The Hips Gate™ shows up when movement becomes real. I saw this clearly in a past friend. She was always “about to move.” About to leave. About to change jobs. About to start fresh. And for years, nothing actually changed. Every time an opportunity required real movement—packing, relocating, choosing something irreversible—her body would slow everything down. Suddenly she was tired. Suddenly the timing was off. Suddenly she needed to “think about it more.” From the outside it looked like procrastination. It wasn’t. Her hips would lock the moment change stopped being an idea and became a physical reality. Staying uncomfortable felt safer than moving forward. That’s the Hips Gate tightening. When this gate is unregulated, life stays in preparation mode. Plans circulate. Momentum stalls. Familiar discomfort becomes home. It’s not laziness. It’s not lack of desire. It’s the nervous system saying, “We don’t know if it’s safe to move yet.” Some of you aren’t stuck because you don’t want change. You’re stuck because your body learned that movement meant loss. Notice where your body slows when forward motion becomes unavoidable. That’s information. Not something to force. Something to recognize.

Stop letting people demonize your rest. Rest is not laziness. It’s not a character flaw. It’s not something you need to justify. Some of my clearest ideas, biggest shifts, and most aligned decisions came when I stopped doing and allowed myself to rest. Not hustle-rest. Not “earned” rest. Real rest. They’re calling it “bed rotting” now — as if stillness needs to be mocked so productivity can stay on the throne. But here’s the truth most people won’t say: Rest is where integration happens. Rest is where clarity lands. Rest is where creativity reorganizes itself. A nervous system that never rests cannot create anything new — it can only repeat what it already knows. If your body is asking you to slow down, listen. If your mind gets clearer when you rest, honor that. If your best ideas come in stillness, protect it. You don’t need to defend your rest. You need to trust it. Let them keep glorifying burnout. You’ll be over here receiving insight.

May this season bring peace into your home, clarity into your decisions, and ease into the life you’re building. I’m grateful to share this space with you and walk into the new year together.

I used to pride myself on having Plan A, B, C, and D. I called it being “prepared.” In reality, it was a lack of trust. Having multiple backup plans didn’t protect me—it diluted my commitment. Plan A never had the chance to stabilize, mature, or reform because I was already halfway out the door, scanning for an escape. When the plan wobbled—as all real plans do—I interpreted that as proof it wasn’t working, instead of a normal part of the process. Here’s the truth most people avoid: A plan doesn’t work because it’s perfect. It works because you stay with it long enough for your mind, nervous system, and decisions to organize around it. When you commit fully, the plan evolves. It adjusts. Opportunities rearrange. Your perception sharpens. Your behavior becomes consistent. But when you stack plans like armor, you end up living every single one of them—through chaos, exhaustion, and constant redirection. The mind is powerful. It knows how to make a plan work once you stop signaling that you don’t trust it. Commitment is not rigidity. It’s trust long enough for intelligence to activate. Most people don’t fail because the plan was wrong. They fail because they never let one plan breathe.