I have. And one of the most challenging parts of a Radical Restart might not be recognizing that something no longer fits, because that can be as clear as the pain in your gut or the ache in your heart. The harder part might be facing what that knowledge may require of you.

“But I worked so hard to get here.“

I hear some version of this from so many people who are thinking about changing careers. Executives, entrepreneurs, artists, academics, doctors, and others who have spent years becoming very good at work they no longer want to do.

They’re struggling with the idea that leaving might somehow invalidate everything it took to get where they are: the education, the long hours, the money, the promotions, the relationships, the reputation, and all those years spent becoming the person who had finally achieved this particular version of success.

How do you walk away from something that cost you so much to build?

I know that question well. In my twenties, I earned an MBA from Columbia Business School on a full fellowship, cramming 2 years’ worth of coursework into one, and started Harvard Law School three days later. I worked extremely hard for those degrees, and they became part of how I saw myself. I was the smart, speedy, successful one, the one who was making impressive and responsible choices.

Then I started working at a major law firm and almost immediately realized, this isn’t it. I mean, REALLY isn’t it.

That was not what I expected to be thinking. I had done everything required to reach a destination designed to prove that I had arrived. But once I got there, I discovered that I actually didn’t want to live there.

When something falls apart or you fail, it’s a blow, but you have an obvious reason to change direction. It’s much trickier to explain why you want to leave something you worked diligently towards and successfully attained. Other people may wonder what is wrong with you. You may wonder the same thing!

Why can’t I just be grateful? Why isn’t this enough? Why would I suddenly risk everything I’ve built? What will people think? And if I don’t want this anymore, what was all that work for?

“But I worked so hard to get here” may sound like a factual analysis of your past, but it can also become an emotional trap, leaving you feeling obligated to stay. Your degree begins to feel like a debt you have to keep repaying. Your title becomes something you must continue living up to. The sacrifices you’ve already made become the justification for making more of them.

In economics there’s a name for this: the sunk-cost fallacy. We keep investing in something because we have already invested so much, even when the cost of investing in it is greater than the return. Even when the investment is no longer returning what we need from it; or when our vision of what the return would look and feel like is incongruent with current reality.

The fact that you worked hard to get somewhere does not necessarily mean you’re supposed to remain there. Sometimes the work was part of how you discovered what you know now, which is that you were meant for something different.

Leaving law did not erase what I learned, the discipline I developed, or the person I became while pursuing that goal. My education taught me how to think, communicate, solve problems and operate in demanding environments. I’ve used those abilities in every restart that followed: songwriting, wellness entrepreneurship, producing, coaching, writing, and now building Radical Restart.

I left the profession, but I took what I’d learned with me.

That’s why starting over doesn’t mean starting from scratch. You bring your skills, relationships, experience, judgment, credibility, and hard-earned self-awareness into whatever you do next. You may use them in a completely different way, but you don’t lose them.

A lawyer may carry her ability to advocate into a field she cares about more deeply. An executive may use their leadership and strategy skills in service of a different mission. A teacher may bring his knack of explaining complex ideas in simple terms into an entirely new field. An entrepreneur may close one business and begin another knowing how to create, market, sell, serve, and bounce back quickly when things do not go as planned.

Still, leaving can be difficult because some careers seem to be inseparable from our identities. You don’t simply ‘work as’ a lawyer, physician, professor, founder, or executive. You become one. Other people know you as one. Your friends may come from that world. Your income and sense of security may depend on it. Your family may have celebrated your success or made sacrifices to help you achieve it.

Change unsettles your sense of who you are. This is especially true for high achievers because we tend to be very good at enduring. We know how to work harder, stay longer, and push through discomfort. These habits likely helped us succeed in the first place.

But the fact that you can continue doing something does not mean you should. Sometimes it keeps us treading water in a life we already know we have outgrown.

Are you exhausted because you’re moving through a demanding season, or because your work no longer feels like yours? Are you forcing yourself to remain loyal to an old definition of success? If you hadn’t already invested so much in your current career, would you choose it again today?

Radical doesn’t have to mean reckless. You don’t have to quit your job tomorrow. You can give yourself time to investigate what else might be possible. You can have conversations,experiment, take a class, build a financial runway, or begin something new while continuing to do what you’re doing now.

You never need to know exactly what comes next before admitting that what you have may no longer be right.

Maybe you needed to climb this particular mountain. Maybe the experience gave you knowledge, relationships, confidence, perspective, or skills you could not have gained any other way.

But reaching the top might mean that you’re just there to check out the view… so that you can see things from a higher perspective.

Yes, you worked so hard to get here. Bravo! Now what?

After twenty-four years in advertising, she had risen to become a global creative director working with major international brands. She traveled the world, collaborated with filmmakers, cast commercials, recorded voiceovers, wrote jingles, and sat at the intersection of art, commerce, psychology, and persuasion. For a long time, the work fed her creatively, professionally, and financially.

Until she could no longer ignore what else it was doing.

Much of Barb’s work involved beauty and diet brands. She began to see that she wasn’t simply selling products. She was helping sell women, especially young women, a toxic dream of perfection: flawless skin, lean limbs, and the idea that they needed to change themselves before they could feel worthy.

“My work didn’t just sell products,” Barb told me. “It shaped ideals about women’s bodies, beauty, and self-worth.”

By then, she had a sixteen-year-old daughter who was absorbing the same messages Barb was helping create.

“I realized that the work I was doing was contributing to women feeling ‘less than,’” she said. “It wasn’t aligned. It no longer matched the values I wanted to live, or the world I wanted my daughter to grow up in.”

This is one of the most disorienting ways to outgrow a career. Barb wasn’t failing at advertising. She was succeeding at work she could no longer feel good about succeeding at.

She knew she wanted to use her talent for storytelling differently, but she had no idea what that might look like. So, one morning, while driving to New York City, she asked the Universe for an answer.

Give me a sign,” she said.

Thirty seconds later, she turned on NPR.

Terry Gross was interviewing the executive director of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame about the bold, resilient, independent women who had helped shape American history. During the interview, Barb heard the words of a 101-year-old cowgirl who had taught four generations of women and girls how to ride: she would tell them, “Always saddle your own horse.”

Those words struck Barb like a lightning bolt. She pulled over and wrote them down.

To Barb, saddling your own horse meant self-reliance, courage, responsibility, and agency. It meant not waiting for someone to hand you permission. She wanted her daughter to saddle her own horse. She wanted her daughter’s friends to saddle theirs, and she wanted to saddle her own, whether she rode a horse or not.

