Truth, Trauma, and Authenticity: Why We Hide and How We Heal

This episode is about the truth I kept dancing around.

I talk about how hiding became second nature for me. How silence felt safer than honesty. How telling the truth was something my nervous system learned to associate with danger, conflict, and loss.

As I reflect on this year, I share what grief, breakups, and major life transitions have taught me about authenticity. About emotional honesty. About the cost of not being real with myself.

I explore how trauma shapes our relationship with truth, why environments need to feel safe for honesty to exist, and what it looks like to build relationships that can actually hold the truth without punishment.

If you’ve ever felt afraid to name what you really want, this episode is for you.

Themes Explored in This Episode

•  How childhood shapes your relationship with truth and honesty 
•  Why people learn to hide instead of express 
•  The connection between truth, safety, and nervous system response 
•  Lying as a protection mechanism rooted in trauma 
•  How hiding from others leads to hiding from yourself 
•  The “web of lies” and how patterns build over time 
•  Truth as a pathway to authenticity and self-awareness 
•  Why truth disrupts and creates change 
•  Letting go of identities that no longer align 
•  Fear of abandonment, over-giving, and emotional patterns 

Key Takeaways

•  Your relationship with truth is shaped early in life 
•  Hiding becomes a learned strategy for safety 
•  Avoiding truth creates disconnection from yourself 
•  One lie often creates multiple layers of avoidance 
•  Truth is disruptive—but necessary for growth 
•  Being honest requires a safe and regulated environment 
•  The only way out of avoidance is through it 

Reflection Questions

•  What truths have I been avoiding about myself? 
•  When did I learn that telling the truth wasn’t safe? 

Truth doesn’t just reveal who you are.
 It changes what you’re willing to accept.

And the more honest you are with yourself,
 the harder it becomes to stay in what no longer fits.

Jump to the Part That Calls You

0:00 Intro
6:09 Childhood Influences on Truth and Honesty
12:26 The Role of Environment in Truth-Telling
18:25 The Evolution of Identity and Truth
27:25 The “Web of Lies” Pattern

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Transcript

Sage (00:01.198)
Hello my sweet sexy vixens. Welcome back to Truth Meets Taboo. It's so good to be here with you all. I'm actually recording this episode in the evening and I'm feeling really juicy about that. This might become the norm. I am noticing as we get to the end of the year, I've been thinking a lot about this podcast and thinking about

direction for 2026 and what I want to do and how it looks and I'm noticing I really love recording these but getting into the groove of recording and being you know on and talking and all of this it it's an interesting type of flow that I'm trying to find for myself and if you notice I took a little bit of a eight-week break right in the middle of all of this back in like November or October.

And so I'm trying to think about how I can stay more consistent with this because I do really love it and I do really enjoy being here with you all. And of course, as I've been reflecting on this, I've been getting so many beautiful signs from the universe and from all of you about how much you actually enjoy this podcast. So thank you. Thank you for telling me. And if you're listening and you know me or want to reach out, please let me know that you enjoy this podcast because

As much as this is definitely an expression for me and an artistic expression and thinking about my own life and experiences and sharing and education, it's also about us being in community together. So I really enjoy hearing from you about things you enjoy about the podcast, things that you're thinking about because of the podcast, or even just reflections you want to share with me about your own stories or your own journey. I love hearing from you. So please feel free to reach out.

If you want to be brave in 2026, please do that. I would love, love, love, love to hear from you.

Sage (02:18.177)
So I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do for this last episode.

