The restless newyorker

in search of the real meaning of freedom in the big apple

In search of true freedom-chronicles of my everyday struggles and small victories,  for now in the Big Apple.

I am a 39-year-old clinical health psychologist, lifestyle medicine practitioner, science communication expert, and multi-book author. Currently, I am writing my dissertation as the world’s first candidate in Medical Futures. 

I come from Budapest, Hungary. For a long time, I had been contemplating moving abroad, but it wasn’t until last year-after my old souldog passed away-that I finally decided the time had come. 

Since then, I’ve traveled a lot, trying to find the place where I truly want to live. I’ve been to Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France, always looking at each place through the lens of What would it be like to live here? What would I do here?

The problem is, I want everything at once. I want cold winters with snow, but also hot summers filled with the scent of sunscreen. I crave both complete solitude and silence, as well as the pulse and chaos of the city.

I want deep rest, but also to push myself to total exhaustion. I want to disappear, dissolve, and blend into the background, but at the same time, I want to see and be seen, to make an impact. And above all, I want to explore, because unfortunately, I get bored of everything far too quickly.

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As an adult, I was diagnosed with ADHD and severe anxiety, something that, in hindsight, explains a lot.

I wasn’t planning the trip to New York, I somehow randomly ended up in a group of strangers and come to visit, without any intention of moving here. I was just coming for ten days. And then, well, I got screwed because I fell in love. Not just with the city, but also with a guy I happened to meet on my very last day here. Ok, with him, I wish I had never met, but that’s another story.

So far, New York seems to be the perfect fit for somebody who wants everything but doesn’t really want anything enough. 

Join me, let’s figure out together if NY is a destination or just an other station in my life, on my journey to find my freedom, true love, and a little bit of self-acceptance.

I hope that by sharing my story with you, it might soften the weight of my relentless, aching loneliness 7073 kilometers far from my friends and family, and maybe ease yours too. What I’ve learned in 16 years as a practicing psychologist, it’s this no matter who we are, whether in a relationship, married, single, young, or old… we are all f@cking alone. Even when we’re not. 

If there’s one thing I truly know, it’s how to weave words into meaning. So let’s connect through them.

And by connect, I mean truly connect, not the usual social media b@llshit way. 

I promise I won’t only show the shiny parts. You’ll see it all, the ugly, the boring, and the happy moments too. And more often than not, you’ll meet two wonderful but crazy australian shepherds, the only loves in my life I can say for sure will last a lifetime.

What a beautiful, small piece of safety it is to be blessed with that, to have someone in my chaotic, unsettled, curious, but mostly terrifying little life. Someone who stays.

So, what do you think, are you ready? Shall we? 

Blog

Monthly reset and reflection – May

May was one of those months that felt like three distinct lives compressed into thirty-one days. First, before we even start, we need to talk about MIKA. I love him. Truly, completely, I literally mean it, I love him. My taste in music is all over the place, but if

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The country inside the bottle

A personal love letter to Hungarian wine Hungary has 22 official wine regions, but remains one of the most underrated wine cultures globally. This seems nearly unbelievable once you realize how deeply wine is embedded in Hungarian history and identity. The country doesn’t just produce wine; it has endured through

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Why GLP-1 Medications Are Changing How We Think About Endometriosis

A few years back, it would have seemed almost crazy to think that medications designed for diabetes and weight management could now be relevant to discussions of endometriosis; still, researchers worldwide are exploring this very possibility today. Currently, there is no evidence that GLP-1 medications can cure endometriosis. However, they

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WE ARE HIRING

I have an opening for following role:  Emergency Focus Intervention Specialist   NYC SEEKING: one (1) emotionally stable, highly focused, low-maintenance study/writing bestie.   Requirements:  Your responsibilities would include: About me: Clinical health psychologist, medical futures PhD candidate, writer, researcher, recovering overfeeler, Australian Shepherd energy in human form. I can lock in

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Tick tock

Before I moved to New York, back when I was still in Hungary, sleep used to find me in my medical office. I seldom went upstairs, even though my apartment was just above my practice. More often, I would fall asleep at my desk, with my head resting on my

