Is It Sustainable?

The question that's changing my life.

I’ve returned to yoga, and have been taking classes at a nearby studio. In a recent class, my favorite instructor led us consciously and purposefully into a posture that required significant balance and strength. Once we were all there, she gently asked:

“Now is the shape you’ve created sustainable?”

She went on, “If I asked you to stay in this shape for five minutes, would you be able to?” The labored exhales of me and my fellow students indicated she’d effectively made her point. Next she invited “where can you add a little more peace into this shape? If you weren’t performing the posture, but building something sustainable, what would change?” I made a few adjustments, bringing peace into the spaces I was cranking into a stretch, and then found myself in a posture that felt vibrant, alive, and sustainable.

For anyone else here who’s an HSP, you know I mulled this over the rest of that day, and the next day, and the next, until I realized this question, without these words to it was actually what’s been guiding me for a little while now.

I often ask my body image clients “is that new diet or workout plan you’re about to commit to sustainable? Can you see yourself engaging in it for the foreseeable future?” If not, we might have a false promise on our hands. And a recipe for defeat.

I’ve had to ask myself this question about my career a few times. My first job in the field, as a child protection therapist was important work- and not sustainable for me. My job at the university was empowering, expanding, and disciplined, but lacked the necessary freedom I needed for my intuition, instinct, and whole self to show up in my work.

So I launched into private practice, so that I could build a career and life shape that was truly sustainable. And I did, for the most part. I still took on a few too many clients at first, and didn’t carve out enough space for all the things that nourish me as a human. And my body had something loud and definitive to say about that. It did not gift me the feedback subtly.

What followed was years of deep examination. Where in my life was I forcing a stretch, instead of finding the necessary peace to expand into a sustainable shape? Where, and with whom was all of me not welcome. Equally important, where in my life did I feel like it was aligned, instinctual, creative, and rooted in intuition?

Put more simply, I started to evaluate where and in what ways I could show up fully and what needed to shift. I started gently shedding that which no longer worked and leaned in with bravery to the necessary stretches - of my ego, my imposter syndrome, and my intuition.

I started listening to my high sensitivity and my intuition like they were superpowers.

Because they are.

It led me to train in Reiki, to reduce my caseload, evaluate my schedule, and to create offerings I’m really excited about. This process, I realized, was the motivation and the juice behind the workshop I’m offering in May.

This workshop grew directly from these questions. It's a place to get curious about your own wild edges, your own intuitive pull. It's a space to build something vibrant, something that can last.

Wild Edges: Reclaiming Instinct, Intuition, and Creative Risk is all about how we can lean into the most abundant of our resources- our intuition, and our instinctual pull to love, to allow us to build and craft careers, practices, rituals, and lives that are aligned enough to endure.

This is how we, as humans, build what’s sustainable so that we have what we need, not only to show up well in our work, but to show up well in our lives. This virtual workshop is for anyone who holds space, in quiet ways or bold ones, and is ready to return to the space within themselves.

And it’s especially for sensitive souls who long to trust themselves and their instincts more deeply.

I’m learning that sustainable doesn’t mean stagnant.
It means alive. Responsive. Rooted enough to stretch and still stay whole.

That’s the shape I want to keep creating. In my work, in my days, and in my life.

So today, I’m asking myself - and maybe you.
Is the life you're building sustainable?
Where can you bring a little more peace into the shape you're creating?

May we all have the courage to adjust, to soften, and to expand into shapes that let us stay vibrant, alive, and whole. Let’s explore the sustainable, intuitive shapes we’re meant to grow into - together.

If this reflection stirred something for you, I’d love to have you join me at The Wild Edges.