Steep Your Soul

Relaxed Woman: On Honouring The Season You’re In Ep 68

• Annabelle Matson

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Do you ever feel like you should be thriving all the time — and if you’re not, you must be doing something wrong?

In this episode of Relaxed Woman, we’re talking about what it really means to honour the season you’re in — and why peace comes not from pushing harder, but from letting go of unrealistic expectations.


We’ll talk about:

  • Why carrying expectations from a past season into the present sets us up for frustration and burnout


  • How surrendering to your current capacity actually restores your energy and prepares you for what’s next


  • The cultural pressure to “always be thriving,” and why it’s okay to have seasons of restoration, not just growth


  • Simple ways to find joy, gratitude, and fulfillment — even in seasons that feel quieter or slower


If you’ve been fighting against your limits or feeling like you’re falling behind, this episode will remind you that every season has value — and peace is found in embracing the one you’re in right now.


✨ Resources mentioned:


Private Coaching - book in for an Initial Breakthrough Session or work with me in a 3 or 6 month program

Reclaim Your Calm $20 workshop

Visit my website

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Submit a question for an upcoming episode.

Welcome to Relaxed Women. This is a nourishing series here on the podcast. Deep Your soul to help you slow down, soften your grip, and live from a place of deeper peace and trust. If you're someone who's feeling tired from carrying it all, you are in the right place. Before you begin, let's just take a deep breath together and then exhale and let that out, and let's dive into the episode. I. I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels like there is a cultural undertone, especially for women, that we should always be thriving. I don't know if it's Instagram culture or the constant stream of self-improvement advice. There's this pressure to be our best in every area all of the time. And I remember that pressure hitting me head on after I became a mom for a long time. I felt anything but thriving. I had a baby who slept like a newborn for months and months and months well beyond the newborn period, and I was really tired. My capacity wasn't what it had been, and I couldn't keep up with the expectations that I used to place on myself. I think motherhood really highlights this. We so often hold ourselves to the same standards that we had in a previous season. So what I can do now with a toddler who plays independently here and there is really different to what I could do when she was just a baby, and it's different again to what I could do before I had children. Yet subconsciously we drag across those same expectations from one season to the next, and when those expectations no longer fit. We end up feeling like a failure. The truth is we can't always be the friend we want to be. Our home won't always look the way we would like. That is a trigger for me for sure. We won't always have time to exercise the way we once did, and our creativity and our productivity will even flow. And this doesn't mean forever. It means that in certain seasons our capacity is different. And fighting against that leads to frustration and burnout. I had to learn that peace isn't found in doing more, but in surrendering to the season I was in, letting go of unrealistic standards brought me a lot more joy and satisfaction as a new mom than any type of productivity and striving you ever could have. So in a culture that is constantly shouting, be your best self at all times, I want to say something different to you that it's okay not to be thriving in every season, and that doesn't mean resigning yourself to heaviness or hopelessness or feeling low all the time. It might simply mean letting go of some of the standards that you're holding yourself to. It might mean being more gentle on yourself if things aren't moving as quickly as you would like them to. It might mean discovering new, smaller ways to find joy and fulfillment when the old ones don't fit right now. So I think joy and gratitude are still available even in seasons of non thriving. Sometimes we just have to mine them and they're found in smaller, quieter moments, and not every season is about growth. Our mind insists that life should always be about moving forward and achieving more at all times. But the truth is we can't keep expanding endlessly. There will be seasons for restoration and consolidation. Seasons of preparation and those slower times often hold the biggest breakthroughs. When I first returned to work after having my daughter Eloise, I was definitely in a season of restoration and finding my feet again, in my mind, didn't wanna accept that there was a level of work that I was doing that felt really good. Then it felt like my mind was pushing me to do more than that what was actually beyond my capacity at the time. And it cost me energy and a lot of peace. But the more I learned to surrender to the season that I was in, the more joy I found and the more relaxed I felt. And ultimately that's what built my capacity back up by allowing myself to be where I was. Accepting the limitations of the season I was in, I was gradually able to get to a place where I could do more. Again, taking on new creative projects, seeing fresh results, experiencing momentum in ways that actually felt sustainable rather than draining. And sometimes life isn't balanced in the way we imagine it should be. You might feel like you are. You are thriving in one area, so maybe in your work or your creativity or your family life, but in another area you feel like you're falling behind or things just aren't unfolding the way you'd want them to. The pressure on women to do it all and have it all is real, but I think we need to challenge this idea. We actually can't do it all, all at once. And when we try, we stretch ourselves too thin. So what matters most in one season may not be a top priority in another, and that's okay. Sometimes one area of life is flourishing and another one takes a backseat or moves more slowly than it once did. And that doesn't mean that you are failing. It's actually a strategy for peace. It's a softer, more compassionate way of living. So instead of pushing yourself to do it all, you're actually honoring the season that you're in. And I'm still learning this myself with a young family. I can't do all of the things that I once did. I work part-time and I have to be intentional about where I commit my time and energy because there's just not as much of it as there used to be. But I know this is a season too, and it may last a while, but it won't be forever. There will come a time when my kids are older and I'll have more space to work and space to create. So for me, it's also about taking a long-term view that there is plenty of time. So let's take a moment together if you are able, close your eyes down, if it's safe for you to do, and just take a slow breath in. And then breathe that out and just ask yourself gently, what season am I truly in right now? Is this a season of growth and expansion or is it a season of restoration and consolidation? What expectations am I carrying over from another season that don't belong here? What could I release to make peace with where I am and where's the joy in this season? What small, simple things can I notice and be grateful for right now? Let those questions just sit with you. You might like to pause this. You might like to go back and write them down and use them as writing prompts. To answer in your own reflection time. You don't have to rush to answer them. Just kind of let them sit with you for the next few days or the next week or two and see what drops in and trust that whatever season you're in, it has goodness to offer you. So thank you for being here for this episode of Relaxed Women. I'll be honest, surrendering to the season I'm in is something I still find difficult. There's often this push and pull inside, like one part of me knows that slowing down is where I'll find peace, but there's another part that resists it and wants to keep pushing and doing. And if you've felt that tension too, then the Reclaim your Calm workshop will really help you. It's a simple$20 workshop, and it will give you really practical ways to quieten the mental noise, to soften and to bring more peace into your everyday life. You'll find the link for that and the description of this episode. And if you're in a season where you'd love more personal support to have someone walk alongside you and help you navigate your challenges with guidance and encouragement and practical tools, I offer private coaching and it's the deepest way to work with me, and you'll find more details about that at the link in the description as well. There are more episodes already waiting for you in this series and more to come. So make sure that you subscribe follow this podcast so that you don't miss those. Then go and check out other episodes and see which ones are jumping out at you. And if a friend comes to mind who might need to hear this episode, please share it with them, and I can't wait to be with you again soon in another episode.