Sage (02:36.341)
I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on what I really wanted to do for this final episode. I think when it comes to the end of the year, I get really reflective. I get into a space of really thinking about what needs to be cleaned out, what am I really inventorying from the year, what am I bringing with me, what am I not bringing with me. It just puts me in a season of really thinking about what does forward movement look like, but specifically,

What do I need to let go of that I know can't come with me because the forward movement won't be sustainable if it comes with us? A little bit of like thinking about the baggage, right? When thinking about what are the things I need to release and let go to move forward into this next chapter. And so as I've been reflecting on that and thinking about that, I thought that this last episode, that for this last episode,

Sage (03:33.42)
And so as I've been reflecting on that, I thought for this last episode, we could do a little bit of reflection on truth and our relationship with truth as we're looking at the end of the year. So when I initially launched this podcast in the middle of this year, the big thing that I talked about was that this podcast is about truth, uncovering truth, thinking about truth, orienting around truth. And so I wanted to spend some time reflecting on

What is my relationship with truth as I am ending the year of 2025? And I will just say that this has just been a huge truth year for me. So I am really excited to reflect with you all and share some stories with you about how truth has shown up for me this year and how I'm reflecting on it as I'm going into next year, especially thinking about this podcast, but also just thinking about how truth shows up in my life and how I'm going to orient around it moving forward.

Sage (04:37.294)
you

Sage (04:41.376)
My dad loves to tell this cute little story about me from when I was growing up where I would hide in the pantry when he would come home and he would always catch me hiding in the pantry. Hold on, me write that.

Sage (04:59.394)
Growing up, my dad used to tell me this story all the time about when I was little. And basically when he would get home from work, he would find me in the pantry, crouched down in the corner, eating cookies. And we spent a lot of years laughing about those stories and giggling about how I would be hiding and sneaking cookies and all of this kind of stuff. And while that's all cute from the angle of thinking about children and how they have like little behaviors and things like that,

Something I've been spending a lot of time thinking about is what does that story actually say about my relationship to truth, my relationship to desire, my relationship to pleasure? Because here's the thing, there's a reason that I was feeling like I needed to hide in the corner and eat the cookies where no one would see me.

There was a reason that I was feeling fearful of allowing someone to see me enjoying something or enjoying my pleasure or taking advantage of trying to engage in my pleasure. Right. And I knew that there was some semblance of hiding, right, or being hidden from all of that, that would serve me, that would protect me, that would keep me from having to deal with certain things. Right.

And for me, in my household, a lot of the time, the thing that I was avoiding was the anger and aggression and upset of my father. He was very quick to yell, very quick to anger, very quick to upset when rules were broken or when you weren't doing things correctly or when you weren't behaving a certain way and specifically about lying as well.

And so when you grow up in an environment where that is the energy around lying or telling the truth or what have you, you end up in a situation where you often hide. And I think that this is something I've been reflecting on a lot this year because I'm realizing at the end of this year how much I hide, not just myself from other people, but myself from myself.

Sage (07:22.934)
I've just been reflecting so much on how because I am so quick to hide my feelings, to hide my hurt, to hide my upset, to hide my desires, that because I hide those things and hide them from other people, I also hide them from myself actively and create these like little landmines, treasure chests, whatever you want to call it.

things to stumble into in my psyche or in my subconscious of my true desires or my true feelings because I've just been hiding it from myself for so long. And this is something that has been coming up for me so much this year. I have been weaving into the intricacies of my inner world so deeply this year that I am truly deeply realizing how much I have been hiding from myself.

how many of my feelings I've hidden from myself, how many of my desires I've hidden from myself, how much shame I have wrapped around certain things, and that has kept me in a place of hiding them for so long.

Sage (09:12.526)
And I know my story is not unique. I know that for all of us, there were repercussions, consequences, reactions to lying or telling the truth or whatever it is. Right? Let me take that back.

Sage (09:31.543)
And I know that my experience is not unique. I know that all of us have had some sort of experience with what it means to tell the truth. And for some of us, our experience with telling the truth, especially as young people as children, was to receive consequences or to receive the reactions of our peers or our parents or our authority figures in a way that actually supported us in hiding, that actually encouraged us

to hide. Because what happens when I tell the truth to my parent and they abuse me? What happens when I tell the truth to my authority figure and they punish me? What happens when I tell the truth and something bad or traumatic happens to me? I start to associate telling the truth with negativity. That hiding, that keeping the peace, that being silent, that being small, that being digestible is the way to go.

is what to do to go along to get along that that's what I should be doing.

