<script data-pm-proxy="intercept"></script><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten l Sips & Soul ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Physical therapist turned soul coach delivering deep insight, real peace, zero bypassing. Grab a bev, we're building a life you won't need a vacation from.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!afIn!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78fd1a2e-2405-4ec8-8c79-8cf6121790de_1280x1280.png</url><title>Thalia Dorsten l Sips &amp; Soul </title><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:14:21 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[sipsandsoul@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[sipsandsoul@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[sipsandsoul@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[sipsandsoul@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[My Dream Life Stopped Fulfilling Me]]></title><description><![CDATA[The six steps that got me from burnt out to actually excited about my life again.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/6-steps-to-find-your-purpose-yes</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/6-steps-to-find-your-purpose-yes</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:16:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png" width="1456" height="765" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:765,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2075959,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/i/210903280?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6P0l!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F988099b4-8836-4e76-a5fc-ad058360a5e7_1731x909.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>I used the pandemic for my awakening.</span></p><p><span>My hope for you? You won&#8217;t need a global shutdown to wake YOU up to the truth.</span></p><p><span>Because by the end of this, you&#8217;re going to have a real, no-BS way to check whether you&#8217;re living YOUR life, or the shiny one you think you&#8217;re supposed to want.</span></p><p><span>No crisis required. Just six steps to wake you up to your purpose and joy.</span></p><p><span>I was living what I thought was &#8220;the dream.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Outpatient sports med PT at Ohio State. $70K a year. Cute German Village apartment with my boo. Weekends spent partying with our friends.</span></p><p><span>Work hard, play harder, that was my whole vibe.</span></p><p><span>What I didn&#8217;t realize was I wasn&#8217;t climbing a ladder to the American dream. I was on the fast track to full-blown, symptomatic burnout.</span></p><p><span>Compassion fatigue. Calling in sick because I could not physically get out of bed. Crying on the drive to work.</span></p><p><span>It was bad.</span></p><p><span>When the world shut down, I was forced into stillness for the first time in my life.</span></p><p><span>I know a lot of people had a hard time being stuck at home. I felt like a freak, because it was the best time of my life. Ha!</span></p><p><span>No one telling me what to do. No pressure to go anywhere. Just me, my boyfriend (now husband), and the handful of people we quarantined with.</span></p><p><span>I did the things that, without a pandemic, probably would&#8217;ve taken until a mid-life crisis to get to. Because my mind was obsessed with working and it didn&#8217;t feel like my joy was contributing to my money. Have you ever felt that way?</span></p><p><span>What I didn&#8217;t realize was that being so career-obsessed without joy was slowly draining my life energy.</span></p><p><span>I started learning TikTok dances, doing puzzles (the hottest covid trend of all), enjoying a nightly movie after dinner, hosting game nights, taking long slow walks, moving my body because it felt good, not because I had to earn a hot bod.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg" width="1179" height="2081" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:2081,&quot;width&quot;:1179,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:203339,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/i/210903280?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!IRWS!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86ba0ec6-7039-431b-9cb5-5b027a9a9ea9_1179x2081.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">Dancin on sissy&#8217;s tiktok &#128514;</figcaption></figure></div><p></p><p><span>I remember looking in the mirror one morning during the stay-at-home orders and I looked like I&#8217;d aged backward five years. Before this moment, I had no idea how much stress was aging me until it was suddenly gone and I could see the shift in my own face.</span></p><p><span>Going back to work after getting a glimpse of what life could feel like hit me like a ton of bricks. (Talk about a contrast!)</span></p><p><span>I spent the next four years of my life soul searching, experimenting, unlearning, to find my way back to that freedom. Not the stay-cation version. The real, lived-in, everyday version where I genuinely wake up every day excited for the day ahead because I&#8217;ve crafted a life that lights me up. (And this is what I want you to experience, too!)</span></p><p><span>I believe without a shadow of a doubt that it is 100% possible to make money doing what you love. That&#8217;s the journey I&#8217;m actively on.</span></p><p><span>I think that we can create heaven-on-earth and aren&#8217;t meant to spend the majority of our days doing things and spending time with people who don&#8217;t light us up.</span></p><p><span>I&#8217;ve seen what that life leads to: burnout, faster aging, chronic stress and illness, weight gain. That was my life before the shutdown.</span></p><p><span>And after I saw the light, it got too painful for me to stay. Everything in me was telling me I HAD to make the jump. It took time, but slowly and surely, I did.</span></p><p><span>This April, I am very excited (and scared shit terrified haha) that I left physical therapy completely to build a business that lets me use my full gifts AND pays my bills.</span></p><p><span>I don&#8217;t have it all figured out. I&#8217;m still in the messy middle. But I&#8217;m all in. (Open to all the advice from my biz gurus out there!)</span></p><p><span>And I&#8217;m bringing you with me as I explore this life path, in hopes that it inspires you to stop settling for anything less than a life that lights you up.</span></p><p><span>And I don&#8217;t want you to wait for a global shutdown or a midlife crisis to find out what YOUR version of this looks like. You don&#8217;t have to burn your whole life down to know if you&#8217;re living your life or the shiny one you think you SHOULD be living.</span></p><p><span>There&#8217;s a simple process you can follow to tap you into your Divine purpose and joy.</span></p><p><span>Here&#8217;s the inventory I took, and what you can do too, to find your way back home to yourself.</span></p><p><span>Below the paywall you get access to the six steps to release the version of life that feels &#8220;fake&#8221; or like it&#8217;s draining you and step into a life that is authentic and lights you up day in and day out. It includes the exact questions to ask yourself, the daily practice that rewires the old conditioned self, and how to move from clarity into action. All of it&#8217;s below.</span></p><ul><li><p><span>&#128275; The exact process to </span><strong><span>break out of your conditioned, everyday self</span></strong><span> &#8212; so you can finally hear your own voice over everyone else&#8217;s expectations of who you should be.</span></p></li><li><p><span>&#127880; A play day framework that shows you what you actually love &#8212; so you stop numbing out and </span><strong><span>start feeling alive again</span></strong><span>, maybe for the first time in years.</span></p></li><li><p><span>&#9997;&#65039; The journaling questions that </span><strong><span>reveal your real desires</span></strong><span> &#8212; so you quit chasing a life that was never actually yours (a job, a role, an image) and start building the one that is.</span></p></li><li><p><span>&#127769; The exact </span><strong><span>daily manifestation practice</span></strong><span> I use &#8212; so you can rewire your brain out of the old identity and into the one that already has the life you&#8217;re calling in.</span></p></li><li><p><span>&#128151; The inner work that </span><strong><span>clears what&#8217;s blocking you</span></strong><span> &#8212; so old fear and unworthiness stop making your decisions for you, and you come back to your wholeness.</span></p></li><li><p><span>&#127754; How to actually </span><strong><span>take aligned action</span></strong><span> &#8212; so you can move forward without forcing, hustling, or burning yourself out doing it.</span></p></li></ul><p></p>
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[I Almost Gave Up on Therapy. Then I Googled EMDR]]></title><description><![CDATA[Three years of stuck trauma, gone in a three day intensive]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/should-i-go-to-therapy-i-tried-it</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/should-i-go-to-therapy-i-tried-it</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:48:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Avoiding my pain was so much harder than actually facing it.</p><p>In 2022, I was an anxious wreck. I used to describe it like a full cup: one more drop of water and I would tip over and break. Everything felt too much.</p><p>I was processing a global pandemic that shut the world down, George Floyd&#8217;s death and the Black Lives Matter movement, the death of my father-in-law from COVID, and feeling broken by the state of my relationship with my own dad. I didn&#8217;t know if I could take one more thing. On top of that, I had just gotten engaged, so now I also had to figure out how to plan the biggest party of my life with zero party-planning experience. (totally not stressful, right? &#128517;)</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg" width="1179" height="2093" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:2093,&quot;width&quot;:1179,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1181402,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/i/210081657?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!N-wE!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42098a73-e9ff-4f38-b1dd-8fa37018a717_1179x2093.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">February 6th 2022 - My engagement day to my beloved &#128525;</figcaption></figure></div><p></p><p>Then, on an ordinary day while I was getting ready for work, I got hit with the desire to become a mama. Almost immediately after, I got hit with a gut-wrenching fear. I had flashes of my past that still haunted me, and I was sure I&#8217;d recreate the same patterns in my own child&#8217;s life. That was too painful to consider. I knew I had to change if I wanted to be a good mom someday.</p><p><strong>So I did the thing I had been saying I needed to do for years and kept avoiding. </strong>I went to therapy.