The Moment That Quote Found Me
I don’t even remember where I saw it first. Maybe it was Pinterest, maybe it was in someone’s Instagram caption. But when I read the words, “Ask for more, girl. The universe isn’t on a budget,” something stopped in me.
I took a screenshot. Then I just stared at it. I didn’t smile, I didn’t cry I just felt still. Like someone had just told me something I had secretly known my whole life but had been too scared to admit.
Because the truth is: I’ve always been the girl who asked for just enough.
Not too much. Never too much. Just enough to get by, just enough to not seem greedy, just enough to not be a bother. I lived my entire life like I was rationing joy, like there was only so much goodness to go around and I didn’t want to take more than my fair share.
But that quote landed in my chest like a seed in fertile soil. And slowly, quietly, it began to grow into something that would change everything.
Where I Learned to Shrink
I think it started way back in school. I remember hesitating to ask for things, even when I needed them. Whether it was extra pocket money, better stationery, or a simple favor. I didn’t want to feel like I was asking for too much. I was scared it would make me look selfish or ungrateful.
There was this invisible measuring tape I carried everywhere, constantly calculating: Is this too much? Am I being reasonable? Will they think I’m demanding?
It continued through college. When I graduated in 2022, I was so used to taking up whatever opportunity came my way, I never even paused to ask: Is this what I want? Does this pay me what I deserve? I was grateful for scraps and called it humility.
Even in my freelance journey, I kept underquoting. I’d take up projects for less just so I didn’t feel like I was “too expensive.” I wore my low prices like a badge of honor, like being affordable meant being good.
And when I finally asked for 20k for a UX project and agreed to 15k… I felt sick. I had shrunk again. And this time, I couldn’t un-feel it. That familiar taste of having made myself smaller to fit into someone else’s budget, someone else’s comfort zone.
The pattern was so ingrained I didn’t even recognize it as a choice anymore. It was just who I was: the girl who asked for less so everyone else could feel comfortable giving it.
The Day I Said No
But something was shifting, even before I found that quote. I recently rejected a project. Not because I couldn’t do it, but because I knew it would drain me. I saw the notification and my entire body said no. Every cell, every instinct, every part of me that had learned to speak quietly was suddenly shouting.
And for once, I listened. I didn’t convince myself to say yes because of money or experience. I didn’t guilt myself into proving anything. I didn’t rationalize why I should push through the discomfort.
I simply said, “I don’t have the time.”
It wasn’t even the truth I had the time. What I didn’t have was the energy to spend my days creating something that felt misaligned with who I was becoming. What I didn’t have was the willingness to say yes to work that would require me to be smaller than I was.
And the peace I felt was louder than any praise I’d ever received. It was the peace of finally honoring the voice that had been whispering “more” all along.
The Energetics of Asking for More
That quote isn’t just about money, though money is part of it. It’s about permission. Permission to want ease, beauty, softness. Permission to take up space, to trust that my desires aren’t irrational or excessive or too much for this world to handle.
Ever since I started working on my brand, Euphoria Within, everything shifted. I stopped chasing, I started creating. I started taking care of myself without even deciding to. I used the body butter I’d been saving for special occasions, lit the candles I thought were for “special days,” wore those beautiful socks I bought two winters ago and had been keeping pristine in my drawer.
And suddenly, I realized, I am the special day. My Tuesday morning is special. My quiet evening with tea is special. My ordinary life, lived with intention and beauty, is special enough for all the good things I’d been saving.
I no longer wanted to delay joy. Why was I hoarding beautiful experiences like they were limited resources?
I stopped writing blogs for AdSense approval and started writing what I felt. I let go of categories and algorithms and the voice that said I needed to be more strategic, more marketable, more everything. I let my stories speak in their own language. I didn’t want a blog that taught I wanted a blog that held.
And something magical happened: when I stopped trying to be what everyone else wanted, I became exactly what some people needed.
But What If It’s Too Much?
Sometimes the doubt still comes. It arrives like an old friend who doesn’t know they’re no longer welcome. I worry if I’ll make money, if people will read my work, if I’m doing the “right thing.” The old voice whispers: Who do you think you are? What makes you so special?
But then I remember: the universe isn’t asking me to earn my desires. It’s asking me to claim them.
The universe made millions of stars just because it could. It grows flowers in places no human will ever see them. It paints the sky different colors every single day for the sheer joy of it. If it can afford such extravagant beauty, surely it can handle my desire for meaningful work and soft living and love that doesn’t require me to shrink.
And on the days I forget, I return to my rituals, my morning tea ceremony, my terrace sunset moments, my foot massage that feels like coming home to my body, my healing blogs that make me cry good tears.
I ground myself in the life I’m already living, not the life I’m waiting to deserve. I remember I am already living my dream life in small, sacred ways. The dream was never about having everything it was about recognizing that I already am everything I’ve been looking for.
The Quote That Became My Reminder
I don’t chase anymore. I align. I create. I soften into the knowing that my desires are not mistakes or accidents or signs that I’m ungrateful for what I have. They’re breadcrumbs leading me home to myself.
I ask for more now. Not because I’m greedy, but because I finally believe I deserve it. Not because I’ve earned it through suffering or struggle, but because I’m here, alive, breathing, dreaming and that’s enough qualification for a beautiful life.
More ease. More beauty. More softness. More time in the sun. More work that lights me up. More love that doesn’t require me to be anyone other than who I am.
The universe isn’t on a budget. So why am I?
And maybe this blog finds you in a moment you needed to read those words too. Maybe you’re tired of asking for just enough. Maybe you’re ready to discover what happens when you stop apologizing for wanting beautiful things.
Maybe you’re ready to remember that you are the special occasion you’ve been waiting for.