Sage (10:41.804)
And so for many of us, it is oftentimes our first instinct to lie. Think about it. When you get asked a really difficult question, when you're in a discomforting situation, when something is coming up that is really activating your nervous system, think about your first reaction. Think about your first response. For most of us, it's to tell a lie or to try to get out of the situation in some way that isn't just direct and clear and just being to the point. And oftentimes that is because

we are afraid of what the truth will have consequences of. There is something innately a part of the human experience that is understanding that truth changes things, that truth causes disruption, that truth creates chaos in some way. And that is usually because it is naming something that other people maybe don't see or hasn't been named or is critical and need to be named.

so that we can actually move forward or progress or evolve the thing that we're doing.

Sage (12:03.117)
And so our relationship with truth is really about understanding that

Sage (12:50.655)
Our relationship with truth is directly connected to our ability to be authentic. Because when we say we are committed to truth, when we say that we are committed to finding the truth out about ourselves, we are saying we want to live in the most authentic and real expression of ourselves. We want to be honest when someone hurts our feelings. We want to tell the truth when something is discomforting us and we're still going to push past it because we care about someone.

Sage (13:21.409)
Ahem.

Sage (13:53.136)
Truth is about allowing as many things to exist as possible at once. It is about inviting in as many perspectives, as many experiences, as many contextual points, as many ways of understanding a situation so that you can truly, fully, holistically feel

Sage (14:34.627)
something that I have deeply learned about truth.

Sage (14:55.479)
And something that I've come to find out is that oftentimes when we have that knee-jerk reaction to lie, when we have that instinctual reaction when something happens to lie, that is our trauma responding for us. That is the alarm system in our nervous system saying, hey, hey, hey, if you tell the truth, something bad is gonna happen. And it is your nervous system trying to stay in the familiar of lying because that has kept you safe.

And so uncovering the truth equals danger. And so many of us avoid the truth or avoid telling the truth because we think it's too dangerous. And really, avoiding the truth is actually the most dangerous thing that you can do. Because you are creating a reality, you are creating a universe, you are creating a co-regulation system, you are creating a connection, you are creating a community, you are creating a family built on the foundation of dishonesty,

and non-truths about who you are, what you want, what you believe, how you want to live your life, what's important to you, what values you have.

Sage (16:13.699)
And I think something else I'm really realizing about truth, especially in connection, is that the environment has to be safe for that. The environment has to feel comfortable and safe for truth to exist, which means...

co-regulating together around truth that is difficult, recognizing when someone is sharing a truth that is very difficult for them to share and honoring that with them, honoring that they are moving through something, that they are doing something in a way where they are discomforted and still choosing to lean in through that discomfort because they care about the connection with you.

Sage (16:57.903)
Part of being in connection with other people, part of speaking truth to other people is helping each other's nervous systems regulate around receiving truth. Which means getting to a place where our nervous systems are settled and regulated around each other so that they can be receptive vessels as we've talked about in many of the other episodes.

So in order for truth to be able to exist, in order for truth to be able to show up, the environment has to be rich with all of the tools and skills that are necessary in order for truth to exist. You kind of have to think of truth like a plant.

and like the environment around it and making sure that it can grow and sustain itself. The soil has to be rich. The sunlight has to be there. You have to be watering it. You have to be trimming the bushes. You have to be engaging with truth. Like it is something of a muscle that you are constantly doing.

all of the time, which means engaging in positive reinforcement, engaging in affirmations about why it's important to tell the truth with each other, appreciating one another when difficult truths are named.

Sage (18:11.765)
All of that helps build the environment for which telling the truth can exist and live in.

