When Flow Falters: How To Navigate Old Patterns When They Reappear
Episode 10: When Flow Falters
In this episode, I share how my old patterns of over-giving and burnout appear after shifting into a season of action and building momentum. Listen to this episode if you’re needing permission to pause and rest amidst being busy and stepping into action. Change is created through small consistent actions and by supporting yourself and honoring what you need instead of pushing through.
Episode Summary
In this episode, I’m reflecting on what happens after we shift into action and the momentum begins to build. I talk about a familiar pattern that surfaces for me once I move out of stillness, when things feel slightly out of flow and old habits start to reappear. Rather than seeing this as a setback, I’m learning to understand it as part of the process.
I explore what it looks like to balance action with rest while remaining in a season of movement. In the past, leaning fully into action often led me toward overgiving and burnout. This time, I’m being invited to slow down just enough to listen to my body, notice the signals it’s sending, and respond with care instead of judgment.
I also share how I’m redefining progress and success by showing up consistently, even when conditions are imperfect. This episode is about building something sustainable and learning to support yourself along the way, rather than pushing through at all costs.
If you’ve been feeling out of flow or questioning your pace, this conversation is an invitation to meet yourself with curiosity, trust the timing of what’s unfolding, and remember that refinement often happens in the quieter moments.
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Welcome to The Shoreline, where we explore the tender in-between seasons of the human experience. My name is Kim, and I'm here to support you as you navigate your next becoming. Here, we don't fix, we listen. We don't rush, we allow. Hello, and welcome to today's episode. Last week, I shared the transition I'm going through from a season of stillness to one of more action. And today, I want to explore kind of what happens in the aftermath of that. So let's get into it. This week, I've been really feeling just honestly kind of a little out of flow and things have felt just not as aligned as they usually do. And I've noticed this is a pattern that happens for me when I shift into action. I build some momentum, things feel really great, and then there's kind of that drop that happens after. I think I mentioned it in a previous episode, kind of that shift from having a really aligned day to maybe a day that's not so aligned, or where everything feels off, or where old patterns kind of resurface. And that's kind of what's been happening for me, but just on a different scale, it's happening more in kind of a weekly rhythm. And it's not to say that anything is wrong or bad. This is a natural part of what happens in the in-between when you're starting to take action and make changes. Old patterns resurface, and there's things coming to light that maybe just need your attention. So for me, this week of kind of not being in flow, I've noticed my tendency to emphasize action, especially when I'm in action mode. And I think what's been calling to me is to explore what it looks like to balance action with stillness while I'm in a season of being more action-oriented or action-forward. In past seasons of being in kind of a season of action or action mode, I would give everything 110% of my attention, and that led to kind of a cycle of overgiving, burnout, exhaustion, and then kind of like a crash and burn where I would need to just like shift into stillness really quickly and stay there for a while. And what I'm noticing now is that desire and that need to kind of shift out of that pattern and I think find a more refined way to kind of shift between the energies. And so this week, I noticed myself kind of leaning into action more and I've made some good progress. I'm, you know, pursuing my Pilate certification. I'm recording regularly here. I'm writing and I'm exploring kind of what I want to build and create. And in that, I feel like I kind of got swept up in the current of action and movement and busyness. And busyness is something that is really seductive to me. It feels good to be in action. And I think especially in American culture, we really pride ourselves on being busy and productive. And it's kind of worn as like a badge of honor. And so I think there's a lot of support in that. But what I noticed this week is that my body was really giving me signals that I need to take time to rest. I wasn't leaning into or choosing some of the quiet or nourishing activities that I know really support me. And as a result, I started to feel worn down. My body was starting to give me, you know, warnings. My ankle was feeling a little bit more tender. I was just feeling kind of like, okay, I need to take a moment to kind of pause and reflect or we're going to move into that kind of crash and burn exhaustion moment. And I think at first, I really felt like, if I'm being honest, kind of like a failure of like, okay, like I've been doing this work for so long, and I know intellectually what I'm supposed to be doing. So why, why am I revisiting this old pattern, or why is this coming up, or why am I not able to do it all? And what I've been exploring is, is that need revisiting that that needs to know why and trying to shift my perspective to say, okay, instead of seeing this as a failure or a repeating of an old pattern, it's something that's surfacing and an opportunity for me to learn and to grow and trying to approach it with more curiosity. I think it's also important in these moments to reflect back and see how far I've come. I think it's really easy to kind of overlook moments of progress or celebrations. And that's a really important part of the process, to pause for a moment and to say, hey, like, look, I'm actually doing the thing that I said I wanted to do, and I'm making progress. I may not be exactly where I want to be, or I haven't reached the outcome or the goal yet, but I'm well on my way. And so I tried to take moments to say, look, like, what have I been doing, and where am I at versus where was I even just a month ago or a few weeks ago? And that kind of helped me shift how I was feeling in my perspective, and it was able to show me, like, wow, I actually am making progress. You know, three months ago, I wasn't recording my podcast. The podcast didn't exist in this iteration, and now it does. And even today, I really didn't feel like recording, if I'm being honest, and I wasn't really sure what I had to talk about. And I decided to just show up anyway and see what happened. And if, you