Who is ME?

So there I was, getting ready to take selfies for my new website launch. Simple enough, right? Just grab my phone, find good light, smile, done.
But no. My brain decided I needed to look "professional." Polished. Put-together. Like someone who has their shit together enough to wear artificial nails.
Spoiler alert: I am not that person.

Three Hours Later

I bought press-on nails. How hard could it be?
Three hours later, I'm sitting at my kitchen table, covered in nail glue, questioning every life choice that led me to this moment. I can't feel my fingertips. I literally cannot feel the keys beneath my fingers—you know, the same fingers I use to do buccal facial massage and energy work where TOUCH IS EVERYTHING.

Who is me?!

After finally wrestling those plastic torture devices onto my hands, I took the selfies.
Guess what you can see in the photos? NOT MY HANDS.
And the truly hilarious part? Half the nails had already fallen off by the time I was done shooting. The universe was literally peeling them off mid-photo session, like, "Girl, what are you doing? This isn't you."

The Shift

Somewhere in the middle of all this ridiculousness, I stopped. I looked at myself in the camera and just said, "Hey, this is me."
Not the polished, perfect, professional version I thought I needed to be. Just me. The Energy Alchemist who works with people's deepest stuck places, who creates sacred space with my natural, sensitive, unadorned hands.
And you know what? That's when the good photos happened.

The Irony

Here's the thing: I spend my days helping people distinguish between their own energy and everyone else's. Teaching them to trust what's true for them versus what they think they "should" be doing.
And there I was, doing exactly what I help my clients stop doing—trying to be someone I'm not because I thought that's what was expected.
How many of us do this? Put on the metaphorical (or literal) artificial nails because we think we need to look a certain way? And how much time and energy do we waste trying to maintain that facade? Three hours, in my case. But for some people, it's years.

The Truth

My hands don't need to be perfect. They need to be present. Sensitive. Able to feel what's happening in your body, your energy field, your nervous system.
The same is true for all of us. We don't need to be polished. We need to be real.
Because the people who need what we offer aren't looking for the artificial version. They're looking for someone willing to show up as they actually are and invite them to do the same.

What I Learned

Three hours of struggling with who you think you should be will never beat three seconds of embracing who you actually are.
If you've been wearing your own version of artificial nails—trying to be more polished or professional or perfect than you actually are—I invite you to take them off. Not because being polished is bad, but because trying to be something you're not is exhausting.
Trust me. I just spent three hours learning this lesson the hard way so you don't have to.

The Energy Alchemist launches December 1st, artificial nails not included. Come as you are—I certainly will with my cuppa.