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The Under Pressure Journal

Because Life is Always Asking Something of You

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  • Escape
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Category: Refuge Under Pressure

Pressure reveals where we have learned to feel safe.

For some of us, it is in being needed. For others, it is in staying in control, keeping the peace, or holding ourselves together until the hard part passes. These ways of living may have helped us through more than anyone knows.

Then something changes. We begin to see what our familiar way is costing us, but we do not yet know how to live without it. Going back feels easier. Moving forward feels uncertain.

Refuge stays with that place in between. These articles explore what we have leaned on, why letting go can feel dangerous, and what might hold us while another way of living slowly becomes possible.

Begin with the piece that meets you where you are.

When the Old Way Still Feels Like Home

September 27, 2026

They tell you about a problem, and you can already see what needs to happen. You have the name of the person they should call. You know which part they have misunderstood. If you took care of it now, you could spare them a frustrating afternoon. You could spare yourself one, too. You begin to … More When the Old Way Still Feels Like Home

When the Old Way Still Feels Like Home
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Articles

Boundaries Coping Mechanisms Emotional Avoidance Featured Feeling Overwhelmed Feeling Stuck Feeling Unsupported Identity Living on Autopilot Mental Load Perfectionism Relationship Expectations The In-Between

Go Deeper

The Under Pressure Journal begins with moments you may recognize. The books stay with the questions those moments raise and the stories we carry.

  • Love: Notice what happens between two people when the same moment means something different to each of them.
  • Image: See the person you have learned to be—and what it costs to keep being them.
  • Escape: Notice where you go for relief when staying with the moment feels too hard.
  • Refuge: Explore the unfamiliar space between the way you have lived and the way you are beginning to live.

Explore the Books at SEED Formation

Under Pressure is an online magazine publishing articles about what pressure reveals when response comes before intention.

Published by Studio106

Longer‑form work connected to this magazine is currently in progress. Some readers want to know when the books and formation work connected to this magazine are released. → Get notified via SEED

Contact

For correspondence related to this work — personal or professional — you can reach me at polly@studio106.agency.

© 2026 Polly Mae Cashin. All rights reserved.

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