The Simplicity of Becoming Yourself

About eleven years ago, I experienced burnout.

At the time, I was building a business from the ground up, learning everything as I went, raising two children under the age of two, and unknowingly carrying years of unresolved trauma that I had buried beneath achievement, resilience, and the old British saying I carried in my veins “Keep calm and carry on”.

Eventually, I ran out of energy.

And when I no longer had the strength to hold everything down, it all came bubbling up to the surface.

From the outside, life looked beautiful. I had a loving husband, two healthy children, a home, and a successful business. By most people's standards, I had everything I had worked so hard for.

But inside, I felt lost, disconnected from myself and numb.

There was a loneliness I couldn't explain and emotions I didn't yet have the language to understand.

Yet beneath it all was something else.

A quiet but unwavering determination not to give up.

I knew something had to change.

Life was "good"... but I no longer recognised myself within it.

One morning, in the stillness between exhaustion and surrender, my intuition whispered three simple words.

Simplicity in motion.

At the time, they felt almost cryptic.

But I knew they were to be my compass.

I began simplifying everything.

My calendar, my business product line and structure, my home, my relationships.

The way I worked, the way I created, the way I moved through the world.

I did the hard work (or at least the first stage of it! IYKYK ;) and in a few short months, I was a different person.

But if I'm honest... my plan to curate a capsule wardrobe took the longest. It wasn't a love for fashion or obsession with clothes but rather a habit: I had spent a lifetime wearing identities.

I've always had the ability to embody different versions of myself. My brother used to laugh that I could disappear into my bedroom wearing oversized jeans and a leather jacket, only to emerge ten minutes later in an elegant evening dress and stilettos, looking as though I'd never worn anything else.

It wasn't pretending. Every version felt authentic. Each one expressed a different part of who I was. But somewhere along the way, expressing myself became exhausting.

Sometimes I dressed to match how I felt. Sometimes I dressed to become who I thought I needed to be. Sometimes I dressed to hide what I was really feeling.

My wardrobe became an archive of identities. Some joyful, some aspirational, a few protective. Some even belonging to chapters of my life I hadn't yet let go of. And that's when I realised something that changed everything: We don't hold onto things because we need them.

We hold onto them because they are connected to a version of ourselves we haven't finished grieving.

The dress is not just a dress. The handbag is not just a handbag. The box of keepsakes certainly is not clutter. They're anchors and threads leading us back to stories that are still asking to be witnessed.

Which is why decluttering rarely works if we only focus on the physical.

If we throw away the object without acknowledging the emotion attached to it, we often replace it with something else.

The clutter simply changes form because what we're really carrying isn't possessions, it's unfinished stories.

Healing isn't about owning less, but carrying less.

Over the past decade, I slowly discovered something beautiful: My authentic style had been there all along. Not hidden, simply surrounded by noise.

Once I stopped trying to become someone else, I discovered how effortless it felt to simply be myself. Not fashionable or performative or even curated... just true.

Ironically, I have spent years helping my clients do exactly this.

Simplifying their homes, their businesses and their offerings to uncover the essence beneath the excess.

It just took me a little longer to embody that wisdom myself (how embarassing, right!)

Today, here's what I know: If something doesn't feel completely effortless and easeful at the core of your being, it's not your style, it's a costume.

Fashion will continue to change because trends are designed to keep us consuming.

Style is something entirely different.

Style is an expression of identity.

And identity isn't seasonal.

The same is true for our homes, our businesses and our brands-

The goal isn't to become minimalist but to be in coherence:

To create a life where every choice reflects who you truly are.

I've also learned that having more does NOT create more freedom. It creates more decisions, more noise and more opportunities to second-guess yourslef.

When you know your style, whether in the way you dress, create, speak or build your business, you move through life with greater ease. Your energy is no longer spent deciding who to be. It becomes available for living.

And perhaps that's the greatest lesson simplicity has ever taught me.

Simplicity isn't about having less, it's about removing everything that isn't you until all that's left is the quiet confidence of knowing exactly who you are.

That is where coherence begins.

And from coherence...

Everything else flows.

Chamonix Higginson is a multidisciplinary artist and advisor to conscious leaders.

Drawing on a background spanning interior architecture, shamanic practice, business strategy, and deep subconscious work,, she helps leaders, creatives, and visionaries uncover the essence of who they are and create lives, spaces, and businesses that reflect it.

Visit www.shamanicartistry.com.au to find out more

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