Why The Feed Went Quiet

SPEAKER_00 0:05

The first half of 2026. What started as a health journey unexpectedly became less than work worthiness and remembering to listen to myself. Today I'm sharing what led me to the front and addiction. I didn't know I had why I'm taking the summer off of the podcast. And what is about calibration? Because changing your mind isn't always. Welcome to Greeks of the Rise with me, Sarah Hope, where spiritual wisdom meets practical tools and short bite-sized episodes. These are tasters, not deep dive, meant to spark curiosity. Rise creep. Some of you may have noticed that I didn't release a new episode last week. And for that, I apologize. Part of the reason was practical. I scratched my cornea. And if you have ever done that, you know it is unbelievably painful. I spent a couple of days avoiding screens and doing as little as possible. But if I'm being honest, that wasn't the only reason. I've also been in a bit of a funk trying to figure out what I'm doing this summer. And part of that has been struggling to feel inspired. Now, it's not that I don't have ideas. Trust me, I have ideas. I probably have a list of a hundred different topics, for instance, I would love to talk about on this podcast. But having a list of things you could create and actually feeling excited and inspired to create them are two very different things. Lately, I've found myself sitting down to work, specifically on the podcast, and realizing that while I could make myself produce an episode, I really just wasn't feeling that spark, that sense of curiosity and excitement and

When Forcing Turns Into A Signal

SPEAKER_00 2:17

eagerness to share that usually tells me, yes, like this is the thing to talk about right now. And that got me asking some bigger questions. Have you ever had a plan that seems perfect? You know, one you thought through carefully, you set up responsibly, you feel really good about. And then somewhere along the way, you realized it wasn't actually the right plan after all. Yeah, like that's kind of where I'm at. And honestly, I think it's part of a much bigger shift that's been happening for me in the past couple of months, really since last December. And I want to talk about it because I know I am not the only one who has experienced the whiplash of realizing that what you thought was the perfect path or solution, what was going to be easy and aligned, actually just isn't going to work. You know, sometimes, and it's so easy to view those moments as failures, we assume something is wrong with us, especially if we've got some sort of programming that makes shame or guilt our default. And sure, occasionally maybe it is that we are procrastinating or avoiding something or acting from fear. But sometimes, sometimes we're recalibrating. So let me ask you before we go any further, is there anything in your life right now that you keep trying to force? Something you've convinced yourself should work, something you've been pushing and pushing and pushing. And if you're honest, is it possible that what looks like failure is actually an invitation to recalibrate? Is there something your life has been trying to teach you that you've been too busy, too busy pushing to hear? I talk a lot about people pleasers and the journey they go on. You know, how at first they say yes to everything and then they realize that's not so healthy. So they swing hard in the opposite direction. And oftentimes there's a period where they just say no to everything because they haven't learned that middle ground, right? They only know how to say yes to everything, so then they say no to everything, and then eventually, hopefully, they settle somewhere in the middle where they're able to say yes to the things they genuinely want to say yes to and no to the things they don't. I think that is exactly where I am at right now. Just not in relationships, but in my work. And talking about it gets me a little emotional because the catalyst for all of this came from a place I never

