As if healing is a place you reach where all discomfort disappears.

I don’t think that’s true!

In fact, I think one of the most surprising parts of healing is realizing that the past can still come up, even after years of therapy, meditation, medication, movement, nervous system work, subconscious rewiring, journaling, and every other practice you can think of.

When the past resurfaces, it’s not a failure, lack of healing, going backwards… it’s part of it.

Healing was never meant to remove our capacity to feel. Healing isn’t about becoming less sensitive. It’s about becoming more resilient.

The goal isn’t to never feel grief again. It’s to be able to ride the waves so that the water doesn’t swallow you whole.

Sometimes the past resurfaces because life is asking us to meet it from a new level of consciousness. Not because there’s something wrong. But because we’re finally strong enough to hold and walk through what we couldn’t before.

An old wound appearing in a new form — the same lesson, but with a different perspective.

Nature moves in cycles, as does healing. There are seasons where everything feels expansive and forward-moving and then there are seasons where old emotions rise to the surface. Resurfacing isn’t regression, it’s integration. A deeper healing. And often, this is evidence that things are moving forward.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

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• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
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And when things finally begin arriving, especially after a long period of internal work, it can feel intoxicating. One thing comes in, then another, and another. The rush of it all makes you want more. It can begin to feel addictive.

You begin looking for the next wave before you’ve even fully absorbed the last one.

But I’ve noticed something recently:

After every major expansion, there is a quiet period. A stillness. And in those moments, it’s easy to think something has stopped. That the magic is lost, or the momentum is gone.

I don’t think that’s what it is thought — I think the water is receding.

Before a large wave comes in, the tide pulls back. Not in a punishing way, but in a way that allows preparation. The rest we need.

When big things come into our lives — opportunities, relationships, money, visibility, purpose — our nervous systems have to catch up to the reality we just entered. Expansion is stimulating! Even positive change is stress on the body.

Neuroscience backs this up: the nervous system does not distinguish strongly between “good stress” and “bad stress.” Both require recovery. Both increase allostatic load — the cumulative demand placed on the body and brain.

Which means:
We need the quiet season, where the water recedes. Because we have to integrate the new. Without integration, the stress on the body becomes too much. We see it all the time with people that make too much money too quickly and they completely change, or their life goes to shit, or they lose it all.

I think this is one of the hardest parts of manifestation work. Not the calling things in, not the unblocking or expanding, not the taking of aligned action… but the trusting when nothing appears to be happening. Trusting the receding tide.

It feels like life — or God, or spirit, or the universe, whatever language resonates with you — is gently asking:

Can you still believe things are unfolding even in the silence?

Can you enjoy your life without another dopamine hit?

Because to be honest, constant stimulation — even from beautiful things — is overwhelming. There is a reason nature moves in cycles — there are seasons of growth, harvest, and rest.

We are not meant to live in perpetual acceleration. The body needs breathers! Time to stabilize and fully integrate. Repair the muscles, refill the well.

I think sometimes we mistake stillness for stagnation — but some of the most important things happen underground. Roots deepen in quiet seasons, the nervous system recalibrates, identity solidifies.

So… Can you trust the tide to return even while it pulls away?

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

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If you’re wanting more connection:

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
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At the time, I understood it conceptually. But now, I’m experiencing it!

Last night was the first full Kundalini class in the studio. I know other practitioners in my space have had full classes — and that’s been amazing to witness — but Kundalini is the one I attend regularly. It’s the one I feel most connected to. And in a place like Nashville, Kundalini can be hard to fill. People don’t really know what it is and it’s no easy to explain (at least for me)! It’s something you just have to experience.

So to see the room full — to feel the energy of that many people choosing to show up for something they may not even fully understand yet — felt like something clicking into place. There’s something about the right time, the right space, and the clearing of internal resistance that makes things possible in a way that logic can’t explain. It’s not just external alignment. It’s internal.

Unblocking beliefs about what’s possible, letting go of timelines., creating something without needing immediate validation… and then, one day, the room is full!

What got me the most was watching everyone during class — so engaged and present. And watching my friend teach — someone I know is incredible — but seeing other people feel that too. It made me teary-eyed!

This month is also a collaboration with Benshen, which in itself feels like a dream realized. It started as a “fuck it, I’ll shoot my shot” to now fully alive, moving through the space, reaching people.

I’ve also been blown away by the number of practitioners who have found the studio — 29 different facilitators and 62 different events in the first 2 months!!! Like that is wild!! I’ve been in awe of what they’ve created, the communities they’re building, and the ways they’re using the space.

When I wrote Creating the Vessel, I hadn’t yet experienced how quickly and how precisely it would fill. I understood the concept, but this — this is different! It feels really special to have a space that feels safe, intentional, and alive for people to experience the healing arts.

And what’s been most surprising is this: The right people find it. Over and over again. Without forcing, without any paid marketing (yet), and without trying to push it into existence. It makes me wonder if I really even need to do anything beyond what I’ve already been doing (literally just posting on instagram).

If all of this can happen without spending money on marketing… then something else is at play. A force greater than me or you.

Creating the space was exciting, but the real magic is in watching what flows into it once it exists.

Interested in Benshen? Join here
Want to follow Ally and here where she is teaching next? Click here & website here

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re wanting more connection:

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
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Sound healing, breathwork, kundalini, and more!
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About two months ago, the Kundalini practitioner I follow online — the one whose program I’ve been doing every morning — added my personal Instagram.

She messaged me to say thank you for sharing about the meditations. And I had a wild idea — instead of overthinking and trying to word it correctly, I said fuck it! I’m shooting my shot. So I asked her if she’d ever want to collaborate — her company, Benshen, and my studio, WITHIN.

At the time, my studio had been open for maybe two weeks. It wasn’t fully built out. It wasn’t “established.” It was (and still is) a lil baby!

She said yes! Not only that — she offered to give everyone who participated a free month of Benshen. I remember thinking omg this is too easy!

About a month or two before this, I met Ally — the Kundalini teacher — through what can only be described as a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend situation. We immediately clicked. Same age, similar charts (scorpio risings, capricorns placements, iykyk), similar energy.

And she loved the idea of the collaboration! So we started building it together.

Ally’s classes are incredible. Kundalini is one of those things that’s almost impossible to explain. It’s a workout but that’s not the word for it, it has meditation in it but that doesn’t fully sum it up, it’s not just a yoga class either. What it is, is something that changes you. And once you experience it, you get it.

But getting people to try it — especially in Nashville, where it’s still pretty rare — has been harder. We priced the month access in a way that felt generous. We included the Benshen membership. We shared it. And… not much happened.

So we pivoted. We made it free. And decided to absolutely blast it out into the eco chambers of the universe. Within two weeks, we had 56 sign-ups.

Fifty-six.

And then the question became: Who will actually show up? Because interest is one thing. Showing up is another.

Night 1 was last night, so maybe it’s too soon to speak, but people came out!

And they didn’t just show up — they were feeling it. Connecting with each other, being open to a new type of practice, and beginning to understand what I struggle to explain.

Seeing people experience Ally’s class inside my studio — something that, not long ago, only existed as an idea in my head — felt magical.

There’s been so much momentum in the studio already! Practitioners hosting their own classes, people finding the space, and energy building.

But landing this collaboration and watching it come to life —
has felt like something different. Or as my dad would say, “good signal, Junie, good signal.”

And here’s the part I don’t know how to explain without it sounding dramatic:

I can feel that I’m on the cusp of something. A real expansion. Both in my work, in my income, and in my feeling of fulfillment in life. And it feels almost silly to say that, because so many incredible things have happened already.

But this feels like… the edge. Like everything up until now has been building toward, something that’s about to open. Like standing at the edge of a cliff right before you jump off — knowing you’re about to land some place wondrous.

