You know that feeling when someone offers to help and instead of relief, you feel... guilty? Like you should be able to handle it all yourself?

If you've been telling yourself "I should be grateful they offered but I just can't accept it," this journaling session is for you.

In this 5-minute episode, we're diving into what's really behind that guilt - and spoiler alert, it's not about being ungrateful. It's about the stories you've been telling yourself about what it means to need help.

What We're Journaling Through:

• Your perfect "receiving day" and why it feels impossible
• The guilty voice that shows up every time help is offered
• What you're really afraid people will think if you actually say yes
• A tiny practice to start receiving without earning it first

The 3 Strategic Prompts:

1. When I think about my perfect receiving day, what am I afraid would happen if I took a whole day to receive?
2. What is the voice in your head that stops you from accepting help? What does she sound like?
3. If you gave yourself permission to receive help without earning it, what are you most afraid people would think?

This builds on Tuesday's episode about receiving and your nervous system - definitely go listen to that one after this if you haven't already.

👭 Register for a workshop with Sam:

• NOW CLOSED: Permission Slips for Ambitious Women hosted at Meraki Beauty in Batavia, NY. In this 90-min strategic journaling workshop, you'll go from daily overwhelm & doing everything for everyone else to peacefully pursuing your true desires (guilt & people-pleasing officially evicted) — without adding more to your already full plate. Guided meditation + strategic journaling + real-time breakthroughs + mimosas!🥂 12 spots only.

Resources Mentioned & Ways to Work with Sam:

Since this episode aired, some of the offers I mentioned have evolved (or retired entirely!); what I do now goes even deeper.

Here's where you can take the next step with me:

🧠 The Calm Mind Blueprint: a 2-minute/day strategic journaling practice designed for the woman who craves peace and fulfillment but feels too overwhelmed to slow down long enough to find it. This is your starting place. → Download & start the first prompt now

💡 A Breakthrough Intensive: a 90-minute 1:1 session where we get to the root belief that's been keeping you stuck on autopilot, no matter how hard you've tried to break the cycle. I hold 3 of these a month. → Book your breakthrough

🌿 A Coaching Package: for the woman ready for a full identity shift. Not tips. Not hacks. A real, lasting change in how you show up — at work, at home, in your own head. → Work with me

📍 Local to Western NY? Come to the Leaders Table: a monthly dinner and virtual belief work session for established women in business who are done pretending they have it all together and ready to actually feel like it. → Take a seat

Connect with Sam on IG: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.s.says

DM Sam on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachSamanthaHawley/

Hi, I'm Sam, your inner voice and self trust coach for women who refuse to choose between career success and being fully present with their kids.

This is Journal Entries where we break free from self sabotage, reconnect with our inner wisdom and live truly fulfilled lives in both of our roles.

Let's dive in real quick before we dive in.

I am hosting my first in person workshop in over a year and a half and I am genuinely so excited to be teaming up with Meraki Beauty for the perfect location and vibe.

On Sunday, September 21, we are hosting the Permission Slips for Ambitious Women workshop and it's all about stopping that cycle where you know what you want but feel guilty for actually choosing it.

Or you're so disconnected from what you want because you've been busy helping other people for so long that you need some help discovering what lights you up and with permission to pursue it without disappointing others.

We are going deep with strategic journaling and a guided meditation so that you can start living for yourself just as much as how you show up for others in your life.

There are only 12 spots and it includes mimosas.

It's $25 to reserve your seat.

So if you're in Western New York and you are tired of putting everyone else first, come join us.

I would love to see you there.

The link to join is in the show notes.

All right, back to the show.

Hello.

Welcome to today's journaling session.

If you listened to Tuesday's episode all about receiving in your nervous system, then you are in the right spot.

This is a continuation to help you actually journal through what's blocking you from receiving.

And if you missed that episode but you enjoyed today's journaling session, I encourage you to go back and listen to that one.

It's where we really dig into what receiving looks like and why it is that we often don't receive.

