When self-sabotage arrives, greet it with a grounding practice and remember that it’s your body’s safety response.
Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
Entrepreneurs and creators often hit invisible walls. It’s rarely due to a lack of strategy, talent, or drive. Instead, something internal tends to pull us back just as we begin to rise.
We finally get traction in our business, land a big client, or go viral with our work, then suddenly we procrastinate, self-doubt creeps in, or everything seems to fall apart.
Why?
Dr. Joe Dispenza offers a powerful lens: “Self-sabotage is a frequency problem. When you start to level up and stretch beyond your old identity, your nervous system panics…This doesn’t mean you’re broken—it simply means your body sees growth as unsafe when it’s been conditioned to survive rather than thrive.”
Self-sabotage isn’t a sign of weakness or failure; it’s a signal from our nervous system. We’re not fighting laziness. We’re dealing with a physiological and energetic mismatch between the old version of us and the one we’re stepping into.
Many of us have spent years operating in survival mode. Whether due to past trauma, scarcity, or the relentless demands of building something from scratch, our baseline frequency aligns with staying safe, not soaring.
When we’re wired for stress and uncertainty, abundance and ease can feel foreign, even threatening.
So when we begin to level up, we don’t just need better habits or smarter tactics. We need to recalibrate the internal settings that define how much success, visibility, and joy we believe is safe to hold.
Move from “Surviving” to “Thriving”
Imagine your old self as tuned into a survival radio station, and your future self is broadcasting from a frequency of expansion. The static between them is the discomfort of growth. Your nervous system hasn’t caught up yet—it’s still referencing outdated settings that say, “Playing small is safer.”
That’s where self-sabotage kicks in. Our well-intending brain believes it is protecting us from danger.
The great news? We can recondition our system. We can raise our frequency. More visibility, more creativity, more joy, more connection, more impact—all of it becomes sustainable when our body and energy learn that success is no longer a threat.
Start by noticing the clues. Do you find yourself anxious or distracted when momentum builds? Do you shrink or sabotage when things begin to go right? These are signals that you’re crossing a threshold.
If this is you, you can ground yourself by making a practice of doing what I call The 5Ms™: Morning Pages, Movement, Meditation, Moments of Inspired Learning, and Making Something.
5 Steps to Ground Yourself Away from Self-Sabotage
1) Morning Pages
The brainchild of author Julia Cameron, Morning Pages are three handwritten pages written in a journal. These pages are not meant to be well-crafted prose with tidy punctuation. Rather, they are the private depository of all our crazy-making thoughts, a daily brain dump onto the page. Getting all the noise out of our brain—all the whining, rants, fears, frustrations, and celebrations—clears the deck for our creativity and calm.
2) Meditation
If we gift ourselves some quiet each day, we can reset our brain and energetic state. We can begin establishing a simple habit with just five minutes. You will notice the gentle, yet powerful ripple effect this practice has on how you feel and think, how you choose to approach problem-solving, and your ability to handle whatever comes your way.
3) Movement
If you do not have a regular time to exercise at some point during the day, begin with a few minutes of movement and work your way up. Movement can be a walk, chair exercises, a bike ride. Movement creates a delicious elixir for our brain and soul that softens our rough edges.
4) Moments of Inspired Learning
Taking a few minutes to read an inspirational quote, listen to a soulful poem read aloud by one of our favorite poets, or tuck into a few pages in a book can fill us up with a fresh perspective. We can find solace, peace, and encouragement that tops off our tank of willingness to be more bold, imaginative, and adventurous.
5) Making Something
Moving our hands has a way of awakening our creativity and instilling calm in surprising ways. Contrary to what our cultural training will tell us, the end result is not what is important. What is important is the transformation that occurs within us while we make something.
When we do The 5Ms™ each day, we are well-positioned to collide with calm, clarity, serendipity, inspired intuition, and creativity. We remember who we truly are, and we are able to create lives with purpose and ease from this powerful agency and alignment.
You’ll find a deeper dive into The 5Ms™ in my book, BUOYANT.
The 5Ms™ help to remind us that the next level for us is safe. Envision the expanded version of us not as a future fantasy, but as someone we’re already becoming.
Identity shifts happen through repetition. And through such repetition, our nervous system will recalibrate. Over time, you’ll act from alignment instead of fear, from expansion instead of contraction.
Self-sabotage doesn’t mean something’s wrong. It simply means we’re entering unfamiliar territory.
Pay attention to what you’re tuned into—and keep adjusting the dial.
