Miki is a mindful sobriety coach, author, and founder of the Permission to Be™ Journey, where she helps people rebuild self-trust through compassion, mindfulness, and nervous system healing. After years of gray-area drinking, perfectionism, and believing she had to earn her worth, Miki discovered that healing was never about fixing herself. It was about remembering who she had always been. Read on to learn how Miki is breaking cycles of shame, self-criticism, and people-pleasing while helping others find a gentler way home to themselves.
How do you define a "Cycle Breaker?"
Someone who doesn't allow their past to define them.
What adversities or experiences have you lived through?
I am a former gray-area drinker, the first official member of my family to give up drinking. I am a recovering people-pleaser, fawner, and a woman who has learned to trust her own voice, to no longer pour from an empty cup, and to put her oxygen mask on first before assisting others. I am a sexual assault survivor, a warrior, and diagnosed with Bipolar 2 and CPTSD due to Sexual Trauma.
What is a cycle, belief or pattern you’ve worked to break or challenge in your life?
For much of my life, I believed I had to earn my worth through achievement, productivity, or by being who everyone else needed me to be. That belief kept me stuck in cycles of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and feeling like I was always chasing some future version of myself that would finally be "enough." The pattern I've worked hardest to break is the idea that healing means fixing myself. Instead, I've come to believe that healing is remembering. Remembering that my worth was never something I had to manufacture. Remembering that self-compassion creates more lasting change than self-criticism ever could. And remembering that the person I've been searching for isn't waiting somewhere in the future... she's here, underneath the fear, the conditioning, and the stories I learned to tell about myself. That shift continues to shape how I live, how I recover, how I meditate, and how I serve others. Every day is another opportunity to return to what matters, to soften instead of strive, and to choose compassion over perfection.
What helped you begin healing, growing, or changing that cycle?
My sobriety journey was absolutely the catalyst for everything that came after. For so many years, I used alcohol to numb the pain of believing I wasn't enough. I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror without being overwhelmed by self-criticism and shame. Drinking became a way to avoid the relationship I had with myself. When I removed the alcohol, I also removed the distraction. For the first time, I had no choice but to meet myself as I was... and with compassion instead of avoidance. Sobriety didn't magically solve all of my problems, but it gave me the clarity, courage, and presence to begin rebuilding the most important relationship I will ever have: the one with myself. From there, everything else began to change. As I learned to treat myself with greater kindness, trust, and compassion, I discovered that healing was about remembering the person I'd been all along, beneath the fear and the stories I had believed about myself.
What are your proudest accomplishments?
Writing and publishing my memoir "Permission to Be: a memoir about sobriety, self-trust, and learning to come home to yourself" in 4 months.
Is there a message, quote, lesson, or reminder you’d like to share with others who may be struggling along their healing journey?
You are not broken, Beautiful Soul, you are patterned. Patterns can be understood, softened, and changed. Be patient with yourself. You're not becoming someone new; you're remembering who you've always been. And remember: Healing doesn't begin when you finally believe you're enough. It begins the moment you decide you're worthy of compassion exactly as you are. You don't have to fix yourself before you deserve your own kindness.
Do you have any projects you're working on that you'd like to highlight?
Enter the Permission to Be™ Journey via the Metta Momentum Sangha: Permission to Be™ is an 8-week mindful sobriety & self-trust journey back to yourself. Rooted in compassion, nervous system awareness, Buddhist philosophy, and lived experience, this transformational experience helps you understand your patterns without shame, rebuild trust with yourself, support cravings and emotions with practical tools, soften your inner critic, and create a life you no longer need to escape from. You don’t need to fix yourself. You need a gentler way home.
Connect with Miki:
- Instagram: @mikimettamuse
- Substack: @mikimettamuse