tl;dr – I’m no longer going to be paywalling posts. Paid subscriptions are still an option, they will support my work and give you access to the bountiful archive of breathwork somatic practices. But Breath Spells (the live monthly breathwork workshops) will no longer run through Substack.
If you’re an existing paid subscriber, you’ll automatically be included in this month’s Breath Spells workshop for free (it’s on Sunday!) If you paid for a year upfront and you feel like you want a partial refund, please do email me — I’ll prorate the remaining months of your subscription.
Hello you,
I stepped into the year with the word discernment ringing in my ears.
My bones whispered to me – “pare everything back, babe. further. further still. you have something big to build, you’re going to need to get crystal clear on how you spend your energy. if it’s not a resonant fuck yes, it’s a no.”
What can I say? I have surprisingly wise and chatty bones.
Turns out I was deeply out of practice at saying no. Turns out I’ve been spending my energy budget willy nilly, like a hyped up whirlwind kid at a birthday party. As a chronic overcommitter, discernment has been an uncomfortable lens to look at my life through.
And so it’s taken me a couple of months to fully acknowledge that this Substack (in its current form at least) is one of the things that needs to be pared back.
I’ve been writing here since January 2022 and when I first started I designed this Substack to be a bit like a membership, with somatic and breathwork practices behind a paywall for paid subscribers.
Trouble is that Substack doesn’t really work like that.
This is a space designed for writers and writing. So it’s always felt a bit clunky to be trying to make it something it’s not. There’s a life lesson right there, huh?
And frankly, Substack’s single price option also means that I ended up really undercharging for the practices I was offering and struggling to pay myself. None of how I’d set this up was was feeling like a ‘resonant fuck yes’. The community of brilliant people gathered here (that’s right, I mean you)? Very much yes. The systems I’d created? Not so much.
So that was the first nudge to recalibrate.
The second is that I’m also working on something big. Like, BIG big.
I’m in the initial throes of opening a studio. A physical (and digital) space that is part radical wellness studio, part community space. It’s the most breath-catchingly exciting thing I’ve done in my career and the enormity of it makes my head spin. It also means that I’m working with a different level of capacity. Hence the need for discernment and energetic clarity.
Which is all to say that this Substack is changing shape into something that is way more straight forward. I’m dropping the paywalls for posts, and turning the monthly workshops into a stand alone offering.
This will be as Substack designed - a place for writing. Zines and essays on radical wellbeing, liberation, and body magic, to be precise. And with that comes a name change! Welcome to Body Magic! I’m so excited about this next iteration.
What this means for you
If you’re a free subscriber, not much is changing! You’ll still receive what I publish here. If you’re in the position to offer financial exchange for my labor here, please do become a paid monthly subscriber at £6/month or £60/year.
If you’re a paid subscriber — there will no longer be a monthly breathwork workshop, or posts just sent to paid subscribers. All posts will be available to everyone. You’ll still have access to the archive of practices available here. And you’ll automatically be included in this month’s Breath Spells workshop for free (it’s next Sunday, May 5th! You’ll get an email with all the details next week!)
If you choose to continue as a subscriber, you can just let your subscription roll on, but I totally understand if not. Either way I’m hugely grateful for your support. And if you have yearly subscription and you feel like you want a partial refund, please do email me — I’ll prorate the remaining months of your subscription.
And finally, I just want to say thank you to you all for being here. New subs, old subs, paid subs and free subs alike. It’s a huge privilege to get to connect with you an dnot one I take lightly. I can’t wait to share this next evolution of my business with you. Thank you thank you thank you.