RJMarmol.com

Of Headaches and Aspirins

—


As a write this post, I am plagued by an annoying and hard to ignore headache. This started at around 2 this afternoon and hasn’t stopped until now. And it’s almost 11pm. Imagine nine painful hours of consistent and persistent headache. It has made me very unproductive in all the sense of the word (not that I’m really productive when I don’t have a headache). Which reminds me of a post I’ve written a few months back, that was last year, actually — when I didn’t blog too often. This has been quite a disappointing day for me for many reasons, many of which I cannot talk about in this blog, unfortunately. It’s funny how they say that blogging gives you an outlet — some sort of a release, for your thoughts and feelings and all the mushiness you have inside when I, for example could not even touch topics that would make me appear like such an emo. Not that I mind being branded as one, it’s just that, until now, I still feel that I blog with reservations. No matter how personal I’ve tagged this blog, I simply can’t bring myself to bare my soul just like that. And for a personal blogger, that’s quite a frustration. Anyway, let’s not even dig deep into that, lest I frustrate myself some more and resort to cutting myself. I’ve never considered myself to be the suicidal type anyway.

I’ve taken an aspirin before I started writing this, in the hopes that the headache will go away as soon as I’m done here. Incidentally, I feel that the medicine is now slowly working its magic and the pain is getting bearable by the minute.

Unlike this physical headache though, a lot of pains in our life wouldn’t benefit from an aspirin. How i wish there was a universal aspirin. But if you examine closely, that may even be a good thing after all. Because, as I’ve observed, physical pain is but a smoke signal released by our body to solicit attention. And you know what they say — “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. So whether your headache signals a physical ailment in the works or something else entirely is a question that should be answered more importantly than asking what “medicine” to take to relieve the pain.

My headache is almost gone and this post is almost done.

Are you having headaches too? When you do, do you scramble for the nearest aspirin or ask yourself what made you have it in the first place?

One response to “Of Headaches and Aspirins”

  1. It Strikes Again : A Day In The Life Of RJ

    […] them. I am having an annoying headache yet again — similar to what I’ve blogged about before, and before that. And well, yes, I am hoping this doesn’t mean I’d die soon, because, […]

    Like

● About Me
Cecilia Regina Aquino Blanquera Marmol aka RJ Marmol profile picture

I’m RJ Marmol — writer, musician, and independent creator based in Manila.

I write songs, essays, and books about the messy overlap between money, overwhelm, creativity, identity, and rebuilding. Much of my work circles around what happens when life stops feeling manageable — and how we try to think clearly, make decisions, and keep moving anyway.

I’m also the author of Rebuilding Under Debt: Thinking Clearly When Everything Is a Blur, a nonfiction book published under Steady Hand Press. The paperback edition is listed under my full publishing name, Cecilia Regina Aquino Blanquera.

On the music side, I release work as HeyRJ. On the writing side, this site is where I gather my books, essays, notes, and whatever I’m building next.

Music

HeyRJ is my sonic soul project. I create raw, minimalist-style and deeply personal music interpretations that feel like a late-night conversation with your truest self.

By blending lo-fi acoustic textures with poetic honesty, my work explores love, loss, grief, healing, and the quiet in-betweens of life. Each song is a letter — a journal entry — a gentle companion for when the world feels too loud or too quiet.

While my catalogue began with intimate cover renditions, my work is increasingly being shaped by original writing, drawing from years of poems, lived questions, and emotional survival.

“Stuck Home Syndrome” released on March 20, 2026 is my first original 20-track album written during a period when time felt compressed and days began to blur into each other. The songs came from sitting with thoughts that had nowhere else to go — unfiltered, repetitive, and sometimes uncomfortable. It’s a concept album that isn’t built around singles or polish. It’s closer to a continuous inner monologue, recorded with minimal production and very little ornamentation and meant to be listened to as one cohesive body of work. The goal wasn’t to resolve anything, only to document how it felt while it was happening.

On May 29, 2026 I released new original singles – “Rapturous”, “Uh Huh”, “Look At You”, “All That” and “Blew Print”. I continue to release both original and cover songs and intend to so for as long as I can so check back every once in a while — you might. just find something you’ll like.

For business inquiries relating to music, email me at: heyrjmusic[at]gmail[dot]com or my personal email at: rjmarmol[at]gmail[dot]com.

Books

Rebuilding Under Debt: Thinking Clearly When Everything Is a Blur

A nonfiction book about what debt does to the mind — and how to begin functioning again when financial stress has made everything feel blurred, urgent, and overwhelming.

Rather than treating debt only as a financial math problem, the book explores the emotional and cognitive realities of financial distress: shame, decision fatigue, avoidance, panic, relationship strain, and the difficulty of making sound decisions while mentally depleted.

Published under Steady Hand Press. It’s available worldwide in ebook and paperback formats on Amazon. Bookstores and libraries can also be order it wholesale via Ingram.

Contact

For book-related inquiries, media requests, bookstore questions, or discussion-group invitations, you can reach me through the contact page on this site or send me an email to rjmarmol[at]gmail[dot]com or hello[at]steadyhandpress.com

● Recent Articles