108: You're Not Here, And Your Body Knows It

Why confidence isn't something you think your way into

The other day I was sitting on my mat, ready to start hot yoga.

The teacher invited us to bring our hands together in prayer position. Then she said something simple: “Notice your shoulders.”

Without any reason, my shoulders were slightly lifted.

Carrying tension that had nothing to do with that moment.

Even with all my awareness, all my studies about the mind-body connection—I, too, forget.

We all do.

We fall into the trap of our thoughts, and by thought alone, we activate states of tension, contraction, worry, and self-doubt. Our bodies respond to stories that aren’t even happening. Memories that are already over. Fears about futures that don’t exist yet.

And there I was, sitting peacefully on my mat, my body braced for... what exactly?

Here’s what shows up in the quiet moments, when no one’s watching: your body knows where you’re really operating from before your mind catches up.

Walk past a mirror right now and actually look. Where are your shoulders? Rolled forward, guarding your heart?

Is your head jutting ahead of your spine, like you’re already bracing for what’s coming?

Neck rigid? Jaw tight?

Belly clenched?

Those aren’t just bad posture habits.

They’re your subconscious telling you exactly where you’re still living—and it’s probably somewhere in the past.

Your body registers everything.

Every conversation where you held your breath. Every moment you made yourself smaller. Every time you swallowed what you really wanted to say. Slowly, tension builds.

Blockages form.

The energy that should flow freely through you gets stuck—in your shoulders, your neck, your chest, your belly.

We think we’re present.

We think we’re making conscious decisions about our lives, our businesses, our next steps. But our bodies are still carrying conversations from five years ago.

Rejections that happened in childhood.

Moments of shame we never fully processed.

And then we wonder why confidence feels so far away.

Why self-trust feels like something other people have.

There is no amount of external validation that will help you reconnect with true self-trust.

Notice how it goes: You build the resume, get the certifications, earn the title, grow the following. You feel powerful during the time when you believe you’re in control—that you can control outcomes, manage your life, that you have everything figured out.

But the moment life hits—and I’m saying “hit” not in a bad way—the moment life surprises you with the message that you are not in control, all that external confidence crumbles.

You find yourself with all the titles, all the years of experience, all the authority in your field... and still feeling within that you’re not enough.

But here’s the gift: that moment of collapse is actually the opening. That’s when reconnection with what confidence really is becomes possible. That’s your opportunity to start practicing from the inside out.

True confidence feels like home.

It’s a relationship between you and you. Between you and the divine. It has nothing to do with your business, your achievements, your follower count.

Your business can be a reflection of that inner confidence. But you don’t need your business to feel it.

And that’s the difference.

If you were to fully trust yourself—not the version of you that needs to prove something, but the version that just knows—how would you walk?

Start there. Talk to your body.

How would your feet touch the ground if you trusted the earth to hold you? Would you feel the full surface of your foot connecting, or would you be rushing forward, already moving to the next thing?

What about your spine? Straight, yes—but rigid, or resilient?

There’s a difference between holding yourself together and allowing yourself to be supported.

Your chin. Is it lifted in defiance, or held naturally because you know you belong here?

Your gaze. Are your eyes scanning for threats, for approval, for the next thing to fix? Or are they soft, taking in what’s here without needing to control it?

The muscles in your face. Are they tense with worry? Or have they melted into trust?

Your body will tell you the truth about where you’re really operating from.

When you sit on your yoga mat and notice your shoulders lifted for no reason, that’s your body showing you: you’re not here. You’re in some imagined future, bracing for impact. Or you’re in some remembered past, still protecting yourself from something that’s already over.

Self-trust isn’t something you think your way into. It’s something you feel your way back to.

We are born confident.

We are born connected. Watch a baby learning to walk. They fall constantly, but there’s no shame in it. No story about not being good enough. Just: try, fall, get up, try again. Pure trust in the process.

Then somewhere along the way, that trust gets taken. Not stolen—just... taught away.

We’re told we need to choose the right degree to be successful. That certain careers are more suitable for making money, for fulfillment, for actually becoming someone in life. We learn that confidence is something you earn through achievement, not something you already are.

We forget that we already had it.

And our bodies start carrying the weight of all those moments when we chose what looked safe over what felt true. When we prioritized being accepted over being authentic. When we swallowed our knowing to fit in.

If you truly want to feel confident in life, it begins with awareness. Notice when you walk, how you walk. When you sit, how you sit.

Do you usually have your heart open, or your heart closed? Shoulders bending over, or chest fully open?

