There is a moment each autumn when the trees seem to know something we've forgotten: that releasing what no longer serves isn't loss - it's liberation. The leaves don't cling. They simply let go, trusting that what remains is enough.
This fall, that knowing found me at the edge of my own burnout.
The Paradox of the Always-Available Healer
I became an energy healing practitioner because I wanted to help. Somewhere along the way, "wanting to help" calcified into "needing to be available to everyone, all the time". Clients expected me to answer calls at all times. Emails needed response on my day-offs. Each one felt urgent, and I convinced myself that if I didn't respond immediately, I was failing the animals.
What I didn't see, because exhaustion has a way of narrowing our vision, was this: by trying to be there for everyone, I was truly present for no one.
The irony wasn't lost on me. I teach people about energetic coherence, about holding space, about the power of a regulated nervous system. And here I was, a walking contradiction.
What Fall Asked Me to Release
So when autumn arrived this year, with its invitation to let things fall away, I knew what needed to go: my need to be endlessly available. And, my aversion to being judged for saying "not now".
I realized something that sounds simple but felt revolutionary: If I try to be there for everyone, everyone loses. If I cultivate boundaries, everyone wins.
Because when I'm resourced, when I'm grounded, that's when I can actually hold the space that healing requires. That's when my presence becomes a refuge instead of a reflex.
Choosing Calm Amid the Fireworks
The living proof of this arrived during Diwali.
For years, I dreaded Diwali. Even before my cats, fireworks set my nervous system on edge, with the unpredictability of it, the sharp intrusion of sound into stillness. Once Artemis and the other cats arrived, it became a mission: lights dimmed, curtains drawn, deep meditation. We saw through the fireworks with peace, but it was defensive energy, a bunker mentality born of fear, dressed in the robes of healing.
This year, I caught myself mid-story. "Fireworks are stressful. The cats will be scared. I have to do deep, long practices to hold space for them." The same old narrative, playing on repeat.
And I realized: I've outgrown that story. Why keep replaying it?
So I chose differently.
I told my cats, as one might tell trusted companions:
"You are better than this. You have the power to choose how you react."
And I meant it, not as wishful thinking, but as an invitation into sovereignty.
Then I grounded myself first, then the cats, one by one, then the house, as a conscious act of authority over our energetic environment.
Evening arrived. Yes, there were fireworks, sporadic, unpredictable. But the intensity felt muted. Each time the cats flinched, I whispered, "All is well," and each time, they relaxed a little more.
Instead of an hour-long meditation, holding vigil like a sentry, I opened a book, Dan Brown's The Secrets, and let myself be carried into a world where noetics mingles with adventure, where intention and consciousness bend reality in ways that feel both fantastical and oddly familiar.
And I realized: this is what it feels like when you're not depleted.
This ease.
This sovereignty.
This capacity to be present without bracing against the world.
A Question to Sit With
So as autumn deepens and the season asks us what we're ready to release, I offer you this:
What would become possible in your work if you stopped trying to hold space for everyone, and instead held space for YOU?
The animals don't need our depletion. They need our presence. And presence, real presence, requires that we keep some energy for ourselves.
This fall, I'm letting go of my need to be always available.
What are you letting go?
From Sir Lancelot's Desk 🐾
As promised, Sir Lancelot is back with more feline wisdom - this time on noetics, because of course, he read the book along with me.
Dearest Readers,
Dan Brown writes a thriller about noetics and suddenly everyone's acting like intention shaping reality is breaking news. Where have you humans been? We've been demonstrating noetics since, oh, forever.
You think it's coincidence that I appear exactly when she's about to open the treat jar? That I can shift the entire energy of a room just by walking in and sitting down? (Okay, that last one might just be my natural charisma, but still.)
Science is finally offering language for what we animals have been practicing since day one: coherence is real, intention is measurable, and your state absolutely creates the container.
But here's what your fancy researchers won't tell you: coherence requires actually having something to give. You can't transmit what you don't possess. You can't create a refuge when you're running on fumes and anxiety.
That Diwali evening, we didn't calm down because Idee did more meditation or Reiki gymnastics. We calmed down because Idee finally was more, more resourced, more present. Her coherence became our refuge.
So yes, welcome to noetics, mainstream world. We'll be over here, waiting for you to catch up to the next obvious thing.
Yours in superior wisdom,
Sir Lancelot
October Giveaway: 50% Off Energy Healing Session
Speaking of letting go and filling back up, practitioners need healing, too. If you've been feeling stretched thin, here's an offering: 50% off an energy healing session for you, valid through October 31st. Sometimes we need to receive the medicine we give.
Simply use your subscriber email when booking:
👉 Book Your Slot
Give yourself what you keep giving others.
And I’ll leave you with this last question:
What old story is ready to fall away, like leaves that have done their work? What are you going to let go of this autumn?
With love and a little wild magic,
Indrani