How to Reconnect With Yourself (Sometimes It Looks Like Yard Work)
This past weekend Keith and I did something we had been putting off for five years.
We uncovered our backyard walkway.
It sounds simple. It was not. The stones had been swallowed by grass and dirt since before we moved in and what should have been a clear path was almost invisible. We have been watching this guy on YouTube who helps people reclaim neglected outdoor spaces and something about it finally inspired us to just start.
It was hard work. I am writing this with sore muscles I forgot I had.
But today, while I was finishing my workout inside, Keith was out there doing the last stretch. When I came out he had a surprise for me. Buried completely under the grass, so hidden that we had never noticed them in five years of living there, were two stone feet.
I laughed out loud. Because what else do you do when you find giant stone feet in your own backyard?
And then someone commented on my Instagram story: perfect for someone who works on grounding people.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
What was always there
Here is the thing about those stone feet. They were not new. We did not put them there. They had been part of this property long before we arrived, just completely buried under years of overgrowth.
They did not need to be created. They just needed to be uncovered.
I think about the women I work with and I think that is exactly what reconnecting with yourself looks like. Not building something new from scratch. Not becoming a different person. Not fixing what is broken.
Just clearing away what has grown over the top of you.
Because something has, for most of us. Years of being told you were too much or not enough. The expectations you absorbed so young you thought they were your own. The old stories that play on repeat: you have to earn your place, you have to keep everyone happy, your needs come last.
Those things grow slowly. And quietly. Until one day you look down and you cannot quite see the path anymore.
What the uncovering actually looks like
It is rarely dramatic. That is the part nobody tells you.
It does not look like a breakthrough moment or a sudden transformation. It looks more like the weekend we just had. A little bit of work, some sore muscles, and the occasional surprise hiding underneath.
It looks like noticing the story that just ran through your head and choosing not to follow it all the way down. It looks like saying the true thing out loud to someone safe instead of performing okay. It looks like choosing rest when everything in you says you should be doing more.
It looks like therapy on a hard week. A text to your sister. Sitting outside with the dogs when your brain will not stop.
Small acts of clearing. Over and over again.
You were always there
The feet did not appear because we did something extraordinary. They appeared because we did the consistent, unglamorous work of removing what was covering them.
You are not broken. You do not need to be rebuilt. You just need some of the layers cleared away so that what was always there can finally be seen again.
That is the work I do. And if you are curious what that looked like in my own life, I share my personal burnout story and what the uncovering looked like for me in this episode of Inspired Questions.
If this resonated, I would love to hear from you. What is one layer you have been slowly clearing away? Leave a comment or reply to this week's email.
