(I may start adding brackets for readers as personal notes to add depth to my experience piecing this together. Where I had my own 'Ah-ha!' moments.) Rule 1: Power Scales With Safety Emotional magic does not respond to willpower. (I always wanted to be max-willpower. Admitting this felt like a massive weight of armour off. It's forcing inauthentic emotions to try overpower the genuine nervous-system experience I was told was weak to feel anything other than strong.) It responds to perceived safety. Not objective safety. Nervous-system safety. If the system believes there is threat, all magic reroutes to survival. (It's incredible that we can be physically safe, but emotionally/mentally under siege and expressing the same stress responses.) That is not dysfunction. That is design. What Safety Actually Means Safety is not comfort. It is the absence of imminent harm. A system can feel unsafe even when life looks stable. Safety answers these unconscious questions: - Am I allowed to exist right now? - Will expression cost me belonging? - If I stop bracing, will something bad happen? If the answer is “I don’t know,” power throttles down. (Not knowing is one person's hell, or another's adventure, dependent on self-trust and stress tolerance.) How to Tell If You Are Chronically Unsafe Chronic unsafety does not feel dramatic. It feels like: - Constant low tension. - Difficulty resting even when tired. - Overthinking simple decisions. - Humor used as armor. - Productivity without satisfaction. - Emotions that feel “too much” or “too pointless.” This is not a personality. It is a system that has forgotten how to exist without tension. Regardless of whether it is perceived, self-assumed, or reaffirmed externally. (Majorly guilty of this.) Why Magic Fails Under Unsafety When unsafe, the system: - Narrows attention - Prioritizes prediction over presence - Trades curiosity for control - Locks interpretation into worst-case framing This makes emotional work feel:

Interpretation is one of the most dangerous magic systems because it operates BEFORE consent and AFTER sensation. You feel first. Then interpretation decides what that feeling means. And meaning determines motion. Interpretation as a Magic System Interpretation is the spell that turns raw experience into narrative. It does not change events. It changes trajectory. Two people can live the same moment and walk away with different futures because interpretation chose a different frame. Even though this is a story, it is not a metaphorical. This is mechanics. Its Element: Meaning Interpretation works with meaning the way fire works with oxygen. Meaning feeds motion. A moment without interpretation passes through the body and fades. A moment given meaning embeds, loops, or launches. Interpretation decides whether an experience becomes: - A lesson - A wound - A warning - A calling - A story you repeat until it feels like fate Its Function: Orientation Every interpretation answers three silent questions: 1. What does this say about me? 2. What does this say about the world? 3. What does this require next? You rarely hear these questions. You feel their answers. Fear accelerates. Hope steadies. Shame constricts. Curiosity opens. Interpretation is the hidden hand on the rudder. Its Speed: Immediate Interpretation is fast. Often faster than language. This is why the first story tends to feel true. Not because it is accurate, but because it arrived early. Early meaning sets the default spell. Unless interrupted, it runs. Common Misunderstandings Misunderstanding 1: Interpretation is rational Most interpretation is somatic first, verbal second. The body decides safety before the mind drafts reasons. Misunderstanding 2: Interpretation equals truth Interpretation is not reality. It is a proposal about reality that the nervous system accepts or rejects. Misunderstanding 3: Changing interpretation means denial Reinterpretation is not pretending nothing happened.

(I'm shifting my style for this to short and punchy because my nature is to go on tangents. I'm shooting for clear and concise sections. I asked ChatGPT to help form a structure so I can fill in the blanks and find hidden angles that help it become fully coherent.) - Would love to know if anything specifically resonates for you? - How does this feel as an intro section? Preface: An Invitation, Not an Explanation This book does not ask you to believe anything. It asks you to notice. Most people come to emotional work because something hurts. That is understandable. But pain is not the enemy here. Stuckness is. You are not reading this to eliminate emotions. You are reading this to understand why some of them refuse to leave. This system treats emotions as forces rather than flaws. Not obstacles to overcome. Not puzzles to solve. But motions that want to be completed. You do not need to be calm to begin. You do not need insight. You do not need discipline. You only need enough curiosity to ask: “What is happening in me right now, and what is it trying to do?” If you can ask that honestly, the system will meet you halfway. Nothing in this book requires perfection. Only participation. The Law of Motion Every emotion enters the system to move. To inform. To act. To resolve. When an emotion is allowed to complete its motion, it returns to rest. When it is interrupted, denied, rushed, or frozen, it does not disappear. It stalls. Stalled emotions do not rest. They loop. Motion Is the Natural State Emotions are transient by design. They rise, crest, and fall like breath. Fear prepares. Anger protects. Grief honors. Desire orients. Joy refreshes. Hope steadies. Gratitude grounds. None of these were meant to become permanent residents. When an emotion becomes chronic, something has interrupted its motion. What Stops Motion Motion is interrupted when: - An emotion is judged as unacceptable - Expression is unsafe - Action is forbidden - Meaning is imposed too early

It's been a bit, friends! I've been reacclimating to a drastically different lifestyle in NZ. From freedom to 50-60hr workweeks and little left in the tank to give in the downtime. Seasons change, but my ambitions don't! I aspire to make emotional intelligence more accessible so we can have more aware, intentional, and purposeful lives. I'm trying to mould all my interests of human wellbeing in a spiritual, scientific, experiential and energetic sense into one tangible, universal thread. I present to you: Emotions as a Magic System! The epic @Brendan OCallaghan has begun my cover art behind the scenes. the first drafts have been epic, yet it may evolve in a few playful ways. But he just took it upon himself behind the scenes and surprised me with it on his own terms, so I'm supremely grateful that to have a cover in motion helps the concept feel it has a soul. I'm going to post the entire book piece by piece so we can turn it into a living conversation and stack it all in a new course. It will be FREE here, but eventually published and sold elsewhere. (Our little secret and thanks for being a part of the community. 😎🫶 First and foremost: I'm torn between the Titles: And without knowing more, what impressions do you assume you'd get based off of those title options?

What does it mean to truly live with purpose? To choose courage over comfort, authenticity over approval, and service over self? In this episode, I sit down with @Dan 'Remmy' Stourac — author, speaker, and cancer survivor — for a deeply inspiring conversation about what it means to live an intentional, value-driven life. Remmy shares his powerful story of surviving childhood cancer, navigating survivor’s guilt, and transforming that pain into purpose. From his time as a counselor at a kids’ cancer camp to living out his mission of service and authenticity, Remmy’s life is a blueprint for courage, faith, and conscious evolution. We explore: ✨ Finding meaning through adversity ✨ Survivor’s guilt and the call to live “twice as courageous” ✨ Spirituality beyond religion ✨ Building authentic relationships rooted in honesty and value ✨ Redefining success and living in alignment with your true purpose This is a conversation about healing, growth, and the beauty of living your truth — no matter where your journey began. 🎧 Watch or listen now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1YeErwO_CtE?si=wjcW8nM9SjrsyAb1