There are moments when you get a subtle feeling that something feels off.

And maybe, like me, you’ve spent a lot of time pushing that feeling away, telling yourself, “It's probably nothing,” or, “I'm making this a bigger deal than it is.”

But it's not nothing.

That strange energy you pick up on, however subtle, is your body's way of trying to get you to notice an important truth.

Start honouring the subtle cues

What I've learned over the years is that it's crucial to give yourself permission to notice a moment that feels strange, and rather than suppress it, lean toward it. Ask, What is this? Why did that land weird?

It's not about others being "bad people"

It’s important to say this isn’t about pointing fingers at those in your life and dubbing them as evil or manipulative. Often (though not always) the people in our lives are lovely humans on their own paths.

What matters most is acknowledging that the connection you share is not currently serving you.

It can take years to admit that... or you can decide to be honest with yourself today.

Micro-moments matter

I’ve had relationships where something happened—some tiny moment—and I’d find myself thinking about it years later.

Like, “I cannot believe that person did that.”
And then, almost immediately, I’d gaslight myself: “Mackenzie, it's not a big deal. That was so small. Why are you still thinking about this?”

But here’s the truth I’ve come to:

Just because it was a micro-moment doesn’t mean it wasn’t significant.
Sometimes the tiniest thing is the perfect symbol of a much larger dynamic.

The invisible imbalance

Let me give an example. Maybe you’ve experienced something like this too:

There’s someone in your life who’s vibrant, energetic, magnetic—when they’re talking about themselves. But when you start to speak, their light dims. Their energy drops. They zone out. Or they bring the conversation right back to themselves.

Maybe they’re not interrupting. Maybe they’re not doing anything overtly wrong. But you can feel the shift.

And you start to wonder: Why do I feel so unseen in this dynamic?

For those of us who internalize

What I’ve noticed in myself, and in many of my clients, is that the people who are actually being mistreated in subtle ways are rarely the ones shouting, “I'm triggered!”

No. Often, they’re the ones wondering, Am I being too much? Is this just my stuff? They’re reflecting, analyzing, over-extending compassion—to the point of their own depletion.

Because they don’t want to throw their baggage on someone else. They want to be “the good one.”

So they stay in dynamics that chip away at their self-worth.
Not because they don’t notice.
But because they don’t trust what they notice.

The tipping point

You ignore the signs long enough, and then… you reach your threshold, and you break.

Maybe you've become so depleted that you're metaphorically (or literally) lying flat on the ground, unable to even acknowledge the existence of that person anymore. You’re past burnt out. You’re just done.

I’ve been there.

You go from being endlessly tolerant to completely over it. And that snap, that shutdown... it may appear sudden, but it is not really. It’s the consequence of all the moments you didn’t listen to yourself.

Trusting the intuition before the burnout

There’s this beautiful meditation I did recently, where the guide just kept repeating: “Trust yourself. Trust yourself. Whatever comes up—trust yourself.”

And it landed so deeply because for so many of us—especially us internalizers, and/or those of us who’ve spent their lives trying to be accommodating—it’s so hard to do that.

But that’s where the practice begins.
Just a little experiment:
What if I trust myself here? What if I lean into this moment of discomfort and just see what happens next?

Maybe it’s distancing yourself from someone.
Maybe it’s stepping away from a draining project.
Maybe it’s not explaining yourself for once.

Calling your energy back

Every time I go into a season of deeply calling my energy back, so much beauty manifests in my life. And this is the experience of many others I've witnessed as well.

This is the piece we have a hard time trusting: When you stop overextending yourself, when you stop trying to hold things together that aren't meant for you anymore, space opens up.

And, yes, it might feel like a void at first. And yes that can feel scary.
But this void, this stillness is where the magic begins to accumulate.

You don’t have to keep the peace at your own expense

You are allowed to notice.
You are allowed to trust your inner signal.
You are allowed to call your energy back.

This isn't selfish. This is vital for your own becoming. And you becoming who you were always meant to be is actually rather selfLESS.

I know it’s scary at first as it challenges how we were conditioned: To be nice, agreeable, low-maintenance.

But the universe doesn’t respond to self-abandonment. It responds to alignment.

Let this be your permission

If you're reading this and it's resonating—this is your reminder:
You're not imagining it. You're not “too sensitive.” You're not being dramatic.

You're picking up on something true.
And you’re allowed to trust that.

If you're in a place where you’re waking up to these subtle truths, and you want support navigating that shift—this is the work I love. I help intuitive, creative women come home to their truest selves, reclaim their voice, and do with that what they will. Learn more here.