It has been an internal battle trying not to rush the big jump and just stand here, right on the edge.

Thank you to everyone who has watched, supported, experienced, and participated in all of this! It has been so cool doing it together.

Interested in Benshen? Join here
Want to follow Ally and here where she is teaching next? Click here & website here

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re wanting more connection:

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

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Sound healing, yoga, kundalini, and more!
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It was one of those weeks where time stretches and collapses at the same time. Where every day feels full, but also like it never happened at all.

But I’ll try.

Melisse and I got there two days early to get things done and in order for the participants to arrive.

We:

• got the rental car

• picked up the ATV

• scoped out restaurants for the final dinner

• handled a lot of communication and admin

• put together welcome bags

We did most of it from my favorite place — the cenote club. There’s nothing like it. Truly. It doesn’t feel real when you’re there. It was a truly magical office!

The night before the retreat officially started, one of the girls arrived early.

So naturally, we got dinner.

And then, because this is how these things go, we ended up doing Kundalini yoga on the beach at night — chanting, moving energy, fully in our own world. Absolutely freaking out the restaurant staff on the beach.

Earlier that day, Melisse’s helmet broke. So she had to ride without one. And of course, we got pulled over. Apparently, this happens to her every time she’s in Mexico.

The officers initially wanted to “reach an agreement,” which is a very polite way of saying pay us and we’ll let you go. But I had a feeling we weren’t going to have to pay. Another officer came over, talked to us, and let us go with a warning to get a new helmet. And just like that, we were free.

It felt like an initiation into our adventure.

The next day, we got to the Airbnb to set up and coordinate everyone’s arrivals. I went to pick everyone up from the airport. It was going great — until I hit a speed bump going 100 km/h. If you’ve ever driven in Mexico, you know the signs are… interpretive.

The speed bump sign is literally a levitating car.

I now understand why lol.

That first night, we had a chef dinner at the house. And then we dropped in with group hypnosis. I guided everyone inward — into their own subconscious — to gather clarity on what they were hoping to receive from the retreat.

My goal for the entire week was simple: To create as many containers as possible for people to have a spiritual experience. Not to forcing it, just creating multiple opportunities for it to happen for everyone.

Every morning, we woke up before sunrise. We would go to the beach, practice Kundalini yoga, and watch the sun come up over the water. And then we’d swim in the sea. It felt… unreal. I wish I could start every morning that way!

Day two started with psychedelic breathwork. No substances — just breath. It was powerful! There’s something about breathwork that bypasses the mind completely. Everyone had their own experience, but it was clear something shifted. We painted afterward. Then had lunch. Then rested up for our temazcal evening.

The temazcal was intense. Some people had a hard time — feeling hot, trapped, overwhelmed. And interestingly, the guides didn’t really let people leave easily. I’ve heard of that happening before. It’s not something we could ever do as therapists in the U.S. - but I understand the intention. Essentially, don’t succumb to the fear and discomfort, and see what happens. Mind over matter.

But everyone came out with something. For me, I released a fear around money — specifically lack — and I’ve already noticed shifts since. It was exhausting.

We came home, ate dinner, and slept deeply.

Day three felt like we all needed some comfort. So we stayed at the house. We started with puja — a group energy practice from Argentina. Then moved into individual sessions called tameana.

Everyone had space:

• to journal

• to nap

• to swim

• to be alone

I did a one-on-one hypnosis session. The energy was softer. Integrated.

That evening, we ended with a guided cold plunge — movement, breathwork, then jumping into the pool. Everyone slept really well that night.

Day four was integration! We started with Kundalini at the house. Then went to the cenote club for swimming and lunch. Photos just don’t do that place justice!

After, some of the girls went shopping. That night, we had dinner in town and walked through centro. It felt like re-entry into the world.

Day five, we said goodbye. I started the morning with one of the girls who is also a Kundalini teacher. We went to a class led by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, who just happened to be in Tulum. We had a magical lunch after by the beach. We checked out of the airbnb and spent a little more time together by a pool down the street before I drove everyone to the airport.

And then it was quiet.

Melisse and I stayed a few more days. We shopped, walked around, ate good good. At one point, we stumbled into what felt like an entirely different world hidden inside a hotel — an “artery” of the space that made her immediately want to stay there her last night.

I stayed even longer.

And I kept thinking: I can’t believe I don’t live here. Maybe one day.

I think everyone had their spiritual experience. Not in the same way. Not at the same time. But something happened for each person. And for me, the biggest takeaway is this: It was easy. Not because nothing went wrong — things did go wrong. But because nothing felt forced. Melisse and I have really gotten in our groove and the whole process feels natural. Everything unfolded the way it needed to. And I loved every moment of it!

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re wanting more connection:

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

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Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
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Sound healing, yoga, kundalini, and more!
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Ideas that once would have taken months are materializing in weeks. Conversations turn into collaborations almost immediately. Decisions are sharp and movement is FAST.

Why is this happening in my life now? Why didn’t it happen at a time I was longing for it?

The only thing I can think of is that there doesn’t feel like there is a lot of internal resistance or emotional blocks. Just straight openness. Which is a new thing.

Internal blocks/friction slow things down

When part of you wants something and another part is afraid, your system splits and you are giving the universe mixed signals.

When the brain perceives threat — even if it’s subtle — the amygdala activates. This reduces the activity in the prefrontal cortex — which, you know, governs critical thinking, planning, thinking long-term, etc. (Arnsten, 2009). This is survival mode. In survival mode we tend try to control. And even if we have the mindset of wanting to call in miracles, we end up trying to micromanage the miracle!

This takes up TIME. And therefore the timeline lengthens.

Alignment reduces mental load

Research on “self-concordance theory” shows that when goals align with our core values and principles, we experience greater and consistent motivation as well as and less internal friction (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999).

So, when we are wanting to call something into our life, that aligns with our belief system and values, and we’re not conflicted in that we’re afraid of it, the timeline speeds up.

From the outside looking in, it looks like things are speeding up. On the inside, if feels like alignment.

From a physics standpoint:
nonalignment = energy working against itself
alignment = energy reinforcing itself.

So alignment is literally more efficient.

Ask yourself

What is out of alignment in my life? What would alignment look like in that area?

What am I trying to manifest? Is what is out of alignment something that may be blocking what I’m trying to manifest?

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

Sources

Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 482–497.

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

We try effort, strategy, managing, pushing, forcing…

And only when we’re exhausted do we finally arrive at surrender. I usually arrive at it like, “oh yeah, I forgot that’s an option.”

But surrender isn’t giving up. It’s a mastery.

I first learned this through sobriety.

The first of the 12 steps:
I am powerless over drugs and alcohol, and my life has become unmanageable.

I fought that step, the surrender step, tooth and nail.

Once it finally clicked though, everything got easier. It felt like I had been driving with the parking brake on and finally released it. And as the car starts to move you think, “how did I not notice this for so long?” And you realize it was within you all along to remove the resistance.

Surrender is such a great skill, but have you tried using it in BUSINESS? That is scary.

You would think that once you experience the magic that happens after you surrender — how things fall into place, something comes out of the woodwork, the solution arrives outside of your wildest imaginations — it would be easy to remember.

And in many ways, it is easier now.

But there’s always that one thing. The thing with the most emotional charge. The thing that feels like it determines your safety, your worth, your future. And that’s the one we grip the hardest. Right now for me, that’s my career.

I read a quote recently in ’s 30 Days of Conscious Creation:

“You cannot micromanage a miracle.”

It hit me like a brick to the face.

I have so much tied into selling out my retreat in Tulum (in 3 weeks!!!!)— financially, emotionally, professionally, personally. And I realized I had been trying to micromanage the miracle of sign-ups.

Even when I thought I was being “spiritual” about it. I would literally do a guided meditation and then check my email immediately after to see “if it worked.”

