Christen Hong Coaching 12/10/25 Hi friends, This third installment of the How Not to Explode series is centered around a concept that quietly shapes everything in our lives: the meaning we assign to our experiences. One thing I've consciously worked on — and have gotten pretty good at — is noticing when a thought pattern isn't serving me, pausing, and choosing a different interpretation. The more I've observed my own reactions, the more I've realized that most things that happen are...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 12/3/25 Hi friends, This week we're back with the next installment in the How Not to Explode series — Grounding. I first learned these techniques in the height of the pandemic and immediately felt how effective they could be. I believed in them so much that I even started building a course about it… which has been living half-finished on my desktop ever since. So today I'm switching things up and sharing the lesson images on grounding from that course. If you try these...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 11/26/25 Hi friends, As promised last week, I'm here to share a few tools that have been instrumental to my growth — the first in my multi-week How Not to Explode series. First and foremost, breath is always my go-to when struggling in the moment. I can't recommend enough finding breathwork exercises that actually work for you when things start to feel overwhelming. But another amazing technique that's helped me firsthand (and people I've practiced with in the moment),...
27 days ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 11/18/25 Hi friends, Y'all I hope you're taking care out there. I've started noticing people exploding lately - quick to react, quick to anger, quick to reach their limit. It's been people I know, total strangers, even myself some days. And I get it. Things are wild. This is a hard part of a hard year and we as a society aren't really taught how to hold empathy for others (or, frankly, ourselves), especially when we're in the throes of our limits. And though my initial...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 11/12/25 Hi friends, You may not have noticed, but I didn't send out a newsletter last week. It's not because I didn't want to — I actually spent time throughout the week thinking about what I'd write. But then I got in my head about it. I told myself I should probably wait until after the election results came in, just in case I felt the need to comment. And then...I just forgot. When I remembered, I initially felt panicked. I'd made a goal to write every week, and...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 10/29/25 Hi friends, I think I've been using my brain wrong. Don't get it twisted, I'm grateful for my mind. I recognize that I have a unique perspective that usually serves me well. But I also let the pressure of this world convince me that I need to do more, need to figure it all out, all on my own. That I need to push hard to make things happen. And it's exhausting trying to have all the answers, trying to make something out of nothing. It perpetuates the belief, and...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 10/22/25 Hi friends, This week I've been thinking about motivation — specifically, the difference between the drive to move away from something versus moving towards something. It's the difference between trying to get out of a job you hate versus building a career that excites you. Between wanting to stop feeling lonely and opening yourself to deeper connection.Between avoiding burnout and cultivating balance and peace. When your goal is simply to escape where you are,...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 10/15/25 Hi friends, One lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way: things don't automatically happen for you — you have to ask for what you want. This can be especially hard for those of us who grew up striving to be likable, to not rock the boat. In fact, you might even find yourself resenting people who boldly declare what they want, who don't have the same hangups about putting themselves out there. But the truth is this: no one can read your mind. If you want something...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Christen Hong Coaching 10/8/25 Hi friends, This week I've been thinking that despite the fact that technology lets us find anything we could possibly be looking for, it doesn't always add substance. In fact, it can sometimes make things feel more hollow. That knowing more about something can actually make it harder to truly grasp. You'd think that having endless information at your fingertips would deepen understanding. Instead, it often creates overwhelm — and sometimes a false sense of...
3 months ago • 2 min read