Why do we keep looking outside ourselves for permission, answers, safety, and even a sense of what's right? Have we become so accustomed to rules, experts, institutions, and other people telling us what to do that we've slowly stopped trusting ourselves?
This conversation started with Julietta trying to bring her own life into greater alignment with her truth—and realizing how complicated it can be to figure out what you're actually allowed to do.
That frustration opened up a much bigger question: Have we outsourced our personal power?
We create rules and regulations to protect people and keep them safe. Many of them serve an important purpose. But at what point does external protection begin replacing personal responsibility, discernment, and self-trust? When did we stop asking, "Is this right?" and start asking, "Am I allowed?" And if we didn't rely so heavily on external rules to tell us how to behave, what would guide us instead?
For Julietta, there is one question she continually comes back to:
**What would love do?**
Not: What do I want?
Not: What can I get away with?
But what would love do—and am I willing to take responsibility for what that choice creates?
In this episode of Cacao Conversations, we explore personal sovereignty, self-trust, morality, rules and regulations, freedom, responsibility, our relationship with safety, and what it might mean to become more consciously self-governing. Because reclaiming our power isn't simply about having more freedom. It's becoming responsible enough to use that freedom consciously.
And maybe the question isn't how we get rid of all the rules. Maybe it's:
**Who would we have to become to need fewer of them?**
Our discernment? Our responsibility? Our personal power?
We have created countless rules designed to protect people and keep society functioning. And some of those protections absolutely matter.
But we think it's worth asking what happens when we become so dependent on external authority that we stop developing our own internal compass.
Because there's a profound difference between asking:
**"Am I allowed to do this?"**
and asking:
**"Is this the right thing to do?"**
For Julietta, there's another question she uses to guide her choices:
**What would love do?**
And love doesn't always mean doing what's comfortable or making everyone happy.
Love can require boundaries.
Love can require truth.
Love can require saying no.
Love can require allowing someone to experience the consequences of their choices.
And love requires us to recognize that our sovereignty exists alongside everyone else's.
In this episode of Cacao Conversations, we're exploring the relationship between freedom, personal responsibility, self-trust, morality, safety, and sovereignty.
Because sovereignty can't simply mean, "Nobody gets to tell me what to do." Real personal power asks more of us.
**I get to choose. And I am responsible for what my choices create.**
So what kind of people would we have to become to need fewer rules governing our behavior? We don't know. But maybe a good place to start is asking:
**What would love do?**
Hey! Thanks for listening! If you liked this episode, please send us a message. We'd love to hear from you!
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Julietta Wenzel
Founder of Body & Soul Ministries
Instagram: @bodyandsoulministries
Dorice Ross
Elder of Body & Soul Ministries
Instagram: @rossdorice
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