https://linktr.ee/Jen.risingstrongwellness

Rising Strong Wellness LLC, Grand Rapids, MI (2026)

06/15/2026

🍯 A Question for You...
Which character have you been lately?
🐰 Rabbit
Keeping everything organized.
Managing all the details.
Holding it all together.
Feeling responsible for everything and everyone.
🐷 Piglet
Worrying.
Overthinking.
Preparing for every possible outcome.
Wondering if you've forgotten something important.
🦉 Owl
Researching.
Learning.
Analyzing.
Trying to think your way through life.
🐯 Tigger
Busy.
Moving.
Saying yes to everything.
Bouncing from one thing to the next.
And then there's...
🍯 Pooh
Taking a walk.
Enjoying a snack.
Noticing a flower.
Spending time with friends.
Sitting under a tree.
Not trying to optimize himself.
Not trying to become a better bear.
Just being alive.

This month inside the Rest & Reflect Membership we're exploring Wild Belonging: Pleasure, Presence & the Nervous System, and one of our unlikely wisdom figures is Winnie the Pooh.

Inspired by The Tao of Pooh, we'll explore what happens when we stop asking:
"What should I be doing?"
And start asking:
"What helps me feel alive?"

We'll talk about pleasure beyond the narrow definitions we've been given, nervous system healing through presence and sensory awareness, the role of play in our wellbeing, and how simple moments of delight can help us remember:
✨ I am more than what hurts.

Our live workshop is happening in just 2 days and I'd love to have you join us.
🍓 Free for Rest & Reflect members
☀️ Non-members are welcome to attend
✨ No experience necessary—just come as you are
So before you go...
Who are you most lately?
Rabbit?
Piglet?
Owl?
Tigger?
Or have you managed to spend a little time being Pooh? 🍯

Community + Access

06/15/2026

How does life know?
Lately, this question has been following me everywhere.
In the vines that somehow find their trellis.
In the acorn that already contains an oak tree.
In the Three Sisters growing together in my garden.
In forests that communicate through their roots.
In communities that learned not only to survive, but to thrive in landscapes that seemed impossible.

And in our own bodies, which continue reaching toward healing even after years of disconnection.
The deeper I study nature, the more I wonder if healing is less about becoming someone new and more about remembering the wisdom that has been there all along.

This reflection became my newest essay, How Does Life Know?—a meditation on body trust, interdependence, cyclical living, and the mysterious intelligence woven through all living things.
It's also a glimpse into the deeper questions I'm exploring as I begin writing a book on cyclical living and healing.

If you've ever wondered whether your body knows more than you've been taught to believe, I think this one is for you.
Read the full essay and subscribe to follow along as this work—and this book—continue to unfold. 🌱

https://open.substack.com/pub/risingstrongwellness/p/how-does-life-know?r=gniru&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

06/12/2026

✨ What are you taking in?
This weekend in Yoga for Body Connection, we'll be exploring the practice of increasing and withdrawing the senses.
Every day, our attention is pulled in countless directions. Notifications, responsibilities, conversations, screens, noise, expectations. Our senses are constantly gathering information from the world around us.

What happens when we intentionally notice that process?
And what happens when we gently turn inward?

In yoga, the practice of pratyahara is often described as the withdrawal of the senses—not as a shutting down from the world, but as an opportunity to become more aware of our inner experience.

Together we'll explore:
🌿 Noticing what we're taking in
🌿 Becoming curious about sensation
🌿 Creating moments of intentional pause
🌿 Allowing the nervous system to soften and settle

Through gentle movement, breath, rest, and supported shapes, we'll practice shifting our attention between the outer world and the inner landscape of the body.
This isn't about escaping life.
It's about creating enough space to hear yourself within it.
As always, movement is optional. Rest is welcome. Chairs, blankets, bolsters, and abundant support are available.
Come exactly as you are.
Perhaps the most important thing you'll notice this weekend is yourself.
Join me Sunday morning at Yogi Union Yogi Union to move be moved in community. this is a pay what you choose class.

06/10/2026

What if your body isn't the problem?
What if she's been communicating with you all along?
Most of us are living in a state of high alert masquerading as productivity.
We push through exhaustion.
Override our needs.
Ignore the tension in our shoulders, the tightness in our chest, the knot in our stomach.
We tell ourselves we'll rest later.
We'll listen later.
We'll take care of ourselves later.
But our bodies keep speaking.
Through fatigue.
Through anxiety.
Through hunger.
Through numbness.
Through longing.

We are thrilled to announce Coming Home to the Body: A Weekend Retreat for Women Ready to Reconnect, Rest, and Trust Their Inner Wisdom.
Join Julianne Lettinga, MA LPC and Jen Bullen of Rising Strong Wellness for an intimate retreat designed to move you out of your head and back into your body.
This isn't a spa weekend (though it will be deeply restorative).
This is a clinical and soulful exploration of somatic listening, nervous system healing, rest, nourishment, and the stories we carry about our bodies.
Together we'll explore:
✨ The beliefs you've inherited about food, movement, worthiness, and rest
✨ How trauma, stress, and life experiences shape your relationship with your body
✨ What it means to listen instead of override
✨ How to cultivate a more compassionate, trusting relationship with yourself
Throughout the weekend you'll experience:
🌿 Restorative yoga
🌿 Breathwork and Yoga Nidra
🌿 Art-based exploration and reflection
🌿 Mindful eating experiences
🌿 Therapeutic group discussions
🌿 Nature, rest, and spaciousness
🌿 Sauna and hot tub therapies
🌿 Nourishing chef-prepared meals
🌿 A small community of women seeking depth, healing, and connection

We desire for you to arrive, exhale, and allow yourself to be cared for.
📍 Mears, Michigan (near Silver Lake)
📅 November 12–15, 2026
👭 Limited to 8–12 women

If something in you softened while reading this...
If your body whispered, "I need this"...
We invite you to listen.

