Let Me Be This

Sometimes it arrives with a diagnosis.

Sometimes with loss, hormonal change, or a life shift that leaves you unrecognisable to yourself.

What this journal is

Let Me Be This is designed to be used slowly and honestly.

It combines reflective writing with structured guidance so your insight builds week by week — not randomly, and not by accident.

Each section supports you in understanding burnout, masking, identity shifts, and overwhelm through clear prompts and intentional progression.

This is not free-flow journalling.

It is structured reflection.

And structured reflection creates clarity.

Who It's For

This journal is for the moment something stops fitting.

When the life you built no longer matches the body or mind you’re living in.

When coping starts to cost more than it gives.

It offers space to pause and tell the truth.

How This Journal Works

This is not free-flow, aimless journalling.

Each week is structured around a clear psychological framework designed to move you from coping and masking toward awareness and reconnection.

Inside you’ll find:

• A 12-week guided structure with intentional progression

• The five-stage Unmasking Model framework

• Pattern-recognition tools to identify triggers and coping loops

• Nervous system awareness pages

• Reflection prompts that build week by week

• Trauma-aware language and pacing

• Structured tools designed to create insight — not overwhelm

The journal blends reflective writing, therapeutic tools, and structured guidance so that what emerges on the page isn’t random — it’s revealing.

This is slow, deliberate self-work.

Not motivation.

Not productivity.

Not “manifest your best life.”

It is structured noticing.

And noticing changes what you’re willing to keep carrying.

What Makes It Different

This is not a motivational journal.

It isn’t designed to optimise your life.

It is trauma-aware, structured, and honest.

A space where complexity is allowed.

You don't need to feel ready.

You don't need to know where this leads.

You're allowed to arrive exactly as you are.

About the Author

This journal was written by Maria Giacomo.

It was not created from theory or having everything figured out, but from lived experience of burnout, late diagnosis, masking, and the slow unravelling that can follow major life shifts.

The journal was shaped by years of reflection, therapeutic insight, and a need for something quieter and more honest than traditional self-help.

It is written for people who don't need motivation or fixing, but space to tell the truth and come back to themselves.

Inside the Journal

Stillness. Truth. You.
A structured journey through perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional suppression, and identity — grounded in the Unmasking Model™ framework.
This isn’t about becoming someone new.

It’s about returning to yourself — without shrinking, performing, or apologising.
Recognising self-abandonment in real time.
Week 3 focuses on people-pleasing, resentment, and the quiet ways we override ourselves.

You’ll reflect on boundaries, emotional suppression, and what safety really means to you.
The Unmasking Model™
A trauma-informed, neurodivergent-aware framework guiding the journey from recognition to integration.

Five connected stages that help you identify survival patterns, soften self-judgement, set boundaries, and reclaim your voice.
This journal is built around this structure.
Perfectionism isn’t just high standards. Sometimes it’s fear in a polished disguise.
A reflective piece on performance, self-protection, and the longing to finally exhale.
A steady plan for unsteady days.
The Spiral Action Plan is a gentle, structured page to use when you feel yourself slipping into overwhelm.

It helps you recognise early signs, slow the spiral, and respond with intention instead of panic.
For the ones who learned to cope by containing.
This piece explores what happens when emotions are packed down, minimised, and managed for too long.

A reminder that what we suppress doesn’t vanish — it waits.