If You've Been Thinking About Walking Away, Read This First

Over the last few years, many of you will have noticed that I’ve become increasingly quiet online. And not just online. I’ve shown up inconsistently. I’ve stepped away from projects. I’ve closed programmes. I’ve reduced my client work.

And at the beginning of this year, I bundled together years of my Human Design work into one final sale.

From the outside, it probably looked like a business decision. It wasn’t. It was a life decision.

For the last few years, I’ve been navigating Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD).

If you’re unfamiliar with CPTSD, the simplest way I can describe it is this. Imagine living in a constant state of, “What next?”. A nervous system that’s always waiting for the next drama, the next fallout, or the next conflict.

It is very disorienting, you genuinely don’t know where the next trigger is coming from. Taking a full in breath feels dangerous and your mind thinks you are being followed 2-4-7, and is constantly ready to fight for survival.

Unfortunately, that became the legacy of my ten-year marriage, which had broken down.

At the same time as learning how to walk in life with this new way of being I was also overwhelmed with navigating the grief of that relationship, grieving what could have been, grieving the compromises I’d made, grieving years of self-sacrifice and self-abandonment. And worst of all, the anger that I, Leanne Catherine, self confessed rock solid mindset, manage any situation with ease, resilient, and laser focused - was no more.

It was like an identity death and the version I was left with seemed like an incompetent wreck.

Before the crescendo that was, me on my knees with no energy to even get in the shower, sobbing on the bathroom floor and wondering what the hell had happened to me, my business had been my only outlet.

It became the one place where I still felt like myself. I loved my clients, adored the conversations. I loved brainstorming and co-creating. I loved helping people build businesses and lives that actually felt aligned to who they were.

I am one of those people who would do this shit even when not getting paid for it. I once helped a stranger who was sat next to me in Starbucks map out a business plan.

I poured everything I had into my work. Looking back now, I realise I wasn’t just building a successful business. It was my coping strategy.

In many ways, I was surviving through it. Work gave me purpose. It gave me joy. It gave me somewhere to place all of the energy I couldn’t make sense of anywhere else.

And for a while, that worked. It worked really well in fact. …..Until it didn’t.

Because there’s only so long you can use work to hold you together before your nervous system simply reaches its limit and shuts up shop. Eventually, I had nothing left to give.

I hung on (classic undefined spleen) until the bitter end, because if I let go of my business, then what would become of me.

But I had no choice but to start and slowly pull back. I closed my favourite of all time annual container. Then I pulled back on my content, going from being very excited to share my insights on facebook lives to doing nothing.

I was in the middle of developing my Inner Alchemy program, with the first round of beta participants and I had to press pause on developing it further once that beta completed.

I taught my last ever Legacy cohort.

These were all decisions being guided by my mind, because it was sounding the horn of what felt like a sinking ship. All of these things being panic released off the side in some last ditch attempt to slow the sinking down.

It felt so personal, like a personal failure, especially because I already felt like I had failed in my personal life, and here I was failing in my business.

The stories we tell ourselves, I hadn’t failed at all, I was in survival mode, but it felt like the biggest catastrophe in the world.

I refocused what energy I had into working with an incredible friend who has created an amazing mind, body, spirit publishing house and it felt like great timing to take a more observational and guiding role, without launches, or websites, or content and it gave me enormous space to begin to find my footing again.

But the question of, what are you going to do with everything you have worked so passionately towards, are you going to just walk away……

And I got an intuitive nudge.

Close the cycles. Strip everything back. Give yourself room to breathe.

And If I’m completely honest, I resisted. Because the thought of letting go of something I was known for and had hoped to return to was terrifying.

There is an indescribable kind of grief that comes from willingly putting down the thing that’s been helping you survive. From the outside, it looks like you’re an entrepreneur, maybe going through a ;pivot, closing programmes, reducing clients or changing direction. From the inside, it feels like stepping into an abyss. A dark hole of nothingness.

The very thing that had given me purpose, joy and stability was now the thing I was being asked to loosen my grip on. But deep down, I knew I couldn’t keep surviving in the same way. So I listened.

That’s what led to the Human Design Business bundle, and subsequent Money & Relationship Bundles.

For many people, it probably looked like a sale., but for me, it was a ceremony. It was closing the doors on a business I could no longer sustain and creating space.

A way of honouring a body of work that had changed my life and changed the lives of so many incredible people, whilst also acknowledging that a chapter had come to an end.

What I couldn’t have known then was how much clarity that space would eventually give me.

I encourage you all to close a cycle and create space for something new to be born. One of the biggest realisations wasn’t about Human Design at all. It was about me. For years I’d loved teaching. I still do, Human Design has given me an understanding of things my curious mind never knew how to explain.

It has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. But over time, I also began to notice something with great compassion. People seek out Human Design because they are looking to be fixed in some way. I mean no shame, that’s how I ended up signing up to the IHDS program!

We all want to solve something, fix something, be a different version. And the irony is Human Design says ‘You are already everything you need to be’.

But I found myself surrounded by people who desperately wanted to grow, yet many were caught in the cycle of collecting more information. Another course…….Another certification………Another framework………Another piece of knowledge they believed would finally make them ready.

And stepping back helped me realise something important about my own energy. My energy doesn’t come alive simply sharing information. My energy comes alive creating movement.

