Ahoy there!

I’m Kristen, and I’m here to help your soul and your nervous system survive the demands of the modern world.

I believe healing shouldn’t take forever, cost a bajillion dollars, or even require the wearing of pants — which is why I love breathwork so much. 👉🏻 Go get your free breathwork class!

🔥 I communicate primarily through email, so please join my list if you enjoy what you’ve found here.

listen to the podcast, make meaning

No and Knowing

You know what people I deeply admire are really good at, no matter their other beliefs or talents?

Decision-making.

They have figured out how to reach a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or a ‘give me more information please.’

They know how to FIND THE ANSWER WITHIN THEMSELVES, regardless of what the world is saying or doing or yelling or ignoring.

In this episode of That’s What She Said, Sara Arey and I explore the world of No-ing and Knowing.

There are many ways to approach decision-making that aren’t ‘thinking about it’ while endlessly looping in ‘I don’t know.’

We’ll help you distinguish between logical thinking and intuitive knowing. That’s a crucial part of making choices that align with your WHOLE BEING, not just your calendar or bank account.

Sara and I will also help you hone the bodily awareness and feeling powers that help you reach a decision. ANY decision, not just one about the Creation Constellation retreat we’re hosting in February.

If “I don’t know’ is your Achilles heel, we’ll also talk about the upsides and downsides of this handly little phrase.

The Creation Constellation retreat will deeply align you with your power and life force.

If you’re facing a big challenge, a new chapter, or an overwhelming period in which the some shitty pattern replays over and over and over, this IS for you.

✨ Book your call to talk with us about attending.

No sales page, nowhere to read bullet points, just one call stands between you and the retreat!

P.S. Listen to this podcast episode for a deeper dive into what the retreat entails!

figure out what you want, listen to the podcast

Brand New Magic

You know that thing?

…that vivid vision that haunts you, but you can’t figure out where it fits in your life so you tell yourself you’ll worry about it later?

…that dream you’ve had for years now, but you’ve taken zero steps toward bringing it to life?

…that pattern you keep repeating and you’ve decided to solve it through SHEER WORRY because SURELY if you just quietly freak out for another six months, you’ll find the answer?

…that problem you keep to yourself, hoping it will resolve with no further attention?

I know how much you want to handle those dreams and visions and problems and patterns ALONE.

I know how much paralysis comes from not knowing EXACTLY how to begin.

And I know how much movement comes from sharing the glorious mess of you with other humans.

YES OF COURSE I KNOW YOU’D RATHER BE PERFECT AND NEED NO ONE.

But that doesn’t appear to be how this whole ‘being human’ thing works.

We need each other when we’re sloppy or lost or confused or running in circles or just beginning something important.

We need each other MOST when we’re trying to follow the faint nudges of intuition that a few thousand years of patriarchy have tried to kill.

If you find yourself at a crossroads, a precipice, or quietly spinning your wheels, listen to this week’s podcast.

In this episode of That’s What She Said,
Sara Arey and I
introduce you to our winter retreat,
walk you through why you care and who it’s for,
then invite you to talk to us about attending.

Spoiler alert: you’ll enjoy chatting with the two of us whether you decide to attend or not. We’re friggin magical.

Book your call with us.

Hugs,
K

listen to the podcast, read a poem

Dance of the Heretic 💃🏼

My past year has basically been a tour of everywhere that you do not want to go as a human: loss, failure, loneliness, detachment, existential angst, grief, both parents’ cancer, and fear.

AND I’M STILL HERE.

This episode of That’s What She Said details the ways I’ve moved through the time since losing my mom.

Take a meander through the most devastating year of my life, embroidered with poems and tenderness and laughter.

In this episode, I’ll walk you through the practice that helped to reconnect me to my body, my breath, and my being when grief hit. Then, I’ll share completely heretical, would-have-gotten-me-burned-at-the-stake things I’ve learned to help me re-establish my connection to the divine.

I encourage you to embrace the bigger, larger, more profound connection to the divine that I’m detailing within this episode. It’s a connection I never found in a church of any denomination, but that I feel each time I place my feet on the earth. (Related: coming out of the spiritual closet.)

