If you’re really, truly, fully honest with yourself, do you feel fulfilled? Happy with the life you’re living right now?

 

Do you have the time and the ability to be present for the things, the people, the relationships that matter most to you?

 

Or do things feel… hollow? Exhausting? Simultaneously lacking and overwhelming? Devoid of color, flavor, and life itself?

 

There is an addictive quality to our modern work culture. We get high on our ability to be productive, move things forward, create, achieve, and succeed.

 

But that high only lasts a moment, and then we’re off again, searching for the next goal, the next hit, endlessly doing.

 

We worry if we need or want to take a break, scared we will disappoint someone. We fear we’ll lose momentum, someone else will get there first, or we’ll fail altogether. We’re scared we’ll appear irresponsible, incompetent, or lazy.

 

So, we keep moving, scurrying, kicking ass. We can’t stop. Can’t lose. Can’t give up.

 

But we also can’t rest. Can’t feel. Can’t connect to what’s truly important, or even do anything about it if we did.

 

Beyond the numbness and separation from self that is inevitable when we work and live like this, our bodies can start talking loudly, shouting sometimes, too. Our bodies can break down. Mystery illness can set in.

 

What do we know to do? Double down. Commit more. Work harder. Just push through.

 

We think if we just strengthen our resolve and do all the things we’re supposed to do, then we’ll be able to resume being our former selves. It’s a temporary inconvenience that we can work through on our own.

 

Ah, but this is not the real answer.

 

This is patriarchy talking. This is toxic work culture in action. This is Good Girl conditioning in full force.

 

The way forward for us comes from a place we might be afraid of. A place we may have been avoiding for years.

 

When you keep bumping up against deep dissatisfaction,

and you live with constant, unfulfilled longing,

and your body is screaming at you,

and you know deep in your cells that you don’t want to push like you used to,

and you can’t rally yourself, even if you want to –

which you don’t…

 

You are bumping up against a sacred, liminal, holy space inside of yourself, and inside of your life.

 

At this threshold you have a choice.

 

You can continue like you’ve always done. You can push, hustle, and rally. You know how that turns out and knowing something can feel sort of reassuring when you can’t see what’s next and you can’t figure out what to do.

 

Or you can do something different. Something crazy even.

 

You can stop. Go inside. Feel. Face the truths you’ve been avoiding. Feel more and discover the wisdom that lives inside of you.

 

The non-rational, deep in your bones, wise woman knowledge that you need to find your way out of desperate circumstances doesn’t live in the hustle, avoid, disconnect culture you’ve been operating in.

 

It lives inside of you.

 

I have yet to meet a woman who has crossed this threshold, tapped into her inner wisdom, and then regretted following it and choosing herself.

 

Your way, your path, your self-honoring course out of the toxic, damaging, unsustainable, self-erasing culture we all live in – it lives inside of you. It’s waiting for when you’re ready to listen and heed its counsel.

 

It takes unyielding self-love to defy the expectations of a society that believes you should deny who you are for the sake of productivity, approval, and success.

 

That’s why it takes courage to commit to discovering your inner wisdom. It takes audacity to follow it. It takes outrageous self-trust to live into it.

 

The choice is yours. Now may not be the time to choose yourself in this way. Or maybe it is. Only you will know.

 

But when it is time for you to step off the well-worn path of toxic living and working that denies who you are…

 

When you are ready to choose yourself…

 

When you decide to step beyond what you know into the unknown…

 

That’s when fresh possibilities can finally open to you. That’s when a greater potential becomes available.

 

Not before.

 

Only when you commit to finally listening to, honoring, and living the life that is meant for you. That’s when the more, the better, the greater opens to you.

 

And not until.