Most of us are building lives around what drains us — and then wondering why there’s nothing left for what matters.

We give the best of ourselves to our jobs. Our clearest thinking. Our sharpest focus. Our most patient moods. We hand those over because we have to — rent, food, survival. But slowly, quietly, it conditions us to believe that’s all we are: a source of output for something bigger than us.

And then what’s left?

We show up to our dreams exhausted.
We show up to our relationships distracted.
We show up to ourselves like an afterthought.

This isn’t a guilt trip — it’s a wake-up call. Because choosing yourself doesn’t mean quitting or blowing up your life. It means refusing to let every drop of your best self leak into someone else’s profit or comfort while your own dreams starve.

It’s deciding that your joy, your creativity, your growth, your inner world — those deserve prime time, not leftovers.

It’s protecting even a tiny sliver of your best self for you.

It’s remembering that you’re not just here to pay bills and be tired.

Today in 15 seconds:

💬 Overheard in Therapy: When even your favorite things feel heavy…
📝 Permission Slip Series: Do less today, even if the world says more.
🌌 Daily Cosmic Weather Report: The Moon is a sliver, an asteroid is pausing—learn from the cosmos tonight.
💎 Crystal of the Day: A touch of indigo, a spark of direction—your crossroads just got clearer.

Step outside—or if that feels like too much, just find the nearest window. Tilt your head back. Find the sky.

It doesn’t matter if it’s cloudy, blazing with sunlight, or painted dark with night. The sky is bigger than your inbox, your deadlines, or the endless list of things that still aren’t done.

For ten seconds, let the weight of “everything” loosen. Remember: work will always expand to fill the space you give it. The sky is a reminder that you can choose not to hand it all of you.

Let yourself feel small in the best way. Small enough that the stress shrinks, too. Big enough to know your worth isn’t tied to productivity.

Choosing yourself can start with just looking up.

“I’m so tired that even the things I love feel like chores.”

​​This is what burnout quietly steals from us—not just our energy for work, but our energy for joy. The book you used to get lost in feels heavy. The hobby that once lit you up becomes another thing on the to-do list. Even people you love can feel like obligations when there’s nothing left in your tank.

This doesn’t mean you don’t love those things anymore. It means you’ve been giving away your best energy elsewhere. To work. To responsibilities. To survival mode.

The solution isn’t to force yourself to “do better” or to guilt yourself for not enjoying what you used to. It’s to recognize the truth: you’re depleted. And that depletion is data. It’s information telling you that something needs to shift—whether that’s more rest, smaller doses of pleasure, or simply saying no to something that drains you.

Your joy is still there. It’s not gone. It’s just waiting for you to have enough space, enough energy, to feel it again.

This Week: Permission to Do Less Today (Even if the World Keeps Shouting for More)

There will always be another task waiting, another email lurking, another demand on your attention. The pressure to “maximize” every moment never really lets up. But your worth isn’t measured by how much you squeeze into the day.

Doing less doesn’t mean you’re falling behind. It means you’re choosing carefully. It means you’re letting your body, your mind, and your spirit breathe. Sometimes the bravest choice you can make is to step back, release the extra, and give yourself the space you’ve been craving.

Your energy is a finite resource. Protecting it is not selfish.

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Above and within, a gentle rhythm

Tonight the Moon is just a sliver—10% lit, fragile but growing. It’s easy to overlook, low on the horizon, drowned out by brighter distractions. But here’s the thing: even in its smallest phase, the Moon is still the Moon. Whole, steady, unapologetically itself, no matter how much light it shows.

Meanwhile, far off in the great eagle constellation Aquila, asteroid Pallas does something rare: it stops. After drifting backward for weeks, today it pauses, pivots, and begins moving forward again. The sky is literally showing us what it looks like to choose differently, to reclaim direction instead of being dragged along.

Both the crescent and the asteroid carry the same quiet message: you don’t have to give everything all at once. You don’t have to light up the whole sky to matter. Sometimes choosing yourself looks like holding back, conserving energy, or daring to stop and change course. Even the cosmos takes a breath before moving forward again.

