Badass Thriving: Beyond Mind, Body & Plate

Episode 10- Why Realignment Isn't Failure

• Caressa Dunphy

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Episode 10 – Realignment Is Not Failure

What if pausing isn’t failure — but the most powerful, badass move you can make?

In this episode, you’ll hear why rest, adjustment, and realignment aren’t signs of weakness — they’re wisdom. Life comes in seasons: big wins, heavy losses, and moments when burnout is real. Instead of forcing yourself to push harder, you’ll learn how to step back, breathe, and protect your energy so you can come back stronger.

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’re juggling too much, running on empty, or afraid that slowing down means giving up. You’ll walk away with permission to realign, journal prompts to help you reset, and a new mantra to carry into your own season of thriving:

Mantra:
Realignment is not failure. It is feedback — and it’s the most badass move that you can make.

Journal Prompts:

  1. Where in my life am I labeling something as failure when it’s really just feedback?
  2. If I could pivot without shame, what would I choose differently?
  3. What’s one small place I could realign right now that would help me breathe easier?

📍 Connect with Caressa


Hello, my little bad asses. Welcome back to the Badass Thriving Podcast, where we go beyond the mind, body, and the plate. I am your host, Dunphy. I'm a registered dietician, and this is my little. Space that I love to take apart nutrition and exercise and also talk about all the different things that go into making those very things achievable and sustainable. And in today's episode, it's going to hit just a little bit different. Uh, it is raw, it is honest, and it's probably the most personal thing that. I am going to admit to you, we are sitting here having a cup of coffee like a couple of good friends do. Um, so this message is simple but powerful. It is the message that realignment is not failure because here's the truth. I've been in a season where everything just feels like a lot. There have been some incredible highs and there have been some incredible lows. I just finished my grad degree. I graduated in June, I finished my RD exam and I passed all the credentialing. I have been working with coaching clients. I'm also a mom. My kids just started school yesterday. We've had a very unusual summer. Um, it's just been a heavy. Period of life, but also like I just am going through some stuff where I'm grieving the loss of my grandma. You know, I've had loss, I've had just absolute exhaustion and life. Life is just life really hard, and it's one of those really interesting moments where I am realizing that for the first time in 21 years. I am not working actively towards a degree. I went into the military when I was 17 years old. I promised myself at 16 that I would achieve. Education that I would go to school, I would figure out how to go to college, and I did. At 17, I enlisted into the military for education benefits. I've been actively going to school for the last 13 years and. Now that I have finished my master's degree, I finished my dietician credentialing. I am accepted into a doctoral program, but because of the current state of federal funding, I am in a waiting period to attend that doctoral studies. And so for the first time in a long time. I am coming up for air. I am realizing how long I have been grinding out this degree and this schooling, and I loved the journey. I have absolutely loved the journey, but I'm also finding myself questioning. What do I do when I feel this tired? I am just realizing the state of burnout that I have hit, that when I want to pause, when I'm not entirely sure what's next, what do I do? And so it came back to me, this answer of. Realignment is not failure. It is wisdom. It is coming to terms with the fact that I am not in fact Wonder Woman, which I do not agree with. I am Wonder Woman, goddammit. Um, but it's also realizing that the lie of failure that we have been fed. It is somewhere along the way we have been. Sold this lie that if you don't keep everything moving perfectly, if you hit a bump or take a break or pivot directions, you have failed. And we've talked about this, right, like in other episodes about this fear of failure and how perfectionism can cripple us. So. In this context when we like are talking about diet culture specifically, if you miss a workout, you've failed. If you've eaten the pizza, you failed. If you've taken a week off, you've failed. You know, we hear in the hustle culture of you need to slow down, you failed. Whoops, you're human. Uh, nope. Denied. You know, change your mind. You failed. You need rest. You failed. But it's not the truth. It is shame. It is the shame talking and telling us that failure is giving up on yourself. That failure is abandoning what matters most. That failure is refusing to try again, and it's not true. When we take a moment to pause. To admit to ourself that I need a break, that I need to figure out sort of what life looks like right now that is realignment, and that in fact is actually totally badass. That is listening, adjusting and saying, I know better now and I am brave enough to act on it. And so there's this. Moment of clarity that is happening for me of going, you know what, I just need to hit pause for a little moment. That realignment right now looks like something small. It doesn't mean this big dramatic thing. It just means like. You know, in my workouts, I'm feeling really exhausted too. It feels like I just need to swap a workout for something that's a little lighter because my body needs it. It's saying right