I AM Living

Listen with your eyes.

Most Thursday mornings, I pull myself out of bed to get to at 7am.

If you know me, you know I’d love to say I’m a 4:30am or even 5:30am person. I’m not. So showing up at 7am (or shortly after 😉) is a real commitment.

But the women, the community, and the speakers make it worth it every time.

One of my recent favorites was . She spoke on a number of things, but what stayed with me was a story.

Her three-year-old daughter came in and said, “Mom, I want to talk.”

She kept working. “I’m here. I’m listening.”

Again: “Mom, I want to talk.”

“I’m here. I’m listening.”

And then her daughter gently took her face in her hands and said:

“Listen with your eyes.”

That landed.

Because it put words to something I try to practice. Something that takes real intention.

When we listen with our eyes, people feel it.

Maya Angelou said, people don’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel.

And you can feel the difference immediately.

When someone is actually with you.

And when they’re not.

It changes the interaction.

Even in a room full of people. Even when you’re the one speaking.

There are moments where you can feel when someone is really with you. And moments when they’re not.

People know the difference.

Today, just notice.

What happens when you listen with your eyes?

Most people don’t realize how much pressure is shaping them in real time.

How they communicate.
How they lead.
How they react.
How they relate to themselves and the people around them.

And most of us don’t notice it until we’re already caught in it.

That’s a big part of the work I focus on – helping people step back from automatic patterns and respond more intentionally.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be holding three different spaces rooted in that work – each exploring it from a different angle.

Two free sessions on timer:

🧠 Not Every Thought Needs Your Attention

A practical meditation and conversation on learning to step back from thoughts, emotions, and stress reactions rather than getting pulled into them.

📍May 20, 2026
📍May 21, 2026

And then on May 26th, I’ll be leading a Power Hour for WBEC South:

✨ Leading Beyond Pressure: The 7 Levels of Effectiveness®️ for High-Impact Leaders

A session on how stress and internal patterns shape leadership, communication, decision-making, and collaboration – and how to shift toward more grounded, effective, and intentional ways of leading.

Different formats.
Different audiences.
But all rooted in the same core work:

Learning how to work with the mind under pressure — instead of letting pressure run the show.

Links below if you’d like to join us.

🔗 Not Every Thought Needs Your Attention | May 20, 2026 | 11AM CST: https://insighttimer.com/live/da2cbf78-322b-41e4-a4c8-cd559deb2e49

🔗 Not Every Thought Needs Your Attention | May 21, 2026 | 5PM CST: https://insighttimer.com/live/ef46021f-4b72-4b32-876b-b008b7c97d95

🔗 WBEC South Power Hour: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZeMEmBuAT7-dvvYuX7KEjA

Thank you to and Lindsey All for inviting this conversation back to the community.

Most of us don’t realize how often we walk into conversations already carrying tension, frustration, or expectation.

We brace.
We rehearse.
We prepare for impact before anything has even happened.

And often, without realizing it, we bring the very energy we don’t want more of into the room with us.

But sometimes the biggest shift isn’t in the situation itself.

It’s in how we enter it.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about those moments where we pause long enough to notice what we’re already carrying — and choose, intentionally, how we want to show up instead.

A few reflections on that in this week’s newsletter: https://www.iamliving.us/i-am-living/before-the-conversation-even-began

There are spaces where you can stay on the surface.
And there are spaces where that’s not really an option.

This past week, I had the honor of holding space for 11 incredible women in the California desert.

Together, we went deep.
We got honest quickly.

We looked at the unconscious agreements shaping how we lead, how we relate, and how we move through our lives.

Some support us.
Some hold us back.

And then we chose what no longer serves.
We let go.
We rewrote.

It was a few days of deep reflection.
Moments that required real curiosity.
And real courage.

And also… a lot of laughter.
A lot of joy.
A lot of connection.

What moved me most was not only the vulnerability in the room, but what people were willing to do with it.

A conversation they’d been avoiding.
A decision they finally made.

And the commitment to bring it home.

To their children.
Their families.
Their teams.
Their lives.

And then to see the immediate shifts happening in the group chat?

