The Twelfth House

Found Objects

Welcome to Found Objects, where we give you a behind-the-scenes look at what we’re thinking about, haunted by, reading, making, and what's generally floating around the spiderweb of our etheric minds. These are the building blocks — some directly, some indirectly — that contribute to what we’re focusing on for the next six weeks in our series, The Divine Download: What is Called Channeling?

This is the second post in the series. If you want access to the full curriculum for this series, subscribe to The Twelfth House.

Private Portals

The beginning of the summer felt like being shot out of a cannon — two weeks on X-Games mode (studying / parenting / entrepreneuring) in Ann Arbor, during a particularly busy season at Holisticism (doors opened to the North Node and we welcomed so! many! amazing new members; Ruthless Clarity hit hard and fast for eight full weeks and whooooweeee did it pack a punch) followed by family time on the east coast for a few weeks.

In between all that, the quotidian details: doctors appointments and test results and exercising and being present and hugging friends and making bad art and annotating books and watching movies and finally (finally!!!) getting eight hours of childcare a week. My brain felt deliciously rung out by mid-July.

As I write this, it feels like the dust has momentarily settled in my personal life. I love backstroking through the long, thick days of high summer — no need to rush. The pools of my mind have time to replenish themselves. It’s nice to feel ideas gently bubbling to the surface but free of the urgency to pursue them immediately (rare for me, I’ve gotta enjoy it while I can).

Over the past few months my deepest conversations have circled back around to the genocide and man-made famine in Palestine, the presence of ICE terrorizing our neighborhood and kidnapping our community members, and the general existential helplessness one feels watching fascism consume our government — what do we do? What can we do, when it seems like nothing we try makes a difference?

Well, here’s how I think of it:

If I do nothing, it won’t make a difference to the cause.

If I do something, it won’t make a difference to the cause — but at least I’ll sort of feel better. So why not do something, even if it’s small?

In my mind Chef José Andrés is a Roma Downey “Touched by An Angel”-level earth angel and deserving of the goddamn Nobel Peace Prize for his work at World Central Kitchen. WCK is on the ground in Gaza baking loaves of bread and handing them out daily. They’re a great organization you can donate to here.

8 Ideas Floating In My Psychic Field

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

A practical guide to reclaiming your time and mental energy without compromising your professional integrity

Something interesting is afoot.

I’ve had no fewer than six conversations over the past two weeks about a very particular problem: what to do about having an unproblematic day job.

“What kind of problem is that,” you’re thinking.

It’s kind of a golden handcuffs demi-fine handcuffs situation — you’ve got a gig that pays well, provides health insurance, and isn't soul-sucking. It’s probably time-consuming, but in an average 9-to-5 way. You might even kind of enjoy it! You have fun slacking weird memes to your coworkers, and whomst amongst us could say “no” to the free snacks that litter the team kitchen? You probably appreciate knowing you’re good at what you do, and being a valuable member of the team makes you feel good.

But here's the thing: it's not your passion.

It's not how you want to spend your one wild and precious life. You have a gnawing desire to get something else brewing — a creative project, a business idea, a calling that feels more aligned with who you really are.

While you’re not pulling 80-hour weeks, you’ve found that you don’t have enough space (mental, temporal, emotional) to really work on your other project. You’re not interested in pulling bleary-eyed all-nighters to work on your side project. But you can’t seem to get enough momentum while working in sporadic, clandestine spurts of free time.

Honestly, it’s not about trying harder or having more discipline or drinking more energy drinks so you don’t need as many honk-shoos a night. If that worked, you wouldn’t have this problem.

You’re stuck between two paths: stay in the realm of financial stability and accept that your side thing will remain a side thing, or quit to make space for what truly matters to you?

📚 Resources and Links:

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

In our latest Spiritual Text episode, Jonathan Koe joins me to explore how The Psychology Of Money became an unexpected teacher in the art of being human under capitalism… And THAT’S what I call a spiritual text!

