Reclaiming Autonomy

In this powerful episode of I’m New Here, host Dawn Richardson has a grounded, honest conversation about self-care after abuse and what it truly becomes when safety has been taken away.

This is not a story about someone else’s relationship. It’s not advice. It’s a space for truth.

We talk about autonomy. Choice. Boundaries. Listening to your body again.

Coming out of an abusive dynamic changes you not in a poetic way, but in a real one. This episode explores what was taken, how survival rewires your nervous system, and why anger isn’t a setback… it’s often the first sign your power is returning.

Self-care in this season isn’t decorative. It’s deliberate. It’s protective.

If you’re learning to trust yourself again, to choose yourself without guilt, and to reclaim your right to pause and say no without consequence this episode is for you.

In this episode of I’m New Here, Dawn Richardson invites you to release the pressure of performative self-care and explore a softer, more honest approach to caring for yourself.

When the Noise Stops and the Body Speaks

When survival quiets down, the body becomes easier to hear.

This episode explores somatic awareness — listening to the body as a source of information through sensation rather than thought. We talk about what happens when emotional noise fades and the body begins to communicate through tension, ease, and calm.

I also share how a stroke in October 2025 changed the way I listen to my body — not through fear, but through respect.

This conversation isn’t about fixing the body.

It’s about trusting it.

Why I’m New Here explores what it means to arrive at yourself after survival has ended. Not through a dramatic moment, but through quiet certainty. Through the absence of tension. Through peace becoming the baseline.

In this closing episode of 2025, Dawn reflects on the Year of the Snake and the quiet, necessary process of shedding old identities, patterns, and ways of choosing that no longer fit. This episode is a gentle but powerful release an invitation to let go of survival-based habits and step into discernment, self-trust, and peace.

In this episode, Dawn reflects on what it means to truly step into a season of self-possession — where you stop surviving, stop self-abandoning, and begin fully belonging to yourself again. This is a conversation about reclaiming your voice, your intuition, your peace, and your identity after seasons of giving yourself away to be accepted, understood, or chosen.

In this episode, Dawn explores what it really means to become unavailable to the things that drain your spirit emotionally, mentally, and energetically. Being “unavailable” isn’t about being cold or closed off it’s about protecting your peace, honoring your boundaries, and refusing to shrink just to be chosen.

This episode explores the silent journey of leaving survival mode behind.

Dawn shares how healing begins in small ways the loosened shoulders, the deeper breaths, the stillness that no longer feels threatening and guides listeners through the tender process of reclaiming ease, safety, and peace within themselves.

Perfect for anyone rebuilding after emotional exhaustion or major life transition.

This week on I’m New Here, Dawn closes out the Unpacking to Heal series with one of the deepest truths of the healing journey:

You don’t just find peace — you become it.

Healing isn't always soft or soothing. Sometimes it hurts like hell even when you’re on the right path.

Tonight, we’re unpacking what no one talks about:

The pain that comes before the peace.

The breakdown that leads to breakthrough.