Sacred Ground: The Work Begins Now
I've been thinking about what people actually need...Just raw honesty.
Welcome to Sacred Ground - my weekly newsletter where we do the real work together. The messy, honest work that actually changes your life.
Every Wednesday, I'll share what I'm learning in the trenches - both my own journey and what I see in my practice as a wilderness therapist. You'll get practices you can actually use.
If you're here, you're ready for something real.
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The Story
June 24th, 2022. One month into building my private practice, fresh out of grad school. I had exactly one client and was scared as hell.
That morning: my stepfather died by suicide.
The only male figure who'd ever really shown up for me. Who wanted real relationship, not surface level bullshit. We'd talk about mental health, the deep stuff that mattered. I'd married him and my mom in the mountains just years before.
Then grief came in threes. My daughter in August. My father-in-law in December.
I had a choice: shut down the practice or leap into the unknown while my world was falling apart.
I chose the leap. Not because I was brave, but because I had fire in my belly bigger than my fear.
What I've Learned
Here's what I've learned: The men I work with come in successful but empty. They've built the life they thought they wanted, but their relationships mirror back everything they don't want to see about themselves. They feel not enough, carrying shame they can't name.
When we dig deeper, it's always the same thing underneath: grief. Grief for what they thought it would be.
Our culture sells us this story that relationships should be easy, beautiful, always growing. The truth? They're hard as hell and reveal everything we've been avoiding about ourselves.
The breakthrough happens when we stop trying to fix it and start honoring it. When we build relationship with our grief instead of running from it.
That's where real strength lives - not in avoiding the pain, but in learning how to be with it.
Practice: Feed Your Grief to the Earth
Here's how to actually do this (because talking to dirt might feel weird at first):
Step 1: Gather Your Offering Before you go outside, bring something to offer the earth first - a small cup of water, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, even breadcrumbs. This isn't about expense, it's about reciprocity.
Step 2: Find Your Spot Go outside. Find a place where you can dig with your hands and won't be interrupted. Your backyard, a park, even a planter box works.
Step 3: Make Your Offering Pour the water or scatter the seeds around your chosen spot. Say something simple like: "Thank you for holding space for what I need to share." You're entering into relationship, not just taking.
Step 4: Dig In Use your hands to dig a small hole - doesn't need to be deep, just enough to feel the earth under your fingernails. Let yourself slow down. This isn't about efficiency.
Step 5: Speak Your Truth Now here's the part that might feel awkward: talk out loud to that hole. Not to yourself, not to God, to the earth itself.
Start simple: "I'm grieving..." and let it flow from there.
Maybe it's: "I'm grieving the relationship I thought I'd have with my dad. I'm grieving feeling like I'm not enough for my partner. I'm grieving the version of myself I thought I'd be by now."
Don't worry about being eloquent. The earth doesn't judge your grammar.
Step 6: Let It Be Received When you're done talking, sit quietly for a moment. Feel the earth holding what you just shared.
Step 7: Complete the Ritual Cover the hole with your hands. Pat the dirt down. Say "Thank you" to the earth for receiving your grief.
Why this works: You're not trying to "let go" of your grief - you're building relationship with it. The earth knows how to compost pain into wisdom. You're just participating in that ancient process of give and take.
Try it once this week. See what happens.
Ready to go deeper? If you're done with surface-level healing, let's talk.
Share the medicine: Forward this to someone who needs it. We're building something here.
The work continues. Your future self is counting on you.
Robbie Watterson
Wilderness Therapist & Soul Guide
ritualsmentalhealth.com
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