A Health Journey And GLP-1 Choices

SPEAKER_00 5:07

expected. Back in November, I started taking Zet Bound. Now, before I go further, let me be crystal clear. I am not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice. This is simply my personal experience. So here it is. For years, I have struggled to lose the weight I gained during pregnancy. Before I moved south, I owned a fitness studio. I was teaching movement all day long. Staying fit was not some incredible feat of discipline. I literally worked out for a living. And then life changed, right? I moved south with all this delicious southern food. And I had a baby, which changed my body so much. I gained almost 50 pounds during pregnancy. And afterward, I lost exactly what my son weighed, nine and a half pounds, big baby. And then I just stayed there. I recalibrated at 40 plus pounds overweight and could not shift the needle. And while I certainly cared about how I felt in my body, and let's be honest, what I looked like, what really concerned me was my health. Cardiovascular disease runs heavily in my biological family. A few years ago, I learned that I have very elevated LP little A, which is a genetic risk factor associated with heart disease. Side note, I very much recommend reading Dr. PD Peter Attia's book, Outlive. He does a whole section on LP little A, why it's something you should test for. I am going to link the book and I'll find a couple podcast episodes on it for you in the show notes, because it was a real game changer bit of knowledge for me. And I feel like everyone should get tested so that they know their marker for this, especially if cardiovascular disease runs in their family. Again, I'm not a medical doctor, uh, but Dr. Peter Atia is. So I'll link all of that for you. Anyway, for me, between my two and a half times what it should be, LP little A, my family history, my father's strokes and eventual passing, my inability to move the weight needle despite years of trying, having a number of friends try a GLP one and have really good success with that. And listening to a podcast that I will link for you with Dr. Salas Whalen, I finally just tried, decided to try Zetbound myself. And I think it's important to note here that I had a tremendous amount of resistance and hesitation about going on this medication. Not just for medical reasons. Of course, I was a little bit leery of that too, uh, but for spiritual ones, or maybe emotional reasons is a better way to put it. I felt like I was cheating. Uh, I felt like I wasn't doing enough. I felt like it was kind of giving in. And honestly, I was really afraid of being judged by the spiritual community, by my peers, by my clients. I have spent years studying consciousness, meditation, visualization, the mind-body connection, energy medicine, all of these practices that teach us that our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and awareness influence our experience of reality. And I believe that. I still believe that. Some of my favorite books and teachers and mentors have shaped my life through those ideas. But here's what started happening for me. For years, I was doing all these things related to getting to a healthier weight. I, you know, visualized, I meditated, I worked with limiting beliefs, I examined emotional patterns, I did the practices along with all the lifestyle stuff. And while those approaches created profound shifts in many areas of my life, they were not helping me lose weight. And eventually that started to really mess with my head. Because when you deeply believe in something and it doesn't seem to be working in one area of your life, it is very easy to start second-guessing everything. I talked about this in episode 135 regarding manifestation. You know, for me, it also translated to feeling like I was somehow a fraud. I remember thinking multiple times, how can I teach these principles to other people when I can't seem to use them to make this one simple thing in my life budge? I know there are people listening who have felt something similar, maybe not about weight, maybe about some other aspect of healing, maybe about relationships or money or anxiety. You've done the work, you've read the books, you've practiced the practices, you've held the vision, and yet the thing you're trying to change still hasn't changed. And maybe somewhere along the way, you've quietly concluded that you're failing, that your consciousness isn't evolved enough, that your frequency isn't high enough, that you're missing something everyone else seems to understand. Maybe, but I don't think that's necessarily true. What I've come to realize, especially in these past few months, is that sometimes accepting help is part of the lesson, whether that's from a mentor, a teacher, a therapist, a drug. Sometimes the growth isn't in proving that we can do it alone. Sometimes the growth is in letting ourselves be supported in whatever way is actually going to help us get to the next step. Sometimes the help we resist most is the help that finally opens the door we actually need to walk through. Sometimes the thing we're trying to change isn't the thing that's actually asking for our attention. Before I move on, if you're someone who's curious about GLP1 medications, I'll put a few resources in the show notes that I found incredibly helpful. One is a podcast interview, like I mentioned, with Dr. Selah Swalin. Another is her book Weightless. Whether or not you ever choose to go that route, I found her approach thoughtful, balanced, and very practical. So here was my big surprise.

The Unexpected Gift Of Quiet

SPEAKER_00 11:53

The most important thing Zetbound has given me isn't weight loss. Though let's be honest, it's been great. It isn't better lab results, though I'll take those two. It isn't even improved health, though I am grateful for that aspect. What it gave me, what I never expected it to give me, is enough space and quiet to see parts of myself I couldn't see before. It helped me recognize patterns I had been living inside for years. How? Let me explain. A few weeks after starting Zetbound, especially right after I increased my dose, something really strange happened. Now look, I cannot prove the medication caused it. I only know that the timing was striking. It was like the volume got turned down on all the voices in my head that constantly said, work harder, do more, push through, don't waste time, get ahead. Like suddenly all of that got quieter. And in that quiet, I started noticing things. I looked at my son and realized how little energy I had left to play with him at the end of the day. I looked at my husband and realized how often I was saying goodnight and then heading back downstairs to work for another hour or two and what that was actually doing to our relationship. I knew that one of the reasons I'd wanted to improve my health was so that I could live a longer, richer life. And yet I wasn't actually living the life I was trying to protect. I had this destination addiction. I was working constantly. And that's when it got really uncomfortable. I've always known addiction runs in my family. For years, I thought I'd somehow dodged that bullet. I never struggled with alcohol, I never struggled with drugs, I never struggled with any of the things people typically think of when they hear the word addiction. And all of a sudden, I realized, oh, this is my version of that. I am addicted to work. I am a workaholic. Now, don't get me wrong here. I love what I do. I love teaching. I love this podcast. I love facilitating retreats. I love working one-on-one with my clients. But loving something and being addicted to it aren't mutually exclusive. And I had to admit that a lot of my drive just wasn't coming from joy. It was coming from proving. Trying to prove something. Let me ask you, what are you trying to prove? Not to me, not to your spouse, not to social media, to yourself. Where in your life are you still chasing worthiness? I was still trying to prove that I was valuable, that I was successful, that I was worthy. A few days before Christmas, I had a complete breakdown. I talked about this in the manifestation episode. I just wasn't yet ready to talk about how I think Zebbound played a role in it. But that breakdown, it ended up becoming one of the greatest gifts I've received in a long time. Because ever since then, I have been slowly unwinding. I've been asking, okay, what actually