That’s not surrender. That’s control AKA “micromanaging a miracle.”

Last night, during a Kundalini class with the wonderful Ally LaForest, we did the fists of anger kriya — bringing up everything that’s frustrating you, irritating you, angering you, and physically pushing it out of your aura.

And in that moment, I decided I was just going to fucking let go of the retreat sign-ups. Not because they aren’t important, but because there is literally nothing else I can do.

I felt it release.

By the end of class, I didn’t care anymore — not in a delusional way, but in a grounded way.

Because everything has always worked out for me.

Things beyond my wildest dreams have found me when I:

• followed what lit me up

• stayed aligned

• didn’t do things just to do them

• trusted timing instead of forcing outcomes

Why would this be any different?

Surrender doesn’t mean you don’t want the thing. It means you stop trying to force an elephant through a straw.

It means you stop standing in the doorway, blocking what’s trying to come through.

Surrender is the portal.

Not because it’s passive.
But because it removes the one thing that was in the way: your grip.

Is there anything you’re trying to force? Anything you’re trying to micromanage? What would happened if you loosened that grip?

Surrender will change your life. Why? Because everything you want is orbiting you, all you have to do is get out of the way so it can land.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
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Over time, my journaling process has become a formula.

The Formula

1. Handwritten journaling
→ slows the nervous system, slows down the thought process, no access to the internet while I’m doing it so no distractions

2. Voice-to-text
→ hearing myself speak reveals beliefs I didn’t know were there and there is just something to reading out loud what you have just written

3. Digital compilation (Word Doc + Alterd)
→ creates continuity and memory, a digital storage of my thoughts and changes over time

4. ChatGPT reflection
→ identifies themes, loops, and evolution over time

5. AI synthesis (Alterd)
→ weekly insight + suggested learning and action

6. Integration
→ increased awareness, more attuned to patterns, etc.

The first layer: handwriting

Writing by hand is an ancient practice. It unites us with the old times, with less distraction. We are more precise with our words because we can never write as fast as we are thinking. The handwritten journal is the raw goods.

There’s a reason why therapists suggest this — Neuro-imaging studies show handwriting activates more parts of the brain than typing, especially in areas related to learning, memory consolidation, connecting, and meaning-making (Askvik et al., 2024, Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014).

The second layer: voice to text

Later, I read what I’ve written out loud and use voice-to-text to type it. Initially I thought this was just a matter of transcription and converting to digital. But there is something to speaking those words out loud — they solidify and feel more real.

The third layer: digital reflection

From there, everything goes into a Word document and my Alterd AI journaling app. This is the compiling of data that I get to pull from forever, now that it exists in the digital world.

The fourth layer: pattern recognition

Then I run my entries through ChatGPT using very specific prompts.

I ask it to look for:

• recurring themes

• open loops vs. closed loops

• repeated emotional states

• beliefs that are evolving or stuck

I also ask it to analyze my journaling in context, taking into account:

• all the prompts I’ve been working with

• what I’m actively trying to manifest

• my Human Design

• adverse childhood experiences and how they may be shaping my reactions

What Chatgpt points out does not replace my intuition. What it reflects back can be wrong. In fact there are times where it is clearly confusing different details of an event or my life. What it does a good job of is showing me my patterns when I’m too close to see it in the moment.

Then I paste the Chatgpt reflections into my Alterd journaling app back into my Word doc.

The fifth layer: synthesis

Alterd AI then takes the full body of my journaling and Chatgpt;s reflections, and gives me a weekly PowerPoint-style synthesis that includes:

• dominant themes

• suggested media I might like (books, podcasts, articles, shows, etc.)

• new journal prompts

• scientific context for what I’ve been processing

• suggested next actions

This part is wild. And super helpful — I have read books and consumed other media based on it’s recommendation and it has been very helpful.

What I’m actually journaling about

My journaling isn’t random — it’s programmed.

Right now, it includes:

• ’s 30 Days of Conscious Creation — daily entries

• Benshen () Kundalini Yoga — journaling from morning meditations, monthly vision classes, workshops, and monthly practices

• To Be Magnetic (TBM) — currently the Return to Magic Challenge, which includes extensive journaling

• Moon phase journaling — aligned with New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Third Quarter themes

• Spontaneous reflection — whenever something needs to be processed in real time

Why this feels like it’s accelerating things

I don’t think journaling creates manifestations. I think it creates awareness. And awareness changes timing.

By reflecting this often, I notice synchronicities faster. I recognize patterns sooner. I catch myself mid-loop instead of months later. I see opportunities when they arrive instead of after they’ve passed. It feels like fewer things are happening to me — and more things are happening with me.

Almost like I’m in conversation with my life instead of reacting to it (also known as meta-cognition!).

What this practice has taught me

We can choose how to create a multidimensional journaling practice that feels authentic to each of us. There is no one size fits all.

For me, my process has helped me see more clearly and change things more rapidly. Clarity has a way of speeding things up.

***ChatGPT and other AI related softwares are not a replacement for psychotherapy. The personal connection to another human will always trump a computer spitting out patterns. AI will not sit with you and witness your experiences, while looking you in the eye. So much of healing is being witnessed by another person.***

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, tools, and upcoming events for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

But what I’m also starting to learn is perhaps an expansion of the “aligned action” concept. That what you are calling in needs the right container to hold it. Whether that be your nervous system, space in your life, or time in your schedule, a vessel that is ready to hold it is required.

Over the past few weeks, something has really come together for me with Within. Not only with the space physically coming together - furniture, lighting, curtains, etc. - but what it is meant to be all together.

What’s become clear is this:
WITHIN isn’t something I decided to build. It’s something that needed to exist.

Not just for me and the desires I have for the space - but I’m almost positive if I hadn’t created it, someone else would have. Because this idea is alive and it has a consciousness.

The idea of the vessel

In Kabbalah, there’s a teaching about the kli — the vessel. The idea is simple but profound: abundance, manifestations, or whatever you are desiring to bring into your life, can only flow in proportion to the vessel created to hold it.

It’s not enough to want the thing. It’s not enough to learn about the thing. You have to prepare yourself to hold it. You are the vessel.

For example: I want monetary abundance. So instead of waiting until I “make it” to act like someone who holds wealth, I created the infrastructure first:

• a high-yield savings account

• multiple brokerage accounts

• a commitment to learning investing language and strategy

Now, money has somewhere to go. A vessel to hold it.

Sometimes the next right action isn’t more effort or hustle, forcing the outcome. It’s readiness to receive it.

WITHIN as a living idea

I’ve written before about ideas as living beings — how they move through the collective, looking for a willing portal.

The idea for WITHIN came to me not as a business plan, but as a knowing. I needed a vessel for expression and income outside of being a therapist. A place where the work I believe in could exist without being squeezed into systems that don’t honor it.

What I didn’t know — and couldn’t have known — was that others were waiting for the same vessel.

Since I’ve begun sharing about the studio, practitioners have reached out one by one. Different modalities, different backgrounds — all saying variations of the same thing:

“I’ve been needing a space like this.”
“I don’t want a cut taken from my work — I just want a fair place to practice.”
“I’ve been talking about needing something exactly like this.”

I wasn’t creating a solution just for myself.

I was building a container that already had demand — quietly, invisibly — waiting for it.

That’s why it moved quickly. That’s why doors opened so suddenly. That’s why things fell into my lap. That’s why it felt less like pushing and more like assembling something that was already half-formed.

The vessel was overdue.

When things align rapidly

I used to think that to make things happen you had to make them happen. With force. Now I understand that feeling of pushing the gas for the initial push, and then allowing things to fall as they may. Thus came, the studio.

When a vessel is needed — not just wanted — momentum arrives naturally. The idea moves faster because it’s serving more than one nervous system, more than one livelihood, more than one future.