You know how you need more support, but every time someone offers help, you find yourself saying I've got it.

Or you know how you need an afternoon off or you crave an afternoon off, I should say.

But you keep telling yourself that you have to be productive.

Instead, you have to answer those emails.

Oh my gosh, there's a million things that you have to do instead of taking the afternoon off to nap.

These three prompts that we're going to go over today will help you discover what's really blocking you from receiving and how to change it.

So grab your journal or open your Google Docs, or if your hands are sudsy or you're doing laundry, you can just listen in and think through.

Do some self reflection.

After I ask each question, we are going to dig into your relationship with receiving through three strategic prompts that follow my receive framework.

Don't overthink these, just write down what comes up for you.

Prompt number one When I think about my perfect receiving day again, this is the day that you purely receive from others and receive yourself.

And what we're looking for here is why you are getting in your own way about receiving.

What is the belief around?

Why you can't rest?

What are you afraid would happen if you took a whole day to receive?

Prompt number two what is the voice in your head that stops you from accepting help?

What does she sound like?

Or what is her immediate internal response when someone does offer to help you?

Sam and prompt number three if you gave yourself permission to receive help, support or pleasure without earning it, what are you most afraid people would think?

Another way to look at this is when you see other women receiving.

How do you view them?

What light do you view them in?

Sam, Excellent job.

After you finish writing, read through your responses.

What pattern do you notice?

What is the story that you've been telling yourself about receiving?

From there, I have a challenge for you.

A little integration exercise.

I would love for you to pick the smallest thing from your receiving day list and that was the exercise that we did in Tuesday's episode and but if you didn't do that, simply think of one small way you could practice receiving this week.

Maybe it's 10 minutes of reality TV or drinking your coffee while it's still hot.

Do that small thing today, not as a reward for productivity.

That's something that I often do is I'll tell myself, ooh, I can do this thing.

But after I do the dishes, after I clean up my room, after I do this email for work.

So you're going to do this thing, but not as a reward, but as a practice in receiving just because you are worthy as you are.

Remember, you can't pour from an empty cup.

I know you know this, but today is the day that you are practicing this because you also can't fill it up by working harder.

If these prompts brought up something big for you and you are ready to dive deeper into changing your relationship with receiving, I would love to chat with you.

I'd love to walk you through through the entire receiving framework that I have.

You can head to my website which will be in the show notes to book a clarity call which is completely free.

Just 20 minutes or I will also include the link to work with me.

If you're already like, nope, I know you, I've been listening.

I love your energy.

Sign me up.

I will include that because that's the type of person I am.

If I know that I want what somebody else has, I first dabble.

See what they're all about, see what their energy is, which is very important.

If you're thinking of investing in anything, I encourage you to test out their free stuff.

I almost signed up for somebody recently for a course that they had and I knew her just from Instagram posts and her emails and I loved her.

And then I thought, let me just check out her podcast and her energy.

Not even her energy, just the way that she talked, her demeanor, her directness just did not vibe with me.

And I was like, thank goodness.

I feel like that would not have been a good fit.

But when I signed up with my current business coach, that was someone that I listened to her podcast and I listened to one of her guided meditations and I was like, yes, sign me up immediately.

I signed up for her highest ticket item.

So if that's you, I will also include the link in my show notes for you to check that out.

But anyways, thank you so much for tuning in today and for journaling with me.

I'll see you next week.

Thanks for joining me for today's journal entry.

If something resonated with you, I'd love to know about it.

Screenshot this episode, share it on social media and tag me at Samantha S. Says.

Or even leave a review which will help more women find this podcast to create more fulfillment in their career and as a mom.

And hey, if you're thinking I wish I could get more of this, I've got you covered, click on the link in the show notes, which I customize each week based on what we're talking about.

And I always include the link to the Calm Mind Blueprint, which are my five journal prompts to go from overwhelm to inner peace in two to ten minutes a day.

Subscribe so that you catch my Thursday five Minute Journal With Me episodes and next week's full episode where we will continue this journey together.

I'll see you then.