know, after a couple of minutes, nothing was flowing, I gave myself permission to kind of let it go. And here I am, and things are coming up, and it feels really good to show up to the things that are important to me, even when I can't give 100%, even when the alignment isn't perfect. And that's kind of what my overarching goal is for this year and going forward, is to really build long-lasting, sustainable, consistent actions. I'm not trying to build things just for a season. I really crave that consistency and working towards something and building a very strong foundation. And in order to build a strong foundation, you have to look at what's already been built. And if this was a true, like if my life was a house and I was truly looking at the foundation, then I would have to look at all of the little cracks. And that's what these old patterns resurfacing are. They're just little cracks, little worn bits of the foundation. And now I have the opportunity to look at them and refine them and decide how to move forward. And these moments of not quite being in flow are really an important part of the process. I think it's, they're really, it's underrated. And kind of looking back over this last week, I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to reflect and to kind of look at the ways of being that I've embodied in the past, and kind of hold them out in front of me and say like, okay, these aren't an inherent part of my identity. They're just the ways of being that I've experienced in the past, and what do I want to do with them now? How do I want to move forward? Kind of like if you were to, you know, declutter your home and you're looking at all of the objects you've collected over the years, you get to choose, like, is this still important to me now, or is it something I'm ready to let go of? And that's what I've kind of been doing in my life. And it's this beautiful process of refining my energy. And that word refinement has been kind of coming to me. My intuition has been bringing that forward a lot lately, and it's not about the big actions, the significant movements. While those are important, refinement is just as important. And I've made a lot of the big actions. I've shifted into a new era, a new home. And now I get to refine as I kind of build these long-lasting, consistent actions I want to take. And what I'm being called to learn in this season is really, how do I show up to the things that are important to me, even when I'm not feeling 100 percent, even when my circumstances are not perfectly aligned? Can I still do the things that I say I'm going to do? And the answer is yes. I showed up to my novel even when I didn't feel like writing, and maybe it wasn't, you know, a session where I got through a thousand plus words, and it was more like I wrote a few sentences, or I wrote some notes to myself of what I want to incorporate, and guess what? I felt really good and accomplished after doing that. I felt really proud of myself for just showing up, even more so than when I think I have those really great flowy sessions. And even now, showing up to record and to share, the longer I speak and the more I get into it, the better I'm feeling. And I think that's an important part of being in action mode or a season of action is how can you continue to take the steps, even under imperfect circumstances, and how can you continue to push the needle forward to make progress in a smaller way or, you know, in a quieter way when you're not able to take those bigger actions or when you're not feeling like you want to do that? And how can you support yourself along the way? And that support piece is also really important. That's something that I've been kind of reflecting on instead of kind of thinking about my tendency to think about why or how, like, why am I feeling this way? How did I get to this point? Instead of doing that, I've been trying to shift when I feel like thinking about why or how, I've been asking myself instead, what do I need? If I'm feeling tired, instead of thinking about why am I so tired, or like, how did I get to this place of like, not replenishing my energy, I pause and I ask myself, what do I need right now? Maybe it's a nap. Maybe it's just time to be still, or time to zone out and look at my phone, or maybe I need food, whatever it is, I'm trying to just pause and say like, okay, what do I need? How can I support myself? It doesn't really matter how I got to this point. What matters most is, what do I need to keep going? And then I think the last component of this is really trust. Can I trust that everything is unfolding the way that it's meant to? Can I trust that I'm in the exact place I need to be in right now, and that these patterns are coming up for a reason, and at this moment, because that's what's important? And I think when I can lean into trust, it shifts me out of the state of feeling out of flow even. It kind of gives me that perspective I need of, okay, like this is just temporary. This feeling of being out of flow or out of alignment is coming up because it's part of my timing. It's something that needs to be addressed in this moment, and it's part of my progress. It's part of my way forward. And just recognizing that it really is all part of your path, the action, the stillness, the alignment, the non-alignment even, the old patterns, everything. It's all part of your path and how you move forward. And so, that's where I'm at today. I just wanted to kind of share a real time update with you. And I'm so thankful and so grateful that you're here and following my journey. And wherever you're at, if you're feeling stuck in the foggy middle, maybe you're exhausted from having to always figure it out alone, I want you to know that you're not alone. And I'm here. Maybe you feel polled to explore the Shoreline private coaching sessions. I'm always here to chat with you, and you can find more information or schedule a time to talk with me on my website, www.kimkogane.com. Take good care while the waves carry you closer. Your next version is already waiting on the shore.
If you’re feeling stuck in the foggy middle and exhausted from having to always “figure it out” alone, I want to invite you to…
Connect to your north star using my FREE Intention Setting Worksheet to help guide you on your journey.
Book a tarot reading to clarify where you’re heading next and where you might need support.
Read this resource to help you find clarity in the unknown and learn 5 ways to get unstuck.
Discover how you best connect to your inner wisdom by taking this quiz.
Kim Kogane is a writer and intuitive guide helping you navigate the tender in-between seasons. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her dog, Cauchy, and three cats. Learn more about Kim.