WTIHIN didn’t come together because I tried harder.

It came together because:

• I was ready for a new form of expression

• others were ready for a supportive space

• the structure finally existed for the idea to land

• I had raised my self-worth and deservingness to meet what I wanted to call into my life

• I took aligned action (without force!)

• And expanded my mind to find others doing similar things to know it was possible

The vessel met the moment.

What I’m taking forward

Preparation for something great doesn’t require you knowing what the great thing is, only knowing how you want it to feel. I wrote down in a manifestation list in my journal about 6 months ago - things that were realistic for the next 6-9 months. And then, just for fun, I mapped out what I wanted in 5 years. On this 5 years from now list, I wrote down that I wanted a brick and mortar studio.

And now, 6 months later, here we are.

I don’t need to chase manifestations anymore. They find me, as long as I do what is right in front of me, follow my pings, and raise my self worth. Preparation is not passive. It’s an act of trust.

And sometimes the most powerful move we can make is to build the container first — trusting that it will be filled with the right thing.

WITHIN was open for groups officially for 3 business days. Within those 3 business days, 5 different practitioners toured, 7 events were scheduled. It has now been 1 week and I’ve done at least 2-3 tours per day. Each day someone has reached out saying they are interested in the space.

I thought I was creating something for me, which of course includes helping others. I didn’t know how many other people were dreaming of this space before I had even thought it up…

Wild, right?

Until next time xx

If you are a practitioner in the Nashville area looking for a space to hold your groups, intensives, and classes, send me a message with the link below:

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

Though my taste has expanded and become less rigid over time (in some ways), I’m beginning to learn that perhaps some of the things I’ve been “picky” about are more of a deep knowing about what my body needs.

Some things are healing or help facilitate healing not because of what they do, but because of how they feel.

I think of this as vibrational medicine — the quiet, seemingly unimportant or “replaceable” things that regulate my nervous system.

Not all medicine requires a prescription. Some are within our grasp, within our budget, and are often an incorporation of what naturally exists.

Reiki and other energy work

Reiki consistently calms my body and clears my mind.

From a nervous-system perspective, this makes sense. Gentle and focused attention, slowed breath, relaxed presence from another human being — all activate the parasympathetic nervous system, lowering cortisol by increasing vagal tone. Research on reiki shows marked changes in stress responses and heart rate variability of the individual receiving reiki.

Energy-based healing crosses cultures and time. Qi, prana, “the vibes”...

We respond to the subtleties in the field (the energy field that exists outside of and around our bodies).

Flower remedies

There is one flower remedy that I rave about from Alexis Smart called Safe & Sound — it has helped me eliminate panic from my body.

I have a whole post about this here.

Water

Oh am I a water baby. After all, I’m a triple water sign - cancer sun, scorpio moon, and scorpio rising. Spending time in water — whether it’s a cold plunge or an Epsom salt bath — feels like medicine to me.

Water quiets my mind and soothes my body. I really don’t know how to explain it - other than I swear by the idea of “washing off the day” after work whether that be by bathing alone or swimming or a cold plunge first.

Interestingly enough, our bodies are mostly water. Temperature, sound, and touch travel through water efficiently, as seen with experiments with music and water droplets. Water moves energy quickly through our nervous system, all at once.

Water has always been medicine. Whether it be a Japanese tea bath, sweat lodges (water on the stones), ocean swimming rituals, baptisms, or Roman bath houses. We’ve known water was healing before we even had the science to understand our nervous system.

Fabric, texture, and material

Linen has been medicine for me. I wear it, I have a couch made of it, and curtains made of it. It is said that linen is the fabric with the highest vibration! Science has shown that linen and other natural fibers help to regulate temperature and reduce static thus reducing sensorial stress on those inhabiting it.

I feel calmer in linen spaces.

The same is true for eucalyptus/bamboo sheets. I feel safer and cozier in them. They aid in temperature regulation and comfort which increases the quality of sleep - and we all know that without good sleep, we become sick.

Light

Absolutely fuck halogen, LED, and florescent lighting. It makes my body ache! I didn’t understand the why behind that until I asked Chatgpt to find studies to back up my knowing (I know, confirmation bias, but stick with me!)

Halogen, LED, and fluorescent lights are “blue-heavy” lights. “Blue-heavy” lights are said to suppress the body’s natural production of melatonin, disrupt our circadian rhythm, and increase alertness (AKA activate the amygdala and our stress responses). Warm light does the opposite.

Sound

When I’m stressed, preparing for a therapy session that requires deep attunement, journaling, or guiding/receiving hypnotherapy, I use 432 Hz.

Whether or not you believe frequency claims fully, we know that slower, harmonic sound reduces heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and shifts brainwaves toward alpha and theta states. Just like we know really fast, rhythmic beats increase our nervousness or excitability.

We respond very quickly and easily to rhythm.

Color

Soft whites. Soft light blues. Soft natural colors. This is what I prefer in all of my spaces.

Neuroscience and color psychology both show that softer colors are less stimulating to the amygdala in the way bright and harsh colors are. Soft colors are also less visually tiring.

The Elements

Wood, paper (which is also wood lol), linen, seagrass, living plants, I love all of these in my spaces.

Biophilic design isn’t just a vibe, it’s biologically rooted for us. Organic forms, natural textures, and living elements reduce stress and improve cognitive and emotional regulation.

Kundalini

Kundalini has been one of the most powerful forms of vibrational medicine in my life. It clears our energetic field, recharges it, helps us rebuild, and helps us awaken our personal power.

Breathwork, spinal movement, repeating mantras, and holding mudras (poses) all stimulate the vagus nerve, moving our body from fight or flight into rest and digest. This is why I love doing Kundalini in the morning right when I wake up!

I have a whole post about this here.

Scent

Between sessions, I spray jasmine hydrosol on my face. For whatever reason it feels like it refreshes my system.

Our sense of smell or our olfactory system bypasses the thinking/logical brain and goes straight to the limbic system — memory, emotion, safety. This is why scent can instantly ground or destabilize us.

I use essential oil blends instead of perfume — luxurious, subtle, don’t make me smell like a head-shop.

Love

In my opinion, love is the most powerful vibrational medicine of all. When I fall asleep with my dog on or next to me I feel an immense amount of love and safety. Science says that touch releases oxytocin which regulates the nervous system. Love is regulating!

Not everything that heals comes in a bottle or a protocol or costs us anything.

Whether it facilitates healing or is the healing, I know that:

• light

• sound

• water

• texture

• rhythm

• warmth

• presence

has changed me on a vibrational level. In a good way!

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

W I T H I N

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

Citations:

Nervous system & parasympathetic activation

• Porges, S. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory.
  — foundational work on vagal tone, safety, and nervous system regulation.

• Thayer & Lane (2009). Heart rate variability and neurovisceral integration.

Touch, energy work, and Reiki

• Baldwin et al. (2017). Effects of Reiki on autonomic nervous system activity.

• NIH NCCIH: Biofield therapies overview.

Water & hydrotherapy

• Shevchuk, N. (2008). Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression.

• Huttunen et al. (2004). Cold exposure and stress tolerance.

• Becker, R. (1985). The Body Electric — bioelectric fields and healing.

• Historical: Roman bathhouses, Japanese onsen culture, Finnish sauna tradition.

Light & circadian rhythm

• Harvard Medical School (2012). Blue light and melatonin suppression.

• Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep — circadian regulation and light exposure.

Sound & frequency

• Thoma et al. (2013). Effects of music on stress hormone regulation.

• Bernardi et al. (2006). Cardiovascular effects of music and rhythm.
  (Note: 432 Hz specifically is debated; effects are best framed as harmonic rhythm + tempo.)

Color & visual processing

• Elliot & Maier (2014). Color psychology and emotional regulation.

