She Stopped Hiding Her Light

And a stranger looked her right in the eye and said something she will never forget.

She was moving fast. Head down. Eyes on the floor.

The place was loud and crowded and she did not want to be there. So she did what she always does in places like that.

She made herself small.

Moved quickly. Took up as little room as possible. Kept her light tucked somewhere safe inside where nobody could see it and nobody could touch it.

And then something happened.

Not a big thing. Just a nudge. The kind that comes from somewhere deeper than thought.

She stopped. She stood up straight. She opened.

Like a door she had forgotten she could unlock. Like a window that had been painted shut for so long she had stopped noticing it was there.

She just opened.

And that is when she appeared.

An elderly woman. Beautiful in the way that only comes from a life fully lived. She had one of those smiles — the mischievous kind. The kind that tells you she has seen everything and is still delighted by all of it. And her eyes had that twinkle.

She looked right at her.

Hello. How are you today? I am excited to see you.

Not nice to meet you. Not hello how are you in the way we say it without meaning it.

Excited. To see her.

A stranger. Who had never laid eyes on her before. Who somehow knew the moment she opened that there was someone worth seeing.

She is me.

I have been doing a 21 day giving challenge. And what I have discovered is that the most powerful thing I can give has nothing to do with material things.

It is this. My light. My presence. The willingness to stop hiding and actually show up in a room.

Why Women in Perimenopause Stop Shining

Here is what I know after working with women at this threshold.

Perimenopause does not just change your hormones. It changes your sense of self. The woman you have been is making way for the woman you are becoming. And that process is disorienting in ways nobody warned you about.

The exhaustion is real. The sleep disruption is real. The fog, the racing heart at 3am, the feeling that you have lost track of yourself somewhere in the middle of taking care of everyone else.

And when you are that exhausted, that depleted, that far from your own center, the light goes underground.

Not because it is gone. Because you do not have the energy to hold it up anymore.

So you tuck it in. You move fast. You look at the floor. You make yourself small in crowded rooms and quiet in conversations and invisible in your own life.

And you lie awake at 3am wondering why you feel so far from yourself.

The Light Was Never Gone

Here is what that elderly woman taught me in ten seconds.

The light does not leave. It waits.

It waits for the moment you stop running. The moment you stand up straight. The moment you give it permission to be seen again.

And the moment you do, the right people notice. Not everyone. Not the whole room. But the ones who are meant to.

The woman with the mischievous smile and the twinkle in her eyes. The one who was excited to see you before she even knew your name.

Because she recognized something. The light coming back on.

Why Rest Is the First Step

You cannot shine when you are running on empty. You cannot open when every part of you is braced against the next thing. You cannot show up in a room when you have not slept properly in six months.

Rest is not the opposite of shining. Rest is what makes shining possible.

When your body finally gets the deep rest it has been asking for, something shifts. The light that has been waiting underground starts to find its way back up. Not all at once. Gradually. The way all real things change.

Sleep is the door. Rest is the bridge. Coming home to yourself and your light is the destination.

And it starts with five nights.

What to Do Tonight

Before you close this tab and go back to your day, try this.

Wherever you are right now, feel your feet on the floor. Both of them. Solid and grounded.

Slowly lengthen your spine. Roll your shoulders back and down. Open your chest.

Put on the most mischievous smile you can manage. The one that says I know something delightful. Hold it for ten seconds.

Notice what happens in your body when you do.

That is the light. It was always there.

If Something in You Just Exhaled

I created something for the woman who is ready to rest deeply enough to find her light again.

It is called the 5 Night Rest Experience. One guided hypnosis meditation. Five nights. A simple tracker to notice what shifts.

It is free. It takes eleven minutes a night. And it was made specifically for women in perimenopause who are wide awake at 3am and exhausted by noon.

→ Download the Sacred Rest Mediation Here 
and 5 Night Sleep Tracker Here.

Your light is still there. It just needs permission to rest first.

With love,

Cassidy 💚

P.S. The woman with the mischievous smile and the twinkle in her eyes? She is you. She has always been you. She is just waiting for you to open the door.