Hi friend,
Our culture has conditioned women to believe that our twenties and thirties are the “peak”.
But research, and every woman in her forties and beyond will tell you there is an explosive creative phase that happens mid-life.
Average female career pivot: 39
Average female entrepreneur starts: 42
Average female millionaire: 49
Womens creative peak: 45-55
You’re not behind, you’re just getting started.
Women begin to take the energy they poured into everyone around them, and put it back into their dreams.
Women in their late thirties and fourties are stepping into the most authentic and sovereign version of themselves they’ve ever known.
They’ve spent the time making mistakes, self-abandoning, choosing relationships that taught them more about what they really valued.
And now, they’re clear. On who they are, and what they are creating.
If you’re sitting on a vision, a dream, an idea and you’re worried it’s too late: you’re right on time.
With age comes wisdom.
With age comes a deeper connection to your intuition.
With age comes patience, and the ability to see your visions through.
If you start today, your life 10 years from now could look entirely different.
Inside Today’s Newsletter:
🌑 New Moon & Solar Eclipse in Leo: Reclaim Your Aliveness
🕊️ From Instagram: Why embracing your creative spirit is the way out of self-abandonment and chasing love.
✍️ A Practice + Journaling Prompts: To call your energy home and uncover the vision that's been waiting underneath the busyness.
📝 My First Substack Article: Emerging from the Void: On Losing Myself in Motherhood, Inner-Death & The Spirit of Creativity
🌙 Check out our recent astrology report:
🕊️ The Latest Rising Woman Post:
📝 New Article on Substack: Emerging from the Void: On Losing Myself in Motherhood, Inner-Death & The Spirit of Creativity
I was nearly seven months pregnant when my first book, Becoming the One, debuted. I had millions of readers on Instagram; my social media engagement was sky-high. Podcast requests and media opportunities rang in through a steady stream. I was at a peak.
On the morning of my publication day, I woke up, showered, got dressed, and headed to the food bank. I had been volunteering there for months.
The work gave me purpose and a chance to connect with people in my community whom I might otherwise never meet.
My hands stayed busy as I followed the checklist in front of me, packing bags and boxes with canned soup and fresh fruits.
“My book, Becoming the One, launched today,” I told Trish, who ran the food bank.
“Well, what are you doing here, then?” she asked.
“I don’t know… working,” I replied.
But inside, I wondered: What was I doing there? Should I have been in New York, appearing on a podcast or a daytime television show? Should I have been somewhere promoting my book and shouting it from the rooftops? Continue reading…
✨ Practice for the Week: Calling Your Energy Home
So much of the energy we could pour into our own dreams gets spent holding everyone else together. This practice helps you feel where that energy is going and what it feels like to bring some of it back to yourself.
By mid-life, most of us have years of practice tending to other people. It becomes so automatic that we can lose track of how much of us is out there, distributed across the people and responsibilities we carry. This practice is a way to notice that in the body and gather a little of yourself back home.
Set aside about ten minutes and find a space where you won't be interrupted.
Step 1: Settle. Find a comfortable seat or lie down somewhere you feel at ease. Take a few slow breaths, letting each exhale be a little longer than the inhale.
Step 2: Arrive. Let your body come to rest. Feel the surface underneath you holding your weight. Let your shoulders drop and your jaw release.
Step 3: Scan. Bring to mind the people and roles you carry through a normal week. Partner, children, work, parents, friends. Let them come into view one at a time, without effort.
Step 4: Feel. Notice where your energy goes as each one arrives. You might sense a pull in your chest, a bracing in your shoulders, a reaching outward. This is your energy leaving to go tend to them. Keep it company for a few breaths.
Step 5: Locate. Now bring your attention back to your own center. Your belly, your heart, the core of you. Notice how much of you is actually here, present in your own body, and how much is out there holding everyone else.
Step 6: Gather. Picture drawing a thread of that energy back toward yourself. Not all of it, just a little. Feel it returning to your center, filling the space that was empty while it was away.
Step 7: Ask. With more of yourself home, let one question rise: what would I create if this energy were mine to spend? See what image or word arrives. Let it be small if it wants to be small.
Step 8: Notice. Take a moment to feel how you are now compared to when you began. Notice any more fullness, any more presence, any sense of the vision that lives underneath the busyness.
You will not call all of your energy home in one sitting, and you don't need to. Feeling that it belongs to you is the beginning, and it gets easier each time you practice.
Journal Prompts
What dream have you been telling yourself you're too late for? Where did that timeline come from?
Whose voice is it when you hear "you should have done this by now"? Is it yours, or did you inherit it?
Think about the energy you pour into the people around you. What would it look like to redirect even a small portion of that back toward your own vision?
What have your mistakes and hardest relationships actually taught you about what you value? How is that wisdom you didn't have at when you were younger?
If you knew you had thirty more creative years ahead of you, what would you start this week?
Picture your life ten years from now if you began today. What does that woman thank you for?
What does "right on time" feel like in your body when you let yourself believe it?
If there's a vision you've been putting off, let this be your sign.
You have everything you need already. The wisdom, the intuition, the years that taught you what matters.
Start where you are. Start this week.
Ten years from now, you'll be glad you did.
Love,
Shay 💕
P.S. In case you missed it, my first children’s book Thank You for This Day was released last week! This book was inspired by the simple gratitude practice I've shared with my daughter since she was born. A gentle ritual of noticing the beauty of nature and all the living beings that make our world so magical.
I'm keeping the pre-order gifts available for just a little while longer because I didn't want anyone to miss out. When you order your copy this week, you can still receive the full collection of bonus gifts, including a birthday rituals guide, an alternative birthday song, colouring pages from the book, and beautiful herbal guides. Order here.