• Küller et al. (2009). The impact of light and color on psychological states.

Biophilic design & materials

• Kellert & Calabrese (2015). The Practice of Biophilic Design.

• Ulrich (1984). Nature exposure and recovery from stress.

• VOC research: EPA indoor air quality studies.

Scent & olfaction

• Herz, R. (2009). Odor-evoked memory and emotion.

• Buck & Axel (1991). Olfactory pathways bypassing the thalamus.

Touch, love, and oxytocin

• Carter, C. (2014). Oxytocin pathways and social bonding.

• Field, T. (2010). Touch and nervous system regulation.

I get a text from my landlord.

Read more

But, alas, things unfold differently than expected. I’m tired of writing and I’m sure you’re tired of heavy reads, so here’s some bullet points. . .

WHAT ABSOLUTELY WAS NOT ON MY BINGO CARD FOR 2025:

1. A 36-hour trip to LA

To attend a live book tour event with a friend. To experience the magic of a Topanga, read a book cover to cover, and experience the magic of To Be Magnetic IRL.

1. Getting trained in past life regression hypnosis

I knew I was getting trained in hypnotherapy, but I didn’t realize past life regressions would be included. And to watch a magical one happen right in front of me. The layers to it are someone else’s story to share, but several of the people in the room were involved. It was one of the things that is absolutely mind blowing and you either a) let it change you, or b) decide it’s all horse shit.

1. Creating my own art

I forgot how creative I was as a child and working out of an arts collective warehouse really brought that out of me again.

1. Learning to make pupusas

And not from my Salvadoran family members! I had just had a hell of a day navigating the non-resort side of Roatan, Honduras without cash or English. I got back to the hostel, starving, not happy to cook what I had gotten from the store that morning. I went to the kitchen, which was so fucking hot, and saw a woman cooking up a storm. I sat outside waiting for her to finish and was pissy that it was taking her so long (it was really only big enough for 1 person to cook at a time). I huffed back in after 15 minutes or so and asked her how much longer she would be. Realized quickly I needed to switch to Spanish in which I only knew how to say “I need to cook please.” She responded no don’t worry, I’m cooking. And I was like no I see that but I’m really hungry. Then I realized she was trying to tell me she was cooking for the whole house! Upon further inquiry, she was making pupusas! And my favorite kind: frijoles y queso! I told her my dad is from El Salvador and asked if she would teach me. I had pupusas for dinner, a snack after dinner, and breakfast the next morning.

1. Navigating the aforementioned island without Lempiras

I could have sworn I had at least $100 USD worth of Lempiras in my wallet - which, in fact, I did not! I needed cash to buy groceries, a taxi to the airport, and water. I needed an ass load of water because I was very dehydrated after several days in Utila. The woman behind the desk at the hostel spoke just enough spanglish to tell me I needed to hail a share taxi from the (dirt) road ahead, go to this one specific gas station on this one side of the island, and use the ATM. Then hail another one to a specific store for goods, and then yet another one back. She also gave me just enough lempiras for a ride to the ATM which was so incredibly kind. I took her advice, did all of that, and it was thrilling.

1. Getting a tattoo in the UK

Unplanned, the guy really dug in there like wow, tribute to my pup Snoop Dogg. Also he was OBSESSED with America and road a Harley motorcycle and loved BBQ. Very not living on the coast of the English Channel of him at all.

1. Starting Kundalini Yoga

I have a whole ass post about this. Do my (Benshen) every morning!

1. Charlie

I also have a whole ass post about this.

1. Glasses

Okay I only wear contacts. Like the first year I had contacts I refused to have glasses for back up. It’s just not my l000k. I was in the outhouse of my Airbnb in Topanga and thought I had a red pepper flake in my eye and kept trying to get it out. I was unsuccessful because it was a popped blood vessel.

1. Getting altitude sickness in San Miguel de Allende, MX

I, deadass, did not realize we were IN IN the mountains. And 1,000 feet higher up than Denver. Very grateful for an IV bag that brought me back to life (though brief as I accidentally drank sink water and you can guess the rest).

1. 4 trips to MX and 7 to Central America

Only 3 of those trips were planned in advance and I’m so glad I did all of them! 2025 was a big travel year for me: England, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Mexico, Honduras, Mexico, Mexico. And I especially fell in love with Tulum <3

1. Psychedelic breathwork

And what do you know! I have a whole ass post about this. But I don’t think I mentioned that I had visuals in that post. But I did. Actually I wrote about it again here. Which was so special to experience 100% sober.

1. Falling in love with driving ATVs/quads

I can’t even explain it. But it’s so freeing. And unsafe.

1. Building at app

You’ll just have to wait to hear about this one!

1. Knocking down walls

So much I can’t fully share on this, but, the studio had some walls that weren’t fully connected that I just had to get rid of and didn’t want to hire anyone to do. Thank you to my friend for her foot power! It v symbolic.

1. THE STUDIO!

A studio for the healing arts, in the heart of Germantown in Nashville, TN. Can’t wait to open. You can read some about it here.

Thank you 2025 - for reminding me to allow things to unfold. Because, usually, it’s better than you could have planned or imagined.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

W I T H I N

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

That they are alive and scanning the world for someone, a portal, to grab them down and bring them to life.

I heard this articulated beautifully in an episode of The Telepathy Tapes, where they went in depth on the theory that ideas have a consciousness — that they are looking for a portal into the world. And that if one person passes on it, it will portal in through someone else.

Ideas want to be born. Traveling through the collective conscious until someone has the time and energy to birth them.

An Idea That Portal’d Elsewhere

On the podcast, they shared Liz Gilbert’s story: She was had the idea to write a novel about the rainforest, a road project through the rainforest that kept failing, and a woman that was sent there to solve the problem. It came to her like a flash, but she didn’t begin writing. She got pulled elsewhere and wrote a different story.

A year or so later, she was at an event where she met author Ann Patchett. After meeting, they kept in touch and Liz decided to return to the rainforest story and to write it — but she just couldn’t pull it into form — it had left her.

Ann and Liz got together again and Ann shared that she had begun writing a story and Liz shared that she had lost a story she was going to write. Ann asked Liz to share the framework of it, curious to know where her friend may have gotten stuck. Liz then shared about the rainforest, a road project through the rainforest that kept failing, and a woman that was sent there to solve the problem. Ann’s jaw was on the floor, absolutely gobsmacked. She shared that she had just written the first 100 pages of her novel about the rainforest, a road project through the rainforest that kept failing, and a woman that was sent there to solve the problem. They have since decided that the idea was fostered by Liz and then found it’s forever home in Ann, the night the two of them met.

The idea, the living and conscious idea, changed hosts.

When ideas choose multiple portals at once

Late this summer, I was struck with a very specific idea:

A warm and grounding studio where people could come for breathwork, kundalini, nervous system classes, tea circles, and sound healing. With contrast therapy — hot and cold — as a central thread. With creative offerings, art shows, and community. With a digital experience for those who aren’t local, so the transformation isn’t limited by geography.

It hit like a meteorite that I just couldn’t ignore. And just as I voiced it out loud, the space was cleared for the idea to land, to be born.

As I started building it, quietly and behind the scenes, I began finding studios with eerily similar concepts — one in California, one in Canada — all very recently born.

Not copycats, not competition — just multiple portals opening for the same frequency of idea. A collective evolution and upgrade in real time. Because when the world is ready for an idea, it doesn’t come through one person alone. It comes through many and all at once.

I’ll share more about my studio in the new year, as I’m hoping to open January 1st!

But for now, I’ll just say this:

When a vision won’t leave you alone — that’s not coincidence. That’s consciousness. That’s an idea choosing you. Will you choose it back?

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

W I T H I N

If you’re craving a deeper reset and connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

I found myself complaining that I needed an extra day on the weekend.
A day for rest.
A day to be social.
And a day to get things done.

