I’m death-gripping the hospital bed, barely catching my breath before the next surge. The next contraction hits, and beyond the sound of my own voice, I hear my doula say gently,

“Let it go.”

I collapse onto the bed. In the minute I have between waves, a single thought cuts through to me:

This is painful.

And for the first time, I wonder, How much longer can I do this?

But I also know from every book I devoured during pregnancy that if I keep telling myself this is painful, it will be. That contractions aren’t something happening to me.

They are me.

So instead of resisting the pain, I decided to merge with it.

The next wave builds. I steady my breath.

And then, a mantra rises up from somewhere deep inside me:

I am powerful.

To my surprise, it works. I still feel the pain, but now, I feel powerful in it.

Not dreading the next one.

Not drowning.

But standing strong inside the epic waves of the contraction.

For the next two hours, I ride the contractions with that mantra on repeat.

I am powerful. I am powerful. I am powerful.

Until finally… it’s time to push.

Weeks later, I was doing my first postpartum cycling class. About halfway through, my legs felt like lead, my breath was ragged, and I wanted to give up. But instead of getting off the bike, I closed my eyes, and to my surprise: 

I went back. 

Back to the image of myself contracting on a hospital bed while saying my mantra.

Back to the most powerful moment of my life.

And I cycled even harder than I had before with my eyes closed.

Because that’s what birth gave me:

A memory I can return to any time I need to remember who I am.

Now, whenever I’m at my edge — physically, mentally, emotionally — I know how to meet that edge. I don’t back down from the intensity.

I merge with it.

And I rise.

In SheFi, we talk a lot about transformation.

About reinvention.

About becoming more of who we already are.

But transformation isn’t always graceful. Sometimes it comes in waves. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. Sometimes it demands all of us.

And in those moments, we get to choose:

Will we resist it? Will we quit? Or will we remember our power?

So here’s a little SheFi ritual:

Next time you’re on the edge — of a launch, a raise, a decision, a workout — close your eyes.

Return to a moment you thought might break you.

Let it remind you that it didn’t.

Because if the moment is powerful, it’s only because you are powerful.

Season 14 Reviews are In ✨ 

Yesterday, July 15th, marked our first day of class for Season 14.

And the response has been overwhelmingly, wonderfully, beautifully positive.

Below, we’ve curated some amazing tweets of what our new members had to say.

SheFi is Hiring Research Assistants! ✏️ 

Another reminder! Do you want to join the SheFi team? ✨ 

We’re looking for curious, organized, crypto-loving SheFiers to help shape our upcoming seasons' curriculum and create slide decks for Maggie to teach.

If you’re great at breaking down complex topics like DeFi, NFTs, rollups, and staking into fun, digestible content, this role is for you.

You’ll work closely with our team to research trends, create class outlines with our sponsors, and bring SheFi energy to each class.

This is a flexible, remote, part-time role. It's perfect for students, those early in their Web3 careers, or SheFi grads ready to dive deeper and get paid for it!

This role is not for anyone who relies heavily on ChatGPT; though we are okay with research assistants using ChatGPT for outlines and research, we are looking for someone who will build slides with a personal touch. Educating and onboarding new students to web3 can't be done with AI!

To apply: Create 3 SheFi-style slides about who you are + why you’re a great fit, and email them to [email protected] with the subject line “SheFi Research Assistant Application.”

We can’t wait to hear from you! ✨ 

What Do You Want to See in the SheFi Shop? 🤔 

As you may know, a few months ago, we officially opened up our online SheFi merch store.

We’ve LOVED seeing people wear their gmom hats and Crypto Mom T-Shirts, but it begs the question…

What merch should we add next? 👀 

Do you want new designs?

Do you want us to re-release old ones?

What types of merch would you like to see – hats, totes, shirts, pants, socks, phone cases, stickers, jewelry… we could go on and on.

Maybe even something for SheFi Summer?

Answer these polls to give us a bit of an idea. 💫 

We’ll keep you posted when new items are added. ☀️

SheFi’s Crypto News Roundup 🏇 

The world keeps on spinning, and we’re here to make sure you don’t get dizzy. Here’s this week’s market, crypto, and AI news in totally digestible chunks:

• Stocks hover near record highs despite tariffs front and center. Markets stayed near all-time highs, even as U.S. imposed new tariffs on over 20 countries, and extended a 90-day pause to Aug 1; the “Big Beautiful Bill” stimulus law passed, supporting growth expectations.

• Bitcoin climbs to record $123K on U.S. policy optimism. BTC surged past $120K—peaking at $123K—as "Crypto Week" in Congress reignited hopes for bills like the Genius Act, driving a 27% YTD rally.

• Pentagon invests $800M in AI, including xAI’s $200M award. The DoD awarded contracts to xAI, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI to enhance defense capabilities, with xAI’s Grok earning up to $200M despite recent controversy.

• Google acquires Windsurf for $2.4B to boost GenAI coding tools. Alphabet’s deal brings in Windsurf’s team and tech, signaling fierce competition in AI coding assistants like Copilot and AWS CodeWhisperer.

• Ireland proposes €25M/year AI watchdog office. A new National AI Office in Ireland is being proposed with oversight authority for AI in healthcare, welfare, transport, with investigative and fining power.

Travel Scholarship from Avalanche 🔺 

We’re excited to share that we are once again partnering with Avalanche to offer a travel scholarship!

This time it’s for LATAM Women+ student developers to attend Devconnect ARG.

If you’re a student currently enrolled at a university in Latin America, check out this form to be considered!

👉️ Share your wins so we can celebrate them 👈️

SheFi & Crypto Events 🌎

Going to ETHCC, Token2049 or Devcon? Join our Global Events Telegram Chat: https://t.me/shefisummit

Are you based in Barcelona and want to get more involved with SheFi? Then reach out to Paloma here!

SheFi Opportunities:

• Travel Scholarship Application – DevConnect 2025: Apply here

SheFi events:

• 7/17 London: SheFi London x Berlin Meet-Up: RSVP here

• 7/30 Dublin: Crypto Céilí: RSVP here

Other events:

• 7/16 Austin: Zerohash x ATX DAO Happy Hour: RSVP here

• 7/16-17 Virtual: Decentraland Career Quest: More info here

• 7/16 Virtual: Building Serverless Event Driven Architectures on AWS: RSVP here

• 7/17 Porto: Tech4Good Days: RSVP here

• 7/17 Virtual: Community Discussion "The Future of Education": RSVP here

• 7/30 London: Ethereum London Relaunch: RSVP here

• 7/30 Prague: 10yrs of Ethereum meetup: RSVP here

• 7/31 - August 3 Mexico: UNLOCK Summit 2025: SheFi members gets a discount with the code SHEFI15

• 10/21-22 London: Zebu Live: RSVP here

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