Within three months, she traded her stilettos for cowboy boots, left her highly paid corporate career, and began making a documentary about the American cowgirl and the independent “cowgirl spirit“ they embodied.

Barb immersed herself in the project. She interviewed women and girls ranging in age from thirteen to ninety-three. She traveled through rural communities and sat with ranchers, artists, scientists, elders, and poets. She began teaching leadership workshops for girls based on cowgirl principles: saddle your own horse, rein in your fears, rope your dreams. She watched girls who had once been afraid to speak up in class begin running for leadership positions.

This wasn’t a hobby or a passing fascination. Barb believed she had found the work she was supposed to do.

But documentary filmmaking was new to her. Fundraising was difficult, the scope of the project kept expanding, and she was figuring it out, as she put it, “in real time, flying by the seat of my pants.” She and her producing partner would raise money, film what they could, and then work on raising more.

Eventually, a major funding opportunity they had been pursuing for months collapsed. Worse, they discovered that the people involved had been using their intellectual property to raise money for other projects.

“It was devastating,” Barb said. “I shut down.”

A week later, her mother died. Suddenly Barb was grieving not just her mother but the apparent loss of a project that had become central to her identity and purpose. Once again, she asked the Universe for guidance.

This time, the answer arrived in a dream.

Barb saw four powerful girls connected to earth, air, fire, and water, transported by horses with manes made of eagle feathers. They were searching for the missing piece of an ancient crystal horseshoe that held the codes of nature and the key to the planet’s survival.

It was vivid, mystical, and completely unexpected. But it carried the same essential ideas Barb had been exploring through the documentary: female courage, connection to the land, reverence for Mother Earth, and the power of girls to become agents of change.

Now Barb felt pulled by two projects. She had the documentary, which represented extensive work, money, travel, and love. And she had this epic, insistent new vision that would not leave her alone.

Soon afterward, while attending an event at the Western National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Barb walked through an exhibition of Native American art and stopped in front of a painting of a woman looking toward the sky. She recognized her immediately as Sophia, the mentor in the story from her dream.

That night, at two in the morning, she received a clear instruction: Choose one.

Barb chose the book.

“I didn’t give up on the cowgirl film. I let it go. And there’s a difference,” she told me. “When you give up, it’s defeat. When you let go, you bless it. You thank it for what it gave you, and you release it.”

As a culture, we tend to celebrate people who refuse to give up. They keep knocking on doors, hearing no, trying again, and holding on to the dream when no one else can see it. Persistence matters. Plenty of dreams die because we retreat at the first sign of resistance, confuse discomfort with danger, or expect a new path to reveal itself without requiring anything difficult from us.

But sometimes persistence becomes its own kind of trap.

Sometimes we become so committed to making one version of a dream work that we stop asking whether that version is still the right one. We assume that changing direction means we lack courage, discipline, or faith. We grip harder, push longer, and keep pouring ourselves into something that has stopped moving because releasing it would mean admitting that all the time, love, money, and effort we invested were wasted.

But what if letting go of one version of the dream is not the same as giving up on the dream itself?

What if the dream is right, but the form is wrong?

Giving up says, “I failed. It was all for nothing. I never should have tried.”

Letting go says, “This mattered. It changed me. It brought me here. And I no longer need to force it to become what I once thought it had to be.”

Barb had never written a novel. She didn’t know the rules, have an outline, or understand how a young adult environmental fantasy was supposed to be structured. She describes writing it as “beautiful torture.”

“I had doubts every time I showed up at the page,” she said. “But I showed up anyway, because that’s what a ‘cowgirl’ would do.”

It took her seven years to write The Dreamcatcher Codes. She joined writing groups, attended residencies, took classes, and sought help from people who knew what she did not. She even slept under the stars in the high desert without a tent because she wanted to understand the land and “feel her in my bones.”

The novel was released during COVID, when there were no live events and no traditional book tour. It won awards, but it did not sell as many copies as Barb had hoped. Even then, she refused to reduce the entire experience to a commercial verdict.

“I wrote it, and it changed me as a woman,” she said. “I regret nothing.”

And the story continued.

The Dreamcatcher Codes began finding its way toward a feature-film adaptation. Then cowgirl energy started reappearing in the culture, and Barb felt the pull of her original vision again.

Through a connection with a Texas beverage company, she created Cowgirl Tea, “Steeped in Empowerment,” bringing together the advertising and branding expertise she had spent twenty-four years developing with her commitment to helping women and girls live more boldly.

The documentary did not become what Barb originally imagined. But the deeper dream never disappeared. It moved from a documentary to leadership workshops, from a dream to a novel, from a novel toward the screen, and from cowgirl philosophy to a brand designed to spread that message in an entirely different way.

The calling remained. Only its containers changed.

This is what we often miss when we’re deciding whether to keep going. We become attached to the container: this job, this business model, this partnership, this book, this particular version of success. We assume that if the container cracks, we have lost what it was meant to hold.

But your real dream may be larger than the first form you gave it.

Maybe the restaurant was one expression of your desire to nourish people. Maybe the company was one expression of your desire to solve a problem. Maybe the career was one expression of your desire to create, teach, lead, heal, connect, or contribute. Maybe what you are being asked to release is not your purpose, but your insistence that your purpose can reach the world in only one way.

Of course, not every obstacle is a sign to stop. New dreams encounter resistance. Learning curves are real. Fear can make any worthwhile path feel impossible on a bad day. Letting go should not become a prettier name for fleeing the moment something becomes hard.

The distinction may lie in the questions we ask. Is the work still alive, even if it is difficult? Am I learning and gaining traction, or merely repeating the same painful cycle? Does this version of the dream still serve what I care about most, or has preserving it become more important than the purpose behind it? Am I persisting because something keeps pulling me forward, or because I cannot bear for anyone, including myself, to think I failed?

Barb thinks of herself as a river. Sometimes the river moves quickly. Sometimes it becomes still and deep. Sometimes it meets rocks and has to find another way around them. Along the banks are projects and possibilities she passes, releases, or perhaps returns to later.

“I don’t feel the need to force anything anymore,” she said. “If it keeps pulling me, I pay attention. If it’s not flowing, I pay attention to that too.”

Letting go does not erase the time, money, love, or effort you invested. It does not make you foolish for having believed. And it does not necessarily mean the dream will never return.

Sometimes you release something because it has completed its work in your life. And sometimes you release one form so the deeper dream can find another way to reach you.

As Barb says, you bless it. You thank it for what it gave you. And you let it go.

Then you leave your hands open long enough to discover what they are meant to hold next.

