Navigating the Identity Crisis: Embracing Uncertainty and Self-Discovery

📚 Resources and Links:

* 📩 Connect with host ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michelle Pellizzon-Lipsitz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠team Holisticism⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Sign up for the North Node waitlist here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

* Inquire about 1:1 work with Michelle here

* Holisticism Resources 4 u:

* Ruthless Clarity — an 8-week email course designed to help you achieve crystal-clear certainty about your goals, desires, and energy allocation

* How to Begin: A Project Planning Class — a 90-m on-demand class that teaches you exactly how to sketch a effervescent project plan that'll fill you with glee and inspiration and instantly banish procrastination and overwhelm, so your brilliant ideas can finally come to life.

* The Subconscious Audit — an 11-day diagnostic framework that helps you identify what's holding you back and making you *feel* blocked. Because you're never actually blocked

* The New Age Playbook for Spellbinding, Can’t-Stop-Reading Copy — a 35-page downloadable workbook to take your writing from blah to bingeable

It’s kind of crazy to say that our creative working exploratory laboratory, The North Node, has been Paris Hilton-style sliving for five years.

That’s a long time. And that’s a lot of content.

The good news about having such a vast library of resources inside the North Node is that it makes it really, really easy to give new members an actionable syllabus to tackle the minute they join the NN.

(Technically we focus on a new concept every quarter in the North Node, and have three months of programming dedicated to the ideas we’re exploring that includes multi-day courses, bite-sized workshops, group coaching sessions, guest lectures, and implementation challenges that actually make you do stuff. There's always something happening live that you can cannon-ball into when you join us. Plus we meet with all our new members to create a custom syllabus based on their specific goals 🤗)

The bad news about having so much content? It makes it virtually impossible to explain what's inside the North Node without turning into that person at parties who corners you by the snack table and won't stop monologuing about their sourdough starter. (We've all been there. Some of us ARE that person.[to be clear, I am that person])

And another problem with the North Node…

It’s not just for entrepreneurs. Really, it’s a membership for multi-passionate people exploring creative independence, meaningful work, and how to turn their inner wisdom into a life they actually want. It’s a place for people forging their own paths with a little mysticism, a lot of strategy, and total permission to do it differently.

Sure, sometimes that shows up through the “project” of launching a brand or business. But other times it looks like working your corporate gig while expanding your creative and spiritual practices like a sort of witchy double agent. Maybe in 2025 it's figuring out how to balance a part-time job with a passion project you're birthing into the world (monetization status: TBD, vibes: litcherally perfection).

Basically, we're here for anyone who's tired of following other people's blueprints and ready to draw their own map. Even if that map currently looks like a toddler's interpretation of abstract expressionism done in crayon, which is honestly chic as hell IMO.

But, I know that if you’re thinking about joining us in the North Node, you might be like, “……….. but what’s in there?”

Short answer: A lot.

Long answer: So much that trying to explain it all would be like attempting to summarize the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe to someone who's never seen a superhero movie. You'd end up three hours deep in a monologue about infinity stones while they're still trying to figure out why a billionaire decided to dress up like a bat. (Wait, that's DC. See? It's complicated.)

So instead of throwing you into the deep end of our mystical content pool and watching you flounder around like a confused mermaid, I've created this handy study guide for a very specific type of person. So, let’s get into it.

This is a study guide for someone who's at the very beginning of their "wtf am I doing with my life" journey.

This is for you if:

* You feel you're meant to do something with your life, but you're not sure what… just something bigger/more satisfying/more creative/more weird than whatever the hell you're doing now.

* You feel like you know some parts of yourself pretty well, but other parts are giving you major mystery vibes. Maybe you've recently gone through some Big Life S**t — heartbreak, geographical upheaval, quarter-life awakening — and your identity feels like a Sim whose player got drunk and just kept hitting "randomize traits" until they gave up and walked away from the computer.

* You have concepts of a plan (emphasis on concepts)… you're constantly brainstorming and journaling and going down Pinterest rabbit holes at 2 AM, but you haven't landed on an idea that feels like yours.

* You've been trudging along some career path for a while, but recently had that earth-shattering moment where you looked around and thought "Oh god, I absolutely do NOT want to become my manager." Major Devil Wears Prada energy, except instead of glamorous fashion, it's like... Walt from HR who eats sad desk salads and talks about his timeshare. Same emotional devastation, significantly less Prada.