06/05/2026

This morning I'm listening to the rain fall while diving into an anatomy training.
And honestly, it feels like medicine.
I love learning about these bodies we live in. The muscles, fascia, nerves, organs, and intricate systems constantly working on our behalf. The more I learn, the harder it becomes to see the body as a problem to solve.
There are days when being in my body feels easy and natural.
And there are days when it feels harder. Days when old stories, discomfort, grief, overwhelm, or disconnection make me want to be anywhere but here.
On those days, anatomy helps me find my way back.
Not because it fixes anything.
But because it invites awe.
Awe that my heart keeps beating.
Awe that my lungs keep breathing.
Awe that my nervous system is constantly adapting.
Awe that this body has carried me through every season of my life.
The more I learn, the more compassion I have.
For my body.
For other bodies.
For the incredible complexity of being human.
So today, between the rain and the learning, I'm feeling grateful.
Not because embodiment is always easy.
But because there is always something to wonder at.
And sometimes wonder is enough to help me stay.

Is there a physical part of you that you can connect with today?

Mindful School of Yoga

06/04/2026

In Today's Episode of Noticing...
A few days ago I invited people to start collecting "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." moments.
Not because they're life-changing.
Not because they have a lesson attached.
Just because they're interesting.
Delightful.
Unexpected.
Wonderfully human.
And apparently once you start paying attention, they begin finding you.
This morning I was driving past an open corn field when a silver star-shaped balloon floated across the sky in front of me.
I thought:
Well, there it is for today.
My official Hmmm moment.
But the day wasn't done.
A little later, my friend Stevie and I were standing in the Home Depot parking lot when a guy named Zac approached us carrying a guitar.
He asked:
"Can I sing you a song?"
Naturally, we said yes.
So Zac serenaded us with Blink-182.
In the Home Depot parking lot.
Before 9:30 in the morning.
Hmmm.
And apparently it's my lucky week for seeing men on unusual forms of transportation.
Yesterday I was unloading the car when a very small-bodied man dressed head-to-toe in a bright blue leotard-type situation zoomed past on a Segway.
A few days before that, I heard someone yell:
"YAHOOOOOO!"
I looked up and saw a grown man riding a scooter down the sidewalk.
No kids.
No destination that I could tell.
Just him, his scooter, and the wind in his hair.
What can I say?
It made me smile.
None of these moments changed my life.
But they changed my morning.
And maybe that's enough.
One of the things we're exploring this month is how aliveness often returns through noticing.
Noticing beauty.
Noticing delight.
Noticing oddness.
Noticing the little things we usually rush past while we're busy trying to get somewhere.
The world is full of tiny stories.
Tell me one you witnessed this week.
Something strange.
Something delightful.
Something unexpectedly human.

What's your latest "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." moment?

06/02/2026

What we’re building inside the membership isn’t another place to fix yourself.
It’s a place to remember yourself.
This month we’re exploring:�☀️ Wild Belonging�🍓 Pleasure, Presence & the Nervous System
The other day I was out working in the garden. The weather was perfect and the whole neighborhood seemed unusually alive.
Kids were outside.�Dogs were being walked.�Someone was grilling.�The birds were making a racket.
Then I heard someone yell:
“YAHOOOOOO!”
I looked up and saw a grown man riding a scooter down the sidewalk.
No kids.
No destination that I could tell.
Just him, his scooter, and the wind in his hair.
And I couldn’t stop smiling.
Because that moment felt like such a perfect reminder of what we’re exploring this month.
Aliveness doesn’t always arrive in grand, life-changing moments.
Sometimes it looks like taking the long way home.
Sometimes it looks like jumping in the lake after a hot day.
Sometimes it’s strawberries at sunset.
Sometimes it’s laughing with friends.
Sometimes it’s riding a scooter down the sidewalk because it feels good.
One of my favorite parts of this community is that there is no right way to participate.
Some come for the journal prompts.
Some come for the movement practices.
Some come because they’re healing their relationship with food or their body.
Some come because they’re tired of carrying everything alone.
Some come because they miss feeling alive.
We are creating space and learning how to live our lives again. To notice the small, beautiful moments. Life gets wider.
There is more room for pleasure.�More room for rest.�More room for joy.�More room for being human.
And maybe that’s what so many of us are actually longing for.
Not another thing to achieve.
But a place where we can soften, belong, and fully participate in our lives.
If you’ve been craving that feeling lately...
You’d fit right in. ☀️🍓🌿

https://www.risingstrongwellness.com/bundles/rest-reflect-your-monthly-body-mind-sanctuary

Rising Strong Wellness LLC

06/15/2026

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