I rarely get up early enough to see the sun rise and I was grateful to have an important reason to show up on that chilly Colorado morning. In my journal I wrote, “I knew it was going to be a great day. The sunrise was beautiful, very pink, and the first song I heard when I turned on KDUR was Bill Withers singing ‘Lovely Day.’

Because of COVID, she wanted to do a no-contact pickup, so she had the chair waiting for me on her porch. When I saw the chair, there was a bright yellow note stuck to the chair with duct tape that read “your face is like sunshine.” I couldn’t believe it - “Stacy Raye of Sunshine” is my nickname (and IG handle - @stacyrayeofsunshine)! I thought it was totally bizarre and amazing but figured it was just a delightful coincidence.

When I think of my clients and all of the deep internal reflection and bold external actions they’ve taken in service of their dreams and goals, I’m in awe. In awe of their bravery to move forward even when they’re scared. In awe of their pursuit of what makes them feel the most alive. In awe of how they now see choices in circumstances where they previously thought they were stuck. In awe of all the ways they choose to show up more fully for themselves as well as who and what matters most to them.

My judgy inner critic was having a heyday with all that I was getting wrong. I was judging my levels of doing AND being. My inner critic told me that I wasn’t doing enough, not doing the right things, not making enough time for being with my sporadic range of emotions. Beating myself up for not exercising more, not resting more, not getting more done, not magically becoming a world class chef, not [insert one million other things I “should” be doing]. It’s NOT helpful energy.