Showing results by author "Maria Merlino" in All Categories

Do you struggle to speak up when something bothers you? Do you say yes when you mean no, avoid conflict, or replay conversations in your head long after they end? Many people learn early in life that keeping the peace is safer than speaking the truth. Over time this habit becomes a pattern. You swallow your words, smooth things over, and try to make everyone comfortable. On the outside you appear kind, easygoing, and dependable. On the inside you may feel resentful, exhausted, or invisible. Say It Anyway is a practical and compassionate guide for people who want to stop people pleasing ...

Author's Note: Pattern included makes a cross in one piece. No Sewing! Phyllis has spent her life making delicate crochet crosses for her church. Each one is small enough to slip into a Bible, made with fine thread and steady hands. But when her eyesight begins to fail, the work she has always loved becomes impossible. Faced with losing her place in the world, she must decide whether to stop or begin again. What follows is a quiet, powerful story about change, aging, purpose, and the courage to keep creating even when life asks you to do things differently. Inspired by a real vintage ...

One Stitch Can Build a Community. One Rose Can Hold it Together. In the heart of West Philadelphia, Zuri is a woman who builds structures out of glass and steel, but she has forgotten how to build a home. When she returns to her Aunt Titi’s row house for Kwanzaa, she is met not just with the glow of the Kinara, but with a challenge: a mountain of midnight-black wool and a 1913 vintage pattern that holds the secrets of her heritage. A Kwanzaa Capelet is a unique fusion of storytelling and technical craft. Follow Zuri’s journey in the original short story, "The Umoja Stitch," as she ...

Cockroaches might understand lasting love better than we do. What if one of the most powerful love stories in nature came from a cockroach? In the forests of Okinawa, a male and female cockroach meet and do something almost unthinkable. They eat each other’s wings. From that moment on, they cannot leave. So they stay. They build a home. They defend it together. They raise their young side by side. And it works. Eat Each Other’s Wings takes this strange and real scientific discovery and turns it into nine unforgettable lessons about commitment, connection, and what it actually means to ...

What does a mental health diagnosis really mean? For many people, the DSM feels confusing, clinical, and out of reach. Labels can feel overwhelming. Explanations often sound like a foreign language. This book changes that. The Joy of Understanding Mental Health Diagnosis breaks down how mental health diagnosis actually works in clear, simple language. It explains what the DSM is, how professionals use it, and what those labels do and do not say about you. This is not a textbook. It is a practical, human guide designed for real life. You will learn how diagnoses are made, why symptoms ...

Why do you keep repeating patterns you hate? Why does the life that looks right on paper feel hollow? Why do you want things you cannot seem to reach, and reach things that do not satisfy you the way you expected? The answers are in your brain. Specifically, in five neural drives that have been running your life since before you could name them. In Your Wanting Brain, Maria Merlino draws on decades of research across attachment theory, reward neuroscience, developmental psychology, and the emerging science of meaning to reveal the five core drives that shape every significant choice you ...

Your Pet, Understood is for people who love their animals deeply,but sometimes realize love alone doesn’t answer the real question: What does life feel like from their side of the leash, the cage, the tank, or the terrarium? Most of us were taught to read pets through a human lens. We call a dog “stubborn,” a cat “aloof,” a bird “happy” because it sings, or a hamster “energetic” because it runs for hours. But behavior isn’t a personality label—it’s communication. When you learn to read real signals instead of guessing, you stop managing symptoms and start meeting ...

Four point two million Americans are trapped in gambling addiction right now. The average debt when they finally seek help? $27,500. This is not a problem affecting a few unlucky people. This is a national crisis that is getting worse every single day. Since sports betting was legalized in 2018, searches for gambling addiction help surged 23 percent nationally. In Ohio, the increase was 67 percent. Young men aged 18 to 34 now show gambling problems at a rate of 13.4 percent. And 90 percent of young bettors believe they can make money gambling on sports. They cannot. But by the time they ...

What if everything you were taught about human origins was wrong? For 6,000 years, we've been told we evolved randomly from apes. But your DNA tells a different story, one of deliberate design, genetic engineering, and an ancient conflict that continues today. THE EVIDENCE IS IN YOUR CHROMOSOMES While all great apes have 24 pairs of chromosomes, humans have only 23. Human Chromosome 2 shows clear signs of fusion, two ancestral chromosomes deliberately merged together. Random evolution? Or genetic engineering by an advanced civilization? Ancient Sumerian texts provide the answer. The ...

Some people do not lie to hurt you. They tell the truth. But they tell it in ways that shame you, criticize your body, and slowly erode your confidence in the relationship. When Honesty Turns Cruel explores a painful and often misunderstood pattern in intimate relationships. Many people believe honesty should strengthen love. Yet some partners use truth as a weapon. A private insecurity becomes a cutting remark. A vulnerable moment becomes a cruel comparison. A partner calls it honesty, but the result is humiliation and control. Drawing on research in relationship psychology, emotional ...

