I Stopped Checking My Phone in the Morning — And Everything Changed

I STOPPED CHECKING MY PHONE IN THE MORNING.

Then the universe handed me everything I'd been asking for.

One month ago, as I promised in last month’s letter, I stopped letting the world's chaos be the first thing I fed my nervous system in the morning.

That was the whole change.

And what followed feels life-changing — creatively, financially, spiritually.

First, Let's Talk About What We're Actually Up Against

I am just going to say it: there is something really addictive about bad news.

The algorithms really have it down:

horror story
horror story
cute cat
heartwarming beauty
horror story…

It is really easy to stay in the loop and to keep going back for more.

That is what it is designed to do.

The fear keeps us coming back — dollars and decades of research invested in keeping us exactly where we are.

If you are feeling sick, finding yourself easily angered, starting the day with more anxiety, and feeling tired before you even get going, you really need to keep reading.

Let's Name the Complexity Here

I am not going to pretend this is simple for everyone, because it isn't.

Some women are living the headlines.

They don't have the option to look away because what is in the news is happening to their bodies, their children, their communities.

I am a white woman living as a nomad in Goa and South East Asia.

My relationship to “disconnecting from the news” is not the same as everyone's and I know that.

What I will say is this:

I believe we each have a specific role in this collective moment — and I believe we fulfill that role most powerfully not from a place of saturated fear and helplessness, but from a place of grounded, clear, spiritually alive presence.

Protecting your inner world is not a retreat from reality.

It is how you become capable of changing it.

What Happened When I Finally Got Quiet

In Bali last month I made a commitment to a structured morning practice — beginning every day from the inside out.

I kept that commitment every day through our return home to Goa.

And in the space that opened up, something magical walked in.

In my last week in Bali, actively choosing content that fed rather than depleted me, I found a recording of Dr. Robert Gilbert — a spiritual researcher in the Rosicrucian tradition.

Within minutes I was not just interested.

I was riveted in the way you only get riveted when something is truly meant for you.

He illuminates the hidden architecture beneath all of the world's great wisdom traditions — Kabbalah, Hermetic and Christian mysticism, Taoist and Egyptian initiatory practice — not as competing systems but as facets of one extraordinary whole.

He explains it all with the warm, unhurried precision of someone who has spent a lifetime at the center of something most people only glimpse at the edges.

The hair rose on the back of my neck.

It has not fully settled since.

It felt like the universe had been waiting — vibrating with readiness — for my yes.

And the moment I said it, a door swung open to a room full of glittering jewels.

Here Is What Else Changed — In Real, Practical Terms

Here is what actually shifted — in addition to finding a new path of meaningful information and study:

The creative block I had been fighting for months dissolved.

I returned to making things nearly every day — sewing, collaging, drawing — not because I forced it but because the space opened and the creativity finally had somewhere to go.

My body remembered itself.

Exercise.
Real cooking.
The quiet pleasure of my own kitchen.

My intuition outperformed my analysis.

I made a series of financial decisions last month that felt uncertain in the moment — slightly reckless, if I'm being honest.

I followed the nudges anyway.

Those decisions turned out to lower my overhead just before an income dip I had absolutely no way of predicting.

As a solopreneur, I know the particular anxiety of variable income — the low-grade hypervigilance of never quite being able to relax.

I followed my nudges and they didn't let me down.

They never let me down.

"Your intuition is not a luxury.
It is the most accurate intelligence you have access to — and it cannot reach you when you are drowning in noise."

What I Actually Want You to Walk Away With

This is not a story about a woman who got lucky or who has some spiritual gift you don't.

This is a story about what happens when you stop giving the first and best hours of your day to a machine designed to profit from your anxiety — and start giving those hours to yourself.

You do not need a flight to Southeast Asia.

You do not need a silent retreat.

You do not need to quit your job and do a complete reinvention of your life.

You need one real shift.

You need one shift in behavior that puts you back in contact with your own inner world before the outer world shows up — as it always does — demanding everything.

Your inner guidance is not lost.

Your creative self is not gone.

The path that is uniquely yours has not disappeared.

They are simply waiting for a quiet enough moment to be heard.

Because here is what nobody tells you about spiritual awakening and connection:

It doesn't have to be hard.

It can be fun.

It can feel like playing at magic.

It can move with stunning, almost shocking speed — exponentially, like a veil lifting all at once.

But you have to say yes.

You have to jump in and make a move — practically or symbolically.

If you want help, I am here.

The Turquoise Trail community is here.

If you want a simple place to start, download the Morning Anchor practice and give it a try.

⟡ SHARE THIS LETTER ⟡

Send this to your sister.

We all have one — blood or otherwise.

The woman who gets it, or the one who needs to.