In this episode we talk about…

Money as spiritual practice. Our relationship with money becomes this incredibly revealing lens for understanding our subconscious wiring and inherited family patterns.

The “enough” question. Housel writes that "the hardest financial skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving" — and damn if that ain’t just the skill of life in general? We explore what it means to know when enough is enough.

The compound interest of resilience. Warren Buffett made 99% of his wealth after age 65 — not because he became an exponentially more effective investor, but because compounding interest really started to hit its stride and he didn’t interfere even when things got scary. We talk about not quitting right before the magic happens.

Optimism as strategy. Honestly, you’re just gonna have to listen to the ep to get this one :)

We somehow manage to connect Warren Buffett to the alchemical process, discuss why spiraling on the internet isn't a wealth-building strategy, and explore what your money patterns might be trying to teach you about your next level of growth. And listen, we read the book so you don’t have to (if you don’t want to…) — enjoy!

📚 Resources and Links:

* THE DOORS ARE OPEN TO THE NORTH NODE! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

Short one today — admittedly, I had something totally different locked and loaded in the editorial calendar, but felt compelled by something (a spirit? the Muse? Lucifer? Who’s to say?) to share this instead.

These are the 11 ideas that I feel have changed my brain, my luck, and my life more than anything else. (I mean, the combo of Notion + Are.na is a close second)

Here are the 11 phrases from the podcast that "rewired my brain chemistry and changed the odds on my luck":

* "It's more fun to have fun."

Make anything more enjoyable for yourself; you might as well have fun with whatever you're doing.

* "If you're not having a good time, it's your fault."

This was a huge one for me during a time of my life where I had paralyzing social anxiety. When I take 100% responsibility for my experience, I’m not longer a victim to my circumstances.

* "If you couldn't tell anyone you got it, would you still want it?"

A test to distinguish between genuine desires and people-pleasing/external validation seeking.

* "It's not failure until the game is over/until the story's over"

You get to decide what the last chapter looks like; failure isn't final until you decide it is.

* "That's none of my business" / "That's Future Me's business"

What are you going to do in five years? What are you going to do with that degree? How are you going to make money with that skill? What will you do if XYZ happens?

Hi, that’s none of my business. I cannot be bothered to worry about things outside my control, including what happens in the future. Also, I trust that Future Me is a brilliant super freak witch who will know what to do when we get there — I have confidence that she’ll figure it out.

* "You have a 100% track record of figuring it out."

Trust that you'll handle whatever comes because you always have before.

* "Your perfect day is always in front of you because perfection is a mindset."

You can always turn your day around; perfection is about mindset, not circumstances.

* "You look stupid doing nothing. You look stupid doing things. You might as well get something out of looking stupid."

Since you'll look dumb either way, you might as well do what you want and enjoy it.

* "Sometimes you just have to admit that we're selling you yoga pants."

It ain’t that deep. Not everything has to be achingly meaningful; it's okay for things to just be fun or simple.

* "The worst thing that can happen is that someone says no."

Ok… they said no… Did you die? No! Time for the next thing.

* "We are all on a journey of ecstasy and bewilderment"

Embrace the mystery and wonder of life! Stop trying to predict everything. You’re stealing the fun and whimsy!

Take what you like, disregard what you don’t. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Giving you an etheric hug from here — we need your light in the world.

x michelle

The doors are open to The North Node until July 6th.

Welcome to my gorgeous group of secret Jason Bournes minus the murder (probably!)

No, it’s not because you look like Matt Damon (that’s a compliment).

It’s because you’re walking around using your valuable knowledge and skills in casual conversations, solving problems for people, giving advice that others would pay consultants thousands for... but you’ve completely forgotten that these abilities are extraordinary (and monetizable, but we’ll get there later)

Quick poll: How many of you have ever said 'Oh that? That's just common sense' while someone frantically took notes? Or maybe, “Oh, that’s easy, I’m happy to do that for you. I could do that in my sleep, I can’t charge you!”

If yes, you’re in the right spot.

