Sacrifice

What are you willing to sacrifice for the one beautiful life you're creating?

We don’t often talk about sacrifice in a gentle or loving way.

It can feel heavy, like something is being taken from us. And yet, every day, we make small offerings—choices that shape the direction of our lives.

Some feel easy to trade. Some require a bit more courage.

For me, it looks like taking a full day each month to disappear into the mountains—time that, on paper, means stepping away from clients, emails, and projects. And when old stories flare up, that time can feel selfish or impractical.

But then I remember this truth:

"If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will become the sacrifice.” (Anonymous)

And the weight of sacrifice suddenly feels different.

It gets lighter when I'm clear on my values—connection and creativity.

When I honor my non-negotiables—my personal autonomy, time in nature, my children.

When I stay rooted in what I’m here to do in this life: support humans in remembering who they are and what they’re capable of.

That clarity doesn’t erase the need for sacrifice. It simply changes its shape.

I still have to choose. I still have to release the comfort of old stories and patterns that kept me safe but small. I still have to sacrifice fitting in, people-pleasing, and the illusion that productivity equals worthiness.

Because the alternative—sacrificing the life I deeply want to build—is a cost I’m not willing to pay.

This past weekend, I co-hosted the Exhale: Women in Leadership Retreat.

Our time together was about releasing—about getting clear on what does not need to be sacrificed. The pieces of ourselves we’ve been giving away without even realizing it.

The parts that are essential to our aliveness, our connection, and our clarity.

So often, the sacrifices we make aren’t the ones that move us forward—they’re the ones that drain us. We sacrifice rest, joy, creativity, intuition, time in nature, boundaries, and truth-telling in order to meet expectations that were never ours to carry. We sacrifice the very things that keep us grounded and whole.

At the retreat, we named this. We felt it in our bodies. We practiced reclaiming what we’ve been unintentionally giving away—our voice, our presence, our inner knowing, our space to breathe.

And it reminded me that sacrifice isn’t just about what we’re willing to let go of.

It’s also about what we refuse to let go of anymore.

Journal:

What are you willing to sacrifice for this one beautiful life?

What do you refuse to sacrifice any more?