Kerri BridgmanI used to believe I just wasn’t the kind of person who could relax.
I’d roll out the yoga mat, light the candle, queue up the calming playlist… and still, my brain would be running laps.
Every email I hadn’t answered. Every order pass I needed to prep for. Every personal errand I hadn’t crossed off. The laundry. The texts I hadn’t replied to. That dentist appointment I kept rescheduling.
It wasn’t inspiration, it was survival mode. My nervous system was operating at a 10, even when I was “off.”
And no amount of meditation, journaling, or self-care could fix it… because I was trying to carry my entire life in my head. At that point I believed that any self-care was a waste of time and energy.
It was all one giant stress ball, and I was at the center of it — holding on tight, hoping nothing would drop.
The tipping point
There came a day when I realized, I wasn’t actually more effective for keeping it all together.
I was just… holding.
Holding every detail.
Holding every deadline.
Holding every small and large responsibility like if I loosened my grip, it would all fall apart.
And my brain was on fire from the effort.
The shift
The biggest change didn’t come from a new book, song or meditation practice.
It came from building a flow.
I started moving everything out of my head and into a single visual system:
- Projects went on a calendar.
- My ideas and deadlines got a home in Notion.
- I stripped away anything that wasn’t actually providing value, even if I’d been doing it for years.
For the first time, I could see my whole life and business at a glance.
I wasn’t waking up at 3 a.m. wondering if I’d forgotten something.
And the wildest part? My creativity came back. So did my ability to enjoy the quiet.
I realized what I was carrying wasn’t just a busy schedule — it was the weight of trying to manage every moving part of my life in my head.
No wonder I couldn’t relax.
My mind was like an overstuffed closet… every time I tried to close the door, something would spill out. I didn’t need more willpower or discipline — I needed a place to put things down so I could stop bracing for the next thing.
Your turn
If your life feels like one giant knot of deadlines, to-dos, and mental sticky notes… I want you to know it’s not the only way.
You don’t have to live in a constant low-grade panic. You don’t have to carry it all in your head, afraid to put anything down in case it unravels.
You don’t have to run at a ten just to keep things from falling apart.
There is another rhythm — one that gives you room to breathe while your business still moves forward.
One that protects your creativity instead of draining it.
One where you feel steady, even in a busy season.
That’s why I created my Fashion Biz Flow Map — the same one-page Notion system I use to hold the moving parts of my work and my life.
It’s simple. It’s visual. And it’s a gentle starting point if you’re ready to loosen your grip and find your flow.