We made it to Day 30, so let’s go out on a lighter note: No to leftovers. Yes, the food if you want… but honestly, I’m talking about everything else we keep reheating out of habit. Old expectations. Old roles. Old patterns that don’t fit who we are anymore- but we keep them around because they’re “easy” or “familiar.” This month taught me that leftovers get heavy. And most of the time, we’re carrying things that expired a long time ago. So here’s where I’m landing: If it doesn’t feel fresh, aligned, or meant for the version of me I’m becoming…I’m not packing it up and taking it into the next chapter. Some things are better left on the counter and walked away from.🫶

There’s a version of life you get used to when you’ve been running on autopilot for too long. You wake up, do the work, meet the expectations, juggle the responsibilities… and somewhere along the way, you stop feeling like a participant in your own life. You’re just maintaining it. I didn’t realize how long I’d been in that mode until I stepped out of my role. When the noise finally cleared, I could hear the truth I’d been avoiding: I wasn’t choosing my days-I was repeating them. Breaking that pattern isn’t dramatic. It’s small, conscious shifts. It’s asking yourself what you actually want instead of what you’ve always done. It’s noticing the moment you go numb and choosing not to stay there. This week, I interrupted the routine on purpose. I paid attention. And for the first time in a long time, life didn’t feel like something happening to me... it felt like something I was actively creating.

There’s a quiet cost to saying yes when you don’t mean it. You avoid the conflict in the moment… and then you end up carrying all the weight later. The extra task. The extra resentment. The extra pressure to be the “easy one.” I’ve done that more times than I can count...agreed just to keep things smooth, even when the yes felt heavy the second it left my mouth. But here’s what I’m learning: Avoiding conflict isn’t the same as creating peace. Most of the time, it’s just postponing your own burnout. So this week I chose honesty over comfort. A clean no. No explanation. No overthinking. And the world didn’t fall apart. It just got a lot quieter inside my head.

Happy Thanksgiving!! The holidays have a way of convincing us to override our own limits- eat more, do more, host more, help more, absorb more. It’s tradition, right? But tradition shouldn’t require self-abandonment. This year, I’m giving myself permission to enjoy the season without overdoing it. No to the third dessert “just because.” No to taking on the emotional weight of the room. No to stretching myself thin for the sake of keeping things festive. A holiday doesn’t have to cost you your energy to be meaningful. And choosing yourself isn’t being ungrateful...It’sbeing real🫶

Hustle culture will have you believing that your worth is measured in output. How fast you respond. How much you produce. How much you carry without breaking. And if you’ve ever worked in a high-pressure industry, you know exactly how easy it is to confuse exhaustion with achievement. I did it for years. Long days. Constant availability. Running at a level that wasn’t sustainable.... but was always expected. Here’s the truth I had to face: If you have to burn yourself down to be “valuable,” the system is broken… not you. So this month, I slowed down on purpose. Not because I had time- but because I needed a different kind of life than the one hustle culture rewards....A life where rest isn’t earned through burnout....A life where peace isn’t something you get after the grind- it’s something you build into the day. If you’re tired of proving yourself through exhaustion, you’re not alone. And you’re not required to stay loyal to a pace that’s destroying you.