Halfway through January — Are You Open Yet?

A New Year has arrived… carrying with it the promise of excitement and joyous change. I keep hearing how many wild and wonderful things that are set to unfold in 2026.  I feel genuinely excited and ready to be an active participant in all that juiciness and wonder. So yes — let’s begin! Let’s get this show on the road 😃

Wait...Hold up a minute!

Something feels both beautiful but out of sync. On one hand, I’m filled with anticipation and curiosity about what this year will bring. On the other hand, I don’t actually feel any different. My thoughts are the same.  My body feels the same. I don’t look or feel any different simply because the calendar shows a new year. So, therefore how does real change occur in our lives?

What blocks or impedes the transitional forces that are waiting for permission to enter our lives?How do we become vessels that are open and willing — able to receive what is emerging and wants to take root in our lives?

Perhaps the invitation of this new year is not to rush forward, but to pause and turn inward.

My intuitive sense tells me this is a time for reflection — for reviewing what has been, taking inventory, and honoring what we’ve carried. With certainty I am aware that fresh surroundings and a shift in environment can help clear habitual and stuck thinking. Creating space for new perspectives to emerge. Often, what sits at the center of our stuckness has a name: grief.

Grief doesn’t only follow death. It arises from change, loss, unmet expectations, endings, transitions, and the many ways life reshapes us. When grief goes unacknowledged, it can stall our momentum, cloud our vision, and make forward movement feel impossible. But when we give grief time, attention, and compassionate presence, something begins to loosen. The gears start to turn again. Movement becomes possible.

So what do you reach for when you feel stuck or emotionally paralyzed?

I invite you to consider art. Art is one of the most natural ways to shift consciousness. It moves grief out of the mind and body and places it onto something tangible — something you can see, touch, and respond to. Through image and form, emotion finds expression beyond words. A dialogue begins. The art speaks, and you listen. You respond, and it answers back. Information flows in both directions — clarity, insight, and new perspectives gently revealing themselves.

SoulCollage® is my chosen medium for this work. SoulCollage® is a gentle, creative process that uses images to access inner wisdom, emotional truth, and insight. 

This is my soul collage card, and it represents my grief. She is cracked wide open, just like the earth around her—dry, worn, and deeply touched by loss. Yet from her tears, something sacred is happening. The tears she sheds are giving way to new life. Beneath her hands, a small plant begins to grow, gently reminding us that even in sorrow, life is quietly taking root. Behind her rests a rainbow, a soft promise that something beautiful is waiting on the other side of grief.

Images speak a universal language — one that each of us understands in a deeply personal and private way. They give voice and texture to feelings that may be difficult to name, allowing thoughts and emotions to take shape outside the body.

It’s as if the image says:

“Rest from the heavy, unproductive thinking. Step out of rumination. Let me show you a part of yourself you may not be seeing or have forgotten that it exists. A part of yourself obscured by grief, habit, or fear. Let me clarify the directions for you. Let me reveal possibilities that have been hidden from view.”

Images don’t just reflect inner truth — they often anticipate what is trying to emerge in your life.

“When the soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image.”

— Meister Eckhart

This SoulCollage® process has carried me through my own seasons of loss, confusion, and renewal. My cards became mirrors — reflecting strength I had forgotten, tenderness I needed to feel, and directions I didn’t know were available to me. They still continue to guide me.

This is why I created Hearts in Healing.

Hearts in Healing is a four-day grief retreat held in the sacred beauty of Ajijic, Mexico, from February 14th through February 17th. It is a sanctuary for those carrying loss, longing, love, and becoming — a space where art becomes medicine, connection becomes balm, and the soul remembers its own resilience.

Through SoulCollage®, ritual, guided reflection, and compassionate community, we will make space for release, insight, and renewal. This retreat is not about fixing grief or rushing healing. It is about honoring the heart, listening deeply, and gently opening to what comes next.

Sign up now!

If this new year is asking you to soften…If grief has been quietly shaping your inner world…If your heart is longing for movement, clarity, and renewal…

I warmly invite you to join me for Hearts in Healing.

Please… don’t do grief alone.

Your heart knows the way.

With much love,

Bonnie Gonzalez

Your Doula for Grief