Progress Report

In the sacred text
left behind by Mary Magdalene,
the word ‘God’ was replaced by
‘The Good.’

Mama I saw
snowdrops yesterday.
They were revealed when the snow melted,
blooming on ice.

I almost genuflected in the mud.

Mama I’ve seen
birds bathing in the stream
as the woods thawed
and the juncos were passing through,

I’ve seen fog and rain
and the leaves falling one by one
for weeks until only a handful
hung on for winter,

I’ve seen deer
wandering through the forest
and a fox slinking through the snow.

Mama now I know
the pulsing of the land, alive,
even in winter.

I can feel the creek’s current
in my fingertips as it passes.

I’ve drawn the sun into my chest
and danced as if you’ve never left;
I’ve wet the forest floor with tears
for everything we did
and did not say.

Mama I’ve never danced so much.

I’ve shown up in the forest and loved
you, the world, the sky,
The Good,
even when nothing felt good
and I wanted to join you
somewhere beneath the earth.

Mama, I’ve seen
The Good.

Mama.
I’ve seen The Good.

P.S. The word Heretic is IN THE TITLE, so please don’t listen if you’re a Good Catholic Looking to Take Offense At Every Word I Say.

If you’re curious about how a formerly Catholic woman moves beyond early experiences of church to reclaim her connection to the divine — listen in now.

listen to the podcast

In my IDGAF era

Last week I heckled a man with a gun. It’s the PERFECT way to kick off my IDGAF era!

I’ll tell you the story in this episode of That’s What She Said.

WHAT DOES YOUR IDGAF ERA MEAN, KRISTEN?

Since I started a business 15 years ago, I’ve made things with all of my heart and soul. I’ve cared about every creation so deeply that I could hardly speak about it. I then followed a general pattern of undervaluing my work, beginning to value it, and then pricing myself right out of the market as I gained confidence.

It happened with photography, with ghostwriting, with straight-up writing, and with business coaching over the course of the past 15 years.

Throughout time, I’ve consciously asked: how do I make meaning through the ways that I make money?

For the first time, here’s what I’m doing:

I’m gonna play.
I’m gonna make products.

If they work, great.
If they don’t work, great.

I’m consciously untying money from meaning in 2024.

This translates to creating a number of biz experiments just to see what happens. Some are private, some are public, some will use my real name, and some a pseudonym.

This is about holding my creations as they relate to capitalism a little more loosely, giving my ideas room to breathe, and reporting back about what I find.

My IDGAF era is for stretching those
purely-for-the-hell-of-it
muscles.

EXPERIMENT #1:

I’ve created literal IDGAF jewelry for my new experimental shop, Goldenswift!

These talismans are inspired by Taylor Swift’s use of the word ‘Eras’ to describe life phases.

⚡️ Grab your IDGAF era jewelry at Goldenswift.

P.S. On your own journey to IDGAF, may I suggest creating a NO Collection? 😉

listen to the podcast

Reporting From Toothpaste (And by toothpaste I mean burnout)

For a number of months there I felt like toothpaste.

You know how, when you have toothpaste and it’s in a tube, you come to the end…

…and then you roll it all the way down until eventually there’s just nothing left.

You don’t have new toothpaste so you’re just desperately pressing on the tube, like. “COME ON, GIMME SOMETHINGGGGG!!!”

But there’s nothing. No matter how hard you squeeze.

That was my life for a number of months last year. We could call it burnout, but that sounds so clean and easily spotted. This was trickier.

As much as I was like, “Just squeeze it harder!!!!!,” my method didn’t work.

If you’re doing capitalism in any sort of ongoing way, you’ll have your toothpaste moments when there’s just…nothing left.

This episode of the That’s What She Said podcast is for your toothpaste moments.

How do you navigate from NOTHING to something?
How do you begin to fill your tank if it’s been on E for days or weeks or months or years or decades?
What’s so bad about being the human equivalent of an empty tube of toothpaste?

We’ll get really existential and really practical together in this episode of That’s What She Said.

P.S. Did you see that Rob Bell was in the house recently? Go listen!