I want to say this clearly that choosing comfort doesn't make anyone weak, okay? It makes us human. It's not something to judge someone for.

I've been there too, right? And our nervous systems are wired to avoid threat and rejection or instability.

So silence can feel like self-protection. But at some point, I just noticed that staying quiet didn't feel neutral for myself anymore. And it felt

heavy. It felt heavier to me than speaking. It felt heavier than the potential discomfort

of being misunderstood. And that's when I realized that it wasn't clarity I was waiting for.

It was courage, like true courage, I guess. Courage, it's not always allowed. Sometimes it's not

even dramatic at all. Sometimes it's just the quiet decision to stop pretending that you don't

see what you see or feel what you feel. Hello, hello, magical friends, yommies. My name is Raquel and welcome to your own magic, a podcast for the creative and the curious soul. And I'm just so glad you're here before we get into anything today. I just want to invite a collective exhale. So wherever you are right now, maybe soften your shoulders,

unclench your jaw, take one slow breath in through your nose and let it out slowly.

There's been a lot, a lot in the air lately, a lot to hold.

And I know for many of us, the idea of peace has started to feel complicated, almost like a luxury or something we're supposed to achieve by not looking too closely at what's

happening around us. So today, today I want to talk about a different kind of piece and not the kind

that checks out, not the kind that numbs, but the kind that stays. And so this episode, it's not a rant or a call

out. It's a reflection that I've been sitting with for a while now about spirituality and

courage and comfort and simply what it means to stay human in moments that feel heavy or

unsettling. For a long time, I believe that peace meant

rising above, right? Staying neutral, not getting pulled into the noise, keeping your sanity.

And honestly, that belief helped me at one point in my life, right? It helped me regulate. It helped me

soften. It helped me survive the overwhelm of a

life. But lately, I've been feeling into the difference between regulation and avoidance and

between choosing peace and choosing distance. And I think many of us are being asked to examine that right

now. We're being asked to examine that gently and without shame and honestly. So for this Magic Monday,

...