The Pain of No’s and the Joy of What’s Coming

No one really talks about the sting of a “no.” It doesn’t always come in dramatic moments—it often arrives quietly. In unread emails. In opportunities you almost got. In timelines you thought you'd be on by now. It can feel like sitting in the waiting room of your own life, watching everyone else be called forward while you’re still holding your breath. You start to wonder if the dream was even real, or if you just made it up to survive the ordinary. You question whether you're asking for too much. Whether you missed your turn. Whether you should’ve stopped trying already.

But here's the truth I’ve had to come back to—again and again: you're not behind, and you're not being punished. You're being prepared. The ache you're carrying? That’s sacred ground. It means you care. It means you're building belief in something that hasn’t arrived yet, which is the bravest kind of faith. Everyone celebrates the moment things finally work out, but no one talks about the hallway between what fell apart and what’s about to begin. That in-between space where the silence feels personal and the doubt gets loud. But still—you keep showing up. You keep hoping. You keep trying.

Sometimes the “no” isn’t a rejection. It’s protection. A pause so something better can take shape. But I get it. That doesn’t make the waiting feel easier. That’s why rituales matter. That’s why I created Good Rituale—not to fix you, not to sell perfection—but to give you a way to come home to yourself in the middle of the waiting. When you reach for a toner that soothes, or a moisturizer that comforts, or an oil that feels like a warm exhale, you’re not just doing skincare. You’re choosing yourself. You’re saying, “I still deserve care, even when life feels like too much.”

Your rituale doesn’t require you to have it all figured out. It just asks you to stay tender with yourself. To keep showing up. To believe that joy is still on its way, even if it hasn’t knocked yet. If all you’ve heard lately is no—trust that something softer, stronger, and more aligned is already finding its way to you.

And while you wait, let your rituale be your reminder: you were never behind. You were simply becoming.