Maria Kuroshchepova

"I will know I am slowing down and developing arnhealthy relatioship with time when I can truly experience a moment ofrnquiet pleasure, and not have it have to be an intense moment ofrnpositivity or negativity in order to feel alive." Women Who Do Too Much Calendar - 2003

"Looking good will not obscure your personality - that is a fallacy spread by people who are too scared or too lazy to make an effort atrnlooking good. On the contrary, if you learn how to look good while remaining comfortable, your best personality traits will truly shine -your outer and inner beauty will work in tandem and enhance each other. Your very lifestyle will improve, as you stop depriving yourself - and people who care about you - of the joy that special occasions can be." Tips on dressing for special occasions

"...just because there are bits and pieces of [your life] that stink, doesn't mean that (a) it HAS to be that way and (b) that you don't deserve any better. It all depends on you. Respect yourself and tell yourself that you deserve better and then go do something about it - you can, if you want it badly enough." Evaluating what we deserve

"I always joke that Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a trashcan of mental illnesses. It combines nine symptoms from some of the more prominent mental disorders: a little bit of bi-polar, a little bit ofrnclinical depression, a little bit of social anxiety disorder, a little bit of ADD - but none of the symptoms are pronounced enough for a BPD patient to be diagnosed with any one of those illnesses. So, at some point mental health specialists must have gotten together and decided, 'Well, let's just pile them all into this one group and call this weird mental illness symptom combo thingie Borderline Personality Disorder. Doesn't that sound cool?!'." Living with Borderline Personality Disorder

E-mail: maria@naaseymour.com

Web sites: MySpace profile, Lulu.com bookstore, Helium.com articles, photography

It is all here, my friends! Hyperlinks from this page will take you to my books, articles, photography and artwork - and those sites are interconnected as well.

I have always loved writing letters - long, frank, extensively detailed ones. So, I treat my articles as letters to the rest of the world and encourage my readers to treat them the same way - as if they previously asked me a question about something, and I am now answering it.

If we extrapolate the concept somewhat, one could say that my books are jou als for those who like to read, my photographs are jou als for those who prefer images to text, my translations are gateways to other people's letters and jou als, and my artwork - a kind of three-dimensional mood diary. Pick your favorite perception channel and enjoy!