This typically isn’t a dramatic reckoning, and doesn’t happen all at once. It’s often just a slow, creeping distaste for things we used to love without question, a thought we’d never entertained before suddenly making sense, an openness arriving in places where there used to be certainty. Not a clean before-and-after moment, but a subtle, almost imperceptible rearranging of the inner furniture.

And then, almost inevitably, comes the awareness that it’s happening. And with it, the urge to rush it. Even a glimmer of where your transformation is taking you will make you want to get there overnight.

You begin to read all the books, talk it through with anyone who will listen, take the action steps, make the vision board, do the thing that promises to get you from here to there as efficiently as possible. I know this urge intimately because I’ve lived it. Because what’s waiting on the other side sounds so good, and this unfamiliar in-between place has a way of making even the most grounded people restless.

Within my own experience, I’ve learned that transformation has its own divine timeline, and no amount of effort will change that. There are shifts happening underneath the surface that we simply can’t see while in the thick of it, and external pieces moving into place at exactly the right moment for our greater good. You can’t will any of it to move faster, any more than you can shorten a ten-hour flight by gripping the armrest harder or willing the plane to speed up.

But Wait, Is This Actually a Transformation?

It’s a question worth sitting with, because not every hard season is a transformation, and not every transformation feels particularly hard at first.

There is a clear distinction between a hard season and a transformative season in my experience. A difficult season tends to have a clear external cause and a felt sense that once the circumstance shifts, you’ll return to yourself. A transformation changes the self that does the returning. There will be a point when you realize there’s no going back to who you were, not because that person was wrong, but because you’ve genuinely outgrown them. The discomfort isn’t situational. It’s structural.

Another signal worth paying attention to is the quiet withdrawal of energy from things that used to sustain you. When the life you’ve built starts to feel like a costume rather than your favorite sweater, something deeper is usually underway.

And here’s something worth remembering. This is likely not your first transformation. You have already survived the rearranging before, even if it looked completely different. The fact that you came through it, changed yes but intact, is evidence that you are built for this. All of us are.

Surrender Isn’t Giving Up

Navigating a period of transformation requires surrender. We’re programmed to want to control everything in our lives, especially periods that feel uncomfortable and unproductive. Surrender is a lesson I continue to learn and have had to learn, whether I like it or not, through my recent period of transformation. The next best action isn’t something we can quickly think of and check off our to-do list. It needs to come at the right time and place to propel the transformation forward when it’s ready.

One of the most common places people get stuck is conflating surrender with doing nothing, as if trusting the timeline means sitting on your hands and waiting for life to happen to you. Or worse, feeling like surrender means abandoning the practical realities of your life right now.

What I’ve found, both personally and with clients, is that surrender is actually an active, daily practice. It looks like noticing when you’re white-knuckling an outcome and consciously loosening your grip. It looks like taking the next small step that feels true without needing to see the destination. It looks like saying yes to the quiet tugs in your heart even when you can’t fully explain why yet, and no to the things pulling you backwards out of habit or fear.

The difference between surrender and passivity is awareness. Passivity numbs. Surrender feels things fully and chooses trust.

Fear Will Only Prolong It

This is the part nobody really wants to hear, and I say it with as much compassion as I can. Fear is the thing most likely to extend the in-between.

Not because fear is wrong or weak. Fear during transformation is completely natural and deeply human. But when we let fear make our decisions, we tend to grip harder at the things already falling away, resist the openings appearing in front of us, and exhaust ourselves trying to control a process that was never ours to control in the first place.

The antidote isn’t to force yourself to feel fearless. It’s to get curious about what the fear is protecting and whether that protection is still serving you. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the fear is just an old pattern doing its job long after the job is done.

What I’ve learned is that the path forward rarely announces itself loudly. It tends to show up as a series of small, sometimes inexplicable yeses, a quiet pull toward something you can’t fully justify yet. The more you practice following those, the clearer the signal gets and the less power fear has over the process.

The One Thing That Brings You Back to Self

If you’re in the middle of a transformation and you also have a job, children, relationships, and responsibilities, which most of us do, you don’t need a five-step morning routine or a complete life overhaul. You need one thread to hold onto that keeps you connected to who you actually are underneath the uncertainty.

For me it’s been journaling, yoga, and long contemplative walks. For others it’s movement, time in nature, or a conversation with someone who truly sees them. Whatever it is for you, protect a small portion of time for it, even five minutes a day or one hour a week. Not because it will speed up the transformation, but because it will keep you tethered to yourself while it unfolds.

Transformation is not a solitary sport, even though it can feel profoundly isolating. The people who move through it with the most grace are almost always the ones who let themselves be witnessed and supported along the way.

A Compass for the Journey

When a client comes to me in the middle of a transformative season, one of the first places I look is their North and South Node, a polarity in the chart that acts like a compass for the soul’s direction.

The South Node illuminates where we’re most comfortable, the patterns and identities and ways of being we naturally default to, often without realizing we’re clinging to them. The North Node points toward where growth is calling, toward the qualities and experiences the soul is genuinely asking us to move into. Together they help illuminate what you’re being asked to release and what deserves a little more room in your life right now.

Some of these journeys look like moving from over-planning to surrender, from people-pleasing to self-confidence, from seeking worth in external validation to finding it from within. Each one is colored in with more detail and nuance depending on where your nodes fall by sign, house, and the aspects they make to other planets in your chart.

And of course the nodes are just one piece. There are other planets and transits that may be influencing the transformation you’re experiencing, all of them oriented toward the same thing. That’s one of the things I love most about astrology. Nothing in your chart is designed to drag you down. Everything is designed to push you toward the person your soul came here to be in this lifetime.

You Are Built for This

Transformation is messy. It’s uncertain. It asks things of us we didn’t know we’d be asked to give, and it rarely arrives on a timeline that feels convenient or kind.

But here’s what I know to be true after walking through my own transformations and sitting with clients in the middle of theirs. The subtlety of the beginning, the discomfort of the middle, the slow emergence on the other side, all of it is purposeful. All of it is for your highest good, even when it doesn’t feel that way yet.

You don’t have to have it figured out. You don’t have to move faster than you’re able. You don’t have to do it alone. And you don’t have to be fearless. You just have to keep taking the next small step that feels true, even when it’s a quiet one.

Something in you is rearranging. And if this resonates, there’s a good chance you already know it.

If You’d Like Support

This is the work I do, helping people in the middle of significant life transitions find their own footing using astrology, intuitive coaching, and a deep belief in your capacity to know yourself better than any system ever could.

If you’re curious about what your chart might illuminate about the transformation you’re moving through, I’d love to work with you. You can learn more about working with me or reach out directly through my website, chelseytung.com.

You don’t have to navigate this alone.

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If you’re new here, welcome!

I’m Chelsey, and I’m passionate about helping others design a life that is uniquely their own. Rather than prescribing the specific practices that worked for me, I guide you to discover the wisdom, gifts, and authentic energy patterns that are already within you.

Why? Because I believe that true transformation doesn’t come from following someone else’s blueprint—it comes from reconnecting with your own innate design. Once you understand your unique energy patterns and desires (the ones you came into the world with), you can begin shifting from a life shaped by societal programming and energy drains to one that honors who you truly are.

These aren’t superficial changes. These shifts can completely transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. I know because I’ve lived this transformation myself.

Learn more about me and my approach at chelseytung.com and subscribe to Rooted In You here on Substack.

[Just for fun]

The reason we feel that pull to plan and commit right now isn’t random—it’s Capricorn season doing exactly what it’s designed to do.

From late December through mid-January, the universe literally hands you extra fuel for:

• Strategic planning

• Long-term thinking

• Following through on commitments

• Building something real and lasting

So instead of fighting this energy (or wasting it on a gym membership you’ll ghost by March), let’s use it intentionally.

Here are three ways to work with Capricorn season

1. Get specific about what you actually want

Not what Instagram tells you to want. Not what [insert your most vocal friend or family member here] thinks you should do.

Ask yourself: What achievement would make me feel genuinely proud 6 months from now?

Then reverse-engineer it:

• What would it take to get there?

• What’s one simple action I can take this week?

“I want $3,000 in my savings account by June. That means I need to save $500/month. I’ll meal plan every Sunday for 20 minutes and cut the majority of my restaurant spending.”

Or: “I want 30 minutes of alone time, 3x per week. I need to have a real conversation with my partner tonight about protecting this time—and rescheduling it if something comes up.”

2. Think bigger picture, then break it down

Capricorn energy loves a good master plan and taking meaningful action.

What’s been sitting on your “someday” list that needs focused attention?

• Finally booking that family vacation you researched during Sagittarius season?

• Organizing your finances?

• Starting that house project?

Put the action items in your calendar. Give yourself deadlines. Capricorn thrives on structure. Be careful to not be too rigid though, Capricorn has a tendency to spiral in harsh self-judgement.

3. If you’re feeling drawn to physical goals, experiment first

Capricorn is an Earth sign—it’s grounded, physical, and material. So yes, you might feel pulled toward health and body-related goals right now.

So, remember: Responsible Capricorn energy does the research before committing.

Before you sign up for that $200/month gym membership:

• Try a free class that’s been intriguing you

• Experiment with different YouTube workouts for 2 weeks

• Notice what actually feels good in your body

Find what you genuinely enjoy, not what you think you “should” do. That’s the only way it sticks.

If none of the above examples resonate with you, it’s helpful to remember that Capricorn season affects everyone differently depending on where Capricorn shows up in YOUR unique chart.

For some people, this energy lights up their career sector—perfect timing for professional goal-setting.

For others, it activates relationships, home life, or creative projects.

When you know where Capricorn lives in your chart, you can direct this energy exactly where it needs to go. No more generic advice. No more guessing.

That’s exactly what I help my clients do through personalized Daily Alignment Blueprints. I look at your astrological natal chart chart, your Human Design, and your real life—then give you specific, actionable guidance for working with the energies available to you right now.

If you’re feeling the pull to plan, commit, and build something meaningful in 2026, let’s make sure you’re channeling that energy in the right direction.

Book a Blueprint session here and let’s map out exactly how to use Capricorn season (and every other season) to your advantage.

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If you’re new here, welcome!

I’m Chelsey, and I’m passionate about helping others design a life that is uniquely their own. Rather than prescribing the specific practices that worked for me, I guide you to discover the wisdom, gifts, and authentic energy patterns that are already within you.

Why? Because I believe that true transformation doesn’t come from following someone else’s blueprint—it comes from reconnecting with your own innate design. Once you understand your unique energy patterns and desires (the ones you came into the world with), you can begin shifting from a life shaped by societal programming and energy drains to one that honors who you truly are.

These aren’t superficial changes. These shifts can completely transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. I know because I’ve lived this transformation myself.

Learn more about me and my approach at chelseytung.com and subscribe to Rooted In You here on Substack.

Subscribe now

My own 6th house is ruled by Taurus, and I’ve learned to embrace my slow morning ritual of coffee, journaling, and a brisk walk by the river. I used to think I needed to be more rigid and achievement-focused, but what I’ve discovered - both personally and through working with others - is that we achieve our best results when our routines align with our authentic energy patterns.

Understanding your 6th house sign gives you permission to stop forcing yourself into routines that work for others and start embracing ones that actually work for you.

Finding Your 6th House Sign: Look for which zodiac sign sits at the cusp of your 6th house (most charts have the houses numbered with the ruling sign glyph on the left side of the house). This sign colors how you approach daily routines, work, health, and service.

