Returning to the Real You

Opening Overview
This session explored what it means to come home to yourself when life feels like a performance. We looked at the hidden cost of trying to be ‘good’, ‘spiritual’, or ‘together’, and what happens when you stop playing roles and start being real.

Key Shifts & Insights
Realising that even ‘spiritual growth’ can become a performance trap
Noticing how avoiding discomfort keeps old habits in place
Acknowledging the pain of constantly managing how others see you
Understanding that ‘being yourself’ isn’t something you achieve – it’s what’s left when you stop pretending
Feeling the pull to return to a deeper sense of truth, even when it’s messy

Core Teachings or Concepts
We spoke about the subtle ways people perform – even in spaces meant for honesty and growth. Whether it’s trying to be the ‘good girl’, the spiritual one, or the one who always holds it together, these identities often keep people stuck in patterns they’re trying to escape.

The session gently uncovered the difference between living from truth and managing perception. Many shared how tiring it is to always be ‘on’ – even with friends, partners, or in personal development work. But beneath that exhaustion is something tender and true.

The real work isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about noticing what you’ve been doing to avoid simply being who you already are. And that’s not easy – because it often means facing things you’ve spent years avoiding.

Big Takeaway
The journey back to yourself isn’t about fixing or improving. It’s about dropping the mask, loosening the grip, and remembering that the you behind it all was never broken to begin with.

The Illusion of Being Broken

Opening Overview
This session explored the deeply held belief that something inside us needs fixing. Through stories, reflection, and gentle challenge, the group looked at how this belief shapes behaviour and blocks peace. The conversation invited a fresh understanding—what if there’s nothing wrong with you at all?

Key Shifts & Insights
Realised how easily “something’s wrong with me” becomes the hidden lens shaping life
Noticed how often people try to solve problems that don’t exist, based on false assumptions
Recognised the safety and familiarity in holding on to a struggle, even if it hurts
Saw how old emotional patterns stay in place, not because they’re true, but because they’re familiar
Shifted from trying to ‘fix’ to simply noticing what’s already here

Core Teachings or Concepts
At the heart of the session was a quiet but powerful truth: nobody is broken. The group explored how most suffering stems not from what’s happening, but from the belief that we’re supposed to be different. Once that belief is questioned, a lot of internal noise starts to fall away.

The idea that emotions or patterns need to be ‘cleared’ or ‘healed’ was also gently unpacked. Sometimes, what’s needed is not change, but space. When we stop identifying with the problem, something new can emerge on its own. The group explored the difference between doing change work to get away from discomfort versus recognising that peace is already here when we stop resisting ourselves.

There was also a reminder that growth isn’t about efforting towards a better version of ourselves. It’s often about stopping the exhausting game of self-improvement long enough to see what’s true underneath.

Big Takeaway
The part of you that thinks you’re broken is just scared. When you stop trying to fix yourself, you might find there’s nothing missing after all—just a quiet, steady sense of okay-ness that was there the whole time.

Letting Go of the Need to Get It Right

Opening Overview
This session explored the subtle tension between wanting things to be different and the quiet power of letting go. Instead of chasing insight or progress, we looked at what happens when we soften the pressure to ‘get it right’—in our healing, our thinking, or our lives.

Key Shifts & Insights
Realised that over-efforting—even in personal growth—can reinforce the same old struggle
Saw that peace often comes not through fixing, but through stopping the inner chase
Noticed that even wanting to ‘feel better’ can become another trap
A few members shared how slowing down or “doing nothing” actually shifted something internally
Recognised that the mind will always want something to hold onto—but the truth doesn't need to be grasped

Core Teachings or Concepts
There was a gentle thread running through the whole session: the futility of trying to ‘think our way out’ of discomfort. When we’re constantly evaluating ourselves—whether we’re doing life right, healing right, or even being ‘present’ properly—it creates more tension. The more we try to force clarity or insight, the further it can seem to slip away.

