Living and Leading from the Inside Out: Cycles, Simplicity and the Power of Slowness

I wonder if you can hear the quiet revolution that’s unfolding.

It doesn’t come with hashtags or a 5-step method. It doesn’t promise overnight success. It asks for something far more interesting which is listening to your body. Honoring your rhythms. Remembering what you already know.

In a culture that glorifies speed, productivity, and linear progress, choosing slowness can feel like being lazy or opting out. Especially for women who’ve spent a lifetime internalisng the belief that they must earn rest, prove their worth, and keep all the plates spinning.

But what if we’ve been measuring success with the wrong metrics?

The Fallacy of Linear Living

We are cyclical beings trying to make do in a linear world.

We’re taught to move in straight lines from degree to job to promotion to retirement. But our energy doesn’t work that way. Our creativity doesn’t work that way. Our lives don’t work that way. So why are we operating this way!

Just look at nature. The moon cycles through phases. The seasons wax and wane. There are times of blooming, times of shedding, and times of rest. Why should we be any different?

And yet so many women I work with feel guilt when they’re not “on” all the time. They worry they’re flakey, inconsistent, or unmotivated. But more often than not, what they’re experiencing is a mismatch between how they feel and what the world expects of them.

Recognising your cyclical nature isn’t an excuse to opt out. It’s a path back to sustainability. It helps you stop pushing when you need to pause. It gives language to the seasons within you: the winters of introspection, the springs of possibility, the summers of creation, the autumns of letting go.

Once you name these cycles, you can stop fighting them. And when you stop fighting yourself, you get your energy back.

The Nervous System as Compass

When I began coaching, I thought the goal was to help people find clarity and take brave action. And it still is. But I’ve come to understand that clarity means nothing if your nervous system isn’t on board.

Many of us are stuck in survival mode. We’re constantly scanning for danger, adapting to a world that asks us to override our needs every single day. To care without rest. To produce without pause. To say yes when we mean no.

It’s no wonder we’re burnt out. It’s no wonder we can’t access joy.

Supporting the nervous system isn’t just a nice to have,  it’s a form of strategy and leadership. Because when your system feels safe, you can hear your intuition. You can make decisions from a place of wholeness, not urgency and you can rest without guilt.

This is how we begin to live from the inside out. Not chasing what the world tells us we should want, but following what feels true on the inside.

Joy, Play and Deliciousness (Yes, Even Now)

One of the most subversive things you can do in a world that wants you exhausted is to feel good.

Joy, play, beauty are often seen as frivolous. I wonder if we can flip that and see them as fuel. They remind you of who you are beyond your roles and responsibilities. They bring texture to the everyday. They help you come home to yourself.

But joy requires presence. And presence requires space. This is why slowness matters.

I often ask my clients: what would bring just 5% more deliciousness into your day?

It might be lighting a candle before you open your laptop. A walk between meetings. Saying no to the thing you don’t really want to do. Choosing softness over speed.

These are the things over time that anchor and shift your days.

Experiments Over Blueprints

One of the myths of modern life is that there’s a “right way” to live or work. But there’s no formula for a meaningful life, only experiments.

This is especially true for those of us who are neurodivergent, highly sensitive, caregivers, creatives, or living with chronic stress. We can’t outsource our inner knowing to a checklist. We have to keep coming back to what’s true for us.

Instead of setting rigid goals, what if you framed your life as a series of experiments? - What happens when I sleep more? - What happens when I stop trying to be everything to everyone? - What happens when I prioritize joy?

Living in this way is more fluid, more forgiving and it is also liberating!

You stop waiting for permission. You stop asking for approval. You start living in real-time with your needs, your body, your truth.

And that is leadership.

The Slow Way Is Still a Way

We are not behind. We are not failing. We are remembering ourselves.

Piece by piece. Season by season.

We’re reclaiming time and energy not as resources to spend, but as sacred parts of being human.

And in that remembering, we are creating something quietly radical: lives that feel like ours. Work that feels nourishing. Rhythms that sustain instead of deplete.

This is how we lead. This is how we heal. This is how we come home.

You’re not too slow. You’re right on time.