Episode 24

full
Published on:

23rd Mar 2026

Spring Energy – Not Everything Needs to Bloom Yet

Midlife + Human Design Workshop on Substack

In this episode, Erica explores the energy of cycles and how they shape the way we move through our lives, especially in seasons of growth. Through the energies of spring, Erica talks about the tension between feeling ready to burst out and grow quickly, and the reality that, just like in nature, slow growth makes for a stronger plant. She shares how easy it is to want to skip the planning, rush into action, or abandon something when it doesn’t unfold as quickly as we would like.

Many women in midlife feel this pressure to figure things out or move faster than their energy actually allows. This episode is an invitation to tune into the energies we’re experiencing this spring.

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Transcript
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Welcome to the Unfolding Podcast, a space where we explore what

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it looks like to really trust yourself,

say no without guilt, and live your

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life like it actually belongs to you.

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I am Erica Voell.

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I'm a Decision Mentor and Inner-Trust

Guide, and I help women and midlife

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trust how they're uniquely designed to

make decisions, reclaim their authority,

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and understand their unique strengths.

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Using human design as a lens, we clear

the noise of conditioning and patterns

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so that their no feels powerful and

their yes feels true, and they can

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move forward without self-doubt,

guilt, and pressure to prove anything.

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On this show, we have honest conversations

about self-trust, boundaries, energy,

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identity, especially for women in

midlife who are done living by the

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shoulds and second guessing themselves.

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If you've taken every personality test,

followed the recommended path, and still

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can't shake that feeling that you've

been spending your whole life trying to

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fit in when what you really wanted was

to belong, you are in the right place.

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You'll hear stories, insights,

and tools rooted in human

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design, coaching, and real life.

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Not to tell you what to do, like

another self-help book, but to

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help you really hear yourself.

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So you can stop overthinking

and start making decisions that

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feel grounded, clear, and true.

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I have talked about cycles before,

but recently I've been realizing

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how much they affect our lives.

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I learned about the seasonal

energies in my coach training,

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and I've been learning more deeply

about the cycles in human design.

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And we all feel these cycles.

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Some of them notice.

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The more than others.

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Women are very familiar

with the monthly cycle.

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'cause sometimes it aligns with the energy

of the moon and sometimes it doesn't.

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We know what it feels like to have high

energy for a few days and then other

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days to not wanna be around anybody.

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And having a really low tolerance.

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When we tend to notice these cycles the

most is when we're changing the seasons.

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But we're told not to talk about the

weather because that's small talk.

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But especially at this time of

year in the Midwest in the US.

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The weather really affects us.

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On Sunday, this past week, it was 65

degrees at 9:00 AM and by 5:00 PM it

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was snowing and it was 35 degrees.

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The weather affects us whether

we want to admit it or not.

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And the background energies

of the cosmos do too.

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Even the most skeptical people who don't

believe in the planets having any effect

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on us and don't believe in astrology,

do in some way celebrate the turning of

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the cycle every year on their birthday.

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And we can't help but notice that

the energy right now in spring, at

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least for some of us, is a little

bit different than it is in winter

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or even in summer and in fall.

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And spring, glorious Spring, at least

in Kansas, seems to be on its way.

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It feels like it's been here for a few

weeks now until we had a snowstorm.

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Spring is the time when we

officially have longer days than

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nights, and green starts to pop up.

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Sweet crocuses and

daffodils start to emerge.

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Or if you're like us, everything

happened about three weeks early.

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We are ready to start shedding our

heavy coats and sweaters for spring.

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We may even have feel an urge to go

frolicking through the fields, or at least

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dream of frolicking through the fields.

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We are ready for spring.

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We are ready to go, but

sorry to burst your bubble.

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Slow down, doggy.

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We're not ready to burst out yet.

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We may be ready, but the energy

of spring is a lot slower.

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A full grown oak tree does not

burst out of an acorn right away.

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It has to grow some roots and

then to push through the soil.

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What we don't see are the roots

that have grown into the soil before

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the seedling starts to emerge.

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That happens with all plants.

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The seedlings come up small and delicate.

