For people who want to know about the soul-led stuff happening in the world.
Hello!
Welcome to a new week! This issue brings a question from my Freedom Transmissions book study: which part of you is actually driving your life right now — the self that trusts, or the one that controls?
Plus: David Whyte on endings and letting go, Lee Harris's June Energy Update, and a video that made me laugh out loud.
What Are You Contributing?
This past week in the book study I teach, there was a central question: Which part of you is driving your life?
In The Freedom Transmissions, we learn about two aspects of the self — the Light self and the self that is operating from the dark.
One trusts, feels connected, and chooses faith in the midst of uncertainty, even when there are no guarantees.
The other controls, holds on for dear life, stirs the pot. It relies on familiar crutches (like addictions) because the unknown feels like too much. It would rather stay stuck in an old story than risk the discomfort of what letting go would ask of it. (Transformation can feel uncomfortable.)
Neither is bad. We have both within us, and both serve a purpose — because to know who we are, we need to know who we are not. This isn’t a call to judge them, but instead to notice: which one has the wheel right now? Which one is in the lead?
It can feel easier to stay in the dark. Looking out at the world, it can feel like the light is losing. The noise, the fear, the sense that things are moving in the wrong direction — it can make the whole project of inner work feel almost naive. Why tend to our own garden when the field is on fire?
But the light doesn't go anywhere. What shifts is our connection to it. And we can return to it not by waiting for things outside us to settle down first, but by taking responsibility for what's happening inside. It’s a call to be good stewards of our energy and how we see things.
Every word, every reaction, every choice is energy moving outward. It lands on someone, something — but it also comes back to us, like a boomerang. Fear and judgment travel. So do grace, humility, love, and forgiveness.
So… what are you contributing?
xo, Laurie
P.S. Read my personal story about fear: “I Worried About His College Roommate When He Was 12”
WORTH KNOWING
🎧 As Krista Tippet, the host of On Being, has said, “No conversation we’ve ever done has been more beloved than this one.” With Irish poet, theologian, and philosopher John O'Donohue.
🎥 Watch my Substack live conversation with Kelsey Banfield — it’s a convo about momentum, the daydreaming trap, and meeting one goal by September.
🌠 Lee Harris released his June Energy Update. Good news, ladies: feminine fire is rising and it’s going to be felt strong in June. (And will be growing now until 2028).
🍴 This restaurant is showing radical hospitality: bring strangers together, serve good food, and pay what you can.
🗓️ Poet David Whyte is offering a three-Sunday series in July all about endings — the hard, beautiful, necessary kind — and how letting go is what actually opens the door to what's next. I’ve attended one of his series in the past and they are beautiful.
Little things keeping me going.
→ Gratitude habits that rewire your brain for peace.
→ Find your spiritual community of friends who also send you reels like this.
→The Universe trying to prepare me for the next life lesson.
Coming this September
Preorder The Alchemy Transmissions
If you’re reading this newsletter and know me, there's a good chance you're already familiar with The Freedom Transmissions — the book that forms the foundation of the book study I teach. The next book in that series, The Alchemy Transmissions: A Pathway to Miracles by Carissa Schumacher, is coming out this fall from HarperOne, and this is an invitation to get on board early.
In it, Yeshua — as channeled by Carissa — welcomes us into the New Era we're collectively shifting into, exploring what Divine Alchemy truly means and how it differs from conventional healing. It's non-religious, deeply accessible, and Carissa describes it as a must-read cover to cover. (Just like TFT!)
If you feel the call, here's how to support:
Preorder the book at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Audible
Share it with someone who might need it
Post about it on social media with #TAT or #TheAlchemyTransmissions
Come to a release event — California, NYC, Connecticut, and more. Details here.
"May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within. May you never place walls between the light and yourself. May you be set free from the prisons of guilt, fear, disappointment and despair. May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging.
Build the Light is good news for the soul.
We bring spirituality into the mainstream through the people, stories, and ideas meant to activate the light-holders building a better world, inside and out. Hold the light. Reflect the light. Build the light.
This edition was written by Laurie Gunning Grossman.
Build the Light is part of Hold the Light Collective — where this work goes deeper, in community.
P.S. Forward this email to one person you think might like it. That’s how this grows — one light-builder at a time. And if someone forwarded this to you and you’d like to keep receiving it, sign up here.
Find Laurie between issues: Instagram · Substack · Hold the Light podcast
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