| I am late sending this one.Not because I forgot. Not because life got too loud — though it did. I was late because I made a choice. I decided to wait until I had something to say that was worth your pause. Presence over performance. That’s my whole thing, actually. So here we are. A little later than planned, and right on time. |
| ✦ For Such a Time as This ✦ Esther is one of my favorite women in the Bible and has been for a long time, but first came Vashti. The woman who said no before Esther said yes. She doesn’t get nearly enough credit. Some people who’ve read the Book of Esther can repeat the verse and reference the famous moment of courage, “For Such a Time as This.” The one that is quoted at graduations and in girl-boss captions. But it’s the timing that gets me. Esther didn’t rush. She prepared. She fasted. She waited. And when she finally moved, she moved from a place of deep settledness and discernment — not urgency, not panic. I’ve read the Book of Esther several times over the past several years, and I’ve kept getting pulled back — between Esther and the Woman at the Well. Bless. Depending on the time of my life, each of the books — really every book in the Bible — teaches me something different. Not because it has changed, but because I have. Coming out of Lent and the Book of Psalms, I came back to Esther. But I didn’t just want to read through it again. I wanted to dive differently into her story. So much so that I stopped fighting it and started writing. A Bible study. A personal reflection. Because there is so much more to her than the famous verse, and I think some of us need to sit in it too. Access my Esther Bible Study + my personal reflection by commenting with the with the word, ESTHER. |
✦ When Your Strengths Turn On You ✦
As a CliftonStrengths Coach of almost 10 years, here’s something to pay attention to, about you…
Your greatest strengths are also the fastest route to your most specific brand of anxiety.
Every strength has a shadow side. It’s not a flaw. It’s not something to fix. It’s just what happens when your greatest gift runs without the guardrails of self-awareness. I’ve seen it in over two thousand coaching conversations. And I live it myself.
My top two — Futuristic and Connectedness — are extraordinary. Futuristic lets me see around corners. I can feel a vision long before it has language. I can walk into a room and see what it could become before anyone else has looked up from their phone. It’s one of the things I love most about how I’m wired.
And Connectedness is the thread. It’s the reason I believe nothing is random. That the woman I’m coaching right now and the woman I haven’t met yet are somehow already in conversation with each other across time. That we are held together by something we can’t always name but can always feel.
Futuristic shows me what’s coming. Connectedness tells me it’s already on its way. And sometimes those two truths collide — and that collision is called anxiety.
Because here’s the shadow: Futuristic doesn’t just see possibility. It sees risk. It sees what could unravel. And Connectedness doesn’t just feel the beauty of everything being woven together — it feels the weight of it too. Because if everything is connected, then anything going sideways pulls on something else. And suddenly the gift that makes me extraordinary in a coaching session is the same gift keeping me awake at 2am.
I used to try to manage my strengths down in those moments. Quiet the Futuristic. Disconnect the Connectedness. Just stop seeing so much.
I can tell you from experience — mine and theirs — that doesn’t work. It’s exhausting. And it’s not the answer.
The answer is to let your strengths be the ones who do the calming, too.
Futuristic can imagine a future where this resolves. Where you get through this season. Where October comes and you’re standing somewhere you couldn’t have pictured six months ago — and you made it. It can see that, if you let it look forward instead of sideways.
Connectedness can remind you that you are not carrying this alone. That the thread running through your story is still intact. That what feels broken is actually still woven in.
The strengths that create your anxiety are the same ones capable of walking you back out of it. That’s not a coaching talking point. That’s the truest thing I know.
So here’s what I want you to sit with —
Which of your strengths tends to generate your anxiety? And what would it look like to let that same strength help you find your way back to center?
✦ Something I’m Building ✦
I keep meeting her.
In coffee shops. In text threads. In observations. In conversations. In the DMs of women who don’t know each other but use almost the same words. She’s in her early twenties. She’s doing everything right on paper. But she has this feeling — quiet, persistent, a bit chaotic, somewhat congested, hard to name — that she’s been living someone else’s version of herself. Someone borrowed her identity somewhere along the way, and she’s not sure she ever got it back.
I’ve been coaching women since 2016. I’ve sat with hundreds of women over that period of time. And I can tell you: this particular kind of lost? It deserves its own room.
So I’m building her one. A small, intimate space — six weeks, a handful of women, and a lot of honest conversation. It’s called Untangled.
More soon. If you know a woman who might need it — keep her in mind. 🤍
✦ From Me ✦
Here’s what I’ve learned about Esther — and about myself, and maybe about you too.
It wasn’t one big moment. It was a hundred small ones. The noticing. The preparing. The paying attention to what stirred something in her — fear, conviction, love, calling. She didn’t arrive at “for such a time as this” by accident. She arrived there by paying attention to every little thing that led her there. God nudges.
What if your anxiety is one of those nudges? Not something to spiral in — but something worth asking. What does this know? What does this care about? It’s usually pointing at something that deeply matters. Something you might be being prepared for.
Your strengths are worth that same attention. Not just the pretty parts — the shadows too. The sleepless nights. The feeling of too much. That’s not weakness.
That’s information.
The little moments are never wasted.
Trust the timing. Trust the thread. Pay attention to what’s stirring.
Go be gentle with yourself today. 🤍
With big hugs and so much love, Stacy
Stacy Bergman
Founder and Head Coach, Brisalo
Always Rooting For You!
Brisalo Coaching & Wedding Services
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April 30, 2026 | Brisalo | The Gentle Pause — Issue 09, 2026
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