And, you’re probably someone who has a LOT of confusion about what to spend your one wild and precious life doing … because you enjoy a LOT of things.

Maybe you’re secretly hoping that one day your alarm clock will go off, and you’ll rise out of bed knowing exactly what it is you want to do when you grow up.

Or that some mysterious billionaire will message you on LinkedIn with a job offer that allows you to work from home 3-days a week doing [insert something you love doing here] for a cool $500k salary a year.

I mean, me too. But while we’re waiting for that golden LinkedIn notification, we might as well save ourselves and start getting paid to do the things we enjoy and are good at.

Here’s my perspective:

Your career isn't a destination — it's a living, breathing, ever-changing organism. We're not looking for THE answer, but understanding the dynamic assemblage of experiences, skills, and gifts that make up your unique expertise.

My goal for this session

You'll leave knowing you have expertise. Slay.

You’ll have a good high-level map to start figuring out your packaging / pricing / format to bring your offer or business or project into the world.

… and while I’m confident you can figure that all out on your own through study and experimentation, The North Node helps you get there faster with less wasted resources.

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* The North Node is OPEN! You can learn more here. Doors close on July 6th.

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

study guide: for when you’re ready to take a leap

So you've graduated from our first study guide ("Help, I'm having an existential crisis and my life feels like a badly written Choose Your Own Adventure book") and now you've entered Phase Two: "I have an idea and I'm pretty sure it's either genius or delusional, but I'm going to find out one way or another."

Congratulations! This is actually gorgeous progress, starbeam. You've successfully evolved from "What should I do with my life?" to "I know what I want to do but HOW DO I DO THE THING without accidentally creating a dumpster fire that can be seen from space?"

This is the study guide for people who're now standing at the edge of the cliff, ready to take a leap of faith.

Maybe you've been carrying this idea around like Gollum with the One Ring—precious, obsessive, and slightly concerning to your friends and family. Maybe you've Googled "how to start a business" so many times that your laptop has started suggesting business schools. Maybe you've made seventeen different vision boards and you’ve filled a year’s worth of Moleskines with your plottings.

Either way, you're here because you've got something you want to birth into the world, and you'd prefer to do it without completely embarrassing yourself or accidentally creating the next Fyre Festival of whatever industry you're entering.

This is a study guide for someone who is about to take the leap

This is for you if:

* You've got an idea for a business that you've thought through approximately 847 times, but when it comes to actually executing, you wish you could just Google "how do I start a business for people who are excellent at overthinking everything" and get a reliable step-by-step guide that doesn't make you want to take a nap.

* You know where you're starting, you know where you want to end up (rich and famous, or at least financially stable and emotionally fulfilled), but you're feeling very very uncertain about those pesky in-between steps. You know, The Journey. The part where things actually have to happen in the real world with real consequences.

* You feel paralyzed by the idea of wanting to "do things right.” You have a general feeling that this idea is Important with a capital I, and that it's vital to get the foundation right. But you also suspect you have about as much business experience as a golden retriever, which is to say: enthusiastic but probably not qualified to make major strategic decisions. [On that note, consider this my formal petition for someone to write an Air Bud sequel that involves Bud having to step into the wingtip shoes of a Fortune 500 CEO]

* You've stopped and started this project 57 times already, but when it comes to your idea, you're basically in a toxic relationship. "I just can't quit you," you whisper to your business plan at 3 AM, no matter how many times it has disappointed you or made you question your life choices.

* You really have no desire to build a business/write a screenplay/launch a community/become a person who has to talk to the IRS about tax classifications, but it seems like the Universe has appointed itself your personal project manager and won't let you live your life until you execute this thing. You feel cosmically compelled to do it, but you know you want to do it "on your own terms" — you're just not entirely sure what that means, or if your terms are even reasonable.

Relatable! (If it's not relatable, you're probably on the wrong study guide. Go back to Study Guide #1)

Personally, I never wanted to be an artist, entrepreneur, community builder, or any kind of person who has to explain what they do for work at dinner parties. I wanted to live a nice, quiet life and mind my own business.

