Grief is not tidy. It does not move in straight lines, and it rarely follows our timelines. In this episode, we explore the misunderstood journey of grief, from denial and anger to bargaining, sorrow, and acceptance. These phases are not boxes to check. They are movements of the heart that require honesty and space.

We also talk about what happens when we try to build a false bridge around grief, bypassing the pain through spiritual language, quick encouragement, or pressure to move on. That bridge feels efficient, but it leads nowhere. What we avoid does not disappear. It waits.

Through personal stories and real conversations, we unpack the practice of lamenting, an ancient and deeply human way of expressing sorrow without denying faith. Lament gives language to loss. It creates room for anger, confusion, and longing in the presence of God and trusted community.

We also ask a hard question: what does grieving well look like when someone we love is in the middle of it? Often it means setting aside advice, timelines, and “shoulds,” and simply sitting with sorrow without trying to fix it.

Resilience is not built by avoiding grief. It grows when we allow ourselves and others to feel it fully, honestly, and together.

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The world feels heavy right now. Constant news cycles, cultural tension, and emotional overload can quietly erode our sense of safety. Our heart behind this practice track is simple: to offer tools that help people build real resilience in their bodies and relationships, especially in seasons that feel overwhelming.

This episode begins the “Sit With Me” mini series within Rhythms of Resilience. These shorter episodes are designed to give you practical, embodied skills you can practice with a trusted friend. Resilience is not built through information alone. It grows in shared presence.

We share a story from the early days after the birth of Cassidy's baby, when Amber was helping and a challenge arose with the kids. In a moment where stress could have escalated quickly, attunement changed the direction. We explore how to move through stress while staying relational, how to elevate the relationship over the problem, and how breath helps the body return to safety. You will also practice borrowing calm from someone steady and sharing joy filled memories as a way to strengthen connection and resilience.

In a world that pulls us toward reactivity, this episode invites you to slow down, sit with someone safe, and practice staying connected. Find a friend. Try it together.

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Most of us would say we know how to listen. But when someone shares pain, uncertainty, or confusion, something often shifts inside us. We feel the urge to fix, explain, spiritualize, or move the conversation along.

In this episode, Maureen Jones returns to continue the conversation about healing and resilience by focusing on one of the most overlooked skills in community—listening. Together, we explore what happens when people do not have anyone in their lives who can truly listen without correcting, advising, or quoting Scripture as a way to avoid discomfort.

We examine how another person’s pain can activate our own unresolved places, why we fear that someone else’s “funk” will somehow infect us, and how spiritual bypassing keeps us distant from honest connection. Through self reflection and story, this episode challenges us to ask why presence feels so hard and what it reveals about our own inner work.

Resilience grows when people are heard. This conversation invites us to slow down, notice our reactions, and relearn how to stay present with one another.

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We know what to do when the body is injured. We clean the wound, protect it, and give it time to heal. But what happens when the injury is to the heart, and no one ever teaches us how to tend to it?

In this episode, we explore the difference between visible wounds and the unseen injuries we carry in our souls. Joined by Maureen Jones, wife of our previous guest ,Joe Jones, former megachurch pastor gone relationship based discipleship. Maureen is a missionary, and an advanced facilitator with the Trauma Healing Institute, and we talk honestly about what happens when pain goes unacknowledged and unshared.

Together, we share personal stories of suffering injuries without having safe people to be fully honest with, and how untreated wounds quietly shape our faith, relationships, and sense of self. From Wales to our own journeys, this conversation invites listeners to consider why healing requires more than endurance, and why tending the heart with care, truth, and community is essential for resilience.

This episode continues the rhythm of learning to notice, name, and gently care for what hurts.

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The holidays have a way of bringing everything to the surface. Expectations rise, schedules fill, old family dynamics reappear, and somehow we’re still expected to enjoy ourselves. When it’s over, many of us are left tired, disconnected, or quietly grieving—and not entirely sure why.

Rhythms of Resilience is our new podcast series that explores the wounds of the heart, including grief, loss, life transitions, and the ways we adapt when safety and connection were missing. The hope for our listeners is to have a place to become attuned with their stories, and for our listeners to get equipped with emotional resiliency skills that can be used in the day to day.

Throughout the series, we will be joined by trusted guests as we unpack core themes from the Trauma Healing Institute courses we have been facilitating for years, offering language, insight, and practices that help build tools for your emotional growth in a grounded and accessible way.