Includes Cape pattern. The Cape That Stayed Up Late is a tender generational story about five women connected by one handmade cape. It begins in 1912 when Claire crochets a twelve panel cape for her first dance. The cape is worn, folded, saved, and passed down through a cedar box that holds the scent of time. Each daughter adds her own version in a new color with ribbon, shell edging, and fringe that brushes across the years. This book blends storytelling with craft. Readers follow the family’s journey and then learn how to crochet the cape themselves using the modern pattern included in ...

Grief does not only come from death. It can also come from lost love, divorce, betrayal, estrangement, and the kind of goodbye you never got to have. Sometimes the loss is real and final. Sometimes the person is still alive, but the relationship is gone. Either way, your brain can react as if something essential has been torn away. The Grief Trap explains why some people do not move through grief in a straight line. It shows how love and attachment are wired into the nervous system and why the mind can get stuck replaying memories, searching for answers, and hoping for a different ending. ...

Loving the Pedestal is for anyone who’s ever felt hijacked by a crush that became an obsession. You’re not “crazy,” weak, or hopelessly romantic, you’re caught in a Limerence loop that runs on uncertainty, mixed signals, and the brain’s reward chemistry. This book explains why limerence feels like an addiction, why your mind won’t let go, and why even tiny signs of attention can keep you stuck for months,or years. You’ll learn how limerence differs from real love, how the cycle progresses from spark to crystallization to collapse, and what fuels it most in modern life: ...

You can be smart, self aware, and still repeat the same painful patterns.You promise yourself it will be different next time. You will react less. You will choose better. You will not spiral. And yet the same triggers show up, the same feelings take over, and the same outcomes repeat. This is not a lack of willpower. It is a loop.Breaking the Loop is a practical schema therapy workbook designed to help you identify the deep patterns that drive anxiety, self sabotage, people pleasing, emotional shutdown, conflict, and relationship distress. These patterns often formed early as survival ...

You drive home and don't remember a single moment of the journey. You eat without tasting. You're in conversation but somewhere else entirely. Life feels like you're watching it through glass rather than actually living it. This isn't depression. This isn't failure. This is the veil—a system of patterns so subtle you don't even know it's there. THE VEIL BETWEEN offers a practical, psychologically-grounded path to presence. No spiritual bypassing. No toxic positivity. Just honest work with the mechanisms that keep you locked in your head instead of alive in your life. Inside, you'll ...

A short heirloom story with a complete vintage-style crochet pattern included. In 1946, in a narrow South Philadelphia rowhome, Evelyn Marchetti improvises a rooster motif from a torn wartime crochet leaflet. With fading ink and rationed thread, she reshapes the design by instinct, creating something entirely her own. Nearly eighty years later, textile historian Rosa DeAmbrosia inherits a cedar chest containing letters, a photograph, and that very rooster motif. Determined to reconstruct the lost vintage crochet pattern, she begins reverse-engineering the stitches. But as she works, her ...

Turn chocolate into a daily ritual that actually supports you. Most “healthy chocolate” advice is either pure hype or so science-heavy you never use it. This book is the middle path: a warm, practical guide to building a low-sugar, repeatable cacao routine with real recipes, a smart buying guide, and clear “do this, not that” troubleshooting. Inside, you’ll learn how to choose the right form (powder, nibs, dark chocolate, high-flavanol options), how processing changes what you get, and how to make cacao feel good in your body instead of messing with your sleep, stomach, or ...

You did not imagine it. They disappeared. Then they came back like nothing happened. And somehow you ended up feeling like the problem. That is ghostlighting. Ghostlighting is the toxic dating pattern where someone ghosts you, returns casually, and then rewrites reality when you ask for clarity. They minimize. They deny. They blame. And you are left questioning your memory, your standards, and your worth. This book breaks the cycle. In clear, practical language, you will learn: • What ghostlighting actually is and how it differs from normal dating confusion • Why no closure feels ...

Do This Together is a practical relationship guide for couples stuck in the anxious avoidant cycle. If one of you craves closeness and reassurance while the other shuts down, pulls away, or feels overwhelmed, this book helps you understand what is happening and what to do next. Instead of giving you only attachment theory, this book gives you simple activities you can do together to build emotional connection, improve communication, reduce conflict, and create more safety in the relationship. It is designed for anxious and avoidant couples who want real help, not vague advice. Inside, you ...

Stronger Every Day: Stoicism for Teens is a simple, honest guide to help teenagers stay calm, grounded, and confident in a world that feels louder and more stressful every day. I wrote this book because teens today are dealing with pressure from every direction—school, friendships, social media, family expectations, and the constant worry about who they’re supposed to be. Stoicism gives them something solid to stand on. This book takes the ancient wisdom of Marcus Aurelius and translates it into real-life tools teens can actually use. No philosophy lectures, no confusing language. Just ...