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And you cannot hang a bird

feeder on that first stem with

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those tiny little baby leaves.

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The plant needs time to grow

both up and down into the soil.

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I recently started seeds in my

basement, and the first few days it

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looked like nothing was happening.

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I was watering.

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I was tending to them.

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But I knew that there was a stirring and

a growth happening beneath the surface.

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And then after about four days,

the first little tiny plant started

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to emerge, like teeny tiny bits of

green coming through that dark soil.

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I did a little dance of joy being

clapping because they were so cute.

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They were these tiny little green leaves.

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They have worked so hard to emerge through

the soil, but I know that these plants

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need to be nurtured before they can go

into the garden and face the squirrels

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and the chipmunks and our rowdy dog.

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We are all like these seeds in spring.

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We are ready to burst, and yet

growing slowly and being patient

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for the things to come are essential

whenever we're starting something new.

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As Ayana Madrone on Root and Ritual on

Substack writes, "We are so conditioned

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by modern culture to worship the bloom

that we deeply resent the waiting.

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We think if we are not taking

massive, explosive action, we

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are failing or falling behind."

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End quote.

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Because if we burst out too fast.

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Because it's warm and sunny, we

will end up like the daffodils

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in my garden this year.

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They came up early and they

bloomed, and then we had a March

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snowstorm and a really hard freeze

for a few days and it killed them.

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They are so sad lying in

my garden, wilted and dead.

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We all go through these cycles in our

lives, and while we may want to rush

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through one to get it to the next,

we need to go all the way through.

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Those daffodils had been fooled

by the warm weather and the

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warmer late winter we had.

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How often are we like those daffodils?

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We think if I can just get through

this rough period, then I can

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get to the really good stuff.

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We all do it.

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I do it, and at times it makes

the current season feel longer.

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My 12-year-old can't wait to

get to middle school and to move

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upstairs to the bigger bedroom

that's actually currently my office.

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I made this promise to her years before

I had my business, and so I'm stuck.

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Ah, yeah.

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When we are teenagers, we want to be

adults, and as women in midlife, we

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want to move past the uncomfortable

symptoms of perimenopause.

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But just like the caterpillar in

the chrysalis, we can't rush things.

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Each phase and each season of our

lives gives us wisdom and insight

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to help inform the next phase.

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I am just as guilty of wanting to move

through the uncomfortable phases quickly.

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I mean, let's just get to the

good stuff, the fun stuff, right?

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I wanna get through the growing pains of

my business to get to the steady part,

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but just like the seeds in my basement.

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Things need time.

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The growth needs to be steady.

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In Traditional Chinese Medicine's.

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Five elements.

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Theory.

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The season of spring

is represented by wood.

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The element of each season tells us a lot

about how that season wants us to move.

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Spring is about planning.

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We like to think we do all of our

planning for the year in January, but

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winter is for rooting in stillness and

rest to prepare us for the growth of

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spring, when we really need to plan

is before we embark on something new.

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Spring is also the season of visioning,

courage, rising, and launching.

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Our planning helps us get closer to

our vision, but often we make a quick

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plan and are ready to launch before

we've done all of the groundwork

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that sets us up for success.

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We want action before we

have fully laid out our plan.

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How often have we laid out a plan

and we're like, okay, I'm ready.

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Let's get started, and then we've met a

snag and we had to go back to square one.

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I mean, it's completely natural.

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But if we had taken a little bit more

time to plan things out, maybe we

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would've only needed to go back to

square three instead of square one.

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And that's where wood's defining

quality of flexibility comes in.

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When it meets an obstacle,

it doesn't stop growing.

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Nope.

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It grows around that obstacle.

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The message for us for spring

is to be flexible and to

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bring our plans to fruition.

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It's about holding ourselves to the

plan because it's easy for us to get

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distracted by the next shiny object that

takes us away from our original plans.

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I've noticed that if I am very rigid and

structured about my plans, then I feel

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really unsettled when there's an obstacle.

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I can either choose to get angry

and stop, or I can reassess

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and come back to my vision.

