This article captures the first breakthrough session with Maria—a session that peeled back her worth story, from proving value to living freedom, and revealed how tightly it was bound to her money story. For most of her life, Maria couldn’t see the hidden architecture shaping her relationship with money, worth, and freedom. What surfaced was an entire internal family unit working behind the scenes: three powerful parts that had been carrying her financial freedom story for decades, and how it all connected for Maria.
The unfolding of insights landed with some significant weight to it. For the first time, Maria could point to the operators of her inner world—the parts holding the keys to the life she most deeply desired. She also saw, with startling clarity, how those same parts had bound her to patterns of proving, shrinking, struggling, and waiting. It was a stark contrast between what she longed for and what her programmed nervous system kept recreating.
Naming them was both disorienting and electrifying—like discovering the blueprint of a house you’d lived in your whole life, only to realize it held hidden passageways and rooms you never knew existed.
These inner discoveries explained so much because all her life, money had never been a steady, flowing current. She believed consistency was possible, yet the “secret formula” always felt just out of reach. Instead, her financial life swung in extremes: dramatic highs followed by painful lows. Feast or famine. The turbulence of her finances was a mirror of her inner world—and now, for the first time, she could finally see why.
What we uncovered went so deep that ending the session there would have left Maria suspended in the middle of a breakthrough. So we met again the next morning to follow the unraveling all the way through. You can continue reading in Part 2.
Up To This Point
This new awareness didn’t appear in isolation. It was built on the clarity Maria had already been claiming in her life through our work together.
For example, she no longer wanted to spend her energy on people who talked big dreams but never followed through. In the past, she often did—because her people-pleaser part was so dominant, she believed that if she didn’t show interest in everyone, they might feel small or not enough. So she engaged, not from alignment, but from pressure to keep others comfortable.
She was equally clear about mentors and communities. She had no patience for people chasing mentors as a rescue line; she valued those who saw mentorship as a catalyst for playing a bigger game, bringing their own commitments and resources to the table. And she was done with communities built on hierarchy, where power rested in a single ego-driven voice.
Her standards were sharper and cleaner than ever before.
But when a new opportunity came through an organization doing beautiful work in the world—the kind of work that stirred her heart—Maria found herself slipping back into an old groove. Without noticing, she began planning how she can and will volunteer her time, offer her skills freely, and wait for someone else to recognize her value and extend an invitation to “officially” bring her in.
Maria entered the session lit up with excitement, eager to share an opportunity that felt alive with possibility. But as I reflected back what she was actually committing to, the energy shifted and there was an emotional pause and release.
The shine of enthusiasm cracked open to reveal something else entirely: another muddled corner of her life, tangled in old patterns she hadn’t yet named. What had felt clear only a moment before was suddenly illuminated as a part of her asking to be seen, and brought into alignment with her core-self.
The Familiar Loop: From Proving Value
For years, Maria had relied on a particular strategy to bring in opportunities: If they see my value, maybe I’ll be invited in. Once they see my worth, I’m hoping I’ll be compensated. It wasn’t her only approach, but it had become a familiar tool in her toolbox. In light of her newly claimed clarity, though, it felt outdated, like an old method that no longer matched the authority she now carried.
Beneath the surface, that strategy carried a hidden contract: “I’ll give first, believing you’ll validate me later.” And beneath that contract was yet another layer. Maria was justifying why people would want her—telling herself things like, “They have the money,” or “Why wouldn’t someone want my skill set?” These weren’t grounded in her Knowing; they were defenses, assumptions born from a limited view of what she could see in the moment.
On the outside, “Why wouldn’t they want me?” looked like confidence. But the undertone wasn’t ownership. It was a defensive confidence—a posture that defended her value rather than standing in it. In doing so, she unconsciously passed responsibility for her worth to someone else instead of stewarding it with the respect it deserved.
That posture leaked energy. It placed her authority in someone else’s hands and kept her in small, diminished positions—because parts of her were still agreeing to prove themselves rather than take authorship on her own terms.
Maria was determined to stop those leaks. She had already reclaimed so much of her energy from places that drained her and was already redirecting it toward the life she knew she was meant to live. And now, she could feel where another crack revealed itself in the container she had been so carefully shaping.
Each breakthrough in inner work is a double-edged gift—revealing not only new clarity but also the hidden corners where old patterns still reside.
