For most of my adult life I lived small. I stopped trusting my own instincts, stopped believing my needs mattered, and eventually stopped recognizing the woman in the mirror. I told myself it was fine. I told myself it was enough. I told myself that staying was the right thing to do.

In my late 40’s, I made the hardest decision of my life. I chose myself. And then I had to figure out who that even was.

The last 8 years have been the hardest but also the most honest of my life. Therapy. Reading. Hiking trails that cleared my head when nothing else could. Long mornings with a journal and a cup of coffee, asking myself questions I'd been afraid to ask for decades. Learning to sit with hard feelings instead of outrunning them. Learning that healing isn't linear. Learning and finally believing, slowly and many times painfully, that I was worth the effort.

I came into adulthood carrying wounds I didn't choose. But what I discovered in the slow, quiet work of healing was that I had more strength than I knew, and more capacity for joy than I had ever allowed myself to believe. Healing wasn't dramatic. It was slow and sometimes messy, but completely worth it. I knew I wanted to grow. I wanted to be more. And that was enough to take the first step.

I started journaling as a way to survive and as a way to heal. Eventually I started journaling as a way to dream. Dreaming was something I hadn't let myself do in a very long time. I wrote down quotes that spoke to me. I wrote down questions that forced me to look deep inside and come up with answers. I wrote down small goals that felt enormous at the time and celebrated every single one. One morning I looked back at what I'd written and realized something amazing. I had actually built a life I loved. It wasn’t perfect , but it was finally cmpletely mine

Along the way I became certified in nutrition coaching and yoga. Not because I had a plan, but because I was rebuilding myself from the inside out and I wanted to understand how all of it connected — the body, the mind, the spirit, the story we tell ourselves about who we are and what we deserve.

That's how the Intentional Living Journal was born and why it has no dates on it. Because healing doesn't follow a schedule. Starting over doesn't happen on cue. You begin when you're ready, you rest when you need to, and you come back to the page when you can. No pressure, no catching up, no falling behind. Just the next honest entry, whenever you're ready to write it.

I built Intentional Living with Kim because I needed it too. And because I believe every woman deserves to know, no matter how long you've been living someone else's version of your life, no matter how many years have passed, or how impossible it feels right now - it is never too late to begin again and start creating a life you love.

If you're here, something in you is already ready. I'm so glad you found this place.

I'm Kim — author of the Intentional Living Journal: Reflect, Dream, Act, middle school special education teacher, certified nutrition coach, yoga instructor, and a woman who rebuilt her life one intentional step at a time. I live for long hikes, open water, and the kind of morning light that makes everything feel possible again.