The Hidden Strength in the Release

Why we can't bypass emotions (even if we really want to)

There’s something sweet about progress that sneaks up on you.

You’re doing the work. Not expecting a trophy. Just showing up, trying your best, wondering if it’s even making a difference.

And then—out of nowhere—someone says,
“Hey, I think you’re ready for more.”

That’s what happened when I was invited to the intermediate Pilates class this week.

It lit something up in me—not because the moves are fancier, but because it felt like a quiet yes to all the invisible work I’d been doing behind the scenes.

What surprised me most is how the intermediate class isn’t about big, flashy exercises—it’s about transitions.

You move from one thing to the next without stopping.
No collapsing in the in-between.

And in those transitions, I learned something that hit me hard:

The real work is in the release.

Take a push-up or a chin-up.
Sure, lifting yourself up is hard.
But the part where you lower yourself down slowly—that’s where the strength builds.

If you just drop, you miss the transformation.

You can let the springs on the reformer do the work for you.
No one might even notice.

But you will.
You’ll know you skipped the part that would’ve made you stronger.

And that’s exactly what we do with emotions.

We’re hit with something—grief, shame, fear—and we try to “power through.”
We skip the release.
We get busy.
We distract ourselves.
We tell ourselves we’ve already dealt with it.

But if we don’t allow the feeling to move through, it gets stuck.
And it doesn’t stay silent.
It leaks out.

Twenty years ago next month, my mom died from breast cancer.

She was my best friend—we talked every day, laughed constantly, and shared everything.

When she passed, I had no tools. I didn’t know how to process the tidal wave of grief, so I did the only thing I knew:
I shoved it down.

I stayed busy.
I tried to hold it all together.

But a year later, I developed celiac disease.

I can’t prove the two are connected—but I can tell you that ignoring my emotions didn’t make them go away.
They just moved.
They started showing up in other areas of my life—especially as resentment.

I kept trying to fill the hole left by my mom, and I was furious that no one could.
I put that expectation on my husband.
I was asking him to heal something that wasn’t his to fix.

That was my wake-up call.

I started learning.
Researching.
Studying emotional intelligence and the sneaky, exhausting ways we try to avoid our feelings.

And eventually, I stopped trying to bypass the release.

That’s what inspired Home Compass—a safe, structured space to release emotions without spiraling into the story.

You don’t need to explain or analyze.
You don’t even need to know where it came from.

You just need to feel a little bit—and let it go.

We tap.
We breathe.
We visualize.
We realign our home and our body with the five elements.

And we do it gently, consistently.
Like a little emotional workout a few times a month.

Just enough to let the steam out of the kettle.

And over time?

You stop being afraid of your emotions.

You build strength.

You know what to do when something hard rises up.

You stop skipping the release.

Curious about joining? Let's talk.

We’re taking a short break in June,
but the next round of Home Compass starts in July—and I’d love to see if it’s the right fit for you.

👉 Book a one-on-one with me here.

If you’re an alum who wants to return—yes, there’s an alum rate.
Let’s reconnect and get you back in.

And if you’re feeling the tug toward something deeper—stay tuned.

In July, I’m launching the advanced class, where we’ll shift from releasing externalized emotions in the home…
to internalized emotions stored in the body.

That’s a whole different kind of strength—and I’d love to tell you more about it.

DM me, email me, or book a time here.
I’d genuinely love to connect.

Let’s build the kind of strength that can’t be seen—
but is always felt.