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It took me years to stop being afraid of doing nothing. Can you relate?

We live in a world that confuses productivity with purpose and achievement with fulfillment. More productive means more accomplished means more successful. Staying still can feel strangely like falling behind.

But sometimes pausing is more productive than action. Not all the time, obviously. Doomscrolling isn’t helpful, duh. That’s because a pause and what I call a Sacred Pause aren’t the same thing.

A pause is simply a break in the momentum of our lives. Sometimes life creates that break for us. We get sick. We lose a job. Someone we love needs our help. A relationship ends. A project falls apart. Suddenly, whether we wanted it or not, a space opens up between what was and whatever comes next.

But we can also create that space ourselves. We can step out of our own momentum deliberately, before circumstances force us to.

Either kind of pause can become a Sacred Pause when we consciously use that space rather than immediately hurrying to simply fill it. We listen. We notice. We question. We stop charging toward the next thing long enough to tune in to ourselves, and to something bigger than ourselves.

I saw both kinds of Sacred Pauses, chosen and unchosen, over and over while interviewing people for Radical Restart.

Amirose Eisenbach chose her Sacred Pause after caregiving for her mother and then losing her to cancer. She left her traditional entertainment executive career and spent three months traveling through Asia, much of it alone, on what she calls her own “Eat, Pray, Love” journey. When she returned, she founded Radiant J Productions producing purpose-driven film, television and live experiences that focus on uplifting the human spirit.

Carole Murko’s Sacred Pause was unchosen. After spending years in multiple high level careers, from Wall Street bond trader to Interior Designer to Real Estate Brokerage Owner and Creator/Host of Heirloom Meals on NPR and PBS, an autoimmune eye disease forced her to slow down dramatically. She spent months on Nantucket healing and walking five miles a day. In that enforced stillness, she began to understand her life differently. She ultimately not only regained her sight but reinvented her work, helping others see themselves better through her mindset, health and self-mastery offerings at love.eat.heal.

The more stories I heard, the more important I realized it was to not wait for life to pause us. We can all pause ourselves, proactively and regularly. And these days, that’s what I try to do.

For me, every hot yoga class is its own Sacred Pause. For that hour, I’m not writing, coaching, producing, planning or figuring out what comes next. I’m in my body, and beyond it. Forgetting everything so I can remember to tune in. And very often, I walk out with important information about something I couldn’t quite see before class.

A Sacred Pause doesn’t have a minimum duration. A ten-minute YouTube meditation can be one. So can a morning hike, or dog walk (hopefully without your phone). Sometimes I get to take a few hours for breathwork or other immersive mind-body practices. Other times I plan for something longer.

Look, hot yoga, or a dog walk, or whatever, won’t inoculate you against illness, loss, layoffs or any of the other things life can throw at us. We don’t get that kind of control. But regular, intentional pauses give us opportunities to notice things earlier: the exhaustion, the dissatisfaction, the curiosity we keep brushing aside, the idea that won’t leave us alone.

And a Sacred Pause doesn’t have to deliver some giant revelation. Maybe you notice just how blessed you are. Maybe you notice that you miss something. Or don’t miss something. Or that an old interest suddenly has energy again. Or that the life you’ve been calling “fine” really isn’t.

I’ve stopped thinking of pausing as something you earn after you’ve done enough. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop being productive long enough to figure out whether what you’re pursuing, building, maintaining and saying yes to still belongs in the life you want.

So if life has already paused you, see if you can find a way to make the pause meaningful. Don’t rush to fill the space just because it’s uncomfortable. Pay attention to what’s showing up there. Notice what you couldn’t see while you were moving.

And if life hasn’t paused you recently, maybe don’t wait.

Take that ten minutes for the Youtube Meditation (I have a few faves, hit me up). Go on that morning hike. Walk a dog with me (seriously, if you’re in LA --I have two). Come take hot yoga with me (again, seriously, I have plenty of guest passes at the sweetest sweat spot, North Ray Yoga on La Brea.)

I believe in creating these special spaces so much that this fall, Sandy Duarte, Kim Starzyk and I are beginning to offer a morning-long version here in Los Angeles, alongside the weeklong Radical Refresh retreats we’ve created in Costa Rica. More on those another time.

For now, just find your pause. And make it sacred.

One of the questions I’ve been asked most often since I began writing my book Radical Restart is, “How do you know it’s really time to change careers?”

It’s a fair question. After all, every job has difficult days. Every career has seasons when we’re tired, frustrated, or simply not as excited as we once were. So how do you know the difference between a temporary rough patch and the beginning of a more fundamental shift?

The answer is, you know it when you know it.

One day, a thought flies into your head: This isn’t it. Or, I think I’m done here. Or maybe, I’ve gotta get out of here. It may not feel logical or practical, but the thought itself is unmistakable. And once you’ve thought it, you can’t un-think it.

What you don’t know yet is what that thought means for your life. You don’t know when or how you might make a change, what you would do instead, or whether you’ll have the courage to act on what you’re feeling.

That’s why no one ever began a Radical Restart with certainty. They began with discomfort.

Some found themselves increasingly disconnected from work they had once loved. Some reached goals they had pursued for years only to discover they no longer wanted what they’d worked so hard to achieve. Others couldn’t explain what was wrong because, from the outside, everything appeared to be going well. Still others were forced to confront the question by a layoff, a health crisis, a financial setback, or another unexpected life event that made them reconsider everything.

The challenge is that discomfort is incredibly easy to misdiagnose.

We become remarkably good defense attorneys for our current lives. We tell ourselves we’re simply stressed. We need a vacation. It’s a busy season. Maybe things will feel different after the next promotion, the next project, or the holidays. We blame the feeling on our boss, our workload, our age, the economy—anything except the possibility that it isn’t asking for a better week, month, or season. It’s asking us to consider a different direction altogether.

Eventually, if the feeling persists, we become willing to take it seriously.

One of the women I interviewed for the book, Jennifer Aghakhani, spent years building a successful career in the fashion industry. Nothing catastrophic happened. There wasn’t a dramatic firing or a financial crisis. She simply couldn’t shake the feeling that the fit was no longer right.

So she traveled. She scuba-dived. She explored. She wasn’t running away from fashion as much as she was trying to discover what she wanted to run toward.

Then she took a discovery flight.

“I was hooked,” she told me. “I knew I was destined to be a pilot from that moment.”

And while I’m still disappointed that I can no longer benefit from her BCBG friends & family discount, I’m thrilled that she listened to that feeling.