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Notice the challenges and where are

the opportunities to be flexible and to

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see where a different path is actually

maybe a different one or a better one,

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or maybe that obstacle is an invitation.

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'Cause these snags can be opportunities

for real growth and for us to see where

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our original plan was not laid out well.

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Sometimes we're the creator of our

own obstacles with our inner critic

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telling us all the stories that we tell

ourselves about how we can't do something.

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Maybe from past experiences or even fear.

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We don't even see these

obstacles sometimes.

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That can be that gift to grow and learn

and to gain strength within ourself.

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'Cause as they say, what doesn't

kill you makes you stronger.

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Spring is not all about growth

because it also needs balance.

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A plant can't grow taller without also

digging into the earth for grounding.

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In the five elements theory, the

elements really support each other.

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Wood sits between the water.

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That's the element of winter

and the fire of summer.

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Water nourishes wood and it helps

it grow and wood feeds the fire.

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And just as winter's stillness and

rest helps prepare us for spring's

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growth, we may still need to draw on

some of that quieter water energy to

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keep ourselves grounded as we emerge

and grow into our springtime self.

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Meeting resistance to our plans and

taking action can actually be an

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invitation for us to slow down, to

reassess and to tap into some of the

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practices that carried us through winter.

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As we're planning and visioning, we're

also creating structures for ourselves,

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deciding what's important to us.

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We may start setting new boundaries

around our time and our resources,

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and as a parent, I can tell you spring

seems to be when everything comes

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alive, there's lots of activities at

school, and Girl Scouts and sports.

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And spring sports are starting, and

we need to prioritize what we are

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doing and what we are committing to.

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'cause I have learned the hard way that

I can commit to a sleepover with my kid,

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but that's not a good thing when I know

that we have a Saturday softball practice.

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We also need to keep our calendar up to

date to know who is going where because

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by setting some structure and planning

for the week, our lives flow a whole

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lot more smoothly, and our family's

schedule is not living up in my head

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or on my phone, it's on a

wall and everyone can see it.

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And also happening around the spring.

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Equinox is the ending

of the eclipse season.

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We just went through.

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It's the ending of those

energies of that eclipse season.

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And I don't know about you,

but it's been a real doozy.

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I am so looking forward to some less

intense energy until we have our next

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eclipse season in mid and late August.

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Although honestly, I don't know

how much crazier it can feel than

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the last six weeks have felt from

shifting from the year of the

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snake to the year of the horse.

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I think a lot of people in February were

like, it's the year of the horse, and they

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were ready to burst outta the gates after

the lunar New year and they were met with

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some reminders to slow the heck down.

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'cause the year of the horse is a

marathon and not a sprint, and we

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have to be in it for the long haul.

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There's a meme I saw recently on

Instagram that just was like so perfect.

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It's like the horses come out of

the gates, they are ready to go,

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and one horse knocks the jockey off

and then like runs in front of the

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other horses and it's like, oh, okay.

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Reminder.

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It's not all smooth on this journey.

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The element related to

this year's horse is fire.

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And we need to keep ourselves resourced

because seriously, fire can burn us out.

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So that's why I say it's a

marathon and not a sprint.

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But fire needs fuel and

where does fire get fuel?

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It gets its fuel and energy from

wood and air to keep it going.

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And what controls fire is water.

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So when you are feeling like you

are just bursting out of the gates

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and you are running and you're

like, yeah, yeah, yeah, great.

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Oh yeah.

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I need some water to calm me

down and not be out of control.

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I know there are other energies we're

also experiencing in the cosmos right now.

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It feels like craziness.

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Honestly.

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I think a lot of us are ready

for a little bit more steadiness.

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Mercury is coming out of retrograde

for the first of the three times

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that it will retrograde in 2026.

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I have started to see Mercury retrogrades

as a reason for me to personally notice

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what I'm saying and be a lot more

intentional behind what I'm saying, not

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just to fill the space, because if I'm

talking to fill the space or just talking

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to talk, it's a lot more likely that my

words will not land in the same way that

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I'd hoped, which is really classic Mercury

retrograde, problem with miscommunication.

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That's what we always hear about.

