🌾 Walking Through the Seasons of Grief

By Erin Martinson

“Grief is not something to get over - it is a sacred passage that transforms us.”

Grief does not arrive politely. It dislodges us from our routines, numbs our senses, and can make the world feel distant or unreal. Before we can move forward, grief asks us to stop - to feel, to breathe, and to acknowledge what has been lost. It is a season of disorientation, yet also the threshold to transformation.

The stages described by Dr. Don Eisenhower offer a compassionate map - not as rigid checkpoints, but as guideposts on the journey through love, loss, and renewal.

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Shock & Disbelief 🌫️

The first stage of grief can leave you stunned, numb, or disconnected. The mind struggles to absorb the reality, while the body and spirit signal that something profound has changed.

Spiritual reflection:
Even in the fog, the Sacred whispers: “This is real - and I am with you.” This stage is about allowing the heart to open to truth.

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Pain, Guilt & Longing 💔

As numbness fades, the ache emerges. Memories, longing, and sometimes guilt surface. Your heart feels tender, and sorrow can seem endless.

Spiritual reflection:
Your tears and longing are holy work - allowing the soul to process love and loss. Healing begins with presence.

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Anger, Bargaining & Questioning 🔥

Anger, “what ifs,” and questions about meaning are natural. Life may feel unfair, and you may wrestle with deeper spiritual questions.

Spiritual reflection:
The Divine remains present, even in anger. This is a sacred wilderness where you reclaim your voice, express truth, and wrestle with meaning.

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Reflection, Adjustment & the Slow Return 🌿

Over time, grief softens. You notice beauty, breathe more fully, and re-engage with life. Loss is still felt, but life begins to move forward.

Spiritual reflection:
Transformation is occurring. You carry the loss while reclaiming presence and meaning. Your heart is learning to live again.

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Acceptance, Integration & New Life 🌸

Acceptance is not forgetting. It is living with loss, carrying love and memory while creating space for new life and deeper connection.

Spiritual reflection:
Your life becomes a living altar. Compassion, wisdom, and love grow from grief, offering renewed purpose.

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Notes for the Journey 💬

• Grief is not linear; you may revisit any or all of these stages in different order.

• Presence matters more than “fixing.” Which may sound like you are being lazy - but staying present with what is happening through you is hard work, 

• Some days will feel heavy, others lighter.

• Seek support if grief becomes overwhelming.

• Your journey is sacred - every tear, every memory, and every sigh matters.

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An Invitation 🌻

If you are walking through a season of grief, I would be honored to accompany you. Together, we can explore what your heart and spirit most need and move forward with compassion, presence, and hope.

“You are not alone. Your sorrow is seen. Your healing matters.”

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#GriefHealing #SpiritualDirection #HealingTouch #LifeCoaching                    #EMBodyWisdom #SacredJourney

Growth Takes Time: The Hidden Transformation

Lately, I’ve been seeing all these statistics about personal growth and life coaching - and honestly, they’re surprising. Some say that only 2% of people experience real, lasting transformation.

But here’s what strikes me: we often measure transformation by speed. We expect change to happen quickly - within weeks or months. Yet real growth rarely works that way. Just like you don’t see muscle after one week at the gym, deep transformation takes time, consistency, and faith in what’s happening beneath the surface.

The Bamboo Lesson

Think about the Chinese bamboo tree. Its story is a perfect picture of how transformation unfolds.

For five years, you water and nurture that little patch of soil - day after day - with no visible sign of growth. Then, suddenly, in its fifth year, the bamboo shoots up 90 feet in just a few weeks.

Did it really grow 90 feet in a few weeks? Or was it growing underground all along - building roots, preparing to thrive?

The same is true for us.

Learning and Growing Beyond the Classroom

We spend years in school learning - about the world, about others, about ourselves. But once we step into “real life,” we expect to instantly grow, succeed, or transform. When that doesn’t happen, we think something’s wrong.

Yet those who truly flourish aren’t the ones who grow the fastest. They’re the ones who keep learning - who stay open, humble, and patient, trusting that growth is happening even when it’s unseen.

Transformation Beneath the Surface

You may not see it yet, but something is shifting inside you. God is moving. Your soul and spirit are being shaped in quiet, steady ways as you show up - in prayer, in community, in healing work.

Transformation is rarely loud or immediate. It’s sacred, slow work that changes who you are from the inside out.

Healing Takes Time

If you’re walking through grief or loss, remember: healing doesn’t mean forgetting. It means becoming. You are no longer the same person - and that’s okay. That loss becomes part of your story, your wisdom, your growth.