Alas, I am plagued by ideas. Cursed, some might say. I truly felt possessed by the idea for Holisticism — it stalked me in my dreams like a la Freddy Krueger, eavesdropped on my conscious thoughts and left cryptic messages in my unconscious until I finally said, "F**k it, we ball," and begrudgingly decided to go through with it.

But once you commit to the FIWB (F**k It, We Ball) lifestyle, then you actually have to do the thing.

The Inconvenient Truth About Starting Things

Here's the thing: There's not one right place to start.

There are approximately 47,000 things to do when you decide you want to launch a website/business/album/book club/digital course/501c3 that protects endangered sea algae of the Mediterranean. (Respect to the sea algae protectors — someone's gotta do it, and its definitely not me because slimy things make me gag.)

And it's tougher than a two-dollar steak to figure out where to prioritize your energy. Where do you start when everything feels both critically important and completely overwhelming? When your to-do list looks like it was written by someone having a caffeine-induced panic attack?

I'm going to do the extremely annoying consultant thing and say, "It depends!" because that's legitimately the truth, and also because I've been in this business long enough to know that anyone promising you The One True Path is probably selling something snake oil adjacent.

BUT (and this is a big but, I cannot lie), I can give you a high-level, non-custom quickstart guide for getting your potentially brilliant idea out into the world without completely losing your mind or your life savings.

Below is my recommended order of operations for birthing your brainchild into reality. I've also included the courses and challenges from our member community, The North Node, that I'd personally add to your study guide to navigate each stage without having a complete breakdown. (Partial breakdowns are still on the table — this is creative work, after all.)

Step 1: Figure out why you're doing this

While it can be interesting/fun/mildly terrifying to start hammering away at a project without an ounce of self-reflection — purely operating on vibes, adrenaline, and whatever energy drink is on sale — at a certain point, you gotta ask yourself the timeless question: "Bella*, where the hell have you been** loca?!"

*Your name, obviously **What's your actual aim here

We've talked about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation before (intrinsic = "this feels meaningful," extrinsic = "this will impress people at high school reunions"), so I won't belabor the point. But the same exact project could have WILDLY different outcomes depending on why you're doing it.

Getting clarity on what actually motivates you will help you keep going when things get hard. (They will get hard. They always do. This is not pessimism; this is physics.) It'll also help you stay on track when you inevitably get distracted by seventeen other shiny ideas that seem way more fun and way less complicated than whatever you're currently building.

Check out:

* The Ruthless Clarity 8-week email course (you can literally start this right now, like while you're reading this!)

* The Subconscious Audit (10-day challenge) in the North Node

* The Audacious Abundance Shadow…

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

It’s kind of crazy to say that our creative working exploratory laboratory, The North Node, has been Paris Hilton-style sliving for five years.

That’s a long time. And that’s a lot of content.

The good news about having such a vast library of resources inside the North Node is that it makes it really, really easy to give new members an actionable syllabus to tackle the minute they join the NN.

(Technically we focus on a new concept every quarter in the North Node, and have three months of programming dedicated to the ideas we’re exploring that includes multi-day courses, bite-sized workshops, group coaching sessions, guest lectures, and implementation challenges that actually make you do stuff. There's always something happening live that you can cannon-ball into when you join us. Plus we meet with all our new members to create a custom syllabus based on their specific goals 🤗)

The bad news about having so much content? It makes it virtually impossible to explain what's inside the North Node without turning into that person at parties who corners you by the snack table and won't stop monologuing about their sourdough starter. (We've all been there. Some of us ARE that person.[to be clear, I am that person])

And another problem with the North Node…

It’s not just for entrepreneurs. Really, it’s a membership for multi-passionate people exploring creative independence, meaningful work, and how to turn their inner wisdom into a life they actually want. It’s a place for people forging their own paths with a little mysticism, a lot of strategy, and total permission to do it differently.