Tears.

Because this is the part that matters most.

Not just what happens in the room…
but what people actually do with it.

At the end, someone asked me how I felt about this retreat, especially after holding several over the past year.

And the honest answer was:

Full.
Complete.

Not because the journey is complete. Far from it. In many ways, we are just beginning.

But because I know, deep in my bones, that I am doing what I am meant to be doing.

Building spaces for deep, rich connection and conversation.

Spaces that change how people show up in their lives, their leadership, and their relationships.

4 retreats down this year.

September on the horizon…

And maybe a few more in the works… because apparently I don’t sit still for long. 😉

If something in you is reading this and thinking, I want to be in a room like that…

or you’re leading a team and know something deeper needs to be said…

reach out. 💛

PS. A special and incredible Thank YOU goes to Jill Pearson of LeapFrog USA for these INCREDIBLE Elloproducts Tumblers 🎉🙏✨… one of my

When something feels unclear, the instinct is usually to add more.

More thinking.
More effort.
More trying to figure it out.

And sometimes… that only makes it harder to see.

There’s something else that tends to bring clarity back.

I wrote a short reflection on this in this week’s newsletter. https://www.iamliving.us/i-am-living/when-adding-more-doesnt-bring-clarity

✨ I head into this week’s retreat feeling a real sense of excitement.

And also a deep respect for what happens in these rooms.

Because it’s never just about stepping away.

It’s about what people are willing to step into.

The conversations that go beyond the surface.
The honesty about what’s working… and what isn’t.
The quiet acknowledgment that who we’ve been doesn’t always fit who we’re becoming.

And the willingness to stay with that long enough for something new to emerge.

Every time, layers fall away.

Not all at once.

But enough.

Enough to see more clearly.
Enough to feel what’s been underneath.
Enough to move differently.

And what forms in that space – between women who are leading, building, holding a lot – is something I don’t take lightly.

It’s real.
It’s generous.
It’s rare.

I’m really looking forward to this one.

And I already know I’ll leave changed in some way too.

If something in you is reading this and thinking 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 – you’re welcome to raise your hand in the comments or reach out directly. I’m happy to share more. 💛

One of the conversations I’ve been part of recently – through CHIEF, with a number of senior leaders – is around influence.
Not influence tied to title.

But the kind you need when title isn’t enough.

Influencing across.
Influencing up.
Influencing in moments where things feel stuck, tense, or like they’re starting to go in the wrong direction.

There are a number of levers we’ve been discussing.

Data.
Storytelling.
Connection.
Conviction.

Those matter. They make a real impact.

But the more I sit in these conversations, the more I keep coming back to another layer.

The state we’re in shapes how those levers land.

You can have the right words.
The right argument.
The right intention.

But if you’re coming in frustrated, tight, or already bracing for resistance…

it changes what you hear, how you respond, and how others experience you.

I’ve been playing with this myself.

Not just what I’m trying to say in harder conversations –
but how I’m showing up going into them.

What outcome do I actually want?
What might get in the way?
And who do I need to be to open this up – not just move it forward?

Because that’s the part that’s been most interesting to me.

Not just shifting direction.

But shifting the quality of the interaction.

Sometimes the shift is small.

But it’s enough to change the trajectory of the conversation.

And that’s where influence starts to feel different.

Less like pushing.
More like creating movement.

Lately, I’ve been hearing the same thing in a lot of conversations.

What used to work… stops fitting.

And instead of moving forward, we try to go back.

I’ve been hearing this in a lot of conversations lately – how hard it is to acknowledge that we’ve changed, and even harder to stop trying to fit back into who we used to be.

I explore this more in this week’s newsletter. 👉 https://www.iamliving.us/i-am-living/when-what-used-to-work-stops-working✨

Lately, I’ve been hearing the same thing in a lot of conversations.

What used to work… stops fitting.

And instead of moving forward, we try to go back.

I’ve been hearing this in a lot of conversations lately – how hard it is to acknowledge that we’ve changed, and even harder to stop trying to fit back into who we used to be.

I explore this more in this week’s newsletter. Link in my bio 🔗✨