dahn elle dior ballard

actor writer relationship coach

social justice fire starter-

Hey Beautiful! IT’S HAPPENING TONIGHT!! IN A FEW HOURS “Yummy Monday Reset.” ARE YOU COMING?

We started three weeks ago. But each class is meant to stand alone or in concert.

Here's how it works:

📅 Monday evenings in September 28th — 8:30–9:30 pm EST
Tonight is the last September session.
(If it gets good to us — and I have a feeling it will — we will stretch into October)

💛 The investment:

• Drop in for a single session — only $30

• To join: Reply to this email and I will get you squared away.

  One month at a time. No pressure. Just an open door back to yourself.

  VENMO: @Dahn-Ballard ZELLE Dahn Ballard 310 384-0121

The Sunday Call

Later, as I buzzed through the second half of the day — laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, getting ready for the week — we landed on our Sunday family call.

The Hubby in the car. Me cleaning. One son in his dorm room. The other on his bed, our pup curled beside him.

All four of us. Together. Talking over each other, laughing, updating, connecting.

I watched it like I was outside of it and inside of it at the same time.

And when the hubby and I dropped off to give the boys space to talk — when we got on our own call, just the two of us — he told me how proud he was. How joyful the moment had made him. How full.

And then he said something that resonated so deeply.

He too has been thinking of our journey as a family and all that it has taken. He said Babe we are finally out of a seven-year cycle. We are finally on the shore.

Seven years. Whahhh!! Is that how long this has been? And then I counted, and yep. SEVEN YEARS!

The coming out. The new understanding. The breaking apart. The terror. The reckoning. The knitting back together. The healing. All of it — weathered. All of our relationships intact. Our boys — both of them — loved, seen, and standing.

We had done it.

The Messy Room

I am a clean freak. I will not pretend otherwise. Every time I pass Zi’s door, I feel the pull — to say something, to nudge, to find a gentle way to ask.

But last week, after the movie, after our heart-talk, after everything — I finally understood what that room is saying.

This is me. Love me or leave me.

His room is his voice. The one he refused to give away again. The one he almost lost entirely. That beautiful, glorious, unbothered mess is him staking his claim — I will not make myself smaller. Not one more inch. Not for anyone.

And if I walk past that door and feel the urge to fix it — the question isn't about the room.

The question is: can I love myself enough to let other people be themselves?

Can I release the need to manage the outside so that the inside feels safe? Can I stop measuring my success as a mother by whether my child's room is tidy…

What if the measure is just — are they loved? Are they free? Do they know their own voice?

I think yes. I think yes to all of it.

The Price of the Shore

After we dropped off the group call and the hubby and I spoke just us, I was filled with a understanding/ relief/sadness.

Seven years called to me; I could feel the battle scars, the tightening of our speech at times with one another, making it hard not to judge, just relax and fall into one another. The stress these seven years have exacted. I feel that on this shore —A price of ease of relationship innocence has been paid.

Every morsel of understanding. Every act of endurance. Every moment of choosing to believe in each other’s decisions regarding all the big things the finances, the doctors, the schools. Putting their needs, the family unit's needs, over our couple’s needs. The cost of it all, finally tallying itself up now that the storm had passed.

I found myself tracing the scar tissue.

This is the part they don't tell you about. The after. The two of you, exhausted yet victorious, looking at each other across the boat you just rowed through the storm — and realizing the journey ahead is yours now.

Just yours.

We have been in deep conversation about this new territory. The hunger for a fresh take on a coupledom that is tired.

How do you find energy to delight in someone again when you have been in survival mode together for so long? How do you let go of the weeds — the tallies of who did what, who suffered more, who carried which weight — when the roots go so deep?

How do you look at your partner, older and battle-weary yet still standing, and call them beautiful?

How do you call us beautiful?

We are up for this next space.

We are curious wide-eyed, undaunted, willing, determined.

…The next chapter begins.

Sending love

xx

Dahn

WE MISS YOU DOLLY!!! I had to leave this up here!

My mission in this life is to keep being A voice that expands our understanding of ourselves.

To heal our relationships — with ourselves, with each other, with the great mystery we all are.

All in service of moving towards a better world for us all.

Sending out love

xx

Dahn

What I Am Learning in the School of Me

Everything I still want to do in this life requires bravery. Requires a love of myself so solid that I can give my gifts without waiting for permission.