We explored the idea that peace isn’t something to achieve but something that emerges when we stop interfering. Like muddy water settling when left alone, clarity often appears when we stop stirring things up. This isn't about giving up—but about letting the truth reveal itself without chasing it.

The group also touched on how even helpful practices or insights can become rigid when clung to. There was permission to drop the ‘shoulds’—even the quiet ones hiding behind spiritual or self-help language—and simply be here, mess and all.

Big Takeaway
Sometimes the most profound shift comes when we stop trying to shift anything. In that quiet space, where there’s no more effort to get somewhere else, life has room to move again.

You’re Allowed to Feel All of It

Opening Overview
This session centred on the deeper layers of grief, numbness, and emotional disconnection. Members explored how early experiences can lead to shutting down or minimising feelings, and how safety often becomes tied to not feeling too much. What emerged was a powerful sense of permission—to feel, to soften, and to trust what arises without needing to fix it.

Key Shifts & Insights
Realising how deeply ingrained the instinct is to disconnect from emotion
Noticing how numbness often covers grief or helplessness
Understanding that "feeling broken" is often a sign of deeper feeling returning
Recognising that safety patterns from childhood can still run our adult emotional responses
Feeling permission to stop trying to be okay, and just be
Discovering that deep peace can include tears, grief, and mess
Beginning to soften without needing to analyse or fix

Core Teachings or Concepts
The group explored how many people learn early on to shut down their emotional responses—either to survive chaos, stay safe, or avoid upsetting others. Over time, this numbness becomes a habit. It’s not that we don’t feel, but we become skilled at keeping our feelings distant, buried, or out of reach.

We looked at how this disconnection isn't a personal failing—it’s something the nervous system does to protect us. But as we grow, these patterns can start to feel like cages. We may feel “fine,” but also flat, unmotivated, or emotionally distant. Often, what sits under numbness is grief, loss, or a young part of us still holding fear.

Rather than trying to fix or analyse these feelings, the invitation was to be with them. Just noticing. Letting things move when they’re ready. This isn’t about becoming more emotional—it’s about letting what’s already there have a place. Tears, stillness, silence—all were welcome. And in that space, something soft opened.

Big Takeaway
Sometimes, not feeling anything is a sign we’ve been feeling too much for too long. When we stop trying to be okay and gently meet ourselves as we are, healing begins without force. You don’t need to fix what you’re feeling. You just need space to feel it.

The Pressure to Feel Good

Opening Overview
This session explored the hidden pressure to feel good all the time, and how that expectation can create more tension than ease. We looked at what happens when we make peace with feeling bad and stop trying to force ourselves into better states.

Key Shifts & Insights
Not wanting to feel something is often the thing that keeps it in place
The demand to “feel good” can become its own trap
Peace often comes when we stop fighting our current state
Judging ourselves for feeling low adds another layer of suffering
Acceptance can shift things naturally, without effort

Core Teachings or Concepts
The group examined how the modern self-help world often pushes the idea that we should feel good, be high vibe, or stay positive. While well-meaning, this message can make people feel like they’re doing something wrong when they feel flat, low, or numb.

We looked at the paradox: when you let yourself feel bad without trying to change it, things often shift on their own. The real trap is the inner demand to feel something other than what’s here. Letting go of that demand is what allows space for peace, clarity, or change — but only if it happens honestly, not as a sneaky strategy to feel better.

There was a shared recognition that trying to think your way out of a low state often backfires. The body knows. You can’t fake peace — it comes when the fight stops. And sometimes, that means being deeply okay with feeling awful.

Big Takeaway
You don’t need to feel good to be okay. The moment you stop arguing with what you’re feeling, something quiet and peaceful opens up — and that might be enough.

What Are You Available For?

