This episode offers a reflective framework for planning a business year in a way that honors sensitivity, energy, and natural rhythms. Sara explores why traditional productivity-driven planning often fails sensitive women and how seasonal awareness and inner alignment can support sustainability. The episode invites a slower, more intentional approach to planning for 2026 that prioritizes nervous system health and long-term vitality.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why spaciousness is essential rather than indulgent for sensitive women in business
- How seasonal rhythms can guide business planning and decision-making
- Signs that a business may be working against your energy
- The concept of “she space” and leaving intentional room for rest and creativity
- The role of internal alignment when creating sustainable business plans
Key takeaways:
- Sensitivity is a source of wisdom, not a limitation, in business planning
- Constant productivity can disconnect women from intuition and creativity
- Nature’s seasonal cycles offer a more sustainable business framework
- Winter is a vital season for visioning, reflection, and deep planning
- A plan only works when all inner parts are considered and supported
Resources mentioned
- Introductory workshop: How to Create a Simple, Sacred, Self-Led Business
Episode FAQs
1. What does it mean to plan a business as a sensitive woman?
It means designing work around nervous system needs, energy rhythms, and spaciousness rather than constant productivity and pressure.
2. Why is winter emphasized as a planning season?
Winter supports reflection, visioning, and deep listening. It allows clarity to emerge before action and growth take place.
3. How do seasonal rhythms apply if life doesn’t follow the calendar?
Seasons are a framework, not a rule. They can be adapted to personal energy patterns, life transitions, and changing needs.
4. What is “she space” in business planning?
She space refers to intentionally leaving open time for rest, creativity, and intuition, recognizing that wisdom emerges from being, not just doing.
5. How does inner alignment affect business plans?
Plans succeed when all inner parts feel considered and supported. Ignoring fear, fatigue, or protective instincts often leads to resistance rather than follow-through.
Read the Full Transcript
This fall, I’m offering a five-part series called The Season of Slow Business. It’s inspired by my recent move to France, my upcoming forty-eighth birthday, and this passage through perimenopause. This series arises from a personal call to slow down and let my business evolve in rhythm with my body and the seasons.
Over the coming weeks, we’re exploring what it means to build a business that honors your body’s pace, your nervous system’s intelligence, and the natural rhythms of the earth. In a culture that prizes constant output and growth at any cost, slow business remembers another way—one rooted in feminine wisdom, seasonal living, and trust in timing.
About fifteen years ago, after my first book was published, I was living in Boulder, Colorado. My business was booming, my calendar was full, and from the outside everything looked successful. Inside, I was increasingly exhausted. As a highly sensitive introvert, there wasn’t enough rhythm between doing and being. I remember sharing this with a mentor, expecting advice on efficiency or time management. Instead, she said, “Leave one third of your space empty.”
At first, this felt impossible and irresponsible. But she explained that if every inch of life is filled, there is no room for inspiration, spontaneity, or the divine. That conversation became the foundation for what I later called “she space.” Spaciousness is not a luxury. It’s the path forward. It’s how we prevent burnout, access intuition, and create work that nourishes rather than depletes us.
Many sensitive women find themselves either outwardly successful but inwardly exhausted, or doing everything “right” without seeing results. Common signs that a business is working against your energy include overwhelm and dread, creative blocks, resentment toward your work, and disconnection from joy and intuition.
Highly sensitive nervous systems require different rhythms than hustle-based models provide. This isn’t a weakness. It’s wisdom. When we design businesses around our actual energy instead of forcing ourselves into models designed for others, something begins to shift.
Nature offers a different paradigm. Trees rest. Seeds germinate slowly. Seasons cycle between growth and dormancy. Business can follow the same rhythm. Winter is for dreaming and planning. Spring is for creating and seeding. Summer is for sharing and visibility. Fall is for harvesting, reflecting, and letting go.
Winter, in particular, is often misunderstood. It’s not just for rest; it’s where the most important work happens. The quality of your winter determines the quality of your year. Rushing through it leads to disconnection and burnout. Honoring it allows vision to clarify and ease to follow.
Seasonal planning is not rigid. It’s a framework to adapt. Each woman’s rhythms are different, shaped by life stage, energy patterns, and responsibilities. The question is not whether a plan is correct, but whether it feels sustainable and supportive.
Understanding rhythms alone isn’t enough. Inner alignment is also essential. When only the visionary part of us makes a plan, other parts—those that need rest, safety, or reassurance—may resist. Internal conflict often looks like procrastination or self-sabotage, but it’s actually protective.
By listening to all inner parts and creating plans that meet their needs, business planning becomes more coherent and doable. Sustainable planning combines seasonal awareness, inner alignment, and practical structure. This approach supports wholeness, which is the foundation for meaningful, lasting work.
Spaciousness creates room for insight, creativity, and deeper vision. When businesses are designed to honor sensitivity and natural rhythms, they become places of nourishment rather than depletion.