Take your time. You’re growing - even if you can’t see it yet.

Walk With Me

If you’d like someone to help you see your growth, to listen to your story, and to walk with you as you discover how you’re being moved and shaped - I would be honored to journey with you.

As a Life Coach, Grief Coach, Healing Touch Practitioner and Spiritual Director, I help people notice the quiet transformation already happening within them.

Because sometimes, you just need someone to remind you - the roots are growing strong. 🌱

Welcome to EMBODY

 Title: Welcome to EMBody Wisdom – Where Your Body is Your Teacher

Have you ever felt like your body was trying to tell you something, but you weren’t sure how to listen?

Maybe it’s the tightness in your chest when you're stressed…
The flutter in your belly when something feels right (or wrong)…
The exhaustion that doesn’t go away, no matter how much rest you get…

Welcome to EMBody Wisdom, a space where your inner signals are not just symptoms, but sacred messages. This is the beginning of a deeper conversation — not just between us, but between you and your body.

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What is EMBody Wisdom?

At its core, EMBody Wisdom is about reclaiming the intelligence of your body. It’s about tuning into your own embodied knowing - the subtle (and sometimes loud) ways your body communicates your needs, boundaries, truths, and desires.

Through somatic practices, trauma-informed guidance, nervous system education, and intuitive connection, we explore how healing happens through the body - not in spite of it.

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Why Start an Email List?

Because wisdom like this deserves a space to breathe.

Social media is fast, loud, and often fleeting. But healing is slow, subtle, and deeply personal. This email list is our quiet corner — a place where I can share meaningful reflections, tools, practices, and opportunities to deepen your own journey with embodiment.

If you’re:

• Curious about nervous system regulation and how it affects your emotions, relationships, and energy

• Craving deeper connection with your own body and inner guidance

• On a healing journey and looking for grounded, gentle support

• Wanting to stay informed about upcoming workshops, 1:1 offerings, or embodiment circles…

Then this is for you.

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What to Expect

When you join the EMBody Wisdom email list, you’ll receive:

✨ Monthly (or bi-monthly) love notes with reflections, practices, and inspiration
✨ Early access to new offerings, events, and workshops
✨ Exclusive content and tools only shared with the email community
✨ Occasional personal stories, musings, and ways to connect deeper

No spam. No overwhelm. Just a gentle nudge toward coming home to yourself.

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Ready to Join the Circle?

Find me at www.embodywisdomca.com

Or 

https://www.skool.com/embody-wisdom-4695/about?ref=7a91192cec284a6c9583f82aa12ff9c8

Your body already holds the wisdom — this is just a way to remember, together.

Here we go.

With love and embodiment,

EMBody Wisdom

The "Healing" of Healing Touch work

 

Early in my ministry life, I struggled with intense migraines that seemed to come out of nowhere, disrupting my work, my focus, and my sense of wellbeing. The pressure of leadership, the constant giving, and the emotional demands took a toll on my body in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time. I found myself searching for relief - not just a quick fix, but something deeper that could restore balance and calm.

That’s when I was introduced through a good friend to the world of healing touch.

It wasn’t just the physical relief that surprised me, but the way healing touch invited me to slow down, listen to my body, and reconnect with parts of myself I had been neglecting - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Over the past 20 years, this practice has become more than a tool; it’s been a lifeline, grounding me in the midst of life’s storms and ministry demands.

For many years, I found myself working and serving in environments where connection was expected but often felt distant - where conversations were rushed, and the weight of responsibility created a barrier between people and their deeper needs. I found myself longing for something different. I wanted to feel seen, not just as a role or a title, but as a whole person with a body that carries stories, emotions that need space, and a spirit longing for rest.

Healing Touch became that real connection.

The work of Healing Touch is more than physical contact; it’s a mindful presence that supports the whole person - body, mind, heart, and spirit. It opens space to release tension, invite ease, and bring healing on many levels. This understanding is at the heart of EMBody Wisdom.

I came to the training and depth of this work because I knew I needed it. I continue to do this work because I believe every woman navigating midlife deserves to be truly seen, held, and supported. This season of life calls for honoring your full self - the joys and struggles, the strength and vulnerability.

Healing touch offers more than relief - it offers renewal.  As a practitioner I find my work is helpsing you feel grounded when life feels unsettled, find clarity when your mind is busy, and reclaim your natural energy. This is a practice that invites you to step into midlife (or any time of life) not as a crisis but as an opportunity to embrace your authentic self fully.

If you’re longing to reconnect your body, mind, heart, and spirit, I invite you to explore healing touch with EMBody Wisdom. Together, we’ll use gentle, supportive practices to help you rediscover balance and vitality.