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Freedom is a verb

Yesterday, while witnessing the formation of the new Hungarian Parliament and Peter Magyar’s inaugural address as Prime Minister of Hungary, I sat in my New York apartment and was moved to tears. There are moments when a political speech stops being about politics, when words aimed at an entire nation

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Hunger

You have to want it more than anything else. More than comfort, approval, but most importantly, you have to want it more than the seductive safety of a life that asks nothing extraordinary of you. You have to want it so fiercely that, at times, it borders on madness in

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Monthly reset & reflection with Nora and Eliott🐾

April Normally, I can quickly identify a month and summarize it with a clear sentence, a main theme, and a simple emotional story. However, April didn’t follow that pattern. It was vibrantly chaotic, slightly scattered, impulsive, and unpredictable, and I found myself loving it even more because of its wildness.

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I am the storm- a year in exile

For over a month, I’ve been avoiding writing this—my summary of the first year in New York—waiting for the perfect moment to share it. I’ve begun it at least four times. I open the document, face that year head-on, but each time I close it again, as if doing so

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Finally I can breathe- The Day Hungary Rewrote History

Less than twenty years ago—though it feels much longer—being Hungarian would spark a glow around the table. People would lean in instead of falling silent, with Budapest embodying beauty, brilliance, and long golden evenings by the Danube. Someone would always smile and mention the Parliament illuminated at night, the charm

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Nothing About This Is Aesthetic

A Substack friend tagged me in a note asking me to share my self-care and wellness routine, and I started to type it in a note, but then I thought, no, that just won’t be enough… As a clinical health psychologist and lifestyle medicine practitioner, I’ve always valued a healthy

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❤️🤍💚

This one is for my Hungarian friends and readers who face the most important elections of our history. I want to encourage them to make their voices heard. I could say so many things—painfully too many—but as I have worked as a clinical health psychologist for 16 years, exactly as

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Each smile, a bargain paid in soul

I’m nowhere near where you stand, I could never reach that land. Cold between two stars I roam, with no clear path, no steady home, and still I go, though it takes its toll, each step a trade from my fading soul.

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Monthly reset & reflection with Nora and Eliott🐾

My March in New York mainly focused on science. Early in the month, I delivered a talk at the Endometriosis Foundation of America Medical Conference in Times Square, discussing why pain frequently continues even after a “successful” endometriosis surgery, and exploring potential solutions from both the patient’s and the physician’s

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Shifting paradigms

The futures of science in the era of AI I’m writing this as I prepare for my panel discussion in a few hours at the recent Neumann Series conference, organized by Tamás Novák at Columbia University’s historic Pupin Hall in New York. We gathered around a Neumann’s compelling question that: Can we survive

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The day we chose freedom

To Hungary, from New York Today is Hungary’s National Day — March 15 — commemorating the 1848 uprising when young writers, poets, and students took to the streets, sparking a revolution for freedom, dignity, language, bravery, and the belief that a nation has the right to determine its own future.

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Become dangerously overeducated

Become dangerously overeducated. Gather questions and keep asking beyond the first answer. Learn history to identify patterns rather than panic. Understand neuroscience to realize how quickly your brain defaults to shortcuts. Explore psychology to become aware of your own blind spots. Familiarize yourself with statistics so graphs don’t mesmerize you.

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Memories from a Buddhist Monastery Part 2

I stayed up until 5 AM writing the first part of this article, the words still pulsing as I finally closed the laptop, convinced the night had taken enough from us — and then Eliott started shaking. Initially, only a flicker in his breath and a tightening in his body—his eyes too

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Fire Horse – Memories from a Monastery, Part 1.

The mornings began before I fully understood what they were doing to me. I couldn’t remember why I agreed to this experiment; I kept reminding myself, ‘remember your why, remember your why.’ But it wasn’t like in an American movie where you recite that into the mirror. We didn’t have

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Under the same Moon, but on fire

So today I got a message on Substack that went something like this:I Hey, I’m trying to piece together from your Notes what’s actually going on with you. What’s happening in your life? What’s the deal? Are you single or in a relationship? Are you being funny or are you

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stuff to buy to support my dogs extravagant lifestyle

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