</p><p>I used my employee benefits, scrolled through the list of approved providers, picked one at random, and dialed the number with actual shaking fingers. I thought that was the hard part. Brave step taken, healing commence.</p><p>Wrong.</p><p>We met over Zoom. She had me draw a timeline from birth to present and pull out my most painful memories. I got told to &#8220;be more compassionate with myself&#8221; and to &#8220;set boundaries.&#8221; Three sessions in, none of it made me feel any better.</p><p>I already knew shitty things happened to me. I didn&#8217;t need to talk about it more. I needed it to stop running my life.</p><p>When I ran out of the sessions my job paid for, I almost quit. I could&#8217;ve said &#8220;I tried therapy, it just wasn&#8217;t for me&#8221; and moved on with my life and I felt defeated enough to do just that.</p><p>But I couldn&#8217;t shake the thing that got me into that Zoom room in the first place. I wanted to be a mom who wasn&#8217;t running on autopilot from her own trauma. So I kept going.</p><p>Here&#8217;s my stance, plainly: talk therapy didn&#8217;t heal my trauma.</p><p>It did do one important thing. It made me aware of how much I was suffering and where it came from. That&#8217;s a real step. But it&#8217;s ONE step. <strong>Real healing isn&#8217;t about becoming more aware of a problem. It&#8217;s a transformation of it.</strong></p><p>A friend had told me the year before how EMDR changed his life. I was desperate enough at this point to go out of network and pay out of pocket, so I went to my good friend Google and found an EMDR therapist. (EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a technique built specifically for healing trauma.)</p><blockquote><p>I did a 3-day EMDR intensive. And in it, I went back into memories that had wrecked me for years and healed them in under a week. I genuinely think of my life in two parts: pre-EMDR and post-EMDR.</p></blockquote><p>I went past conscious awareness into parts of myself I&#8217;d been suppressing for years and let them finally be felt, expressed, witnessed. After the intensive and two weeks of integration, <strong>I could sit with a memory that used to send me spiraling and just feel calm.</strong> Regulated. That was the gift. It didn&#8217;t undo what happened to me. It gave me peace around it, and it gave me my self-worth back.</p><p>Here&#8217;s how my EMDR therapist explained why it works: think of your memories as cars, and your neural pathways as highways. When something happens that overwhelms your nervous system, that memory doesn&#8217;t get filed on the regular highway with the rest of your memories. It crashes on a side street and sits there, causing a traffic jam in your whole system.</p><p>Talking about the memory doesn&#8217;t move the car. It just makes you more aware the car is stuck there. EMDR moved mine, and the other work I now facilitate in others does the same.</p><p>That&#8217;s why talk therapy could only take me so far, and why I&#8217;m not the type to sit in a chair once a week for five years processing (and I say that as a trauma-informed coach, lol). I wanted in, and I wanted out.</p><p><strong>The real shift for me wasn&#8217;t a technique. It was a decision.</strong> And I&#8217;m telling you this story so that you can look at what decisions you&#8217;ve been avoiding in your own life, and see what good can come from making those tough choices and facing your fears. </p><p>I stopped running from the hard things. I made an agreement with myself that I would no longer tolerate suffering, because I want to feel good. And I learned that you get there by running toward the exact thing you&#8217;ve been avoiding, not away from it.</p><p><strong>I faced my trauma head on and it&#8217;s the best decision I&#8217;ve ever made. </strong>And there is nothing about me that gives me some kind of edge that you don&#8217;t also have. The first step is simply making a decision about what you will and will not tolerate anymore, and then taking bold action from that place.</p><p>If you&#8217;re looking for somewhere to start, here are a few of my favorite trauma-healing modalities as a coach, in case one of them calls to you:</p><ul><li><p>EMDR therapy</p></li><li><p>Subconscious reprogramming tools</p></li><li><p>Internal Family Systems / gestalt-based work</p></li><li><p>Somatic work</p></li></ul><p>All of these get you out of your thinking mind and into the deeper, subconscious root of what&#8217;s actually running you, so you have more agency over your life (vs. living on auto-pilot).</p><p>So, how much longer are you willing to let anxiety and overwhelm make your decisions for you?</p><p>I&#8217;m rooting for you either way. [If EMDR is calling your name (&amp; you&#8217;re an Ohio local), here&#8217;s <a href="https://www.seaglassohio.com/">who I worked with</a>.]</p><p>If this resonated, I go deeper on the actual process I use to move trauma (not just talk about it) in my paid newsletter. That&#8217;s coming soon, so stay tuned.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thalia Dorsten l Sips &amp; Soul  is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p><p>What&#8217;s actually worked for you to heal trauma? What hasn&#8217;t? I want your hot take in the comments. </p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/should-i-go-to-therapy-i-tried-it/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/should-i-go-to-therapy-i-tried-it/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[This 2-Minute Trick Rewired How My Brain Handles Tasks]]></title><description><![CDATA[A simple nervous system hack for finally getting unstuck, without forcing it.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 17:34:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!afIn!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78fd1a2e-2405-4ec8-8c79-8cf6121790de_1280x1280.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just had a full identity crisis over a dirty toilet.</p><p>Not exaggerating. Not being dramatic for the sake of a good hook (okay, maybe a little &#128133;). But I was sitting there this morning, staring at a toilet that needed cleaning, and somehow ended up questioning my entire worth as a human being.</p><p>Let me explain, because I promise this actually goes somewhere good.</p><p>I didn&#8217;t want to clean it. So my mind did what it does: handed me a list of excuses. I don&#8217;t have time right now. I&#8217;d need a whole afternoon to really deep clean the bathroom properly. There&#8217;s no point starting if I can&#8217;t finish it.</p><p>And then, in the span of about 90 seconds, that spiraled into: I can&#8217;t even keep up a consistent cleaning schedule for one toilet. What does that say about me?</p><p>My freaking toilet, guys. This is what the mind does.</p><p>One dirty toilet, and suddenly I&#8217;m questioning my entire worth &#129315;. Classic all-or-nothing thinking. If I can&#8217;t do the whole thing, I&#8217;m not doing any of it.</p><p>And if you&#8217;re laughing because you relate, stick around, because this exact pattern is running your life in way bigger ways than just the bathroom. Dishes. Posting. Workouts. That business idea you haven&#8217;t started. All the same spiral, just wearing a different outfit.</p><p>This kind of thinking is also why:</p><ul><li><p>dishes pile up</p></li><li><p>you skip posting today because you don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll be consistent for a whole year</p></li><li><p>you skip the entire workout because you don&#8217;t have the hour you think you &#8220;need&#8221; </p></li></ul><p>And round and round we go, stuck in the same loop, going nowhere.</p><p>I know I&#8217;m not the only one who does this, so today I want to give you the exact hack I use to snap myself out of it.</p><p>Have you heard of the 2-minute rule?</p><p>If you have, and you&#8217;re already rolling your eyes because you&#8217;ve tried it and it didn&#8217;t work, wait. Hear me out.</p><p>Before we get to the actual tool, we&#8217;ve gotta talk energetics first, because that&#8217;s what makes the habit actually stick.</p><p>If this is new to you, buckle up. You&#8217;re about to get the simplest tool in your toolkit for when you&#8217;re sabotaging yourself.</p><p>Just like my toilet situation, we stop ourselves from starting all the time. Think of something you&#8217;ve had your heart set on for a while now and just can&#8217;t seem to begin.</p><p>I want to lose 10 lbs, but I can&#8217;t find the perfect workout and diet routine. I want to grow on social media, but I can&#8217;t find the right course to give me all the steps. I want to keep my house clean, but I don&#8217;t have time.</p><p>The mind is so good at handing you a reason not to start. But instead of judging it for that, let&#8217;s pull the curtain back and see what&#8217;s actually happening.</p><p>The nervous system has one job: keep you alive, keep you safe. And it doesn&#8217;t know the difference between an actual tiger in front of you and an internal threat, like a to-do list with 50 things on it staring you down.</p><p>Those mind-made threats are exactly why we procrastinate, play small, over-edit, over-research, over-plan, basically stay &#8220;busy&#8221; while getting almost nothing of what we actually want done. (Calling myself out hard here, because this is so me.)</p><p>We&#8217;re not actually as busy as we think. The mind is busy thinking about how busy we are, which spikes the overwhelm, which sends the nervous system straight into protect mode.</p><p>Once you get this about your nervous system, you can stop blaming yourself. This isn&#8217;t even about willpower or laziness. Your mind and body perceived a threat and did what they&#8217;re programmed to do to keep you safe. It&#8217;s so innocent.</p><p><strong>Step 1:</strong> notice when this is happening. Once you&#8217;re aware of it, you&#8217;ll catch yourself mid-spiral, right before you procrastinate on the toilet, the post, or lacing up your shoes.</p><p><strong>Step 2:</strong> take one conscious deep breath and drop the judgment. This pattern is innocent, it just wants you to feel safe. Shaming yourself for procrastinating again is the fastest way to stay stuck in it.</p><p>Change gets 10x harder when you try to criticize yourself into being different. Self-compassion is actually the number one predictor of what researchers call psychological flourishing, aka your actual ability to get shit done and feel good doing it. It&#8217;s the missing ingredient for most people who want to change but keep feeling stuck. Once that clicks, then it&#8217;s time for action.</p><h2>The 2-Minute Rule</h2><p><strong>Part 1:</strong> before you add a task to your mental or physical to-do list, ask: can this be done in 2 minutes or less? If yes, do it right now. If no, it goes on the list.</p><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p><em>(Side note: if you really want to heal overwhelm long term, stop holding your whole mental load in your head. Having an actual system for it changes everything. This is exactly the kind of toolkit I build out for paid subscribers, so <strong>let me know in the comments if you want a full post on it.