Tenille Campbell recognized burnout and then did something about it: “But slowly, slowly, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t feel the joy. I couldn’t feel the passion. I felt… grey. Nothing. Absent.”

Canadians’ odds of getting sick or dying depend surprisingly on where they live. Check out the National Post’s interactive map to learn more about cancer in Canada.

“How fragile is my character if changing my appearance would really threaten it?” Blogger Jess reflects on the tensions between her changing body and her life-long identity as a “big girl.”

“When life gives you / hospital beds, / turn those / sunlit windows / into your / inner balconies / instead.”
 
Christy Bharath meditates on life in India, post-surgery.

“I have three different pairs of shoes I hate running in. Every time I run, I pick one pair, and I go out and run in them, and I enjoy it about as much as I enjoy brushing my teeth in the morning, except running lasts way longer.”

Ruby Pipes comes to terms with a relapse after three years of sobriety: “Yet I continue forward. Despite my current inability to see why. Though I feel I don’t deserve it and it doesn’t matter anyway.”

Amy learns to let go of the futile quest for “perfect” and instead embrace intuition and uncertainty: “Some steps are wobbly and small. Others are strong and purposeful. But they are all steps forward, no matter how they land.”

“Numbers do not tell you, or me, or anyone else, my worth, they are simply numbers, and the one on my scale is no different, and that’s what my sports have done for me.” Powerlifter Stephanie reflects on how sports have given her much more than physical fitness.

“I mourn the loss of possibility, of promise, of our pursuit of happiness.” A couple, both insured through the Affordable Care Act, contemplates the loss of insurance and the loss of the life they’d hoped to have.

A medical condition requiring botox sends the author — a young indigenous woman — deep into an unfamiliar, unwelcoming space: a cosmetic surgery office.

With humor and insight, Carol J. Pardun writes about the rare swallowing disorder she was diagnosed with — and what she’s learned from the process about herself and what she wants the next year to look like.

Years after spending a romantic month alone with a young photographer, Stephanie Land learns of his crippling chronic disease — and gets a glimpse of how much she meant to him.

On why we need to talk about rape and sexual assault: “Though our experiences may vary; the bond of terror is singular.”

Barbara H. Knowles reflects on 31 years of sobriety: “In my family, people were categorized as drinkers (normal people) and non-drinkers (odd people). ‘They seem nice enough, but they aren’t drinkers.’”