Where Are You Overstocked Because You’re Afraid to Feel Empty?

Dear community,

It’s 11:43am and I’m still in bed- not because I’m tired, but because I am still questioning if I should send this newsletter out or keeping it in my draft folder.

There’s a specific anxiety that shows up for me ever since I’ve committed to building something of my own. It whispers: Is this valuable? Am I actually helping anyone?

And maybe even more uncomfortably: Is this just exhibitionism?

I have no idea if this will help anyone else.

But I do know for sure that reading this would have helped me eight years ago. Eight years ago, I exited the mainstream system.

I walked away from American “healthcare” (I am using quotation marks because I don’t believe America is taking care of her health! If I’m being honest about what I believe: what is actually going on, in my view, is mostly sick-care), determined to carve something better for myself. Something more life-giving, more expansive, more aligned, and I thought freedom was the answer.

And in many ways, it was. And what I didn’t realize was this: I didn’t have a structure, a personal system, because my entire life I had worked toward goals through intensity, sprinting to the point of burnout, through sheer will with no sustainable structure underneath it.

No energetic hygiene, only force.

And when I became a business owner, that lack of structure became impossible to ignore.

Because when you are the system…your dysfunction becomes clear (at least to yourself and to the people who are closest to you).

That’s why my basement still isn’t cleared...I’ve moved things around, but I haven’t meaningfully organized anything. That’s why I still have drawers full of things from ten years ago- children’s things I struggle to let go of.

Because I don’t do resets. I never built a rhythm of clearing, because my training was to sprint toward outcomes — not necessarily to maintain ecosystems.

My big insight of the day: clutter is delayed decision-making!

I finally understood that energetic hygiene isn’t about becoming hyper-productive- it’s about sustainable stewardship of my own life- finishing what I start or consciously releasing it. It is about periodic resets — of goals, of environments, of expectations. Another insight: if one doesn’t build systems for renewal…entropy builds them instead (without asking for permission.)

So What Does Energetic Hygiene Actually Look Like in Practice?

Here are three places we can start this week (and I am mostly talking to myself, but also to whomever would like to join me on this quest) :

1. The Reset

Let’s pick one domain of life and reset it. Examples of where to possibly start:

• fridge

• inbox

• calendar

• one drawer

• finances

• commitments

Not all of it, obviously, only ONE. Let’s see what’s actually there and decide intentionally what stays.

I commit to resetting my pantry this week.

2. The Release

Let’s Identify one open loop we’ve been dragging.

• A project we’re pretending we’ll finish

• A conversation we’ve been avoiding

• A goal we’ve quietly abandoned and now we decide to abandon it intentionally

Let’s either recommit to it with structure or formally let it die.

Our nervous system keeps score.

I commit to letting go of one of the courses I started long time ago that I never finished (The Aligned Practitioner).

3. The Rhythm

Let’s ask ourselves: what system do I actually have for renewal?

(And I am not talking about intensity or motivation, or “when I feel like it.”)

For example:

One of my friends only goes grocery shopping when her fridge is empty.

EMPTY! Again, to me, that feels like spiritual achievement. For real. I’m always slightly (or less slightly) afraid I’ll go hungry, so I never have an empty fridge. My freezer is stocked and there’s always “just in case” food.

Her system forces completion, while mine accumulates. One system creates clarity, while the other creates clutter.

So here’s what I’m curious about, and if you feel even a flicker of inspiration, open your laptop and write back. Your personal system — the one that feels normal or boring or obvious to you — might as well be the key that unlocks someone else’s stuck energy. Share it with me. I’ll publish the most resonant ones in the next newsletter. Be generous, please. Be honest. Ignore the voice that says, “This isn’t important,” or “No one cares.”Someone does! I do! And more importantly — someone who is stuck where you once were might.

Because all of us have expertise in something, not because we’re special, but because we have survived a specific kind of friction, However we underestimate it because it feels ordinary to us.

What are your systems?

What rhythms protect your energy?

You can reply (before next Sunday) with something as simple as:

• “My Sunday reset looks like this…”

• “I only shop when…”

• “My quarterly ritual is…”

• “The one system that saved me from burnout was…” and I will feature you in the next newsletter by your given (or chosen!) name or anonymously, whichever way you prefer.

And in the meantime, I will experiment with letting the fridge get a little emptier than feels comfortable.

With love, (a tiny sprinkle of) rage, and reverence,

Corina

 With love, (a tiny sprinkle of) rage, and reverence,

Corina