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And all of this talk of emerging

slowly and being intentional about new

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beginnings feels particularly timely

right now, and there's a reason for that.

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All of this is happening beautifully

with Jupiter in the background.

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In human design.

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I've talked about this before.

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There are 64 gates that

are part of the the wheel.

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Like in the zodiac, there are 12 signs.

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Well, in the human design, which

is based on the Chinese i-Ching, it

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divides the year up into 64 gates.

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And just as the planets move

into a sign in the zodiac,

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they also move into the gates.

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So.

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The planets and the earth move

in and out of these gates as

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they move around the cosmos.

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And on March 16th, Jupiter moved into

the gate of beginnings for the second

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time this year, and we're in this energy

for the next two months until mid-May.

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And if you know human

design, this is Gate 53.

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Jupiter is the planet of

expansion, amplification,

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wisdom, and collective growth.

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And whenever Jupiter moves, it

magnifies the lesson of that gate.

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So when Jupiter moves into Gate 53, it's

expanding the frequency of new beginnings.

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And this can feel like pressure

for us to start something new.

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New cycles, new momentum, new growth arcs.

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There are two frequencies

that happen with each gate.

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The low frequency for this one

is that it can look like we're

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starting too many things all at once.

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Jumping into commitments

before we're emotionally ready.

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Or that we're restless for something

new, hungry for that new, new

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feeling that has no clear direction.

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This shadow side of this, or the

low frequency side of it is called

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immaturity, but we're not talking

about immaturity in the terms of age.

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This is about initiating before

something has roots that have grown.

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What's really interesting is that

the Gate 53 sits in the root center.

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And we were just talking

about roots growing down to

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ground us before we grow up.

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The high frequency of this gate is

where it gets really, really powerful.

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Jupiter expands that consciousness

of new beginnings, that sustainable

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growth cycles and our long-term vision.

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It's not a random starting,

it's aligned initiation.

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This transit is asking us what cycle

are we ready to begin, and where are we

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being called into sustainable expansion?

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What wants to grow?

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Not necessarily what just wants to launch.

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So as we move into this new energy

of spring, I want to invite you

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to merge slowly and intentionally.

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Maybe plan what your

spring will look like.

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Keeping in mind the vision that you

have for your life and the season,

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what is one thing to move you

closer to that vision that you have?

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Not this long laundry list of things

that you need to do like spring

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cleaning, which is probably going to

create more obstacles and leave you

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feeling like you are hanging that heavy

bird feeder on that tiny young stem.

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Yes, I have planted the

seeds in my basement.

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Those young sweet plants.

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But I do not plan my garden layout until I

know how many seedlings are gonna survive

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so that the plants will then be strong

enough to be in the garden to deal with

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our rowdy dog that likes to get in there.

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Those seeds and those plants,

they need nurturing before

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they can go in the garden.

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I have a vision of what I want our

garden to be this summer, and when

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something comes up and our dog decides

to bury a dead squirrel in the garden.

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I'm gonna make adjustments and I'm gonna

be more flexible, like the wood element.

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So I want to ask you, where are you

feeling ready to burst out of the

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gates and are instead feeling like

a little resistance and maybe need

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some more time to plan and to nurture

those seeds that you've planted?

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And also just like a plant sends

that energy in many directions with

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sometimes those leggy branches.

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The same is true for

our plans that we make.

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Are there areas of your

plans that need some pruning?

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It can be helpful to look back before

we look forward and think back over the

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last few springs in 2025 and 2024, what

will you do differently this spring?

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And do you need to build some

structure into your schedule, or do

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you need to have more flexibility

and white space in your schedule?

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Finding that clarity on where

we've been can help us be

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clear on where we want to go.

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So what, go back to your

vision for this year.

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You might've created one in

December and January, and what's

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one thing you can do this spring

to move you closer to that vision?

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You don't need to know how to

completely fulfill that vision.

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As Joseph Campbell says, "if you can

see your path laid out in front of you

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step by step, you know it's not your

path, your own path you make with every

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step you take, it's why it's your path."

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If you know what you're doing for

the rest of the year, then maybe

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that's not the right path for you.

