We’ve been brainwashed to believe a lie about ourselves and our world:

That we’re linear, that time is linear, and that our path to any goal or desire should be linear, too.

And, that if we fall off the linear path, we’re lazy, not disciplined enough, not a hard enough worker, or that there’s just something wrong with us.

Two weeks ago, we hosted our first big live event since 2018 and it was GLORIOUS.

Even though it was a lot of work, we went over budget, and it left us like happy little limp noodles, we’re an unequivocal yes to doing it again (with some tweaks, upgrade, and enhancements, of course.)

Relaxed Money Live was a wild success and a wild expansion.

Getting to hug 150 of our Relaxed Money students from around the world who flew in from as far as Slovenia? A dream amongst dreams.

Getting to lead experiences that can only be done IRL and are never gonna translate to the online experience, no matter how good AI and VR get? It was beyond our wildest expectations.

We followed it up with a photoshoot that included 13 friends modeling for us, 2 beautiful locations, and a million dresses.

It was a double whammy of expansion that, tbh, was too much in too short of a period of time.

What I know about myself is that I have a tremendous capacity for going out. I’m a Manifesting Generator, a 7 on the Enneagram, and a through and through extrovert.

But the older, more honest, and more regulated my nervous system becomes, the more I also crave the contraction after the expansion.

I no longer believe the lie of linearity like I did after my first book, Money: A Love Story, came out and I thought there was something wrong with me when I crashed after a book tour that included The Today Show, and live events in NYC, DC, Maine, and more.

Now I know that I am nature.

In nature, things are cyclical. There’s a season for planting, for full bloom, for harvest, and for laying fallow.

Now I know enough to leave time for the harvest and fallow phases, even when, especially when, I’ve gone past my edge with my blooming (like 3 days of live events plus a full-day, 13-model, 2-location photoshoot in a week.)

After the photoshoot I knew enough to keep my schedule sparse. To schedule a spa day and time with my feet in the sand with one of my best friends who requires zero performance. A friend who re-folded all the little clothes in my kids’ drawers and built an airplane out of a box with them while I took care of some errands with Mike. (Get yourself friends like that.)

I know enough to know that after expansion comes contraction…and that if I do the contraction on purpose, my body won’t need a full on collapse to get my attention.

I do not do this perfectly. I wrote Do Less because it’s directive is very much one of the biggest lessons in my life curriculum.

But every time I overdo it, I listen a little more closely to myself. I build in a little more conscious contraction. I dissolve the lie of linearity that still lives in my cells a little bit more.

We get to expand and go wild in our outward joy, creation and expression.

And the more we build in the space for stretchy pants, aimless puttering, and staring out the window in concert with those expansions, the safer our bodies will feel to go big the next time we have the chance.

Expand. Contract. Expand. Contract. Expand.

It’s how we were all born, so it’s how we must all live.*

All my love,
Kate