I love sitting with people who are ready to build.

Ready to write.

Ready to create.

Ready to make decisions.

Ready to trust themselves.

That realisation has changed everything.

I can see why my intuition asked me to close the cycle on the educational style content, because it wasn’t fully aligned with the potential of my energy, and I had kind of unconsciously fallen into the trap of being the ‘teacher’ and not the ‘guide’.

And I LOVE being the guide. I LOVE Human Design, I also LOVE quantum physics, entrepreneurships, writing, seeing people take the bold and brave quantum leap into the unknown of their own potential. ALL of this gives me life, makes me feel excited and alive.

The business I had created to survive an awful period of my life was an amazing business, I am so thankful for it. It kept me afloat, gave me hope, and helped me navigate really challenging times. But it was not THE business that was 100% aligned with me.

And closing a cycle gave me the space to see that. And I am sharing this with you so that you don’t have to wait until a CPTSD diagnosis followed by the mother of all burn outs before you pause, take a stape back and really ask yourself, does this feel expansive, exciting, and nourishing? Does this feel like its the best use of my energy and genius?

The last year has taught me more about myself than I could ever have imagined.

I’ve learnt that I’m incredibly resilient. With bells on.

I’ve learnt that my hyper-independence wasn’t strength.

I’ve learnt how to let people support me, well, I am learning….

I’ve learnt patience, which amazing me daily, I used to ne a bull on a china shop and now I am only moving if I get the golden tannoy announcement from Jesus himself telling me its a green light.

I’ve stopped measuring success by productivity and started measuring it by nourishment. I mean I never did measure it by productivity, but that old sneaky open Sacral conditioning kept popping in and making me second guess myself….

And perhaps the biggest lesson of all is this. Whatever you’re going through right now—your personal circumstances, life cycles or changes—they do not define you.

This is not the end of your journey.

There is no shame in pressing pause.

There is no shame in creating something that works for the season you’re actually in.

There is no shame in pivoting.

There is no shame in withdrawing.

There are no rules about how you’re supposed to show up in life.

You get to choose.

You get to determine what success looks like.

You get to decide what your next chapter becomes.

And the truth is, the only person who is usually judging you is you.

Nobody was keeping score of whether I was showing up online every day, nobody cared whether I was doing Facebook Lives every week, most of that pressure existed only inside my own head.

We really do get to choose how we experience the seasons we’re given.

As difficult as this chapter has been, I wouldn’t change it. It stripped away everything that wasn’t true and it reminded me what actually lights me up.

And,most importantly, it reminded me that no business, no person, no opportunity and no version of success is ever worth abandoning yourself for.

If you’ve found yourself in a season of pause, please know this.

You are not behind. You are not failing.

Sometimes life asks us to stop because we’re being invited to build the next chapter from a truer place.

That’s where I am now.

And, for the first time in a long time, that feels like exactly where I’m meant to be.

Ways We Can Work Together

If you’ve found yourself in your own season of pause, pivot or redirection, and you’ve been reading this thinking, “This is exactly where I am,” then I’d love to support you.

One of the biggest things this season has taught me is that we don’t need more information.

We need someone to sit with us long enough to help us hear ourselves again.

That’s the work I love most.

I love helping people untangle the noise, reconnect with what genuinely lights them up, and find their way back to building a business and a life that feels effortless, nourishing and deeply aligned with who they are.

If you’re ready to stop forcing, stop second-guessing yourself and start creating from a place that feels expansive rather than exhausting, here’s how we can work together.

1:1 Clarity & Business Alignment Session

Perfect if you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed or standing at a crossroads.

If you know something needs to change but can’t quite see what that is, this session is designed to help you untangle the noise, reconnect with your intuition and leave with clarity, confidence and a direction that actually feels like you.

👉 Book your session here:
https://calendly.com/leannemacdonald/onetime

Human Design Deep Dive

Perfect if you want to understand your energetic blueprint on a much deeper level.

If you’ve been curious about Human Design, want to understand why you’ve experienced life the way you have, or want to explore your unique gifts, decision-making and natural way of creating success, these sessions are a beautiful place to start.

👉 Book your Human Design session here:
https://calendly.com/leannemacdonald/one-time-1-1-session-clone

Six Months Together

Perfect if you’re ready for deep transformation rather than a quick fix.

This is for entrepreneurs who know they’re building something meaningful and want someone walking alongside them as they navigate the mindset, identity shifts, business decisions and energetic recalibration that naturally come with creating a business that’s truly aligned.

It’s intimate, personalised and designed to create lasting transformation rather than temporary motivation.

I only work with a small number of private clients at any one time.

If this feels like the right fit, send me a DM and we can have a conversation.

The Human Design Business Bundle

Perfect if you love learning, love geeking out on Human Design and want access to years of my previous teachings.

Although I’ve closed this chapter of my business, I wanted to make sure this body of work remained available for those who genuinely love diving deep into Human Design.

Inside you’ll find years’ worth of trainings, workshops and programmes covering Human Design, business, marketing, visibility and energetic alignment—all for just £97.

If you’re someone who enjoys immersing yourself in the information and exploring the richness of Human Design in your own time, this is an incredible resource.

👉 Grab the bundle here:
https://effortlesspurposeandprofits.co.uk/vault-page

Tons of love,

L x