Sage (18:33.903)
I want to share with you all a truth that has been coming up for me recently that has been very, very, very difficult for me as we've been coming to the end of the year. As you all know, I have been navigating a lot of grief. I lost my beloved sweet baby girl Piper of 13 years, and it has been quite the experience processing and grieving the loss of her in my life. She is...

the most impactful connection I have ever had, and one that is one of the longest, especially of my kind of own individualistic types of relationships outside of family. And grieving the loss of her has been such an intense and beautiful and rich journey.

I have also been grieving the loss of two of my romantic partnerships of two and five years. I am not new to breakups. I'm not new to grieving relationship loss. I am not new to any of that, but to have two major relationships and right around the same time has been incredibly devastating and incredibly difficult to navigate and

It has been...

Sage (20:01.724)
process in and of itself to even just think about grieving the loss of these relationships. It is quite a change for both of those relationships and it is coming with a lot of my own.

Sage (20:21.058)
uncovering of truths and really seeing how I am in relationships, noticing my own patterns, and really having to sit with myself about some of the relational truths that I know I can no longer avoid.

Sage (20:41.55)
And so in the spirit of that, let's talk about the truth that has been coming up for me lately, which is that your girl after 13 years of polyamorous relationships is no longer identifying as poly. Yes, yes, yes, fam, you heard me right. And I want to be very, very clear that I am still RA, relationship anarchist. I am just not poly.

I will talk more about this decision probably next year as I'm going through this process, but essentially why I want to share this in this way right now is because I want to share about the truth that has been uncovered.

Sage (21:40.411)
So back in March of this year, one of my partners and I were in a situation where we were engaging in a throuple and we were considering dating another person. In that interaction, I was having quite a bit of jealousy and I was having quite a bit of fear come up, especially around abandonment.

some serious concerns around being left and just a bunch of things that were coming up that were really causing it to be very difficult for me to navigate that dynamic. My partner at the time very gently asked me, you know, a lot of the things that I was saying was giving him... Sorry, let me take that back.

My partner was noticing at the time that I was saying a lot of things that felt and sounded very monogamous. And so he very gently asked me if there was some part of me or if there was something inside me that was really wanting to be monogamous or was interested in monogamy or if there was something related to monogamy coming up for me. I think because I have such...

a deep attachment to polyamory in my identity. had such a knee-jerk reaction with him to be like, no, don't, not monogamy, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, let me take all of that back.

Sage (23:20.686)
My partner was noticing at the time that I was exhibiting some comments and behaviors that were really aligned with monogamous thinking and very aligned with wanting to be monogamous. And I would definitely honor that at that time I was feeling really triggered and there was a lot going on. Let me take that back.

Sage (23:48.143)
My partner was noticing that I was making a lot of comments that really were kind of toeing the line of monogamy. And so he very gently asked me if there was something to that, if there was some sort of through line or if there was some sort of part of me that really wanted to be monogamous or was thinking about monogamy with him or maybe desired to be monogamous in general.

And I remember having this visceral reaction of, no, absolutely not, not monogamous, I want to be polyamorous, I don't know what this is about, I need to deal with it though, so I will go to therapy and talk about it.

So I go to my therapist, I start unpacking this with her, and I start getting to this place where I'm like, okay, maybe this is parts work. Maybe this is some part of me or some version of me, probably the high school version of me or the teenage version of me, right, that idealized monogamy and this idea of one true love and one person and all of these things that because...

She was upset with me, right? That version of me was upset that I didn't choose monogamy. She was basically throwing temper tantrums. And that's what I was feeling. That's what the triggering response is. Hi, hello. I'm a hyper intellectualizer of my feelings. Yes, be on the journey with me. So basically, I was like, OK, so maybe this is parts work. Maybe this is the part of me that's like mad that I didn't choose monogamy. So I need to like nurture that part and love her and support her. And so I started putting a lot of energy in showing up for her because I could

hear and feel how visceral this was for her. And it was impacting my ability to show up in my relationships well.