Is your core engaged, or are you melting from exhaustion? Do your shoulders and head feel like weights?

Those are the signs that your subconscious hasn’t maintained the connection—not because you never had it, but because the outer world taught you to trade it for approval, safety, success.

That happens. And it’s okay.

The work now is to come back. To release the tension you’ve been holding from experiences that are already over. To let your body remember what it felt like to move through the world without armor.

To notice—like I did on my yoga mat—when you’re carrying tension that doesn’t belong to this moment, and to consciously soften.

To breathe. To let go.

The certifications will be powerful once your connection with yourself is established. The strategy, the goals, the business model—all of it becomes a translation of your inner light.

A reflection, not a requirement.

None of that is necessary for you to feel true confidence. True self-trust.

That lives in you. It always has.

With Love,

Carolina

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Happenings

Everything Is Connected

As I am getting ready to fly to Cusco for a short adventure, I have been reading and researching more about the Inca culture and rituals.

It fascinates me how these ancient cultures held so much wisdom that seemed to get lost but in reality has always been here. It feels to me we are in a constant cycle of remembering, and each civilization experiences different challenges and lives in different circumstances, but all with the same purpose: to become more of light.

The Incas understood interconnection, not as a nice idea, but as the fundamental structure of reality itself.

They perceived everything in the universe as a conscious, living filament of energy within an interconnected matrix. They called their world “Kausay Pacha”—the world of living abundance, where everything is mutually connected, from the smallest creature on earth to the stars in the sky.

Nature, man, and Mother Earth are a whole that live closely and perpetually related. Man has a soul, a life force, and so do all plants, animals, and mountains. Since man is nature itself, he does not dominate it; rather, he seeks total harmony with creation.

They didn’t just think they were connected to the earth. They lived as if they were the earth itself.

This is so different from how most of us were taught to see the world. We learned separation. We learned to look for what’s missing, what’s wrong, what’s scarce.

The Incas saw the world as living abundance, while deep in the Western subconscious, we perceive the world as a place where there is not enough, a flawed place.

Our eyes are trained to see lack instead of all the abundance already here.

That’s why we keep repeating to ourselves, how we operate in our Business but also in our lives, Everything is connected.

I haven’t fully embodied this yet, but I believe we too are the planet. Not just on it. Not just connected to it. We are it.

I am very excited to experience more of this energy. Those sacred locations are portals for truth and for understanding how we can translate that wisdom in ways that help us embody it now, in this time, in the circumstances we currently live.

I am looking forward for this adventure, it has been on my bucket list for years.

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Here is what I want to share this week …

Wonder Questions

Phil has been sharing deep wisdom through his studies of The Way of Mastery on a daily basis.

Questioning life in a smart way is, for me, the best path to organic transformation. Why? Because the moment you start questioning things, you remove the labels that were previously given to a situation, a problem, or a perspective. The instant you ask a question, your brain activates to look for an answer.

But here’s the key, if you ask poor questions, you’ll keep receiving answers that match them.

Years ago, I had a colleague who, like me, suffered from intense chronic headaches. I shared my story with her, how I used to lock myself in a dark room for hours, throwing up, going to the hospital, or just living in constant pain for weeks under medication, just to keep functioning. I told her, “We weren’t born like this, so there must be another way to live.”

Her response was, “But mine is different. It’s chronic. The doctor said I’ll live with this forever.”
I was told the same thing. Nobody could figure out why I had those headaches or how to make them stop.

The difference was, I didn’t accept that as the final answer. I kept asking:
What if it could be different?
What if I could live a life without pain?

And here I am, living the life I once dreamed of.

Here’s one of Phil’s sharings about miracles that I absolutely love, a new perspective that reminds me that indeed miracles are all around us, always available. I look for miracle and I experience them.

WOM 020: MIRACLES ARE NATURAL

Another beautiful one:

WOM 017: FORGIVENESS RESTORES FLOW

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What’s next?

Phil and I are ready to support you in creating a business that aligns with your heart’s calling. Here’s how we can help:

1. Click to Find Your Hidden Business Pattern (Free): The Harmony Map Assessment reveals which inner pattern is blocking your next level - and why strategy alone hasn’t fixed it. For entrepreneurs ready to address both the inner patterns AND outer strategies for breakthrough results.

2. Read the Sacred Business Manifesto (Free): Learn the core principles of building a Sacred Business through our founding story and framework. See how we transformed our approach to business by understanding that everything is connected.

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