If you know anything about me or my story then you probably know that after walking away from the NFL, I went on an inner-healing journey where I spent years in therapy getting close to my pain so that I could begin to heal and set myself free from the emotional trauma that was keeping me stuck and absolutely miserable in life. This season of healing undoubtedly changed everything for me. And I know that I’m not alone. People all over the world are beginning to understand the importance of healing your emotional trauma and as a result, people are experiencing new levels of freedom and a greater measure of inner peace then ever before. And, that’s why I’m so excited for this episode. I had the chance to sit down with my good friend and trauma coach Sarah Baldwin where we had the chance to talk more about trauma and how it affects you.—especially in the area of learning how to receive love in your life. We talked about the role it plays when it comes to having boundaries and needs in our relationships. She also went on to explain how trauma is stored in our body and she gives some amazing examples of grounding tools that we can implement in our lives when we’re triggered. Lastly, Sarah gave a beautiful explanation on how healing your trauma is directly correlated to finding your purpose in life. You can find Sarah on Instagram, here. You can find Sarah's website, here.

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In this short clip, Jonathan Martin breaks down his thoughts around surrendering, letting go and taking the time to grieve so that we can create new life.

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If you know anything about my story then you probably know that after I walked away from the NFL, I moved to Canada where I started to serve a church so that I could get mentored and start healing the pain that was keeping me stuck and miserable in life. And as you might imagine, the first several months of this season of life was anything but easy. I was more confused and frustrated and angry than ever before. I’ve never felt so lost and my heart was drowning in a sea of despair. The hard part wasn’t necessarily finding the discipline to show up every day, that wasn’t the case. The hard part, and maybe you can relate, was trying to understand what was happening in my heart and in my life. Nothing made sense. I couldn’t conceptually understand what was happening. There was no formula for this process, no playbook that gave me a play by play. It felt as if I was walking blind and had no idea where my next step was going to land me. The uncertainty of this season of surrendering, or letting go, was almost unbearable until one day, while cleaning the church’s bathrooms, I heard Jonathan come on a random podcast and share his own story of brokenness, his season of surrendering, or letting go, or what he calls his Shipwreck. From that moment on, everything changed. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I consumed every piece of content that I could get my hands on that Jonathan published and his voice and through his written word, his story slowly became a prophesy for what was to come in my own life, and truthfully, I’ve never been the same.

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Although I’ve gotten much better with it, at one time I was controlled by my emotions. I lived a reactionary life dictated by what I was feeling and as you can imagine, it was a powerless life. I was constantly forfeiting my joy and my happiness. When I brought that up in this episode 5 the Steven Matthew Adams, Steven broke down a simple tool that you can begin to implement in your life that will help you detach from any negative thought or emotion that you might be feeling or experiencing, diffuse its’ power, and respond in a healthy and empowering way. In other words, this simple tool will help you reclaim your power as you no longer allow other people or circumstances to dictate your happiness and your life.

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Let’s be honest, how many of you listening would say you’re happy from time to time, but sustainable happiness is just out of the question. How many of you know that taking the time to just be and to sit still is a key to healing, but yet rarely do you find yourself ever doing it. How many of you know that sitting still with your thoughts and emotions while observing and bringing awareness to them is critical when you’re learning how to process what you feel, but yet when you try, it seems nearly impossible. If you can relate to any of this, then you don’t want to miss this episode. When I walked away from the NFL and went on this healing journey, I was the least self-aware person you’ve ever met. Sitting still was out of the question and I was constantly having knee-jerk reactions to my emotions. Overwhelmed by my feelings, I would be lost in them for what seemed like days upon days leaving me more anxious and more depressed then ever before. That’s why I love this episode with Steven Matthew Adams. Steven not only helps people design sustainably happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives, but his work promotes enhanced self-awareness and meaningful change by integrating Eastern Wisdom and western living. In this episode we break down why people aren’t happy and what you can do about it. We talk about meditation and the art of sitting still. And Steven takes time to break down how you can begin to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting overwhelmed and so much more. I hope you learn from Steven and this episode as much as I did.   Find Steven on Instagram Here Read More About Steven Here Order His Book Here

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I opened up the podcast with Jedidiah Jenkins with a question that was influenced by Richard Rohr’s book, Falling Upward. The message of Falling Upward is straightforward and bracing: the spiritual life is not static. You will come to a crisis in your life, and after the crisis, if you are open to it, you will enter a space of spiritual refreshment, peace and compassion that you could not have imagined before. What you thought you knew about living the spiritual life no longer suffices for the life you are now living. With that being said, I wanted to know how Jed’s relationship with God, or how his view of Christianity has changed as he navigated the depths of his own brokenness and crisis. Here’s what he had to say.

