I couldn’t notice the sunset. I couldn’t notice someone in need. I couldn’t find the humor or simply enjoy my life – because all my focus was drawn inward, trying to fix or avoid what I was feeling.

Here’s what I’ve learned since then: when the mind is overloaded, the answer isn’t usually more mind.

When things got hard enough, I signed up for a yoga pass at my local studio. Three years and 400+ classes later, I still can’t do a headstand… but what I can say is that my nervous system is calmer and my head is quieter.

The funny thing about yoga is that if you’re thinking about something else, you fall over. It’s genuinely hard to balance on one foot while replaying a difficult conversation in your head. You have to bring your attention to your body – or tip over. An hour of doing yoga doesn’t change a single circumstance in my outer life, but it does do something remarkable to all my mental storytelling. Things just don’t seem quite as big a deal after I’ve spent some time bringing my focus inside my body.

A few months ago, I took this even further with online private Pilates lessons with Jessica Carney. I had a functional medicine doctor tell me years ago that I had virtually no connection to my core – (likely the result of two traumatic C-section births). She’d ask me to engage my pelvic floor or abdominal muscles, and I literally couldn’t get the message to travel from my brain to activate those muscles.

Jessica spent weeks guiding me through the simplest movements – repetition after repetition. To an outside observer, it may have looked like I was just lying on the floor. But those drills began to reignite pathways and wake those connections back up in ways that just being part of a group class hadn’t been able to offer.

Now my posture is better. I’m standing taller, walking differently. I bend over differently. I engage my core even when putting on my shoes. And now my body is doing it naturally, all day long, without me even thinking about it.

Pilates demands presence from me just like yoga. The second I mentally check out in Pilates, I start cheating the movements by using other muscles. By bringing in presence and awareness, I notice my mind is quieter, and my thoughts are more spacious when I’ve completed the session.

Getting out of your head happens when you get in your body.

When you find yourself overthinking or ruminating, the instinct is usually to add more mind to the problem – research it, analyze it, talk it through, find the reasons and the whys.

None of that is wrong, but it’s worth noticing when you’re already overloaded in one direction.

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is get into your body instead.

Go for a walk.
Go to the gym.
Dance.
Hug someone.
Tune into your five senses.
Eat something nourishing.
Take a shower.
​
It doesn’t have to be dramatic.

When you bring the body back into the equation, the mind balances out.
​
What is your favorite way to get back in your body? I’d love to know!
​
You are loved!
​
Delightfully,

brooke

P.S. If you’re curious about pilates – specifically the mind-body connection piece – I can’t recommend Jessica Carney enough. She takes online clients, and her approach is unlike anything I’ve experienced. Slow, specific, and genuinely tailored to your body. Working with her has changed how I move through life.

P.P.S. I’m convinced that yoga and pilates can both be treated as moving meditations. If traditional sitting meditation hasn’t worked for you, then perhaps consider one of these practices as an alternate way to let go of ruminating thoughts.

If you know someone who would enjoy this email,
I’d love for you to forward it to them.
If someone forwarded this email to you,
​Click here to receive weekly emails like this.

“Remember that a lake
can freeze
and unfreeze
a thousand times
and feel no shame.”

-James A. Pearson

This is currently one of my favorite poems to contemplate. It’s teaching me so much about myself.

Most of us believe nature is perfect as it is. And yet… we apply completely different rules to ourselves.

Somewhere along the road of life we may have picked up the belief that “good” people don’t (fill in the blank).

Feel negative emotions?
Get triggered?
React?
Contract?

We pick up judgements about what is right to feel, be, and do,
and what is wrong to feel, be, and do…

Which can end up being quite complicated when what is labeled as “wrong” is part of our human nature.

We can then spend a lifetime trying to fix and change our own nature, when what is really needed is simply to love and accept what is without judgement.

“Remember that a lake
can freeze
and unfreeze
a thousand times
and feel no shame.”

-James A. Pearson

Mother Nature has been one of the most profound teachers of self-compassion for me.

How exactly?

I don’t judge what I see in nature. It simply exists.

So when I notice those same qualities in nature that I’ve been criticizing or resisting in myself, it becomes easier to soften my judgement.

A lake freezes and thaws. Storms come and go. Sometimes it’s sunny and sometimes it’s cloudy. She is destructive. She’s creative. None of it feels wrong in nature.