Your body holds wisdom your mind may have forgotten. The path back to wholeness begins with a single, healing touch.

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Preparing for Q4 2025

🌿 What This Year Has Been About

A reflection from the first year of EMBody Wisdom

As I reflect on the first year of EMBody Wisdom, I find myself returning to this question:

What has this year truly been about—and how is it growing me into something more?

It’s easy to measure time by external markers: clients served, programs launched, milestones reached.
But this year has been about something deeper. Quieter. More formative.

This has been a year of rooting.

Not just launching a practice—but building a foundation.
Not just speaking truths—but learning to hold space for them, in my body and in community.
Not just offering healing—but living it.

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Becoming a Steady Presence

In the midst of a world that feels increasingly unstable, I’ve found myself drawn into conversations—especially within the church—about what it means to be a stable presence.

This year has been an invitation to become that presence.

To stay grounded when others feel uprooted.
To hold space for grief, for doubt, for spiritual longing.
To trust the slow, body-led wisdom that says:
You don’t have to move fast to be moving forward.

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Choosing to Stay

This year also brought clarity about timing and place.

Even as I imagine what might come next, I’ve made the intentional decision to remain rooted where I am for a while longer.  (God willing)

Not because I’m stuck.
But because I’m choosing to go deeper before I go wider.

There’s something powerful about choosing to stay to resist the pull of urgency or expansion, and instead tend to the soil beneath your feet.

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Growing Into More

This year has reminded me that becoming more doesn’t always look like doing more.

Sometimes growth looks like:

• Becoming more present

• Becoming more visible in your truth

• Becoming more rooted in your body and Spirit

• Becoming more willing to trust the unfolding

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An Invitation to You

As I reflect on what this year has been about for me, I wonder…

What has this year been about for you?
What are you learning to hold?
What’s quietly growing within you, even if no one else can see it yet?

May we all have the courage to root deeply,
To trust the wisdom rising from within,
And to let the becoming unfold in its own sacred time.

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When Knowledge Becomes Wisdom

 Message:

“Books and teachings on psychology and human behavior can provide profound insights, but personal reflection brings the knowledge to life.”

There’s something comforting - and even exhilarating - about reading a good book on human behavior, psychology, or emotional intelligence. It puts words to what we feel, offers tools for clarity, and gives us that rush of: “Ah, that makes so much sense now.”

But insight alone isn’t transformation.

Mental wellness isn’t just about collecting wisdom - it’s about living it. And that’s where reflection becomes sacred. That’s where your personal experience breathes life into the theories. Where concepts become compassion. Where head knowledge moves into the heart and body.

You may read about boundaries, trauma, or brain chemistry - but until you sit with your own story, your own patterns and reactions, it remains information. Valuable, yes. But waiting to be embodied.

This is where EMBody Wisdom invites you to pause.

What if you didn’t just know what emotional regulation is,
but began to notice how your body signals stress - and respond with gentleness?
What if you didn’t just understand attachment theory,
but allowed that understanding to shape how you hold space in your relationships?

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Reflection Prompt:
What book, podcast, or learning has recently deepened your understanding of emotions or mental health?
More importantly - how can you let that knowledge touch your lived experience today?

Maybe it’s a breath before reacting.
Maybe it’s a boundary you’ve been afraid to set.
Maybe it’s grace for yourself in the middle of a hard season.

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Body-Mind Connection:
Remember - our learning is only as helpful as the nervous system that carries it.
You can’t think your way into peace if your body is still stuck in fight, flight, or freeze.

So today, take a walk. 

Stretch. 

Breathe. 

Move.

Let the knowledge you’ve gathered settle into your bones. Let it become part of how you move through the world.

And if you’d like help integrating all the layers - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual - reach out to EMBody Wisdom. This is the real work: not just learning wellness, but living it.

Day 100/100!!! - Deep Faith, Deeper Life: Living Spiritually in the World

 

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.”
— Henri J.M. Nouwen

We often think of spirituality as something separate from the world—as if to be spiritual means to retreat, detach, or rise above daily life. But what if real spiritual growth brings us closer to life, not further away?

Henri Nouwen’s words invite us to reimagine the spiritual path. Rather than pulling us into isolation, the spiritual life calls us deeper - into relationship, into community, into the beauty and messiness of this world. It’s not about escaping reality, but about learning to see it with fresh eyes, open hearts, and awakened souls.

