Hi Marie-Josee, 

Have you ever felt yourself soaring full of hope, ease, and possibility only to be snapped back down, as if the world was saying: “Don’t you dare rise that high”? 

When I was young, a group of my father's family and friends gathered around a massive fire with chairs arranged in a big circle. I sat on my father's lap, watching the flames, feeling safe, watching the children run around in the distance, and the adults deep in conversation. For that moment, I felt full, alive in wonder, connected to something bigger. 

And then a hand grabbed the back of my shirt at the neck. Yanked me back with force. My body jolted. I landed with a thud in the chair beside my stepmother as she seethed through gritted teeth: 'You sit there,' making sure I understood my place before she released her grip on my shirt. 

That moment branded something in me. Every time I expand into possibility, ride the high wave of wonder, or dream beyond struggle, I feel that same jolt of the world pulling me back down to sit where it thinks I belong. 

Have you ever heard of the "tall poppy syndrome"? The phrase comes from ancient Rome, where a ruler supposedly walked through a field of poppies and struck down the tallest ones, showing his son how to deal with rivals and cut down those who stand out. It describes the tendency in society to criticize, resent, or suppress people who stand out with success, talent, visibility, or joy so everyone stays “equal.” 

Instead of celebrating the growth, aspiring to more and letting the discomfort awaken desire in us, we cut down the one who dared to grow, so we can return to the illusion of sameness. Because cutting down is easier than sitting in the discomfort of our lack of growth, or ambition, or difference, or rising ourselves. 

And that's what the hand on the neck does too. It doesn't care that you were content, expanding into light, joy, or possibility. It only looks at its own discontent. It only cares that you rose higher than the story everyone else agreed to live in: the story of struggle, complaint, judgment. 

When your light doesn't fit in the circle of chairs, the hand makes sure you know your place and sits you down where it thinks you belong. 

This "yanking back" happens for two reasons: 

1. Cultural Conditioning: We inherited a story that says, "Don't rise too high. Don't be too much. Don't shine brighter than others. Stay in the circle, don't break the pattern." 

2. Our Own Nervous System: Once ingrained in us, we begin doing the work of the hand ourselves. The fear of being "too much" makes us collapse back down before anyone else has to pull us. 

That's why it feels so raw, so immediate. It's not just external, it's wired into your body. 

But, here is the higher truth we often fail to see in those moments: ease, flow, and expansion are not dangerous. They are natural.  

We believe that pain is more noble, that suffering makes us belong, that weakness is somehow more acceptable than joy. And so when you rise into flow, the world conditioned by struggle doesn't recognize it. It reacts. 

The higher truth is this: your expansion isn't a threat to others. It's an invitation. Their refusal of that invitation to experience more doesn't say anything about you, only that they are not ready. The problem is never that you are too much. The problem is that the story around you is too small. 

The Story Alchemy journey is all about reminding us that: The hand on the neck was never truth. It was just someone else's story trying to control yours. 

The yanking sensation is an old imprint, not a prophecy. By retelling the story that yanked you down, you reclaim the moment: not as proof you must shrink, but as proof that even then you knew how to rise, how to find light, how to dream beyond the circle of people who believed otherwise. 

Instead of being branded by the action of someone else, let the fire in your soul be the brand. You were born to rise, to shine, to light the way, not to shrink to make other people comfortable. 

So when you feel yourself pulled down for being too much, remember this: you could never be too much. The world has simply been living too small. 

And that's why I want to invite you into Story Alchemy. I want you to finally break that chain. I want you to no longer abandon your expansion, but let it ripple instead. Because every time you rise, you give the circle permission to rise too.  

Isn't that exactly why we are here? What do you think?

Are you willing to share what pulls you back? What feels like the world telling you to play smaller in your life? Hit the reply button. I would love to hear your story. 

You never know who needs to hear it and what ripple effect you are here to create by your experience.

Much love,

Marie-Josee 

Live. Love. Laugh. It matters because YOU matter.