Seeing this helps me accept the same contrasts and cycles that exist inside me too.

I freeze and thaw.
I’m sunny.
I’m cloudy.
I expand and I contract.
I cycle through my own winter, spring, summer, and fall
I’m destructive.
I’m creative.
I’m fierce.
I’m gentle.
I die and am reborn again and again.

These were once things I judged in myself until nature helped me see them as part of being alive.

Letting go of judgment toward our humanness is a profound step toward embodied love.

It’s okay to still desire healing and growth. But real change becomes much more possible when we stop condemning ourselves for being human in the first place.

Many of us fear that fully accepting ourselves will prevent growth. But underneath that fear is often the belief that shame is what motivates change.

I don’t know about you, but that model has never worked very well for me. Shame feels like the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

I may have dressed it up with aspirational intentions, but I was still bound for defeat the moment my humanness inevitably returned. (And it always always returns…)

Things began to change when I chose to keep my aspirations while letting go of the shame.

I no longer had to choose between being human and growing. I could do both at the same time.

“Remember that a lake
can freeze
and unfreeze
a thousand times
and feel no shame.”

-James A. Pearson

So can you.

You are loved.

Delightfully,

brooke

Yesterday, a client asked me:

“How do I know if I’m doing the work?”

She had just had one of those weeks where she found herself back in a pattern she has been working to change for a long time.

Can you relate?

Maybe you are working on improving something, but those familiar reactions still sneak in, and suddenly you find yourself asking:

“Have I actually made any progress at all?”

So back to the golden question…

How do I know if the work I’m doing is working?

By “work,” I’m referring to inner work—the spiritual journey we all take in our lives toward growth and evolution.

First, let’s look at two different approaches…

FIRST HALF OF LIFE

In the first half of my life, the inner work was all about fixing myself.

And I had very clear criteria for knowing if it was working:

If it was working, I wouldn’t get triggered anymore.
If it was working, I wouldn’t feel anger, shame, frustration…
If it was working, I’d be happy. All the time.
If it was working, my outer life would reflect that—everyone would love me, my business would thrive, and all my problems would disappear!

I had this unconscious belief that…

If I just do enough work, I’ll arrive.

And the problem?

I never arrived.

No matter how much I learned or practiced or tried to “do it right,” life kept bringing me back to the same human experiences.

And every time it did I felt like a failure.

SECOND HALF OF LIFE

The second half of life approach is different.

Second half of life is all about accepting instead of fixing.

And how do I know if that inner work is working?

Here’s the big key:

I will know it’s working if…I am increasing in the love I have for myself, others, and life.

Or to quote one of my favorite spiritual mentors,

“Enlightenment is a series of softenings.” —Richard Rudd

I’ll know the inner work is working when things start to soften.

Triggers soften.
Reactions soften.
Judgments soften.
My heart softens.
My nervous system softens.

→ Notice I didn’t say that all the triggers vanish. But they do start to soften.

Maybe I don’t get triggered at level 10, but now it’s only a 9. Then an 8.

Yet, how many times have I expected myself to go from a ten to a zero and then judged myself for having any feelings or reactions at all?

Triggers are a gold mine for growth and one of the best clues that a part of you is asking to be loved. If you want to explore this idea more, check out: ​Never let a trigger go to waste​.

I still get triggered.
I still feel uncomfortable emotions.
Hard things still happen.

But what has changed for me is what happens after.

AFTER CARE

I often remind my clients that we’re not focusing on eliminating triggers.

We’re not even going to focus on preventing a reaction to a trigger.
(Good luck with either of those being immediately successful, btw.) Instead, what I’m most concerned about is this:

How do you respond to your reaction?

Read that again.

How do you respond to your reaction?

How do you treat yourself after you’ve lost your temper…
After you said something you regret…
After the emotional spiral…
After the same old pattern shows up again…
After that automatic response…

After all of that… how do you respond?

Do you turn on yourself and start judging, fixing, analyzing?

Or…

Do you come back to yourself with compassion?
Do you repair with yourself by offering love to the part of you that reacted?

Because if you don’t change this part…

You can do years of inner work and still feel like you’re failing and something is wrong with you.

But when you shift how you respond to the reaction…

This is where the deepest work unfolds into lasting transformation and you begin to know on a nervous system level that:

No matter what happens, I won’t abandon myself.
No matter what happens, I love and accept myself.
No matter what happens, I am fundamentally okay.

