What are you still holding on to from the past that no longer fits the life you are living now?

Sometimes we keep things because they carry memories, love, grief, or a connection to someone we miss. Letting them go can feel like we are letting go of the person too. But there comes a time when holding on can begin to take up the very space we need for the life in front of us.

In this deeply personal episode, Dr. Phyllis shares her decision to finally let go of a couch and table that belonged to her parents. These were more than pieces of furniture. They represented family, loss, and years of memories. But she has reached a point where releasing them no longer feels like betrayal. It feels like permission to make room for what comes next.

This week’s reflection:

What are you holding on to from the past that is keeping you from fully being present in your life today?

In this episode:

(1:10) How do you know when it is time to let go of what no longer fits?

(2:20) Losing her mother and stepping into a new role within the family

(3:17) Recognizing her mother was trying to pass the baton before she died

(4:52) Grief, responsibility, and becoming task focused after loss

(5:20) Why Dr. Phyllis struggled to let go of her parents’ belongings

(7:31) Holding on when you have not yet had the space or time to grieve

(8:03) The family table and couch that carried decades of memories

(10:11) Realizing it is finally time to let them go

(11:44) Why releasing possessions does not mean betraying the people you love

(13:14) How caring, fear, and autopilot can keep us holding on

(14:33) When the past starts getting in the way of experiencing your present life

(15:03) Why you cannot live in the past and be fully present at the same time

(16:35) Giving yourself permission to grieve, release, and make room

(17:22) A “landing moment” to identify what you keep climbing over in your life

(18:33) What do you need to let go of to make room for your new season?

Your next step is already waiting: a guide called What’s Yours to Carry — and What Isn’t, made to walk you through your own plate and help you start sorting this is mine from this was never mine. Go get it at thebelowthecircle.com.

Nothing has been wasted. It’s not too late to land — whole, aligned, free.

———

Get your guide → thebelowthecircle.com

Below the Circle with Dr. Phyllis · Stop circling. Start landing. 🕊️

If your life looks good from the outside, but underneath it all you feel worn through, this episode is for you.

You can be deeply grateful for your life and still be tired inside it. Both can be true. The people you love matter to you. The work you do matters. You would choose much of this life again. But when you spend years noticing what everyone needs, picking up responsibilities, and carrying what others cannot see, even time off may not reach the tiredness underneath.

This episode names that hidden weight and reminds you that exhaustion is not proof that you are ungrateful, weak, or doing life wrong. God sees the parts no one else sees, including what you carry quietly.

This week’s reflection:

What truth about how tired you are have you been spending energy trying to hide?

In this episode:

(1:23) Two truths that can exist together: gratitude and exhaustion

(3:18) Why you are allowed to be tired inside a life you are grateful for

(3:48) Proverbs 14:13 and the pain a heart can carry even during joy

(4:36) Dr. Phyllis shares her own experience of success, responsibility, and deep depletion

(8:47) Why your schedule may not be the real reason you feel worn out

(10:07) The hidden work of noticing, absorbing, and responding to everyone around you

(12:58) How responsibilities, burdens, and emotional weight quietly accumulate

(14:43) Psalm 56:8 and the reminder that God sees every unseen tear

(16:51) Why your tiredness is not evidence against you

(19:34) Seeing your busy life for what it really is: a caring life

(20:05) A guided “landing moment” to admit one true thing without fixing it

(22:31) Deciding what is yours to carry and what is not

Your next step is already waiting: a guide called What’s Yours to Carry — and What Isn’t, made to walk you through your own plate and help you start sorting this is mine from this was never mine. Go get it at thebelowthecircle.com.

Nothing has been wasted. It’s not too late to land — whole, aligned, free.

———

Get your guide → thebelowthecircle.com

Below the Circle with Dr. Phyllis · Stop circling. Start landing. 🕊️

Scripture:

Proverbs 14:13 reminds us that even in laughter, the heart may still be carrying pain. Joy and heaviness can exist at the same time.

Psalm 56:8 reminds us that God sees and remembers the tears, struggles, and burdens that others may never notice.

If you’re the one everyone calls — the one who picks up, who shows up, who holds it together when everyone else is falling apart — this episode is for you.

We’re not going to diagnose why you do it. The people who call you love you, and every yes you have given was real. But love and need come down the same phone line, and after enough years it gets hard to tell which one is ringing.

This episode names the difference between being needed and being known — and then, before it ends, it gives you ten quiet seconds to find out that the ground holds.

This week’s reflection:

Who are you when no one needs anything from you?

In this episode:

(1:28) The hidden weight of being “the one” everyone calls

(4:10) “Does anybody really know me?”

(6:11) Dr. Phyllis reflects on years of always having her pager or phone on

(11:50) The difference between being needed and being known

(13:41) Why being known is not something you have to earn

(15:41) Mark 1:35-38 and Jesus stepping away from the crowd

(19:06) Psalm 139 and the truth that God already knows you

(21:02) You are not searching for something you have never had

(22:51) A guided “landing moment” to pause and simply be

(25:36) Deciding what is yours to carry and what is not

Your next step is already waiting: a guide called What’s Yours to Carry — and What Isn’t, made to walk you through your own plate and help you start sorting this is mine from this was never mine. Go get it at thebelowthecircle.com.

Nothing has been wasted. It’s not too late to land — whole, aligned, free.

———

Get your guide → thebelowthecircle.com

Below the Circle with Dr. Phyllis · Stop circling. Start landing. 🕊️

Scripture:

• Mark 1:35–38 focuses on Jesus stepping away from the crowd to pray and spend time with God, even when people were looking for Him.
• Psalm 139:1–4 reminds us that God already knows us fully, including our thoughts, our actions, and even the words we are going to speak.