In this opening episode, we share how we came to recognize the need for healing and why authenticity and community are not optional for restoration. We set the foundation for the conversations ahead, introducing why healing does not happen in isolation, why God is not threatened by our honesty, and why staying attuned to ourselves and others is essential for the connection needed to live set free healed and delivered.

This episode opens the door. The journey continues.

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In this episode, we sit down with the brilliant and deeply grounded Jessie Cruickshank—an ordained minister, Harvard-trained neuroeducator, and globally respected leader in discipleship, missiology, and spiritual formation. Jessie brings her unique blend of neuroscience and Kingdom insight to a conversation that pulls back the curtain on how the Western brain—and the Western church—may be unintentionally working against the very community and mission Jesus calls us into.

We talk about the fascinating reality that, biologically, in the Western world have developed a biologically distinct “me” and “you” brain pattern —one that often eliminates the innate, God-designed “we.” While nations around the world are actively seeking the lost, much of the Western church is still praying for revival without stepping beyond its own walls to join the harvest already outside.

Jessie helps us understand why this happens from a neurological and spiritual standpoint, and offers practical, accessible steps for calming our brains so we can re-engage with Jesus, with others, and with Kingdom trust on a deeper level. Together, we explore what it really looks like to make the radical shift from self-protective individualism to the courageous, communal faith that aligns with the heart of God.

If you’ve ever felt the tension between longing for Kingdom movement and feeling stuck in personal or cultural patterns, this conversation will give you clarity, compassion, and a next step.

Featuring:
 Jessie Cruickshank — Author of Ordinary Discipleship; Co-Leader of V3 church planting movement; Founder of Whoology; Co-Founder of 5Q; Co-Author of Activating 5Q; and a pioneering voice in the field of neuro-ecclesiology.

In this episode, we kick things off with some laughter as we swap stories about our kids, their latest bumps and bruises, and the unexpected trips to the chiropractor that followed. But those funny moments open the door to a deeper conversation about spiritual alignment—and how much it mirrors the physical kind.

We talk honestly about the first step toward healing: admitting something hurts. Why is humility so hard when it comes to receiving help? And is our fear of pain actually keeping us from the very process God designed to birth us into His Kingdom?

Together, we explore why God allows the squeezing, stretching, and realigning moments in our lives, and whether the lack of Kingdom demonstration leads His children to face the same painful adjustments again and again. Most of all, we reflect on the ongoing process of letting Jesus gently “adjust” us into wholeness.

If you’ve ever found yourself resisting the discomfort of spiritual growth—or wondering why alignment seems to be a recurring theme—this episode will feel like a deep breath and a divine reset.

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In Part 2, Joe unpacks the concept of the wool ball and how it relates to the story about friendship, weaving, and what it means to be so spun together that you can’t tell where one life ends and another begins. From African villages to living rooms in the UK, he’s seen what happens when people trade programs and attendance for patience and proximity.

We talk about slowing down enough to form real community, why results don’t come quickly, and how Jesus didn’t build a crowd—He built a family. It’s silly, deep, and full of warmth for anyone tired of fake togetherness.

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Meet Joe Jones—retired megachurch pastor turned house church leader, missionary, and storyteller with decades of dust on his boots from the UK, Africa, and the Middle East. Joe sits down with us to talk about relational apprenticeship—what has to shift inside us before we can step into the kind of relationships that actually change us.

We talk about the old rabbinic blessing, “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi,” and what it means to walk close enough to Jesus—and one another—to be shaped by the journey. It’s light, honest, and full of stories that will make you laugh while they quietly dismantle your hurry.

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Amber opens with a story from her Air Force training where she may have slapped a fake patient in a simulation as her fake airplane was sinking into water (yes, really). It becomes the perfect metaphor: we often want to slap people into growth or maturity—but real friendship doesn’t work like that.

This episode dives into what happens when friendship becomes transactional, one-dimensional, or just emotional customer service. We talk about the exhaustion of fixing people, the harm of institutional “togetherness,” why patience matters, and why spicy honesty is part of love—not the opposite of it.

If you’ve ever wanted to rush someone’s transformation or wondered why surface-level community feels so empty, this one goes deep (with laughs, curry references, and real talk).

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