Unlock Your Power by Poppy Delbridge: How to Stop Saying Yes

Have you ever stopped to wonder if the thing holding you back isn't actually your ability... but a pattern you've been repeating for years? Sometimes we get to see those patterns, and sometimes we don't even notice them. I believe that I might have some things that are holding me back from reaching my full potential at the moment, but as I grow, I believe in breaking through barriers. This is where my deep dive into a game-changing book comes in.

If you read my previous article, "The Silent Helper," you might remember how so many of you poured your hearts out in the comments because you related to it. For a long time, I told myself, "I'm just being helpful. I'm not a people pleaser." But when I stopped being the Silent Helper, I had to face a sad, uncomfortable truth: I was absolutely people-pleasing. Part of growing up is having those brutally honest conversations with yourself and then sharing what you’ve learned to help someone else.

I also used to be a massive overthinker. Before sending a simple "Hi, how are you?" message, I would obsess: Is it too informal? Is it respectful? What if they don’t reply—did I offend them? It’s a mental cage. You aren't actually living; you're just surviving in a state of self-inflicted torture.

And then there is the trap of waiting for permission. Back in my university days, I never really drank alcohol. I’d tell my friends I hated the taste, and we’d laugh about it. But one night at a restaurant for a birthday, a girl walked up, put her hands on my shoulders, and yelled, "Let's go, let's go, time for shots!" Even though I’d been debating all night whether I wanted to drink, I just went with it. I still have a crystal-clear mental picture of that moment. I didn't want to do it, but the pressure chose for me.

The one pattern I don’t struggle with is the fear of starting. I’m completely fine with starting and ending things; I just want to keep moving in the right direction. But if you recognize yourself in any of these other patterns—the overthinking, the people-pleasing, the silent helping—then we need to talk about Poppy Delbridge's book.

Poppy Delbridge is a powerhouse. She used to be a high-flying senior Warner Bros. creative executive, named "one of the most powerful women in TV" by Glamour. But behind the scenes, she hit a brutal wall of burnout, chronic fatigue, and health crises. It forced her to realize a fundamental truth: you cannot outperform a depleted nervous system. She completely pivoted her life to master energy psychology, somatic healing, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Today, she’s a Global Ambassador for the mental health charity Mind, the founder of House of Possibility, and the pioneer of Rapid Tapping®—a science-backed technique that helps rewrite emotional patterns in real time. Her work is trusted by Fortune 100 executives and major brands because it bridges the gap between modern neuroscience and rapid mindset shifts.

Her book, Unlock Your Power: A Seven-Step System to Transform Your Mindset and Create Change That Lasts, is a masterclass in behavioral psychology. It isn't a collection of vague, feel-good quotes. Poppy lays out a highly structured, seven-step system designed to target the exact subconscious loops that dictate our daily behavior. The book explains how our brains develop safety mechanisms during childhood to keep us accepted and loved. Over time, these mechanisms harden into "limits"—invisible ceilings that quietly block us from speaking up, setting boundaries, or taking big leaps. Poppy uses a blend of neuroscience and physical somatic tools, like her signature tapping, to help you physically discharge stress and rewire how your brain responds to pressure. It is designed to take you out of defensive autopilot and put you back in active control of your life.

To give you a real taste of how this book actually operates in real life, I've broken my experience down into four distinct phases:

Why you should pick up this book. If you are tired of the exhausting tug-of-war between my ambition and your habit of saying "yes" to protect other people's feelings, you will realize that your silence wasn't actually "helping" anyone; it was just keeping you trapped in a loop of overthinking and resentment. You need a concrete, science-backed framework to help you understand why you kept volunteering for things that drained you and how to stop doing it without feeling consumed by guilt.

Three lessons that will genuinely make you stop and think. First, Poppy explains that playing small isn't a personal failure; it is your subconscious mind running an outdated safety program. That blew my mind because it took away the shame of my people-pleasing. Second, she introduces the concept of the "limit," which refers to the maximum amount of success, visibility, or peace that your nervous system currently feels safe holding. If you try to push past it without regulating your body first, you will subconsciously self-sabotage to get back to "safe" territory. Third, she emphasizes that boundaries are not selfish acts of exclusion; they are honest declarations of what you need to stay healthy and functional.

One habit I'm changing, you should too. The biggest habit I am actively changing is my response time to requests. Instead of giving an immediate, knee-jerk "Yes, of course!" to prove my worth or keep the peace, I now practice a mandatory pause. I tell people, "Let me check my schedule and get back to you." This small physical delay gives my nervous system time to settle, allowing me to make a conscious decision based on my actual capacity, rather than reacting from a place of people-pleasing panic.

Would I recommend it? Here's who I think should read it. I recommend this book. But let's be clear: the book isn't for people who just want passive, feel-good validation. It is for the over-committed, the overthinkers, and the silent helpers who are tired of their own excuses. If you are someone who knows you are capable of a bigger, more impactful life but keep finding yourself paralyzed by what other people might think, this book is your practical toolkit to finally break those invisible loops.

Now, I want to open this up to you in the comments. Where are you currently keeping yourself small? Do you find yourself trapped in that silent helper loop, saying yes when everything inside you is screaming no? Or are you struggling with the kind of overthinking that makes you double-guess every text you send? Let's have an honest conversation about the patterns we are ready to break below.