For a long time, I believed growth meant control. Planning more. Fixing faster. Holding everything together tighter. But nothing actually shifted until I gave up the war. The moment I relaxed into what I could not control—people, timelines, outcomes, emotions—something inside me softened. And that softness created space. Less gripping. Less forcing. Less proving. More listening. More allowing. More trust in what was already moving beneath the surface. Growth doesn’t always look like effort. Sometimes it looks like surrender. Like letting life breathe through you instead of bracing against it. When I released control, I didn’t lose direction. I found alignment. And from alignment… growth followed naturally. Reflection • Where are you still trying to control the outcome? • What might shift if you allowed things to be exactly as they are today? You don’t have to fix this moment to grow from it. Sometimes growth begins the instant you stop resisting it. -Laina