This week I kept noticing how quickly I tried to move past my own fatigue. I’d feel that little tug in my body that said, “We’re done for today,” and my mind would answer, “Just one more thing.” You know that quiet negotiation you make with yourself when you’re tired but the to-do list still feels louder than your soul.

There was a moment one afternoon where I had my hand on my laptop and my heart in a completely different room. I wasn’t anxious. I wasn’t in crisis. I was just… disconnected. Moving on autopilot. It felt like walking around my own life with the lights half off.

So I paused. Not a big, dramatic pause. Just… closed the laptop instead of opening it. Put my forehead in my hands. Took a deep breath. And what rose up was simple: You don’t have to earn your right to rest, or your place in the world.

I’ve been sitting with that sentence ever since. Not as a slogan or a mindset hack, but as a gentle question: where did I learn that my worth is measured by what I squeeze out of every hour?

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Because so many of us are quietly exhausted from trying to “earn” our rest, our joy, and even our right to exist in peace—often without ever naming that belief out loud. Because naming the pattern of “earning” (instead of teaching our way our of it) builds trust; it tells the reader, “You’re not broken. You’re human. And you’re not carrying this alone.”

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I’m wondering if you’ve ever noticed how sneaky “earning” can be.

We think it only shows up in the big moments—chasing promotions, building businesses, paying down debt, trying to “get ahead.” But often it hides in the tiny, ordinary spaces: answering one more email so you feel less guilty later, saying yes to what drains you because it “makes sense on paper,” forcing your body to keep going because the day isn’t “productive enough” yet.

Underneath all of that is a quiet belief that we have to justify our existence by how useful, efficient, or profitable we are.

Spirit keeps inviting me to see that there’s another way to live. Not a lazy way. Not a careless way. A truer way.

A way where your value is not on trial every day.
A way where rest isn’t a reward, it’s a rhythm.
A way where money is a tool you steward, not a verdict on your worth.

I don’t have a framework for this. No three steps. No tidy conclusion. Just this sense that many of us are tired from carrying a life we secretly believe we have to earn.

And maybe the deeper invitation is to let some of that weight slide off your shoulders… even if nothing in your external life changes yet.

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If any part of this brushed up against something tender in you, I wonder what might happen if you simply noticed where “earning” is running the show in your days.

If you’re sitting with something similar, you’re welcome to stay with this a little longer—maybe by watching how you treat yourself at the end of the day, when no one is looking and the performing can finally be quiet.

If you’re in a season of building, grinding, or stretching, you might just ask: “What would change if I believed I didn’t have to earn my right to breathe, to rest, to be here?” There’s no rush to answer. Just let the question walk with you for a bit.

May you move through this week at a human pace, not a hustler’s pace.

May you remember that your worth is not up for negotiation—no matter how the numbers look, no matter what did or didn’t get done.

And whatever you’re holding right now, it does not all need to be solved today.

With You,

Wanda

Remember: You don’t have to earn your right to rest, or your place in the world.

Keep showing up for you. Keep flowing in freedom! 💜

Liberating Living Weekly

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