</strong>)</em></p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><p></p><p><strong>Part 2:</strong> if a task feels too big to start, break off the piece that can be done in 2 minutes or less, and just do that piece. Set a timer if you need the accountability.</p><p>Here&#8217;s why this works so well:</p><ul><li><p><strong>It kills the &#8220;I don&#8217;t have time&#8221; excuse.</strong> Everyone has 2 minutes.</p></li><li><p><strong>It gives you momentum.</strong> An object in motion stays in motion. The hardest part of almost anything is starting, once you&#8217;re in it, you&#8217;ll usually do more than you planned.</p></li><li><p><strong>Stuff stops piling up.</strong> This is huge for chores specifically. I&#8217;ll happily put away 2 or 3 items that were left out, but a counter full of clutter and suddenly I&#8217;m procrastinating the entire day. The worse it gets, the worse it gets. Running everything through the 2-minute rule before it hits your list stops that spiral before it starts.</p></li></ul><p>You might be thinking - <em>really? that&#8217;s it? that&#8217;s the big secret. It sounds too easy.</em> </p><p>But simple doesn&#8217;t mean weak. Honestly, the stuff that works best is almost always the simplest to do. And that&#8217;s usually <em>why</em> it works. We&#8217;re so good at overcomplicating our lives, and that&#8217;s exactly what breeds overwhelm and chronic stress. If that&#8217;s you, my invitation is to lean all the way into simple. This is one way in. </p><p>I&#8217;m certainly learning how to simplify. It&#8217;s sooo tempting to do the MOST.  </p><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p><strong>So, are you going to try it? Let me know in the comments if you do, and how it goes. I&#8217;d love to hear from you.</strong></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/one-tiny-habit-that-made-my-procrastination/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em>If this hit home, tap the heart &#10084;&#65039;, it helps more people find this post.</em></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">New here? Subscribe for more tools like this every week.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oldest Daughter Syndrome Almost Ruined My Life]]></title><description><![CDATA[The hidden trust wound behind my burnout, and the exact process I used to heal it.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/i-dont-think-youre-burned-out-from</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/i-dont-think-youre-burned-out-from</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:17:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span>I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;re burned out from having too much on your plate.</span></p><p><span>I think you&#8217;re burned out because some part of you doesn&#8217;t trust anyone else to keep things going if you were to hand it off.</span></p><p><span>Stick with me. I&#8217;ve got a wild little astrology story to tell you, and I promise it&#8217;s going somewhere.</span></p><h2><strong><span>The Non-Astrology Girly Has Entered Her Astrology Era</span></strong></h2><p><span>I&#8217;ve never been one for following astrology. It always felt like a complicated system to me, and honestly, I don&#8217;t love being told what to do. I was the kid who, if you told me to do something, I ran off and did the opposite. On principle! Astrology had big &#8220;here&#8217;s how you should live your life&#8221; energy and I&#8217;ve definitely felt repelled by that&#8230;until recently.</span></p><p><span>And for whatever reason, my whole body has felt the effects of this Barbault Basket phenomenon we&#8217;re all apparently swimming in right now. I couldn&#8217;t tell you the mechanics of it if I tried. I&#8217;ll leave that to the actual experts.</span></p><p><span>But here&#8217;s what I do know. Last month I left my part time physical therapy job to go all in on this: serve people who are done being chronically stressed out who are ready to stop sacrificing their peace in the name of &#8220;success&#8221;.</span></p><p><span>This was a huge decision that I am so proud of. And it required that I let go of what felt safe and familiar. But every sign pointed to this being my highest alignment (including a double rainbow I had a front row seat to from my porch after I made this bold decision. Like&#8230;what?!).</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg" width="1456" height="1006" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1006,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5182473,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/i/208079435?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!lMnB!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a7f33f1-e821-420e-b6a3-8ba0e31f0d35_5634x3892.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">This was taken sitting on my front porch the day after I made the biggest decision in my career yet. Talk about a SIGN!! </figcaption></figure></div><p></p><p><span>Since then, I&#8217;ve doubled down on the practices and the people that bring me closer to God and the calling of my soul. Which brings me to what I actually want to tell you about.</span></p><p><span>A four word preview for you&#8230; angels, God, snotty tears.</span></p><p></p><h2><strong><span>The Meditation That Cracked Me Open</span></strong></h2><p><span>I&#8217;m an early riser, and meditation is the first thing I do when I wake up. (Little hack: your brain is still transitioning wave states right when you wake up, so it&#8217;s easier to slip into the energetic field where all the magic lives to help you turn the unmanifest into the manifest)</span></p><p><span>Two mornings ago, mid-meditation, I was deep in it and my imagination was giving me visuals that might sound crazy to someone who isn&#8217;t a regular meditator but it gets fun.</span></p><p><span>I felt my angels and guides scraping energetic sludge off of my back. My body physically reacted to this &#8211; a wave of tension rolling through me head to toe. Then I saw wings sprouting from my back, rain pouring down on me, and underneath all the gunk that was now washed away was </span><em><span>real</span></em><span> me &#8211; a bright, magnificent light.</span></p><p><span>I recognized this version of myself as my soul Essence </span><em><span>and</span></em><span> Human me, fully dialed up. I wanted to see what wisdom she had for me so I asked her to show me what&#8217;s possible with money and my career.</span></p><p><span>Her response&#8230;she showed me my bank account, with a number in it higher than old me would&#8217;ve ever let herself believe was even possible.</span></p><p><span>Old me would&#8217;ve called that number delusional and immediately dismissed this entire experience.</span></p><p><span>But this is what&#8217;s great about delusions. Every great idea that&#8217;s ever existed was birthed from a little delusion and a little crazy. Einstein followed his delusion. Oprah followed hers. So who am I to decide mine isn&#8217;t worth believing in? And who are you not to, as well?</span></p><p><span>Tears are falling at this point because I&#8217;m in awe of the wealth I&#8217;m being shown.</span><strong><span> So I did the thing I think matters most in a manifestation practice</span></strong><span>: I brought that expansive energy back into my actual body (vs. it being some far away future thing), and imagined expanding my capacity to hold this dream not someday but in the here and now. </span>(shoutout to Emily Fletcher, I learned this in her <a href="https://zivameditation.com/pages/magicmakerevent?el=googleads&amp;adattribution=1&amp;gc_id=22868172639&amp;h_ga_id=186304031169&amp;h_ad_id=816109476399&amp;h_keyword_id=kwd-2490059328907&amp;h_keyword=magic+maker+ziva&amp;h_placement=&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=22868172639&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADj2NgmoPvB2srgo9k6ZCRe0uHr7B&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw1IHTBhAaEiwA4AYNFnUOl3bCRUjt9yl3ivEx_hSJfhE6_Dzvo6d6iHgsDDYitfpXoQNO7xoCIuQQAvD_BwE">Magic Maker event</a> &#8212;  still time to catch the free replays if you want it!)</p><h2><strong><span>Why Your Nervous System Is the Real Boss Here</span></strong></h2><p><span>Anytime you&#8217;re stretching toward something bigger than who you&#8217;ve been, you&#8217;re standing at a growth edge. This is the place where your current identity stops you because where you&#8217;re going is somewhere new. And new doesn&#8217;t feel safe to this current identity.</span></p><p><span>Which means your nervous system clocks in. Its whole job is to keep you alive, and it&#8217;s hardwired to believe only the familiar is safe. This isn&#8217;t bad. In fact, it&#8217;s just evolution. A hunter gatherer doesn&#8217;t eat a random berry without knowing, from experience, that it won&#8217;t kill her. Familiar equals safe to our ancient brains, whether the &#8220;berry&#8221; is a relationship, a routine, or a bank account balance.</span></p><p><strong><span>So the real manifestation hack isn&#8217;t the vision board. It&#8217;s making the thing you&#8217;re calling in feel safe in your body first.</span></strong></p><p><span>Back to my story. I grounded that big expansive wealth energy I saw in my imagination into my current reality and asked one specific question: </span><strong><span>what&#8217;s the next most intelligent step for me?</span></strong></p><p><span>And when I stayed still and listened, my intuition gave me a practical list of exactly what to focus on today. Not from hustle. From aligned action.</span></p><p><span>And I rode that high all day. Taking action and believing that the abundance I&#8217;m calling into existence is already on its way.</span></p><p><span>But because I know the secrets of how inner work expands you, I started sitting with this question too: </span><strong><span>what&#8217;s blocking me from receiving an abundant flow of money doing what I love?</span></strong></p><p><span>Here&#8217;s why I did this, and why it&#8217;s important for you too if you want to create something you don&#8217;t have yet:</span></p><p><span>If there wasn&#8217;t a block, you&#8217;d already have the thing.</span><strong><span> Something about having what you want still feels unsafe, and that&#8217;s why your nervous system keeps quietly repelling it. </span></strong><span>So ask yourself: what&#8217;s blocking me from receiving X? Or, what do I fear would happen if my manifestation actually came true?</span></p><p><span>Okay. This is the part where things get real. Like, &#8220;things I&#8217;ve never let anyone outside of my closest circle hear this&#8221; real.</span></p><p><span>Everything you&#8217;ll get behind the paywall is the actual medicine: the fear I found underneath it all, the exact words God (she/he/they/it, however you know it) said to me that cracked me open, and the 5-step process I walk paying clients through to do this same work for themselves.</span></p><p><span>If you&#8217;re the kind of person who&#8217;s tired of managing symptoms and ready to actually get to the root, this is for you. Come on in.</span></p>