now, my food, it's dialed in, but it's not, I'm not log my macros because right now I don't need that. Right now. I can eat intuitively. It's saying no to some, you know, late night TV binging on Netflix. You know, because right now I need more sleep, so sometimes it's bigger. You know, for right now, it looks like me putting a wrap on this podcast for the very first season. I am so incredibly proud of what I have put out, the content that I have. Synthesized and recorded. I mean, the hardest part was pushing record and publishing that very first episode. That very first episode where I told you about myself. I told you my background. I told you where I came from, the things that I have had to overcome, the barriers. Everything has been stacked up against me. And when I shared that very first episode, there was something that just. This, this amazing, beautiful moment of growth, of realizing that my voice matters, that my story matters, that I get to choose what to put out there and to claim it and to say, this is my story. Nobody can take it from me. This is my story and I get to choose to share it. Then every episode past that has been just so beautiful to learn the ins and the outs of podcasting, but also how much joy it has brought me to put this out for you all. And so. I think I need to take a moment to pause, to just regroup for a little bit and to breathe and to go through the grief that I need to go through right now to celebrate my big accomplishments. To just take a little bit to reset. And so this is not me quitting. This is me making sure that I take care of me so that I can continue to show up for you all and. To come back from a place of strength and not burnout. Like I do not subscribe to the hustle culture, to the grind. You know, it feels like I've been white knuckling it for a minute, and I'm just needing to just take a little bit to breathe, you know, to make sure that. I get to recharge all the way so that I can continue to put out content that feels aligned with me and my values and my brand, and to make sure that I am filling you guys up to make sure that you are getting everything that I can give to you. So. It's hard for me to admit this because it is my personal truth and it's vulnerable, but you know, I am here to be authentic and genuine. I am here to admit, I'm used to being the strong person I am used to being the one that people can rely on. So I'm used to being the motivator, the one who always has the words of encouragement, the one who always carries the weight. But the reality is I've been through a lot. You know, the last couple of years have been really brutal. Um, you know, and it just feels like the last few weeks got really heavy, really fast, to losing my grandma, to losing my dog very tragically. Um, having my kids home over the summer, you know, it was just, it was a tough summer because I was studying the whole summer, so I didn't get as much time to recharge over the summer like I normally do. So juggling the school and exams and coaching and putting out content and grief and family life, I'm so proud of everything that I have built because I have managed a lot and so I need to also be proud enough to say I need rest and I am human. And so it is not. Something I need to earn. I don't need to earn rest. And so that is part. That we all struggle with, right? Is giving ourself permission to pause. So if you are in a season where you're feeling like you're being pulled to pivot, to adjust, to slow down. Hear me when I say this. It is not weakness. It is badass. So. I love you to pieces, and I am so appreciative that you have listened to this podcast, that you have subscribed, you've commented, you've shared, you have, you know, connected with me on social media or sent me emails in response to the newsletters. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. And I want to leave you with a little bit to reflect on yourself while you are waiting for me to come back. So here are some journal prompts that I would invite you to sit with and you know, with a pen and paper or even just the note section on your phone, and to think about these in this context for yourself as well. So, where in my life am I labeling something as failure when actually it's just feedback? If I could pivot without shame, what would I choose differently? What's one small place I could realign right now that would actually help me breathe easier? So this isn't goodbye. This is just me walking away for a little moment. This is me realigning. This is me showing up for you in a way that gives you permission to also do what you need to do to rest, to hit pause to realign. So thriving doesn't mean white knuckling your way through exhaustion. It means rest. It means wisdom. It means tapping into the part of your body that is saying, I just need a little moment to breathe. It means coming back stronger. So this is the close of season one of the Badass Thriving Podcast, and I just again, wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening, for sharing, for being here with me through these first nine, now 10 episodes, even part of building something from the ground up. And I am so grateful. So while I'm on this break, I encourage you to go back and re-listen to these past episodes, revisit the ones that spoke to you the most, share them with a friend. Let them keep fueling you while I rest and refill my own tank. So I'll leave you with this little mantra one I'm carrying into this pause myself. Realignment is not failure, it is feedback, and it's the most badass move that you can make. Until season two, take care of yourself, protect your energy, and remember, you are a badass.