hey you ever think about how the Cullen’s love-bombing eventually replaced Bella’s personality?
She mentions multiple times in the books that she despises expensive gifts, and the ones that actually leave an impact on are her Chevy and the wooden wolf bracelet Jacob gives her. The Chevy is second-hand from Billy, and the bracelet was carved by Jacob. They hold value to her because they have personality; they speak to her tastes and were given to her with those tastes in mind.
She loves her Chevy, but it is eventually replaced with a sleek, expensive designer car gifted to her by the Cullens. She adores the bracelet but Edward puts an designer charm on it to remind her of him.
Even her clothes, which she insists are fine and suit her, are replaced with branded sweaters, dresses and heels.
She hates the idea of any kind of marriage but Edward holds vampirism over her head to get what he wants. Even when she agrees to marry him (against her will) she wants to keep it simple, wanting to simply drive to Texas and get married via a drive thru- Alice begs Bella to allow her to plan the wedding and it’s easily more ostentacious and expensive than her birthday party in New Moon, which she describes as “a hundred times worse than I’d imagined”
They get rid of her preferred aesthetics in hopes that their consumerist one will stick, and one of the last things they do to her is literallystrip her of her humanity.
She becomes a cold, perfect creature and as a result, is no longer allowed to have ties to her father, mother, her best friend or the interests she had before. She’s converted into a Cullen and this shit is supposed to be romantic.
“Friends outside of Minnesota please read. I’m sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor: Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:
ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Wednesday. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
They are targeting hospitals and clinics. Patients are scared and are cancelling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans—again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
They are arresting and beating legal observers. A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.) I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later.
But the community is fighting back.
Protests are happening every day.
Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait for my takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed.
THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready. Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.”
insane that we aren’t taught about sleep in school. like 75% of people in my country report poor sleep and we don’t spend one biology class learning about it? here’s what I’ve learnt from a variety of sleep courses:
your body does pretty much all it’s physical rest and repair processes (‘stage 4’) in the first 4 hours of sleep, so if you’ve slept for four hours, congratulations the essentials of your physical health are taken care of
the part of the sleep cycle that takes care of your brain and mental health (REM) happens later in the night, hence why waking up too early makes you brain foggy, and why it’s so helpful to train yourself to wake up about the same time every morning
we are evolved to wake up several times in the night; we don’t usually remember it, but worry and fixation can make us more likely to remember these
sleep under the influence of alcohol is chemically altered and not effective no matter if it helps you sleep - it’s fine to have a drunken night of course but don’t use alcohol as a sleep aid to 'knock yourself out’, being drunk unconscious is not sleep
the best thing you can do for your sleep is follow a routine; go to bed and wake up at the same time most days, and have a 'wind down’ routine, preferably including writing down whatever’s on your mind to clear it before sleep
for long-term sleep improvement, it’s better to wake up at your planned time regardless of sleep quality than to get a full nights’ sleep
missing a night of sleep is NOT the disaster certain scaremonger-y sleep 'experts’ will tell you - 'slept debt’ does NOT exist and you will recover from a missed night of sleep within a few days of normal sleep
meditation is the best alternative to sleep if you’re either unable to sleep or feeling the urge to nap (napping is bad for sleep!) - guided ones can help you not to fall asleep, but literally just lying there with your eyes closed and thinking about something neutral is good
acceptance is the best way to alleviate insomnia; do something else, use meditation to supplement that rest, and accept that you aren’t sleeping (often, ironically, this will cause you to fall asleep)
TL;DR: DON’T LISTEN TO THE FEARMONGERS! poor sleep isn’t killing you it’s okay to miss some sleep! just make sure you’re resting when tired and trying to stick to a routine of night time rest