      <p>
          <a href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/i-dont-think-youre-burned-out-from">
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   ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The 4 Things That Will Actually Change Your Life (Not Another Wellness Trend)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here's what you're actually signing up for.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/the-4-things-that-will-actually-change</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/the-4-things-that-will-actually-change</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:02:11 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m done hiding. I&#8217;m done worrying people will think I&#8217;m weird. Here are some of the things I actually care about most&#8230;</p><p>Why are adults obsessed with asking kids what they want to be when they grow up? And why are we conditioned to answer with a career?</p><p><strong>Hello &#8212; we are not our jobs.</strong></p><p>In the world of being a biz owner and being constantly told to &#8220;niche down,&#8221; I&#8217;m putting my foot down!</p><p>I don&#8217;t know about you, but my favorite creators are the ones that are real and honest which means they are sharing about soooo many different things.</p><p>Because humans are complex! And we have many interests!</p><p>If you&#8217;re sick of being put in a box &#8211; ready to embrace your fullest authentic expression and live that out in the world, <strong>welcome home baby.</strong> You get to be wildly off-the-walls here. Let&#8217;s go.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg" width="1179" height="2075" 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PCTy!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F672a5f98-ab81-490d-9dae-23dffb281080_1179x2075.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>Rather than convince you of why you should be here and read what I have to say, my goal any time I sit down to write to you is for you to feel different by the time you get to the last sentence.</p><p>I&#8217;m here to shake you up and activate that inner fire in you that&#8217;s been quietly hiding in the corner &#8212; waiting for permission to finally say what she&#8217;s been biting her tongue, holding back. </p><p>If no one has told you today (and you certainly don&#8217;t need me to tell you, but I&#8217;m gonna!):</p><p><strong>You are incredibly powerful, wise, and have a gift inside of you. A reason you are here, at this time, on this planet.</strong></p><p>Do you know what that reason is? It&#8217;s not to work a certain job, or to be a mommy, or to do some big great amazing thing. Take the pressure off right now to figure out your specific &#8220;purpose.&#8221; It&#8217;s so much simpler than you think.</p><p>You are here to L-I-V-E, live. </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg" width="625" height="345" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:345,&quot;width&quot;:625,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;You just gotta keep livin man - Google Search | Wooderson dazed and  confused, Dazed and confused&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="You just gotta keep livin man - Google Search | Wooderson dazed and  confused, Dazed and confused" title="You just gotta keep livin man - Google Search | Wooderson dazed and  confused, Dazed and confused" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Auq5!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8482fdda-b71b-40c1-a157-058c396e4bd0_625x345.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>And you&#8217;re already doing it. Maybe not to the fullest, the way that you desire to just yet &#8212; but the grand adventure that is your life is ripe with opportunity to live the way your soul is craving you to.</p><p>That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here to support you with. That mission. Understand the assignment?</p><p>Btw, can you feel this transmission right now? My heart is literally pounding!</p><h2>What You Can Expect Here</h2><p>I am so excited to keep writing these little nuggets for you. And I want to tell you a bit more about what you can expect when you hang out with me.</p><p>I am so fascinated by the human experience. It&#8217;s an endless curiosity within me to know why we do what we do &#8211; the driving force behind our behaviors. What holds us back? What keeps us small? What are the secrets that unlock our potential? How do we tap into our God given rights for abundance, joy, peace, bliss, and pleasure?</p><p>If you want to know what living in my head is like, those are the kinds of questions I am always pondering when I&#8217;m staring out the window in traffic at 8AM listening to the hop-little-bunnies song while driving my daughter to Montessori daycare ha!</p><p>And it&#8217;s that crazy curiosity that also feeds into this deep desire to be the truest most authentic <em>me</em> I can be. Who am I? What lights me up?</p><p>I don&#8217;t know about you, but I have this deep human need to be seen, to belong, to be fully expressed &#8212; to get everything out of this life that I can.</p><p>I used to try and get those needs met in so many unhealthy ways &#8212; people-pleasing, perfectionism (still healing this one, tbh), molding myself into someone I&#8217;m not to get into the &#8220;in crowd.&#8221; I was doing the most! </p><p>But I&#8217;ve grown so much since that first awakening and my initial healing arch. And now my curiosities and desires have led me down this wildly amazing path to answer the question: &#8216;who am I really?&#8217; and it&#8217;s shocking what I&#8217;ve discovered.</p><p>There is a way to become an unshakably confident you and I&#8217;m inviting you to join me to explore what it looks like to peel back the layers &#8212; showing more of who you truly are, not who you think you need to be or who you&#8217;re pretending to be. And I&#8217;m on this journey right alongside you! </p><p><strong>I&#8217;ll let you in on a secret too:</strong> underneath everything you&#8217;re doing to &#8220;keep up&#8221; with the persona you&#8217;ve created for yourself is the real (and absolutely radiant!) loving, and abundant soul-essence YOU.</p><p>She&#8217;s always been there. And getting tapped into THAT is the secret to a wildly successful, abundant, happy, joyous, peaceful, and free life.</p><p>You don&#8217;t need another book, another podcast, another course, another guru, more money, a different life. No circumstance change (past, present, or future) is going to give you what you deeply desire.</p><p><strong>You are the one you&#8217;ve been waiting for.</strong></p><p>And when you really get that on a gut level, your life starts to shift and you manifest a physical existence that is even better than you could have ever imagined.</p><p>That&#8217;s what aligned living really is. It&#8217;s not one specific style or one specific belief system (I&#8217;m always weary when someone tells me there&#8217;s only one way to get to heaven-on-earth&#8230;). It&#8217;s whatever helps you move into a higher state of consciousness and live from that place.</p><p>Creating an aligned life that feels like it reflects your truest nature is all about tapping into your essence.</p><p>And I&#8217;ll be sharing vulnerably here about what that process looks like for me and spilling the tea &#8211; giving you the best of what I&#8217;ve been learning and experimenting with myself so that I can shorten the learning curve for you.</p><h2>Motherhood: The Portal</h2><p>Which leads me to the other greatest experiment of my life which is motherhood. The portal that opened my heart up in amazing ways that is hard to describe. I hear over and over again that people step into parenthood thinking they&#8217;ll be the same but with a new little buddy on their hip, just to discover that not only is their whole outer world rocked but their inner world has shifted too.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SC0m!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0f140eca-f9f3-45c9-9bcf-e6760d6218cc_4284x5712.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SC0m!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, 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/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SC0m!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0f140eca-f9f3-45c9-9bcf-e6760d6218cc_4284x5712.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>One thing that prepared me most for parenting (and this honestly needs to be a whole post to do this concept justice!) is that whatever age your kids are now brings up whatever inner wounds you haven&#8217;t healed yet within you. And the best thing you can do for your kids is to examine what&#8217;s coming up for you and heal it, so you aren&#8217;t projecting it onto them.</p><p>Kids need regulated parents so they can learn how to regulate themselves. They mirror what you do and the state of your nervous system.</p><p>So to my mamas reading this right now &#8211; <strong>inner work isn&#8217;t a luxury, or something you don&#8217;t have time for. It&#8217;s a MUST to raise the next generation of healthy, happy humans.</strong></p><p>(And it&#8217;s never too late to start!! &#8211; When my mama started doing her own healing work in my late 20&#8217;s, early 30&#8217;s our relationship started shifting for the better, too. And I&#8217;m so grateful she&#8217;s getting into all the &#8220;woo&#8221; stuff with me now.)</p><p>So if any of that interests you and you&#8217;re like &#8220;oooo, say more!&#8221;, I&#8217;ve got you. This is just too important and something that all of us (whether you have kids now, want them, or want to stick to fur babies) will benefit from learning about.</p><h2>The Heart of It All</h2><p>And finally &#8211; at the heart of everything I am here to stand for and activate within you is this&#8230;</p><p><strong>You are made of the Light of the Sun, my love.</strong></p><p>God isn&#8217;t some man in the sky directing life like a puppet and laughing at you when you get it &#8220;wrong&#8221; or punishing you for not following the rules.</p><p>No.</p><p>That version of god is a man-made construct meant to keep people afraid and at the mercy of the systems in power.</p><p>Real God. Real Source. Real Universe. Real Unconditional Love. Real Gaia. Real Jahweh. Real Allah is something that lives in you because all things were made from it. It is one, and we are all a part of it.</p><p>What that means is that there is a loving force inside of you that is greater than any perceived limitation, pain, suffering, or negative belief that you are not enough or that something is wrong with you.</p><p>I desire to be as in tune with that unconditional love as I humanly can &#8212; not by living in a cave in the mountains meditating for 8 hours a day (although that&#8217;s cool too, and I&#8217;m glad there are people called to hold for the healing of our planet in intense ways like that) but by following the God-given callings in my own heart, healing from the past, and by cultivating practices to elevate my frequency to that which will bring me joy, freedom, love, abundance, and bliss.