The Widening Gap: Why Some People Thrive in the Storm And Others Absorb It
Jul 05, 2026
Same storm, wildly different lives. Some implode. Others radiate peace. The difference is frequency, and the simple practices that shift it.
Three weeks ago my life stacked losses like waves that wouldn't space themselves out. My Instagram account got taken down without warning. Fifteen years of content and connection, gone overnight. A few days later I left for Wyoming to bury my grandparents and place my dad's ashes after years of waiting. All this on top of a full-time job, a business, and a son I homeschool.
I tell you this because I want you to know where I'm writing from. I'm not observing the storm from a safe distance. I'm in it with you.
From inside it, I'm watching something happen that needs to be named.
The Gap
A widening gap is forming between two groups of people right now. On one side are those who have learned to regulate, release, and return to center. On the other side are those absorbing the stress of this world straight into their bones.
I'm seeing both ends. I'm seeing people lose their lives to the weight of it. I'm seeing others thrive in the middle of the same chaos. Same economy. Same news cycle. Same uncertainty. Wildly different experiences of being alive.
For a long time I believed the difference was circumstance. Easier lives, more money, fewer diagnoses, less loss. I don't believe that anymore. I've watched people with every resource implode. I've watched people carrying unthinkable weight radiate peace.
The difference lives somewhere else.
The Root of the Difference
When I look closely at the people on each side of the gap, the same patterns keep showing up.
Reactivity versus pause. One side responds to life instantly, from the surface, from the wound. The other side takes a breath first. The pause is small. Its effects are not.
Volume versus contemplation. One side fills every space with noise, input, scrolling, opinions. The other side protects silence like it's medicine. It is.
Pushing versus listening. One side forces outcomes, grips timelines, manages every variable. The other side listens for the next right step and takes only that one.
Rigid versus open. One side needs life to look a specific way to feel okay. The other side lets life be what it is and works with what's actually here.
Underneath all of it, the people who are thriving live with a longer, wider view. Less instant gratification. Less assuming. Less expectation. More gratitude. More accountability. More compassion.
None of those are personality traits. Every one of them is a practice. Which means every one of them is available to you.
What Absorbing Actually Feels Like
If you're on the absorbing end of the gap, you already know it, even if you've never had words for it.
It's the inability to come down out of survival tension. Your system takes in input all day, the news, the demands, the notifications, the needs of everyone around you, and there's no healthy export. Nothing releases. The energy has nowhere to go, so it turns inward.
It feels like implosion. At wits' end. No more energy for anything or anyone. Heavy in a way that sleep doesn't fix. Your body is holding the stress of your life like sediment settling into bone.
This is what absorbing means. It's not a metaphor. Your nervous system is a physical system. What comes in must move through, or it stays.
What the Shift Feels Like
The shift is just as physical.
When frequency starts to rise, the first thing that happens is release. A lightening that moves through every layer, emotional, physical, spiritual, relational. People describe melting sensations. Cooling. Warmth. Some feel it like a waterfall moving through the body, washing something out that's been lodged for years.
Then comes the space. Peace, openness, and freedom start to form at your core and ripple outward. Your responses slow down. Your view gets longer. The same life that was crushing you a month ago becomes something you can hold.
I've felt this shift in my own body. I watch it happen in the people I work with. It's not mystical, even though it can feel that way. It's your system finally exporting what it's been storing.
What I Reached For
These past weeks tested every practice I teach, so I'll show you exactly what held.
Standing in Wyoming with my family's losses in my hands, rebuilding fifteen years of connection from zero, I didn't reach for anything complicated. I reached for micro-healing.
Quiet. Solitude. Nature. Breath. Family.
Contemplation and gratitude. Intention and movement. The next right step, and only the next right step.
That's the entire list. No retreat. No protocol. No overhaul. Small choices, repeated, that kept my frequency from collapsing under weight that had every right to collapse it.
The magic is in the presence of the moment. No matter what stage of healing you're in, peace and beauty can be found within and all around. I stood at graves and felt grief and gratitude in the same breath. Both were true. Holding both is the practice.
Crossing the Gap
If you recognize yourself on the absorbing side, hear this clearly. You don't cross the gap through a life overhaul. You cross it through micro-moments, chosen on purpose, repeated until your nervous system learns a new baseline.
One breath before you respond. One walk without your phone. One meal made slowly with your hands. One pause where you feel the tension and choose to let your shoulders drop. One moment of gratitude for what's actually here instead of grief for what you expected.
Each one is small. Each one is a frequency shift. Stacked over days and weeks, they move you across the gap. I am living proof, and I'm far from the only one.
The storm isn't going anywhere. The turmoil will keep bubbling up. Your capacity to move through it with peace rippling from your core, that can grow every single day.
Simple. Sustainable. Life-changing. That's the work.
If you're in a dark place that feels bigger than a practice can hold, please reach out for support. In the US, you can call or text 988 anytime. You matter more than you know.
When you're ready to shift what your system has been absorbing, Reiki is one of the most direct paths I know. It helps your nervous system release the stored tension and supports your natural healing capacity. Book a session here.
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