And then I realized—oh, what the fuck. Why don’t I just take Mondays off forever? Why haven’t I done this yet?

The 40-hour work week, Monday through Friday, was created for a two-person household. A husband and a wife. The husband earning the money. The wife doing literally everything else — childcare, cooking, cleaning, emotional labor, life administration. It’s important to note that the 40-hour work week was, at one point, a win! And this is a win we all should be grateful for. It was the first step in creating balance.

It was absolutely not designed for single people.
And through a feminist lens, it was never built for women.

It was built in a way that perhaps requires reliance on a partner because it’s simply too much for one person to do everything and still be okay.

So I started taking Mondays off.

You’d think I’d be really good at honoring one full day of nothing. Of rest. But it’s actually quite difficult!

After working full-time at a treatment center while being in grad school full-time, while in an internship, while completing an additional licensure track — and doing all of this during a pandemic — I got very used to constantly going.

Slowing down has been crucial for my nervous system recovery, my body, and my mental health. I’ve joked that I still haven’t recovered from my time working in treatment.

But the truth is — I really haven’t.

I think that season changed me. It changed how I view success.
It feels like a bigger flex (for lack of a better phrase) to be able to financially support yourself and do less as opposed to being chronically busy.

Recently, I stumbled across a Substack post by about the concept of wu wei. Wu wei is a Taoist idea that loosely translates to effortless action or non-doing. It’s not laziness. It’s not disengagement. It’s acting in alignment rather than forcing, pushing, or striving. And alignment for me is an actual day of rest.

It struck me because I’ve felt this intuitive pull toward having one intentional nothing day per week. And apparently, that instinct isn’t new — it’s ancient. Wu wei is not about “just not doing anything” it’s about allowing and letting go. I need one day of that per week. With all of the things I’m working on and creating, I need a full day of letting go and allowing the timing of them to unfold.

I know I need decompression time for my nervous system. There are probably a lot of reasons for that: the type of work I do as a therapist, being an introvert, having a wrecked nervous system that I’ve been actively healing, and just my personality and lifestyle.

Slowing down is an art, but it’s also a discipline.

Because the urge to get up and plan and do is strong on a wu wei day.

And if I’m being honest, most of the time I can’t fully stop myself. I end up doing something creative for my business — writing on Substack, posting on social media, cleaning the house, doing an art project, organizing my vision for things I’m trying to bring to life.

But on the days I actually do wu wei the right way— when I let myself rest without productivity, without justification, without a “but” — my body always thanks me.

In fact, it clears the field for all the things I want to create, to land.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset or inner connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

I was staying in Topanga a few years ago—how I found Topanga is another story for another time. That trip felt liminal from the start. Topanga is the kind of place where time bends a little. After all, it is one of the only semi untouched psychedelic rock towns left in the US.

One afternoon, I stumbled upon the best tacos I’ve ever had in my life at La Chingonas taco truck. She makes this plant-based taco that I still don’t have language for—crispy, savory, grounding, otherworldly. I asked her when she’d be out again and she told me to follow her on Instagram for updates.

So I did.

Later that afternoon, she posted a quote from the To Be Magnetic Instagram account. I clicked it out of curiosity—and realized my therapy Instagram already followed them. That alone felt like a quiet nudge.

I went to their page, saw they had a podcast, and started scrolling. One episode stopped me immediately:

“The Love & Money Connection.”

I knew I had to listen.

That night, I sat in the outdoor sauna overlooking the canyon. Stars above me. The Airbnb I was staying at was classic Topanga—an outdoor bathroom, outdoor shower, outdoor kitchen, and a tiny little shack with just a bed inside. During the day I was cold plunging in the creek, then sauna, then hot tub at night to watch the stars.

The name of the Airbnb was The New Paradome— a play on the new paradigm: a quantum leap in the way society begins to see, think, and operate. Out of the old way of doing things. Into something new.

In that sauna, listening to that episode, something clicked. I became a TBM’er that night.

For months, I just listened to the podcast. Then eventually, I joined the program. At its core, it’s self-hypnosis and journaling—work with the subconscious mind. That’s the part that matters. That’s the part I trust. As a therapist, I don’t believe in manifestation as wishful thinking or bypassing reality. I believe in rewiring the subconscious, dissolving blocks, and letting aligned action follow.

That’s where the magic lives.

Since starting the work, I’ve manifested:

• a job

• the studio I’m currently working out of

• my dog

• an investor

• a free training and a trip to Mexico

• and so much more

Not because it’s a “magical” program — but because it’s grounded in how the nervous system, belief systems, and subconscious patterns work in conjunction with each other.

Recently, the founder of To Be Magnetic, Lacy Phillips, released her book — finally putting this work into physical form. She went on a short book tour with three stops, the final one in LA. One of my TBM friends in Nashville — who has since become a dear friend — and I decided last minute:

Fuck it. Let’s go.

I booked a little Airbnb in Topanga (of course), and we went to the live event at the Biltmore Hotel downtown. It was a magical afternoon.

The theme of the afternoon was clear:

It’s time to be fully yourself.

Lacy spoke about how the last year — starting in fall of 2024 — has been a period of stripping. Anywhere we’re holding onto identities, relationships, roles, or timelines that aren’t authentically ours, the universe has been removing them. Sometimes gently. Sometimes not.

She shared that 2026 will be faster — faster alignment, faster stripping, faster manifestation. And that by December of 2026, we’ll look back and realize how accurate this moment was.

The focus wasn’t hustle or “calling things in.” It was essence.

Essence is how you show up.
Essence is how you give back.
Essence is who you are when nothing is forced.

She spoke honestly about money — that for many of us, things may feel like they’re drying up until we fully step into our essence. That hit home for me. I’m not flooded with clients right now (seasonal ebbs and flows) — but I am building something meaningful. A studio. A community. Something different!

Purpose doesn’t always arrive as abundance first. Sometimes it arrives as clarity.

We were encouraged to make a “purpose pings” list — those quiet desires and curiosities that keep tapping us on the shoulder. The things we keep circling back to. Those are not random.

And maybe most importantly: our relationship with money is changing. Manifestation is becoming less about accumulation and more about beauty, purpose, and integrity. The money follows that.

At the live event, that idea of the new paradigm was spoken of —this time through Jenna Zoe, who also spoke that afternoon. She talked about how we’re collectively moving out of old systems of forcing, proving, and contorting ourselves to fit structures that were never designed for our essence. The new paradigm, she said, isn’t about doing more — it’s about being more yourself. Letting your natural way of operating lead. Trusting your design, your timing, your rhythm.

Hearing that — years after staying in an Airbnb literally called The New Paradome, listening to TBM in a sauna under the stars — felt almost comically on-the-nose. Like the universe had been leaving breadcrumbs long before I understood what they were pointing to.

I left the event feeling calm, excited, and aligned.

Not because everything is figured out — but because I trust the unfolding.

I’ve learned my process is to try, then surrender (sometime’s it’s more of a “fuck it I can’t with this anymore”), and then the thing (manifestation) - whatever it is - comes through.

I have so much more to say on this topic…

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and inner connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here

My relationship with cold water began long before I ever understood what it does for the nervous system… before I could explain trauma, before I knew anything about the parasympathetic drop, before sobriety, before hypnosis, and before I understood intuition at all.

It started in high school, in a dented metal tub in a small room inside the athletic center. A crude steel basin filled with ice for muscle recovery. I got in it because I was told it was good for recovering from a big game. I remember that they told me to “only stay in for about 30 seconds!!!” But within 30 seconds I felt good - I felt warm, happy, at peace. I didn’t want to get out!

The trainers started to freak out a bit and insisted that I get out. I did, begrudgingly. It was the first hint that cold water could silence the mental noise in a way nothing else could - and most importantly, bring peace to my body.

