Gabi Abrão

Witch House Music, Green Tea Before Socializing, Deep Pectoral Massages, and more.

August 15, 2023

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Gabi Abrão is a Los Angeles-based artist whose iconic existential memes have had her dubbed an “Instagram performance artist.” After releasing her first book, as seen in The New York Times and Nylon, Gabi has been curating a digital world for the Sighswoon community. On her Patreon, you can find podcasts, a monthly book club, a private Tumblr blog, and access to her active community Discord. Her Substack () features numerous how-to guides on topics such as love, the future, and ego. Whether she's sharing messages of self-reflection via meme format, or reminding us to rest and recharge, her content promotes rituals of wellness and relaxation. She’s a true vanguard of the esoteric-posting movement, and lucky for us, Gabi is here to tell us what she's been into.

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Deep pectoral massages

The average masseuse will not go deep into your chest muscles if you’re a woman, as to avoid catching a sexual misconduct case. But those muscles , especially the part above your heart, are so sensitive. You have to have someone go in and around your tittie to access it. A lover, a hippie, someone under the table. Your own hands if you have to. The release is psychedelic and will often make you cry immediately.

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Stoop-sitting

Posting up outside and observing the neighborhood daily is a mission inherited from my father and his father. Every day offers something different , or , new information to an unfolding story. You find out who’s dating who and who’s driving what, or you’ll see two twins jump out of a mini van doing cartwheels in unison. The other day, an ex-boyfriend I hadn’t seen in 5 years (we’re both blocked on everything !!!) just strolled on by. I couldn’t believe it. I was like Damn, I am never leaving this watchtower.

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Mochi as Boundary Guide

Mochi is the perfect ice cream portion. With a pint, you can accidentally eat the whole thing. With Mochi you have one and you’re like, oh, great, done. Mochi has boundaries. I need to get better at boundaries. I keep crossing them - with people, love, food, promises, staying up late. I tell myself that truth is found in extremes and often act upon this belief. I do get results, yes, which is why it’s hard to change… I guess it’s not so bad. There’s a lot to gain. Just be ready for the clean-up job.

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Hiding your story from love interests

When you cross the mind of the love of your life (who could be so lucky!), they can click open their phone and in two seconds see you doing a stupid little dance for your followers. Or worse, a performance designed for them to see, veering you far from your duties as a poster. Way too fussy. No thanks.

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Bed Trays

I adore the leisure of a beautiful bed tray. I especially go for large, circular ones that can become cluttered with all the beverages and notes from a whole day. You can get a great snapshot of your work sessions and lounge sessions this way, too. It’s important to honor your madness after communing with it.

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Green Tea before Socializing

Green tea and coffee serve different purposes. Coffee is felt in the nerves and digestive system, and it gets you up and going in all directions. I love throwing myself into that feeling. Green tea opens the heart and throat, great for making connections and speaking. I always drink it before doing a podcast, having a meeting, or going out to socialize. And, there’s never any come down. Just a steady high of giving alertness.

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Noise Cancel Headphones as Travel Savior

These have saved me from losing sleep on my travels so many times. First, finding myself in a hotel nextdoor to a synagogue that hosted loud children in their yard at 7am singing dreidel songs at full volume. And now, this moment, finding myself at a boarding school where my dorm mate is a 55-year old woman from Norway, our beds two feet apart. I adore her, we squeeze hands goodnight before bed, but she listens to loud podcasts while she sleeps and snores abundantly. I almost stopped loving her. But then, I just click on the noise-cancel feature and everything disappears.

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Witch House as cleanse

Witch house in big headphones is a wonderful way to channel rage but still feel ethereal. It’s best on walks or if you’re feeling super obsessive or when you don’t want to do errands but have to. I collect my favorite witch house songs on a playlist called “cleanse me” because it really does. I think witch house also calls spirits closer to you, with all of that spooky quest-like aliveness it creates.

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Occult Libraries

There is a mysterious, two-story, dark-wood library open only on Fridays with out-of-print esoteric books behind glass that you can handle, three at a time. You get a form to list which books you want, and the librarian comes over with a cluttered ring of keys to unlock each one for you. It’s located at Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz.

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Wabi-Sabi by Leonard Koren

Wabi-Sabi agrees with Paul Virilio’s philosophy that progress is a fruitless illusion that goes against nature, but it is way less heavy-handed and meticulous than Virilio’s Administration of Fear. You can read it in 30 minutes and everything feels better. I have given away my copy six times.

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Gabi Abrão

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