Sage (25:35.919)
So I slowly started to begin to sit with her more. And what I mean by that is when she would come up, when that feeling would come up, when I would be triggered, I would basically sit down, ground into that feeling, and have a conversation with her. know, ask her how she is, tell me what's going on, what do you need, how can I show up for you, what's making you feel unsafe.

And as we were going through those conversations and as I was talking to her about what do you want? What do you desire? What is it that would make you feel safe? I slowly started to realize that she wasn't upset that I wasn't monogamous. She was upset that I wasn't protecting my romantic energy and romantic self the way I should be.

Because the trauma that she is carrying, the story that she is holding is that I over give, I over love, I over invest, I over commit in my relationships, and I get my heart broken. And because that is the story that she believes,

there is a deep innate part of her that is very committed to boundaries, that is very committed to me establishing boundaries with my romantic partners, establishing truth with my romantic partners, showing up for myself with romantic partners as a way to ensure that we are protected and not in a hyper independence way, but in a we don't get lost in ourselves, get taken advantage of way.

Sage (27:18.416)
And so when I started sitting with her and having these deeper conversations with her and being like, okay, boundaries, we need more boundaries. Let's think about that. Let's talk about that. I started to realize that a lot of the things that were coming up were largely around the fact that I did not feel I had capacity to be romantically invested in more than one person.

and that by being polyamorous all this time, by extending my romantic energy to multiple people at once, I was using that as both a coping mechanism, but also avoidance technique. Avoidance of myself.

Focusing in on myself because if I'm focusing in on other people if I'm thinking about other people if I'm worried about my romantic connections I don't have to look at myself. I don't have to look at my businesses. I don't have look at my daily practices I don't look at my rituals. I don't have to look at my health. I don't look at my well-being because I'm so focused

on making sure I'm romantically showing up good and well for my romantic connections. And then I start getting attached to the dopamine that's attached to romantic connections and having good romantic connections and having these first dates that are so yummy and having these intimate experiences that are high on adrenaline and dopamine and oxytocin. And so then I start using relationships and intimacy as a way to avoid.

And then I am also using it as a coping mechanism, right? To cope with the fact that I don't actually believe that anybody would actually choose me because I have this underlying story that I will always over give, I will always over commit and nobody will ever actually choose me. And so instead of trying to deal with the truth of that, I just succumb to the idea that I just be polyamorous and then that way I don't ever have to worry about someone not choosing me.

Sage (29:14.617)
right? Or this idea of someone leaving me or abandoning me, right? In this context of monogamy. I don't have to worry about that because I'm polyamorous. Literally what the fuck, girl? The brain is crazy. The brain is crazy. What the fuck do you mean my brain literally did all those mental gymnastics for all these years and was like, let's just hide out in plain sight like this. The truth was literally hiding in plain sight, but your girl is so

comfortable. Your girl is so comfortable lying to herself, hiding her own truth from herself, eating cookies in the pantry. I'm so comfortable with that. I literally have been hiding this from myself for like 13 years. And like I'm being a little extreme about this, right? I don't think that...

I've necessarily maybe been hiding this from myself for 13 years and it's all been bad and I don't think I, I don't regret any of my polyamory journey. I don't think that I did anything that I didn't mean to do or want to do, right? I think polyamory taught me a lot. And if anything brought me to this place. But the reality is I am 36 years old, never had a monogamous adult relationship. All of my monogamous relationships were in my adolescence, in my youth. I got into polyamory very quickly as an adult.

So I don't even know what monogamy feels like as an adult, but then I'm like over here being like, don't like it, I don't want it, whatever. Right? I'm not even open to the idea of it because I'm like so attached. I'm so attached to this idea of polyamory. And it didn't even...

And that resulted in me not even asking myself the most important question. Is this something I want to do from the context of do I want to have multiple romantic connections?