6th House by Sign - Your Daily Rhythm Guide

♈︎Aries 6th House You need independence and action in your daily life. Routine feels best when it’s self-directed and includes physical challenges. Start days with movement - you’re the person who thrives with 5am gym sessions or morning runs. Your work style is sprint-based rather than marathon. Build in competition, whether that’s beating yesterday’s performance or gamifying your tasks. Stagnant routines kill your motivation faster than anything. Key: Autonomy + Action = Sustainable Routine

♉︎Taurus 6th House Stability and sensory pleasure make your routines stick. You’re not interested in hardcore boot camp approaches - you need routines that feel nourishing. Create rituals around meals, invest in quality items that make daily tasks enjoyable (that expensive coffee maker is worth it for you), and give yourself permission to move slowly. Your body responds better to consistent, gentle practices than extreme measures. Key: Pleasure + Consistency = Sustainable Routine

♊︎Gemini 6th House Variety and connection fuel your daily life. You need routines flexible enough to accommodate your curious mind. Batch similar tasks, rotate between different activities, and build in social elements - working alone all day depletes you. Your health routines work best with built-in learning: documentaries on the treadmill, educational podcasts during commutes, or workout classes where you’re constantly learning new moves. Key: Variety + Learning = Sustainable Routine

♋︎Cancer 6th House Home and family anchor your daily rhythm. You function best with routines that nurture - meal prep Sundays, regular check-ins with loved ones, and work that feels emotionally meaningful. Your body is deeply intuitive and responds to emotional stress immediately. Create cozy rituals: morning tea in your favorite spot, lunch at home when possible, and evening routines that help you process the day’s emotions. Key: Nurturing + Emotional Safety = Sustainable Routine

♌︎Leo 6th House Self-expression and creativity need to be daily practices. You can’t sustain routines that feel mundane or invisible. Build in moments to shine: morning affirmations, creative breaks, work that lets you share your unique gifts. Your health thrives when exercise feels playful - dance classes, sports with friends, or anything that doesn’t feel like punishment. Make your routines special, not ordinary. Key: Creativity + Recognition = Sustainable Routine

♍︎Virgo 6th House Practical planning and service give your days meaning. You actually enjoy detailed routines and find comfort in knowing the plan. Health consciousness comes naturally, but beware of perfectionism. Build in acts of service - helping colleagues, meal prepping for family, or volunteer work. Your routines work best when they’re refined through practice, not imposed all at once. Key: Purpose + Refinement = Sustainable Routine

♎︎Libra 6th House Balance and beauty are essential to your daily flow. You need aesthetically pleasing environments and routines that don’t tip too far in any direction. Partner workouts, beautiful meal presentations, and regular connection with loved ones keep you centered. Your work environment matters enormously - harsh lighting or ugly spaces drain your energy. Create routines that feel graceful, not grinding. Key: Harmony + Partnership = Sustainable Routine

♏︎Scorpio 6th House Transformation and depth drive your daily practices. Surface-level routines won’t stick - you need to see real change or feel profound purpose. Your approach is all-or-nothing, so choose routines that genuinely matter to you. Intense workouts, deep work sessions, and practices that involve psychological transformation (therapy, shadow work, investigative projects) align with your nature. If it’s not transforming you, it’s not worth doing daily. Key: Intensity + Transformation = Sustainable Routine

♐︎Sagittarius 6th House Freedom and adventure must be woven into daily life. Rigid routines suffocate you - you need a loose framework with room for spontaneity. Your health thrives with outdoor activities, your work needs meaning beyond money, and your routines should expand your world. International cuisine, philosophy podcasts during workouts, and location flexibility keep you engaged. Plan for unplanned moments. Key: Freedom + Expansion = Sustainable Routine

♑︎Capricorn 6th House Strategic planning and achievement drive your routines. You want every habit to build toward long-term goals - wasted time frustrates you deeply. Create routines that feel like investments: morning routines that prepare you for success, work blocks that move major projects forward, health habits that ensure longevity. You respond well to tracking progress and seeing measurable results. Key: Strategy + Achievement = Sustainable Routine

♒︎Aquarius 6th House Innovation and independence shape your daily life. Traditional routines feel suffocating - you need to experiment and find your own way. Technology can be your friend here: apps that gamify habits, online communities for accountability, or completely unconventional approaches (working at 3am if that’s when you’re inspired). Your routines should feel progressive and serve a larger purpose than just personal gain. Key: Innovation + Community Impact = Sustainable Routine

♓︎Pisces 6th House Intuition and flow guide your daily rhythm. Rigid schedules disconnect you from your body’s wisdom. Create gentle structures that accommodate your changing needs: morning check-ins with yourself, work that engages imagination, movement that feels more like art than exercise. Your routine needs space for dreams, creativity, and spiritual connection. Some days need more structure, others need complete flow. Key: Intuition + Compassion = Sustainable Routine

Remember: This is just one piece of your astrological blueprint. Planets in your 6th house, aspects to your 6th house ruler, and your overall chart pattern all add layers to this story. But understanding your 6th house sign gives you permission to stop forcing yourself into routines that work for others and start creating ones that work for you.

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Hi there and welcome to Rooted in You. I’m Chelsey, and I’m passionate about helping others design a life that is uniquely their own. Rather than prescribing the specific practices that worked for me, I guide you to discover the wisdom, gifts, and authentic energy patterns that are already within you.

Why? Because I believe that true transformation doesn’t come from following someone else’s blueprint—it comes from reconnecting with your own innate design. Once you understand your unique energy patterns and desires (the ones you came into the world with), you can begin shifting from a life shaped by societal programming and energy drains to one that honors who you truly are.

These aren’t superficial changes. These shifts can completely transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. I know because I’ve lived this transformation myself.

Learn more about me and my approach at chelseytung.com and subscribe to Rooted In You here on Substack.

In this instant, I knew I needed to stop lying to them. And to myself.

For months after leaving my corporate job, I’d perfected two different stories. To my inner circle, I shared the truth about what my soul was calling for. But to everyone else? I served up the comfortable lie – a sanitized explanation for why I left, followed by a rambling fiction about the corporate role I was “looking for.” And in truth, I felt if I kept giving the answer it would manifest itself into a job opportunity that I couldn’t turn down — I was “keeping my options open.” That route would be far easier that what I really wanted to do.

While giving these answers I could hear the dishonesty in my voice. They could sense it too whether they realized it or not. That energetic mismatch between my words and my truth was palpable. Describing my fictional “next corporate role” felt like walking through mud with no end in sight while the person I was talking to watched from afar not knowing how to help.

I knew I was choosing to hide the honest answer — I was scared to reveal myself as someone who didn’t want to continue climbing the corporate ladder. If I did reveal what I wanted to do they might not understand it, they might think it’s just a silly phase, or worse, they might think I’m “dumb” for walking away from a stable career.

Through deep inner work (specifically subconscious unblocking with the To Be Magnetic (aka TBM) program), I finally understood why I couldn’t simply say: “I appreciate my corporate experience, but I’ve felt called to coaching for years. Now feels like the right time to honor that.” Those words leaving my mouth meant that I was being vulnerable, going against the status quo, and the biggest fear: I felt like my answer might make the other person feel uncomfortable. If I was honest the person might distance themselves from me.

What I came to realize is that honesty and authenticity actually has the opposite affect. It has the affect of magnetism. It pulls the person into you. It makes you interesting and they want to know more. So, I started testing this understanding. I started answering the dreaded question with honesty.

Let’s go back to the moment when my neighbor asked that dreaded question about my work plans… After starting my usual painful script, I caught myself in the lie and decided to be honest.

I told the truth.

As the words left my mouth I instantly felt alive and her response shocked me. It wasn’t just her words – her entire being transformed. Eyes brightened. Body language opened. She mirrored my sudden aliveness with her own, even offering to hire me.

This is what becomes possible when you show up in your truth. Sure, I’d known this intellectually, however, the thought of living it out scared me. But feeling that moment reverberate through my entire body? That was a new feeling. That was alignment.

Here’s what I’ve learned: It’s not just us who feels our misalignment. Everyone around us feels it too. When we’re not genuinely connected to what we’re sharing, others respond with the same flat energy we’re putting out. Its true when they say that the world is simply mirroring ourselves back to us. This includes our energy.

Choosing authenticity can be terrifying. Vulnerable. Uncomfortable. But I promise you this: Try it once, maybe twice, and the surge of power and aliveness you feel will become addictive. You’ll want to return to that feeling again and again.

So I’m curious:

• Where are you still giving the safe answers?

• Where are you dimming your truth to avoid rocking the boat?

• What might happen if you actually said the thing?

Just notice your answers. You don’t have to act until you’re ready. Some readiness will come from pure courage. Some, like mine, will come from doing the deeper inner work.

If you can’t even find the answers right now, I understand. You’ve spent years building protective layers around your most authentic self. Playing it safe to keep your world from being rocked.

But here’s my promise: With awareness, intention, and above all, an understanding of your unique energy, needs and values, you’ll not only find these answers – there will be no other option for you but to live from this place of truth. It feels too good not to.

The glazed eyes of others will transform into genuine connection — shared excitement for you living your truth. And that mud you’ve been walking through? It’ll feel like dancing on solid ground.

Now, you might be wondering, “But, Chelsey, what’s next? What is the honest answer?”

Well, the truth is, I’m following what lights me up, one step at a time. Right now, that means offering astrology readings focused on helping people find better alignment in their daily lives.

Through these readings, I help people uncover insights about themselves that create real change – whether that’s in their health routines, stress management, self-discovery, or simply finding a deeper connection to who they are.

The direction this is heading? A combination of astrology and coaching that honestly makes my whole system light up because I believe it will truly help people. Through my own journey I’ve learned when you understand your unique blueprint – how you’re specifically designed to move through this life – everything shifts.

I’ve experienced this transformation myself. And I’ve watched it happen for others. When you tap into this level of self-knowledge, your potential isn’t just expanded.

It becomes limitless.

Learn more about my offerings here

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If you’re new here, hi, I’m Chelsey!

I’m the one who left corporate to finally tell the truth about what I really wanted. Turns out, living aligned with your inner knowing beats living for the safe answers every time.

I write about trusting yourself, making bold moves, and why your unique blueprint matters more than anyone else’s advice. Because I’ve learned that everything you need? It’s already rooted in you.

Currently building a life (and community) around that truth.

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We make hundreds of consumption choices every single day. What to eat for breakfast. Which podcast to listen to during your commute. What to wear to that meeting. Whether to scroll Instagram while waiting in line. What to buy for dinner. Which show to watch before bed.

Most of these decisions happen on autopilot, influenced by algorithms, social expectations, convenience, or simply what we did yesterday. But what if there was a different way? What if each consumption choice could be an opportunity to align more deeply with who you truly are?

A note for paid subscribers: At the end of this post, you'll find an in-depth Authentic Consumption Toolkit including a comprehensive audit, reflection prompts, and practical frameworks to help you identify where you're consuming on autopilot and develop your own authentic decision-making process.

The Consumption Crossroads

Every time we consume something—whether it's food, media, products, or experiences—we stand at a crossroads. We can choose based on external influences: what's trending, what others are doing, what we think we should want. Or we can choose based on our authentic desires: what our body is asking for, what our soul craves, what genuinely serves our wellbeing.

The difference between these two paths is profound. When we consume authentically, we're training our inner wisdom to speak up. We're telling our most genuine selves that their desires matter. When we consume based on external pressure, we're teaching our authentic parts to stay quiet.

You can probably trace the roots of this pattern back to childhood. You ate the dinner that was put in front of you—no questions asked. If you chose not to, you might have gone hungry. In school, you had to show up and pay attention even when you had pent-up energy or were exhausted. Those intrinsic, authentic choices weren't available to you, so you learned to quiet that inner voice.

Now, in most of our day-to-day adult lives, that voice has gone quiet or is routinely ignored. But it can be reawakened and brought to the forefront of our minds to support the choices we get to make today.

My Journey with Authentic Consumption

I've learned this lesson most clearly through my relationship with alcohol. For years, I made drinking decisions based entirely on social cues. If everyone at the table was ordering cocktails, I ordered a cocktail. If the group was having "just one more," so was I. I'd gauge how much to drink by watching others, assuming that if they seemed fine, I was fine too.

This external decision-making led to drinking more than felt good, drinking when I wasn't really in the mood, and waking up feeling what my husband and I call "crunchy"—that rough, slightly hungover feeling that told me I'd ignored my body's signals.

In December 2022, I decided that feeling physically good was more important than keeping up with the group. I took a break from drinking for a couple of months, and since then, I've developed what I consider a beautifully authentic relationship with alcohol.

Now I drink when it sounds genuinely appealing. I often stop after one or two drinks because the desire has been satisfied. I show up to parties and order mocktails when that's what feels right. I've driven friends home from weddings after having just a single glass of champagne. Most importantly, I never regret not drinking when my body says "no thanks."

This isn't about rules or labels—it's about fluid, responsive decision-making that honors what I actually want rather than what I think I should want.

Expanding Authentic Choice

Once you develop authentic decision-making in one area, you start noticing other places where you've been living on autopilot. For me, social media became the next frontier.

I realized I was consuming Instagram content mindlessly, often feeling empty and low-energy afterward. So I deleted the app from my phone. Five months later, when I checked back in, it was immediately clear that scrolling through other people's curated lives didn't serve my most authentic self. Those people I followed religiously? Their daily updates didn't actually matter to me at all.

The same principles apply to everything we consume:

Food: Are you eating because you're actually hungry, or because it's "time to eat"? Are you choosing foods that make your body feel energized, or foods that look good on social media?

