It was 8.37am and I was scrolling Instagram with one eye squinting, the other sealed shut in protest. The morning light was harsh; the algorithm harsher. Somewhere between a video of a dog doing taxes and a girl making her matcha, I stumbled upon Mel Robbins, motivational speaker and Ted Talk legend, telling me to high-five myself.
The video had pandemic energy. That quiet, echoey desperation of someone who’s spent too long indoors talking to objects. Mel explained that in her darkest days she looked at herself in the mirror and gave herself a high-five.
