Return Before You Rise: Coming Home to Yourself

What does returning home mean to you?

For some, it might mean moving back to a hometown or country of origin. For others, it’s as simple as walking through the door after a long day, greeting a partner, a child, or a pet. Home can be about people, places, a community, or even a shared sense of belonging.

But what if home is something else entirely? What if it is something more?

What if returning home is not just external, but deeply internal, an invitation to return home to yourself? To your physical, emotional, and even spiritual body? What then?

As a guide and a coach, I meet many high-achieving individuals who’ve done all the things ‘right’, and yet still feel an inner pull for something more honest, more grounded, more true.

In a world that celebrates speed, performance, and relentless doing, we are so often praised for momentum. But we’re rarely encouraged to pause, to rest, to be. Individually and collectively, the world is moving ever faster and demanding increasingly more of us than ever before, the culture of human doings rather than human beings; yet, the clue to this imbalance is even in the name.

Yes, of course, some things must get done, and yes, I would imagine if we were all being honest, there are times when we need action. The bills don’t pay themselves, the kids need feeding and ferrying about, work needs to be done, and life asks us to show up. We need structure, progress, and action. But what happens when we run on empty? When the fire that once fuelled our passion starts burning too hot, or worse, fizzles out?

What happens after the striving, the chasing, the endless projects and plans? What do we do when our lives appear full on the outside, yet we feel unfulfilled, unanchored, or even quietly lost?

When I was made redundant, these were some of the questions I asked myself. Having been in a role that was constantly about striving and doing, when everything suddenly stopped, I was left feeling cast adrift. Just who was I outside of all the noise and overworking? What was really me, and what was just what was left of me after everyone else and everything else was done and dusted?

I had lost track of myself in all the constant doing, the constant demands. I realised that not only was I potentially the last on the list, but I also, more often than not, didn’t even make the list at all. Yet, I loved my job, didn’t I? I was good at it, I had purpose and drive, and I achieved a great many things with incredible colleagues and worked with some amazing students.

Yet, when all was said and done, when my world slowed down and I got a wake-up call from someone I love, leaving this world, I realised, it was a long time overdue to come home. I needed to remember and reconnect with who I was, the person that had always been there, quiet, patient, waiting beneath the noise.

This is where the real journey begins.

The road less travelled

We’re currently in Leo season, a time that calls us back to the heart of who we are and that reconnects us to what feels most true within. It’s a season of returning to our center, to be the main character in our own lives. Not for the sake of performance, but for the sake of authenticity.

Here’s the truth, well, at least the truth as I see it: returning home is not always about becoming someone new. Sometimes it’s about gently removing the layers that never really belonged to you, until you reconnect with the person you’ve always been, more like a remembering you!

This kind of homecoming isn’t easy. It means daring to look within. To have the courage to turn toward the parts of yourself you’ve ignored, judged, or simply forgotten. It’s the kind of deep inner work that requires honesty, compassion, and curiosity. The kind of listening that hears not just the loud shouts, but the quietest whispers.

With this level of inner exposure comes vulnerability, and from an evolutionary perspective, this very vulnerability holds both the wisdom and the challenge of Leo. True bravery is born in those moments when we reveal what is really in our hearts and act on that!

It’s asking:

·        What lives here in me?

·         What’s waiting to be remembered?

·        What have I outgrown?

·         What else is possible? What else? What else? What else?

Return home before you rise

The upcoming Full Moon in Aquarius [I’ll be speaking to this more directly in my upcoming Full Moon blog] reminds us that personal transformation is never just personal. When we come home to ourselves, we become more grounded in who we are, and that’s when we can truly serve, lead, and connect with others from a place of clarity and strength.

Taking that bold step inwards is not about retreating from the world, being self-interested, or self-involved; being grounded in ourselves is what enables us to meet the world more fully.

Sometimes the most radical thing we can do for the world is to come home to who we really are. To release old identities and show up in ways that align with both soul and community.

Right now, it is like Leo is lighting the inner fire, and Aquarius is asking: what will you do with it? Not just of you but for the greater whole?

When we are no longer scattered, when we have done our inner work, and walked our paths of growth, personal evolution and transformation, when we feel empowered, then we can create change, not just for ourselves, but for those we love and the wider world.

This is the deep process work I guide people through.

I work with individuals who are visionaries at heart, brave, independent thinkers, often driven by a desire to lead or serve in collective ways, but who quietly sense that something inside is asking for attention. For honesty. For integration.

Even the boldest spirits need a place to land. A way to come home. This is the journey I walk with my clients.  

If something in you is stirring, a whisper, a fire, a quiet knowing, then this may be your time to return home and rise.

And if you are walking that path, I’d be honoured to walk it with you.

You can explore how we might work together here.