Shopping: Are you buying something because you genuinely need or love it, or because it's on sale, trending, or might make you feel better about something else?

Information: Are you consuming news and content that genuinely informs or enriches your life, or are you doom-scrolling out of habit or anxiety?

Entertainment: Are you watching, reading, or listening to things that truly engage you, or just whatever's easiest or most popular?

Questions For More Authentic Consumption

One gauge of how authentically you're living is examining what and how you consume. Before your next consumption choice—whether it's food, media, a purchase, or an experience—try asking yourself one of these questions:

Where is your desire to consume coming from? External pressure, habit, boredom, genuine want?

What is your reason for consuming it? To fit in, to numb something, to nourish yourself, to genuinely enjoy?

Are you aware that you are consuming? Or are you on autopilot?

How is your consumption serving you? Does it align with how you want to feel and who you want to be?

Is your consumption supporting the person you are becoming? Or keeping you stuck in old patterns?

Starting Your Own Journey

If you want to begin living more authentically through your consumption choices, start small. Pick one area—maybe your morning coffee ritual, your social media habits, or your evening wind-down routine—and begin practicing conscious choice-making.

Don't create rigid rules for yourself. Authentic living is fluid by nature. You today might have different desires than you tomorrow, and that's perfectly okay. The goal isn't perfection; it's awareness and alignment.

Notice when you're about to consume something and pause. Ask yourself: "What do I actually want right now?" Listen to your body, your energy, your genuine preferences. Then make a choice from that place of inner knowing.

Be patient with yourself. Learning to distinguish between authentic desires and external influences takes practice. Some days you'll nail it, some days you won't. Think of it as an upward spiral—always in progress, never quite complete, but consistently moving toward greater alignment with your truest self.

The Ripple Effect

What I've discovered is that when you start consuming authentically in one area of your life, it becomes easier to recognize where else you've been giving away your power to external influences. Each authentic choice strengthens your ability to hear and trust your inner wisdom.

Your authentic desires aren't random or selfish—they're custom to your unique blueprint. They know what serves your highest good because they arise from your deepest knowing. When you honor them through conscious consumption, you're not just buying, eating, or watching differently—you're practicing a way of being that honors who you truly are.

The next time you're faced with a consumption choice, remember: your authentic self has been waiting for you to ask what it actually wants. It's time to start listening.

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I share up to 4 posts each month exploring self-discovery, authentic living, and practical ways to align your daily choices with who you truly are. Think of it as gentle guidance for the inner work that leads to a more fulfilled life.

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If you’re a paid subscriber, enjoy expanded guidance on creating more authentic consumption in your life.

The journey to authentic consumption requires intentional practice and self-reflection. Below, I've created a comprehensive toolkit to help you identify where you're consuming on autopilot and develop your own authentic decision-making process.

The Authentic Consumption Audit

Take 15 minutes to honestly assess these areas of your life. Rate each on a scale of 1-5 (1 = completely external influence, 5 = completely authentic choice):

Food & Drink

• Do you eat when you're actually hungry, or because it's "time"?

• Are your food choices based on what your body craves or what you think you "should" eat?

• When you drink alcohol, are you responding to social pressure or genuine desire?

Media & Information

• What drives you to open social media—boredom, habit, or genuine interest?

• Are you consuming news that informs you or anxieties that drain you?

• Do you choose entertainment that genuinely interests you or just what's easy?

Shopping & Material Goods

• Before purchasing, do you pause to ask "Do I actually want/need this?"

• Are your style choices expressions of who you are or attempts to fit in?

• How often do you buy things to fill an emotional void?

Experiences & Activities

• Do you say yes to social events because you want to go or because you feel obligated?

• Are your hobbies and activities aligned with your genuine interests?

• When you consume experiences (classes, workshops, travel), what's driving those choices?

  What to Do with Your Audit Results:

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Now, think about a point of friction that has been preventing you from making that change occur in a meaningful and lasting way.

Let’s revisit this at the end.

After many attempts of trying to change while keeping everything else the same I’ve learned that strategy doesn't work. Most of us approach transformation by trying to add new habits, goals, and practices to lives that are already overflowing. We wonder why we can't stick to our morning routine when our schedule is packed. We wonder why we can't find clarity on our next career move when our minds are constantly spinning with current responsibilities.

As a woman nearing 40, a mom, a wife, someone who is highly ambitious, I've discovered that meaningful change requires something most people, including myself sometimes, skip entirely —clearing space before expecting the change to take hold. Not just physical space, but energetic and mental space too.

We can easily look around at our lives—both our inner world and our outer physical world—and notice where things feel cluttered and overwhelming. Our schedule, our responsibilities, our commitments, our endless "should dos," and even our assumptions around what our life should look like. All of this clutter isn't just going to magically disappear when we decide we want it to be different, we need to deal with it. We need to clear it.

Real change requires room for the new version of yourself to emerge, and that means making conscious choices about what gets to stay and what needs to go. Just like preparing a garden bed by removing weeds and rocks before planting seeds, we must tend to the areas of our lives before planting the seeds of our goals and desires.

Think about the goal to eat healthier. You don't buy organic vegetables while keeping a pantry full of cookies and chips. You clear the processed foods first, then replace them with nourishing options. Both can't coexist if you're trying to make meaningful, lasting changes. Or telling yourself you want to walk after lunch everyday but then not blocking your work calendar and allowing people to schedule meetings during that time.

This is why clearing space isn't just helpful—it's required. If that sounds overwhelming, the beautiful thing is you can start small. Clearing just 5 or 10 minutes of your day builds momentum over time as you become more comfortable with the boundaries required for creating space for your new goals and ambitions to sprout.

🧹Physical Space Clearing

Your physical environment either supports the changes you want to make or subtly sabotages them. If you want to prioritize your health but your kitchen counter is clutters with all off life’s stuff and your pantry filled with processed snacks, you're fighting an uphill battle every time you try to prepare a nourishing meal. If you're dreaming of starting a creative project but your workspace is buried under laundry and old magazines, you're sending yourself a message that this dream isn't important enough to deserve space.

Physical clearing works because it removes decision fatigue and visual overwhelm. When you clear the candy jar from your desk, you eliminate dozens of micro-decisions about food throughout the day. When you create a dedicated space for movement in your home, you remove the excuse that there's nowhere to exercise. When you remove an app from your phone you begin to reach for is less and less.

Start with removal rather than addition. Things to be removed can be identified simply by asking yourself, “What is no longer serving me and my goals?” Or, “Does the person I am becoming have a need for this?”

🌊Energetic Space Clearing

Your energy is your most precious resource, yet most of us give it away unconsciously through commitments, relationships, and activities that drain rather than sustain us. Energetic space clearing is about becoming fiercely protective of how you spend your life force so that you have reserves for what serves us.

This might mean saying no to the committee you've been on for years but no longer enjoy, having honest conversations with friends whose company leaves you feeling depleted, or stepping back from social media that fills you with comparison and overwhelm.

Examine your commitments through the lens of alignment. Are you saying yes because you genuinely want to, or because you feel you should? Are you maintaining relationships out of habit rather than mutual joy and growth?

When you don't clear energetic space, you end up living by default rather than by design. You find yourself too exhausted to pursue the goals that excite you because you've spent all your energy on things that don't truly matter to you.

The goal isn't to become selfish—it's to become intentional about where your energy goes so you can show up fully for the people and pursuits that align with your values.

💭Mental Space Clearing

The most challenging but transformative type of clearing involves your inner landscape—the beliefs, identities, and thought patterns that may have served you once but now keep you stuck.

Mental and spiritual space clearing means examining the stories you tell yourself about who you are and what's possible. Maybe you've been carrying the identity of "someone who's not good with money" or "someone who doesn't have time for self-care." These old stories take up mental real estate that could be used for creativity, possibility, and growth.

This also involves releasing the constant mental chatter that keeps you stuck in loops of worry, guilt, or overwhelm—the thoughts that replay your to-do list when you're trying to be present with your family, or the inner critic that tells you you're not doing enough.

Just like physical clutter, mental clutter makes it nearly impossible to think clearly or access your inner wisdom. When your mind is constantly occupied by these old programs, there's no space for the insights and intuition that could guide you toward meaningful change.

When you clear physical space, it often creates mental clarity. When you clear energetic space by setting boundaries, it frees up mental bandwidth. When you clear limiting beliefs, you often find the motivation to tackle physical clutter. I see this integration constantly—when I finally cleaned out that closet I'd been avoiding, I suddenly felt motivated to tackle a project I'd been procrastinating on.

This is why trying to make meaningful change without clearing space rarely works long-term. You might force new habits for a while, but if your environment, energy, and mindset are still aligned with your old patterns, you'll eventually slide back.

🚦How to Begin Clearing Space

Remember that that change you’ve been wanting and that we called attention to at the very beginning? And the friction that has existed around making that change happen? Let’s return to that thought and go through this list of steps for clearing space to allow that change to have space in your life:

1. Choose One Area: Pick either physical, energetic, or mental space clearing to focus on first. Don't try to tackle all three at once.

2. Start with Subtraction: Before you add anything new to your life, commit to removing something. Example: Clear one drawer, cancel one draining commitment, or release one limiting belief.

3. Create Space Before You Fill It: Resist the urge to immediately fill cleared space with something new related to the change you’re seeking. Let it breathe. Notice how the emptiness feels and what wants to emerge naturally.

4. Ask Better Questions: Instead of "What do I need to add to my life to make this change happen?" ask "What do I need to release to make space for who I'm becoming?"

5. Trust the Process: Space clearing can feel uncomfortable because we're so used to fullness and busyness. Trust that the temporary discomfort of emptiness is creating room for something better.

Clearing space isn't about creating a perfect life or becoming a minimalist. It's about becoming intentional with your physical environment, your energy, and your mental bandwidth so that the changes you want to make actually have room to take root and flourish.

As we transition into fall—a season naturally associated with release and preparation—there's no better time to practice the art of clearing space. Your future self is counting on the space you create today.

I'd love to hear what resonates with you in the comments below.

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If this topic made you think you might have trouble creating the boundaries needed to clear up space in your life, check out this post I wrote back in January.

If you’re new to Rooted in You, welcome! I'm Chelsey, and I'm thrilled you discovered this post and hope you found a nugget of insight or inspiration. I love exploring how we can show up as our authentic selves to live with more joy and fulfillment. If you choose to subscribe, thank you for your support, and please feel free to comment—I'd love to connect!

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I've learned that joy is a reflection of our authentic self revealing its pleasures to us. It's cultivated from small, accessible moments available to us every day, not just the big, dramatic ones. And unlike happiness, joy doesn't require you to be in a good mood or have something good happen to you—it only requires awareness.

We've been conditioned to think joy is something we have to earn or wait for. But what if joy could be a practice that helps us become more in tune with our most authentic selves? Let's explore why this matters and how to do it.

Why Joy Matters More Than We Think

Research confirms what I've been experiencing: joy isn't just a nice feeling—it's transformative. Brené Brown defines joy as "an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure and appreciation," (Atlas of the Heart, 2021). Researcher Matthew Kuan Johnson discovered that when we experience joy, we become more truly ourselves, calling it "the psychological phenomenon that has some of the most potential for bringing about human flourishing."

What's crucial is that joy is completely individual. Martin Seligman's research shows that sustainable wellbeing comes from five elements—positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment—but how these show up is unique to each person. Your joy reflects what brings you into "closer connection with someone or something important," (“Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being" (2011)).

The stakes are higher than we think. A study of nuns showed that those expressing the most positive emotions in their writing lived dramatically longer—90% of the most joyful were alive at 85, compared to only 34% of the least joyful. It wasn't just happiness that extended their lives; it was genuine joy rooted in meaning and connection (Danner, D. D., et al. "Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001).

So, as I’ve felt in my own experience, bringing awareness to joy creates a strong connection back to our authentic selves and has the ability to strengthen our connection to the world around us.

The Missed Opportunities

We're missing countless opportunities to experience joy daily. We get caught in thought spirals, rushing from task to task without noticing what's pleasant about the present moment.

Experiencing joy is like feeling sun on our face—it's there, but only if we pause to acknowledge it. We have to slow down enough to feel the warmth and light.

Understanding the difference between joy and happiness is crucial here. Think about the last time you did something playful—that familiar physical sensation was joy. Now think of a moment when something worked out perfectly—that's happiness. Joy comes from internal connection to yourself; happiness responds to external situations. Joy is accessible in most moments; happiness depends on circumstances beyond our control.

