Oscar Wilde once famously said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”  Then, Ralph Waldo Emerson added, “Be yourself, even when your voice shakes, even when your truth feels inconvenient, because a life built on pretending will always feel like a house you can’t fully rest in.” And then, apparently, “be yourself” even became a verb (Or so does the Shift Your Perspective pin claim on Pinterest) meaning, “Just be who you want to be, not what others want to see.” I remember being in middle school and discovering these boards on Pinterest for the first time… Saving and reposting them to seem “cool” and “different” from the rest of the teenagers… But what I didn’t realize at the time was that firstly, thousands of others were doing…

A 2300-year-old philosophy for the age of doomscrolling How is it that you can feel everything and nothing at the same time?  The alarm goes off – the first of many that you had set up not to be late for work. You open your eyes and hit snooze for the first couple, then the sensitive period of “almost-running-late” arrives, and you finally decide to wake up. You don’t get up though, not right away, at least. You feel paralyzed. You went to bed last night scrolling through videos of all sorts of suffering, and yet, before you even step foot on the ground, you open your favorite social media app again and continue. Two minutes turn to five, five to ten, and ten to thirty. Without…

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much so as to be understood” – George Orwell, 1984 We may have defined love and its significance last month, but does that guarantee us success in expressing it towards others? In 1992, a marriage counselor and Baptist minister, Gary Chapman, introduced a theory that would become one of the most commonly discussed ideas in modern relationship psychology. In his book, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, Chapman proposed that people have preferred ways of expressing and interpreting love. He had arrived at this theory through years of counseling work with couples, who felt unloved because they failed to recognize each other’s efforts as genuine affection. Because when love stops feeling like…

“Love turns the Earth ‘round, Domenico. If not love, it would have collapsed; it would have been overwhelmed with all these sins…until it wasn’t able to move anymore.” - An excerpt from The First Garment by Guram Dochanashvili. What is love? And why does it hold so much importance to humankind? Some may describe it as an intense and multifaceted chemical process, fueled by the brain's neurotransmitters and hormones. Others may view it as a great interest or pleasure in something, perhaps even someone. But ultimately, a universal agreement can be made that the feelings love evokes in us are primal and essential to longevity, safety, and social connection. With the spirit of St.Valentine around the corner, today’s article will be discussing various forms of love, their…

Dear followers and members of Zarika, Hi there! My name is Mariam, I am a Junior student at American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) majoring in Psychology and Political Science, and I recently accepted the role of an article writer at this beloved association. My vision for 2026 at Zarika is to publish a series of thought-provoking and compelling articles on art, culture, society, and travel with well-researched and insightful perspectives from psychology, philosophy, and sociology. Writing has been a passion of mine for years and consequently, I will take great pleasure and integrity in providing accurate and engaging materials for you to read here. Articles will be published once every month in both English and Bulgarian languages, and although the first few topics have already been decided,…