A birthday gift from me to you.

Think of it as the secret knock to the private time expansion members club.

The private club where the door opens and the noise from outside just falls away.

Where time passes with the carefree ease of a mid August day when you’re nine and have sweets in your pocket.

The lazy generous luxury of time wealth.

The cheerful easy shrug of ‘both, either’ reply to life choices

Because urgency?

Got checked in at the door with your phone and coat by the time butler.

And instead you get to try on the tailored just to you jacket that is the deep self-trust of knowing you can slip into spaciousness with your next breath.

Here AND back out in the real world.

I’m sharing the secret knock because I would have happily done something quite unethical on the eve of my 35th birthday five years ago when life and time felt like a relentless dark tidal wave coming towards me.

And now? I have to dig really deep to remember how it felt.

Once you learn the knock? You don’t go back.

So play, enjoy, explore, let me know what you discover!

Emma 🐆

🛠 Tools & exercises from this episode

1. The body check-in Twice a day — or whenever you remember — just pause and ask: what do I feel? Then more space: what do I hear? You don’t need to fix or interpret what comes up. Just create the connection. Start small. Start now. I was so disconnected from my body in my 20s that I was blacking out from exhaustion and thought I had a brain tumour. The optician told me my eyes were simply exhausted. That’s how far the disconnection can go — and how completely it can be reversed.

2. Seek the boredom The connection points happen at the edge of boredom. Not in the middle of a podcast, not while scrolling. In the walk home from the supermarket. While you clean your teeth. In the car. Look for the boredom — that’s the edge where something else becomes available. I think of it as Peter Pan just on the horizon, just where the sunrise meets the water.

3. Name your energy In stillness and space, something unique about you starts to become audible. One of my clients discovered Miami Energy — the freedom and peace and power she feels at the beach, wearing clothes with the breeze moving through her, not wanting to be anywhere else. Another has Ocean Energy — diving in the evening, doing exactly what she wants, not caring who sees. Mine is sensual alegría — stillness in movement, sheer unselfconscious joy. What’s yours? You don’t have to know yet. Create the space and let it come.

4. The time expansion breath Time is perception. Five minutes when you’re bored can feel like nothing. Five minutes when you’re scared can feel like decades. Just breathe. Feel the exhale. You have time. You have all the time in the world to do what matters to you — whether you’re 18 or 99.

You can find ✨ The Life Atelier, my 1:1 coaching programme, here [URL]. You can find me on Instagram here [URL]. You can find Joy Studio, my community for women in business, here [URL].

In this episode we talk about:

00:00 — welcome back, and the smashed glass that woke Rita up

00:30 — recording just before my birthday and why May always feels magical

01:00 — five years ago at 34: being followed around by a sand timer

02:00 — what that relationship with time actually felt like — the Hawaii analogy

03:30 — the dry side of the island: heat, oppression, and no release from the storm

05:00 — time expansion: what it means and what it makes possible

05:30 — feeling like it was already too late at 18 (grade seven piano, anyone?)

06:30 — David Attenborough turned 100 yesterday — it is not too late

07:00 — time is perception: breathe with me for a moment

08:00 — the birthday gift: experimenting with silence, space, and boredom

09:00 — the parts of you that have been pushed down and don’t feel safe to be heard

10:00 — creating space to hear what’s astonishing in you

10:30 — Miami Energy, Ocean Energy, and sensual alegría

12:00 — Rosie, the first dog, and que alegría in the dog park in Spain

13:30 — being so disconnected from my body I thought I had a brain tumour

14:30 — the body check-in practice and what started to become audible

15:30 — the boredom edge: Peter Pan on the horizon where the sunrise meets the water

16:30 — tying it all together: fall to fly, feel the pain to access the joy, seek the silence

17:30 — what is your energy? what’s there for you in that space?

18:00 — happy birthday to me — and the May offer, the life design session, and what happens either way

Resources

✦ Book a complimentary Life Design Session → emmalavelle.co

✦ The Life Atelier — 3, 5 & 10 month containers, prices increase in June

✦ Start later in the year and still keep current pricing — just message me

Reflection prompts from this episode

Where in your life does time feel like something you’re running out of rather than something you’re living inside — and what is that costing you?

When did you last seek the boredom? What happened in that space when you let it be there?

And what is your energy — the thing that is uniquely, specifically, unmistakably you? What name would you give it?

Joy Ambition is your weekly voice note with me, Emma Lavelle — life design and time expansion coach, and founder of The Life Atelier. New episodes every Friday.

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