Not to be confused with Lapis Lazuli, Lazulite is a vivid azure-blue stone that feels like a window into clarity itself. First discovered in Austria in 1795, its name literally translates to “blue stone.” These days, some of the most striking specimens come from Canada, shimmering in indigo shades that look like concentrated sky.

Energetically, Lazulite is all about inner vision. It clears mental fog, sharpens focus, and encourages you to expand into new beginnings with a sense of direction. It’s said to resonate strongly with the Third Eye Chakra, making it a stone for seekers, dreamers, and anyone standing at the threshold of change.

Reach for Lazulite when:

Holding Lazulite, even briefly, can feel like someone opened a window in a stuffy room—suddenly the air is clearer, your thoughts sharper, your inner voice easier to hear.

3-8 minutes to tune into what you’re calling in

Off the top of your head (3 mins): Picture yourself a year from now if nothing changes—still tired, still giving your best energy away. What do you see?

Spill it (5-8 mins): Now imagine yourself a year from now after choosing yourself. What’s different?

Let it land, let it go, trust it’ll return when it matters.

Take a quiet moment today—maybe while waiting for your coffee, standing at a crosswalk, or just sitting in your chair. Notice where your thoughts drift when no one else is asking for your attention. Are they drifting toward a person, a project, a memory, or a longing you’ve been ignoring?

This is more than daydreaming—it’s a window into your desires, your worries, the things that secretly pull at your energy. It tells you what you actually crave, what matters to you beneath the noise of obligations and expectations.

You don’t need to act on it right now. Simply noticing is enough. That awareness, quiet as it may feel, is a gentle compass guiding you toward what your mind and heart truly need.

Even in a world that demands constant doing, this small act—watching where your mind naturally goes—is a subtle, powerful way to reclaim connection with yourself.

Pause for a moment and bring to mind the work you do. The tasks, the deadlines, the routines—they may feel heavy at times, but they also provide stability, income, and the chance to grow skills you didn’t know you had. That is worth acknowledging.

Notice, too, that within this reality, you have choices. You can decide how much energy to give, when to say yes, and when to step back. You can set boundaries, protect your focus, and create space to recharge. Gratitude isn’t about denying that work can be exhausting—it’s about recognizing the support it gives you and the agency you still have to take care of yourself.

Today, let your gratitude hold both truths: for the opportunities your work allows, and for your own awareness that you are not powerless. You can honor your responsibilities without losing yourself in them.

Who’s benefitting from your exhaustion?

It’s not just rhetorical. Someone always does.

The boss who gets twice the work without paying twice the salary.

The friend who knows you’ll always pick up the pieces.

The family member who assumes you’ll say yes because you always do.

Exhaustion doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it keeps the wheels turning for people who quietly rely on you never saying no. And the truth? If you collapse, they’ll find someone else. Or they’ll figure it out. They always do.

So today, maybe the more radical question is: What if nobody benefitted from you running yourself into the ground? What if the only person who gained something was you—your rest, your peace, your actual life?

It’s easy to forget, in the rush of deadlines, meetings, and responsibilities, that no single project, client, or job is worth giving up your energy—or your sanity. 

Your energy, your health, and your presence are the most valuable resources you have. Giving everything you’ve got to work, to others’ expectations, or to obligations that leave you drained doesn’t make you productive—it makes you depleted.

So even when it feels like you have to give everything to one obligation, remember there’s always another opportunity down the line. There will always be more work, more doors, more buses. But you get to decide which ones you ride—and which ones you let pass.

You don’t have to catch every possibility, attend every meeting, or answer every request. Your energy is yours to steward. Protect it, honor it, and give it to the things and people that truly matter. There will always be more buses—but there’s only one you.

P.S. We made this because most spiritual content made us feel like there was something wrong with us for being tired, messy, or not “high-vibe” enough. If this made you feel a little more human today, that's all we wanted.

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