Work Addiction And Worthiness

SPEAKER_00 15:41

matters? What feels nourishing? What feels joyful? What am I doing because I genuinely want to do? And what am I doing because I feel like I should? Which brings me to the summer. I have been really looking forward to it. You know, I had it in my head that all of the things that needed to be unwound would be. I would only have left what I really care about on my to-do list and a lot of extra time because the kiddo was in camp all day. And typically my clients go on a lot of vacations, so my schedule is lighter. So I thought, you know, I was going to be stepping into a season of like real spaciousness, you know, having plenty of time to, you know, not only do one podcast episode a week, maybe even get ahead so that I was ready for the fall. You know, I'd finally have all this space. And here's the funny thing, you know, my plans were wrong. My private practice is busier than ever, which is wonderful. I mean, truly wonderful. New clients are walking through the door that I am just so excited to work with. Uh, so I feel like deeply grateful for what's happening in my private practice. But it also means that all this magical free time I thought was waiting for me isn't. And somewhere along the way, in these last two weeks since summer officially started, I realized that what I actually want isn't more time to catch up. Oh, I'm getting emotional again. You know, I want more freedom to enjoy. I want afternoons at the pool with my kid. I want spontaneous adventures. I want long wants. I want conversations. I want rest. I want space. My kid said this morning that he would just love to have one morning this week where he skipped camp and got to just hang out at home with me. And every fiber of my being wants to say, absolutely, let's make that happen. And I can't. And that kills me because I only get so many summers with my little boy. And every year, that number gets smaller. If I'm lucky, I probably have ten summers left before he's grown and building a life of his own. Ten. And I don't want to miss them. I said that last year, which is why I took the summer off. And I thought that wouldn't be necessary this year. But it turns out I was wrong. It is. So I am choosing to stop pushing. I am choosing to stop creating unnecessary deadlines for myself. I'm choosing to listen, to rest, to enjoy, and to remember that life is not something I need to earn. Joy is not something I need to earn. Rest is not something I need to earn. And maybe the most important thing is that I'm realizing I need some time to recalibrate. I feel like lately I've been a bit of a broken record about worthiness and proving yourself. I mean, these are certainly

Taking Summer Off And Staying Connected

SPEAKER_00 18:52

topics that have been coming up with my client and definitely internally, and they're important. But I really think I need a break so that I can let all of this really integrate and settle to see what emerges when I stop forcing myself to fill every available space, which means I am taking the summer off from creating new podcast episodes. Now, don't worry, I won't disappear completely. Over the summer, I'm going to re-release some of the episodes that I think are the most important, most useful, or most worth revisiting. And for members, I'm actually kind of more excited about what I'm going to do for you because I'll be creating bonus contemplations, guided practices, ways to deepen that material. Because sometimes growth doesn't come from learning something new. Sometimes it comes from going deeper into something we already know. For this episode, I'll be sharing both a reflection worksheet and a guided contemplation centered around the theme of recalibration. Together, they will help you explore where you might be striving, forcing, or trying to prove your worst while gently listening for what feels nourishing, what feels constrictive, and what your heart might be asking you to pay attention to. You know, sometimes the answers we're looking for, they don't come from pushing harder. They come from getting quiet enough to really hear ourselves. If you're not a member yet and you're curious about it, feel free to click on the link in the show notes and it'll send you over to Patreon where you can get a week free to check things out. I will be back with new episodes in September. Hopefully rested, hopefully inspired, hopefully with a little more clarity about where this podcast wants to go next. And that's actually where I need your help. What do you want to hear more about? Consciousness, emotions, limiting beliefs, meditation, spiritual practices, shamanic work, guests, no guests. I genuinely want to know. So send me a message. Click the link in the show notes, send me an email, Sarah at risingwithsarah.com, and that's Sarah with an H. Let me know. Because while this podcast may come through me, it's ultimately for you. So I hope you have a beautiful summer. I hope you slow down. I hope you listen to yourself. I hope you spend time with the people you love. I hope you soak up the sunshine and the laughter and the long evenings and all the little moments that make this season so special. And if you're finding yourself changing your mind about something this summer, if you're realizing that the plan you made six months ago no longer fits, maybe that's not failure. Maybe it's wisdom. Maybe it's recalibration. And through it all, don't forget to know who you are, love who you've been, and be willing to do the work to become who you are meant to be.

Final Reminder And Disclaimer

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal, and seek the support you need to thrive.