</p><p>My intention is to create this beautiful space for you to tap into the love that you are, to know that you aren&#8217;t alone in your struggles and give you tools to work through them and elevate yourself into a way of being that feels aligned, and true. I want you to manifest the incredible life you&#8217;ve been dreaming of!</p><h2>What&#8217;s Coming</h2><p>So stay with me, if you&#8217;d like. I&#8217;ll be diving into all of the things I just mentioned above:</p><ul><li><p>Navigating the human experience</p></li><li><p>How to become who you truly are</p></li><li><p>Living an aligned lifestyle</p></li><li><p>Conscious parenting</p></li><li><p>And of course, all things spirituality</p></li></ul><p>I drop at least one post a week AND I have so much more in store for you: including live experiences with me to tap into your divine essence, learn the techniques that wake you up to your wholeness, and time to ask me anything (and get coached by me!)</p><p>We&#8217;re going to have so much fun together getting into the deep conversations you&#8217;ve been dying to have! Let&#8217;s be real &#8211; aren&#8217;t you sick of having the same conversation about the weather 5x&#8217;s a day or listening to people complain non-stop?</p><p><strong>Not here.</strong></p><p>Here we get real, we get high on our own supply, and we are no longer available for low-vibe drama or playing small.</p><p><strong>Who&#8217;s ready!? Drop a like if you are. &#10084;&#65039;</strong></p><div><hr></div><p>So which of these topics are you excited to explore most with me? (and who&#8217;s already raising their hand to join me for hot seat coaching!?)</p><p>I can&#8217;t wait to build this beautiful friendship with you. I am so truly grateful to you for sharing space with me &#8211; for being the same kind of weird that I am (there&#8217;s a tribe of us deep-dive soul explorers scattered out there and I&#8217;m bringing us together!) Every comment, like, and share means the world to me and I seriously can&#8217;t wait to start doing live calls and coaching together, too.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><p>Did I mention hot seats yet? (No? Just a thousand times already? Can you tell I&#8217;m excited ha!)</p><div><hr></div><p><em>P.S: I will be saving live call experiences/hot seat coaching for paid subscribers to keep the container safe for those looking to explore these topics. So if you haven&#8217;t upgraded your subscription yet&#8230; now is definitely the time. I&#8217;ll be dropping hot seat details soon!</em></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Stop Believing You're Inherently Bad (Even If You Were Raised to Think So)]]></title><description><![CDATA[A personal story of panic attacks, religious shame, and finding my way back to peace &#8212; and how you can too.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-believing-youre-inherently</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-believing-youre-inherently</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 02:16:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I thought the devil was going to possess me. I was 10, standing in the shower, having a single negative thought.</p><p>Scary shit to think as a 10 year old, right!?</p><p>Here&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve never told anyone: that fear &#8212; and years of unlearning it &#8212; is part of why I believe what I believe now. I believe in the power of energy. That everything is energy and that by changing your energy you can change your entire life. I believe that our souls came here for a PURPOSE. And that we all have direct access to the Divine.</p><p>Let me give you a peek of why I believe this so strongly.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg" width="1456" height="1941" 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DRbM!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd869a82-4cee-4730-b1f1-e2d75b6b0324_4284x5712.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><h2>How I Grew Up</h2><p>I grew up in church &#8211; and not the sit quietly and observe the pastor speaking kind of church. I grew up in a baptist shout-to-praise, run around the pews, speak in tongues kind of church.</p><p>There were a lot of great things I got from growing up learning about God and Jesus, and I&#8217;m so grateful that I was exposed to spiritual practices like prayer and song. But I also internalized a lot of shame from the messaging and teachings that I was absorbing as a young mind with no filter.</p><p>I literally remember being in the shower &#8211; maybe at like 10 years old, and having a &#8220;negative&#8221; thought and I got so scared. I thought the devil had entered my brain and was going to possess me and I was going to go to hell.</p><p>Scary shit to think as a 10 year old. </p><p>Thank GOD that&#8217;s not my belief system anymore. But it took years of deprogramming and self-worth work for me to find a path to God that not only gave me the sense of peace that you get when you feel deeply held and supported by something bigger than yourself, but that also made me feel so unashamed. And so worthy.</p><p><strong>A path that totally dismantled the disempowered belief that I am inherently bad and need saving.</strong></p><p>You know what believing you&#8217;re bad does to a person??</p><p>You probably do. If you&#8217;re still with me, I imagine you&#8217;re thinking about your own religious upbringing and what messaging you received about your own worthiness.</p><p>The thing is, what we believe in shapes so much of how we show up in the world. Which is why if you want to make a change in your life, it requires you to examine your belief system and do the inner work and subconscious reprogramming so that you are equipped and ready to buy into a belief that comes from a higher level of consciousness.</p><h2>The Cost of Not Feeling Worthy</h2><p>When I believed I was broken, and &#8216;not good enough,&#8217; I tried to hide it by over-achieving and people-pleasing. I only felt worthy if someone told me I was pretty, doing a good job, and wanted to invite me to all the things.</p><p>What that led to was a lot of stress and anxiety because no matter how much I tried&#8230; it was never enough. Not to the voice in my head &#8211; that fierce inner critic &#8212; that was telling me over and over again how I wasn&#8217;t ever going to do enough to be loved.</p><p>But you see, at the time I didn&#8217;t really understand all of this.</p><p>It was so unconscious and all I could recognize were the symptoms: stress and anxiety.</p><p>I had my first and only panic attack at age 24.</p><p>And since I wasn&#8217;t connected to the Universal Love that is God, I turned to anything I could find that would temporarily make me feel better &#8211; drinking until my brain couldn&#8217;t think anymore &#8212; among other vices and numbing behaviors. </p><p>So what got me out? How did I wake up?</p><h2>The Awakening</h2><p>I used to get so turned off by people when they would say &#8220;I&#8217;ve had a Spiritual Awakening.&#8221; Like what even is that?!</p><p>But you know what&#8217;s crazy? I did have one of those. (And I&#8217;ll totally tell you that story another time!) But I also think I&#8217;m still in it.</p><p>That life can actually be just one big spiritual awakening.</p><p>And that&#8217;s what continues to heal me most.</p><p>Whenever I forget the truth&#8230; I do the work to wake back up to what&#8217;s actually real. And what&#8217;s actually real&#8230;is Love.</p><p><em>&#8230;as cheesy as that might sound. </em></p><p>I no longer believe in the version of God my religious upbringing taught me about. The one that gave you rules and said there is only one path that&#8217;s the true path and if don&#8217;t buy into it and convert or shame everyone else who&#8217;s not on that path, you&#8217;ll suffer forever.</p><p>Newsflash&#8230; we are already suffering! People are going through hell already. I&#8217;ve certainly had experiences that felt like hell to me.</p><p>Now&#8230;</p><p>I believe in a power so <em>great</em> and so <em>beautiful</em> that it completely shatters the illusion of right and wrong. It completely accepts us as we are because it is one and the same.</p><p><strong>We are It and It is Us.</strong></p><p>God chose to experience itself through our eyes &#8211; which means that you are whole and worthy.</p><p>And it&#8217;s one thing to hear that but it&#8217;s a completely life altering realization when you feel it, and experience it as truth.</p><p><strong>The same material that made up the Great Masters of this world is what you are made of too.</strong></p><p>So many of us are living in a way in which we are only aware of our suffering and pain and completely oblivious to the Divine creation that we are.</p><p></p><h2>Waking Up, Bit By Bit</h2><p>And I hope that by reading what I&#8217;m saying, it&#8217;s waking you up&#8230; even if it&#8217;s just a little bit. Because that&#8217;s how it works. Bit by bit, chipping away the layers of everything that is not you. And expanding the aperture through which you are viewing life through.</p><p>Changing your perspective and unlearning all the conditioning and programming from the world that is only making you feel small.</p><p>If it hasn&#8217;t been said to you yet&#8230; <strong>you have agency now.</strong> You aren&#8217;t the same little kid that didn&#8217;t have a choice. You have a choice, now.</p><p>And if you&#8217;re wondering&#8230;</p><p>&#8216;how do I get out of my suffering?&#8217; </p><p>&#8216;I don&#8217;t know how.&#8217; </p><p>&#8216;It feels endless, like I&#8217;ll be here forever or there&#8217;s no way out.&#8217;</p><p>Let me just say, you don&#8217;t have to know how&#8230;not yet. But open yourself up to the possibility that things can get better. Believe that it will. Believe that even if you don&#8217;t feel good enough yet that you will be led to discover the path that will serve as the catalyst for your own spiritual awakening.</p><p>It&#8217;s not some mystical ellusive experience that is reserved for the good and holy people of this planet.</p><p><strong>Everyone gets to have an experience of the Divine&#8230; everyone. And that includes you.</strong></p><h2>If You&#8217;re Ready</h2><p>If you&#8217;re here now at the end of this post, and you&#8217;re really serious about wanting to change something about your life&#8230;</p><p>Maybe it&#8217;s to stop feeling anxious and stressed all the time, or stop feeling the need to escape from your reality so much.</p><p>Maybe it&#8217;s that you&#8217;re turned on by the idea that you could tap into total peace, and freedom, and reconnect with joy &#8211; manifest abundance and happiness in your life.</p><p>If that&#8217;s a yes for you, then just know you have all of the answers within you already.</p><p>And my hope for you is that by continuing to hang out with me on Substack (and wherever else you like to hang out with me), I can give you pathways to tap into your own connection with the Divine.