Hey Subscriber Full Name,

April has this anticipatory energy to it — everyone's emerging, pivoting, relaunching. And I've been doing my own version of that, just a little more quietly.

This month I was healing from my surgery (still), lost a client, and stopped being able to sleep. Not exactly the spring reset I planned.

But somewhere in all of it, I kept coming back to the same idea:

Some losses are just recalibration in disguise.

This issue is for anyone in a season that doesn't quite look like what they expected — but might be exactly what they needed.

ONE THING I’M UNLEARNING:
LOSING SOMETHING ISN’T ALWAYS A BAD THING.

I caught myself grieving something this month that, if I'm honest, was already on its way out. A client I'd had for nearly a year. Steady income. Predictable hours. The kind of thing that looks like stability from the outside but quietly costs you something on the inside — your bandwidth, your creative energy, your mental real estate.

And when it ended, my first instinct was to treat it like a setback. To frame it as something to overcome. To start calculating how fast I could replace it.

But here's the thing: not everything you lose was actually yours to keep, or was meant for you long term.

We're conditioned to treat loss as failure. A friendship ending. An opportunity that didn't come through.

We call it falling apart when sometimes — most times — it's actually falling into place.

There's a word I keep coming back to: recalibration. The kind your nervous system makes when it finally gets permission to stop holding something that was never aligned in the first place.

What I'm unlearning is the reflex to immediately fill the space that loss creates. Loss has a melancholic positivity to it if you let it.

The client is gone. The capacity is back. In many ways, I feel like this is a sign from the universe to go all-in on my business, Inner Code.

"What are you holding onto right now that might be costing you more than it's giving — and what would you do with that space if you let it go?"

A HEALING RITUAL:
MAGNESIUM EPSOM SALT FOOT SOAKS BEFORE BED.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping since I had my uterus/endo surgery. I’m not allowed to workout for 4-6 weeks, so of course, I have excess pent up energy.

And when I have excess energy, it means I my body and mind won’t shut off when it’s time to wind down.

I tried everything — magensium, ashgwanda, l-theanine, herbal tea, long walks, watching the sunset, reading… the list goes on.

And when I was finally about to give up, I realized I have a foot soak tub in the back of my closet that was just collecting dust. Luckily, I had a whole bag of magensium epsom salts just hanging out in the bathroom cupboard that was desperately asking to be used.

For the past week, I’ve been doing nightly foot soaks around 9 PM, and by 10 PM, i’m OUT like a light.

The science behind this?

Foot soaks improve sleep by reducing core body temperature, warming extremities to facilitate heat dissipation, and promoting physical and mental relaxation (Source: PubMed).

And from the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, foot soaks help calm the mind, balance energy flow, and release physical tension. It works by moving energy and blood down from the head to the feet.

A RECIPE I’VE BEEN LOVING:
MY GO-TO LUTEAL PHASE MEAL… STIR FRIED PROTEIN + MULTIGRAIN RICE WITH GARLIC SAUTEED VEGGIES OF CHOICE

This recipe is super simple and easy to make. Takes less than 10 minutes to whip up and keeps me satiated and energized, especially during my luteal phase. Plus it tastes soooo good.

The hack to making this quickly is making a big batch of rice at the beginning of the week. And don’t forget to defrost your frozen protein in the morning :)

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Jasmine rice or multigrain rice

• Organic grass fed ground beef (or chicken or tofu or fish)

• Asparagus or bok choy or leafy green of choice

• Aromatics: garlic, shallots or onions

• Green lentils (in a can)

• Olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Oyster sauce

• Tamari

• Maple syrup

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add olive oil to medium hot pan. Sautee aromatics together until light brown

2. Add grass fed ground beef and cook until medium.

3. In a separate pan with olive oil, sautee aromatics with asparagus.

4. Add cooked green lentils to the beef.

5. Add oyster sauce, tamari, maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste.

A PRODUCT I’VE BEEN LOVING:
CYCLE SYNCING TEAS

Yes, I'm recommending my own product — but I promise this one is earned.

These teas have been my anchor ritual since surgery, and honestly, they've surprised me.

My surgeon warned me that my cycle would likely be disrupted for a few months post-op — which is completely normal — but knowing I had a couple of big trips and events coming up in May, I wanted to feel some sense of control over my body again. Spoiler: I had to let that go entirely.

What I ended up doing was ditching the "rules" of cycle syncing and just drinking whichever tea matched the kind of support I was looking for that day — calming, grounding, energizing.

And something about that intuitive approach must have worked, because my period showed up pretty much on time, four weeks after surgery. My body recalibrated on its own. I'm back to tracking like it's business as usual.

If you're in a season of recovery, transition, or just feeling a little out of sync — these teas aren't about being perfect with your cycle. They're about coming back to your body, one cup at a time.

In honour of spring, use code SPRING15 for 15% off your first cycle syncing tea ritual kit.

Thank you for reading this issue of The Art of Unlearning. Have a topic you want me to cover next month? Drop me a note hello@artofanna.com — I respond to every email!