Sure, sometimes that shows up through the “project” of launching a brand or business. But other times it looks like working your corporate gig while expanding your creative and spiritual practices like a sort of witchy double agent. Maybe in 2025 it's figuring out how to balance a part-time job with a passion project you're birthing into the world (monetization status: TBD, vibes: litcherally perfection).

Basically, we're here for anyone who's tired of following other people's blueprints and ready to draw their own map. Even if that map currently looks like a toddler's interpretation of abstract expressionism done in crayon, which is honestly chic as hell IMO.

But, I know that if you’re thinking about joining us in the North Node, you might be like, “……….. but what’s in there?”

Short answer: A lot.

Long answer: So much that trying to explain it all would be like attempting to summarize the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe to someone who's never seen a superhero movie. You'd end up three hours deep in a monologue about infinity stones while they're still trying to figure out why a billionaire decided to dress up like a bat. (Wait, that's DC. See? It's complicated.)

So instead of throwing you into the deep end of our mystical content pool and watching you flounder around like a confused mermaid, I've created this handy study guide for a very specific type of person. So, let’s get into it.

This is a study guide for someone who's at the very beginning of their "wtf am I doing with my life" journey.

This is for you if:

* You feel you're meant to do something with your life, but you're not sure what… just something bigger/more satisfying/more creative/more weird than whatever the hell you're doing now.

* You feel like you know some parts of yourself pretty well, but other parts are giving you major mystery vibes. Maybe you've recently gone through some Big Life S**t — heartbreak, geographical upheaval, quarter-life awakening — and your identity feels like a Sim whose player got drunk and just kept hitting "randomize traits" until they gave up and walked away from the computer.

* You have concepts of a plan (emphasis on concepts)… you're constantly brainstorming and journaling and going down Pinterest rabbit holes at 2 AM, but you haven't landed on an idea that feels like yours.

* You've been trudging along some career path for a while, but recently had that earth-shattering moment where you looked around and thought "Oh god, I absolutely do NOT want to become my manager." Major Devil Wears Prada energy, except instead of glamorous fashion, it's like... Walt from HR who eats sad desk salads and talks about his timeshare. Same emotional devastation, significantly less Prada.

If you're basically Derek Zoolander staring into the mirror asking, “Who am I?” —then congratulations. You've found your people, and we have snacks.

Now, if you came to me and said, "This, all this, Michelle, is how I feeeeeeeeel! What should I do?!"

I’d probably start by reminding you that although this might feel like a crisis, it’s not. It’s totes normal, totes healthy, totes a part of the archetype experience of finding yourself. You must enter the void to emerge into the light.

And a 37-point set of directions called HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE AND GET UNSTUCK AND NEVER FEEL LOST OR DOUBT YOURSELF AGAIN won’t help you here. You need a compass, not a map, you get me?

I’d probably float a few ideas for you to consider at this stage of your life that could be contributing to your feelings of drifty-ness, lack of clarity, and sense of general impatience to do something while experiencing ambiguous constriction.

But here's the thing — without talking to you, I can't tell you exactly what to do. (TBH, that's not really my style anyway. I'm more "here are the keys to the kingdom" than "follow this exact path or perish.")

But I CAN give you a bunch of doors to knock on with a high degree of confidence that if you commit to the bit, at least one of these pathways will create the clarity you seek. No need to do it all (overkill); just look for the key that opens the next door.

Step 1: Clear the Static (Or: Why Your Brain Is Currently About as Reliable as a Chocolate Teapot)

Before you go meaning-hunting, you gotta clear the static. If you’re burnt out, anxious, or depleted, your instincts and intuition will be dulled. More ideation will just lead you to spiral, instead of build into useful momentum.

This is the unsexy but absolutely crucial foundation work that everyone wants to skip because it's not glamorous. But listen, even Cleopatra*** had to take baths and eat food before she could go conquer hearts and empires.

