Change is hard but it's necessary

Letters From The In-Between: Change is hard but it's necessary.

​Vanessa Santos

The death of perfection is the birth of your momentum. - Mayra Rosas

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This moment, in this lifetime, is not the stage for dreams to die. It's where identities die so your dreams can thrive.

🎧 If you want to listen, click here for the audio with a reflection at the end. 🎧

It feels like the world is going through a collective descent right now. A death of identities. The masks, the veils, the titles you thought would protect you, they can't. What you are watching is reality without the rose-colored glasses. And what you are feeling is real. It deserves space.

The choices you make become the experiences you don't forget. Change is a choice. Choosing to live differently, to move deliberately, to observe life as a student instead of a victim is also a choice.

Change is hard, so is staying the same.

🌀 PHASE 2: THE DESCENT Go to the underworld. Let the old identity die.

The Descent is the second phase of The Self-Reclamation Method™. This is where you experience the identity death, the letting go. And letting go is the precursor for everything that comes next.

Phase 1, The Shattering, was recognition. You started to see the cracks. You began grappling with the fact that you were undergoing a transformation. But The Descent is different. This is where you stop observing and start feeling.

This is stripping. Sitting in the diaper of fear, grief, loss, disappointment, resentment. No running. No fixing. No bypassing. The armor comes off. The identity you built to survive gets naked.

It feels out of control. It's supposed to.

This is not the phase where you try to get people to understand. It's not their journey to witness. It's yours. In The Descent you realize that being clear with yourself is more important than getting everyone else to understand.

True peace is not found in explaining your life to anyone. Peace is found when you master yourself.

And the thing about real transformation? It's quiet. It's not sexy. It's powerfully silent. Like a seed growing in the dark when no one is watching. The seed doesn't try to prove itself to the soil. It focuses on becoming what it already is.

That's your only job right now.

I share this because we're all witnessing what it looks and feels like when things are forced.

There will always be an inevitable collapse when something is built without alignment. Last year, I intentionally let myself fall apart so I could build authentically. This will be the messiest it will ever feel. Be okay with that.

Perfection should never be the goal.

Every woman I've had the honor of guiding through this work has had to let go of the idea that perfection is necessary to begin. They stopped waiting for "it needs to be right before I launch" or "I can do this when..." and started building from the rubble. What is born from here is so damn real.

Every person you admire has had their descent. What comes after it? Is something you can only experience for yourself.

Your job right now is to stand for something. Starting with yourself. So you can fight against the things that harm you, harm the collective. So you can build from a place of knowing instead of proving.

👉🏽 If you're in The Descent right now, you have choices.

You can sit with it alone. That's valid. The seed grows in the dark whether anyone watches or not.

Or you can let someone hold the mirror while you shed.

​Glow Up Hour is my free monthly gathering. Founders, leaders, creators in the same room - building the dream while honoring the human. Next session: Feb 12th.

​The Sovereign Architect is for the woman ready to walk through all four phases with me - not to be fixed, but to be witnessed. We don't just rebuild your business. We rebuild the foundation so what you build next doesn't require you to erase yourself to sustain it.

​The Decision Sprint is for the woman who needs one clear next move. Ninety minutes. Pattern recognition. You leave knowing what's been keeping you stuck, and what to do about it.

I'm not here to convince you. You already know if you're ready.

If this landed, let yourself sit with it tonight. The Full Moon is doing her work. And if you want to express, reply and let me know what landed.

Until the next letter,
Vanessa

P.S. Phase 3 is coming: The Shedding. But you can't release what you haven't sat with. Your only job is to stay in The Descent. Don't rush it. What's waiting on the other side isn't going anywhere.

P.P.S. Letters From The In-Between now lives on Spotify + Apple. Listen wherever you are, revisit them all here.

These letters are for women and allies who refuse to erase themselves on the way to success.

But if it is, welcome to the syndicate.