And from here?

Soooooooo much softening.

This is how you know the work is working.

Not because all your triggers and reactions magically went away.
But because you’re becoming more loving towards all of it.

You’re becoming more loving towards yourself, others, and life. Even–and perhaps, especially– if what is happening is not your preference.

Hard things still happen. That’s life. But lasting inner work is the practice of teaching both your body and your mind that you are okay and loved no matter what.

This kind of softening changes everything.

In the wise words of Carl Rogers:
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

If this email made you think of someone else, feel free to forward it on.

And if you’re noticing this in yourself—where you see your own pattern, but still find yourself stuck inside the same reactions—this is exactly the kind of work I guide people through.

Here’s to doing the inner work that really works: Love and acceptance.

Delightfully,

brooke

P.S. If you’re seeing yourself in this pattern, you don’t have to keep navigating it on your own.

I have two complimentary clarity calls available this month where we can look at what’s coming up for you and gently shift how you’re relating to it.

If that feels aligned, you can ​book one here.​

If you’d like to go a little deeper:

→ Begin here: ​Free Meditation ​
A simple way to reconnect, reset, and experience this work for yourself.

→ Continue your practice: ​Meditation Library ($222) ​
A collection of guided meditations to help you move from understanding this work… to actually living it.

→ Get support: ​Book a Clarity Call ​
A space to explore what you’re navigating and see if working together feels aligned. (Complimentary)

If you have any questions, just reply and ask!

]]> https://brookesnow.com/14645-2/feed/ 0 https://brookesnow.com/i-was-wrong-about-conditional-love/ https://brookesnow.com/i-was-wrong-about-conditional-love/#respond Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:57:18 +0000 https://brookesnow.com/?p=14621

A few months ago, I applied for a prestigious coaching position to be on the team of a famous teacher. It was one of those rare moments of seeing a hiring notice where I actually felt qualified.

So even though I wasn’t looking to work for someone else, I followed the nudge to fill out the application.

I was proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone and patted myself on the back for being so “unattached.” I really didn’t care whether I got it or not.

To my surprise, out of the bazillion applicants, I was chosen as a final contender to advance to the next round.

Suddenly, my “unattached” state became a little more attached

And needless to say…

I didn’t get the position.

When I received my “thanks but no thanks” email, I didn’t just feel sad; I felt worthless.

The irony is that I teach and coach clients every day about how our worth is unconditional.

And still…

I forget.

I still forget that I am loved and have infinite worth, no matter what.

Have you ever had a moment where one rejection made you question everything?

My mind is trained to look for the positive and not to “take it personally.” But that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a part of me that feels like a failure when something happens in my life.

I still feel the feelings of failure, unworthiness, and not being good enough.

The difference now is that I know how to show up and support the part of me that doesn’t believe in my worth.

I spent some time feeling the feelings of failure and unworthiness (without telling a story) and offering love to the part of me that was triggered.

I moved through it rather quickly.

In the past, I wouldn’t have moved through it at all.

I would have just stuffed it down and kept going—reading the next book, enrolling in the next program, or setting the next goal to fix myself so I could be better.

I really prefer the new way that takes a few moments to find freedom and wholeness again, compared to the endless search for fixing that never led to an arrival.

Earlier this week, I led a Creation Circle all about the polarity of Unconditional Love and Conditional Love. One of the key takeaways in that experience was differentiating between what is truly unconditional in our lives and what is actually conditional. It’s something I end up teaching every client I work with, and I refer to it often.

Wholeness is not favoring one polarity over another. Rather, it is looking for the gift each side offers and living with a healthy balance.

We do some teaching, journaling, and end with a powerful meditation.

What I love about this conversation is that it helps us see where we’ve accidentally made our worth conditional on outcomes, approval, or success.

And sometimes simply seeing that is what helps us remember what has been true all along.

If you’re in a moment where something external has you questioning your worth, I think this episode could really support you.

I’m sharing a partial recording on the Practicing Wholeness Podcast this week, and I’d love for you to listen.

You are loved.

Namaste,

brooke

Any guesses?

It goes back at least as far as 400 B.C.E.

That’s nearly 2500 YEARS!!!!

No wonder we judge ourselves for feeling emotions that are uncomfortable!
No wonder we stuff them down and try to escape or numb or disassociate from them!
This has been deeply ingrained in our collective psyche for millennia!

