Financial Depression, Part I: When the Light Dims

A Season, Not a Life Sentence

There are seasons in business when the light changes.
Not all at once, not in a way that announces itself — but slowly, subtly, steadily.
A dimming.
A fog rolling in at the edges.
A sense that your business feels heavier than usual — harder to approach, harder to touch, harder to carry.

This is what I call Financial Depression.

And before anything else, let me say this plainly and respectfully:

Financial Depression is not a mental health diagnosis, and I am not a mental health professional. I use the term because my people — the rebels, the healers, the changemakers — know exactly what it feels like in their bodies.

The moment they hear it, they exhale — because they recognize it instantly and finally feel seen instead of judged.

Financial depression is a state, not a sentence.
A season, not a failing.
A dimming of clarity.
A dip in capacity.
A collapse in momentum.
A moment when your ability to see yourself inside of your business becomes cloudy, muted, off-kilter.

It reminds me so much of Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome — something I understood deeply growing up in Alaska.

Up there, winter doesn’t arrive with a bang.
It arrives by degrees.
A little less daylight each afternoon.
A subtle heaviness in the mornings.
A quiet shift in mood and energy long before the darkness becomes obvious.

And that’s why full-spectrum light becomes essential — the quiet support that keeps your system nourished in the darker months.

In business, the equivalents are simple and profound:

Collecting evidence.
Celebrating every win — size doesn’t matter.
Letting light in wherever it lands.

Because financial depression begins the same way the winter darkness does:
quietly, gradually, gently… until one day you realize your inner world has gone dimmer than you remember.

This dimming could look like:

• Ignoring your numbers because the thought feels overwhelming

• Feeling dread at the idea of losing a client

• Saying yes to misaligned clients just to keep cash moving

• Buying yet another program, course, or mastermind to try and “save” yourself

• Feeling numb or oblivious to your wins

• Feeling everything too much when momentum drops

• Shrinking your vision to match your bandwidth

• Avoiding decisions because your body feels maxed out

• Wanting to burn the whole thing down

These patterns don’t signal irresponsibility.
They signal exhaustion.

What dims here is capacity, not character.
What flickers is clarity, not calling.
What collapses is bandwidth, not brilliance.

And what’s most important to understand:

When your internal light dims, your money often dims with it — responding to the shifts in your energy and waiting for the moment you can see it clearly again.

What you’re experiencing is your ecosystem speaking — signaling where nourishment, rest, or recalibration is needed.

The fog thickens just enough to disrupt your rhythm…
but not enough to extinguish your flame.

And somewhere in this moment, there is still a light — faint, soft, steady.

It lives in your awareness.
It lives in your curiosity.
It lives in the fact that you are here, reading these words.

This is the first flicker at the end of the tunnel —
and it doesn’t feel like an oncoming train.
It feels like the possibility of a way through.

Financial Depression has a pattern.
Which means it can shift.
Which means there is more light available.
And more light is coming.

Because the dimming doesn’t happen in isolation — it’s almost always preceded by a slow collapse of capacity. Tomorrow, we walk into that deeper layer — the collapse that so often hides beneath the dimming.

But for today, let this truth settle softly:

There is more light in you than any season can contain. Bad days shift, good days rise, and great days turn into something unforgettable. And what grows from here will be extraordinary.

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👉 Reflection Prompt
Where have you felt the dimming — in your numbers, your clarity, or your capacity — and how might the tiniest bit of “full-spectrum light” help you reconnect with yourself?

🔥 Daily Affirmation
I honor the season I’m in.
I meet the dimming with compassion and presence.
I welcome the smallest beams of clarity as medicine.
I trust the wisdom inside this pause.
I rise with the knowing that brighter days are already on their way.

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PS: Profit is Protest, and naming the season you’re in is the first act of reclamation.