Five Things I Know…Until I Start Spiraling
Things are rough right now, in some shape or form for most people I know.
But I’m aware that there is a small group of folks who are living life like everything is normal, routine…just another day. If that’s you please kindly hit the back button at the top left of this screen and quietly take your leave.
This story is for all the dreamers, manifestos, lovers and survivors of the world.
Ok, now that’s it’s just us. Lord! Times are hard, right? In the world, in our daily lives. All of us have been experiencing various degrees of hardship and so I wanted to share a few insights, a few gems that I’ve personally found deeply helpful.
As a friend said to me recently, it’s hard to see ourselves or our life clearly when we’re in the thick of it. We need someone outside of it to gently remind us what’s true. To grab us by the ankle and pull us back to solid ground.
Consider me that friend for you. Here’s a few truths for when you need to be seen.
Truth #1: Endurance builds capacity
I recently came across a collective reading Imani Cohen did for Pisces, and honestly, it felt like a message for anyone going through a difficult or stuck period.
She spoke about how endurance builds capacity for the life you’re trying to create. In order to receive what we say we want, we have to expand. We have to make room for it. And a lot of that expansion comes through resilience. Through not folding. Through staying with it, even when it’s hard.
Through trusting the path you’ve chosen, even when it doesn’t feel like it’s working.
The past couple of years have been tough for me. And while I wouldn’t wish that kind of stretch on anyone, I also can’t pretend it didn’t shape me. This period of loss and hardship taught me more about who I am, who my real people are, and what I’m actually capable of.
And because of that, I see myself differently now. I think bigger. I trust myself more. Not because things were easy, but because they weren’t.
That’s what endurance does. It builds the capacity to hold the life you say you want.
Truth #2: Disappointment isn’t trauma
When you’ve experienced real loss or difficult seasons, even small things can start to feel heavier than they actually are. A minor inconvenience, a letdown, something not going your way - it can register as more loss, more damage, more proof that things aren’t working out.
But sometimes it’s just… a disappointment.
Not everything is trauma. Not everything is a pattern. Sometimes something simply didn’t meet your expectations, and that’s part of being alive. Life is full of small disappointments. That doesn’t mean you’re unlucky, unblessed, or cursed. It just means you’re living through the natural rhythm of things.
The work is learning to tell the difference.
Truth #3: Suffering is a choice
Another friend shared something with me that I want to pass along to you. It really helped shift me when I feel myself starting to spiral or when life feels like it’s just one thing after another. I find a lot of solace in communicating with Spirit. Astrology, tarot, all of it. But when life feels unstable, it’s natural to start searching for certainty. Something to explain what’s happening, or tell you what’s coming next. Some kind of preview of the future so you can feel a little more in control when everything feels unpredictable. That’s usually when we start looking outside of ourselves for answers.
The reminder was this: astrology, divination, and other spiritual tools can be powerful, but only when they support your path, not when they override it. Yes, there are cycles. Yes, there are seasons that stretch us. Yes, external forces can influence how we feel and move through the world. But they were never meant to define us or control what’s possible for us. They’re influences, not authorities.
At a certain point, believing that we have to struggle, wait, prove ourselves, or endure endless hardship before things get better becomes a choice.
And it’s not one we have to keep making.
Truth #4: It’s darkest right before dawn
This saying might feel cliché, but it’s real. The moments that feel the heaviest, when everything seems consistently bleak, are often the moments right before something shifts. Before things open up. Before something expands.
It ties back to Truth #1. Endurance builds capacity, and eventually, it leads to that first crack of light.
To quote Imani: “Don’t fold.”
Truth #5: Follow the movement
Sometimes when opportunities arrive, we spend too much time thinking about whether we should or shouldn’t. Imagining every possible outcome. We get stuck there, when really the work is much simpler. You just need to surrender and follow the movement.
Following the movement is the active side of surrender. It looks like staying curious, responding to what’s in front of you, no and taking the next indicated step. An opportunity shows up, you respond. Another one calls, you show up for it. That’s not passive. That’s attentive.
Surrender is what you bring to each of those moments. You show up fully without demanding a specific outcome. You do the thing, and then you release it.
Together, they create something like…engaged detachment. You’re fully in it, but you’re not gripping it.
The opposite is either abandoning the movement entirely, hiding, not responding, or clinging so tightly to each outcome that every non-response feels like a crisis.
The moments where we usually spiral, or at least where I do, are the moments between the movements. The waiting. That’s where surrender does its deepest work. Not in the action, but in what comes after, when there’s nothing left to do but trust.