We can all blame Plato. (Sorry, Plato. I still think you made some great contributions, but you also missed a few things.)

Plato is well known for his allegory where he imagined the soul as a charioteer, driving two horses: one wild and impulsive, the other noble and disciplined.

The wild horse, driven by passions and desires, pulls us toward instant gratification.
The noble horse, guided by honor and virtue, aims higher.
The charioteer—the rational mind—tries to keep them balanced, steering the soul toward truth and enlightenment.

The takeaway has largely been that emotions are unruly, dangerous, and best kept in check.

Somewhere along the way, this story became a rulebook for life—teaching us to numb, ignore, and judge our feelings as if they were enemies to conquer.

We’ve inherited this belief from ancient philosophies that prized reason above all else, as well as cultural narratives that equated emotional expression with weakness.

But here’s the irony…

This war against our emotions hasn’t freed us, it’s trapped us.

Our nervous systems bear the cost as they get stuck in cycles of stress and dysregulation.
Our relationships fracture under the weight of unspoken truths and unresolved pain.

The truth is, emotions aren’t the problem—they’re the messengers.

And my oh my, how we love to “shoot the messenger”.

When we learn to listen, rather than suppress, we begin to heal—not just ourselves, but the way we connect with the world around us.

Last week Kate challenged the long held belief that our thoughts create our feelings. New research is showing that our feelings more often create our thoughts…

And what creates our feelings????

The Nervous System.

If you want to go to the root of basically everything, you go here.

As soon as I shifted my own model for creation to begin with feelings first (at the base level of the Nervous System) oh my goodness, everything fell into place.

Kate has been one of those pivotal mentors who came into my life right when I needed it. Right when my own nervous system was stuck in an intense season of fight/flight/freeze. I have so much gratitude for her.

She is one of the most spunky, fun, brilliant, loving, and wise women I know. And what she has taught me has filtered into every area of my life.

Yes, her program is about money (which is one of the #1 stressors for many),

AND…

The principles she teaches transcend money and touch every single area: Marriage, health, parenting, work, happiness, purpose, …

I know I keep talking about her course, but I can’t help it. I want to share her with you!!!

Her FREE TRAINING continues this week. And even though it has already started, it’s not too late to jump in and get the replay from Day 1, and join for Day 2, and 3.

By the end of her training, you will get an entire 6 hours of FREE content, but you have to catch it now before it goes away. Yes, she will pitch you her program at the end (which is 100% worth doing btw…), but if you don’t want to pay to do her big program, you can still walk away with 6 hours of content that can be a big pivot moment in your life.

Come join for Day 2 and 3 and I’ll see you there! 

Let’s Co-Create something great!

You are loved!

Delightfully,

brooke

I have a confession to make.

I think heaven might be kind of boring.

What????

I know—but hear me out.

I’ve thought about this since I was a little kid. Contemplating the “next life” was something I often wondered about. And as much as people through the eons have done their best to dream and describe what they imagined heaven to be, it all sounded kind of boring.

I’m sure with 8 billion people on the planet, there are probably 8 billion versions of what we each desire as a personal heaven.

I personally don’t really want to sit on a cloud and play a harp.
I don’t want to wear a white robe and wander through fields all day.

Maybe that would be nice for a moment…

But for eternity????

I think it would get boring pretty quickly.

Regardless of what people think heaven is like, I’ve noticed that we all tend to have one thing in common with the “heavens” we like to imagine. And the common thread is not so much about what is present in our desires as much as what ISN’T present.

So what is the common missing component?

Challenge.

Or said a few other ways…

Darkness. Shadow. Pressure. Uncertainty. Dissonance. Discomfort.

We tend to associate these traits instead with “hell”.

But what if hell is less about the presence of pain and more about our war with it?
What if the suffering comes not from the shadow itself, but from our belief that it should not be here?

So many of us spend years believing that if one more thing changed, healed, or disappeared, THEN we could finally feel peace.

If my body were just healthy…
If my job were more fulfilling…
If my partner were more romantic…
If my kids would just listen…
If people would just accept me…

THEN…I could finally thrive.

Then, it would be heaven.

But what if heaven isn’t the absence of the shadows of life?

What if heaven is when we finally stop resisting what is?

The very thing you’re trying to escape or wish away may be the doorway to the peace you want.

If this is all it takes, we can all find heaven right now—in the present moment.

