Artful Living Coaching by Jean Marshall The Artful Woman

    Why Worthy Women Are Done Apologizing for Wanting More As a young girl, I was an international model—traveling the world, young, beautiful, and financially independent. I was naturally drawn to powerful, intelligent, and successful men—not because I needed anything from them, but because I admired ambition. I respected men who could build something for themselves, because I was already building something for myself. But because I was beautiful, I was labeled. Assumed. Dismissed. "Gold digger" that type of judgment made me stay away from the very type of man I was genuinely aligned with. I didn’t want to be misunderstood. So I shrunk my desires and played it safe. And for that, I paid the price. As I got older, that stigma stuck. I found myself in a pattern of relationships with users, losers, and opportunists—men who took and took and gave nothing back. Men who drained my spirit, my finances, my peace. And I let it happen, because somewhere deep down, I still felt like I ...

    The Hidden Costs of Settling in Isolation Let’s talk about how people get stuck—and stay stuck—in toxic relationships. It’s not always because they don’t know better. Sometimes it’s because life circumstances set the perfect trap. And sometimes, the people around you unknowingly help tighten the lock. When I moved to this area over a decade ago, I was grieving the loss of my father. I didn’t know anyone. It was unbearably hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, and just getting outside felt like a chore. The nearest towns were bedroom communities—Temecula, Murrieta—quiet, distant, not exactly places where single people go to thrive and connect. I tried, at first, to meet people. But I kept running into strange, unstable, or just completely unaligned energy. I was vulnerable, lonely, and tired. And then I met him. He seemed okay at first. Not amazing, not wildly exciting, but “convenient.” I settled. And that’s when the real damage started. Behind closed doors, he was ma...