What strikes me most about Jennifer’s story isn’t that she decided to take off, literally, into a profession still dominated by men. It’s that she gave herself permission to keep exploring until she found the answer.

I think that’s where many of us get stuck. We think we have to know where we’re going before we’re willing to admit we may need to leave where we are.

Looking back on my own life, every one of my career changes began long before I actually made it. They began when my enthusiasm for my current work started fading, when my curiosity kept drifting somewhere else, when panic became more familiar than excitement, or when I realized that the work energizing everyone around me left my internal battery drained.

At the time, I interpreted those feelings as confusion. Today, I recognize them for what they were: information.

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to write Radical Restart was to help people stop ignoring the signals their lives are sending them. Stop overriding those signals with logic. Stop dismissing them in the name of “responsibility.” Stop convincing themselves they’ll feel differently after one more accomplishment, one more vacation, or one more year—and start getting curious about where those signals might lead.

I’m not suggesting that every difficult week is a sign you should resign the next Monday morning. A Radical Restart isn’t about impulsively leaving a career you’ve worked hard to build.

However, recurring signals deserve curiosity instead of dismissal. You don’t have to obey every feeling. But you do have to be willing to listen when something inside you has already shifted.

Have you ever wondered whether your best work was already behind you… and had no idea what, if anything, was waiting in front of you?

Me too.

It’s not exactly the sort of thing we admit out loud. Nobody ever said to me over coffee, “I think I’ve already done the most meaningful thing I’m ever going to do.” But I suspect far more people have thought it than would ever confess.

I certainly did, for almost two years.

Before that, things had been going well. Really well. I’d been fortunate enough to have discovered several careers I genuinely loved. I’d gone from Wall Street lawyer (ok, that one wasn’t a match) to songwriter, and from songwriter to a successful business as a health and wellness entrepreneur, doing work that filled my soul as well as my bank account. I had magical family, friends and community, meaningful work, and every practical reason to believe I should simply keep doing what I’d been doing.

Then my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Like so many people who find themselves in a dance with disaster involving someone they love, I stepped away from almost everything else. I took my hands off the wheel of my business completely. My world became an endless swirl of research dives, hospital trips, and doctor’s visits. I juggled the mind-numbing practicalities and heartbreaking spiritual tests of caregiving, attempting to hold myself and others together emotionally, while trying to make whatever time my mom and I had left together count for her.

When she died nearly a year later, I expected to be devastated. I expected grief, exhaustion, and a long road back. What I didn’t expect was that I no longer knew how to return to the work I had put on pause.

The business was still there. Remarkably (thank you, Arbonne!), it had survived my long absence. There was every logical reason to pick up the reins and continue exactly where I’d left off. But something inside me had changed. The ambition that had fueled me for years had gone strangely quiet. I wasn’t drawn to the work. I couldn’t fake it. And I wasn’t feeling called toward anything new.

That frightened me to the core. If I no longer wanted the career I had worked so hard to build, what did I want? Worse still, what if the answer was...nothing? What if I had already made my contribution? What if the most meaningful phase of my life was behind me?

In what felt like a last-ditch effort to discover whether there was still something inside me that wanted to come alive, I signed up for what I thought was a book-writing course. I’d written and published a book before, so perhaps, I reasoned, I had another one in me.

The course turned out to be something quite different than I expected. It focused largely on identifying profitable market niches, then leveraging AI to do the bulk of the “writing” for you, and producing books that could perform well in the marketplace. Perhaps there’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach (let the debate begin), but it wasn’t why I’d enrolled. As someone who has loved writing since childhood, I wasn’t looking for AI and an algorithm. I was looking for a spiritual spark.

Still, I followed the assignments. When we were asked to brainstorm book ideas, the only one I could even think to write about was career change. I’d reinvented myself more than once, and I knew firsthand both the terror and exhilaration of starting over.

My course advisors were unequivocal. That market was saturated. Too many books. Too much competition. Not enough differentiation. In short, don’t waste your time.

For a while, I believed them.

Then I called my book marketer friend Jane to vent. Unbelievably, she was taking the very same course. After listening patiently, she asked, “Didn’t you do the mini-book exercise?”

I hadn’t.

“It isn’t meant to become a real book,” she said. “It’s just for practice. It’s short. Just pick something you’re interested in and play.”

Play. What an idea. I hadn’t done that for a very long time.

I sat down with a sheet of paper and made a list of subjects that had fascinated me for years: health, spirituality, yoga, dogs, alternative healing, human potential. At the bottom of the page, almost reluctantly, I wrote the idea I’d already been told wasn’t worth pursuing: career change.

The moment I wrote those words, another two arrived in my mind: Radical Restart.

Then, almost immediately, a subtitle: Ditch the Fear, Change Careers, and Cash In on Your Calling.

I felt an immediate surge of inspiration ricochet through my body.

For the first time in months, I felt something I hadn’t realized I’d been missing: Curiosity. What would it be like to write that book?

Ironically, after receiving what felt like such a clear download, I almost ignored it anyway. The experts had already told me the idea wasn’t viable. Who was I to argue? So I put it away and went back to grieving.

But the book refused to leave me alone.

One morning I woke up with a realization that seems almost embarrassingly obvious now: they were experts on their system. I was the expert on my own life.

So I got my money back and started writing anyway.

Nearly every time I mentioned Radical Restart, someone responded with, “That’s what I did!” or “You need to meet my friend.” Complete strangers began finding their way to me. A chance conversation in a hair salon led to an hour-long interview. A random encounter at an outdoor restaurant in Costa Rica led to another.

I found myself collecting evidence.

Evidence that reinvention isn’t rare. Evidence that identity is far more flexible than we’ve been taught. Evidence that some of the happiest and most fulfilled people are living lives they never planned—and would now never trade.

Today I’ve interviewed more than seventy people whose lives changed in extraordinary ways. Their stories are wildly different, but they follow a few consistent underlying patterns. Something stops fitting. Life interrupts. A door closes. A curveball is thrown. Then there is curiosity, fear, uncertainty, investigation, resistance, experimentation, and eventually, for those willing to keep going, a life that feels more fully their own.

The greatest surprise, however, wasn’t what I learned from those people. It was what the process gave back to me: my next chapter. Well, 14 of them, actually.

The book I almost didn’t write became the thing that restored my own sense of purpose. It reminded me that life wasn’t finished with me after all. It simply had another assignment waiting.

The feeling that your best work is behind you may not be a final verdict. It may simply be the invitation that finally leads you to the best what’s next of your life.