And, I have a feeling that this is the life that is NOT boring.

It’s a life full of growth, unexpected surprises, and so much colorful richness—because our hearts are now open to far more possibilities.

I love this topic so much. This week on the Practicing Wholeness Podcast, I’m exploring Why We Need the Shadow.

I’ve spent most of my life resisting shadow and thinking it needs to go away—believing my deep happiness and fulfillment lie in some future moment when things are finally peaceful and perfect.

Mother Nature can teach us a lot about why we need the shadow in order to thrive.

It’s not in the way.
It IS the way.

If you’re currently carrying your own challenge in life and wishing it would disappear so you can finally feel peace, come explore this with me.

The heaven you long for may be sooner than you think.

You are loved.

Delightfully,

brooke

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Sunday, April 12, 2026
12:30-2:00 p.m. MT
Zoom
FREE

We are exploring the polarities of unconditional and conditional love and why we need both. Come with an open heart and your journal. A partial replay will air later on the podcast, but the group discussion is only for the live experience—and it’s my favorite part! Come live if it feels aligned.

“Faith and fear cannot coexist”…

But is it true?

I had a moment this week when some painful memories surfaced, and I felt a surge of fear rush through my body.

My throat tightened.
My stomach clenched.
My breathing stopped.
Tears sat right at the surface.

I was caught in the pain of the past…
and the fear it could repeat itself in the future.

(That feeling of being out of control is so real when our fears involve other people’s behavior.)

This kind of emotional flashback used to happen to me multiple times a day.
It’s far less common now… but my goodness, do I know those body sensations like a well-worn path.

I used to freeze and spend the day caught up in the fear.

But not anymore.

Fear and I have a different relationship now.

One where both my fear and my faith are welcome… at the same time.

Instead of staying closed and frozen—
judging the fear and wanting it to go away…

I open.
I relax my body.
I let the energy move through.

And I turn toward the part of me that’s afraid with love.

“Hello there, dear.
I know you’re afraid right now.
It’s okay to feel fear. Let it be here.
I love and accept you.
You are welcome here.”

In a way, it’s the part of me that has deep faith…
embracing the part of me that still gets scared.

And when both are allowed to be here together in love…
the fear naturally softens, and my body returns to neutral.

This week’s Practicing Wholeness Podcast is all about how to work with fear instead of fighting against it.

The more I’ve made friends with my fear, the more my faith has grown.

Faith that my future will be better than my past.
Faith that the world is a good place.
Faith that I can feel safe in my body… and in my relationships.
Faith that I really am healing and creating the life I want to live.

Maybe fear and faith don’t cancel each other out.

Maybe they work together.

And maybe making space for both is one of the keys to real peace.

You are loved.

Both the fearful part of you
and the faithful part.

They both belong.

Namaste,
 

brooke

P.S. If this sounds great in theory but impossible in practice, I’d love to support you. I’m gifting two complimentary coaching sessions this month to anyone in my community needing support. Maybe one of them is for you? Check it out here. 

It’s been a long time coming.

Fun fact: I’ve been a podcaster since 2015, and this is the fourth podcast I’ve created. (Not to be confused with episodes… yes, this is an entirely new show.)

If you’re thinking, “Wait… isn’t Creator Field Notes publishing three episodes a week right now?” — yes. That content has been pre-recorded and scheduled out for the rest of the year. And I’ve been so eager to finally have a space to talk about what’s alive for me now… that I started a whole new show.

I’m excited to devote myself to exploring the topic of Practicing Wholeness, and this week’s intro episode dives into what those words mean to me.

This new show is different from my past work in a few key ways.

This is really pushing my edges, but I also feel that humanness in the age of AI is needed now more than ever. I’m pushing record and seeing what comes out — mistakes and all.

I don’t know about you, but I honestly don’t need any more information. What I do need is integration. My hope is to provide a bit of both in this podcast.

I realize it may not fit neatly into the typical podcast lifestyle to bring in meditation, journaling, or somatic inquiry — especially when most people listen while doing other things — but I’m doing it anyway. It’s time we integrate instead of just consuming more content.

The first half of my life was about striving and becoming and fixing myself. I’m now leaning into a softer, more expansive way of living — one rooted in self-acceptance. You will find no shortage of experts telling you how to improve. The art of acceptance is much less explored, and I’m finding it to be (ironically) the most transformative work I’ve ever done.

