Rising Strong Wellness LLC

09/02/2026

What actually happens during The Whole Body Experience?
Not just what’s on the schedule.
What happens between us.
We listen to stories that may sound like ours — and stories that may not.
We get curious about the messages we’ve inherited about bodies, beauty, health, race, gender, size, age, ability, sexuality, belonging, and worth.

We make space for reflection instead of rushing to conclusions.
We let art, music, poetry, conversation, and creativity do some of the work that information alone can’t do.
We practice being in a room with difference.
We remember that nobody has to perform their story, defend their body, or arrive with the “right” language in order to belong.
And hopefully, we leave with a little more understanding.
Of ourselves.
Of each other.
Of the systems and stories that shape how we move through the world in bodies.

That’s why I’m creating this gathering.
Because I don’t think body image changes only by learning to think nicer thoughts about ourselves.
Our relationships with our bodies are shaped in relationship — by families, communities, institutions, culture, healthcare, religion, media, wellness spaces, and one another.
Which means healing can’t happen entirely in isolation either.

For three hours on October 10, we’re going to practice something different.
Listening well.
Staying curious.
Making room.
Creating together.
Letting joy sit beside complexity.

And asking a question I don’t think any one speaker can answer:
What does it mean to live in a body right now?
I think we need more than one story to answer that.
I think we need a room full of them.

The Whole Body Experience
October 10, 2026
Grand Rapids, MI
In Person + Digital & Digital Only
Every body has a story.
This is a space to hear more of them.

08/31/2026

A smaller room. A bigger conversation.
I’ve been listening to and noticing the people around me.
To what our communities are carrying right now.
To my own body.
And somewhere along the way, I realized I was trying very hard to make The Whole Body Experience fit the shape I had originally imagined for it.

A full-day conference. A big venue. Panels. Vendors. A packed schedule.
But the more I sat with the heart of this work, the clearer something became:
I don’t think we need more right now. I think we need closer.
So The Whole Body Experience is changing shape.

On Saturday, October 10, we’ll gather at Yogi Union Studio in Grand Rapids from 2–5 PM for an intimate afternoon exploring one enormous question:
What does it mean to live in a body right now?

A body shaped by family and culture. By beauty standards and health messages. By race, gender, size, age, ability, sexuality, religion, access, belonging, and all the things we’ve been taught a body is supposed to be.
I’ll share my State of the Body talk live, but I don’t want this afternoon to be three hours of people sitting in chairs listening to experts tell them about their bodies.

I want us to experience something together.
There will be stories. Space to meet one another, laugh, make something, listen, and be witnessed.

And the experience is actually becoming bigger than the room.
Every in-person ticket will include access to a digital Whole Body Experience featuring recorded guest experts—including Jackie Blankenship, speaker, storyteller, and intersex advocate—along with additional teachings, reflection experiences, resources, and a new Whole Body Community Care Guide connecting you with people and organizations doing good work in our community.
There will also be a digital-only option for those who can't join us in Grand Rapids.

And because access matters to me, we’re creating a way to both give and receive supported tickets.
The mission hasn’t changed.
If anything, I understand it more clearly now.

Our relationships with our bodies are deeply personal, but they were never created in isolation. And I believe changing the way we relate to bodies—our own and one another’s—is part of how we create a more compassionate and just world.

Every body has a story.
This is a space to hear more of them.

The Whole Body Experience
Saturday, October 10, 2026
2:00–5:00 PM
Yogi Union Studio | Grand Rapids

In Person + Digital: $85
Digital Only: $45
Supported tickets: Give or receive

🎟️ Registration is officially open.

And I’ll be going LIVE today to tell you more about why I made this change, what I’m creating, and what you can expect on October 10.
I hope you’ll come be part of it.

08/26/2026

"There is no such thing as natural beauty." — Dolly, in Steel Magnolias, saying more than she knew. New essay on Dolly Parton as Aphrodite, Athena, and Hestia all at once — and what her body taught the rest of us about belonging to ourselves.

On big hair, small bodies, artificial beauty, and being real where it counts

08/20/2026

I'm hoping to welcome 5 new people into Rest & Reflect this fall. 🍂
I've started noticing the shift.
The light is a little different in the evening. The garden is full and heavy. Summer isn't over—not even close—but the first signs of what's coming next are beginning to appear.

And I can feel the shift in myself, too.
This time of year always seems to carry so many things at once.
There can be a sweetness to returning to routine after the looseness of summer. Maybe you're ready for a little more structure, familiar rhythms, meals at home, earlier evenings.

And there can also be a heaviness to it.
Calendars begin filling. School starts. Work picks up. The holidays aren't that far away. Suddenly the slower rhythms we promised ourselves we'd hold onto start disappearing underneath everything that needs to be done.
I've been thinking a lot about that as I prepare for fall inside Rest & Reflect.
Because I don't think what most of us need is another routine telling us how to do life better.

