When Sallie first reached out to me to ask me if I thought The Lifehouse Body & Soul Practice could help her, I told her “Absolutely.”
Sallie had lost her husband a year earlier to cancer, leaving her a widow and single mother to four children. She was making her way, involved in support groups, and recently remarried to a wonderful man who’d also lost his wife to cancer.
With a now-blended family of eight kids, Sallie had so much to live for and so many reasons to get herself back to where she was fully functioning.
But even with all the efforts she’d made, she felt that there was still healing that needed to happen. She bravely showed up to Practice at Lifehouse Body & Soul.
Sallie was a natural with group exercise. She was strong, beautiful, and physically fit, and she attacked our challenging morning workouts with energy.
It was the second half of class, the part of class where we slow things down, breathe, stretch, feel our bodies, and create space for our emotions to process, where Sallie struggled at first.
I’ll never forget the first classes where I witnessed Sallie’s entire body clench up: her shoulders tight, her hips refusing to let go, her breath caught in her chest, afraid to release all that her body had been carrying for the past months. Tears overflowed and the intensity was almost too much for her to bear.
Sallie would text me after Practice, “I feel so much emotion, there’s so much coming up for me. Is this normal?” she would ask.
“Yes, it is. You’ve experienced a life-altering trauma, and your body is holding onto all that pain, all that fear. Unfortunately, if you really want to heal, you can’t go over it, under it, or around. You’re going to have to go through. And you’re strong enough to do it, here….with all of us holding you up. You’re not alone.”
I knew this because I had moved through my own grief. I had felt the same resistance. I encouraged her to keep coming, and Sallie did, so bravely, so consistently.
It wasn’t long before Sallie’s body stopped fighting. Practice classes gave her the opportunity to keep softening, keep listening, keep surrendering to the emotions that had gotten stuck when life had forced her into survival mode.
She came to our Mindful Living Course classes devotedly and learned a whole new vocabulary to match the organic process she was experiencing through her body.
Mantras like “Thy will, not mine, be done,” “There is room for this, too,” and “I can’t, He can, and I will let Him,” became life rafts in the turbulent sea of her healing.
Over time, it was a sacred privilege to witness Sallie transform, to watch her body literally heal from the hard-wired trauma responses that had become an unwelcome override to her operating system.
Sallie became one of our most dedicated students, crediting the mindfulness tools and sacred space of love and acceptance in this community for her miraculous healing journey through the darkness of her profound grief, giving her the tools to propel herself towards a bright future.
At Lifehouse Body & Soul, we don’t have any magic wands nor do we profess a systematic strategy guaranteed to fix all your problems.
In our experience, that’s just not how deep, spiritual healing works.
We simply offer the grounded, intuitive, and time-tested tools and compassionate framework that can help you find yourself: mind, body, and spirit.
We teach self-reflection: how to observe without judgment. How to respond with love. How to allow discomfort without resisting it. How to trust that you really are big enough to hold pain and uncertainty and deeply know that you will never be asked to do it alone.
The most surprising thing for so many people to realize is that everything they were looking for all along, is already right here, within them, exactly as they are.
People like Sallie become true, spiritual friends; fellow travelers on a lifetime journey of personal growth.
If you or someone you know is interested in a soul-level transformation to heal what is still not yet aligned in your heart or bodily tissues, we’d love to work with you. With consistent practice, an open mind, and a willing heart, there is nothing that cannot be healed.
A free consultation can help you understand which of our programs might be the best fit for you. We would love nothing more than to help you find the joy and inner freedom you were born for.
We’re so grateful to Sallie for being part of our Body & Soul family and allowing us to share her story.
With Love & Gratitude,
Becky
