From:
Jonathan Van Viegen
My city apartment (for 4 more days), Panama City
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Dear Friend,
I’ve been crashing out over a deadline for 2 weeks now.
I got 10 days left to deliver my final manuscript to my publisher.
So yeah… I missed last week’s newsletter. And this one’s late, too.
We’re also moving in 4 days.
Perfect freakin’ crazy timing.
But honestly, my stress is not all that different from yours.
If none of us are careful in how we deal with it, we’ll end up turning on each other.
So how do you stop that?
Physical connection.
You can’t control the chaos around you.
Deadlines.
Kids.
Work.
Money.
But you can control whether your partner feels like they’re with you… or against you.
So, if you’ve got no time left in your day,
Or no energy to talk,
Do this:
Hug your partner for 20 seconds.
And say:
“Thank you for not turning on me.”
You have to calm your nervous systems.
You can do that with hours of talking…
Or in 20 seconds with a simple hug.
That’s enough to change the tone of your whole relationship.
