Creativity.
An intimate conversation from the desk of Ruth Abrams
Hey Sacred Heart - I am so thrilled to share with you an interview with researcher, academic, writer & all around brilliant human, Ruth Abrams— who also happens to be someone I’ve come to know in my programs!
We talk about the creative process, keeping integrity while making a living as a practitioner, creative & business owner, staying inspired, trends in the business & more!
Read the full piece right here.
Before we dive in, a simple life update!
2025 so far has been such a mixed bag— the depths of grief and the heights of love. The ending and the beginning. Touching the core wounds of exclusion, loss & unbelonging… and moving into community, experiencing family & repair. Leaving the first home that ever felt like home to live in community with my love. Reckoning with shame & being the wrong kind of woman for many, and finding myself as the right kind of woman for myself & the life I long to live.
A resetting the bone year.
A terror and rapture year.
A grief and love year.
A sifting year.
An “I’ll text you back soon,” year.
As I approach the end of my 33rd (resurrection) year this month, I’ll be sure to offer a thorough update about all the things.
Oh! One more thing. ;)
I’m hosting a retreat with my partner Jayme (iykyk), at hour home in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in October. Click here to join the waitlist, get first dibs & receive 10% off.
Communion Retreat: Reclaim, remember and reconnect to what was always yours:
Your inherent Belonging, Dignity & Sacredness.
Register your interest & get immediate access. :) Doors officially open to non-waitlist folks the 11th of August!
Let’s dive in!
Madison, you are a force of nature in creating and reinventing your offerings. How do your ideas form or come to you?
Thank you so much. I consider myself an artist and mystic first, a practitioner second, so any offering I put into the world has very much been through a personal incubation. Nothing I put into the world is shared purely from an intellectual place–it’s a living offering, something I embody and live (albeit imperfectly, of course). In this way, I hope the offerings I sell are more than products to consume, but an invitation that’s felt vibrationally, relationally and through my words into a relationship with your own transformation.
Often, ideas for programs start as images, dreams and symbols I receive in my personal healing work. It’s my belief that images are the precursor to embodiment– whether from dreams, medicine journeys, ritual or in my own somatic sessions, images will show up from the subconscious to help us develop new understanding. The programs I offer almost always arise from this space.
For example, the phrase “Guardian of the Good,” which has become somewhat of an accidental tagline, came from a 90 day commitment to sobriety where I sat in a daily silent morning tea ceremony. Honoring this practice daily showed me I needed to stop “fixing” what I felt was wrong with me, and instead create and protect the good parts of life. Naturally, as it worked on me, it wove itself into my work. Nearly 3 years later, “The Fortress,” my year-long program, emerged from that place. A large part of the program emerged from images of my heart, with all my younger selves spiraling their way to the very depths. Naturally I created a guided hypnosis with similar imagery you can find here.
It also cannot be understated my love of learning. I am almost always taking my knowledge deeper with training, apprenticeship and ongoing education. How can we not be transformed and inspired when interfacing with expansive teachers and knowledge?!
Can you tell me how you advocate for your own work? How do you take up space, ensure you are paid/ decide on what to charge? What about this makes you feel uncomfortable, if anything, and how do you navigate this, particularly as a woman?
Starting this work as a naïve, autistic 23 year old, I had an innocent audacity and enthusiasm that I’m so thankful for, but was most certainly not sustainable. I wasn’t aware enough to be insecure about putting my work into the world. I was so grateful to do what I loved that I worked for next to nothing for many years. This time helped me develop a platform of people who trusted my intentions, and gave me time to develop skill as a practitioner while learning about business, money, marketing and sales. It took a few years of scraping by while having a very full workload to realize I needed to charge more, and come to see my time as valuable.
For years I felt guilty for charging for my work and had poor boundaries. Charging as a coach felt arbitrary– some colleagues were charging $40,000 for offerings I charged $3,000 for, while people asked for scholarships on nearly everything I offered. Coaching, back then, was the wild-wild-west, and many people were opportunists more than they were healers. #girlboss. I feel fortunate to have had really grounded people in my life who helped me navigate the delicate balance of being a practitioner in the healing space with also being a creative, entrepreneur and businesswoman. I learned that valuing my time and work didn’t mean I had to sacrifice my integrity or violate my boundaries.
I actually find it’s those who violate their own boundaries and feel exhausted from over-giving to be the same folks who want me to give beyond my capacity. I think this is a product of internalized patriarchy– something women frequently impose on other women. Care-taking, emotional labor and mothering are inherently under-valued in the patriarchy. Fems are expected give for free to prove their “goodness,” or simply because a need has landed on their doorstep. Healing my own internalized patriarchy helped me see how this expectation is entitled, immature and dishonoring of the feminine, and how all of us are conditioned to do it to one another in a way we would never to a man. This, above all, helped me learn to value emotional labor as labor that deserves proper compensation. Shoring up my internal “no,” baking my values into my business and being generous where I can is what helps me stay in my integrity the most.
These days I price my private sessions and groups based on a national industry average, considering my financial needs along with the demographic I work most frequently with’s income and capacity. Advocating for reasonable pay for my work is truly nothing more than not giving away work for free (even when strangers on the internet demand it in my DM’s) and knowing what my sliding scale prices are in advance.
What are your sources of creative inspiration?
Art, music, nature, learning, relationships, good conversation, yummy food! Ultimately life is my continual teacher. By nature I am inclined to perpetual seeking & learning, dot-connecting and evangelizing about what I love. It’s hard to keep a good thing to myself– sharing what inspires me, inspires me!
I am honestly just endlessly fascinated by humans– how we think, relate, feel and why we do what we do. It’s likely being autistic influences the depth of my curiosity regarding our inner world…
Read the rest & follow Ruth’s work right here.
Thanks Ruth! & Thank you for reading.
Be back soon enough. :)
-M
