I think my soul is also whispering, you're not ready to be chosen until you've chosen yourself first

because I was so young still and learning I was living for

others more than myself and so I didn't understand it then I definitely didn't make sense of it

overnight right but it took months of wrestling with fear and guilt and the stories that I'd built

about what a good woman or a good partner should do. It took unlearning the idea that choosing myself

meant betraying someone else. And even when I finally made the decision to end the engagement,

it was with full clarity. Yet that clarity comes in waves, right? Through quiet mornings, through

journaling, through grief, through relief. I don't think I was journaling much at that time.

But I definitely had to take time to

process if this was really the direction I wanted to go. Again, that was well over a decade ago,

and I've had many Forks of the Road moment since then, where I knew I had to choose myself. Like,

trying to chase a friendship that just is not there, the person doesn't feel the same way you do. I would have to

choose myself. Hello, hello, magical friends, youngies. My name is Raquel and welcome to

your own magic, a podcast for the creative and the curious soul and happy magic Monday. Before we begin, I wanted to

share something new. I've been writing on Substack. I made one post last year, didn't touch it again,

so I just made another post. I'm not charging anything because this is going to be something I do

right now for fun and see how consistent I get with it.

I'm excited about substack.

I'm very inspired by how honest and sincere and genuine.

Everyone is on substack and it's a new avenue to create and share some more personal journaling, so to speak.

So my substack is my name, Raquel, R-A-Q-U-E-L-L-E, Mantra, M-A-N-T-R-A,

and I see it as a slower, softer space where I can pour the words

...