Sage (31:10.629)
which then also kept me from asking myself the more important question, am I capable of having multiple romantic connections? Because it's like not even a desire thing really. Like I fundamentally understand how people can love more than one person. I understand polyamory. I think it's a valid and beautiful romantic relationship style. I myself though, do not feel that I am capable of multiple romantic relationships. I just am such.

a lover girl. I'm so invested. I want to be locked in. I want to be all in. I want to be focused. I want to be in the connection with you. And so really realizing this truth and having to unearth and like pick apart this truth of like not even just like, I might only want to have one romantic connection, just the also the truth of like

Bitch, are you even capable? And it's like, I don't even think I'm capable. And I don't even think it's not even about want anymore. It's just like, no, I really am so devoted when I'm in a connection and in a relationship. And that really is what I want. It is what I'm devoted to is like being in this connection where I am all in in this way.

Sage (33:00.835)
And so this last two months for me has really been about really digging into that truth about myself, really looking at what are my capacities? What are my desires for romantic connection? What is it that I want? And what am I doing in my romantic connections? And is that intentional? Is it purposeful? Is it giving me the life that I want? Is it building me what I want to do? And there's just so much truth I've been uncovering as I've been processing that.

Another truth that has been coming up for me is as an avoidance technique with relationships and polyamory, I've also been avoiding my friendships because I am so desperately terrified of female friendships and have been since I lost my friendship group in high school. And so I have spent so many years just avoiding being in deep connection with women, deep community with women and just dating and dating and dating because I have been so afraid.

and feeling so unworthy of being a friend, of being in a friend group, of having friends. And having to sit with that truth and having to look my girlfriends in the face and be like, hey girls, I need to let you know I am about to step this up with you all because I have been avoiding you all. I have been keeping you all at a distance because of my fear, because I'm so terrified. And I know that I've been doing that by avoiding through my romantic connections. And I want you to know that because I'm not doing that anymore,

my attention is gonna show up here. And I do wanna create more with you. I do wanna create more intention. I do wanna create more community. I do wanna create more sisterhood. And having to name that truth with them and how difficult that was and how loving they were to me and how much they held me in that truth. But just having to honor, right? The web of lies, babe. Like honestly, like you tell one lie to yourself and then the lies just keep.

building on each other. That's why uncovering the truth is so powerful because you're like, this little lie I told myself or told myself or told someone also contributes to these eight other lies that I've told myself or this thread of lies that I've told myself. And my dad used to say this all the time growing up, the web of lies that we weave, the web of lies that we weave. And I remember,

Sage (35:25.467)
growing up and thinking about that, about how one lie leads to another lie, leads to another lie, leads to another lie. And it's really ironic that we said that in my family, given that we also had so many secrets and there was a lot of hiding in my family as well. And I think that's something I want to invite you to think about as you're reflecting this year, especially because I know holiday time is family time, right? How does truth show up in your family? Do you all talk about things? Do you all share the truth with each other?

Do you all tell each other when you hurt each other's feelings? Do you all tell each other when something is upsetting you? Do you all tell each other what's going on behind closed doors, like when something bad is going on? Do you tell each other about things? What is the relationship with truth? When you tell the truth, are there consequences? Do people get upset? What does that look like? Do you have conflict repair? Do you have conflict resolution? How do you navigate that?

How we grew up in orientation to the truth shows how you

Our relationship to truth as an adult is so deeply, deeply influenced by how truth was treated when we were children. so reflecting on your childhood, reflecting on when you were a child and thinking about how did truth show up for me? What would happen when truth was told? How did people tell the truth? Did people tell the truth? What did that look like? What was that environment like?

Sage (37:02.224)
And once you start asking yourselves those questions, once you start looking into some of that, that's where you start to see the little threads. That's where you start to see, I can see why I feel this way about telling the truth. I can see why I feel this way about being honest. I can see why I hide things from myself. All of this is information for you around what it means to continue telling more of the truth, because that's really all it is, is

telling the truth is just peeling back more truth on more truth on more truth on more truth. Because the reality is we all started, the reality is we all started weaving our web of lies when we were children. And so those threads go back so far. And so it's really important to think back.

and go back through those webs that we've weaved and say, okay, where are those lies that I laid down that don't need to be here anymore, that don't serve me anymore, that I don't need to engage with anymore? And it's gonna be a process. I'm not gonna lie to you. Girl, it's been so much these last couple months, so much shame, so much fear, so much acknowledgement, recognition, gratitude, pain, suffering.