Joy as a Window Into Authenticity

What I find incredibly interesting about joy is that when we recognize the joyful things in our lives, we're in an authentic alignment. Think about it… if I told you that a slow morning with a hot cup of coffee is the most joyful part of my day and you love to sleep in and hate coffeee, you will not find alignment with my version of joy. It’s not a reflection of your authentic self. There's no prescription for what should cause us joy. Joy is completely subjective, and that's exactly the point. Get to know your authentic self, get to know your joy, or visa versa.

The things that light you up are a peek into your authentic self. Maybe it's the smell of coffee in the morning, the feeling of clean sheets, or that moment when a song comes on that makes you want to dance. Maybe it's the way light hits your kitchen counter at 3pm, the sound of your kid laughing, or the satisfaction of crossing something off your to-do list.

These aren't universal joys—they're uniquely yours. Paying attention to them is a form of getting to know yourself and discovering what actually serves you rather than what you think should.

Practical Ways to Cultivate More Joy

• Start with your senses. Joy often comes through sensory experiences. Notice what you see, smell, taste, hear, and touch throughout your day. The morning light streaming through your window, the scent of your coffee, the texture of your favorite sweater.

• Practice micro-moments of appreciation. Instead of waiting for big joyful events, look for tiny pleasant moments. The way your pet greets you, a text from a friend, the first sip of something delicious.

• Create joy anchors. Identify specific things that reliably bring you joy and intentionally incorporate them into your routine. Maybe it's playing your favorite song while getting dressed, or taking three deep breaths of fresh air.

• Notice your joy patterns. Pay attention to when joy naturally occurs for you. Are you more joyful in the morning? While moving your body? In quiet moments? Work with your natural rhythms rather than fighting them.

• Slow down for pleasant moments. When something feels good, pause for an extra beat. Don't rush past the pleasant experience—let yourself fully receive it.

• Express joy when it arises. Smile, laugh, dance, or simply acknowledge to yourself "this feels joyful." The act of recognition often amplifies the experience.

Why This Matters for Authentic Living

Joy is a practice of paying attention to what genuinely lights us up, rather than what we think should. It's a form of authentic discernment—choosing to notice and cultivate what brings us real pleasure and connection, rather than chasing external ideas of what joy should look like.

When we start recognizing our own joy, we develop trust in our preferences, our rhythms, our unique way of moving through the world. This awareness becomes a compass for making choices that feel aligned rather than obligatory.

The Daily Experiment

What would change if you approached your day looking for opportunities to cultivate joy rather than just trying to get through it? What if the small, pleasant moments were actually more important than we think?

I'm curious about what happens when we approach joy as something we can practice rather than something we wait for. Not because I have it figured out, but because I'm discovering that the things that bring me joy are often the things that feel most like me.

The truth is, you're the expert on your own joy. The practice is simply learning to pay attention.

What brings you joy that you might be rushing past without noticing?

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If you're new to Rooted in You, hello! I'm Chelsey, and ice cream brings me joy—as does writing and sharing my thoughts here on Substack. I'm thrilled you discovered this post and hope you found a nugget of insight or inspiration. I love exploring how we can show up as our authentic selves to live with more joy and fulfillment. If you choose to subscribe, thank you for your support, and please feel free to comment—I'd love to connect!

We all know what it feels like to learn something vs understand something. For instance, you can read a recipe and learn how to cook something from a cookbook but until you actually experience the cooking of the recipe and eat the food you won't completely understand the meal. By cooking and eating the meal you gain a deeper understanding of it and cultivate wisdom that will help you to cook the meal even better next time. That's how I think about the difference between knowledge and wisdom. We can read all of the books we want but until we actually apply that knowledge to our lives and experience things first hand we won't cultivate our own unique wisdom.

What Wisdom Actually Is

I used to think wisdom was reserved for older generations that lived long interesting lives or came from consuming vast amounts of information.

But through this reflection, I’ve come to understand that wisdom is the alchemy of knowledge and experience, distilled into simple understandings that are uniquely yours.

For example, professionally I am confident in my ability to lead teams and this confidence is a result of cultivating wisdom through my experience. As a leader I have failed many times, I’ve had missteps that became powerful lessons. I’ve also had many successes and moments that I’m incredibly proud of. Both my failures and successes are what gives me wisdom when I’m in a leadership role. That wisdom has become one of my favorite things to share with people early in their careers and it excites me to watch as they cultivate their own.

Personally, parenting is an incredibly fertile ground for cultivating wisdom. Not only do you cultivate wisdom around how to become the best parent you can be, it also forces you to reflect on yourself – whether it’s your past, your patterns, your triggers, and beyond, parenting is a powerful catalyst for turning your experiences into wisdom through deep reflection and an effort to recognize yourself more deeply.

I recognize that not everyone is sitting around thinking about how wise they are, that’s not the point of this. The point is to recognize and trust your own wisdom when it arrives or when you need to dig deep within yourself for guidance. My hope is that recognizing this wisdom creates more confidence and awareness of your own strengths.

How to Recognize the Wisdom You Already Have

Now, if this is the first time you’ve intentionally taken stock of your own wisdom, here are a few prompts that might help you get started:

What do you feel like are your TRUTHS? Things that you know to be true because you’ve experienced them for yourself? Think of this like your “laws of the universe.” In your experience, when x happens y is the result. For example, if I reflect back on all of the major positive life events that have happened to me, they’ve all happened on a timeline that I could have never controlled AND they’ve turned out better than I could have planned. This wisdom is so helpful when I become anxious and want to control the timing of something.

What life lessons have you learned the hard way? These experiences often contain some of your most valuable insights. Like learning that saying yes to everything doesn't make you valuable, it makes you exhausted. Or discovering that asking for help actually makes you stronger, not weaker.

What patterns do you notice in your decision-making? Your internal compass has been developing based on what you've learned works for you and what doesn't, even if you haven't been conscious of it.

How to Keep Cultivating More

I'm experimenting with a few practices that have been helpful:

Regular reflection has become important to me. I check in with myself: What am I learning from my current transition? What's working? What feels off?

Practice distillation - taking complex experiences and trying to extract simple principles. If I can't explain something simply to someone else, I probably don't fully understand it yet. This was a very helpful process for my thinking about the wisdom I gained through our fertility journey – going from being told I would never have a baby at 21 to delivering my baby at 32. There was so much that happened in those 11 years but I can now reflect and distill the wisdom I gained into just a few simple principles: 1. Nothing is certain– keep asking questions, 2. A strong partnership is vital to pushing through fertility (or any other type) struggles, 3. Your body is SO incredibly intelligent – never give “science” more credit than you give your own body.

Trust your own interpretations - This is the hardest part for me. I don't need external validation for insights I've gained from my own life, but I still catch myself seeking it.

What Changes When You Trust Your Own Wisdom

When I started recognizing my own wisdom, something shifted. I became more confident in decisions because I was drawing from my lived experience rather than constantly looking for someone else to tell me what to do.

I think that in your 20’s there is a lot of seeking for advice and validation which can be a hard pattern to break. As you move into your 30’s you begin to rack up some experiences, you have a general sense of who you are and how you move through the world. I can only speak to late 30’s (I’m 38 as a write this) and it’s now that I am beginning to find the inner confidence and wealth of experience that I can draw from as I continue to navigate my life.

This doesn't mean I've stopped learning from others—I'm still reading those books and having conversations to seek insights from other people’s wisdom but I approach information differently now. I gather what resonates and test it against my own experience rather than assuming someone else knows better than I do about my own life.

Your Wisdom Matters

Your life experience has been cultivating wisdom all along. The combination of everything you've lived through, reflected on, and learned from has created insights that are uniquely yours.

The practice is learning to recognize this wisdom, trust it, and continue cultivating more through conscious reflection. You don't need to wait for someone else to validate your understanding.

You already have wisdom. I'm still figuring out what to do with mine, but I'm starting to think that's exactly the point.

What wisdom have you been sitting on without realizing it?

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About me

If we haven't met, I'm Chelsey! I'm currently in my own trust fall with the universe, having recently left my 18-year corporate career to explore what authentic living actually looks like. When I'm not writing about the messy middle of major life transitions and spending time with my husband and daughter, you can find me experimenting with different spiritual practices (astrology, human design, tarot, just to name a few—I'm a curious sampler), watercoloring wildflowers, moving my body in whatever way feels good, or getting lost in a book that challenges how I think about the world. I'm still figuring out what comes next, and I'm sharing what I'm learning along the way.

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Within the first two days of not working, my idea of how things would go financially during this break got rocked—a monthly expense just increased, like, a lot. For a few minutes, I let myself feel the familiar stress spiral start—the one that begins in your stomach and works its way up until your chest feels tight and your thoughts start racing, thinking things like, "If I would have known I wouldn't have quit my job."

But then something quickly shifted. I pulled myself together and recognized what that moment actually was: a test. An invitation to continue free-falling and trust that the universe would be there to catch me. The truth is, it wasn’t an ideal situation but it’s also not the end of the world. I could choose to continue the spiral, or I could see this as an opportunity to remind myself why I made this decision in the first place.

As these thoughts circled through my mind in that yoga class, the analogy of a trust fall came to me. And it's become the cornerstone of my mindset as I transition into this new phase of my life. My next realization was that I've gone through these trust falls before, I just hadn't named it yet.

What Falling Actually Feels Like

Falling with trust vs. impulsively jumping takes repeated practice throughout your life.

There's a difference between jumping off a cliff with your eyes closed, hoping for the best, and intentionally allowing yourself to fall with the deep belief that whatever awaits will provide you with a landing that you need.

The impulsive jump? That's a 50/50 decision made on a hunch, based on external factors that maybe look good on paper. It's reactive. It's driven by what you think you should do or what looks good from the outside.

The intentional fall, or 'trust fall?' That's different. That's a decision made in alignment with your values and the most authentic parts of yourself. You trust that whether the outcome feels positive or negative in the moment, it will serve your greater good somehow.

Compared to the impulsive jump off the cliff, the trust fall can be enjoyed with eyes wide open, taking in the sensation of the fall.

Will the Fall Ever End?

I'm going to have my own expectations of how long the fall might be but no matter the length, I need to be ready to be caught sooner or later than those expectations.

I've made decisions before without a lot of certainty about how they'd work out, but when I've made them in alignment with my values and my authentic self, I could trust that whatever happened would serve me somehow. That's knowing that no matter the outcome, it will contribute to my greater good. That's the landing of the trust fall—accepting that the hands of the universe will show up when and how they see best, and trusting this process completely.

In the case of leaving my job, I told myself six months was the amount of time I needed. That might be how long I expect this trust fall to last, but maybe it's three months and the universe is actually going to catch me sooner than I expect. Maybe it's a year, and I'm really going to fall for a while.

The Thrill of the Fall

The fall can be thrilling when you trust there will be a supportive landing.

I’ve learned that while falling, the trick is to enjoy the thrill of it. It's similar to being on a rollercoaster—there's real joy in the free fall if you relax into it. If you're holding on tightly and closing your eyes, you miss out on the view from the top and the ability to actually feel the motion of the fall.

There are moments when I return to a state of overactive thinking, wanting to figure out exactly what I will do next. All of that thinking is me closing my eyes and gripping the handle of the rollercoaster. With that, I lose the opportunity to observe the amazing experience I'm in the middle of.

In the trust fall analogy, this is like catching yourself with your own two feet before the actual catch could happen. It's that little step back, that moment of "wait, maybe I should grab onto something," which means resetting and starting the fall all over again.

During the fall I feel the air passing through my hair. I'm aware of the unknown timing of my landing. When I begin to feel nervous about whether the universe will be able to catch me, I release that fear and think about all the times it has caught me before. It has never dropped me.

I'm learning that the falling might actually be the point in all of this. This is the time to get curious, follow the things that spark interest, learn the thing you want to learn, ask the questions, take the actions that feel good and in alignment with your genuine desires.

The Familiar Feeling

The question isn't whether you'll be caught—you will be. The question is whether you'll let yourself enjoy the fall.

Maybe you're reading this from your own ledge, ready to jump with your eyes tightly shut or you're relaxed, trusting you'll be caught. Maybe you're already falling and didn't realize it. Maybe you're still gripping tightly, eyes closed, missing the view.

Here's how to recognize when you're already falling: Pay attention to what you're trying to control. Notice when you're planning versus when you're clinging. Feel the difference between actions that flow and actions that force.

Remember your personal evidence of being caught in other times of your life. Think about the times when things didn't go according to plan but somehow worked out better than you could have imagined. Those weren't accidents. Those were catches.

The specific signs that the universe is preparing to catch you? Things start falling apart in ways that create space for something new. Opportunities appear that you wouldn't have seen if you'd been looking in the expected direction. You start feeling more like yourself, even when everything else feels uncertain.