In the months ahead of its January 18, 2027 release date, I’ll be sharing ideas from the book, stories from the remarkable people I’ve interviewed, and reflections on what it really takes to begin again. I invite you to follow along.

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I got so excited about this that suddenly, without even realizing it, I had interviewed, summarized and polished the stories of over 70 brave, fascinating people.

It never occurred to me to do a word count on my book draft, or to stop interviewing people when I hit a certain number. I just got happily addicted to the high of doing the interviews, helping shape the answers into smooth narratives, conversing, sharing and co-editing with my subjects, and utilizing all I was learning to inform my own part of the book.

But when I sent in the first draft to my longtime friend Jane Ubell, whose book marketing company Bedside Reading is handling the technicalities of the physical product, I got an immediate call back. “Honey,” she said, in her cut-to-the-chase way, “your book is 411 pages long! You’ll go broke publishing it.”

What the what? I was momentarily thrown, to put it mildly. Those stories, and the people reflected in them, were each so precious to me.

Yet I knew better than to fall apart, because I truly believe that everything is always working out for my highest good (yes, I am one of those people). So I told Jane it was all going to be fine, and I would figure it out. Then I went to North Ray Yoga — my home away from home — where, conveniently, the answers came between Warrior 2 and Tree Pose.

What came to me was that while only some of the interviews could be used in this first volume of the book, the book itself could be a series — and perhaps had been destined to be one all along. And that while 2/3 of the stories might not make this volume, they could still be housed at my website, shared online, and perhaps even be the basis of a podcast (what?).

Since then, I’ve been spending time culling through all the interviews to see whose stories most fully capture the points in this first book. It’s been a challenge, because everyone’s story has magic. But they’re all my darlings, and they will all get to live under the Radical Restart umbrella.

As I’m putting the finishing touches on my new book, Radical Restart: Ditch the Fear, Change Careers, and Cash In On Your Calling, I find myself seeing Radical Restarts everywhere.

A person, a company, a community, or even a country reaches a moment when they realize: The old way no longer fits. Something has to change.

The birth of America may be one of the biggest Radical Restarts in history. A group of people looked at the only system they had ever known and dared to imagine something different. They didn’t have certainty. They didn’t have guarantees. They didn’t have every detail figured out. They simply knew they couldn’t keep moving forward the same way.

As a result, yesterday marked the 250th anniversary of our Independence. But somewhere between the freedom-filled barbecues, flying flags, and bombs (ok, fireworks) bursting in air, it occurred to me that America’s independence was never achieved independently. It was actually the result of a profound web of interdependence.

George Washington didn’t win the Revolutionary War alone. He depended on soldiers, generals, strategists, farmers, messengers, and countless people whose names history never recorded... along with a few who are still known.

Like Haym Salomon, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, who used his financial skills, connections, and personal funds to provide critical support -- over $25 million in today’s dollars -- for the Revolutionary cause at a time when the new nation was fighting not only for freedom, but for the resources needed to pay the army and survive.

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And James Armistead Lafayette, who fought for freedom while still enslaved himself, risking his life to become a double agent — gaining the trust of British forces while secretly passing critical intelligence to the Continental Army and helping secure the critical victory at Yorktown. (Thankfully, he was later granted his manumission.)

Benjamin Franklin understood that a dream this big required big allies. He helped secure support from France. The Yorktown victory was also a result of American troops, French soldiers, and the French navy working together.

Even the Declaration of Independence wasn’t created independently. Thomas Jefferson’s words were debated, reviewed, edited, and approved by others.

That’s the part of every great transformation it’s easy to forget.

History loves to spotlight the person holding the pen. The leader giving the speech. The founder with the idea. The one brave soul making the leap.

But behind every “one” is a web of many.

The people who supported the idea. The people who challenged it. The people who fought for it, believed in it, and helped make it real.

And that applies to every Radical Restart.

At first glance, it often looks like one person making one brave leap. Someone quits the job. Starts the company. Changes the life trajectory. Begins the next chapter.

But no one gets there alone.

Your courage may be yours. Your decision may be yours. Your leap may be yours. But you carry every teacher, mentor, friend, connection, and experience that helped bring you to that moment.

And your next chapter will be shaped by the people you meet along the way — the people who support you, the people who open unexpected doors, and sometimes even the people who doubt you, because they force you to decide how much you believe in yourself.

That is interdependence.

Not codependence. Codependence says: “I need you because I am not whole.”

Interdependence says: “I am whole. You are whole. I can receive the gifts you bring to my journey, and offer my own gifts when they are needed on someone else’s.”

The greatest restarts — of countries, careers, and lives — require both: the independence to trust ourselves enough to take the leap and the interdependence that helps us prepare for it, move through it, and build what comes next.

And there’s nothing better than having it be a total win.

What I did was to dream up something — Radical Refresh Retreats. And the right people showed up to test it with me.

Sound healer and yin yoga expert , integrative nutritionist & midlife+ women’s wellness coach Kim Starzyk (@kimfitzstar on IG) and I co-created an itinerary to help some deserving humans reset their nervous systems, reconnect to their intuition, restore their inner balance, and renew their senses of possibility, purpose, play and wonder.

.We created an itinerary with a balance of healing, learning, rest and rejuvenation.

Sandy’s sound sessions resonated deeply.

Her yin classes opened us up in new ways.

Kim’s workshops illuminated new ways of thinking about aging.

I added my insights from a life of Radical Restarts.

Skye Peyton (skyepeyton.com; IG @622wellness) honored us with photography.

We pooled our communal expertise and took it poolside.

Everyone who stayed the week with us left happier.

Guests had life-changing realizations, and one actually began a new career path.

Even our drop-in guests could feel the energy that’s released when burdens are set down, self care is on the menu, insights are shared, and energy is in flow.

It was so impactful that I’ve decided to do it again… and again… and again. 2027 Radical Refresh Costa Rica Dates: Feb 20-27, May 1-8, Nov 6-13.

I'M INTERESTED!

We just had a few last minute cancellations for our inaugural Radical Refresh Retreat (like my friend Susanne Goldstein, who got invited to do a TEDx talk she couldn’t say no to!). Could this be your sign to jump in and join us?

All the details are here: Radical Refresh 2026. Text me at 323.646.4135 to discuss!

Warmly, Amy

More On Me

Well, we made it to the Spring Equinox. Thank goodness! Because there’s a crazy amount of heavy energy out there that needs to be cleared out. And while it’s debatable whether any of us can significantly affect the larger issues darkening our collective skies, we can each choose to regulate our own inner weather.

