If you’re struggling right now, I want to tell you something most people won’t say out loud:
Sometimes the only thing that truly helps is removing yourself from everyone.
We’re raised to believe that closeness equals healing, that community always solves pain, that staying connected will make everything better. But the truth is much simpler and much harder to face:
If being around everybody was helping you,
you’d already be better.
But some environments keep you sick.
Some relationships keep you stuck.
Some people drain you more than they support you.
And sometimes the bravest, healthiest thing you can do is step away.
The Lie of FOMO
FOMO makes you reluctant to pull back.
It whispers that you’re missing something.
It convinces you that life is happening without you.
But FOMO isn’t real — not when you’re fighting for your life, your peace, your purpose, or your sanity.
Leaving New York Was Survival
When I left New York, I wasn’t switching cities.
I was running from a grave.
My heart was failing.
My body was shutting down.
Between pressure, expectations, and people constantly pulling on me, I was dying — literally.
And I reached a breaking point where I had to tell myself:
“You’re smart.
You’re gifted.
Why are you letting people undermine you?”
So I stepped back.
I separated myself.
I chose solitude over noise, clarity over chaos, spiritual breath over suffocation.
Healing Happened Because I Wasn’t Surrounded
Two years away changed everything.
I lost over 50 pounds.
My heart stabilized.
My doctors looked at me like I had never had a single complication.
You know what that told me?
It wasn’t my body breaking down —
it was my environment.
If I had stayed where I was, surrounded by the same people with the same energy and the same demands?
They wouldn’t have helped me.
They would’ve buried me.
Choosing myself wasn’t selfish.
It was survival.
The Day I Collapsed on Stage
I still have the scan from Stony Brook — the day I collapsed on a stage I poured my soul into. They wanted to wheel me out on a stretcher.
I told them,
“No. If I’m leaving here, you can carry my dead body out.
I earned this moment.”
That wasn’t me being reckless.
That was me refusing to let life — or anyone — steal what I worked for.
There’s a kind of power that comes from knowing who you are, even when your body is at its lowest. It’s a power that money can’t buy and crowds can’t validate.
Choosing Yourself Is Not Abandoning Others — It’s Saving Yourself
Some of you reading this are reluctant to step away from people who no longer serve you. You’re afraid of losing relationships, connections, circles, or status.
But hear me:
Losing people won’t kill you.
Losing yourself will.
Some separations are not punishment —
they are protection.
Some isolations are not loneliness —
they are alignment.
Some departures are not betrayals —
they are resurrections.
You Are Allowed to Choose You
Choosing yourself is not selfish.
Choosing your health is not selfish.
Choosing your peace is not selfish.
Choosing your survival is not selfish.
Choosing yourself is courage —
and courage rarely gets applause in real time.
But here I am today, still standing, still speaking life, still pouring into young men, still carrying my purpose — because I chose me when everything around me tried to take me out.
And if you’re standing at that same crossroads, wondering if you should distance yourself to rebuild?
Let this message be your permission:
Choose you.
Choose your life.
Choose your future.
Because sometimes, the only way to live — is to step away long enough to come back whole.