I have had to cut so many connections. I literally feel like I am just like literally scream mask out here. Like I am just shedding. And of course, it's the year of the snake, 2025. So and I am a snake in Chinese zodiac. So, you know, here we are shedding the skin. And I I know that this is all part of the journey and that whatever is meant to be is going to happen and be. And I feel.

what is on the other side of this, on the other side of this truth. But man, if the only way out isn't through, and I know that to be true, I know how difficult that is, and I know that I'm not the only one experiencing it, I know this time of year brings up so much for all of us. So I am with you if you are in it right now, if you are navigating this season of time.

Sage (39:23.602)
in grief or in transition or transformation or loss, shedding, releasing. It is quite the time and you are so held in that, especially here.

Sage (40:33.148)
think something that has been coming up for me a lot as I've been navigating new truths and uncovering new things is spending some time thinking about the perception of when you are someone who is so committed to your truth that that means evolution and growth constantly.

Right when you are committed to your truth in a way that is so deep you are evolving and transforming on a regular basis your identity is shifting your preferences are shifting your Goals are growing and evolving and it's because you're in the pursuit of you Right. I think about that a lot that

Seeking the truth about yourself is seeking your authenticity. It is seeking knowing yourself because here's the thing, I think a lot of us think that we want other people to know us, that we want to be known by other people, but no one can actually know you the way that you know you.

And so the more that you honor your own truth, the more you speak your own truth, the more you share your own truth, the more you keep reinforcing to yourself that you are known, that you are seen, that you are held in who you are, that you are validated in your authenticity, that you are validated in your identity.

Sage (41:59.643)
And that's why I think the truth is so important. And I think that's why I'm so committed to uncovering truth. Not because I demand change or want change or want to force change, but because truth brings about change and it gives people permission to change.

When we get new information, when we learn new things about ourselves, when we ask ourselves new questions, when we try new things, we learn truths about ourselves that allow us to change and evolve into a more authentic version of ourselves. And I think that's so important to life and life force energy.

Sage (42:40.646)
Thank you all so much for being here with me for this final episode of 2025. I will be totally honest with you. I'm probably shocked right now. Let me take that back.

Thank you all so much for being with me for this final episode of 2025. I will be totally transparent and vulnerable with you right now and say I wasn't sure I was gonna make it to making these podcasts, y'all. This was really a dream that I was like, I mean, maybe, maybe I'll give this a whirl and see how it goes. And I got into that little eight week kind of slump there for a second. And then I came out of it and now I just recorded this and now I'm back and I'm like, ooh.

I am really grateful. I'm really grateful to be here. I'm really grateful that you all are here. It honestly means so much to me that you're listening, that I get to share my stories with you, that we get to be in community together, that we get to have these little chats. I want you to know how deeply grateful I am for you and

whether you believe in energy or woo woo stuff or not, I want you to know that I can feel you every time I record these episodes. There is something about when I am recording these episodes where I feel the energy of the people who are going to be listening. And it's almost kind of like I'm in this communion with you and I am like literally just downloading and communing to you what I feel like we should be talking about and what should be coming up for us in our natural conversation together. And so

Thank you for being here, for letting me feel you, for letting me talk to you in this way where it feels so communal and so connective. I hope you have a wonderful and beautiful holiday season. Please make sure you are prioritizing your pleasure as much as possible. I know these times are very stressful and chaotic, so find delicious little beautiful ways to find and be in your pleasure because that's so important. And wherever your longing leads you,

Sage (44:41.284)
I hope you stay turned on by the truth.