Money Is Not a Number, It’s a Symbol
At the heart of what was surfacing was Maria’s relationship with money.
“I don’t want to lead with money,” she admitted.
How many times have you heard that? Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. It’s a noble-sounding phrase, but hidden inside is often a deep misalignment. Because the truth is, money is not the problem. The problem is what we individually make money mean.
For Maria, ‘not leading with money’ was one of the ways she shrank her power and kept herself playing small. It reinforced an old belief we had uncovered a while back: I don’t want to be seen as financially narcissistic. It was the worry that focusing on financial well-being will make others judge her as someone who:
- Exploits relationships for money
- Always puts their own financial gain above the collective good
- Uses money as a way to control or elevate themselves above others
- Flaunts financial success to appear superior
That belief became the filter through which she made financial decisions. It showed up in her willingness to volunteer, in the ways she justified sacrificing her energy, and in how she positioned herself to be safely seen rather than seen standing firm in her worth.
The breakthrough came when she reframed what money actually symbolized for her, and from that place of clarity and alignment she said, “It feels like freedom and movement.”
Yes.
Not paper, not coins, not the numbers in a bank account. But freedom of time. Freedom of resources. Freedom of creativity and expression. Movement of energy, and expansion of possibility and impact.
Suddenly, ‘not leading with money’ no longer made sense. All it took was a shift in awareness—of where she was coming from, who she was being, and the strategies that naturally flowed from that position.
Her focus shifted from avoiding money to leading with freedom and movement, letting those qualities guide her choices. From that state, money took its rightful place—not something to dodge or fear, but a symbol that flowed naturally from actions rooted in freedom, rather than in avoidance or postponing the money conversation.
When Maria finally voiced, “I want to lead with freedom and movement,” her whole body shifted. Leading with freedom meant she no longer had to wait for someone else to validate her worth. Leading with movement meant she could step forward—designing her role, presenting her vision, and naming her compensation as an integral part of her authorship.
It wasn’t about a salary negotiation, a nonprofit contract, or even a single opportunity. It was about Maria aligning her life with her own design—choosing to create from who she is becoming, rather than relying on an outdated program that had built a financial life of feast or famine, and thinking that it will be different somehow with a different opportunity.
From Permission to Power
One of Maria’s most honest confessions was this: “I want them to see my value.”
How many leaders live in that space where they’re hoping their value will be recognized, and quietly giving away energy to prove themselves?
The truth is, waiting to be seen is a form of giving your power away, and it’s a huge energy leak.
Maria’s turning point was realizing she could flip that entirely. Instead of hoping to be invited, she could declare:
- Here’s what you currently have.
- Here’s the gap I see.
- Here’s the plan I can build.
- And here’s how I’m compensated within that plan.
Maria’s shift in awareness allowed her new clarity to flow naturally from her aligned self, which changed the energy of the dynamic from permission to ownership.
Presence Over Hustle: How Alignment Attracts
The irony is that Maria didn’t need to prove her value at all. When she showed up fully present, in alignment with herself, opportunities naturally came her way. She’d experienced it over and over again. When she stops chasing, people lean in, when she stops forcing, collaborations appear, and when she shows up aligned, doors open.
This awareness felt like a closing of an old era for Maria, the era of hustling and sacrificing just to survive, to a new way of being, one that is present to alignment, rooted in who she truly is, and connected to the natural power she already carries.
The Universal Lesson: Stop Shrinking, Start Leading
What Maria’s story reveals is not unique to her. It’s the journey so many high-capacity leaders are on.
- They’ve learned to overgive.
- They’ve learned to overextend.
- They’ve learned to self-sacrifice.
- They’ve learned to wait to be validated.
And then, when clarity comes, it exposes the cost of those patterns. That kind of awareness allows you to step out of the proving loop and into the freedom of creating your life by your own design.
Living the New Paradigm
For Maria, the integration and insights are still unfolding. After today’s session, this is the edge she stands on, and perhaps it’s the edge you’re standing on too because the old paradigm of hustle, proving, and sacrificing doesn’t fit anymore.
It’s time to embody a new paradigm of freedom, alignment, and presence. And, as a bonus, when you live from there, money flows as a natural extension of who you are.
If you feel the old paradigm no longer fits, and you’re ready to step into freedom, alignment, and presence as your new baseline, I’d love to explore that with you. Book a discovery call with me, and let’s see what becomes possible when you stop leaking energy and start leading from your core self.