As an artist, I have a confession: for the last 20 years, I have been completely obsessed with photographing shadows. I've captured them everywhere - cast by laundry on the line, furniture, dogs, trees, people, clouds. I take the photos back to my studio and paint them. I love abstract painting, but whenever I try to paint pure realism, I feel incredibly frustrated. It feels like a constraint, just recording what is already there instead of interpreting it. But shadows? Shadows are the perfect bridge. They are anchored in something real, but they warp, stretch, and flatten into beautiful, unpredictable abstract shapes. They strip away the messy, loud details of life and leave behind pure form, mood, and mystery. It's the same trap I see so many of us fall into with our next phase of life. When we think about picking up a dream we left behind, we get stuck in "realism mode": Is it too late? Do I have the time? What if it isn't perfect? We try to replicate a path that might not fit who we are today. But your second chapter doesn't have to be a rigid, perfect copy of your past. Sometimes the most freeing thing you can do is look at the "shadow" of that old dream - the essence of it, the core desire, the feeling it gave you - and give yourself total creative freedom to reinvent it. This is exactly why I started this business, and it's what I'm doing right now. For a long time, I kept my own art quiet, showing only at selected galleries and staying off social media. But I knew it was time to live what I teach. My new website is being designed as we speak, and I'm right here in the trenches with you, beginning my very own second chapter. To the special women in this community: What is a dream you’ve left behind that feels a little too intimidating or rigid to pick up right now? How can we soften the edges and find a new, freer way to bring it to life? Drop your thoughts below—let’s talk about rewriting our rules. 👇

You don't have to feel motivated to move today. You just have to move like you're already becoming her. Here's the thing about creating a new version of yourself — it's not only a mindset shift, it's in the body too. Every time you sit up straighter, take the stairs, or go for a walk you didn't feel like taking, you're not "exercising." You're rehearsing who you're becoming. So here's one step, not twelve: today, take a 10-minute walk, and while you do it, walk like the woman you're creating — not the one you've been. Shoulders back. Unhurried. Curious about her own life again. That's it. One walk. One small, honest rehearsal of the person you're building. I started Own Your Second Chapter because I know what it's like to feel like your body and your dreams have been sitting in storage for years. Turns out you don't need permission to take them back out. You just need one small step, done on purpose and make sure you smile! Who are you rehearsing to become this week? I'll start: I'm rehearsing not overthinking everything — being calm, remembering to "smile", being in the moment, instead of living three steps ahead of myself.

It just knows you’ve stopped. That's the quiet cost of leaving a dream behind — not failure, just... pause. And pause, left long enough, starts to feel permanent. But here's what the research on purpose keeps showing: people who are actively moving toward something that matters to them handle stress better, sleep better, and stay sharper longer. Not motivation-poster stuff — actual physiology. So maybe the question isn't "is it too late." It's: what have you been calling "someday" that's actually just waiting on you? Drop it in the comments — one word or one sentence, whatever it is. I'll go first: mine was curating everyone else's art for 15 years and letting my own painting sit untouched.

Hi everyone, I just lit the fire for the first time this year, about twenty minutes ago. It’s now cold enough outside — the kind of day that pulls you inward instead of outward. I’ve just been sitting with it, watching the flames instead of rushing into the day. There’s something about fire that forces a different pace. You can’t hurry it. You just watch it move. It dances, it spikes, it forms its own rhythm, it calms you right down. A few minutes by the fire, no phone, just watching and asking myself one question: “What do I actually want right now?” Not what I should want. Not what’s next on the list. What do I want?? It sounds small. But most of us haven’t stopped long enough to ask it properly in years. We’re too busy pushing, doing, chasing the next thing — and the wanting gets buried under all of it. So if you’re looking for a place to start: find your version of the fire. A window, a walk, listening to music, a cup of tea before the house wakes up. Five minutes where nothing is required of you except to watch and ask. That’s where the dream you left behind starts to surface again — not from pushing harder, but from finally being still enough to hear it. “That question — what do I actually want — is exactly where I help women start.”

Hi everyone! Welcome to the group. I built this space to help you achieve the dreams you left behind. Let's break the ice, Drop a comment below and tell me: 1 Your name 2 What you do (or what brought you here) 3 Your #1 current goal/dream So happy to have you here! Let's get to work.