</p><p>I&#8217;m not saying I have it all figured out. I&#8217;m not an all-knowing and powerful wizard or guru or anything like that. I&#8217;m just a woman who decided it was my life&#8217;s work to become the most authentic and true version of myself and live out my purpose on the planet, while having a beautifully abundant life.</p><p>And what I keep coming back to over and over is that at the center of the questions &#8216;who am I?&#8217; and &#8216;what is the most authentic version of me?&#8217; &#8212; it&#8217;s Love.</p><p>Because that is where we all come from and return to. Unconditional Love. aka God. </p><p>or&#8230;call it whatever you want. It honestly doesn&#8217;t matter. My friend calls it &#8216;Gus&#8217; which stands for God. Universe. Source. Lol! So whatever term you connect to, choose that. It&#8217;s the connection that counts, and there&#8217;s more than one way in.</p><p>So just try talking to Gus and see what happens. Lol you might like it.</p><div><hr></div><p>I&#8217;m so grateful to you. And I hope you feel the heart resonance of this in your own heart. Because I am sitting here literally breathing love into these words. And I know they&#8217;ll find a landing place where they are meant to.</p><p><strong>So my invitation to you is to take what lands and leave the rest. Because there is no wrong way to connect to Love.</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>&#128172; Let&#8217;s chat: what's your Gus? What do you call the thing bigger than you that connects you to Love? </strong></em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-believing-youre-inherently/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-believing-youre-inherently/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><p></p><p>P.S. Subscribe if you want to keep exploring this with me. I&#8217;d love to welcome you into my world. I attract amazing humans &#10084;&#65039; and I&#8217;m always blown away by the people who share how these messages land with them.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What My Dying Patients Taught Me About Actually Living]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some people were ready to go. Others were still waiting to start living. Here's the difference.]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:13:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!afIn!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78fd1a2e-2405-4ec8-8c79-8cf6121790de_1280x1280.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been quiet about this for too long&#8230; and I&#8217;m done being quiet.</p><p>The world is hurting in so many ways. I want to show you that you can step out of the suffering and live a good life. And I want to lead first by example &#8211; sharing stories from my own life, the wisdom that&#8217;s helped me wake up from what unfortunately is the status quo of living right now but is NOT normal for us as souls with human bodies.</p><p>Because our &#8220;norm&#8221; is actually so much more than the watered down, flashy, and stress-inducing reality that society brainwashes us into.</p><p><strong>You are a magnificent, whole, and worthy Being here to be and do something that elevates your soul. Your soul came here to learn something.</strong></p><p>This is it guys&#8230; if you&#8217;re tired of that &#8216;less than&#8217; feeling you get when you start scrolling instagram. Subscribe to my substack!</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>I&#8217;ve just been tired of seeing people I love shrink themselves or get lost in their pain and suffering.</p><h2>The Job That Changed How I See Life</h2><p>I used to work as a home health physical therapist and I&#8217;d go into people&#8217;s homes and more often than not, my patients were parked in front of a TV literally all day, just passing time away &#8211; passively going through what was left of their lives.</p><p>It&#8217;s so sad because my patients were beautiful people. So kind. But a lot of them seemed like their zest for life was just gone.</p><p>I don&#8217;t want that for myself. And maybe you don&#8217;t want that for yourself either. I don&#8217;t want to spend my days brainwashed by the media. I want to literally squeeze everything out of this life that I possibly can.</p><p>So I carved out a space in this internet world to pull us out of the matrix, baby!</p><p>Because in that same home health job I had, I&#8217;ve also seen people who have aged gracefully. Who were surrounded by family caring for them, playing nightly card games with their sons and telling me stories about the street they grew up on 80 years ago. These people were ready to go to the other side because their life journey felt complete.</p><p><strong>What do we live for if not to get to the end of our life and feel satisfied with our life journey.</strong></p><p>We came. We saw. We loved. We learned. Right?</p><h2>What This Space Is For</h2><p>This writing portal, for me, is a space to uncover what my soul&#8217;s journey really is. And my hope is that as you read it &#8211; it unlocks something for you, too. Maybe a feeling of inspiration, an ah-ha that hits you at the gut level, a tool or method you can adopt into your own personal practice.</p><p>Ultimately, I&#8217;m here to shed the bullshit. And wake up what&#8217;s been put to sleep &#8211; shoved in my shadow because of what I learned was and wasn&#8217;t acceptable as a young kid.</p><p>It&#8217;s so innocent you guys.</p><p>The way we&#8217;ve made ourselves small to fit in. Belonging is a core human need. So it&#8217;s not bad or wrong that we&#8217;ve shrunk ourselves to be the palliative version that people will like in hopes that we&#8217;ll get the good degree, the good job, climb the ladder, and finally get Daddy&#8217;s approval.</p><p><em>(oh wait, that&#8217;s my story isn&#8217;t it!)</em></p><p>But maybe you relate to that too. Maybe you also know what it&#8217;s like to mold yourself into the person you thought you needed to be to gain approval.</p><p>And my substack is here to shake that the EFF UP!</p><p>If you&#8217;re tired of shrinking. Tired of hiding. Tired of being someone on the outside that doesn&#8217;t match the person you are on the inside.</p><p><strong>This place is for you.</strong></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>Where This Is Going</h2><p>I have no idea what this will evolve into&#8230;</p><p>I imagine creating a really cool community in here where I can teach, inspire, and coach (cuz what you&#8217;ll learn about me is that I believe true change is feeling different on the inside of course, but it&#8217;s also a change in behavior too).</p><p><strong>When you heal yourself, your whole life shifts.</strong></p><p>That&#8217;s been my experience anyway and what my clients experience when they work with me.</p><p>Did I mention I&#8217;m a coach? I help my clients heal chronic stress and fall in love with their lives by clearing their suffering at the root and expanding their self-worth to call in what they desire most.</p><p>Phew! That was a mouthful.. But how do you explain soul level transformation succinctly haha.</p><p>I want you to walk away with practical ways that you can shift away from the fake identity you think you&#8217;ve pigeoned yourself into:</p><ul><li><p>Working a job you hate</p></li><li><p>Hanging out with people who bring you down</p></li><li><p>Feeling bleh about your body</p></li><li><p>Having a hard time getting out of bed because every day you wonder &#8220;is this really it?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Living for the weekend</p></li><li><p>The chronic and depleting exhaustion from how frantic and busy your days are</p></li></ul><p>And transform (like a freaking phoenix from the ashes!) into the YOU you&#8217;ve always been underneath the conditioning. The highest and truest version of yourself. The one that knows her greatness. The one that feels the deep connection to Universal Consciousness and Unconditional Love.</p><p>Do you know how that person acts in the world?</p><p>For me it&#8217;s the version of me that lives a life that is true to my heart &#8211; one where I feel amazing in my physical body, energized and peaceful. One where I get to make money doing things that really light me up. Having full autonomy of my time. Being in relationships that bring out the best in me and that evoke a sense of belonging and love within me.</p><p><em>(and trust.. I don&#8217;t have it all figured out. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m here &#8211; to evolve more and more into the truest version of myself)</em></p><p>I want you to find out for yourself.</p><p>If you&#8217;ve made it this far, I know something about this is resonating with your heart.</p><p><strong>You are meant to live a beautiful life, full of joy and meaning.</strong></p><p>Whether you&#8217;re brand new to my work or you&#8217;ve been in my world for quite some time. Thank you for being here.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>So share with me!</strong></p><p><strong>What are you ready to unsubscribe to?</strong> <em>(Doubt, people-pleasing, shrinking)</em></p><p><strong>And what are you saying yes to instead?</strong> <em>(joy, freedom, love)</em></p><p>I want to hear from you.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><div><hr></div><p><em>P.S: I can&#8217;t believe I almost didn&#8217;t write this. It feels like a love letter to society that needs to be shared. If this hit, pass it along to someone in your world who needs this love letter. </em></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/what-my-dying-patients-taught-me?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to Speed Up Your Manifestation Practice]]></title><description><![CDATA[How I manifested my dream home (and your roadmap to manifest anything you want.)]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-speed-up-your-manifestation</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-speed-up-your-manifestation</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:11:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m going to pretend I&#8217;m Lady Whistledown for a second and open this post with a&#8230; (cue British accent) Dearest Reader, </p><p>&#129322; Okay, I&#8217;m done. lol </p><p>Let&#8217;s dive into what you came here for - learning how to manifest (<em>really</em> manifest) your desires. And I&#8217;m going to open with a question &#8212; <strong>Are you tracking your unique patterns of manifestation?</strong></p><p>All of us work this magic so differently but when you&#8217;re paying attention - you can harness creation energy and consciously manifest your deepest desires.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic" width="1456" height="1941" 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CWLv!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0461cf8f-232c-4dd8-8578-cac8f8e9114c.heic 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>In this post I&#8217;m going to share with you how I manifested my dream home. As you read, I encourage you to consider what big manifestations have come through in your own life and what steps helped you get there. See if any of my steps resonate with how you&#8217;d like to call in your next manifestation.