The question isn't whether you'll be caught—you will be. The question is whether you'll let yourself enjoy the fall. What if the falling is the point? What if this is exactly where you're supposed to be right now?

What does falling feel like for you right now?

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Like many people right now, I've felt burnt out for a while. My burnout wasn't due to a high-stress job requiring long days and high-stakes decisions. It was caused by a company that operated with severe reactivity and stirred up a new version of chaos every couple of months. As a mid-level manager in this environment, I wasn't empowered to help stabilize the business I supported or offer my team any comfort or stability during the last three years.

I know many of you are feeling ready for a change or sense there has to be a better way to work, support your life, and find enjoyment and fulfillment in both. I'm choosing to take this time away from work to discover what that means for me. I feel fortunate that I'm positioned to do this and know that my family is well-supported while I explore.

Through this experience of considering the possibility, feeling ready to make the leap, and now waking up on the other side of it, I've reflected on how I got here. I hope this reflection helps anyone feeling the tug toward something greater and more purposeful who wants to explore what a career transition, pause, or re-evaluation might look like.

Below I'll share the three approaches that helped me make my decision: logic, mindfulness, and intuition. These might sound like chapter titles from a new age spirituality book—and yes, much of my process has been a spiritual one. It's also been a personal growth journey that's allowed me to explore what I truly want in my life and what makes me feel fulfilled. Now, you might not buy into the notion that intuition can guide a decision like quitting a job, but for a moment, just check in with your gut. We all use our "gut"—aka intuition—throughout our lives, and I hope you'll see this as just another tool that sits alongside logic and mindfulness. So let's dive in!

Logic

Finances

Before making any major life decision, I believe in getting crystal clear on the practical implications. For me, this meant truly understanding what quitting my job—thus cutting our household income in half—would mean day-to-day:

• What would our monthly expenses look like?

• How would this affect our savings trajectory?

• How would we manage finances differently during this pause, and for how long would the pause be?

I gave myself logical framing: this isn't a permanent financial situation but a purposeful pause.

Career Growth

Looking at my career path objectively, I recognized that staying in my current role wouldn't lead to the growth opportunities I craved in the foreseeable future. The logical piece was acknowledging that stepping away now wouldn't mean missing important professional development but rather regaining my motivation and energy to be the leader and contributor I know I can be. This time could be spent:

• Getting clear on where I want my career to go

• Exploring new skills I might want to learn

• Expanding my perspective on jobs and industries rapidly evolving due to AI

I've set a loose six-month timeline to explore my next move, knowing we could financially sustain this change for up to a year if needed. I've promised myself not to jump into anything during this time unless it genuinely excites me. This isn't about running away—it's about creating space to run toward something better aligned with what I want.

Mindfulness

This is where the decision became clearer than any logical pros and cons list could show me. I had to be honest: was I just tired of my job, or was this truly a decision that would serve my highest good?

My body had been sending signals I couldn't ignore. About a year ago, as uncertainty grew within my company after multiple rounds of layoffs, I developed severe jaw tension. Some mornings I would show up to Zoom calls barely able to move my jaw when speaking. Even now, typing this, I can feel that familiar tightness creeping back.

But the most revealing mindfulness practice came through observing how I showed up for my family. One Saturday evening, I noticed myself completely present during my five-year-old daughter's bath time—relaxed, patient, and genuinely enjoying watching her play. The contrast with weeknight bath times, when I regularly felt irritated by her silly distractions, was stark.

Through these moments of mindful observation, I could see the bigger picture of how my professional stress was affecting my personal life. Yes, all jobs come with some stress, and I recognize the privilege of being able to make this choice. But in previous roles, I'd regularly felt energized or accomplished by my work, which created a different quality of presence in my home life. When someone asked, "How's work?" I could answer with inspiration or at least neutrality, rather than feeling my entire body tense in response.

Suggestions for bringing mindfulness into your decision:

• Pay attention to your energy throughout your workday. Are there certain scenarios where you feel a physical or energetic shift (for better or worse)?

• When you were in a positive place in your career, how did that feel in your physical body and energy?

• What does a "good," yet busy day of work feel like to you?

Paying attention to your energy and your body can give you valuable data on how your job is fueling other aspects of your life and overall sense of being. Again, I'm not saying every workday needs to be rainbows and butterflies, but I believe even on hard days, work can give us a sense of fulfillment and pride. We just have to be mindful and take action to get to that place.

Intuition

Once the decision was made, I had to begin trusting it. I have an intuitive confidence that this is the correct decision for me. I have to trust the signals my body gave me, trust that the logical questions I answered were true, and believe that the next opportunity will present itself at the right time. This all requires Trust, with a capital T.

For anyone who isn't regularly making decisions using intuition, here's my take on it... Intuition doesn't speak in clear, objective language. It holds a greater understanding of the answers to our questions than we're able to comprehend intellectually, so feelings become its primary language. Whenever I contemplated this decision, it consistently stirred up feelings of joy and peace. I could literally feel in my body what it would be like to wake up that first morning no longer employed—the sense of having made an empowered choice and how I'd look back with pride at taking this bold step. I can tell you, as I sit here on the first Monday being unemployed, that feeling is sitting right here with me.

We're the only ones who truly know what's best for us. No outside opinion, however well-intentioned, can tell us exactly what's right for our unique journey. That's why intuition is such a powerful guide when we're open to listening. Getting quiet and honest with ourselves takes practice, but once you understand that intuition isn't leading you toward the lowest version of yourself but the highest, why wouldn't you trust it and see where it leads?

Integration: Weaving It All Together

The beauty of combining logic, mindfulness, and intuition is that each approach strengthens the others. It wasn't like I woke up one day and decided to quit my job because my astrological chart suggested it. This was a thoughtful decision made using several modalities and tools I've developed over time.

If you're contemplating a significant life change, I encourage you to explore these three facets:

1. Get objectively clear on the logic behind your decision

2. Mindfully observe yourself within the context of the change you're considering

3. Use your intuition to tap into how you truly feel about both the decision and its potential outcomes

The feelings that arise are real and meaningful. If negative emotions surface, explore them—get clear on your fears because fear is the root of these negative feelings. Then consciously decide if those fears are ones you can work through as you make this decision, or if they need to be addressed before you begin. For me, I had to do significant work around trusting the abundance of opportunities that would be available when I was ready to return to work and facing my money fears head-on.

A Work in Progress

I've heard from many people over these past weeks that my decision inspired them. On the surface, it might look like a sudden act of courage, but the reality is that this decision was nearly a year in the making. It took time for my husband to fully understand and support this path and for me to have the courage and trust in myself to follow through.

So yes, it's brave—but not without work. Your significant decisions will likely require effort too, but don't let that discourage you. The work you invest won't be wasted. Future decisions will arise, and I believe they get easier to make with practice. The more we learn to balance logic, mindfulness, and intuition, the more empowered our choices become.

This isn't the end of my story, but rather the beginning of a new chapter. I'm excited to share this journey with you as it unfolds.

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Thanks for reading all the way through. I would love to hear if this post resonates with you or would benefit someone you know. This decision leaves me with more time to write and explore this chapter of life so let me know if there’s a topic you’d like to hear about from me.

Best wishes,

Chelsey

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." — Anaïs Nin

When we hear the word "transformation," many of us immediately picture dramatic before-and-after photos of physical changes, haircuts, weight loss journeys, or makeovers that result in a "better body.” Or we might think of someone who dramatically transforms their life by overcoming addiction, building extreme wealth, or becoming an outwardly "better" version of themselves.

These common associations miss is the truth about transformation: for all us it's normal, constant, and unavoidable. We're all experiencing multiple forms of transformation throughout our lives—some outwardly obvious, but most subtle and internal. Some changes are obvious to those around us while others remain invisible. Some happen in a flash; others unfold gradually over years.

What makes transformation different from change in the context of our lives?

• Change is typically external, situational, and reversible—something that happens to you or around you, altering specific behaviors or circumstances without necessarily affecting your core identity. Change is easily reversed.

• Transformation is an irreversible internal metamorphosis that fundamentally shifts your identity, perspective, and consciousness—like a caterpillar that can never return to its previous form after becoming a butterfly.

I know transformation is expected as we grow older but how comfortable are we with this idea of the inevitable transformation? Including transformations that on the surface seems scary, unsexy, or simply just a pain in the ass. Here are some of my own experiences with transformations and the lessons I’ve experienced reflecting on them:

The Quiet Transformation Within

Thinking back to my twenties, the transformation is obvious. It isn’t just how I physically look, but in the way I show up in relationships, how I spend my free time, the way I view my work, and even the core values I hold. I'm sure you also see similar transformations in yourself.

I feel myself entering a new chapter again in my late 30’s, driven by a profound shift in my values. This transformation is leading me to take bold steps in realigning my life around my family, the things that bring me joy and peace, and the activities that awaken creativity and pleasure in my day-to-day existence.

This might not sound groundbreaking, but it represents a seismic shift in my perspective with ripple effects on everything from small daily decisions to major life choices. For instance, my career and financial stability have always been top priorities. This focus has afforded me a beautiful life, but I've reached a point where it's taking more from me than what I'm getting in return.

I feel this misalignment in my body, mind, and soul. There's a visceral difference in how I feel when I'm working at my job versus engaging in other aspects of life. Now you might be thinking, "Chelsey, sometimes work isn't going to be fun and fulfilling." Yes, I understand that. But I've realized I need to be lit up by my work, and my transformation over the last couple of years has clarified what actually ignites that spark in me.

It's not status, achievement, or money that lights me up anymore. It's purpose, creativity, building something meaningful, and working with people who inspire me. I now recognize these elements as non-negotiable in whatever work I do next.

Transformation is the Name of the [Life] Game

For each of us, transformation isn't optional— it's woven into our fabric of our existence. There's simply no avoiding it.

Maybe you're someone who gets excited by the idea of transformation, who actively seeks change and growth. Or perhaps you're someone who feels anxious or resistant when faced with the unknown. Regardless of your relationship with it, transformation remains the engine behind the evolution of our lives.

Whether it's aging, losing a job, becoming a parent, or moving somewhere new, we're here on this planet to transform and to transmute our learnings and experiences into new ways of being. The question isn't whether we'll transform, but how consciously we'll participate in the process.

The Wisdom in Surrendering

When experiencing transformation consciously we have two options, resist or surrender. We begin to resist transformation when it challenges our day to day comforts and when it is unexpectedly at our doorstep and refuses to leave. We resist transformation out of fear of what’s on the other side.

In my current transformation around work and values, I spent months in resistance. I kept trying to make myself want what I thought I should want—the next promotion, the bigger title… I even thought I just needed to do the same job at a different company. So, I interviewed for the same job at a different company, which also included more money and better title, and I ended up pulling myself out of the process because I realized that wasn’t the right path through this current transformation.

It wasn't until I began to listen to what my body was telling me and started understanding how my current work wasn’t aligning with who I was authentically. I decided to trust where my transformation was leading me and what it might mean for the transformation of what “work” meant to me. I surrendered to a new perspective of how my income size and source might look differently than what I originally imagined for myself.

There's a fundamental difference between surrender and giving up. Giving up is passive resignation. Surrender is an active choice to flow with life's currents rather than exhausting ourselves fighting against them. Think about the current of a river for a second. It doesn’t avoid taking a new path when something is in its way but rather it moves fluidly around it, carving out new routes for it to continue on its journey. It doesn’t stop, turn around and go back up stream, it continues on to its destination.

Looking back at periods where I was most stuck, I now see how tightly I was gripping outdated identities and comfortable limitations. My transformation accelerated not when I tried harder, but when I finally loosened my grip on who I thought I should be, when I surrendered to the flow of my life so that I could figure out where it’s leading me.

Surrendering to transformation isn't easy—our minds seek certainty and control. Yet transformation requires stepping into the unknown.

I've found transformation follows a pattern:

1. The invitation—a whisper of discontent or longing

2. Resistance—our natural reaction to protect what's familiar

3. A threshold where continuing as before becomes more painful than changing

4. Surrender—entering the uncomfortable but fertile space between who we were and who we're becoming

5. Emergence—a new way of being gradually takes shape

Each time I've surrendered to transformation, whether chosen or thrust upon me, I've discovered capacities within myself that could never have emerged had I remained safely within familiar boundaries.

Our struggles often come not from transformation itself, but from our attachment to remaining unchanged in a world and a life that is constantly in flux.