I don’t know about you, but I always feel better when I let something go. Clothing I’m done with that’s clogging the closet. The magazine rack full of Sunday NY Times Book Review sections I’m never going to get to. An old story I keep telling myself that’s not serving me anymore.

In the spirit of Spring Cleaning, here’s one product, and four people with offers to “en-lighten” you, that I want to share!

Lighten Up with GLP-1 Nutrition Support.

Arbonne’s new GLP-1 Support is magic. It’s a tasty non-medical alternative to GLP-1 shots if you want to clean up your eating act. Many of us are either not candidates for GLP-1 shots (wanting to lose 5 lbs isn’t needing to lose 50) , or don’t want to go the western medicine route. (And yes, you can also use it if you are on a GLP-1 prescription and just want habit support.)

This new botanical GLP-1 hormone support helps you to feel fuller, balance your blood sugar, activate fat loss, and support metabolic function by encouraging your body’s own natural GLP-1 signaling system to work efficiently. This can strengthen self-control (it certainly has for Todd and me!)

I’m as shocked that something works on my snackaholism after all! And I suddenly don’t give seconds a second thought. It’s crazy.

Text me at 323.646.4135 for yours.

Reset with Michelle

I have a few personal psychic mediums who have earned my trust because of their incredibly accurate track records. One of them, Michelle Cohen, is also a gifted energy healer.

If your nervous system has been a little… unhinged lately (and whose hasn’t), for the next week she’s offering this:

Spring Equinox Energetic Reset (a spa appointment for your insides)

A 45-minute intuitive session where your whole system actually calms down.

The Spring Equinox is nature’s reset point. Things rebalance. Energy shifts. Which makes it a very good moment to clear the static that’s built up in your system.

In this 45-minute online session you will:

• find where your body is holding tension• quiet the mental chatter• clear patterns behind anxiety + overthinking• show your system how to actually chill out• identify the exact tools that work for you

Working together with her intuitive team (and yes, they have opinions), she’ll help realign your energy so you leave feeling: calmer, clearer, and back in your own center.

You’ll leave with:

• a personalized calm reset• clarity on what’s actually going on• simple tools to return to center quickly

Details:

Spring Equinox Energetic Reset. 45 minutes — $111 (normally $175)

Sessions available March 22–30. Limited spots! CLICK TO BOOK

NOTE: The Spring Equinox Reset sessions are not predictive readings. If you’d like one of those, you can book that separately.

MORE ABOUT MICHELLE

She’s often described as the “psychic other psychics consult” and has worked as a professional intuitive for many years.

Most recently she was invited to work with SOL, the #1 app in the nation focused on spirituality and mental health. She also regularly give lectures and workshops on how to recognize inner guidance versus “monkey mind” thinking. A core part of that work is teaching practical ways to distinguish intuitive signals from fear-based responses. Her book The Intuition Tool Kit also explores these ideas in depth.

Alongside her intuitive work, she’s a writer/producer whose projects have been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, NPR’s All Things Considered, and in People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post.

You can learn more about her work here: Website page (explaining her abilities) , michellecohentunein.substack.com, www.michellecohen1.com.

Sound Cleanse With Sandy

As the season shifts into renewal, Sandy Duarte, my remarkable friend and recent stage four cancer survivor, invites you into Love Wrapped in Sound, a deeply personal healing experience born from lived resilience, where her relationship to sound was shaped through long rounds of chemotherapy. (You can read a recent Cancer Health interview about her full story here.)

Her work is rooted in the understanding that true wellness is felt, not performed, offering a space to gently release, reset, reconnect and tap into Love.

For a limited time this spring, book a $111 one-hour session, with the option to incorporate nourishing yin poses for deep fascia release and embodied restoration. Step into the freshness of the season and receive the medicine of sound, intention, and care. LA Area in person; Zoom available.

Dive Deep with Rhetta

Thanks to my finance friend, wealth advisor Stephanie Wei, I recently met Rhetta Rowland, a San Francisco-based executive coach who’s adding something powerful to her offerings: ketamine-assisted integration coaching.

So many of us know about hitting ‘the wall’—that place where meditation, talk therapy, and sheer willpower just don’t seem to move the needle anymore. That’s where Rhetta’s work can come in. After working with high-achievers for decades, she realized some of her clients needed more.

Rhetta knows the challenges from experience. She spent 20 years in the high-stress world of corporate marketing before hitting her own wall of burnout and depression. As a woman in long-term recovery, she was incredibly cautious about finding a way forward that honored her sobriety and her safety.

She found her ‘opening’ through Ketamine-Assisted Coaching, which she now practices in conjunction with MDs in both San Francisco and LA.

This isn’t recreational drug use; it’s a highly strategic, short term somatic and soul-centered process to help you rewire old patterns and reclaim your energy.

She experienced ketamine’s profound effects herself, discovering it reached a mild depression and burnout that nothing else could touch—and it gave her back a sense of possibility and creative problem-solving. So she trained extensively in evidence-based integration techniques and now works closely with licensed psychiatrists to offer this in a completely safe, high-touch way.

The real magic happens in what she calls “concierge integration”—those crucial 24-48 hours after your journey when she helps you translate what you’ve touched into actual, lasting behavioral change.

With an MBA, Master’s degree in Evolutionary Astrology, somatic training, and decades of real-world business experience, Rhetta brings a rare combination of pragmatism and depth to her work.

If you’re curious about ketamine-assisted coaching or executive work with someone who actually gets it, check out rhettarowland.com.

Private Coach with Susanne - Single Slot Available

If you’ve ever thought, “I know I’m meant for more than this,” Susanne Goldstein is your woman. Through her signature work, EnergyOS™, she helps women shed negative conditioning, interrupt self-sabotage, and step into true freedom, power, clarity, and choice.

Susanne is opening one private coaching spot in April—a rare chance to work with her one-on-one. She also has limited spots available in her highly recommended Lead Like a Woman™ program.

I’ve had the personal benefit of being part of Susanne’s world for the last 6 years, and I use her coaching concepts regularly.

I could go on and on about her instant insights, her ability to get to the root of what’s holding you back in absolutely any area of your life, to make impactful suggestions and offer practical exercises to help you shift out of the same old sh*t you’ve been pulling on yourself since forever. The version of me I am today is in no small part because I opened myself up to the power of her suggestions.

Learn more at www.susannegoldstein.com, write her at hello@susannegoldstein.com, and be sure to tell her, “Amy Sent Me.”

‘Til next time!

Warmly, Amy

For me, a woman on the verge of 65, learning the science behind post-menopausal women’s extraordinary contributions to this world — how women beyond childbearing age ensured the very survival of our species— was exciting.

