You Were Never Broken — You Were Becoming

How Kelis Kaleopaʻa Reclaimed Her Body, Her Joy, and Her Feminine Flow After Burnout

Burnout wasn’t the end of Kelis’s story.

It was the beginning of something sacred.

When professional longboard surfer Kelis Kaleopaʻa reached out to me, she wasn’t just physically depleted — her period had stopped, her passion was gone, and her body felt like a stranger. But beneath the exhaustion, there was a quiet knowing: this isn’t who I really am.

What unfolded was more than a healing protocol. It was a return.

To her cycle.

To her joy.

To her spirit.

Healing Is Not a Straight Line

At first, we worked on the body: nourishment, rest, rhythm.

But healing doesn’t stay on the surface for long.

The more Kelis tended to her physical depletion, the more her emotional body began to speak. Beneath the missing period was something deeper: years of self-pressure, internalized perfectionism, and unprocessed grief from competitive loss.

The irony? She had been doing everything “right.” Eating clean. Training hard. Showing up.

But her body — wise and wild — was asking for something else.

It was asking her to slow down.

To listen.

To trust.

Burnout Is Not a Failure — It’s a Feminine Recalibration

In Chinese Medicine, when we run on excess Yang (doing, pushing, striving), we eventually enter a forced Yin phase — stillness, surrender, and the dissolution of what no longer serves.

This is where real transformation happens.

Not through more effort, but through deeper honesty.

For Kelis, that honesty looked like:

• Taking a full week off when her body said “enough”
• Letting herself grieve past versions of herself
• Naming emotions she had never spoken aloud
• Learning to move with her cycle, not against it

And then — without forcing or fixing — her period came back.

Her energy returned.

Her joy rekindled.

And for the first time in years, she wanted to surf just for herself.

The Return of Joy, Flow, and Self-Trust

This is the part of the story we don’t always talk about.

What happens after the unraveling?

For Kelis, it wasn’t about snapping back or “getting it all together.”

It was about living in alignment with who she had become.

She started surfing with ease again — not from pressure, but from presence.

She found herself speaking up more, listening more deeply, loving more freely.

She stopped trying to “get back” to anything, and instead let herself bloom forward.

“I didn’t just get my period back,” she told me.

“I got myself back.”

What If You Didn’t Need to Be Fixed?

What if your symptoms weren’t a problem — but a portal?

What if burnout wasn’t your body betraying you — but inviting you home?

Kelis’s story is a powerful reminder that healing is not about doing more.

It’s about remembering.

And returning.

If You’re Ready for Your Own Return…

I don’t open 1:1 mentorships often — but after clearing my client roster, I’ve felt the quiet nudge to offer a few spaces again.

If you’re in a season of deep unraveling…

or standing at the edge of your next becoming…

and you're ready to walk that path with steady, spiritual support —

you can learn more or apply here when it opens: 1:1 Mentorship Application Link

You are not broken.

You are becoming.

And your body already knows the way back.