity, like faith and trust and pixie dust. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1585441668299-U47D1HVTO64H071YTE4F/image-asset.jpeg writing - faith over fear - journal excerpt: Horrifying things happen all over the world every day, I’m not much for praying, but I really feel like I need it tonight. I pray that this world works its way through the madness that seems to have gripped it. I pray that we don’t make the same mistakes that we’ve seen history repeat again and again. That years from now kids will wonder what it was like living in such chaotic, unsafe times, because it be alien to them. I pray for immigrants all over the world to find refuge and welcome arms. I pray that the people I love stay smart and stay safe. I pray for a hurting world that needs prayer. I pray I won’t forget what matters amidst so much that doesn’t. Because they say if you pray, somewhere in this world, something good will happen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1585440875539-HK3ECE08RGEL6NQEHBOG/image-asset.jpeg writing - faith over fear - Growing up Sikh, I stopped identifying as religious when I noticed how religion inherently divides us; how that divide has started wars, prevented lovers from being together, resulted in judgements and promoted hatred. I was equally intrigued to understand why and how our opposing beliefs have been the cause of historical terrors and continue to generate bigotry and a “us versus them” mentality. I studied religion in University and read passages from different religious literature and discovered that interpretations of these texts varied across followers; some found hope, peace, discipline and strength while others were in shackles of control, fear and delusion. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1585517515004-E66HHRPAWMBPW6WVHQE7/image-asset.jpeg writing - faith over fear - journal excerpt: some nights all I have to keep me from falling into a pit of despair is the thought that somewhere else, there is laughter, there is relief, after a lifetime of waiting, there are tears of joy I can’t see, there is hope for someone who is not me, peace and quiet and lips on lips, and love holding another person together. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/how-i-learn-and-heal-from-nature monthly 0.5 2022-02-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1584838337058-O48MZYA25B9UC6I4JT5W/706BCB80-C972-4223-9FE0-5F9456700418.jpg writing - how i learn and heal from nature - journal excerpt: somewhere along the trail I sighed as I made my last stride to the peak of the mountain I was in ‘awe’ of my body. I had spent so much time focusing on its flaws shortcomings, weaknesses, and yet it stayed steady. My heart kept beating. My lungs kept breathing. No matter how many times my brain told them they couldn’t. I think of that feeling in the moments where life feels hopeless. How my body doesn’t care. How it just keeps going. And sometimes these mountains are made of rock and earth and other times they are figrative mountains of doubt, fear and anxiety. Whatever these mountains look like, our bodies are consistently overcoming and making it to the ‘top’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1584831948854-161OCWQW7J35HWY9PHLP/tulips.jpg writing - how i learn and heal from nature - journal excerpt: There once was a tulip that loved the ground too much to grow too high, hid from the sun, refused water, It was beautiful but shallow, killed by the weeds that gladly breathed in light to keep living, I saw it die from refusing what it needed for the love holding it down, and I never want to be like the tulip too in love with my roots to reach the sky. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1584833468497-FQ4ZABK2HL5071BQQR6L/IMG_1621.JPG writing - how i learn and heal from nature - Gardening has been a therapeutic hobby I picked up two years ago. I had read that touching soil helps with depression because there are microbes in soil that have an effect on our brain chemistry and in addition to that, touching things, working with real materials and making something with your hands helps ground us in our bodies by engaging our brains and our hands at the same time. Being outside and doing work engaged my senses. I absorbed sunlight (dose of vitamin D), and in hindsight I realize how being outside helped me feel present and mindful. I was doing something constructive for myself, the bees, and my family who later used the herbs I took care of in their cooking. Being outside, unplugging and gardening are not magic pills nor do they replace medication or therapy, but they can be wonderful and constructive additions to a multi-tiered approach to bettering your mental and emotional state. I often think of our minds like a garden. When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. The mind is like a fertile garden in which anything that is planted, flowers or weeds, will grow. What kind of a garden does your mind grow? The picture is of my partner Alex, posing with one of the gigantic sunflowers that we had grown in the backyard. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/changing-the-way-i-shop-my-clothes-buying-ethos-to-take-a-stand-against-environmental-racism monthly 0.5 2021-11-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1583129921662-ZUG4BP81K2ZMYCTN82ZS/image-asset.jpeg writing - changing the way i shop: my clothes buying ethos to prevent environmental racism - The fashion industry coupled with social media marketing is one of the top contributors to global pollution with quick-trends and fast fashion, fuelling consumption of disposable clothing. It uses capitalism to exploit poor people of colour in the Global South. Fast fashion refers to products that are cheaply priced and quickly produced, copying the latest trends. Marketing budgets are being prioritized whereas manufacturing costs are kept low resulting in unsafe working conditions and cheap labour in oversea countries with low environmental regulations. This means dangerously long working hours and in some cases mental, physical and sexual abuse tolerated by poor women of color who make up majority of this workforce. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/compassion monthly 0.5 2020-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1584373065008-JE79NXQZ9A21G3X1LAGL/image-asset.jpeg writing - culvitating the 'compassionate' cure - my journal excerpt: we are all earthquakes waiting to happen, but loving each other is the best chance we have at surviving the aftershocks. https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/peopleandculture monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/mental+health monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/visibleminorities monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/feminism monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/intersectionalfeminist monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/sustainability monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/article monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/mandywrites/category/women monthly 0.5 https://mandybhullar.com/home daily 1.0 2025-12-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1618124275860-46F9DENBKV5CZSTUCJBO/IMG_1021.JPG Home - mandy is an impact-driven designer, strategist and consultant https://mandybhullar.com/about daily 0.75 2025-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/24b7a955-2a61-4436-92bb-df0989d189e6/IMG_5291.jpeg this is me Me and my co-founder, Luna (Chief Dog Officer) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1623622327953-3ZJRJD0WC6658S9RDNKW/IMG_1256.JPG this is me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/53810e28-484f-460e-98f3-d55e9a48f1a1/IMG_2132+3.PNG this is me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/1623622179539-L46FWS9A2BLMLTB84695/IMG_1303.JPG this is me https://mandybhullar.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-02-28 https://mandybhullar.com/contact-1 daily 0.75 2025-12-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/f3dcefac-6b56-4f80-be43-9a353a7c6a77/imgg-demo-Aq8H491F.png https://mandybhullar.com/new-page daily 0.75 2025-12-27 https://mandybhullar.com/newsletter daily 0.75 2025-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e549bf1787a213cff972ffa/91039777-7025-4736-9579-790b68c3a922/IMG_5813.JPG