Adam · September 2026 · Seven days, two texts a day
Last Sunday a stranger texted me: “If you haven’t already found a pulse pal, I’m happy to be your pal.”
That’s how I met Suzi. She’s an elementary school nurse in Florida, 21 years in the same clinic, a 4:30am alarm, a full moon coming. I was a few states away in the middle of deadline week, rebuilding my life after losing the company I built. We’d never met. We still haven’t.
Simple structure, seven days:
Day 1
“I am here. I am clear. I am love.”
Mine, from the rough season I’m coming out of. Suzi was repeating it at every pulse by 6am, and by 9am she’d added her own line: “I will be calm. I am calm.” By noon it was taped to her desk. That evening she reported a few hairy moments and said the mantra carried her through them. I hit my deadline, proud of the work, with real waves of letting go underneath it.
Day 2
“I am insanely capable. I am a powerful ass woman (man).”
Suzi wanted something about believing in herself. I offered this one, with an edge. Her reply: “Yes. For the Big win. We are #BAMF.” That night we both admitted we’d needed it. I’d spent four hours driving around town hunting wifi to upload a file for a deadline, and spun into replaying every moment I’d ever felt judged for not having my shit together. Mid-spiral, I caught it: none of that is now. None of that story is true. I am insanely capable. Suzi had her own storm, a hard stretch with a new coworker, and just as things were going south her ring pulsed. She repeated the mantra until she came back to center.
Day 3
“I am at peace. I am enough.”
Suzi’s. She used it live on a scheduling error in an upcoming vision screening. In her words: “Ok, after a few swear words, I was calm and at peace.” My old “not enough” patterns were running that day, and here’s what was different: they colored my vibe but they didn’t consume me. That gap is the whole practice.
Day 4
“I will keep an open mind and not judge.”
Suzi brought this one for the coworker stretch. She’d repeated it 85 times before the school day even started, saying it before the stress arrived instead of after. “Feels like I can breathe.” This was also the day the magic started: her ring pulsed the moment she read my message. Then mine pulsed the moment I read hers. Her review: “That’s too bizarre.”
Day 5
“I will breathe. I will relax.”
By now the pattern was doing the work. The synchronicities kept coming, mid-text, both of us pulsing at the same moments. We stopped explaining it and started enjoying it.
Day 6
“It’s the weekend. I can’t get it wrong.”
Mine. Permission, as a practice. Suzi took hers on a bike ride under a big Florida sky.
Day 7, and beyond
“I am strong, and I acknowledge my strengths.”
Suzi’s pick for the week ahead. The experiment ended. The practice didn’t.
Here’s the part I didn’t expect.
I came into this week raw. A few months ago the company I poured myself into was taken from me, and it cracked something open about who I am when the title and the wins are gone. Suzi came in carrying 21 years of a job that’s gotten harder, kids in crisis, a clinic that runs on her steadiness. Neither of us said any of that on day one. It all came out anyway, one check-in at a time, because that’s what happens when someone is actually there at 5:46am and again at 8pm.
The pulse stopped being a private cue and became a hand on the shoulder from someone I’d never seen. When it landed, I wasn’t just coming back to my breath. I was coming back to a promise I’d made to another person, and she was keeping the same one.
And the moments it caught were the real ones. Not calm little meditation moments. A spiral in a parked car. A clinic going sideways. The stress you feel coming before it hits. That’s where the words showed up, because that’s where we’d planted them.
By the end of the week she told me, “Thank you for giving me a shoulder to lean on.” And I realized I know almost nothing about this woman’s life, and somehow I know her heart completely. Two strangers, one mantra a day, and a friendship that feels years old after seven days.
I asked her straight out: how did pulsing together feel, 1 to 10?
“Definitely a 10. It made me more aware for sure.”Suzi
“I repeat it before the stress happens. I can feel it coming on, and it definitely brings me back down. Feels like I can breathe.”Suzi
“I felt super seen and supported, and deeply invested in her world. Such a fast and wonderful way to know someone.”Adam
“I feel like I know her heart and essence and almost nothing else about her. Really pure and human and beautiful.”Adam
Here’s how it works. You get one pal. You share one mantra a day, a morning send-off, an evening check-in. Private, just the two of you.
Then once a week, every pair brings one moment to the Pulse Moments chat. The save. The spiral you walked out of. The pulse that landed at the exact right second. And every Monday, the whole group carries one mantra together before pairs return to their own.
One pal for the depth. One chat for the fire.
Reply PAL and we’ll pair you with yours.