Check out:

* The Burnout Recovery Protocol (21-day challenge)

* The Subconscious Audit (10-day challenge)

Step 2: Explore Meaning-Making Systems (Or: The Great Spiritual Speed Dating Experiment)

Next, tackle meaning making systems like astrology, Human Design, numerology, Matrix of Destiny, Tarot, archetypes, journaling prompts, even spiritual or philosophical traditions. Try ‘em out, try ‘em on, see what you like and cheerfully discard what you don’t. Part of the value in exploring meaning making systems is in rejecting what doesn’t work for you — rejection sharpens your discernment and self-knowledge and helps you shape who you are. Trying on and casting off is part of that.

(Heads up — we have so many classes on astrology, Human Design, numer…

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

Ello!

Thanks for bearing with me as this week’s episode comes out a day later than usual — I’m halfway through in an intensive 20-day Feldenkrais Method in-person training in Ann Arbor and admittedly I’m a little, “what day is it? who am I? where do the bounds of my body end and begin? what is consciousness, even?” on top of having long days and a not-so-quiet shared Airbnb with my partner and 2.5 year old :)

Real quick, reminder that I’m teaching a free class called:

🔮 HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF AS THE EXPERT YOU ALREADY ARE AND GET PAID TO BE YOURSELF (EVEN IF YOUR EXPERTISE IS "INVISIBLE" TO YOU)!

📅 June 25th at 2p ET 💻 Live + interactive on Zoom 👉 CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SPOT

In this workshop, I'll walk you through:

* The 3 types of invisible expertise everyone has, no matter how old or young or experienced or educated or witchy or talented you are or aren’t

* A live "expertise archaeology" exercise where we dig through your psychological rubble to find buried treasure (metaphorically speaking — although if you wanna wear your best Indiana Jones cosplay garb I’m not gonna stop you)

* The #1 money story keeping spiritual people broke (hint: it's not just "money is the root of all evil," though that's definitely in the top 5)

* A simple framework for testing if your knowledge is monetizable without sacrificing your firstborn to the algorithm gods or becoming one of those people who DMs strangers about "passive income opportunities"

* How to decide what to monetize, and what to keep for yourself 😇 and how your expertise plays into that choice either way!

It’s going to be fun! Lemme hype you up!!!!! You can register for the class here.

Today’s episode begins to wind down our Failure Tolerance series, and in it I’m answering a few key questions that came up from our subscribers around:

* How to continue to push yourself and your failure tolerance as things begin to get easier

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you a…

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

So here's what happened.

I decided to bleach my eyebrows because I love a bold look and figured it would be a perfect way to flex my failure tolerance muscle. For context: I am AGGRESSIVELY Italian. My 23andMe results came back with just, like, a picture of spaghetti as my genetic makeup. While my deepest dream is to be one of those effortless California blondes who look like they were born in a yoga studio, raised on kombucha, and have never experienced a single day of humidity-induced frizz, my Mediterranean follicles would literally dissolve into dust before they'd submit to the industrial-strength peroxide required to achieve my Scandinavian fantasy.

But failure tolerance, right? So I went for it.

First attempt at going full Julia Fox: Orange eyebrows. My sister FaceTimed me and couldn't speak for two minutes because she was laughing so hard.

Second attempt, because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment and also definitely have some unresolved issues around perfectionism: I now look like if Austin Butler's creepy uncle from Dune had a midlife crisis, joined a failed electronica band, and decided to reinvent himself as a SoundCloud rapper. When I showed my very supportive husband, his response was simply: "Oh no, honey. No, Michelle."

And you know what? It was PERFECT failure tolerance practice because everything really is low stakes. Worst case scenario? I dye them back. It takes five minutes. No big deal. At least I TRIED it. Now I know I have the no-eyebrow look in my arsenal if I ever need to be truly intimidating.

The Sacred Law of Compensation

If you read this week’s ritual you know I’m bullish on Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Compensation" and the sacred law of reciprocity. Emerson wrote about the duality of life — how for everything you've missed, you've gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something.

