When I started a newsletter on LinkedIn, I loved the idea of women rising.
That is what I called it: She Rises.
But She Rises isn't about women climbing corporate ladders, building businesses, earning more money, or reaching professional milestones.
It's about something much deeper.
It's about a woman's rise in conscious awareness of her relationship with herself.
It's what happens when she begins to recognize the patterns, beliefs, and protective mechanisms that have shaped how she sees herself, what she believes she deserves, and how she shows up in her relationships.
She begins to see where she's put everyone else's needs ahead of her own, where she's been seeking approval, overgiving, people-pleasing, or silencing her own needs to keep the peace.
And perhaps, for the first time, she starts asking herself:
What do I really want? What do I believe about myself? And what would it look like to honor who I am?
That is where something begins to shift.
Becoming conscious of our patterns
When we begin practicing mindfulness, meditation, yoga, breathwork, or other forms of self-awareness, we create opportunities to see ourselves differently.
We begin noticing the thoughts, emotional responses, and old beliefs that may have been running our lives without our awareness.
Some of these patterns developed as ways to protect ourselves, maintain connection, or feel loved and accepted.
But what once helped us navigate life may no longer serve the woman we are becoming.
Through awareness, self-compassion, and intentional inner work, we can begin to loosen the hold of those old patterns. We can learn to respond rather than react, honor our needs, establish healthier boundaries, and build a more loving relationship with ourselves.
And something beautiful happens when we do.
Our relationships begin to change, too.
When one woman rises, others can rise
I believe that our personal growth has a ripple effect.
When we become more conscious of how we communicate, listen, respond, and relate to others, we change the energy we bring into our relationships.
We may become less reactive, more compassionate, more honest, and more willing to take responsibility for our part.
That doesn't mean everyone around us will grow alongside us. Some people won't be ready, and that's okay. We cannot do another person's inner work for them, nor is it our responsibility to save the world.
Our responsibility is to keep coming back to ourselves.
Yet I believe that every time we have an aha moment, release an old belief, or choose a more conscious response, something shifts beyond us, too.
I've experienced this through wonderful coaches who held space for me to discover more of my own awareness. They didn't need to have all the answers. They were willing to be human, acknowledge their own mistakes in communication, and meet me with honesty.
That gave me permission to look at myself with greater compassion, too.
Eckhart Tolle has spoken about the power of presence in our interactions with others. He teaches that when we bring awareness into a conversation, we can listen and respond differently rather than becoming caught up in our habitual thoughts and reactions.
As he writes:
"When you are present, when your attention is fully in the Now, Presence will flow into and transform what you do."
I love this because it reminds us that we don't always have to say something profound or do something extraordinary to influence another person. Sometimes, simply showing up with greater awareness changes the quality of an interaction.
Sometimes we are part of someone else's growth, too
As I've done my own mindfulness and personal growth work over the years, I've looked back on relationships that have ended and noticed something interesting.
There were times when the men I had been in relationships with seemed to carry new awareness into their next relationships. I could see ways in which they had grown, or things they had begun to understand about themselves and relationships through our time together.
I don't believe this means I was responsible for their growth. And certainly, not every relationship unfolds that way.
But it helped me recognize something important.
We can be part of someone's growth without being part of their forever.
Sometimes a relationship teaches us what we hadn't been able to see before. Sometimes we are challenged to look at ourselves, communicate differently, or recognize patterns that need our attention.
And sometimes, two people grow in different directions.
That doesn't mean the relationship was a failure or that the time spent together was wasted.
Perhaps we were catalysts for one another, each taking something valuable into the next chapter of our lives.
I find something rather beautiful in that.
Your relationship with yourself matters
One of the things I've come to understand through my own journey is that the relationship we have with ourselves influences every other relationship we experience.
When we look outside ourselves to be rescued, validated, chosen, or made to feel worthy, we can unknowingly give away our own power.
We may begin to believe that someone else's love, attention, or approval is what makes us whole.
But what if we began from a different place?
What if we allowed our own worth, needs, and authentic selves to become central to how we live?
What if love wasn't something we had to chase or earn, but something we could begin cultivating within ourselves?
When we develop a loving relationship with ourselves, we no longer need another person to define our value. We can enter relationships because we want to share our lives, not because we need someone else to complete them.
And from that place, we have a much greater opportunity to experience healthier, more fulfilling connections with others.
When she rises, she creates room for others to rise
I don't believe we ever arrive at a place where we've figured it all out.
I'm still growing, learning, becoming more aware, and discovering new things about myself. Being the best version of myself doesn't mean being perfect. It means being willing to see myself honestly, meet myself with compassion, and keep choosing growth.
This is what I want for other women, too.
I want you to recognize the patterns that may be keeping you from experiencing the love, peace, and connection you desire. I want you to trust yourself, honor your needs, and feel confident in who you are, regardless of what is happening in your relationships.
And I want you to know that you don't have to lose yourself to love someone else.
Through my work as a women's relationship and personal growth coach, I hold space for women to explore these patterns, reconnect with themselves, and discover new ways of relating to themselves and others.
Because when a woman rises in her awareness of who she is, she doesn't just change her relationship with herself.
She changes how she shows up in the world.
And when she rises, others have the opportunity to rise, too.
