Working Together in 2025 (Erin Jean Warde)

Looking for a coach or spiritual director? Wanna join monthly Chaos Land mini-retreats? Learn more about these offerings & many more below!

Working Together in 2025

Hey y’all,

As we close 2024, I know many of us have our sights set on how we want to start 2025. I certainly know I do!

I wanted to share a variety of ways we could work together in 2025, if you are seeking support and community!

As always, I am so grateful you are here. Just being a free subscriber to my Substack is a way of supporting me, and I’m so thankful for your presence here!

With love & care,
EJW

COACHING

If you are…

• doing Dry January & would like a coach along the way

• starting 2025 off with sobriety from alcohol & want support

• hoping to change your relationship with alcohol in 2025 & seek a coach

• wanting to build more positive coping skills in your life & want a companion along the way

I’d love to work with you as your coach. Coaching together entails talking through the challenges in your life (all of which demand our coping), receiving care from me as you navigate those challenges, and us working together to see where you’d like to change your coping. We start with your hope—what you desire as your goal—and together chart a course toward the very goal you have your heart set on.

The magic of coaching is that it is tailored entirely to your life. It isn’t a pre-written 5 step plan, divorced from what your life actually looks like. On the contrary, we look into your life and craft a positive way forward that meets you exactly where you are.

There are always bumps along the way. When you hit those bumps, we learn from them, and move forward in that knowledge. Every bump holds wisdom that will actually help us heal, so instead of shaming the bumps, we gain the insight we can, and keep moving forward.

In our time together, we also practice shame resilience, because shame never helps us heal. We will work together to help you learn how to talk back to shame, amplify voices of true support and care, and give you the tools you need to get centered again if you are knocked down by shame.

If this sounds like a journey you’d like to go on with me, sign up today!

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

Spiritual direction is a holy space of listening, support, and prayer. If you’re looking for someone to journey alongside you, it would be an honor to be your spiritual director.

Different spiritual directors have different styles. I always say: if you are looking for a wise monk, I am not a wise monk, so we would probably not be a good fit. And my prayer is that each person who desires a spiritual director finds the right person for them, and sometimes that person is not me.

As for how I hold the space: I work with you to decide if there are any rituals or types of support you specifically desire out of our time together. And if, along the way, one surfaces for you, you can always tell me. For many, I offer a prayer to close our time together, as a way to gather up the cares and concerns from the hour. For others, we cater the time to their chosen grounding rituals and prayers.

My hope as a spiritual director is to listen. I then reflect back messages I am hearing, including ways in which I feel like messages from Scripture and other sources of wisdom might offer powerful words of support. Sometimes just knowing that our story can be found within the ancient story of Scripture and other wisdom traditions can help us feel less alone, reduce our anxiety, and encourage us toward prayer and other forms of care.

I also try to listen for the overarching narrative of your life. For instance, if you share something and I feel like it connects with something you have said in previous sessions, I might ask if there is a connection between the two for you.

I will also sometimes repeat back things you have said, so you can hear them again. Sometimes we say some of our most powerful wisdom when we are speaking so fast we can’t remember the words as they are spoken. You’d be surprised how powerful it can feel to have our very own truths spoken back to us, with time to process the sentiment, explore what it might mean, and even sometimes acknowledge that it isn’t how we really feel.

I do not, however, “push” you toward anything. You get to feel however you feel. If you need to be angry at God, we will hold a space for anger, knowing this can be found within Scripture and other wisdom traditions, too. The point is not to help you find resolution, necessarily, but to remind you that you do not travel through this world alone—you are held in the space of spiritual direction, in the broader stories of life, and in prayer.

There is much more to spiritual direction than can be summarized in a few paragraphs, but I do want to mention 2 last things. My spiritual practice is a safe space for those who are deconstructing/reconstructing, and for those who are LGBTQIA+.

If you have questions, please reach out!

DISCERNING SOBRIETY COURSE

Discerning Sobriety is a self-led digital course exploring how to bring spirituality and mindfulness into your relationship with alcohol. Discerning Sobriety helps participants bring the role alcohol plays in their lives into conversation with their minds, bodies, and souls, so they can change their relationship with alcohol, become more attentive to how they drink, and/or integrate spirituality into their recovery.

You will receive an email per day for 40 days to guide you in your discernment! You’ll start getting the emails when you sign up.

This would be another great guide through Dry January, or even choosing to not drink for the season of Lent. Questions about the course? Just reply!

PLEASE NOTE: I have reduced the price of this course to $99. While I know that is still a financial commitment, I hope it makes it more accessible. And while it is not a substitute for coaching, it is a way to journey together for 40 days, as you discern your relationship with alcohol.

CHAOS LAND COMMUNITY

For the months of January & February, I’ll be journeying through Katherine May’s Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times with this community.

If you’d like to receive essay reflections on the text, just stay subscribed!

Every month in the Chaos Land paid community, we will have monthly mini-retreats. You can expect a 2 hour call on a Sunday afternoon, with time for:

• grounding exercises

• reflection prompts & time to journal

• space to check-in & share with community so we can care for you

If this sounds like something that would support you, and aren’t yet a paid subscriber, join us for only $7/month!

FINANCES & QUESTIONS

If you would like to work together, but are struggling with finances, please reach out. Let’s talk it out and see what we can do. I know what it’s like to struggle financially, and while I have to keep a roof over my head, I am also very tender to those who seek care but struggle to afford it. You can respond to this email or use the contact form on my website to reach out.

And if you have questions, please also reply to this email or use the contact form on my website to ask away! I know coaching and spiritual direction especially are big commitments, so if you have questions, I want to offer you any insight you might need for this discernment. Don’t hesitate to say hi!

BACK IN THE OFFICE

I will be back in the office on January 6th. I have spots available to begin coaching or spiritual direction that week. We can also wait to begin whenever is best for your schedule! I just want to be transparent about when I will have my first availabilities for scheduling & having meetings after the holiday.

GOOD NEWS & GRATITUDE PODCAST

If you would enjoy audio devotionals and interviews, I host a podcast for United Thank Offering—Good News and Gratitude—and we have lots of new episodes for you to explore! I especially encourage you to do a deep dive through our Advent episodes!

• Introducing the Season of Advent

• The Joy of the Lord is Our Strength

• Good News from Micah Jackson: Proclaiming Advent

Subscribe via your favorite podcast app (mine is Spotify) to get alerts when new episodes arrive. Don’t forget to like & review the podcast so we can welcome new listeners! <3

GRAB SOBER SPIRITUALITY

And you can always grab my book, Sober Spirituality: The Joy of a Mindful Relationship with Alcohol. This book would serve as an amazing support during Dry January!