12/08/2026
After more than fifteen years of collecting thoughts, writing them down, refining them, and returning to them, I’ve published a book.
‘The Courage to Be Simple – 144 Reflections on Loving the Truth of Who We Are’ grew out of many years of working with people through individual sessions, couples work and groups.
Many of my own questions around responsibility, meaning, relationship, belonging, love, and what it means to grow into myself have deepened through meeting others in theirs.
I feel fortunate that my work has allowed me to remain in conversation with these questions for so many years. Over time, they gradually found their way onto these pages.
I called the book ‘The Courage to Be Simple’ because I have come to believe that simplicity is one of the great challenges of our lives. Not simplicity as an ideal to achieve, but the simplicity that gradually becomes possible when we are willing to become more honest about where we are today, while remaining humble enough to know that we are also still in the process of unfolding.
The book contains 144 short reflections. Some are about love and relationships, others about family, trust, attachment, loss, individuality and belonging. They are not intended as answers, but as invitations to look again.
Below, I’m sharing one of the reflections that has already resonated with several readers. It feels like a good way to offer a small glimpse into the book.
I hope you enjoy it, and that somewhere among these reflections you find movements that speak to your own journey inward.
📖 The Courage to Be Simple is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GK1NX23N or arielkarmeli.com/book
‘Stop Waiting to Be Chosen’
Waiting can feel strangely safe. You sit quietly on the edges of life, hoping to be chosen, noticed, included, without having to risk asking for what you really want.
Over time, waiting can evolve from a circumstantial choice and temporary feeling into a habitual way of being. Instead of stepping forward, you hold back. Instead of declaring “I want,” you hope that someone will notice your potential, your needs, your longing, without you having to name it.
Beneath this pattern, there is often a deep fear of rejection, shame for needing in the first place, or early memories of being overlooked or punished for asking too much. Maybe you learned that being good meant being quiet. Maybe you were praised for being responsible and self-sufficient, or dismissed as naive when you dared to express desires.
So, you learned to wait. To observe. To anticipate. You became an expert at reading the room, adjusting, softening, hinting, without fully stepping into visibility.
Practice: To move out of this passive position, you must take the subtle but significant step from feeling “I can” to declaring “I want.” The “can” keeps you in the background, unnoticed and undefined, while the “want” brings you into presence, placing you on the map and into belonging.
