They were basically the same place anyway.

Somewhere along my entrepreneurship journey, wrapped up in hustle culture, I got it in my head that I needed a separate place for each piece of The Girl with the Tree Tattoo brand – the blog, the shop, the email list – they all needed their own home. Once I moved to Maine, as I continued to bask in the natural beauty of my own home and felt no need or desire to go anywhere else, I started to wonder why did The Girl need to be so spread out?

The theme of this season of my life is about BEing instead of DOing. It’s a difficult concept to accept for someone who was raised to believe that you always needed to work hard and if you weren’t being productive, then you were being lazy.

I was so good at DOing too. Back in California, I was living on my own, working full time, taking care of two fur babies, blogging weekly or more, authoring books, and building a business, all while training as a competitive ballroom dancer. I was successful in my efforts! And I was tired. Always tired.

It can be a hard habit to break, but I am getting better at making time for rest in balance with productivity. A country home requires a lot more upkeep than an apartment in the city, especially when it is over 120 years old. I don’t really have the option to be “lazy” with all of the house projects we have, and at the same time, I see how I become less productive when I don’t get sufficient rest.

Funny how that works! Hustle culture wants us to believe that we can sleep when we’re dead and there are 24 hours in a day to accomplish our goals. The reality is that rest is not only necessary but critical. The harder and longer we work with no rest, the harder and longer we have to work in order to accomplish the same tasks.

This chapter of my life has been about slowing down and focusing on what truly makes my heart sing and brings my soul peace. Lately, that has been simply enjoying the natural beauty around me, watching the wind dance with the trees, and taking quiet walks through the woods. After leaving a very action-oriented life in California, I find myself craving stillness.

So I’m doing the opposite of what I was taught by my business coaches. I’m shutting down practiceballroomdance.com and the email list. The Girl with the Tree Tattoo is going to reside in her original home – this blog at thegirlwiththetreetattoo.com. This move means I don’t have to work as hard and you still have access to everything The Girl has to offer.

Books and journals can still be purchased at Ko-Fi or Amazon (though I’d prefer you shop through Ko-Fi because Amazon takes a large cut). They are also available through my dance shop partners: Dance Dress Couture and Petit Jeté Dance Boutique.

If you have purchased the Solo Practice Guide, you still have access to your additional resources here (same password you were provided at purchase).

I will continue to share updates on the blog, though probably at a lesser frequency than in the busy past. For peeks into my daily communion with nature, follow my Instagram stories.

I questioned whether this pulling back was a sign that my dance journey was at an end somehow. After all, The Girl with the Tree Tattoo was born out of my journey to become a ballroom dancer. Will it survive an extended rest period? Am I still a dancer if I’m focused on being instead of doing?

100% yes.

Dancer isn’t something we do, it’s something we are.