</p><p><strong>Here are the 4 steps I used to call in my dream home:</strong></p><ol><li><p>Clear Desire</p></li><li><p>Unblocking</p></li><li><p>Full Abundance in the Now</p></li><li><p>Surrendered Action</p></li></ol><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><h2>Clear Desire</h2><p>The Universe responds to specificity. I love the way Emily Fletcher of <a href="https://zivameditation.com/">Ziva Meditation </a>describes it. She gives this analogy: </p><p>Nature is a waiter at a restaurant and you are a dinner guest. It&#8217;s much easier to get the steak you want when you ask specifically for the medium rare steak with garlic butter and a side of green beans. But most of us go into Nature&#8217;s restaurant and ask for food with a side of food and more food please. Then get frustrated when the soup arrives when we really wanted a steak.</p><p>So when I was calling in my dream home, instead of saying &#8216;Nature please give me my dream house&#8217;, I got really specific &#8211; high ceilings, open floor plan, basement, garage, loft, 4 bedrooms, good school system, walkable neighborhood. My partner and I got really clear about what would make a buy a yes or a no for us and what our budget was.</p><p>Something that you&#8217;ll hear a lot of manifestation and personal development teachers tell you to do is to set a timeline. Here is where I disagree. </p><p>Asking for something in a specific timeline has never worked for me. Take it or leave it, but if I say I want something and I want it by a certain date it creates a certain level of attachment inside of myself for the goal <em>needing</em> to happen. And as you&#8217;ll learn in the surrendered action section &#8212; <strong>attachment to an outcome is a quick way to repel your manifestation.</strong> It creates an energy of neediness and lack. </p><p>Since Nature works as Creation or Destruction, (it&#8217;s either growing or declining, never stagnant) when you show up in the energy of &#8216;not enough&#8217; (Destruction energy), you&#8217;ll be met with more &#8216;not enough&#8217;. Like calls to like.</p><p>So in summary - set your heading. Make it specific. But leave the &#8216;when&#8217; up to surprise. <strong>I believe the Universe wants us to have our deepest desires. The more clear and authentic in our asks, the easier it is for the Universe to hear and respond to.</strong></p><h2>Unblocking</h2><p>This is the step that most people skip and then wonder why manifestation doesn&#8217;t work for them. We do not manifest from our conscious thoughts. We manifest from our subconscious programming. I recommend checking out the work of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/drtaraswart?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&amp;igsh=MTl0ano0bDloazJvdg==">Dr. Tara Swart</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lacyannephillips?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&amp;igsh=MThpc2Q1bzRkdWJ2dA==">Lacy Phillips</a> of <a href="https://tobemagnetic.com/">To Be Magnetic</a> for a deep dive into this concept. </p><p><em>(Take your manifestation journey to the next level with a <a href="https://tobemagnetic.com/">TBM membership</a>. Use code: THALIA for 15% off your subscription. This body of work is how I started my healing journey. It&#8217;s a great launching pad to align your life and break free of your limitations.) </em></p><p>The short version - you have to upgrade your beliefs of Deservingness and Worth. Get to the root of what&#8217;s been holding you back. </p><p>Heal it. </p><p>Alchemize it. </p><p>On the other side of this healing you are rewarded in kind on the physical plane.</p><p>For me this looked like healing my relationship with money &#8212; which is still an ongoing journey for me. At the beginning of this year, I set my intention for <em>Abundance</em>. </p><p>Life showed up and gave me my curriculum. I was shown many ways in which I was still living in a lack mentality. And each time, I showed up to clear it &#8212; through mindset work, emotional and somatic healing practices, subconscious reprogramming, meditation. I did work solo, with my accountability partner, other coaches, and experts. This is where I just followed whatever Life was giving me and my own intuition on which healing practices to lean into. As long as you have the intention to show up (and then follow-through on that intention) Life will present you with your options of support around this.</p><h2>Full Abundance in the Now</h2><p><strong>This is my ultimate manifestation hack!</strong> Gratitude is the simplest yet most effective tool for manifestation that I&#8217;ve personally discovered. (Don&#8217;t confuse simplicity for ineffectiveness.) Remember - like attracts like. The energetic frequency of gratitude &#8211; thankfulness for all that is, is the same frequency as abundance. To attract your desires, notice how it is already here in your life. I&#8217;ll ground this with an example.</p><p>About a year and a half ago, I started having a desire to move. But it was because I was seeing all the ways that my current house wasn&#8217;t enough. Our house was too small. Too cluttered. Not enough storage. I would walk around the house and point out all the flaws with it. I would day dream about a bigger, better, cooler house and then promptly my mind would give me five thousand reasons why it couldn&#8217;t happen for me. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not enough money (yes that story came up more than once! It was basically on repeat in my head and would cause me to go into a shame spiral). I felt needy and frustrated. No wonder I was unable to call in my dream home from this state.</p><p>Once I caught on to what I was doing, I did the work to turn this narrative around. When that happened, I started to see the charm in my current home again &#8212; remembering what made me fall in love with it 5 years ago when we moved in. I became more dedicated to taking care of it. And slowly but steadily, I was fulfilled in my home again. The need to move completely disappeared.</p><p>When the desire did finally start showing up again it wasn&#8217;t because what I had wasn&#8217;t enough or because I &#8220;needed&#8221; a new home to be happy. It started as a spark of excitement after seeing my sister-in-laws new home. My husband and I were walking around her neighborhood, appreciating the beauty of it and I realized something like this could be possible for us, too. That was 6 months prior to us signing papers on our new home.</p><p>This spark of desire and the following moment of expansion was different than the first time because deep down, I knew I wasn&#8217;t placing my happiness on being in a new home. There was no frustration, complaining, or feelings of neediness. It felt more like a soft opening. And I was open to however and whenever the blessings would show up. </p><p><strong>And here&#8217;s the most important part</strong> &#8211; I was also okay if it never happened. And this is what brings us to the next step of manifestation.</p><h2>Surrendered Action</h2><p><strong>Surrendered Action is simply taking the aligned steps for the unmanifest to come into the manifest while being unattached to the outcome.</strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png" width="1080" height="1350" 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ci-G!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F358fd44b-b1eb-4fc8-bfef-d3e622079ea4_1080x1350.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>If you can be in action without being attached to it needing to work out, it takes the pressure off. Instead of action bringing feelings of stress and anxiety, it becomes light, fun, and expansive. </p><p><strong>Life becomes a game, full of surprises and delights. </strong>And in my experience, things tend to work out more often from this place and you have way more fun along the way.</p><p><strong>People often think that the act of wanting causes pain.</strong> But what I&#8217;ve learned from my teacher and coach, <a href="https://www.alyssanobriga.com/">Alyssa Nobriga</a> (and have found to be true in my own life) is &#8212; <strong>it is not wanting that causes pain, but the attachment to it needing to happen that causes pain.</strong></p><p>(Find me on <a href="https://directory.alyssanobriga.com/?_ga=2.115525509.202558508.1762276740-1183133251.1697471314">Alyssa&#8217;s directory of certified coaches here</a>!) </p><p><em><strong>Surrendered action in the awareness and gratitude for how your deepest desires are already here is the medicine for the suffering that is lack.</strong></em> Its a powerful way to get what you want with grace and ease. </p><p>That is the way I would describe this home buying experience to be.</p><p>Every step felt intuitive and natural. There was no overthinking or over-planning (which is what I tend to do when I am not in surrendered action). </p><p>Each step presented itself when the time was right. Things were happening synchronistically: The first house we were interested in sold before we could put together our financing. Which was no big deal. I held in my heart that it meant something better would come along. And it did. An even better property became available that had upgraded features, and was on a plot closer to the woods with more green space behind it. We were shown the house and given the number of what cash we&#8217;d need to put down to take it off the market. It just so happened that I had EXACTLY the right amount of cash we needed in my account from signing a client the week before.</p><p>These synchronicities told me we were on the right track. And I couldn&#8217;t help but laugh. Life was good. And now as we go into the process of finalizing, preparing to sell, and moving I still take time to feel grateful for the magic that&#8217;s unfolding in my life, continuing the practices that have helped me manifest this experience.</p><p>I hope mapping out my journey served you to see what steps you can take to manifest your own desires. You are truly capable of living an extraordinary and beautiful life. You are deserving and worthy. </p><p>I believe our desires are placed in our hearts as a roadmap for how we are meant to serve and give back to Nature. The more abundant and free we become, the more capable we are of being a positive influence on the planet. So as you dream, I encourage you to ask yourself &#8211; <strong>how does you having what you want, serve the world? </strong>Activate to your magic, make it bigger than you, and connect to your manifestation. You&#8217;ve got this! </p><p>Here&#8217;s to you receiving all of your hearts desires.</p><p>Subscribe and share this post with someone you think would genuinely love to read it. It would mean the world to me. &#128150;</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-speed-up-your-manifestation?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/how-to-speed-up-your-manifestation?