Opening Overview
This week’s session explored what happens when we declare what we’re truly available for—whether it’s abundance, peace, love, authenticity, or anything else. But rather than focusing on surface-level desires, the group was invited into the uncomfortable, powerful territory of what gets stirred up underneath when we make those declarations.

Key Shifts & Insights
Declaring what you’re available for can stir up hidden patterns and unprocessed pain
“I don’t know” can be a doorway to panic or freedom, depending on your relationship to the unknown
Several members touched deep layers of grief, disgust, unworthiness, and even evil—and stayed present with them
Resistance often masks as overthinking, story-spinning, or the urge to fix
Love isn’t something you do—it’s the space you become when you stop trying to get rid of anything
One member found joy so intense it felt terrifying
Others shared how contrast and space allowed them to stop reacting and simply receive

Core Teachings or Concepts
At the heart of this session was the understanding that you can’t just decide what you’re no longer available for. You must also face what you’ve been avoiding. When you declare “I’m available for peace,” the parts of you that are not peaceful often rise to the surface. This isn’t failure—it’s the invitation.

The idea of “I don’t know” was introduced as a powerful edge. It can be a trap if it leads to panic, but if you can stay in “I don’t know” without trying to fix, escape or explain, it opens into possibility, even peace.

We explored how anxiety is often resistance to the body’s natural process of release. Attempts to label, fix or understand the feeling can block it. Instead, creating space—literally sitting in and feeling it—allows it to move.

A strong thread ran through the session around unloveable parts—those parts of the self that feel shameful, evil, repulsive or disgusting. The teaching here was clear: these parts don’t need to be changed, they need to be loved. And loving them doesn’t mean thinking nice thoughts—it means staying present and becoming the space in which they’re allowed to exist.

Big Takeaway
You don’t need to fix your past, rewire your mind, or ‘do the work’ to earn peace. You just need to stop abandoning the parts of yourself that already feel left behind. When you become the space, love walks in. And when love walks in, the game changes—not because you got it right, but because you finally stopped trying to.

The Words We Use Create the World We See

Opening Overview
This session explored how our language reveals – and shapes – the patterns we live by. Members shared vulnerably about shame, stuckness, and old identity loops, while the group gently uncovered how subtle shifts in awareness can open the door to more authenticity, peace, and ease.

Key Shifts & Insights
 *Saying intentions out loud helped many recognise the energy behind their habits
 *Chronic ‘doing’ often masks a deeper identity belief – like “it’s all up to me”
 *Some members shared that their system now ‘shuts down’ when they act from old ego patterns
 *One powerful share revealed how shame from a past affair was still running, until it was met with honesty, understanding, and freedom from self-judgement
 *Another member confronted a deep identity belief of “I am worthless,” and glimpsed what opens when that lie is seen for what it is
 *Several members noticed emotional or physical responses (headaches, fatigue, energy spikes) as signs of internal resistance dissolving
 *The group saw how distancing others in the ‘social panorama’ is an internal map, not external truth

Core Teachings or Concepts
The session circled around the idea that every word we use has energy – it either expands us or contracts us. Words like “have to,” “should,” and “must” are often clues that we’re operating from a limited lens. By becoming aware of our language, we can start to see where we’re unconsciously reinforcing a version of reality that doesn’t serve us.

Several times, the conversation returned to identity patterns – not just what we do, but who we think we need to be in order to feel safe, loved, or in control. When someone says “I’m always doing,” it’s often not the doing itself, but the belief “if I stop, everything will fall apart.” That belief becomes a lens that filters our reality.

A central theme was the difference between behaviour and being. You can stop a behaviour, but if the identity behind it is still running, the system will recreate the pattern. The real shift comes when we realise that the pattern was never the truth – and from that realisation, new choices become possible.

Big Takeaway
You’re not stuck because of who you are – you’re stuck because of who you think you need to be. And when you let go of the idea that it’s all up to you, or that you're inherently wrong, there’s a deeper presence waiting underneath – one that’s already peaceful, already whole, and already free.