In college, cold water became something different: hangover recovery. I’d swim off-season in the freezing cold lakes simply because it made me feel like I could breathe again.

I didn’t have the language for explaining that I was regulating my nervous system - which had been wrecked from drugs and alcohol (and trauma). But, my body knew the medicine even when my mind didn’t.

And then I crash landed into sobriety. Sobriety stripped away all the numbing, all the buffers, all the distractions for an anxious mind and body. About 7-8 years into recovery, cold water became a lifeline. It quieted my mind in a way that only Xanax ever had. But instead of dulling my mind, it brought me into my body and at ease.

It’s still the clearest my mind ever feels.

Where my best ideas come from

Something unexpected happened over time: I began receiving insight in the water. Receiving clarity. What I wanted for my future, what creative endeavor I would take on next. What the next right step was. There’s something about the cold that rearranges the cluttered mind. It’s incredibly difficult to think or even worry when you’re in the cold water. So when insight strikes, it is unmistakably clear.

I’ve had premonitions in cold water—glimpses of things that later unfolded exactly as I saw them. Internal answers I’d been circling for weeks suddenly becoming obvious in a matter of seconds.

Cold water is where I hear myself without distortion.

Some people meditate, some people pray, some people run, some people talk their therapist’s ear off, I get in freezing water.

The clinical piece: why cold water opens the intuitive channel

As a therapist and hypnotherapist, I see it happen in real time:
Clients who cold plunge before hypnosis drop in faster, deeper, more effortlessly.

Why?

Because intuition, subconscious access, and inner vision require the parasympathetic nervous system. We cannot access those states in our sympathetic nervous system - fight or flight.

Most people spend their days in sympathetic activation - bracing, moving to the next thing, stressed, checking off the check-list.
Hypnosis works by shifting that state.

Cold water does it instantly. It activates the vagus nerve - as does deep breathing, humming, and rocking.

After the initial gasp reflex, the nervous system surrenders (if you allow it) (barring specific health conditions) surrenders and the subconscious becomes accessible. The guard comes down and the subconscious becomes accessible.

Some people describe being thoughtless and even euphoric. Some folks in recovery from addiction say it makes them feel the high they had been chronically chasing through drugs and alcohol.

This is why the pre-hypnosis cold plunges I’ve guided people through create dramatically different sessions (in my opinion). They’re tapped in more rapidly, the cold gets them there.

The practice

Cold water is not a trend for me. It’s been a thread through my entire life— long before I had the language or the training to understand what it was doing. I’ve always been a little water being. Which makes sense, I’m a triple water sign (cancer sun, scorpio moon, scorpio rising).

Now, I see it clearly:

Cold water is a portal. I don’t go into the water to force answers.
I go because it’s where I hear what I already know.

The clarity is always there.
Cold water just brings me back to it.

I love being able to cold plunge before a day full of session - it gets me regulated for my clients. I also love it at the end of a full day of sessions - brings me back to center and stops my body from buzzing.

And of course, sometimes I just want to vibe to some music and not think anything!

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

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Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
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A few months ago, I “cast my list” (as would say) for what I wanted in a dog. I wrote I wanted a “micro-spaniel” which doesn’t exist — not in any official way — but the vision was clear. I wrote that I wanted a dog that could be off leash trained, didn’t need a lot of exercise since my time is limited, could go to work with me, and was mostly potty trained. I also wrote that I wanted a dog to appear in my life without forcing it. I asked for ease. I asked for a dog that would simply show up at my door, or a friend who would drag me to an adoption place and refuse to take no for an answer. I also asked Snoop Dogg (my previous dog) to send me my next dog.

And two Saturdays ago, on November 8th, 2025, that’s exactly what happened.

My friend sent me an Instagram DM with a photo of a tiny black-and-white mystery creature from a rural Tennessee animal shelter. His little face was almost too much to handle — soulful eyes, floppy ears. I typed back, “I’ll take him!” with absolutely zero real intention of following through. I even texted her and suggested 11 AM the next day, but I went to sleep knowing that I wasn’t being serious and I didn’t have it in me. I still didn’t feel ready. I wasn’t sure if my heart had fully healed after losing my last dog two and a half years ago.

But the universe has a sense of humor, and so does my friend.

The next morning I woke up to a text that basically said:

“I’m coming to get you in two hours.”

I replied:

“Okay… but I’m chickening out.”

And she said:

“That’s okay! But I’m still coming to get you. We at least will see a dog and get to catch up together.”

So I got into the car — nervous, unprepared, not ready — and drove to the shelter. And the moment I saw him, something clicked. It wasn’t logic. It wasn’t planning. It was soul-level recognition. I knew we were meant to be together.

His name is Charlie.
And I didn’t choose him — he found me.

Looking back, the timing is almost too perfect to ignore. He arrived at the shelter on October 31st, the ancient spiritual portal of Samhain — the day when souls cross worlds and lost ones find their way home. I adopted him on 11/8, an 8-day in numerology — the number of infinity, karmic connection, and destiny.

There is something mystical about that. Something unmistakably divine.

Charlie is a reminder that manifestation isn’t about forcing, pushing, or hustling. It’s about clarity + surrender. It’s about trusting the unseen. It’s about releasing timelines. It’s about believing the right things will arrive in the right ways.

Sometimes the universe waits until you’re not gripping so tightly.
Sometimes the thing you think you aren’t ready for is the thing that saves you.

Sometimes love arrives when your guard is down and your heart is soft.

This is my reminder — and maybe yours too:

What is meant for you will not miss you.

Charlie is proof.

To new beginnings.
To softness returning.
To divine timing and destined companionship.
To the magic that happens when we open the door.

Welcome home, Charlie Estevez Welsh. (A nod to Charlie Sheen, of course)
We were always meant to find each other.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

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If you’re craving a deeper reset and inner connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

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Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
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I’ve always believed — both personally and clinically — that we can travel through time. Not with machines or wormholes, but with the portals inside us: hypnosis, EMDR, dreams, and the altered states we can enter in the cold plunge. (Let’s be honest… EMDR is a hypnotic state.)

And once you’ve done this work long enough, you stop seeing those states as “techniques” and start recognizing them for what they truly are: access points.

Time Travel as a Healing Technology

When the nervous system is regulated and the mind slips beneath conscious chatter, something incredible becomes possible: we can go back. We can return to younger versions of ourselves who were alone, scared, confused, or unsupported — and sit with them. Witness them. Hold them. Offer what they needed then, using the resources we have now.

I know this because I’ve done it. I’ve sat with little me in places I had forgotten I even survived. I’ve answered questions she never got to ask. I’ve let her know she wasn’t crazy, broken, dramatic, or too much. That single act, traveling back, changes something profound in the present. The nervous system registers it as a memory updated with new safety. EMDR calls this “adaptive resolution.” I call it time travel.

But We Can Also Travel Forward

This is the part that feels both obvious and radical: If we can travel backward, we can travel forward, too.

Future-self work has given me some of the deepest peace of my life. The me who has already survived this season. The me who already knows how things unfold. The me whose nervous system is spacious, whose circumstances are aligned, whose desires have landed and rooted and grown.

Connecting to her - whether through self-hypnosis, EMDR, breath, or the bizarre portal that opens in the cold plunge — has given me answers I couldn’t get from logic. Her energy is steady. She doesn’t rush me. She’s like, “Relax. You’re on time. You’re on path. Keep going.”

She’s the one who tells me what to hold, what to release, what to trust, and when to soften. And every time I meet her, I return with something I can use right now.

Dreams as Doorways

Sometimes these journeys keep processing long after the session ends. Dreams become meeting places — continuations of the work.
It feels like the subconscious doing its housekeeping: clearing old timelines, closing loops, rearranging memories, or giving me symbols that make sense later, usually when I’m brushing my teeth or in that hypnotic state you’re in while driving home.

