Hey, Dr. Jess Reynolds here.

Welcome to *The Conscious Practitioner*.

This is the audio version of my newsletter—made for wellness practitioners who love the work but are tired of feeling overwhelmed, burned out, and want to build a practice you love.

If you’d like to get the email version, you’ll find a link in the show notes.

In the last episode, I told you the story of why I became a practitioner — and how losing sight of that *why* cost me more than I expected.

Thank you to everyone who sent me a reply via email! I truly can’t tell you how much it meant to me to hear your stories. The openness and vulnerability truly left me feeling — mostly gratitude.

Today I want to share why I started AIM... and how forgetting to check in with my why **again** almost derailed the whole thing.

I launched AIM to create affordable, high-quality online continuing education. It felt good. It felt *needed*. I was filling a gap I wished someone had filled when I was starting out.

Two good things at once: filling a need and doing what I love, teaching.

But a few years in, something started to gnaw at me. Anxiety. Restlessness. The feeling that something was "off," even though everything *looked* right on paper. They were familiar sensations—ones I'd ignored before at great cost. Thankfully, this time, it didn't take me eight years to listen. I figured it out pretty quick.

Enter: therapy, coaching sessions, endless journaling, and very long, very muddy walks with my dog, Benny.

Eventually, it hit me.

Even though I'd *taught* "Find Your Why" exercises a dozen times, and even though I'd lived through burnout before from not being clear on my why, I had never actually sat down and done it for AIM. Not honestly. Not deeply.

And when I finally did?

**Damn.**

Turns out, making education accessible wasn’t my why. It was a mission. A goal. Not the thing that lit my fire.

My true why? It’s not just about teaching. It’s about building real relationships — and creating a space where we can be open and honest with each other. Where we can grow together. Some of the greatest and most humbling shifts in my life have happened when I was "teaching" something to a class — and realizing halfway through I was really just saying what I needed to hear most.

Realizing that was equal parts brutal and beautiful.

Because when you realize you've been off-course — even a little — for a long time, it can rock you.

And I’m telling you this because I know I'm not the only one who's been there.

Over the past year, I’ve talked to dozens of coaches, consultants, and wellness practitioners who hit the same wall. The passion was still there, buried under a mountain of "shoulds" and routines. They weren’t out of love with their work. They were just out of alignment with their real why.

It's part of why I’m building my new business course, to help practitioners reconnect to what actually matters *before* they burn out, or build a business (and dare I say life?) that looks good but feels hollow.

So if this lands for you? Here's what helped me:

Stop. Breathe. Take a walk.

Not a metaphorical one. A literal, real-world, shoes (or bare feet ideally) in the dirt walk.

Sure, journaling helped too. But most of the clarity? It came in the quiet. With the trees. No prompts. No agenda. Just letting my brain slow down enough for my heart to speak.

As Hippocrates said:

> “If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.”

>

This kind of deep, honest realignment is exactly where the new course starts: with *you*, not a business model. More on that soon.

For now? Maybe just take a walk.

I’d love to hear what you find out there. Send me an email. My email address is jess@aimonline.com

And as always, be well my friend.

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