Pause & Presence: An Undimmed Morning Before the Holiday Rush
What if you could catch the overwhelm before it catches you?
The holiday season has a way of turning the volume all the way up. The calendar fills, the to-do list grows well beyond a page, and suddenly we’re at dinner with the people we love while our minds are three items down tomorrow’s agenda. This morning is about taking some much-deserved time to slow down, notice when busyness starts to dim us, and come back to what matters.
We’ll be joined by Cecily Mak, author of Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits, and Libby Stockstill, integrated life and leadership coach, founder of Some Days and author currently completing a novel titled *Losing It, for a candid conversation about staying present through the busiest season of the year. Cecily and Libby will talk about how intuition helps us pick up on the early signs (the distracted dinner, the walk we keep skipping, the yes we didn’t mean) and how to listen to that little voice before we tip into overwhelm.
Between them they’ve been moms, executives, attorneys, and founders, and both have met their own harried past selves along the way. Libby joined Cecily on the Undimmed podcast to talk about the often inconvenient gift of intuition. Now we’re bringing that conversation to the store, with plenty of room for you in it.
The schedule
10:00am — Doors open, morning bubbles, time to mingle
10:30am — Conversation with Cecily and Libby, with time for your questions and stories
11:30am — More time to connect and decompress
12:00pm — Wrap, store officially opens; stay and browse as we get the day started
More details
Drinks — Mimosas (regular and non-alcoholic) available for purchase $12
RSVP — Not required, but it helps us plan
Books — Copies of Undimmed available for purchase and signing
Come as you are, bring a friend who needs a breather, and give yourself one unhurried morning before the season takes off. Book Society style.
About the Speakers
Cecily Mak is the author of Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits (Flatiron Books), a personal and practical alternative to traditional recovery frameworks that blends memoir, community wisdom, and eight awarenesses for shifting habits like overworking, perfectionism, digital distraction, and drinking. What began as a 30-day break from alcohol grew into a years-long inquiry into “dimming,” the ways we unconsciously numb ourselves, and the path back to clarity and presence. A founding General Partner at Wisdom Ventures and a former tech executive and attorney, Cecily is also a mother of two. She hosts the UNDIMMED podcast and shares reflections on Substack and on Instagram at @undimmedjourney
Libby Stockstill is a coach, writer, speaker, author-in-progress and the founder and CEO of Some Days, where she helps clients pursue big dreams (and work through what gets in the way) through integrated life and leadership coaching, workshops, “me-treats,” and retreats. Before focusing on writing and Some Days full time, she spent more than 20 years as a legal and corporate executive, most recently as Chief Legal Officer of Vuori and before that Global General Counsel of Vans. She’s now chasing her own big dream of writing, including her first novel, a midlife coming-of-age story that asks - what if having it all means losing it all? Her poem “Under” will appear in the 2026–27 San Diego Poetry Annual. Find her at createsomedays.com and on Instagram at @create.some.days.