The Mind as a Portal to the Collective

The more I do this work, the deeper I go into hypnosis, the colder the plunge, the more EMDR done, the more convinced I am that our minds can connect to something larger.

Call it:

• the collective consciousness

• intuition

• women’s knowing

• a mother’s instinct

• psychic resonance

• soul memory

• the field

• that connection that twins seem to have

Whatever language we choose, the experience is the same: there are things we know without learning, and places we access without physically traveling.

It’s the same sense a mother has when she wakes up seconds before her child needs her. It’s the way twins feel each other across states. It’s how your dog gets up and comes to the front door before you’ve even pulled into the driveway. It’s the moment you think of someone, and they text you two seconds later. It’s the way hypnosis softens the boundary between “here” and “there,” letting us hear guidance we didn’t realize we were already connected to.

Untapped Potential

The mind is one of the last frontiers we truly understand so little about. The more I work with clients — and with myself — the more I see how much untapped capacity we have for healing, for remembering, for sensing, for receiving.

Time isn’t rigid.
Memory isn’t fixed.
The psyche isn’t a closed system.

There are versions of us behind and before us. We are all of the versions all at once. There is wisdom that belongs to us that we haven’t lived yet. And there is a collective knowing that we are all plugged into, whether we call it intuition, source, the divine, or simply the mystery.

What I know for sure is this:
When you learn to travel through time — your own time — you begin to heal not just who you were, but who you are becoming.

And you begin to trust the path in front of you with a softness that feels like relief.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within 🪶

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If you’re craving a deeper reset and inner connection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
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Lately, I’ve been noticing how much my rituals anchor me through the week. And while it requires discipline, it has been so rewarding. I started to stack more into my mornings and evening in an effort to decrease cortisol and the effects it has had on my body. My work requires to much presence that I know, to do my job well, I have to take care of the vessel in which the presence flows through.

Morning Rituals

During the work week, my mornings are about orienting myself toward intention rather than urgency. I wake up and do my Spanish lesson on Duolingo — just enough to wake up my brain and keep learning something new. Being able to speak the language of my father and siblings is so very important to me. Then I check in with my Oura Ring and Natural Cycles, and do my daily Alinea investing lesson. Then I will read a few pages just for a gentle return to planet earth after a good nights sleep. All of this before a quick breakfast (which I usually have in bed).

I brush my teeth, do skincare, and write my morning pages. Next is my short Kundalini practice through Benshen. Then I make my bed and get dressed for the day.

If there’s extra space, I’ll do a cold plunge and sauna session—it’s the best nervous system reset. When I don’t, I save it for after work. These mornings aren’t about productivity; they’re about presence. They remind me I’m steering the day, not reacting to it.

Evening Rituals

During the work week, evenings are for softening and resetting. After work, I like to walk—usually with a podcast playing.

When I get home, I shower, do skincare, and turn down my bed. I make dinner, sometimes (a lot of times) I watch TV (because balance), then pack my bag and lay out clothes for tomorrow. If there’s time, I’ll read or journal before sleep.

As-Needed Rituals

When I feel triggered or overwhelmed, I go straight to my TBM Deep Imaginings — my version of self-hypnosis. It helps me meet the feeling instead of avoiding it. Afterwards, I take an epsom salt bath to wash off whatever doesn’t belong to me.

These rituals aren’t rules—they’re anchors. They remind me that healing isn’t a destination. It’s the daily choice to return to myself again and again.

Micro-Rituals To Try

Not every moment allows for a full routine. Sometimes, you just need a two-minute reset. These are my favorite micro-rituals — the things I do when I need to find my center fast:

1. Renegotiating to find calm in my body.
I pause, scan my body, and locate one small area that feels calm — a hand, a spot behind my heart, the curve of my foot. I imagine that calm expanding, spreading through every cell until my whole body starts to match that frequency.

2. Zooming out.
When I get tunnel vision around a problem, I ask: What’s the greater perspective or timeline here? This reminds me that most things that feel urgent are just temporary.

3. Steps 1, 2, 3.
Borrowed from the 12 Steps, this is my shorthand for surrender:
(1) Am I powerless over this thing?
(2) Do I trust something greater exists?
(3) Can I surrender this to that greater thing?
Three questions, one exhale.

Current Listens

Diary of a CEO, The Daily, Expanded, Telepathy Tapes, and sometimes Initiations.

Current Reads

How to Manifest, The Power of the Subconscious Mind, The Signs, and the Substacks I follow—little portals of inspiration that meet me where I am.

Until next time xx

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within.

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and inner reconnection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

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Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
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Most weeks, when I meet my dear friend at Switchyards, I leave buzzing with inspiration — ready to build, to create, to bring my visions to life. But this week, I just wanted to go home and rest. I have so much I could be doing, but no urgent deadlines. Normally, self-motivation is my strong suit — yet recently, in the spaces where creativity usually sparks, I’ve only wanted to snuggle up on the couch. I haven’t been walking as much after work. I haven’t felt excited to cold plunge. I’ve just… wanted to relax.

And a part of me wondered: Am I getting lazy?

The Meaning
But when I zoom out, I remember that for most of human history, this was the season we slowed down on purpose. For thousands of years of agricultural life, autumn was the time when the harvest was gathered and celebrated — and then, everything began to rest. Communities drew inward. Candles replaced sunlight. The pace softened.

The natural world models this change without questioning it:

• Trees release what is no longer needed

• Animals burrow and hibernate

• The earth grows quiet beneath the frost

There is nothing “lazy” about conserving energy.
It is essential for survival, renewal, and future growth.

Somewhere along the way, we lost that intelligence — we internalized urgency instead. We believed rest must be earned. That pauses mean weakness. That if we aren’t producing, we aren’t valuable.

But rest is not inaction — rest is action.
As David Ghiyam says, it’s clearing the vessel so we can hold more.

This summer was one of the fullest seasons of my life and this year I traveled internationally eight times (!!), I built and stretched and tried new things, I said yes to expansion in so many forms. It makes sense that my body is now whispering:

Integrate. Recalibrate. Let the dust settle.

I trust my body to know the difference between numbing/ procrastination and true, creative-cycle rest.
Right now, I’m listening.

Embodied Practices
—the rituals helping me slow down and soften—

1• Morning Pages
Slow, gentle wake-ups. Stream-of-consciousness journaling. Processing sleep, feelings, ideas — without cortisol jolting me into the day.

2• Reading Under a Weighted Blanket
For the moments when my mind is still buzzing but my body wants stillness. The grounding pressure feels like containment and care after long days of holding space.

3• Sauna Time
Heat that drops me into my body. Warming to my bones. Sometimes I don’t even want the cold plunge — and that’s okay. Just warmth, just presence.

In Closing
This is a season where nature itself pulls back.
We are nature — not separate from it.

So what if the most aligned question right now isn’t:
How can I produce more? But instead: What does my body need in order to sustain all I’m building? Do I have immediate deadlines Or is this a moment to exhale? Can I trust that stillness is part of momentum?

I am granting you permission to rest — deeply and unapologetically.

The trees are doing it.
The animals are doing it.
You can too.

🪶 Writings from Within is a weekly reflection on rhythm, healing, and remembering that the answers are within.

Subscribe now

If you’re craving a deeper reset and inner reconnection:

• Join me in Tulum — February 25–March 1, 2026
Temazcal, breathwork, hypnosis, cenotes, and the most peaceful expansion
→ Tap here to sign up for the retreat

• Work with me 1:1 in Nashville (or online if you’re in TN)
Therapy sessions and somatic-nervous system support
→ Book a session here

• Receive my monthly free “Within/Without” newsletter
Curated rituals, reflections, and tools for a more aligned life
→ Sign up here