If you're basically Derek Zoolander staring into the mirror asking, “Who am I?” —then congratulations. You've found your people, and we have snacks.

Now, if you came to me and said, "This, all this, Michelle, is how I feeeeeeeeel! What should I do?!"

I’d probably start by reminding you that although this might feel like a crisis, it’s not. It’s totes normal, totes healthy, totes a part of the archetype experience of finding yourself. You must enter the void to emerge into the light.

And a 37-point set of directions called HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE AND GET UNSTUCK AND NEVER FEEL LOST OR DOUBT YOURSELF AGAIN won’t help you here. You need a compass, not a map, you get me?

I’d probably float a few ideas for you to consider at this stage of your life that could be contributing to your feelings of drifty-ness, lack of clarity, and sense of general impatience to do something while experiencing ambiguous constriction.

But here's the thing — without talking to you, I can't tell you exactly what to do. (TBH, that's not really my style anyway. I'm more "here are the keys to the kingdom" than "follow this exact path or perish.")

But I CAN give you a bunch of doors to knock on with a high degree of confidence that if you commit to the bit, at least one of these pathways will create the clarity you seek. No need to do it all (overkill); just look for the key that opens the next door.

Step 1: Clear the Static (Or: Why Your Brain Is Currently About as Reliable as a Chocolate Teapot)

Before you go meaning-hunting, you gotta clear the static. If you’re burnt out, anxious, or depleted, your instincts and intuition will be dulled. More ideation will just lead you to spiral, instead of build into useful momentum.

This is the unsexy but absolutely crucial foundation work that everyone wants to skip because it's not glamorous. But listen, even Cleopatra*** had to take baths and eat food before she could go conquer hearts and empires.

Check out:

* The Burnout Recovery Protocol (21-day challenge)

* The Subconscious Audit (10-day challenge)

Step 2: Explore Meaning-Making Systems (Or: The Great Spiritual Speed Dating Experiment)

Next, tackle meaning making systems like astrology, Human Design, numerology, Matrix of Destiny, Tarot, archetypes, journaling prompts, even spiritual or philosophical traditions. Try ‘em out, try ‘em on, see what you like and cheerfully discard what you don’t. Part of the value in exploring meaning making systems is in rejecting what doesn’t work for you — rejection sharpens your discernment and self-knowledge and helps you shape who you are. Trying on and casting off is part of that.

(Heads up — we have so many classes on astrology, Human Design, numerology, the Tarot, the I-Ching, Gene Keys in the North Node library… too many to list here, hosted by varied practitioners who bring their own unique ✨flava ✨to the work. Can’t list ‘em all, but here’s where I’d start)

Check out:

* Matrix of Destiny, Personal Brand Archetypes, and Your Career Archetypes — A Course!

* How to Find Your Gifts and Talents, According to Human Design

* Using the I-Ching

* How to Open and Use the Akashic Records

* 31 Days of The Tarot Challenge

* Navigating Your Astrological North Node

Step 3: Map Your Identities (Or: The Great Archaeological Dig of Your Personality)

Once you've gotten your energy back and feel less like a phone on 2% battery, it's time to create your own personal map of who you are, who you've been, and who you might want to become. Consider which of your current identities and self-concepts are due for an upgrade, evolution, or complete retirement ceremony.

This is where you give yourself permission to change your mind, reinvent yourself, and experiment with what feels authentic to YOU — not what your parents/society/that one judgmental cousin at family gatherings thinks you should want.

Check out:

* Archetype Cartography 3-day course

* Unlocking Identity and Shapeshifting Magic 3-day course

* Drawing Your Archetype Wheel

Look, you could keep doom-scrolling LinkedIn for career inspiration (bold choice), or you could join a community of people who've collectively decided that following someone else's blueprint is for people who peaked in middle management.

Seriously though, life's too short to spend it kvetching over whether you're doing it right. Come find out what happens when you stop asking for permission and start asking better questions. We'll be here, probably debating whether Mercury retrograde affects email deliverability and definitely eating good snacks.

Ready to stop asking "What should I do with my life?" and start asking "What feels alive to me right now?" Welcome to The North Node, where we turn existential dread into actionable magic, one step at a time.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thetwelfthhouse.substack.com/subscribe