What do you want to be when you grow up?
The Secret Nobody Tells You About Adulting
April 26, 2025
Written by Jennifer Ross
Hi hi,
When we were younger, the idea of being an adult had a certain sparkle to it.
Freedom. Independence. A career. A home. Perhaps traveling to places around the world on adventures.
No one really warned us about the quiet weight that comes with managing... everything.
Bills. Deadlines. Relationships. Groceries. Health insurance. Texting your friends back. Fixing the broken dishwasher. Scheduling your own dentist appointments. And on and on.
If it sometimes feels like "being an adult" is less about living your dreams and more about becoming your own full-time operations manager — that’s because it is.
Here’s the thing:
Feeling overwhelmed by the basic maintenance of life doesn't mean you're failing.
It means you're carrying a lot — and somewhere along the way, we stopped being taught how to carry it with support, community, or self-compassion.
Adulting was never meant to be effortless.
And it was never meant to be a solo performance without rest, help, or nervous system care.
This is why in my work with clients (and in my own life), we focus on nervous system regulation first — because no "five-step life hack" can work when your brain is stuck in survival mode.
You don’t need to "hustle harder" or "get your life together."
You probably just need more space to breathe — and a new way to talk to yourself.
RTT helps with that.
It gently uncovers the patterns that tell you you’re "behind" or "not enough" — and helps you rewrite them at the root.
If any of this sounds familiar, I have a few session spots open this month (on Zoom or in-person in Brooklyn).
And as always, I offer free consults if you want to talk through what’s going on.
Take good care out there. Adulting is brave work.
With love,
Jen
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
May 28, 2025
It’s a question we were all asked as kids. Sometimes with hope. Sometimes with pressure. Sometimes with no real answer at all.
I’ve been thinking about how this question reappears in adulthood — not from others, but from ourselves. And the truth is, many of us don’t know. Or worse, we did know… and now we’re not so sure.
We may have stepped into careers we chose when we were twenty — guided by ambition, survival, or the illusion of certainty. Some of us simply stayed where we landed — maybe following a parent’s path or walking through a door that opened without much thought. Others pursued passions that, somewhere along the way, stopped feeling like ours.
And now, here we are — years later — noticing a quiet discontent. Maybe our passion job is shifting with AI or being swallowed up by a younger generation - so we are in fear. Maybe the spark is gone that once was. Maybe we feel stuck — financially, logistically, emotionally — with no clear Plan B. Maybe the financial reward isn’t living up to our expectations. At the basis is discontent and/ or fear.
I am truthfully in awe about how this new generation are changing the script: Living in new countries, not doing what is expected of them, working remotely, following their desires now - rather than waiting until retirement.
Regardless where you sit with this idea of what you want to be next or who you want to be when you grow up….
It’s not just about work. It’s about meaning. Identity. Control.
The spiral can feel overwhelming:
I should be grateful…
I chose this…
It’s too late to change…
I can’t afford to start over…
Underneath all of that is something even deeper: the old, unhealed stories that shaped how we think about purpose, permission, and possibility.
If you’re here — in this place of questioning, regret, restlessness — know this: it’s not a failure. It’s a signal. A reminder that your past choices don’t own your future. That your identity isn’t static. That there is a story underneath this one, waiting to be revisited, reframed, and rewritten.
You don’t need to know the final answer right now. But you do get to ask the question again.
What do you want to be — now, here, as your grown self — if no one else was watching?
Maybe that’s where your real becoming begins.
THIS is one of the gifts of age….wisdom of coming into this.
Book a complimentary consult and I’ll explain how you can stir up these thoughts to align them with your beliefs and gain a sense of excitement rather than fear around these dreams and changes we all go through.
Jennifer Ross
RTT Practitioner | Founder, Jennifer Mary Ross LLC
www.jennifermaryross.com
Are You Living Where You Are Supposed To Be?
The Secret Nobody Tells You About Adulting
April 26, 2025
Written by Jennifer Ross
Hi hi,
When we were younger, the idea of being an adult had a certain sparkle to it.
Freedom. Independence. A career. A home. Perhaps traveling to places around the world on adventures.
No one really warned us about the quiet weight that comes with managing... everything.
Bills. Deadlines. Relationships. Groceries. Health insurance. Texting your friends back. Fixing the broken dishwasher. Scheduling your own dentist appointments. And on and on.
If it sometimes feels like "being an adult" is less about living your dreams and more about becoming your own full-time operations manager — that’s because it is.
Here’s the thing:
Feeling overwhelmed by the basic maintenance of life doesn't mean you're failing.
It means you're carrying a lot — and somewhere along the way, we stopped being taught how to carry it with support, community, or self-compassion.
Adulting was never meant to be effortless.
And it was never meant to be a solo performance without rest, help, or nervous system care.
This is why in my work with clients (and in my own life), we focus on nervous system regulation first — because no "five-step life hack" can work when your brain is stuck in survival mode.
You don’t need to "hustle harder" or "get your life together."
You probably just need more space to breathe — and a new way to talk to yourself.
RTT helps with that.
It gently uncovers the patterns that tell you you’re "behind" or "not enough" — and helps you rewrite them at the root.
If any of this sounds familiar, I have a few session spots open this month (on Zoom or in-person in Brooklyn).
And as always, I offer free consults if you want to talk through what’s going on.
Take good care out there. Adulting is brave work.
With love,
Jen
Are You Living Where You’re Supposed to Be?
May 20, 2025
Written by Jennifer Ross
There’s a question I’ve been hearing again and again lately — from friends, clients, even strangers:
“I just don’t know if I’m supposed to be living here anymore or where I’m going to land next.”
Sometimes it’s literal — a city, a home, a neighborhood that used to feel right but now feels tight, foreign or strangely unrecognizable.
Other times, it’s deeper:
A quiet curiosity if this version of your life — the routines, the relationships, the pace, the values — is still meant for you. Or has it or you changed…or grown?
These questions can feel disorienting, especially when nothing is technically wrong.
The lease is fine. The job is fine. You live near your family or friends.
And yet — something inside you knows: this isn’t it anymore.
In RTT, this is often where we begin.
Because what you’re really questioning usually isn’t just location —
It’s belonging. Permission. Identity.
Somewhere along the line, we internalized certain rules about when we’re allowed to feel settled:
When we’ve “earned” it. When we’ve performed enough. When everyone else is comfortable.
But your nervous system isn’t a spreadsheet.
It’s wise. It knows when a season is ending.
RTT helps decode that restlessness — to find the subconscious stories underneath the surface questions.
Stories like:
“I’m not allowed to start over.”
“I should be grateful for what I have.”
“What if I feel the same somewhere else?”
If these quiet thoughts have been bubbling up for you lately, you’re not broken or indecisive.
You’re evolving.
And you deserve to feel at home in your life — not just your zip code.
RTT sessions are available virtually.
If you’re standing in the doorway of change and unsure how to move through it, I’d be honored to help.
Free consults are open — just reach out.
You get to reimagine what home means, inside and out.
Trust me, I have worked on this first-hand as an ex-pat most of my adult life.
It can be exciting and a beautiful journey to go there….and investigate these feelings even further.
—
Jennifer Ross
RTT Practitioner | Founder, Jennifer Mary Ross LLC
www.jennifermaryross.com