What My Transformation Is Teaching Me

I'm learning that transformation isn't a straight line with a clear before-and-after. It's more like a spiral, where we revisit similar themes but from new perspectives. The questions I'm asking myself now about purpose and meaning aren't entirely different from questions I asked earlier in life, but I'm approaching them with different wisdom and life experience.

Most importantly, I'm discovering that the most meaningful transformations aren't about becoming someone entirely new, but about becoming more authentically ourselves. The parts of me that are emerging now—the creativity, the desire for deeper connection, the yearning for purpose beyond achievement—were always there. They were just waiting for the right conditions to flourish.

Questions for Reflection

• What transformation are you currently experiencing in your life?

• What are you currently resisting that might be inviting you to transform?

• How might you more fully embrace the transformations happening in your life right now, even the challenging ones?

I'd love to hear about your experiences with transformation. What's changing in your life right now, and how are you navigating it?

As always, thanks for reading and supporting my writing.

-Chelsey

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Can any of you relate? When life gets crazy and days are exhausting, it can be difficult to prioritize your relationship—it'll be there to work on tomorrow, right?

Well, not only did this retreat bring our relationship back to the forefront of our minds, it also deeply transformed us as individuals—making us see ourselves and each other with wide open hearts and clear eyes.

The Setting

Describing Haramara feels like trying to capture a dream in words—the memories and feelings of it feel extremely familiar, but it’s difficult to find the words to describe the full experience. Nestled in the jungles of Nayarit, Mexico, it exists in a space between the bustling world of Mexico’s tourist resorts and lands rich with ancient spirits and immense wisdom. For eight transformative days, we lived in open-air casitas, walked barefoot along jungle trails, and shared our temporary home with the wildlife that moved freely around us. The constant soundtrack of waves crashing on the beach below became the rhythm to which we reconnected.

The experience of living with almost no technology (I opened my phone only for a minute or two each day to check for messages from our kiddo) created a clearing in my mind I didn't realize I desperately needed. Without the constant hum of notifications and the constant online browsing/shopping/researching, I could finally hear myself think—and more importantly, feel.

In addition to our daily couple’s workshop, our days were structured around practices that facilitated deep discovery on multiple levels. We practiced yoga twice a day, which created both physical opening and mental clarity. We experienced a profound sound bath that seemed to vibrate through layers of tension I didn't even know I was carrying. Perhaps most powerful was participating in a traditional Temazcal ceremony—a sacred sweat lodge experience that felt like being reborn. Add to this the transformative bodywork treatments from Haramara's skilled practitioners, and you begin to understand how thoroughly we were supported in releasing what no longer served us (on top of the work we did on our relationship 😅).

The food at Haramara deserves its own moment of appreciation. Each pescatarian and vegetarian meal was a work of art—clean, bright flavors that fed not just our bodies but somehow our spirits too. There's something about food prepared with such intention that makes you realize how rarely we truly nourish ourselves in our day-to-day lives.

The Group

The retreat itself was intimate—just four couples and the couple leading it. What struck me immediately was the beautiful diversity within our small group: different ages, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, relationship lengths, some married and others not. This rich tapestry of experiences created a generous exchange of perspectives that expanded my own thinking about relationships.

There is so much power in group sharing despite how uncomfortable it might sound to the average person.

Our guides for the week were a uniquely complementary pair and couple—he a psychologist bringing Western psychological frameworks, she a Chinese medicine practitioner and herbalist offering Eastern approaches. This blend created a natural flow between analytical understanding and mind/body/soul connection that felt whole in a way either approach alone might not have achieved.

The Learnings

One of the most profound revelations that came out of our daily workshops was recognizing that while our relationship has its own unique growth opportunities, the roots of these patterns lie within each of us individually. On paper this may not seem like a groundbreaking concept, but to see it contextualized in our own relationship really made an impact on us.

To reach this revelation, we spent time exploring our attachment styles, and reflecting on how these styles either drive us together or apart in moments of discomfort or conflict.

Then we learned the concepts of Internal Family Systems(IFS), where we recognized the different parts of ourselves that show up in moments of conflict, friction or fear—parts that may have once served as necessary protection but now might be getting in the way of connection. The goal isn’t to label any part as bad, but to understand them, see them, and begin to speak and act FOR our parts instead of allowing them to run the show.

Through this work I realized how often I'm reacting not to what's actually happening in the present moment, but to old wounds and patterns so deeply ingrained I hadn't even noticed them operating.

The power of this work came through our shared understanding that in our difficult interactions we’re simultaneously having our own "rooted experience" which ends up driving our actions and reactions to one another. When we could understand these layers of each other and truly see them—something shifted between us. Communication and trust expanded in ways I hadn't imagined possible.

Connecting Beyond Words

Perhaps the most unexpected gift of the retreat was rediscovering how movement and touch create connection beyond what words can accomplish. We practiced couples yoga and learned mindful touch and massage techniques that created new pathways of communication between us.

One exercise that stands out in my memory is simply sitting back-to-back, feeling each other's breathing. Such a simple act, yet in that moment of shared rhythm, following and adopting the natural flow of each other's breath, I felt more connected to my partner than I had in months of living side by side at home. Our bodies remembered how to communicate when we gave them the space to do so.

The Life Detox Effect

I've come to think of the entire experience as a "life detox"—cleansing our relationship, body, mind, and spirit in a way that allows us to think, speak, and act with a clarity that's difficult to maintain in everyday life. While I recognize this level of presence is difficult to sustain amid normal responsibilities, having experienced this state means I can now intentionally reconnect with that feeling, even if just for moments at a time.

My body remembers what that clarity feels like. In moments of tension or disconnection, I can now breathe back into that remembered state, even briefly, and find a more centered place from which to respond rather than react.

Carrying Forward What Matters

Our final day at Haramara included a relationship ceremony—a beautifully crafted ritual to cement and celebrate the work we'd done. Eric and I wrote letters to each other and read them aloud. Standing there, vulnerable and seen, speaking words of love and commitment with the jungle and ocean as witnesses—this moment felt sacred in a way that's difficult to articulate. It provided a perfect conclusion to our journey, creating a memory we can return to when daily life threatens to pull us apart.

As we prepared to leave, we spent time developing a shared vision for our next 1, 5, and 10 years together. There's something powerful about naming your hopes and dreams while still bathed in the glow of reconnection. The conversations felt different—more open, more honest, more willing to dream beyond the practical limitations we often place on ourselves.

My intention is to maintain this focus... But how much is possible? I'm not sure, but I know my perspective has shifted and will cause changes in how I live. Most will likely be subtle, and who knows, maybe a few more drastic. I'm just going with what feels good at the moment, and what feels good is holding onto the magic and clarity I experienced wherever possible in my life and relationship.

While the jungle setting and expert guidance created the container for transformation, the real work happened in our willingness to look deeply at ourselves and our patterns. We discovered that the roots of our relationship—like the roots of our individual selves—run far deeper than we realized, drawing nourishment from sources we hadn't fully acknowledged.

The magic of Haramara may be impossible to fully capture in words, but its effects continue to ripple through our daily interactions. I find myself pausing more often, breathing more deeply, and remembering that beneath the surface busyness of life, we remain connected to something deeper—both within ourselves and with each other.

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. If you have any questions about this experience, or my writing in general, feel free to reach out!

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…we need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly. - Shakti Gawain*

Shakti's advice is simple and scary. We can all imagine what it would be like to let our intuition guide us and to be fearlessly trusting of it. But how do we get there? That place seems so far away for many of us.

What if it's not my intuition speaking? What if this is just me trying to escape the mundane of my everyday responsibilities? What if this is a bad decision and I regret making it? What if I don't know how to listen to my intuition?

These questions are where most of us are at today. We lack the skills we need to listen to our intuitions. Intuition is something we all have but how it speaks to us and the volume at which it speaks will vary depending on how we process our human experience and leverage our intuition vs our analytical mind. Both your intuition and analytical mind can coexist and be skills you grow and sharpen together so let's talk about how.

Ways to Strengthen Your Connection to Your Intuition

The truth is, intuition isn't some mystical power granted to a chosen few—it's a natural ability we all possess but have often been taught to ignore in favor of logical thinking. Here are ways to strengthen your connection to your intuition:

1. The Body-Based Check-In

Your body is the most reliable intuition barometer you have. Before making decisions, pause and notice: Does your chest tighten? Do you get a surge of energy? Does your stomach relax? These physical sensations aren't random. They're your intuition communicating through the only channel that bypasses your rational mind, you body. Start with simple questions like "Should I attend this event?" and notice your body's immediate response before your mind can analyze.

2. The Intuition Journal Technique

Most of us dismiss intuitive hits because we forget how often they're accurate. Keep a dedicated journal (or note in your phone) where you record intuitive impressions about upcoming events, people, or decisions. Rate your confidence level, then circle back later to see what happened. This creates a personal database of your intuitive accuracy that your analytical mind can't dismiss.

3. The Analytical Partnership

Here's what transforms everything: Your analytical mind and intuition aren't opponents—they're designed to be partners. When you treat them as such, decision-making becomes exponentially more powerful. Intuition provides the direction while analysis creates the roadmap. This partnership explains why the most successful innovators and leaders often cite "just knowing" something was right before building the analytical case to support it.

Tip: I've found it helpful to acknowledge my rational fears and concerns without letting them override my intuitive knowing. The key is learning the difference between your analytical mind's legitimate cautionary advice and its fear-based resistance to change. The former feels grounded and specific; the latter tends to catastrophize and generalize.

The Courage to Follow Through

The journey isn't about becoming someone with perfect intuition. It's about becoming brave enough to trust the intuition you already have.

So, perhaps Shakti's advice isn't scary after all. Perhaps what's truly scary is continuing to ignore the wisest part of ourselves. Because every time we follow that quiet, knowing voice—even when it's terrifying—we build trust with our deepest selves.

Your intuition isn't just another self-improvement project. It's your highest wisdom calling you home to yourself. The question isn't whether you can hear it—it's whether you're ready to listen. And more importantly, whether you're brave enough to follow.

*Shakti Gawain (1948-2018) was an influential spiritual teacher, author, and seminar leader who pioneered the concept of creative visualization in the personal growth movement.

I’ve personally enjoyed Shakti’s book, “Living in the Light" and recommend it to anyone looking to explore spirituality more deeply.

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So why do we need these constant reminders? Why don’t we just do these basic things to take good care of ourselves? Well, because we often take on advice that doesn’t suit our individual needs and what our body is telling us we need in that moment. Then what happens? We stop doing the thing.

Advice only matters if it resonates with you. Living authentically isn’t about blindly following what works for someone else; it’s about listening to your own body, intuition, and inner signals to guide you toward a life that feels good and nourishes you. We know we need to eat nutritious foods, move everyday, and rest our body and mind, but that might look different for each and every one of us. The goal is to tune in and find the versions of each of those for you.

So, rather than treating these ideas as rules, see them as invitations—to slow down, to check in, and to reconnect with what truly supports you.

Here we go!

1. Prioritize Whole Foods and Quality Nutrition

You’ve heard it before: eat real food. But in a world of trending diets that worked for someone on social media, conflicting opinions, and endless food rules, this advice can get lost in the noise.

The truth? Your body already knows what it needs—you just have to tune in.

My take on it:

• Forget obsessing over tracking your macros—just focus on nourishment. Pay attention to how different foods make you feel. What gives you energy? What leaves you feeling sluggish?

• Eat protein at every meal, but don’t stress about where it comes from. There are plenty of quality sources beyond animal products — feel free to mix up your sources to create more variety. Find what works for you.

• Fiber matters. It helps cleanse the body, supports digestion, and keeps you full longer. Notice how whole, fiber-rich foods make you feel compared to processed options.

• Your cravings will shift when your body starts trusting that it will be nourished. Give yourself the chance to crave the right things—fresh, vibrant foods that fuel you instead of processed foods that deplete you.

• Allow the treats, but be mindful. If you’re eating ice cream every night while scrolling your phone, ask yourself: Am I actually enjoying this? True treats are savored, not consumed on autopilot.

  

💡 Check-in: Are your eating habits dictated by external rules, or are they guided by how your body actually feels?

My experience:

Earlier this year, I suddenly lost interest in ground meat. I had always liked it—especially in a bowl with rice, avocado, and sriracha (yum). But one day, mid-meal, I suddenly couldn’t eat it anymore. I felt mostly satiated so I put it away and grabbed an apple instead.

For the next couple of weeks, I had an aversion to ground meat and heavy meals in general. So, I listened. I started incorporating more vegetables and plant-based proteins (beans were a big one), and I felt really good. Over time, my appetite shifted back, but it was a great reminder: our bodies know what they need if we just trust them.