I think we need places that help us stay connected to ourselves while we're living it.
That's what I want Rest & Reflect to be.
A place to notice the season you're actually in—outside your window and inside your own body.
A place for gentle movement, meditation, reflection, creativity, seasonal wisdom, nourishment, and conversation.
A place where you don't have to perform or keep up.
You can simply arrive.
As we move toward fall, I'd love to welcome five new people into this little community.
Maybe you've been here quietly reading for a while. Maybe you've wondered about the membership but haven't quite stepped inside. Or maybe you're simply realizing that as life gets busier again, you'd like to have something that helps you stay connected to yourself through it.
If that's you, comment FALL or send me a DM with the word FALL. I'll personally send you the details and you can see if it feels like the right fit.
No pressure or convincing.
Just an open door.
Because maybe what we need this fall isn't a better way to keep up with everything.
Maybe we need something that helps us remember ourselves while we're doing it. 🍂

08/17/2026

Here’s where I’m teaching this week 🌿
If your body is craving a little more slowness, presence, and space to actually feel yourself in your practice, I’d love to have you join me.
This week I’m subbing two Slow Burn classes at Yogi Union Studio:
✨ Tuesday at 9am
✨ Thursday at 11am
Both classes have a virtual option, too.
Slow Burn is a slower-paced practice with lots of balance poses and long, steady holds. We’ll give ourselves time to notice what’s happening in the body, build awareness, and explore strength without rushing through the experience.
And on Sunday, I’ll be teaching at Wild Zen Yoga Festival.
I’m closing out the weekend with Between Here & Home—an integrative practice that feels a little like our collective exhale.
Together, we’ll slow everything down with gentle restorative movement, guided relaxation, energy awareness, and a little Yoga Nidra.
We’ll give your body and nervous system some space to settle and begin integrating everything the weekend has held for you.
There’s nothing you need to accomplish.
Nothing you need to figure out.
Just a little space to notice:
What do I want to carry home with me?
And what am I ready to leave here?
Before we pack the cars, hug our new friends goodbye, and return to everyday life, I’d love to share this final practice with you.
Come exactly as you are—tired, full, tender, energized, or somewhere in between.
I’ll meet you Between Here & Home. 🌿
If you’ve been meaning to practice with me, this is a beautiful week to do it. I’d love to see you on the mat.

08/10/2026

I think I'm breaking up with leggings. (Not entirely — I love them, this is complicated.)
But after my pelvic floor PT suggested looser pants, I noticed something I wasn't expecting.
My body softened.
I didn't have to suck in, adjust, smooth, or fit myself into anything. The pants met me. And that got me thinking about leggings as the unofficial uniform of Western yoga and wellness — and about all the other costumes we wear to play the roles we've been handed: the fit woman, the disciplined woman, the desirable woman, the yoga teacher, the wellness professional, the woman who has it all together.
What if our clothes don't need to make our bodies look better? What if their only job is to accommodate the bodies inside them? And maybe the bigger question — why does my stomach need to look like anything at all?
I wrote about leggings, soft bellies, body image, and the systems we can be wearing the costume of without ever realizing it.

https://risingstrongwellness.substack.com/p/unpopular-opinion-from-a-white-lady?r=gniru&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/08/2026

We Consume So Much More Than Food
We live in a world that is constantly asking us to take in more.
More information. More opinions. More notifications. More conversations. More responsibilities. More headlines. More social media. More decisions.
Then there are all the things we don't usually think of as something we consume.
A beautiful sunset.
A difficult conversation.
A memory that unexpectedly resurfaces.
The joy of watching someone you love thrive.
The grief that quietly follows you through the day.
The stories you've been told about who you should be.
The stories you've told yourself.
The experiences you've lived.
Even the beautiful things ask something of us.
In Ayurveda, we often talk about digestion in relation to food, and I'd love to explore that together another time. But this time, I'm talking about the digestion of life itself.
Our nervous systems are constantly taking in experiences, emotions, relationships, memories, expectations, and the endless stream of information that surrounds us. It's no wonder we can feel fuller than we do after a Thanksgiving dinner.
And when we feel full, our first instinct is often to reach for more.
More answers.
More healing.
More podcasts.
More books.
More scrolling.
More doing.
But somewhere deep inside, I think many of us already know...
What we really need isn't more. We need a little more room for what we've already received.
That's the intention behind The Digestive Experience.
Not to fix your life.
Not to solve every problem.

Simply to create a gentle space where your body can begin to integrate what it's been carrying and remember its own innate wisdom.
✨ If your heart is longing for a little more room to breathe, I'd love to have you join me this Sunday, August 9 at 9:00 AM Eastern. Together we'll spend 75 minutes slowing down, resting deeply, and allowing the body to catch up with life. If you can't join us live, you'll receive the replay.
Registration is open through the link in my bio.
And as always, nobody gets left behind. If cost is a barrier, please reach out. We'll find a way to make sure you can join us.