As I reflect on this final day of the 100 day journey, I’m reminded that the fruits of spiritual practice are not just inner peace or insight. They are compassion. Courage. Purpose. They are found in how we show up for others, how we serve the world around us, and how we embody divine love in small, everyday moments.

Spirituality isn’t a retreat from the world - it is a deepening into it.

Living Spiritually in the Everyday

When we take time to pray, meditate, or reflect, we are not pulling away from life but preparing ourselves to engage with more depth. These practices soften us. They stretch us. They help us become more attuned to the sacred that pulses through each conversation, each act of service, each encounter with nature.

Our spiritual lives are not meant to stay on the mat, or in the pages of a journal. They’re meant to overflow into how we treat others, how we face challenges, how we care for the planet, and how we find joy in the present moment.

🌿 Reflection Prompts for Day 100

• 🌀 How does your spiritual practice draw you deeper into your life and the world around you?

• 🌀 What is one intentional way you can engage today with spiritual awareness and purpose?

• 🌀 How can your faith shape your daily actions and interactions?

A Prayer for Presence and Purpose

God of grace,
Thank You for leading me not away from life, but deeper into it.
Help me to live each day with open eyes and an open heart,
engaged fully with the world You love.
Guide me to act with compassion, courage, and joy,
reflecting Your Spirit in all I do.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

✨ Small Practices to Engage Spiritually Today

• Begin your day with mindful prayer or meditation, setting an intention to be fully present.

• Listen with compassion in conversations, resisting the urge to rush or fix.

• Notice the sacred in the ordinary - a leaf trembling in the wind, a stranger’s smile, a shared laugh.

• Take one small action of service - a kind word, a helping hand, a gesture of solidarity with the hurting.

These simple acts, grounded in spiritual awareness, ripple outward in ways we may never fully see. They are how we embody faith. They are how we become participants in divine love.

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🌬️ Guided Meditation: Deepening into Life and the World

Find a comfortable seat. Close your eyes, breathe deeply.
With each inhale, welcome clarity. With each exhale, release distraction.

Let these words settle into your heart:

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.”

Imagine yourself stepping into your day - eyes open, heart soft, spirit awake.
See yourself moving through tasks and relationships with presence, curiosity, and care.
Let your breath become a prayer:
“I am present. I am connected. I live with purpose.”

When you’re ready, gently return. Open your eyes. Carry this sacred awareness with you into your day.

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 You’ve Reached Day 100

You’ve journeyed through 100 days of reflection, prayer, and embodied wisdom.
This isn’t the end—it’s a threshold. You are being invited to live this wisdom, one mindful, courageous, compassionate step at a time.

May you walk forward with clarity, heart, and sacred purpose.

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#EMBodyWisdom #100DaysOfWisdom #HenriNouwen #SpiritualPractice #EngagedFaith #EmbodiedSpirituality

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Closing Reflections – Thank You for 100 Days of EMBody Wisdom

Dear friend,

We’ve arrived at the end of our 100 Days of EMBody Wisdom - a sacred journey of reflection, prayer, and practice. Whether you joined from the beginning or found your way here partway through, I want to say from the bottom of my heart: thank you.

Over these 100 days, we’ve explored what it means to live spiritually grounded, embodied, and connected. We’ve reflected on themes of love, truth, healing, unity, and purpose. We’ve sat with sacred texts, ancient wisdom, and everyday insights - allowing them to shape our hearts, stretch our minds, and inspire our lives.

This isn’t the end - it’s the beginning of a deeper walk.

Spiritual practice is not a destination; it’s a rhythm. A returning. A remembering. And I want to continue walking with you in that rhythm.

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🌟 What’s Next: Stay Connected Through Weekly Videos

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be sharing weekly video reflections with spiritual insights, practices, and encouragement to help you stay rooted in your faith and connected to your body, community, and purpose.

These short videos will include:

• Grounding meditations

• Spiritual teachings and reflection prompts

• Practical ways to embody your faith in daily life

• Inspiration to keep your heart open and your spirit strong

You can find them each week on [YouTube / Instagram / Your Platform of Choice – update link if needed], or stay subscribed to this blog to receive them straight to your inbox.

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🌿 Until Then…

May you continue to walk with courage and curiosity.
May your daily life be filled with small sacred moments.
And may the wisdom you've cultivated over these 100 days bloom in ways you can’t yet imagine.

The universe is within you.
You are becoming who you were always meant to be.
You are called not to escape the world—but to deepen into it.

Let’s keep walking together.

With gratitude and peace,
Erin

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#EMBodyWisdom #100DaysOfWisdom #StayConnected #SpiritualPractice #EmbodiedFaith #WeeklyWisdom