NEW SERIES HELLO WE ARE SO BACK?! What comes to body when you hear the word responsibility?

For most of us, it's not good. It's heavy. It's more money, more responsibility said like a warning. It's the nervous system bracing for something it doesn't think it can hold.

In this first episode of In the Room (a new series where I bring the juiciest conversations from my coaching practice into this room) we crack open one of the most quietly life-changing reframes I've ever sat with: what if responsibility wasn't a burden, but a doorway? a doorway to MORE!

We go into:

🍑 Why "fear of commitment" is usually fear of responsibility in disguise

🍑 The etymology that changed everything — response + ability (ty Ximena)

🍑 Why freedom without responsibility is just escapism (and the Swami in the Himalayas who told me so)

🍑 Hidden agendas — the emotional need you've secretly attached to your money goal, and why it will sabotage you every time

🍑 Why you can't grow what you can't track — and you can't deepen what you can't respond to

🍑 A journaling prompt to find exactly where you've been avoiding your own life

Journal prompt from this episode:

What would my life look like if I accepted responsibility for the areas I've been avoiding?

🍑 Divide your life into areas — finances, love, body, business, relationships, creativity — and rate yourself 0–10 on how willing you are to respond to each one right now.

Referenced in this episode:

• Ximena's course I'm taking — Rooted Impact (say hi for meee)
• Episode: Why More Wealth Isn't a Full Body Yes
• Free Vision Workshop

Want to ask a question for a future In the Room episode? DM me (@maiaben) the word intheroom (altogether) and I'll send you the question box!

And as always:

• If you want to be in the room, but like IN THE ROOM FOR REAL, I'll leave you the Expansion Mastermind waitlist right here (every cohort has sold out in a couple of hours, so def be on the waitlist if you're thinking of joining)

In this episode, I sit down with my dear friend Emmie Rae — writer, teacher, founder of The Daily Rest, and one of the clearest voices I know on rest, receptivity, and doing hard things gently. Emmie lives in Tokyo and has built a whole world around softness, devotion, and the kind of spaciousness that doesn’t make you less ambitious but makes you more HONEST.

If you’ve been rethinking success, craving more spaciousness, or trying to build a creative business that doesn’t cost you your aliveness, this episode is for you.

This is a beautiful one for anyone building a creative business, deepening their relationship to their voice, or learning how to make expansion feel safe in the body.

We dive into

🪽 Doing hard things gently — using fear as a lighthouse instead of a stop sign, and learning how to let growth be challenging without making it violent.

🪽 The addiction to edge — why expansion can become addictive, and what it means to actively choose sweetness, slowness, and enoughness after a big season of becoming.

🪽 Rest as a creative practice — not rest as optimization, but rest as a portal into intuition, nervous system regulation, and real creative leadership.

🪽 Soft business and spacious success — building a business that supports your life instead of consuming it, and refusing the cultural script that says scale must come at the expense of softness.

🪽 Nervous system capacity and business growth — what happens when momentum arrives before your body feels safe holding it, and why so much “self-sabotage” is actually a capacity issue.

🪽 Creative entrepreneurship without force — choosing devotion over hustle, staying with your work for the long haul, and building slowly enough that your whole self can come with you.

🪽 Writing as medicine and method — how journaling, daily writing, and long-form expression become a practice of self-trust, marketing, and creative process all at once.

🪽 Finding your actual voice — shedding the styles, identities, and communities you once wrote to belong to, and returning to the way you naturally see and say things.

Links & Resources

→ You CANNOT MISS Emmie's YIN immersion!

→ Connect with Emmie Rae: The Daily Rest Studio + Japan retreats at her site.

→ Follow Emmie on Instagram: @thedailyrest.

→ This is where we met, at her Onsen retreat. Could not recommend it more you guys.

→ Read Emmie’s long-form writing on Substack, where she writes essays and reflections through The Salon / The Deep Rest Salon.

→ If this episode moved something in you, share it with a friend and tag us so we can see what landed!

ALRIGHT HOLD MY MATCHATINI: There’s a version of you who says they want more money. I love that for ya. And then there's your nervous system, who is simply: terrified of MORE.

In this episode with your fav genz-ers we unpack why more wealth isn’t always a full-body yes, even when you consciously desire it. We’re talking about capacity over currency, and what actually happens in your body when expansion arrives.

This conversation feels especially alive right now because so many ppl in creative entrepreneurship are scaling fast (bigger launches, more visibility, more responsibility) without expanding their nervous system capacity alongside it.

I’ve lived this! Six-figure launches that felt like collapse instead of celebration (we tell the story duh). Growth that triggered fear instead of safety. This episode is about the somatic side of success, in my opinion, the part no one teaches you in business school (I do in mine of course)

You’ll walk away understanding how your nervous system shapes your relationship with money, how to increase your capacity to hold more without burning out, and how to build a creative business rooted in somatic success, embodied leadership, and sustainable expansion.

Listen when

🌹 You’re saying you want more… but your body feels tight when it arrives.

🌹 you’ve hit a financial milestone and felt panic instead of peace.

🌹 you’re building a creative business and want your success to feel safe.

🌹 you’re ready to expand your capacity, not just your income.

We dive into

• Capacity over currency — why your ability to hold more matters more than the number in your Stripe account.
• The hidden agenda behind money — the unconscious emotional need you’ve attached to financial success (and how it’s driving your behavior).
• Nervous system regulation & wealth — how fight, flight, and freeze show up in creative entrepreneurship.
• Why big months can trigger collapse — the somatic crash that often follows expansion.
• Scarcity vs. somatic safety — what it actually means to feel safe with more visibility, responsibility, and profit.
• Expanding capacity in business strategy — how to scale your creative business without overriding your body.
• Identity, shame & entrepreneurship — how early money narratives shape your current income ceiling.
• Somatic success as a creative process — building an aligned business where ease and profit co-exist.

Resources

🌹 First, of course we will see you in ASTC, here's your invite.

🌹 My infamous x3 6 figure launches in 2025 essay here.

🌹 GREECE with Isabel and me (ONE SPOT LEFT!)

🌹 My business mastermind Expansion (booked out but join the waitlist here!)

Alright my sweeeet sweet loves, if this episode resonated, share it with a woman building her own version of wealth ♡ and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on somatic strategy, capacity, and creative business meowww