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You just need to be doing one

thing, one step, which is going

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to guide you to the next thing.

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I mean, I have a vision for my business,

but I have no idea how to get there.

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But I do know I can do one thing

I can reach out to other podcasts.

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Or I can pitch myself for an article or

a summit, anything that brings me one

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step closer to reaching more people and

helping women feel less like their life

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is running them, helping them get clear

on what they want next, and to feel more

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in control of their time and their energy

to help them get out of the patterns that

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feel like they're running their lives.

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Because honestly, midlife

has a way of always bringing

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these things to the surface.

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We have to make some of our biggest

decisions in midlife about our

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jobs and relationships and life.

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And on some days we're

like, I'm not having it.

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Our job might feel less fulfilling

than ever than it did the day a few

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days before or a few months before.

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Our relationships can start to

feel a little bit one-sided.

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There's this constant habit

of keeping everyone else happy

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while quietly losing ourselves.

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When we've read all the books and listened

to all the podcasts and collected all

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the insights, we think we know what

we should do, but it feels so hard to

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actually do it, especially on some days.

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Human design offers something different.

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It's not a personality test or a self-help

framework that gives you good information

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and then leaves you feeling like empty

and you're like, I don't know what to do.

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It's a map of how you're actually

wired and how you use your energy,

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how you make decisions, and where

your patterns have developed.

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If you've been feeling like this

is the season that something needs

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to change, you're probably right.

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That feeling is your body speaking

before your mind catches up.

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So if all of this has resonated with

you, I would love to have you join

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me on Substack for a free workshop.

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I'll be hosting periodic workshops

on substack, and some of 'em

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going to be free, but most are

gonna be for paid subscribers.

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I've made the yearly subscription rate

really affordable, so if you're not sure

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you're ready for one-on-one coaching,

this is a great option for you to

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work with me and get to know my work.

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One of my absolute favorite things

is hosting workshops and sharing the

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power of human design with others.

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I'm hosting a workshop on March 26th on

Substack called Midlife and Human Design.

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In this workshop, we're gonna explore

how your unique design can help

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you navigate the biggest decisions

in your midlife with less second

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guessing and more trust in yourself.

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And if you can't make it live, no worries.

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The workshop actually lives on Substack.

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And it's available to you any time.

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And I'm always offering

the Life Patterns Review.

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This is a free one-on-one session where we

look at patterns you've developed through

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all the areas of your life, the ones

you've developed to keep the peace, and

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because you've been running on autopilot.

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:

Overgiving and saying yes

when you really wanna say no.

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Trying to be the version of you

that makes everyone else comfortable

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and who you think you should be.

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In that Life Patterns Review, we look at

it, all of it together, the roles you've

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picked up, the patterns you've repeated

so often that you actually have stopped

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noticing them, and we start to untangle

what's actually yours and what you've

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inherited and picked up along the way.

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Thank you for joining me for this episode.

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If it resonated with you, I'd be so

grateful if you would click the plus sign

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to subscribe and share it with a friend.

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I'll see you next time.

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Be well.

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About the Podcast

Unfolding: Audio Letters from the Middle of Becoming
What if midlife wasn't a crisis — but an invitation?

The Unfolding Podcast is a space where we explore what it looks like to really trust yourself, say no without guilt, and live your life like it actually belongs to you.

Hosted by Erica Voell, Decision Mentor and Inner-Trust Guide, this show is for women in midlife who are done living by the "shoulds" and second guessing themselves.

If you've taken every personality test, followed the recommended path, and still can't shake the feeling that you've been spending your whole life trying to fit in – when what you really wanted was to belong – you're in the right place.

You'll hear stories, insights, and tools rooted in Human Design, coaching, and real life. Not to tell you what to do, but to help you really hear yourself.

About your host

Profile picture for Erica Voell

Erica Voell


I use tools like Human Design, coaching, and
Reiki to help women in midlife say no to what
drains them—because they trust their decisions
and understand their unique strengths.

Together, we clear old patterns, and they learn
how they’re designed to make confident decisions
and start putting themselves first.