A Moment to Pause
The 8th of August is often associated with the 8/8 Portal, also known as the Lion’s Gate Portal. For many people, this date carries themes of personal power, abundance, transformation and new beginnings.
Whether you connect with the spiritual meaning behind the day or simply see it as an opportunity to pause, there is something valuable about giving yourself permission to stop and reflect.
Life can become incredibly busy. Our attention is constantly pulled towards what needs to happen next, what hasn’t been completed and what we think we should be doing. In the middle of all that activity, one important question can easily get lost:
Where am I right now, and what am I ready for next?
That was the intention behind my 8/8 Live today. Instead of turning the day into another opportunity to achieve more, I invited everyone to use it as a personal reset — a chance to release what no longer belongs, appreciate how far we’ve come and consciously choose what we want the next chapter to look like.
Here are the eight practices I shared.
1. Release What You’re Ready to Leave Behind
Every new chapter requires some space.
Pressure, expectations, regret, fear and the desire to control every outcome can quietly consume more energy than we realise. There are also times when we’re carrying other people’s expectations, responsibilities or opinions without stopping to question whether they’re actually ours.
A simple question can bring those hidden burdens into awareness:
What am I ready to stop carrying?
During the Live, I shared a simple ritual I was going to do myself: taking a shower and imagining the water washing away everything I’m ready to release.
You could use the same idea or create your own ritual. As you do, remind yourself that you don’t need to carry everything forward simply because you’ve carried it for a long time.
I release what is no longer mine to carry and I trust myself and I trust my life. I am safe to move forward.
Sometimes the first step towards change isn’t adding something new. It’s deciding what you’re finally willing to put down.
2. Come Back to the Present Moment
So much of our mental energy is spent somewhere other than where we actually are.
Tomorrow’s plans, yesterday’s conversations and imagined future problems can all compete for our attention. Before long, we can move through an entire day without really experiencing it.
Getting outside offers a simple way to interrupt that cycle.
Take a walk, ride your bike, sit beside the water or spend a few quiet minutes in the garden. Leave the podcast, training and scrolling behind and allow yourself to notice the world around you.
For this exercise, I suggested looking for eight beautiful things.
The colour of the sky might catch your attention. Perhaps it’s the sound of birds, the movement of the trees, the smell of the ocean or a small moment that makes you smile.
Nothing extraordinary needs to happen.
The practice is simply to notice what is already here.
3. Remember How Much You Already Have
Looking towards the future is important, but appreciation for the present can easily disappear when we’re constantly focused on what’s next.
Take a journal and begin with the words:
I am grateful for…
Then allow the list to go beyond the obvious.
Think about the people who have supported you, the experiences that shaped you, the lessons that changed your perspective and even the difficult seasons that eventually taught you something valuable.
Gratitude isn’t about pretending life has been perfect. Instead, it allows us to recognise the richness within our story.
There is something grounding about realising that the life you’re living today was once something you hoped for, worked towards or couldn’t have imagined.
Before rushing into your next chapter, take a moment to appreciate the one you’re already living.
4. Celebrate the Woman You’ve Become
We can be remarkably quick to notice what still needs improvement.
The unfinished goal gets more attention than the milestone. The mistake can feel bigger than everything we got right. Our attention naturally gravitates towards the gap between where we are and where we think we should be.
Today, turn that focus around.
Ask yourself:
What am I genuinely proud of?
Think about the difficult decisions you’ve made, the moments when you kept going, the things you’ve overcome and the times you found courage you didn’t know you had.
Not every achievement needs to be visible or impressive to somebody else. Sometimes the biggest victories are deeply personal.
Perhaps you’ve become more resilient. Maybe you’ve learned to set boundaries, speak up, trust yourself or begin again.
Whatever comes to mind, give yourself permission to acknowledge it.
You’ve come further than you may realise.
5. Make Peace With the Past
Moving forward can become difficult when part of you is still trying to rewrite what has already happened.
Perhaps a decision didn’t work out the way you hoped. A relationship lasted longer than it should have. There were words you wish you’d said, opportunities you didn’t take or moments when you wish you’d trusted yourself more.
