Episode 3: Coming Home To Yourself

You can be surrounded by people and still feel lost.
 Coming home to yourself is the journey of remembering you belong — first and always — to you.
 In this episode of #SoulfullyAlignedPodcast, I’ll walk with you back to that place.

🎧 Listen → https://soulfullyaligned.buzzsprout.com
 📄 Download Your Coming Home To Yourself Plan →https://app.typeset.com/play/OVLW9R

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Transcript

Maxine Bingham: 0:00

Welcome to Soulfully Aligned, the podcast for women ready to release overwhelm, heal deeply, and live in sacred alignment with their truth. In this space, we give ourselves permission to slow down to. Breathe deep and remember who we are. I am your host, Maxine Bingham, and I created this podcast for women like you who are ready to come home to themselves, to reconnect with their truth, and to live from a place of peace, presence, and purpose. Welcome back my beautiful soul sisters, and I'm so grateful you're here with me. So whether you're driving, walking, or just unwinding from your day, I really would like to thank you because it means a lot that you've chosen to spend this moment with me. Today we are talking about something that's very close to my heart and that is coming home to yourself. And let me just say this from the start. This isn't just a sweet idea. This is about remembering the woman you were before the burnout, before the roles, before the expectation. The woman who felt joy just being, we all tend to leave ourselves at some point. Sometimes we do it for love. Sometimes we do it to survive and sometimes because going along is just easier than fighting to be seen. But over time, that quiet leave turns into a kind of ache, a loss you feel, but you just can't quite name. So let me begin by saying this to you. You are not alone. Every week, I hear so many women in their thirties, their forties, their fifties, and even their sixties say the same exact thing. And that is I have built a good life, but I do not feel present in it. I no longer know who I am. I miss myself. If that's you. Go ahead. Take a deep breath right here, right now, because there is no judgment here. There is only space. Let's talk about what it means to leave yourself leaving yourself. Doesn't happen all at once. It's very SubT. You say yes when you want to say no. You quiet your voice just so you avoid conflict. You keep peace for everyone but yourself, and you convince yourself. It's just, for now, it's just a season, but that season tends to stretch into the next and the next and the next, and it becomes a never ending season. I know because I have lived in that season, I have been there. Like there was no end in sight. You stop listening to your body, you silence the voice that used to guide you. You keep going because slowing down tends to feel very scary. But even then, even in all of that noise, something remains. What is that? It's your soul. It's your essence. It's the part of you that never really left. Yes, she's still here. She's just waiting for you to come back. And this episode, it's your invitation not to change everything at once, but to gently notice. To pause, to get curious about the places in your life where you have disappeared. So ask yourselves, where in life have you gone quiet? Where did you stop asking? What do you need? Let's take a moment here and really think about your answers. Coming home to yourself doesn't mean that you're always gonna feel joy right away, and you don't have to do it perfectly. The only thing that you must do is start your journey back home. Let's go a little deeper into the experience of what it feels like to come home to yourself. For many of us, the first feeling is not joy. Believe it or not, it's actually grief. Why grief? It's grief. For all the time you spent on autopilot is grief for the dreams you once had. Yet you placed it aside Is grief for the parts of yourself you silenced just to fit in, just to be liked or just to be enough. But beneath all of that, there's something else. There is the truth. There is light, and yes there is. You coming home looks something like this. It's saying no. And finally feeling peace about doing that and not feeling guilty, laughing and realizing that it's been weeks since you really laughed. It's lying in your bed, placing your hand over your heart and whisper to yourself. I am so proud of you and you are still here. It's not about doing something very radical, but it's about choosing presence again. Let me tell you about a young lady I know. Let's call her Maya. Maya is in her late thirties. She has two children. She works a full-time job. Maya was not in crisis. She was just exhausted. And during my conversation with her, she told me, I don't know what I want, but I just know this is not it. She didn't need a overhaul in her life. What we did was we made some space, we came up with a plan. We, wanted her to take 10 minute pauses to make honest journal entries. We created room and she started to come back. Not some new version of herself. But she started to come back to the truest version that was always there waiting for her. That's what this is. This is not about you becoming someone new, but this is about returning to who you have always