Hey Subscriber Full Name,

May felt like a month of paying closer attention. To what I'm making and why. To how I'm sleeping and whether it's actually restoring me. To what my body needs now that my hormones are finally getting the support they've been asking for. And to the small, ordinary things — like a bowl of porridge in Scotland — that somehow end up meaning more than expected.

This month's issue is about all of that. I hope something in it lands for you.

ONE THING I’M UNLEARNING:
Creating for performance.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I mainly post content about how I balance ambition with well-being. I share lessons I’ve learned from my 20s with the internet. Sometimes I’ll sprinkle in tips I’ve learned for around nervous system regulation, traditional chinese medicine, and any other modalities that have been helpful for me in my physical and emotional growth.

However, I recently decided to post some content from my trip to Scotland. But before I hit the post button, I was so worried about the content not performing well because it’s not what my audience is used to.

But then I had to stop myself from that thought, and remember that creating for performance needs to be unlearned. I don’t have to do things to get praise. I don’t have to create things for it to go viral. I can create and build things just for my own creative enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the content from my trip “didn’t do well” on social media, but I’m learning to accept that it’s ok. We have to be ok with stepping outside our domain and trying new things sometimes, even if we don’t get the “result” we want or expect. If we let external factors dictate our desire to do something, then we’ll never end up putting ourselves out there and trying something new.

A HEALING RITUAL:
Sleep cycles > sleep hours

I used to treat sleep like a numbers game. 8 hours was the goal. If I hit 8, I was doing it right… or so I thought.

Then I started actually paying attention to my sleep data — and something kept showing up. There were nights I slept 7.5 hours and woke up feeling clear, sharp, ready. And nights I slept 8.5 hours and felt like I'd been hit by a bus.

That's when I went deep on Matthew Walker's work — a neuroscientist and professor who is an expert on sleep — and the whole thing clicked.

Your brain cycles through 90-minute stages of non-REM and REM sleep — deep repair in the first half of the night, emotional processing and memory consolidation in the second. Each stage does something the other can't replace. So when you cut your sleep at an arbitrary hour, you're potentially waking up mid-cycle — and that's exactly what was happening to me. As Walker puts it, you can't hack this. The architecture of those cycles matters just as much as the total time. Source: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

So I shifted. Instead of aiming for a fixed number of hours, I work backward from my wake time in 90-minute blocks — 6 hours, 7.5 hours, or 9 hours — and I protect those full cycles.

What I've personally noticed:

• Less grogginess even on nights with fewer total hours, as long as I complete full cycles

• Better mood regulation in the first half of my day — which tracks, given what REM does for emotional processing

A RECIPE I’VE BEEN LOVING:
Scottish oats

Ok i’m cheating a little bit because I don’t have an actual recipe to share this month… but I wanted to share my latest obsession with Scottish oats (or as they like to call it, porridge).

I’ve been an oatmeal fanatic since I was a kid. My mom used to make it with egg and sugar for me growing up (sounds weird but it tastes good surprisingly).

And in my adult years, I started to making all different kinds of oatmeal to spice up my mornings. From overnight oats, to steel cut oats, to rolled oats… and don’t even get me started on the different toppings.

But in all 31 years of my life, I have never tasted porridge like how the Scottish make it. What makes it so special you might ask?

Scottish oats are whole oat groats stone-ground into a coarse meal instead of being rolled or steel-cut. This traditional milling process releases more natural starches, resulting in an exceptionally thick, creamy, and nutty porridge.

I just bought myself a big bag of Scottish oats and I’m going to play around with some recipes over the next week or so. I’ll report back as soon as I’ve got something yummy to share :)

PS. if you got a delicious oatmeal recipe, reply to this email and please do share it with me!

A PRODUCT I’VE BEEN LOVING:
Estrogen Modulator Supplement

I want to caveat that this is not sponsored and is not intended to be health or medical advice. This is also very niche as it may only be relevant to a subset of female newsletter readers here.

After my endo/uterine septum/cyst surgery in March, my surgeon suggested going back on birth control or taking progesterone to reduce the risk of endo coming back. I didn't want either, so I consulted a naturopath who specializes in hormonal health to explore a natural alternative.

She explained that estrogen has to be actively processed by your liver and excreted through your gut — and when that process breaks down, estrogen gets recycled back into circulation instead of cleared.

For someone with a history of endo, that's a problem. Endo lesions are estrogen-dependent: they grow in response to it, produce their own estrogen locally, and thrive in the inflammatory environment high estrogen creates.

So proper estrogen clearance isn't optional post-surgery — it's one of the most targeted things you can do to make your body less hospitable to regrowth.

She introduced me to EstroVantage EM by Bioclinic Naturals. Each compound in this formula has a specific job: shifting estrogen toward safer metabolites, supporting liver detox, and reducing the inflammatory signaling that lets endo thrive.

What I've personally noticed after 1 month:

• No cystic breakouts in my luteal phase

• Luteal phase energy levels feel good

• Whether it's keeping endo at bay — I genuinely don't know yet. That requires imaging, and it's still early. But I'm building the hormonal environment my naturopath believes gives me the best shot.

I'm not recommending you run out and take this. Hormonal health is deeply individual. But if you've been navigating PCOS, endo, or just cyclical symptoms that feel like your body is working against you — it might be worth bringing to your next appointment.

Thank you for reading this issue of The Art of Unlearning. Have a topic you want me to cover next month? Drop me a note hello@artofanna.com — I respond to every email :)