I’m tired of podcasting being such a solo experience. I need people. If you’ve ever listened to my past work and wished you could discuss the episode topic, this will provide a wonderful opportunity to do just that. (Details on the first one coming next week!)

I’m excited for this new adventure, and I hope you’ll join me.

You are loved.

Namaste,
​

brooke

​LISTEN HERE ON ITUNES​

​LISTEN HERE ON SPOTIFY

I first heard this wise counsel last year, and I’ve found myself offering it up as a gem of wisdom in all my deep conversations.

It feels fitting to write on this topic this week, because I have been all sorts of triggered

• Triggered by current events.
• Triggered by media.
• Triggered by hormones.
• Triggered by AI.

They’re likely all connected, because everything is.

So what does it mean to not let a trigger go to waste?

In the grand scheme of life, our triggers are invitations. They are catalysts for growth. If…. we don’t waste them.

Wasting a trigger happens when we get lost in the emotional story the trigger surfaces, and we find ourselves back in a victim pattern that we get stuck in. Worry, frustration, anger, and fear can all get stirred up in triggers that are still caught in a cycle, instead of using the trigger to break free.

Last summer, I attended a four-day coaching event where I was able to get coached by a dozen different coaches earning their certification. Want to know the topic I was coached on over and over again?

My fear of my audience.

Yes. My fear of my audience who reads my emails and listens to my podcasts.

Want to know why I was so afraid?

Because I thought something I might say could trigger someone. And I DID NOT want to trigger anyone!

This is one reason I took an 8-month break from podcasting. I found myself so ultra-curated in every word I was saying that the real Brooke became invisible.

Funny how it’s not just our own triggers that affect us, but we can also fall into trying to manage everyone else’s triggers, too. And when we do that, we disappear.

That might look like:
​Not saying how you really feel because you don’t want to trigger someone.
Not setting boundaries because you don’t want to trigger someone.
Not being yourself, because you don’t want to trigger someone.

We trade our authentic self for what we think is someone else’s peace.

It was during this intensive coaching week that I had a massive breakthrough.

When I scanned my life of my biggest triggering moments, I finally saw how triggers represented the most transformative parts of my life. Those were the moments that I finally got so fed up or fired up that I took a new action or broke through to a new mindset.

Triggers represented my biggest moments of growth–when I allowed them to be used that way.

Never let a trigger go to waste.

I look at triggers differently now. I still spend a moment in the emotional fire they can bring, but I now see my reactivivity as an invitation to transform something or discover something.

The best part of realizing my triggers are potential growth for me is seeing how they can also be that for someone else.

What if someone gets triggered by me sharing my feelings or point of view?

Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing afterall. It could be the exact catalyst they need for their own journey.

This is the perspective I’m finally taking with my own work. I’m not going to worry anymore if someone gets triggered by something I say. I’m responsible for my intention and my heart, but beyond that is out of my control. And getting triggered is just an invitation to see something within ourselves.

Practicing Wholeness is learning to welcome the triggers. Don’t shoot the messenger. Take a moment to find what the message really is, and open yourself to what can come next if you let it.

You are loved.
Even the parts that get triggered.
Especially those parts.
​

Namaste,
brooke

​

P.S. Does this topic interest you? Check out this podcast episode from my breathwork teacher, Steven Jaggers where he teaches about it in more detail HERE.

Welcome to the Law of Creation.  

What you’re about to learn in the next 8 lessons is the foundational lesson for my Creation Course Programs. These lessons set the stage for everything I teach and will serve as our continual reference point. It is here with these basics that we learn the framework of creation.

These lessons are so impactful and hold the potential to dramatically change your life if you let them. If this is all you ever learn from me, I hope it serves you well. If you love these lessons and want to take them to the next level by integrating them more into your life, check out my Creation Course series, which I’ll link in the show notes.

Information alone does not change us, but implementation does. I hope you’ll love these lessons and pass them on to those you love as well.

Want to start with a free gift?

 Download the See the Divine Self meditation here → [DOWNLOAD]

If you’d like to go a little deeper:

→ Join my Newsletter: Practicing Wholeness Newsletter

Join Brooke Snow for weekly stories and insights for a more grounded, wholehearted life

→ Come to a future event: LIVE event

A collection of guided meditations to help you move from understanding this work… to actually living it.