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Manifestation Becomes Bypassing ]]></title><description><![CDATA[And how to get out of the trap]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/when-manifestation-becomes-bypassing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/when-manifestation-becomes-bypassing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:11:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!afIn!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78fd1a2e-2405-4ec8-8c79-8cf6121790de_1280x1280.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>No one wants to be the guy who peaked in high school&#8230;</p><p>So we go about this chase to be the best - </p><p>make more money.</p><p>be the prettiest</p><p>the smartest</p><p>the coolest</p><p>the most successful.</p><p>At least that&#8217;s how it was for me.</p><p>So I would dream bigger, and bigger, and bigger. But something I realized was that I was <strong>using day dreaming for a better life as an avoidance strategy to get away from the life I was living now.</strong></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><p>I LOVE manifestation.</p><p>I&#8217;m a Manifestor in human design.</p><p>It&#8217;s simply the spiritual practice I&#8217;m most drawn to.</p><p>But when done incorrectly - <strong>it can be used as a bypass.</strong></p><p>Let me explain.</p><p>Before I knew what manifestation was, I called it day dreaming.</p><p>I just thought I had a weird knack for making my day dreams come true by magic or something.</p><p>My favorite one - When I was a little girl, I used to daydream that God would give me superpowers. And yes, I LEGIT feel like that actually came true. (More on that in a future story.)</p><p>I called in my first high school love when I was a mature and not at all awkward &#129322; middle schooler. I said &#8220;<em>I&#8217;m going to date that boy some day.</em>&#8221; and it happened.</p><p>I could give so many more examples of these early desires manifesting in my life but that&#8217;s not the point of this post.</p><p>The part I want to express today is <strong>what happens when &#8220;manifesting&#8221; becomes bypassing.</strong></p><p>And before I did the work to heal myself- this is how I was using my manifestation practice.</p><p>I didn&#8217;t like who I was or the way my life was - my job, the amount of money I was making, the way my body looked. I was constantly comparing myself to others and my inner critic was always in my ear reminding me I wasn&#8217;t good enough. The stress of trying to outrun that voice was overwhelming. Day dreaming of a better future was one of the many ways I used to escape that voice. I put a pretty ribbon on it and called it manifestation.</p><p><em>&#8220;Let me just focus on the future. Future Thalia will figure this out. Right now sucks but one day I&#8217;m going to have a million dollars and 5 vacation homes and never have to work again!&#8221;</em></p><p>See - what I didn&#8217;t realize at the time was that these were just run-away fantasies, not what I actually wanted from life.</p><p>When I finally had the courage to stand up to my fears, my insecurities, my traumatic past experiences &#8212; something started shifting.</p><p>I no longer wanted to <em>run away</em> from my life. Slowly, I started getting more comfortable being <em>IN </em>my life. I was surprised by how relieving it felt. I could stop chasing the future and allow myself to rest in the present moment &#8212; and life became 10x more vibrant and peaceful. I became more aware and compassionate with life as it was. I was grateful for the life I was living <em>in this very moment</em> &#8212; not the one I think I <em>needed</em> to be happy.</p><p>Now, I have a much more balanced spiritual practice. I understand that <strong>true manifestation requires subconscious reprogramming, mindfulness, meditation and most of all&#8230;gratitude for the blessings of today. </strong>(ps. - I can totally share all the tools I use for my personal energetic hygiene and with my coaching clients. Reach out and I&#8217;ll share my fav resources!)</p><div class="directMessage button" data-attrs="{&quot;userId&quot;:156407969,&quot;userName&quot;:&quot;Thalia Dorsten&quot;,&quot;canDm&quot;:null,&quot;dmUpgradeOptions&quot;:null,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true}" data-component-name="DirectMessageToDOM"></div><p></p><p>But let&#8217;s play pretend for a second. You are Santa Clause. And it&#8217;s Christmas. You&#8217;re looking at your list (and checking it twice, of course) deciding how many presents to dish out this year. (Gotta give those elves their KPIs, ya know.) Who would you want to give more presents to? Kid #1 - who when presented with your gift, whines about how it&#8217;s not enough and tells you they need this, this, this and this to be happy? Or kid #2 - who smiles with delight and enthusiastically thanks you?</p><p>I&#8217;ll take kid #2 please!</p><p>I think the Universe is like that. The more our frequency is tuned in to gratitude like kid #2, the more we are rushed with even more goodness. Nature says &#8220;<em>yes, I&#8217;m attracted to that. Go to her!</em>&#8221; And now you&#8217;re more abundant than ever before. Not out of neediness and lack and future-tripping but from being grateful and attuned to the blessings of today.</p><p><strong>Our Divine Nature wants to return to that abundant, whole, and worthy code that was our factory setting from the very first breath we took on this Earthly plane. </strong>Life just got messy for a bit. But eventually, we all reach a point in our lives (or maybe in the next lifetime) where we get to make a choice. Wake up, or stay asleep? Heal and manifest your deepest desires, or continue numbing yourself, fantasizing but never actualizing?</p><p>The good news? Life is kind and will present us with endless opportunities to come back home to our true Nature. Simply say <em>yes</em> to one of those opportunities, and your real Manifestation journey begins.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Is this real life?! ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Welcome to My Substack - Read on to Free Yourself From Your Limitations]]></description><link>https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/is-this-real-life</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/p/is-this-real-life</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thalia Dorsten]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:11:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>Remember when you could be anything you wanted? </h2><p>Remember before you were conditioned to be afraid of failing and started giving up on the things you weren&#8217;t good at? </p><p>Remember when you were a small child and you just followed your passion from thing to thing - simply because it gave you joy? </p><p>What would it be like to live life like that again? Trying things that excite you without the worry of failing or judgement. Singing loudly in public, stopping on a walk to pick up a cool leaf and then running home to show your family how amazing it is. Start a substack to write&#8230;</p><h3>Hi, I&#8217;m Thalia and I fail&#8230;a lot. </h3><p>Hi my dear friends and readers. It&#8217;s good to be here, in the land of substack (where blogging became cool again). </p><p>Let&#8217;s make a pact&#8230;you in? Seriously, if you&#8217;re game, I&#8217;m game. Okay - ready to hear it? </p><p><strong>Let&#8217;s agree to do 1 thing we love.</strong> Go ALL IN. Even if you don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll be good at it, or you&#8217;re worried about failing. Can we pretend we&#8217;re little kids again and just do the thing we love, and do it badly? </p><p><strong>It is LIBERATING to come to peace with failing.</strong> To agree that failing is part of the success path, not the antithesis of it. If you just come to expect that you&#8217;re going to fail, you take your power back from it. And you can show up, ready to write badly or sing badly or dance badly - whatever your thing is. </p><p>There&#8217;s a beautiful study about two groups of people in photography class - one group was told they would be graded on their best, most perfect photo. The other group was told they would be graded on how many photos they took for the year. Guess which group ended up having the best photos? *Hint* It wasn&#8217;t the group trying to take the best photos. </p><p>See - fear of failing paralyzes us, because <strong>fear itself is kryptonite for your creativity.</strong> That&#8217;s why I am proud to say I FAIL&#8230;A LOT. I want to be in the photography group taking the most photos - because that group naturally has more success. Which group do you want to be in? </p><h3>Guess what? You&#8217;re allowed to fail, too. </h3><p> So here&#8217;s the deal: <a href="/__u/substack.com/@thaliadorsten">Welcome to my Substack</a>. The place where it is okay for you to fail. The place where I agree to see your magic in the messy mistakes. The place where being humanly imperfect is perfect to me. </p><h3>What to Expect Here </h3><p>I&#8217;ll be sharing musings from my life. Lessons I&#8217;ve learned on my own healing path as I&#8217;ve overcome trauma and learned how to love myself, completely. My unique flavor of human-ing includes my roles professionally as a doctor of physical therapy and transformational coach, and personally as a Mom, Wife, and Spiritual Seeker. If you resonate with those areas of life and want to come read my imperfect writing to learn high quality lessons (possibly short-cutting your own healing path), then read on! </p><p>For now, all of my content will be free for you to enjoy. I&#8217;m simply here to follow my joy and call you forward to follow yours. </p><p>If you like what you&#8217;re reading, let me know! I love connecting and making new friends. Byeeeeeeeee! </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_424, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_webp, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="/__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg" width="4284" height="4698" 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/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 424w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_848, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 848w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1272, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 1272w, /__u/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yQn3!, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/w_1456, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/c_limit, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/f_auto, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/q_auto:good, /__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89ade148-a0dd-4d0c-9e4c-c7d06dab788c_4284x4698.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">My family&#8230;the catalyst for my evolution</figcaption></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="/__u/sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://sipsandsoul.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Thalia Dorsten! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>