Not only don’t we lose value once we stop being able to bear children, we actually gain it. A long post menopause life - thought for many years to be an evolutionary “mistake” - turns out to be a uniquely adaptive evolutionary feature. If you’re looking for an uplifting reason to feel good about being female, or to be in awe of the women in your life, see the film at Wise Women.

(ps: yes, this is my page…there’s now a site where sharing your authentic film recommendations can earn you money! Check out Bingeable.net)

But all women have power, no matter what their age.

I’ve been watching the world I knew implode in so many ways recently, thinking about the control-hungry men who caused this chaos, and imagining what the world would look like if women were in charge.

Women don’t start wars. We start collectives. We don’t destroy. We donate. We communicate. We listen. We open our arms and our hearts. We instinctively know the value of lifting each other up and also catching each other, holding each other, helping each other

I watched this female collaborative alchemy in action during an Arbonne Galentine’s Spa event my friends Kim Starzyk, Stephanie McNamara and I had at my house this weekend. It was intended to be chill, light, relaxing. Each of us had invited two or three guests; most didn’t know each other.

As we were introducing ourselves around the dining room table, one of Kim’s guests bravely mentioned that she almost didn’t come as the grief she’d been suffering over the recent loss of her grandmother had been feeling overwhelming.

The energy in the room suddenly shifted. Instantly and invisibly, we did what women do: we became a circle of support. We all heard and answered the silent call to witness and assist. It was literally gal-vanizing.

We held space for this woman, listened to more of her story, shared words of comfort, acknowledged her strength in coming. One of my guests spoke about the relief she’d found in consulting a medium after her own grandmother’s passing, and offered to share a phone number.

It brought us a level closer, and gave us all permission to be deeply honest for the rest of the afternoon. People shared and reflected more freely. Later on, we laughed more freely too.

I was reminded that we don’t always know the reasons why we unite, but we are always helping someone when we do.

When women are together, we can get brave enough to share our pain. We can bear witness, and take action. And we can create the space for much needed joy as well. We weren’t meant to do life alone.

Recommendations from my Arbonne shelf:

This Daily Essentials bundle has all you need to get up and glow. Easy-peasy clean energy, protein, greens, vegan collagen builder, and patented pre-and probiotics. This is one my daily go to’s.

And it’s a perfect time to grab this - or anything else you see my online store. Because because we’re having a free Preferred Client month! 20% off every order for a year, plus free shipping, free full size gifts with purchase, and of course, you get me as your personal consultant.

Recommendations from my bookshelf:

The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist. A best-selling transformative exploration of how reshaping our relationship to money - away from scarcity and toward sufficiency and generosity - can heal us, and our world. Thanks, Jen Castellini, for the book share!

It’s Deeper Than That by Suzanne Roberts. An instructive invitation to turn inward and awaken to the profound truth of who you are - underneath your trauma, survival patterns and outer expectations. Thanks, Suzanne, for bringing your radiant 70+ self from Ohio to NY for Sara Connell's Women Starting Movements workshop and reminding me that age is no bar to passion and impact!

Ok, all! That’s it from the flight deck of my mind. Back to writing Chapter 6 of Radical Restart!

Warmly, Amy

Pictured: Joyful collaborations, international adventures (Cole in Thailand, Morocco, Bosnia, UK!), Tony-winning nights (Buena Vista Social Club!), new plays (That Bastard Puccini! Parents In Chains!), inspiring films (Lilly! Soul On Fire!), inaugural photography show (Cole!) next hits (Jasper!), happy partnerships, canine camaraderie, family hangs, long-term friendships.

Not Pictured: High blood pressure (Todd), high anxiety (Jasper), doomscrolling (me), so-so drive for the 9-to-5 (Cole), shakeups, breakups, raging, aging.

We are lovers, not fighters. Lovers of democracy, community, possibility, productivity, peace, prosperity, art and biz, Arbonne Fizz, LA energy and Costa Rican calm.

Thanks for being part of our 2025, and here’s to raising the vibration in 2026. We’re here for you.

Find us at:

beacons.ai/amypowers

@happyhealthywithamy, @onproducing @jasperharris, @coleshootspeople on IG

Thank goodness for Arbonne. Because whatever I do in December, I can undo in January.

After 15 years with this company, I still marvel at the money back guaranteed magic of our 30 Days To Healthy Living Program. This is the one that gave me my mojo back after Hashimoto’s laid me out flat (this is not a medical claim, just my personal testimonial!). It’s what helped me easily detox, de-bloat, and defeat inflammation while leaning into fueling myself with all the right stuff.

Recipes, resources, accountability, and RESULTS, all at about the price of a Starbucks run a day.

Friends actually look forward to doing this together with me It’s a hang. It’s supportive. I was never a cheerleader in high school, but I make up for it in our private group. We start Jan 5!

And if you’re not up for the whole shebang, you can still make feel better/look better/live better choices. Just peruse this handy dandy run through of our daily, weekly and monthly choices and see what feels right for you. Then text me at 323.646.4135 and I’ll set you up!

Warmly, Amy

Anyone who knows me knows this about me: I’m a connector. It’s how I’m wired.

I get an actual jolt of joy every time I link someone with exactly what they’ve been searching for—a practitioner who can help heal them, a book or podcast that offers the insight they’ve been craving, a safe product that helps them feel or look better, a film or song that inspires them, a retreat or workshop that elevates them, a new turn of language that helps release an old struggle.

One of the most powerful threads of connection this year has been introducing people to John O’Leary - the true life subject of our film Soul On Fire.

First in theaters, now available on Amazon, John’s story - through Soul on Fire— has been reaching millions of people all over the world. And every time I connect someone to it, or to John’s bestselling book On Fire: The 7 Choices To Ignite A Radically Inspired Life, his blog, or his highly rated podcast Live Inspired, they are moved.

I mean really moved. For example, here’s Ben Press (with his multi-hyphenate pal Mario Van Peebles).

Ben’s a multi-hyphenate, too - he’s been an agent for stars from Tyra Banks to Ariana Grande, packaged multiple TV series, been a partner and brand partnership strategist at high level media firms, and more. He has also seen Soul on Fire 3 times, and cried every time.

Ben mentioned this to me as we and Mario co-hosted an event this week (Todd’s and my first!) for a terrific new political candidate, Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio’s former Director of Public Health and hopefully its future Governor. No, we haven’t moved out of LA, but we got the opportunity to amplify the voice of someone who’s truly here to help us solve our shared collective challenges here in the U.S., so of course we took it.