→ Get support: 1 on 1 Coaching with Brooke

A space to explore what you’re navigating and see if working together feels aligned. (Complimentary)

→ Continue your practice: Meditation Library

A collection of guided meditations to help you move from understanding this work… to actually living it.

If you have any questions, just comment and ask!

I wrote this email all by myself. 

That wouldn’t be such a notable accomplishment for most of my life, but somehow in 2026 it seems like a big deal.

I don’t know if you have noticed the same trend that I’ve noticed…

How the voices of so many people I have loved learning from now all strangely sound the same? 

I have spent enough time using chatGPT to instantly spot the nuances of how AI speaks. So when my favorite teachers show up in my inbox and I start to read their newsletter and hear those AI catch phrases I get a little sad. 

Today I scrolled instagram and paused for a reel of someone I intentionally followed, and all I could hear in their perfectly scripted message (most likely being read from a teleprompter on their phone) was chatGPT. 

What’s the point of me following them now? 

What is most sad to me, is that I deeply love how every human has a unique and different personality. And the reason I signed up for a newsletter or followed someone was not so I could get an AI flavored clone of who they are. 

For part of 2025 I used AI to smooth out my email newsletters. While I always write my first drafts myself, I fully confess to falling into the illusion that AI can say it better. That I’m not “good enough” on my own. 

There were also a few emails I used in a marketing sequence last year that I didn’t write at all. (Selling is my least favorite content to write). I’ve trained AI on hundreds of examples of my past writing to know my voice well enough to be able to generate some content without writing a first draft. I felt a flood of shame when a friend reached out raving about one of those AI generated emails and I felt compelled to confess AI was the true author (even if it was trained by me on my own content and further tweaked by me afterwards).

I understand how AI can take away the burden of writing so people can focus on what they really want to do. But if writing is the part I personally love and teaching and sharing my perspective is part of my unique gift I can offer the world, why would I outsource it?

Because it’s faster?

Maybe we need a slow writing movement just like the slow food movement. Just because it’s faster doesn’t mean it resonates the same.

Last year I took an online course from Natalie McNeil called AI Dream Team, so I could learn more about how to ethically utilize AI in my business and train my own GPTs to play different roles in my business.

One of the most meaningful questions she posed in her course was something I’m still contemplating.

She said now more than ever we need to ask ourselves,

“What does it mean to be human?”

I could write an entire separate article on that question alone. For now, I feel compelled to share that for me, being human means being imperfect. Having some quirkiness. And perhaps, not sounding like a trained robot or too perfect. It also means working through the burden of writing because it stretches me and the resistance brings growth.

I’ve spent all morning writing this email. AI could have written it in ten seconds.

But…

It wouldn’t have sounded exactly like me and more importantly I wouldn’t have gotten the transformation that sitting with my own thoughts and trying to work through it slowly on my own can bring.

Writing my weekly reflections for my newsletter is a spiritual practice for me. It connects me to something bigger and deeper than a ten second AI “prompt and churn” can replicate.

Authenticity is one of my highest core values. And if I’m repeatedly getting disappointed in my favorite teachers offering me an AI cloned version of their insight, then I need to ponder that deeply.

I do use AI for many things (especially after Natalie’s epic training). I love it for brainstorming ideas, planning, breaking things down into smaller projects, trouble shooting, organization, writing things I dread writing (like sales pages and marketing automations). I use it all the time and have so much gratitude.

And…

I’ve also decided to commit myself to an Authenticity Promise:

When it comes to my newsletter emails, substack articles, podcast/YouTube content, it will be 100% human.

There will most likely be grammar errors in my writing. I’ll probably stumble on my words sometimes or go down rabbit trails with long run on sentences or tangents just like I do when having conversations in real life…

And maybe that is part of the magic.

Especially when those perfectly imperfect conversations are now disappearing. I know it’s what my own soul is longing to hear from others so I’m committed to honoring this standard for myself. 

If you too are wondering about the ethics of AI as well as how to utilize it in ways that feel correct and supportive for your unique life, then I highly recommend Natalie’s training. She’s offering a free webinar to dive into these same topics. I love her work so much I asked her if I could be an affiliate and share her work with you. She is my trusted mentor when it comes to all things futurist. I love her heart and values and ability to find the middle way. 

In the meantime, I’d love to know your own thoughts. What does being human mean to you? 

Comment in this thread HERE and the real me will happily respond.

You are loved.

Especially the most human parts of who you are.