Looking back with the knowledge you have today can make those choices seem obvious.
They weren’t obvious then.
You made decisions with the information, experience and awareness available to you at the time.
Take a moment to complete the sentence:
I forgive myself for…
Let whatever comes up be acknowledged without judgement.
Then remind yourself:
I did the best I could with what I knew at the time.
The past can remain part of your story without continuing to control your future.
6. Create Space for What You Want
Once you’ve considered what you’re ready to release, it’s time to turn your attention towards what you want to invite into your life.
What would you love to experience more of?
Freedom might be calling you. Perhaps it’s greater financial abundance, meaningful work, travel, adventure, confidence, love, laughter, deeper relationships or simply a greater sense of peace.
For this exercise, don’t worry about the strategy.
Don’t immediately ask how you’re going to afford it, create it or make it happen.
Give yourself permission to want what you want.
Sometimes our dreams become smaller because we’ve become so accustomed to needing a logical plan before we’re allowed to believe something is possible.
For today, simply say:
This is what I want.
You can work out the how later.
7. Step Into the Woman You’re Becoming
Goals are often centred around what we want to achieve. A deeper question asks who we need to become along the way.
During the Live, I invited everyone to complete the sentence:
The woman I am becoming knows…
Perhaps the answer is that she knows her worth. Maybe she has learned to trust her decisions instead of constantly looking for approval. There may be a growing belief that wanting more is not selfish, that starting again is not failure and that there is still an enormous amount of life ahead.
Now imagine that woman in everyday life.
Picture the way she makes decisions when nobody is watching. Consider how she speaks to herself after making a mistake. Think about what she no longer tolerates and the standards she now holds for her life.
Most importantly, notice what she believes about herself.
Becoming that version of you doesn’t have to wait for your circumstances to change.
You can begin practising that identity today.
8. Choose What Happens Next
At some point, reflection needs to become a decision.
That’s why the final practice is simply:
From today forward, I choose…
Maybe the word that comes to you is courage. It could be freedom, adventure, confidence, peace or trust.
For someone else, the decision might be as simple as choosing herself.
There doesn’t need to be a dramatic announcement or a perfectly mapped-out five-year plan. A new chapter can begin quietly, with one decision that changes the direction you’re willing to take.
Once you’ve made that choice, ask yourself what action would support it.
That’s where intention begins to become reality.
Imagine Yourself One Year From Today
Before finishing your 8/8 reflection, I shared one final exercise during the Live.
Imagine that it is 8th August 2027.
Close your eyes and picture yourself one year from today.
Rather than focusing only on achievements, pay attention to how life feels.
Where are you living? Who is around you? What does an ordinary day look like? Check to see what no longer occupies your thoughts? Has life become easier and what are you doing now that you aren’t doing today?
Then ask the most important question:
Who have I become?
From there, bring that future version of yourself back into the present.
Ask:
What would she do tomorrow?
The answer doesn’t need to be a huge life-changing action.
Perhaps it’s a conversation you’ve been avoiding. Maybe it’s a decision you’ve been delaying. It could be taking yourself seriously, asking for more, setting a boundary or finally taking the first step towards something you’ve been dreaming about.
Your future self doesn’t need you to have everything figured out.
She simply needs you to take the next step.
Your 8/8 Personal Reset
Maybe the real value of a day like 8/8 isn’t about waiting for something magical to happen outside of us.
Perhaps it’s the reminder that we can create our own meaningful moments of change.
A pause can become a release.
Reflection can create clarity.
A new decision can change our direction.
And a different belief can open the door to possibilities we hadn’t previously considered.
So as you reflect on your own 8/8 reset, sit with these four questions:
What am I ready to release?
What am I ready to receive?
Who am I becoming?
What do I choose from today forward?
There is no requirement to know exactly how everything will unfold.
You don’t need the entire map.
Take the next step, trust yourself a little more and allow the journey to reveal what comes next.
Your life isn’t waiting for the perfect moment to begin.
You are living it right now.
Maybe today is simply the reminder you needed to decide what comes next.
Where Everything Is Possible.
Shelley xx