If I stay quiet because I might get it wrong — congratulations, welcome to the silent life. Because it is not if. It is when. You will mess up. They will misunderstand you. Some will leave. Some will cancel. Some will simply look away.

But you cannot abandon yourself. That is the one thing that is not available.

So here I am. Walking past the messy room. Choosing to see it as a love letter instead of a problem. Dating my husband like we are figuring each other out for the first time — and in many ways, we are. Showing up to this newsletter, this workshop, this life with slightly creased but still very alert eyes.

We have date number two lined up. I am not playing.

Where is your messy room?

This week I want to ask you one question:

Where in your life are you staking your claim — even imperfectly, even messily — and how are you treating that place?

Notice it. Don't fix it yet. Just notice it with love.

And if you are eating when you are not hungry, scrolling when you are not curious, cleaning what is already clean — pause. That is a feeling trying to move through you.

Science tells us it takes 90 seconds for a feeling to metabolize. A minute and a half. That is all.

Hand to heart. Breathe. Let it move.

You can do ninety seconds.

Last week’s part one of the series here in case you missed it

Monday Monday Mama Yummy Monday /reset

IT’S HAPPENING TONIGHT!! IN A FEW HOURS

SEPTEMBER IS A PERFECT TIME FOR YOU!

Come Back to School With Me — The School of You

If any of this is landing — if there is a longing in you right now to return to yourself — I want to invite you into something.

In September, I have been facilitating a 4-week workshop — a hybrid journey through The Artist's Way and The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Another soul-stretcher. A compass recalibration. A month of honest, creative, courageous return to the self.

We started two weeks ago. But each class is meant to stand alone or in concert.

Here's how it works: Come Tonight its our last session of the month!

💛 The investment:

• Drop in for a single session — only $30

To join: Reply to this email and I will get you squared away.

One month at a time. No pressure. Just an open door back to yourself.

VENMO: @Dahn-Ballard ZELLE Dahn Ballard 310 384-0121

____________________________________________________

Whether You Join Us or Not — Try This

No matter what September holds for you, consider adopting a few of the things that have been saving me this August:

• Morning pages — three pages of longhand stream of consciousness writing, first thing in the morning, before the world gets in. Julia Cameron calls it the bedrock of creative recovery. I call it the most honest conversation I have all day.

• A list of your yearnings — your inner child's real desires. Write them down. Then give yourself something on that list to nibble on. Something just for the pleasure of it.

• Something yummy just for you — mine has been small-batch granola and shiny magazines. Yours might be something else entirely. Find it. Protect it.

Love on you. I mean that.

Hope to see you in September.

Sending love — always,

xx Dahn

✨ THREE WAYS TO WORK WITH ME RIGHT NOW:

1-1 Coaching - VIP Days - SEPTEMBER GROUP

1-1 COACHING

If any of these frustations longings or conversations resonate with you this is exactly the work I do with my clients: We meet once or twice weekly on he phone or via zoom. We identify the issue and create a plan helping you move from the pit in your stomach to the softening. From the story to the truth. From the impasse to freedom.

💛 The investment: $125 Per session discounts for monthly / quarterly sessions.

A GREAT PLACE TO START! SEPTEMBER GROUP

Come Back to School With Me — The School of You.

📅 Monday evenings in September — 8:30–9:30 pm EST

A month of honest, creative, courageous return to the self.

💛 The investment:

• Drop in for a single session — only $30

• Book the full month — only $100

VIP DAYS-

One full 4 hour day with me. We look at all of it: your relationship with yourself, your partnership, your creative life, your patterns. Mind, body, spirit — and yes, we might even shop your closet too, because sometimes a new silhouette is the beginning of a new story.

You leave with clarity. A real path forward. Out of the villain/victim loop and into the driver seat of your life.

💛 The investment: Only $475

Respond to this email and Book a FREE 20 min discovery call to see if this is right for you.

LIMITED SPOTS !!

When these are gone, they're gone.

https://calendly.com/dahnelledior/20min

_______________________________

All my love Dahn 💛

READY TO START A NEW CHAPTER TODAY! DOWNLOAD MY 14 DAY WORKSHOP!

LASTLY are you still reading “Yay” Respond to this email and say hi I’d love to hear from you!

I’m so grateful for you!

xx

Dahn