Latest Reflections
Coping with powerlessness in a chaotic world
Luba Kassova | March 16, 2022
Day #20 since Putin declared war on Ukraine The war in Ukraine is gaining momentum: the Russian army is closing in on Kyiv despite facing unexpectedly strong resistance; Kherson has fallen; leading multi-national organisations have left Russia;...
The pendulum swinging between war and love
Luba Kassova | March 02, 2022
Day 1: Putin invades Ukraine This is an unfathomably dark moment that I personally didn’t think would come. I thought that Putin was bluffing, enjoying basking in the world’s full attention. But it has come, contrary to common sense, to...
When tough love is no longer love: Part 2
Luba Kassova | February 22, 2022
Why do people often believe that they need to berate someone to motivate them to achieve? I remember telling my father one day that I thought he had been hard on me as an adolescent when he repeatedly voiced his concerns so convincingly that my...
When tough love is no longer love: Part 1
Luba Kassova | February 09, 2022
I recently interviewed a wonderful woman, an executive coach and mentor, who is writing a book and whom I shall name Rose. She made me think about what drives us forward and about the psychological cost of achievement. In the 1980s and 90s Rose had broken...
How the books we read reflect the biases we hold
Luba Kassova | January 26, 2022
The books we buy are a window into our society’s norms and beliefs. The book choices you and I make offer a glimpse into our souls. In a December 2021 article in The Sunday Times, Andrew Holgate examined 2021’s best-selling books in the UK....
“I am in everything and everything is in me” From judgement to gratitude
Luba Kassova | January 18, 2022
We often spare our children the truth about the past, even when they are grown up. Our desire to protect them, and ourselves, from emotional suffering leads our own traumas and those of others before us to remain buried deep inside our family constellation....
Disrupting the cycle of pain which does not belong to you
Luba Kassova | January 05, 2022
Growing up, I remember having a persistent fear that I would be abandoned by my parents and lose everyone I loved. I carried this into adulthood, despite never being able to trace it back to any actual situation in my early life which had triggered it. That...
The inherited heartbreak from displaced past generations
Luba Kassova | December 22, 2021
As I observe with horror the fate of 27 refugees lost in the freezing waters of the English Channel last month, I am drawn back to stories I have uncovered about my own family history in the past year and feelings of what it means to be a refugee for...
Inside of us all is hidden a warrior who is just waiting to be honoured
Luba Kassova | December 07, 2021
What is it that drives empowerment? The key, in the eyes of prominent contemporary Bulgarian fiction writer Katerina Hapsali , lies in appreciation. I recently had the privilege of interviewing her for my upcoming book and found her life-affirming...
The person who loves you just because you exist
Luba Kassova | November 23, 2021
Finding respite in a polarised world This blog was first published in Bulgarian in Maiko Mila website on the 17th November 2021 Warm green eyes. Soft ageing skin. A wise unassuming smile. An enveloping embrace. A smell of home, a feeling of acceptance,...
