The Signs You Keep Ignoring

On asking for what you want, learning to recognize the answer, and believing you deserve it

Karla Ortiz

Aloha friend,

thank you for being here, whether you have been reading for a while or just joined.

It means a lot.

If you are new, here are three newsletters to get to know me and my work better:
When My Head and Heart Pull in Different Directions,
The Unseen Cost of My Dream,
& Women vs Men: The Hidden Cost of Picking a Side.

I had an amazing, deep conversation with a new friend I met on Substack yesterday. Our talk reminded me of a client, but also my own journey into manifesting my dream coming through...

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Still Waiting For a Sign

She was working three jobs. Not because she loved them. Because survival had become her default.

She was exhausted. But she held on to those jobs as if it was her only option. That she had to.

At the same time, she had a deep spiritual life. She meditated. She prayed. She asked for signs, for guidance, for a different life. She had visions. She believed. And she was waiting for God, the universe, something, to show her the way forward.

She wanted to build her business. That was the dream. But when her old clients reached out asking to work with her again, she said no. She didn’t feel ready. And while she was turning down those opportunities, she was also looking for another full time job, just in case. A plan B she didn’t actually want.

Ju Yujin

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The Mirror

Through our work together, learning about her, building trust and a relationship, I could slowly start to see the patterns. In her words, in the way she carried herself, in what she said and what she didn’t say.

So one day, I said to her:

“You are asking for answers, for signs, for opportunities. But when the opportunities come without effort, you say no. You get your answer, your sign, your opportunity. Why don’t you see it?”

Silence.

I let her sit with what I had just mirrored back at her. That moment opened her eyes, she became aware of what she hadn’t been seeing…

Ismail Zaidy

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The Work Nobody Sees

And that work isn’t easy. Survival mode has a way of feeling safe even when it’s painful. It becomes a habit, a system, a way of moving through life with your head down. You stop listening to yourself. You just keep going. Letting go of that doesn’t happen overnight. It sticks to your skin.

Slowly, session after session, we worked through each part that was keeping her stuck. Her relationship with money, her fear of not being ready, the younger version of her that had learned that survival meant holding on to everything.

She stopped looking for the safer job she didn’t really want. She quit one job. Then another. She said yes to her old clients.

Samantha Mash

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When I Learned to Ask

In my previous life in Switzerland, I was lost and depressed. I was seeing my magic healer, a Reiki master, who was helping me find my way back to myself. One day she asked me: “Do you ask for what you want?”

I went silent. Prayers had always been linked to religion for me, and I’m not religious. So I had never really thought about asking. I was just waiting, without truly believing that my dreams were possible.

That question changed something in me. I started to ask. And a year later, after a trip that brought me my own aha moment, I came back knowing what I wanted. To move to NYC. To start over. To leave my comfortable apartment, my cat, a job that paid well. The moment I made that decision, that I would do it, that I would save money for one year, doors started to open.

Artist Unknown

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A few months ago, I received an email from her. She wanted to share that she was moving to live near the ocean. A place she had been dreaming of while we worked together.

I am so proud of her. And I am humbled that she trusted me to be her partner through that journey. To witness that shift in her life is one of the greatest gifts this work gives me.

So to you now.

When is the last time you asked for what you want?
To the universe, to your clients, to your partner, to yourself.
Do you know how to recognize the answer when it comes?
And did you believe you deserved it?

Reply and tell me. I read every response.

With gratitude,
Nina