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In this episode of the Naked Soul podcast, I had the the absolute privilege of sitting with Jedidiah Jenkins. Jed is someone who has continuously blessed and encouraged me in life, not just because he’s a profound writer and author or because he’s an influencer and entrepreneur, but he has blessed and encouraged me because he as chosen to live a brave life. A brave life where he continuously does the hard things like showing up and allowing himself to be fully seen. And on this episode we talk about the power of community, self-acceptance, belonging and Jed takes the time to get really raw and really vulnerable as he opens up about one of the more darker moments of his life and how he worked through that shame. Sitting down with Jed for this episode was like going to church and more and I hope that this episode and his words are as healing for you as they were for me. And, in case you don’t know, Jed is so many different things to include the Executive Editor for Wilderness magazine and most recently, he published his book, To Shake A Sleeping Self. This book will make you laugh, cry, then laugh some more, and then cry some more. In this brazenly honest book, Jed shares with us how on the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn't choose, He quits his dream job and spends the next sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and profound reflections on life soon attracted hundreds of thousands of followers and got him featured by National Geographic and The Paris Review. On this adventure, As he traverses cities, mountains, and exotic locales, Jed grapples with the questions of what it means to be an adult, his struggle to reconcile his sexual identity with his conservative Christian upbringing, and his belief in travel as a way to "wake us up" to life back home. This is a book that I can’t recommend enough. Buy a copy for yourself, for your family, for your friends, heck, buy a copy for your mailman. Seriously, it’s that good.

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One of the reasons that I love Episode 3 with Morgan Harper Nichols so much is because Morgan took the time to be open and honest about the doubt that she has experienced in her journey to where she is at now. I took the time to ask her what she would say to those who finds themselves in the same place she was in not too long ago knowing what she knows now. If you’re in a season where you took a big risk with your life, or you walked away from a career to follow your passion or maybe you just left a relationship and you’re not quite sure where it’s all leading, then this is for you.

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This episode of the Naked Soul Podcast, I had a chance to sit with Morgan Harper Nichols, and I can not even begin to tell you how excited I am to share this conversation with you all. Morgan is a writer, artist, and musician who makes her work around people and their stories. In 2017, Morgan started a project where she invites people to submit their stories to her website. From there, she creates art inspired by what they send her, and then, sends them the art, for free. Nearly everything Morgan creates and shares today, that you see on Instagram, is from this project. And this project reaches hundreds of thousands of people. But, that’s not what I’m most excited about. What I’m most excited about was Morgan willingness to be honest, vulnerable and transparent. I think we can all agree that at some point in time, we can find ourselves in life feeling so far behind. We get caught up in these seasons where nothing is seemingly going right, life as we once knew it is falling apart and we don’t know how things are going to possibly work out. And, what I really love about this episode is that Morgan was there, full of doubt and despair, but she so beautifully reminds us that we are only a moment away from everything changing. In Morgan’s darkest hour, in a season where nothing made sense, a season where no matter how hard she tried, nothing was going right , she published a poem from this place of brokenness that changed everything. I hope that this conversation reminds you that no matter how bad it might get, no matter how lost you might feel, no matter how much doubt you wake up with, you are only one moment from your life forever changing. I hope this episode blesses you as much as it did me.

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I’m not for sure if you have had a chance to listen to episode #2—surrendering to the force of love with Allision Fallon, and if you haven’t, I highly encourage you to do so, but I wanted to publish this short clip from the episode because I think it’s so important to recognize this in each one of our lives. In this clip, I love how she uses the language of surrendering to the force of love and what she means by that and what I take from that is that there is a bigger story being played out in the midst of our own stories of brokenness, heartbreak and pain. Often times, it’s so easy, especially in the midst of heartbreak or transition or when life throws us a curve balls, it’s so easy to make life all about what’s not happening or what’s not going right or the pain that we’re currently in, but when we recognize that the force of love is at play, we can rest knowing that despite things not working out the way we might have expected them to work out, or despite the pain that is happening in your life in this moment, love is at work & what’s meant for you, won’t miss you. But, it’s our job to begin to realize that in the midst of it all, there is an opportunity to surrender to love and in the process we can begin to heal from the inside out and become more like love.  

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