He was basically saying: We don't have to wait until heaven to experience goodness. We have gifts right here — a child's laugh, a good drink with friends, reading poetry. But we also know that when good things happen, challenging things happen too. And when bad things happen, we inevitably receive something good in return. Emerson reminds us there’s “no such thing as a free lunch!” except way more poetically and infinitely less depressing than late-stage capitalism usually makes everything sound.

The scales are always balancing. It might not be immediate or one-for-one (one failure doesn't guarantee one immediate success), but sometimes you're collecting failures like Pokémon cards, building up this apparently useless collection of embarrassments and disappointments, and then BAM — suddenly you get hit with a massive wave of wins that makes you feel like you accidentally stumbled into someone else's much more successful life and forgot to give it back.

This makes going through failures SO much more manageable because you know: Nothing lasts forever. The good stuff doesn't last forever, and the bad stuff doesn't last forever.

Are You Really Open to Receiving?

If we accept RWE’s perspective, it opens up an uncomfy line of questioning: If we're not putting ourselves in the position to fail, we're probably not actually open to truly receiving. We’re likely just open to receiving exactly what we want, when we want it, in the precise packaging our anxiety-riddled, control-obsessed, disaster-anticipating brains have predetermined is "safe" and won't require us to grow or change or do anything that makes us uncomfortable.

Think about it like this: You litcherally cannot expect to meet your soulmate while you're sitting on your couch in the same ratty sweatpants you've been wearing since the beginning of the pandemic, binge-watching reality TV shows about people with significantly more dramatic problems than yours, and hoping your person will just materialize at your front door like some kind of romantic Amazon Prime delivery.

You have to actually put yourself in the position to meet them, which means leaving your apartment, possibly interacting with other humans.

Same thing with opportunities, money, success — whatever you're saying you're "open to receiving."

If you're truly open to receiving more money, are you:

* Changing how you run your business?

* Updating your offers? (or are they still the same ones you created three years ago when you thought "authentic" meant "charging $22 for everything because 😇angel numbers😇")

* Genuinely shifting your relationship with money, or are you still having a full-body panic attack every time you check your bank account and immediately closing the app like that will make the numbers change?

* Preparing for the natural consequences that come with receiving more?

If you're open to receiving a TV opportunity, are you:

* Willing to rearrange your life for filming?

* Prepared for the attention you'll get?

* Ready with systems for an influx of applications?

* Clear on your messaging so the right people reach out?

Being open to receiving means being open to ALL the natural consequences — the good, the challenging, the unexpected.

Taking notes from the alchemists

Ancient alchemists believed you couldn't transmute lead into gold unless you were pure of heart.

You could have the correct formula, all the right equipment, the perfect laboratory setup, but if you were just trying to create gold because you wanted to be rich and buy a bigger house and flex on your enemies, it wouldn't work. The universe would basically be like "nice try, but your motivations are showing and they're not cute."

You had to do your inner work — your shadow work, your journaling, your questioning about purpose and humanity. You needed reverence for the mystery.

Only then could you create gold.

This is why we can't just practice failure tolerance as some kind of spiritual shortcut to get more stuff. If we're grasping and controlling and trying to manipulate outcomes from our small, anxious, definitely-overthinking-everything human minds, it doesn't work as well as when we surrender to the mystery and trust that our future selves — the ones who've done more therapy and read more books and had more awkward conversations — know better than our current selves who are probably just trying to avoid discomfort.

Time for some check-in questions

Some questions to sit with:

Where have you been trying to control outcomes in your life, and for what reason?

Are you truly putting yourself out there to receive, or are you only open to receiving certain things in a specific order?

What would happen if you put yourself in the position to receive—including receiving some "nos"? (Remember: receiving isn't all positive. If we're going to receive amazing gifts, we're also going to receive some losses, some disappointments, some plot twists that require us to completely recalibrate our expectations. That's the law of compensation, baby.)

Signs You're Ready to Test Your Failure Tolerance:

* You feel healthy and stable (like you have room to play)

* Things feel stagnant or stuck

* You want to have …