been, and no matter how old you may think you are or how far you feel from yourself. You have not lost her. She is right here. So I want you to try this with me. I want you to think of one thing, one place, or one person that makes you feel like you. Now, go ahead. Make space for it this week. Put it on your calendar. Like it matters because you matter and this matters. Prioritize it like it matters because it truly, truly does. Now, I want you to pause. I want you to breathe, and I want you to go ahead and reflect. I promise you, you are not lost. You are on your way home. And here is how you can begin this journey in a way that will truly last. The first thing you can do is to create what's called a sacred pause. Even if it's just taken three minutes a day, I want you to breathe and ask yourself, what do I need right now? And after asking yourself that question, just let the answer come to you. I promise you the answer will come. Number two, I want you to start tracking your alignment. I want you to get a journal, and each day I want you to write down one moment when you felt like yourself. And the other moment when you started to feel disconnected, because when you begin to realize those two moments, that awareness is going to be able to guide you back. Number three is to make space for your voice. I want you to write, speak, sing, whisper, but. I really want you to let your truth return even if it shakes, even if no one hears it but you. Number four, reclaim your joy. Joy isn't a prize for when everything is done. It is your birthright. It's sunlight. Music dancing barefoot in your kitchen, follow that because it's your soul saying to you, this is the way, and please let go of the pressure to do this in a perfect way. Healing isn't a race and there is absolutely no gold medal for your healing. You are truly allowed to stumble and fall. You are allowed to rest because you deserve it. You are allowed to start over if you choose to do so. This journey is yours, yours alone, and no one else's. So if you're somewhere quiet, I want you to go ahead, relax, place your hands on your heart. Close your eyes now. Inhale gently and exhale slowly. And I want you to whisper. I am safe. I am worthy. I am coming home. Go ahead and breathe that in. let it settle. Let it take root this week. Your only job is to make space for yourself. Say no when you actually mean it. Say yes. When your soul says yes, one small step every day, that's how you are going to return. That's how you are going to connect with who you are, not who you think you have to be. So now, if you are in a safe space, close your eyes. Let your body soften. Unclench your jaw. Drop your shoulders. Feel your breath. Just notice it. The rhythm of your breath is the rhythm of you returning. I want you to imagine a small house in a quiet forest. You see yourself walking toward it. The air is crisp, the earth beneath your feet feel soft and grounding this house, it's yours. It feels familiar and it feels safe. You reach for the handle and open the door, and as you step inside, you notice the warmth, the light, the peace you are home. Go ahead, look around what's here, what colors, textures, and objects bring you comfort. Now you notice a mirror across the room. I want you to walk towards it. Stand in front of it. Look at yourself. Yes. Really. Look. Place your hand over your heart and whisper. I remember you. I forgive you. I love you. Let those words sink in, let it land, and let it hold you close. This space is always here. This version of you never left. Now slowly begin to return. And when you're ready, I want you to come back to the present moment, wiggle your fingers, your toes, breathe in slowly, and breathe out. You are home. You are whole. You are soulfully aligned. Now I want to leave you with a poem. And the title of this poem is she Comes Home. She wandered Far, not in miles, but in all the ways she silenced her truth to be liked, to belong, to survive. She smiled through the weight of expectation, bit her tongue to keep the peace. Longing for someone to notice the silence. She gave pieces of herself to every role, every room, every moment that asked her to be smaller than she was, but somewhere in the stillness, beneath the noise and the busyness, she heard a whisper. Soft but steady. Come home, come back to your breath, come back to the voice that trembles with knowing. Come back to the fire. You forgot the softness. You buried. She didn't arrive all at once. She returned in pauses, in prayers, in sacred moment of looking in the mirror and seen herself again. Not louder, not brighter, but real. She is home and she is free. Beautiful sisters, I really would like to thank you for sharing this time with me today. If this episode resonated with you, I hope that you will take what you need and let it root in your soul. Remember. Your return to yourself doesn't have to be big, nor does it have to be perfect. It just has to be honest. If you found this conversation meaningful, please take a moment to share it with a friend or leave a review. It helps other women find this sacred space. You can find more reflections, more resources, and sisterhood inside the soulfully aligned Facebook group. Until then, stay soft, stay grounded, and stay soulfully aligned.