Dr. Acton is running as a Democrat but is attracting a multitude of Independents and Republicans. She’s bringing back true public service. She’s a heart-led healer who just happens to also be a brilliant coalition builder and powerful professional action-taker. I was completely lit up to be able to connect her to some of our California crowd. But you can support her from anywhere just by clicking here.

That night came right on the heels (and, um, the heals) of the chakra aligning, vibrationally brilliant Global Sound Bath event in Miami, curated by stage 4 cancer survivor Sandy Duarte.

This beautiful concept is coming to LA for Valentine’s Day weekend! Text me at 323.646.4135 for more info.

Attending this event in Miami with my new true friend Julie Beth Halbert,Esq. allowed me the chance to connect with her on a mission level as well.

Julie’s expertise in the legal, practical and spiritual sides of death and dying is unparalleled, and I was able to introduce her to my childhood buddy, and end of life planning expert Barry Koch and his partner in their groundbreaking site tgbeyond.com, Jason Zamer. Now they’re joining forces with Julie to take tgbeyond’s award-winning film A Butterfly Has Been Released to wider audiences, and team up to create bigger impact on this universal subject. If you are involved in the death and dying movement, hospice, are suffering through caregiving or grief, or simply want clarity on how to make your passing easier on yourself and those you love, I highly recommend checking out Julie’s site Rising Phoenix and tgbeyond’s blog.

If you have someone magical to add to my circle of connection, email me at amylynnepowers@gmail.com.

If you want to learn more about who and what I can currently connect you to, click here.

Onward and upward,

Amy

It’s been a transformative Fall for me, and I hope for you, too. Here’s what’s transpired, plus some options to partake in to help you stay enlivened.

Sony Affirm released SOUL ON FIRE, the first film I’ve ever co-produced (alongside my husband Todd and other heros of mine) about burn survivor turned acclaimed inspirational speaker John O'Leary, on 1750 screens. It got an “A” on CinemaScore and a whopping 98% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter! If you didn’t catch it in theaters, it’s just been released on Amazon Prime. Rent it with a group, bring tissues + an open heart, and get ready to feel uplifted.

Meanwhile, for my upcoming book Radical Restart: Ditch The Fear, Change Careers, and Cash In On Your Calling, I’ve been working on interviews with over 50 remarkable people who’ve made major work changes. An unexpected invitation from book marketing maven Jane Ubell - one of my East Coast besties - to attend a workshop called Women Creating Movements led me to into a terrific new community headed by Sara Connell, best-selling author/coach/media expert and founder of Thought Leader Academy. I wasn’t planning on ‘creating a movement’ with my book, but it sure got me thinking.

My head had almost finished exploding from the dynamism and visions of those women when I read that my undergrad alma mater, Vassar, was offering a “Time Out” grant opportunity that would allow one alum time, space and funds to create something good for the world. I thought of what an amazing 65th year I would have as the recipient of that grant, so I applied.

To help more people, I’ve widened my original book idea to something larger - a movement, in fact! - called Radical Renewal. In addition to a trilogy of books — not only Radical Restart for work-related choices and challenges, but Radical Resilience: Thriving Through Illness, Caregiving & Change and Radical Rebuild: Life After Loss — I’ll be creating programs, coaching, retreats and resources to help people through three of life’s most common inflection points - all of which I’ve personally experienced. I’ll be doing this with the help of a blue chip Advisory Council… feel free to reach out and suggest anyone with wisdom and skill in any of these areas!

That’s the update. Now for a few recommendations:

Breathwork

My personal longtime breathwork teacher Siri Baruc Thornton is a dedicated healer, creative, and guide committed to expanding our capacity to feel good. With more than 26 years of experience as a Reiki Master, Akashic Record reader, and Transformational Breathwork teacher, Siri empowers individuals to access their innate power and live with greater joy and alignment. (My husband also reports that the neighbors sometimes think we’re having wild sex when I am alone on Zoom with Siri, following her instructions for “moaning, toning and groaning”.)

Siri offers a free online group session to anyone who hasn’t experienced this yet. Her next one is this Friday! Email Siri here to reserve a spot.

The F Word... (Forgiveness)

Who do you really need to forgive so you can finally move forward? How do you do it? Offered by compassionate bad-ass coach Tongela Clark, this 3 module course is for you if you’re ready to let go of old wounds that somehow keep sabotaging your success.

I was hooked on Tongela’s wise words and straight talk energy from the day we met in the Equinox Eucalyptus steam room. She lives in Houston now, but her wisdom is available everywhere! Join the program here.

Global Sound Bath Miami

Join me at GLOBAL SOUND BATH MIAMI DEC 5-7! Stage 4 cancer survivor/author/soundbath specialist/yin yoga teacher Sandy Duarte and her cohort have gathered some of the best sound healers on the planet to create a healing hub like no other. In addition to the world’s Longest Sound Bath (dip into particular practitioners or stay for all 3 nights/2 days), we’ll experience aura photography, functional elixirs, ceremonies, sensory art, ecstatic dance, and convivial community. I’ll be there with the happiest grief specialist I know, Julie Beth Halpert.

Get your in person tickets here.

And if you can’t make it in person, you can still join the high frequency party virtually.

Healing in Joshua Tree

There’s a lot of pressure in our culture around the holidays. Not everyone wants to be out partying. Some of us don’t have family to spend time with, or are in the middle of challenging circumstances that leave us feeling profoundly alone during this season.

Sandy Duarte was inspired to start doing these retreats, which feature yoga, meditation, heart-centered communal reflection and sound healing, when she found herself alone and unable to visit her family in Canada during Covid. She’s continued to offer them since healing from her Stage 4 blood cancer as a refuge of wellness to anyone called to co-create calm community during this season.

“NOT HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS” JOSHUA TREE HOLIDAY RETREAT DEC 24-26 2025

“HELLO 2026!” NEW YEARS RENEWAL JOSHUA TREE HOLIDAY RETREAT DEC 31 - JAN 2 2025

Self-Nurturing in Mount Hood, OR

For those wanting a longer experience with Siri Baruc Thornton through her Sage + Blush Wellness, she is also offering longer in person experiences to help you replenish your body, reset your nervous system, and reconnect you to your creative, intuitive essence in her adopted state of Oregon in 2026.

GODDESS OF LIGHT RETREATS IN MT HOOD VILLAGE, OREGON MARCH 15-18.MAY 3-6, OCT 4-7 2026

That’s it for now…onward and upward!

Warmly, Amy