2. Move Your Body Daily

You’ve heard it before: We aren’t meant to be still all day. Movement is one of the simplest, most effective ways to improve our mood, energy, and overall well-being.

But movement isn’t just about physical health—it’s about reconnecting with yourself. The more you move, the more you feel yourself in your body. It’s one of the quickest ways to shift your energy and return to presence.

My take on it:

• Walk every day. Fresh air, movement, time away from screens—these are small but powerful resets. Notice how different your energy feels after a walk versus an hour of scrolling.

• Lift weights or incorporate resistance training. Building muscle isn’t just about aesthetics; it improves strength, supports metabolism, and enhances overall vitality. And beyond that, resistance builds resilience—it teaches you how to push through discomfort and grow stronger.

• Find movement that you actually enjoy. It doesn’t have to be the trendy workout everyone else is doing. If you love dancing, dance. If you love yoga, stretch. If you love hiking, get outside. Your body will tell you what it loves—listen to it.

💡 Check-in: Are you moving your body in ways that feel joyful and energizing, or are you forcing yourself into a routine that drains you?

My experience:

Lately, my walks have become more than just movement. I’ve become fascinated by how the trees and plants transition from season to season—watching buds become flowers, leaves turning, the quiet shift from winter to spring.

Not only does my walk help move my body, but it also gives my mind a moment of stillness—a chance to observe, to notice, to be present. And honestly? That alone makes movement worth it. And leads me to the third piece of advice worth repeating…

3. Make Time for Rest and Being Quiet

You’ve heard it before: We live in a world of constant stimulation—notifications, content, conversations, endless scrolling. But our brains aren’t built to consume and engage every second of the day.

We need quiet.

Stillness isn’t just about relaxation. It’s about hearing yourself again. Your intuition, your creativity, your clarity—they don’t come through when your mind is flooded with input. They come in the pauses, in the moments when you’re finally still enough to listen.

My take on it:

• Resting your brain doesn’t mean numbing out with social media or TV. True rest is giving your mind space to settle.

• Start small. If sitting in stillness feels foreign, try setting a timer for five minutes a day. Work your way up.

• Find what works for you. It doesn’t have to be meditation—it could be watching the trees move outside, focusing on deep breathing, or simply closing your eyes and listening to the sounds around you.

• Quiet time isn’t wasted time. It’s where clarity happens. It’s where creativity is restored.

  

💡 Check-in: Are you giving yourself time to be quiet, or do you immediately reach for distraction?

My experience:

Have you ever sat alone in your car in the driveway and just soaked in the silence? I do this all the time.

Just a couple of minutes—eyes closed, deep breaths—before walking into the house, back to life.

It’s these small moments of quiet that help me transition between morning drop-offs and work, between closing my laptop and picking up my kid from school. Just a few minutes of stillness is like a reset button. It calms my nervous system, clears my mind, and helps me be present in whatever comes next.

The Best Advice Isn’t Complicated—It’s Consistent

Sometimes, we overlook simple advice because it feels too basic. But in reality, the fundamentals are what create lasting change.

And when we approach these fundamentals with self-awareness, they stop being just advice—we start seeing them as personal practices that align us with who we truly are.

Eat real food. Move your body. Create space for stillness. Yes, we’ve heard it all before and yes, they should be our top wellness priorities. Not because someone said so, but because your own body and intuition confirm their value.

Unoriginal? Maybe.
Worth repeating? Absolutely.

💡 Your turn: Which of these pieces of advice do you need to hear most right now? And how can you approach it in a way that feels true to you? Leave a comment if you feel like sharing!

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Sitting here in my late 30s, I can say with full confidence: thankfully that’s not the case. Life keeps evolving, shifting, unfolding in ways we never see coming. And if we let it, it only gets better.

Part of that unfolding has been learning to chip away at the programming I absorbed in my teens and 20s—the rigid definitions of success, the hardened shell I built around myself in an effort to be somebody. That shell once felt necessary, but now? It’s just something to shed. I’ve been rediscovering the parts of me that got buried under the pressure to be “on track.” The interests I set aside because they didn’t fit a traditional version of success. The parts of myself I once saw as distractions but now recognize as life itself.

I can already imagine looking back on this season of my life, shaking my head with a smile, thinking, If only I knew then what I know now. And I love that—I love knowing I’ll feel the same way ten years from today.

The other day, I opened my notes app and did a quick exercise. I listed out the past ten years, and next to each year, I wrote down one or two events that changed the course of my life. Some were big. Some were subtle. None were part of a big life plan. And yet, every single one shaped the life I’m living today.

And still, here I am, trying to map out the next ten years as if that’s even possible.

Letting Things Expire Makes Room for More

If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: in order to welcome the unexpected—especially the unexpected that leads us to our ideal future—we have to allow things in our lives to come to an end – to let them expire.

Some expiration dates we choose. Others are chosen for us. The ones outside of our control can be painful, especially when they come suddenly. The ones we do control? Sometimes those are even harder to follow through on because of fear of the unknown. We hold onto these expired parts of us, even when something has run its course. We cling to what’s familiar, even when we’ve outgrown it.

But when we can flow with both—the endings we choose and the ones we don’t—we create space. And in that space, life has room to surprise us.

If You’re Resisting This Idea…

Maybe you’re reading this thinking, I don’t want huge changes. I don’t want surprises. I want to plan my next ten years, set my goals, and decide what stays and what goes.

I get it. And honestly? Good luck.

But if you’re feeling even a little curious, try the exercise I did. Write out the years 2015 to 2025. Jot down a couple of things that happened each year—things that shifted your path in ways you didn’t anticipate.

Look at how those events shaped your life. Some probably changed things for the better. Some maybe… didn’t. But even the hard ones? They probably taught you a lesson that you value today. They might even be the reason you are where you are now.

The Best Things in Life Aren’t Pre-Planned

We’ve all heard the stories about iconic thinkers, creators, and leaders not finding their calling in their 20s but rather later than they ever thought they would (some in the 50’s and 60’s). They likely weren’t following some perfectly laid-out blueprint that would lead them to the thing they are known for today. They adapted and welcomed the unknown. They learned to move with life’s currents instead of fighting against them.

So the question is:
— Where are you holding onto something that’s already expired?
— Where are you trying to predict your future using only the data from your past?
— Where are you boxing yourself in, even when part of you knows you’re ready for something new?

Embrace the unknown. Let things go when it’s time. Create space for what’s next. And above all—stay open to what you can’t yet see coming.

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Here’s What We Get Wrong About Comparison

Comparison itself isn’t inherently bad. It gets a bad rap because it can easily fuel envy, jealousy, or self-doubt. But those emotions don’t come from comparison alone—they come from blind comparison.

When we compare without taking stock of our own strengths, experiences, and values, we create a distorted view of what others have that we don’t (ie., things, success, experience, relationships). But when done intentionally, comparison can be a powerful tool for self-reflection and growth.

Why Comparison Feels So Unfair

At its worst, comparison makes us feel like we’re falling behind. Why? Because we often compare our perceived lack to someone else’s visible success.

Before you compare, ask yourself:

• What do I bring to the table?

• What accomplishments, values, or strengths should I acknowledge before comparing?

• Do I actually have all the context about the person I’m comparing myself to?

Without answering these questions, comparison will always feel unfair.

You’re Probably Comparing the Wrong Things

We compare ourselves to others in countless ways, but here are two common traps I’ve fallen into—and maybe you have, too.

Career Comparison

Let’s say you know someone with a prestigious job title, and suddenly, your own career feels small. But job titles don’t exist in a vacuum—they vary based on company size, industry, and role.

Before comparing, ask:
✔ What does my title represent in my organization?
✔ What responsibilities does their title actually entail?
✔ Am I comparing progress—or just labels?

A title alone doesn’t determine worth. Once you have the full picture, you may realize you’re not as behind as you thought.

Appearance Comparison

You might envy someone who always looks effortlessly put together. But have you ever stopped to define what being put together actually means to you?

Before assuming they “have it all together,” consider:
✔ Do they have different priorities, resources, or lifestyles?
✔ When do I feel most confident and aligned with my style?
✔ Am I comparing my real life to someone’s highlight reel?

If you’re comparing without reflection, you might be chasing a version of success that isn’t even yours.

How to Compare Without Losing Your Sanity

Instead of letting comparison drain your confidence, use it as a tool for growth:
✔ Reflect first. What do I already have? What do I actually want?
✔ Gather full context. Do I truly understand what I’m comparing, or am I making assumptions?
✔ Use comparison for learning, not judgment. If someone is ahead, what can I learn instead of resent?

How Comparison Can Make You Stronger

Here’s the shift: Comparison isn’t about measuring up—it’s about measuring intentionally.

When done with awareness, it can reveal what truly matters to you, help you set better goals, and even inspire you.

You’re not behind. You’re on a different path.

So the next time you find yourself comparing, don’t shut it down—get curious. Ask yourself: What can I gain from this? With the right mindset, comparison stops being a burden and becomes a tool for growth.

Thanks for the time and share your thoughts on this topic in the comments!

Best,

Chelsey ✨🤎🌱

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I recently spent a few hundred dollars on an 8 week astrology course. For months, I debated whether it was worth it– was there an objective way I could justify the money for something that just seemed like pure joy and fun? After talking myself out of it and then back into it several times, I decided to go for it, embracing the excitement I felt any time I thought about it. I realized that the “justification” wasn’t needed beyond the fact that I have the money to do it and I know it will light me up!

Reflecting on this decision, I realized I couldn’t recall any other time I significantly invested in a personal passion or interest. Time and again, I had considered exploring new interests, only to hesitate, weighed down by the fear that it would be a frivolous use of money. But as I’ve grown more in tune with my authentic self and gained a deeper understanding of what energizes me, I’ve started to see these investments—of time, money, and energy—not as indulgences, but as essential to my personal growth and fulfillment.

Why We Struggle to Invest in Ourselves

We are conditioned to believe that investing in ourselves must come with an immediate and tangible return. We easily justify paying for things like professional skill development or workout classes—because the benefits are widely accepted. But when it comes to investing in our personal growth, creativity, or well-being, we hesitate. We label it indulgent, unnecessary, maybe even selfish.

Why Investing in Yourself is the Best Investment

Unlike material investments, investing in yourself creates a compounding effect—one that improves every area of your life. When you invest in your passions and creativity, you experience more joy, inspiration, and fulfillment—qualities that not only enhance your personal life but also make you a better partner, parent, friend, and professional.

Check out this article that talks about the impact hobbies have on people’s professional performance. “The study findings show that people who report engaging in their hobbies more are also more likely to come up with creative solutions to problems at work. What’s more, those who paint, garden, crochet, or engage in other creative pastimes are more likely to help colleagues, the research shows.”

Investment in yourself pays dividends in confidence, clarity, and quality of life.

Redefining ROI (Return on Investment)

Not every personal investment needs to lead to a job promotion or a better physical appearance. Learning something new, deepening your self-awareness, and allowing yourself joy are returns worth valuing.

I didn’t buy that astrology course to boost my resume—I bought it because it brings me joy, sparks my curiosity, and broadens my perspective. That alone makes it worthwhile, and if it ends up benefiting other areas of my life, well, that’s just a bonus.

What This Means for You

If you’re still with me and thinking, “I could make the investment, but I don’t have the time,” I want to remind you—time is also an investment in yourself. One of my recent posts explored the skill of creating more time, which is the foundation of self-investment.

And now before you go, I have a couple challenges to kick-start investing in yourself:

1️⃣ Make a small investment in yourself this week—whether it’s time, money, or energy. Read that book you’ve been curious about, take a free community class, try a new recipe, or finally dive into a creative hobby you’ve been putting off. Pick something easy that sparks joy.

2️⃣ Journal about what you’d do if you had unlimited time and money. Look for themes. If something feels out of reach—like a dream trip to France—find small ways to bring it into your life now. Take a French class, watch French films, or try cooking French dishes. Investing in that longing, even in small ways, brings fulfillment before the “big” investment happens.

So, what will you invest in today?

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A note to my readers and followers:

Thank you for being here! Writing on Substack this past month has been such a fun and fulfilling ride, and I’m excited to see where it leads. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback—and if you know someone who would enjoy this space, sharing it would mean so much!

~Chelsey

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My goal is to make Rooted in You a wayfinder to your highest self—a space where you can reconnect with your inner wisdom, uncover your unique gifts, and live authentically. Over time, this phrase has become a powerful image for me, a reminder of the strength, clarity, and peace we all carry within.

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Here’s what I believe is rooted in you:

1. Unlimited Gifts

We are all born with incredible gifts, but not all of them are obvious. Some gifts—like creativity, emotional intelligence, or athletic ability—may already exist in your life. Others might be dormant, waiting to be uncovered and explored.

Think about the things you do that feel natural or energizing. Maybe it’s the way you notice details others miss, how you bring calm to stressful situations, or your ability to keep 20 house plants alive. These are all gifts. They’re part of you, and they’re waiting for your curiosity and attention to bring them to life so they can be enjoyed more fully and shared with others.

What gifts have you already cultivated? What gifts might still be waiting for you to discover?

2. A Strong Knowing

Deep inside, you have an inner knowing that’s uniquely yours. It’s not just intuition—it’s a quiet, steady intelligence that guides you when you take the time to ask it questions and listen.

In today’s world, we’re constantly bombarded with external noise: social media, opinions, advice, news. It’s easy to lose touch with your own voice when you’re absorbing so much from others. But when you tune out the noise, your knowing will guide you to the decisions and paths that are meant for you.

When was the last time you trusted your gut? What did it feel like to listen to your own knowing?

3. Inner Peace

Inside you is a well of peace—a calm, grounded state that allows you to embrace life as it is. This isn’t about complacency or avoiding challenges. It’s about moving with life rather than resisting it.

When you connect with this inner peace, you can show love and acceptance, even during difficult times. It’s a state of being that allows you to see things clearly, process them fully, and respond with empathy, curiosity, and understanding.

What brings you moments of inner peace? How can you cultivate more of these moments in your daily life?

4. A Unique Perspective

Your experiences, thoughts, and ways of seeing the world are uniquely yours. This perspective is a gift the world needs, even if it feels uncomfortable to share sometimes.

In a world that often values collective thinking over individuality, it can feel risky to stand apart. But your unique perspective is part of a larger symphony of voices that enriches our collective reality. Living authentically means embracing your individuality and trusting that your perspective matters.

What makes your perspective unique? How can you start sharing it more boldly in your day-to-day life?

Rooted in You is a reflection of a simple truth: everything you need to create a life of joy and alignment is already within you. Your gifts, your inner knowing, your peace, and your unique perspective are not things to search for—they’re parts of you, waiting to be recognized and embraced.

This publication isn’t about ways to fix yourself or becoming someone new. It’s about uncovering what’s already there, trusting it, and letting it guide you. When you connect with what’s rooted in you, you create space for confidence, clarity, and fulfillment to grow into your highest self.

I’d love to hear your thoughts—what do you feel is rooted in you? Feel free to share in the comments!

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I know the feeling of waiting for someone to say, “Why don’t you get out of the house and take some time for yourself?” Or even better, for your kids to say, “Mom, you look tired. Why don’t you go lay down for a bit, and I’ll play by myself?” Let’s be honest—this isn’t going to happen. And if it does, it won’t happen nearly as often as you need it.

Learning to communicate your needs to those in your household can be a game changer. Trust me, they’ll get it because they have the same needs. By communicating your needs and setting the example, you model healthy behaviors for advocating for rest, self-care, space, and nourishment. Once I started doing this, I noticed my husband also became better at expressing and fulfilling his needs for some quality “me time.”

Without making time for yourself, you might feel pulled in too many directions, leaving you depleted and disconnected from who you are. The demands of work, family, and the endless to-do list can make it feel impossible to find even a moment to pause and take care of your own needs. But the reality is, even ten minutes of intentional, high-quality “me time” can transform how you feel and how you show up in your life.

Here are some practical strategies for communicating with your partner and kids about why your time matters, explore the value of intentional self-care, and discover new ways to replenish your energy in ways that truly feel aligned.

The Value of Me Time

When done with intention, “me time” isn’t just a break; it’s a way to reconnect with your authentic self and recharge your energy. Even ten minutes can:

• Reduce Stress: A short break gives your mind and body a chance to reset and calm your nervous system.

• Increase Patience and Presence: When you feel replenished, you’re better equipped to handle life’s demands.

• Boost Energy and Creativity: Quality downtime creates space for clarity and new ideas.

The key is quality over quantity. Me time should feel restorative and aligned with your authentic self, not something you do just to check it off the list while multitasking.

How to Talk with Your Partner and Kids About Your Needs

Creating time for yourself often requires clear and honest communication with your family. Here are strategies to foster understanding and support:

1. Frame It as a Win for Everyone

• Explain how your self-care benefits them: “When I take a few minutes to recharge, I’m calmer and more present with you.”

• Use relatable examples: “You know how you feel better after____? That’s what this does for me.”

2. Be Specific About Your Needs

• Instead of saying, “I need more time to myself,” try: “I’d like to take 15 minutes after dinner to read quietly before I help with homework.”

• Clarify how they can help support you: “Can you manage bedtime one night a week so I can take a bath and unwind?”

3. Involve Them in the Plan

• With kids: Turn it into a family effort by framing your self-care time as a lesson in balance. For example, encourage them to have their own quiet activity while you take your time.

• With your partner: Discuss how you can both support each other’s need for downtime. Reviewing weekly schedules and inputting each other’s “me time” can be super helpful, especially on weekends.

4. Reinforce with Consistency

• Make it a routine so they know what to expect: “Every Sunday evening is my time to reset for the week.”

• Stick to your plan as much as possible—consistency helps others respect your boundaries.

Practical Ideas for High-Quality Me Time

Not sure how to spend your time? Here are examples of activities that replenish energy and align with your authentic self:

Quick Decompression (10 Minutes):

• Take a mindful walk around the block, focusing on your breath and surroundings– listen to calm music or go earbud free and focus on the sounds you hear around you.

• Stretch or do light yoga to release tension in your body. I find following a youtube yoga video helps keep my mind from wandering to my to-do list and cutting my time short.

• Sit in a quiet space, close your eyes, and practice deep breathing or a short meditation. Tip: using a meditation app instead of a harsh timer or alarm on your phone makes this a more pleasant experience.

• Write in a journal about what energized or drained you that day. Keep it simple, don’t over think it.

Longer Recharge (30-60 Minutes):

• Immerse yourself in a creative activity you love, like painting, writing, or gardening.

• Read a book that inspires or relaxes you.

• Take a bath with soothing music or aromatherapy to engage your senses.

• Spend time in nature, whether it’s hiking, sitting by water, or simply lying in the grass.

Exploring New Ways to Replenish

If traditional self-care activities don’t resonate with you, try exploring:

• Playful Activities: Dance to your favorite song, play a game, or try a new hobby. Play is a powerful way to replenish energy.

• Connection: Spend time with a friend who lifts you up, even if it’s a quick chat.

• Energy Awareness: Ask yourself, “How does this activity make me feel?” Experiment with new practices and listen to how your mind and body respond.

Tips for Sustainable Me Time

1. Start Small: If carving out an hour feels impossible, start with 10 minutes and build from there.

2. Adapt as Needed: Your needs will change over time. Be open to adjusting your practices as life evolves.

3. Reflect on What Works: Regularly evaluate which activities truly replenish you and adjust as needed.

Final Thoughts

Creating time for yourself isn’t selfish; it’s necessary. When you honor your need for rest and replenishment, you’re not only supporting your own well-being but also showing up as your best self for the people you love. Remember, it’s about quality, not quantity. A few intentional minutes each day can have a profound impact on your energy and clarity.

If you’re thinking, “Sure, this is all easier said than done,” then start today by choosing one small thing you can do for yourself. Then, communicate your needs to your partner and family. You deserve this time, and the benefits will ripple through every area of your life.

For further inspiration, here are a few things I’ve enjoyed during my me time:

• Journaling - usually 10 minutes in the morning and I just let whatever comes to mind flow to the paper. I’m not worried about documenting my light or making it legible. It’s about connecting my mind to the pen and the pen to the paper. Sometimes kindness and compassion towards myself flows out of me and sometimes it’s taking stock of my life and new ideas.

• Biking - in the summer I started going on solo bike rides down a trail near my home. No headphones, no one to keep up with or slow down for. Just me, my pace, and nature. Riding a bike makes me feel like a kid again!

• Watercoloring - I started with a simple instructional book and started to create my own images. Every once in a while I follow along with a Youtube video to expand my skills. Just 10 minutes of focused painting calms my body and mind.

• Showering for the silence - a mindful shower gives me a boost of energy in the morning or a sense of calm at night.

• Reading - I usually have a non-fiction and fiction booking going at one time so I can choose the type of reading I want based on my mood.

• Walking - a brisk 10 minute walk or a longer walk gives me a change to connect with nature on a regular basis.

• Yoga - getting myself back into yoga has created an uninterrupted hour a couple of times a week where I truly get to practice mindfulness. A bonus is that I get out of the house and share space with other people from my community - something about that feels nice.

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  If you’re still reading thanks for following along. You’re support means so much to me. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments or feel free to message me!

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She had just been born, and I was navigating sleepless nights, maternity leave, and the surreal experience of becoming a new mom. At the time, I didn’t fully understand why I had turned to journaling. I’d journaled before, but never consistently. Looking back now, I see it clearly: I was trying to hold myself accountable, to create structure in the chaos of having a newborn.

But reading those pages now feels like watching someone I used to be—someone overwhelmed and striving to do it all. And all I want to do is wrap her in a hug and tell her it’s okay to rest.

The Pressure I Put on Myself

At the top of my journal pages were goals like:

1. Work out 5 days a week

2. Make a new recipe three times a week

3. Take a walk every day

On paper, they seem reasonable. But between those lines, I see how hard I was pushing myself to “be better” at a time when I was already depleted. I wasn’t sleeping—Marley was waking almost every hour—and my body was still recovering. Yet I felt like I had to keep striving, and when I didn’t hit my goals, I wrote with disappointment in myself.

I believed I had to “get my body back,” keep the house in order, and somehow be a perfect mom who cooked fresh meals and worked out regularly. I didn’t realize I had set impossible standards for myself, especially during one of the most demanding seasons of my life.

What I Would Say to That Tired Mama

If I could go back and sit beside that version of me, here’s what I would say:

“Rest. Your body is telling you what it needs—listen to it. This is not the season for discipline and striving; it’s the season for softness and stillness. You don’t need to ‘do it all,’ because what you are already doing is more than enough.

You’re showing up for your baby girl, loving her, holding her, being her safe space—and that is everything. Let go of the guilt. Let go of the need to perform or prove yourself. Instead, slow down. Marvel at her tiny hands, her sleepy smiles. Let yourself enjoy this fleeting season, because it will pass faster than you realize.”

What I’ve Learned Since Then

Years later, I’ve come to understand the value of slowing down. Life moves in rhythms—seasons of growth and momentum, and seasons for rest and recovery.

Now, when I fall out of a habit or miss a goal, I don’t judge myself. I don’t shame myself for needing rest. Instead, I ask:

• Was this pause something I needed?

• Is this goal still serving me, or is it time to let it evolve?

Sometimes, taking a break is more impactful than pushing through for the sake of it. I’ve learned that our goals are ours to shape. We decide what’s important, and we also have the power to say, “not today.”

When we listen to what energizes us and recognize what depletes us, we can make choices that align with who we truly are and what we truly need.

Practical Lessons in Rest

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned that might help you embrace rest and let go of perfectionism:

• Listen to your body: Pause and ask yourself, “What do I need most right now—rest, connection, or nourishment?” Don’t underestimate tiny moments of each of these things. A 10 minute rest or a 10 minute phone call to a friend can shift your entire day.

• Set one small, realistic goal: Focus on what feels manageable today instead of trying to do everything at once. That goal can even be the tip above, taking moments throughout your day to check in with yourself.

• Celebrate small wins: Recognize simple moments, like taking a breath or showing up for a loved one — when you do, show yourself some gratitude.

To the Mama Who Needed Grace

If I could go back, I would hug that mama with all the love in the world. I would tell her she didn’t need to search for achievement in “doing it all” because she was already accomplishing something far greater: showing up for her baby.

To any new moms reading this, or anyone in a season of life where you’re placing impossible expectations on yourself: please be kind. Take a breath. Give yourself the grace you would give a friend. You are doing enough. You are enough.

And someday, when you look back, you’ll see it too.

Closing Thought

Goals are helpful, but they are not the measure of your productivity and worth. It’s okay to say “not today” and trust that the energy will return when it’s time. Life isn’t about constantly pushing forward—sometimes, it’s about being present and recognizing that what matters most is right in front of you.

To my 2019 self: You were doing more than you ever realized. And to me today: Thank you for learning to rest.

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