Wellness In The Valley, MT

Wellness In The Valley, MT Wellness = Wholeness
Movement - medicine for the body
Breath - stability for the mind
Prayer - nourishment for the soul
Classes, Events, & Retreats

04/22/2026

Transforming Grief: A Retreat for Miscarriage, Stillbirth, & Infant Loss

This retreat offers quiet reflection in nature, somatic-based practices to help release grief held in the body, guided journaling, and prayer—creating room to receive God’s grace and healing presence in our hearts.
In a space where your story is safe and honored, you will be reminded that you do not carry this alone.

Journals and light refreshments provided.

Saturday, April 25th 9:00-12:30pm


Laura McKinnon is a movement teacher with over 20 years of experience guiding somatic practices that support healing, embodiment, and emotional expression. Certified in grief movement, she compassionately helps others navigate loss, transition, and transformation. A mother of four—two on earth and two in heaven—her work is deeply shaped by her own journey with love, grief, and resilience.

Register through link in bio
Or venmo $80 to
Laura-Mckinnon-8

Wisdom Wednesday “Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. ...live in the question.” -Rainer M...
04/22/2026

Wisdom Wednesday

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. ...live in the question.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke

We are beings that like to know everything. We want all the answers, and we want them now.

Our brains were designed to problem solve, but sometimes we get stuck. What we can’t figure out right away keeps us focused on thinking, often unable to turn the mind “off”. The thinking mind takes over and suddenly we feel distracted and filled with stress.

Usually, the answer is already there. We just haven’t discovered it yet because we haven’t softened enough to receive it. We haven’t been willing to live in the question and allow the answer to reveal itself.

Sometimes, it’s because we’re not ready for the answer yet.It’s not time.

Everything is revealed in time. It can’t be forced or rushed. Let go of needing to know the answer now. Trust that God has a plan.

Transformation Tuesday “Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress....
04/21/2026

Transformation Tuesday

“Water does not resist.
Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.

Water is patient.
Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child.
Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it.
Water does.”
Margaret Atwood

Valleys took 1,000-100,000 years to form from glaciers. River beds take years too, but with a sudden flood of water, they can transform overnight.

In both circumstances, the water, whether frozen or fluid, continues to move. It may move very slowly or at sudden, high velocity.
But it keeps going, and changes are made.

Keep going my friend. Let the water within you and your quest to persevere, help you transform from the inside out.

Movement Monday “Commitment is doing what you said you would do, after the feeling you said it in has passed.”— St. Cami...
04/20/2026

Movement Monday

“Commitment is doing what you said you would do, after the feeling you said it in has passed.”
— St. Camillus

It’s a new week, a new day, another chance to begin again. In fact, the perfect time to begin again is now.

Maybe you didn’t meet your movement goals last week, maybe you surpassed them. Either way, what matters is not looking back and lamenting, but looking forward with a new or renewed intention.

If you didn’t meet your movement goals last week, what interrupted them? What got in the way? What can you learn from that to avoid it from happening this week?

If you met or surpassed your movement goals, what specifically helped you do that?
Repeat it.
Keep going.

Remember that movement is essential for life. Without it, things stagnate, we become idle. Not just in our body, but in our mind and spirit too.

So make it a habit. Find fun and creative ways of moving. Weave into your daily routine. 💪

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
-Aristotle

*This a photo of my daughter from a few weeks ago. I had just finished tending to our goats and chickens in the early morning hours, and as I was coming through the gate, she came bouncing out of the house announcing she was going for a jog.
While movement can, and should be planned and intentional, it can also be spontaneous!

Surrender Sunday “Whenever we stop, pause, and reflect, that is very much sacred ground.”Fr. EricWhen we pause and creat...
04/19/2026

Surrender Sunday

“Whenever we stop, pause, and reflect, that is very much sacred ground.”
Fr. Eric

When we pause and create a space of silence, it becomes sacred ground in which we have the opportunity to grow. Because in that silence, if we surrender ourselves- what we want, what we think we have control of, we can hear God’s voice of what He wants. We can see what He desires for our soul.

I remember the flood of relief I felt the first time I truly understood what it means to surrender. I never realized the weight of the self imposed burden I had been carrying in thinking everything depended on me. We all carry some version of the false illusion that we are in control.

Yes, we carry responsibility. Responsibility for our thoughts, words, and deeds. But that is not the same as how we see control. We work so hard in thinking we control the outcome of something, but we don’t. It is all in God’s hands. It is our responsibility to give full effort, but to surrender the fruits of our labor.

Let go, and let God.
His plan for you is beautiful.

Sensational Saturday When we hear this word, sensational, we often think of something big or grand. It certainly can be....
04/18/2026

Sensational Saturday

When we hear this word, sensational, we often think of something big or grand. It certainly can be.

Last Saturday I shared a photo from a breathtakingly beautiful lake my daughter and I had the opportunity to stop and visit it during travel. It was the kind of scene where as you’re looking at it you think, “this is too beautiful to be real.”

But this kind of beauty, something so stunning that it stops you in your tracks, can be found in the smallest of things too. The sensational, that which can fill your heart with immense joy, doesn’t always arrive through a grand experience, it can be found in the most simple.

We just have to slow down enough to notice it.
To keep our eyes open.
To linger long enough around it, for the joy of witnessing it to seep into our heart.

There is so much in this life that is sensational friends.

May you be surrounded by it today.

“Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

Faithful Friday “Be faithful in small things because it is them that your strength lies.” Mother Teresa I don’t know abo...
04/17/2026

Faithful Friday

“Be faithful in small things because it is them that your strength lies.”
Mother Teresa

I don’t know about you, but rooting into faith helps me worry a lot less. Note, I didn’t say I don’t worry, I just worry less 😅

The truth is, if we have faith, we shouldn’t worry at all. We might not understand everything that is happening or when something difficult might get resolved, but we’ve been promised that God is always working on our behalf and that everything is for our highest good.
If we trust that, then what is there to worry about?

Worry has such a huge impact on our health. It drains our energy and feeds anxiety. Worry ensures that we remain in constant stress. It serves no actual purpose - worrying changes nothing.

So let go, breathe deep. Let your heart be filled with faith that everything is as it should be and will work out just fine. God’s got you.

What worry can you let go of today?

“Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”
St. Augustine

Thankful Thursday “Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” Gilbert Chesterton ☔️🌈Did you know that practicing grat...
04/16/2026

Thankful Thursday

“Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.”
Gilbert Chesterton ☔️🌈

Did you know that practicing gratitude literally changes your brain?
It rewires it, by strengthening the neural pathways associated with positivity, resilience, and emotional regulation. It reorients the mind to see what we have, rather than what we lack. We can discover that what we have is truly abundant!

Gratitude doesn’t deny that there are challenges in life, it simply says, “even if”.

Even if your skies are gray, the sun is shining somewhere.
After the rain, comes the rainbow.

Even if you feel darkness, there is always light.
Even if you feel sorrow, joy still remains.
Even if you feel worried, hope is always around the corner.

Make gratitude a regular practice in your life.

Start with thinking of 5 things you are grateful for as you go to bed. Shifting your thoughts towards positivity before you fall asleep can be profoundly beneficial and improve the quality of your sleep.

And if you can, write them down. Start a gratitude journal. Writing things down onpaper reinforces the connection. On a day you might be struggling, you can go back and read what you’ve written.

It won’t be long before you have pages filled with all there is to be grateful for. 🦋

Wisdom Wednesday We spend much of our life reacting, responding impulsively without giving the space or time to choose o...
04/15/2026

Wisdom Wednesday

We spend much of our life reacting, responding impulsively without giving the space or time to choose our words or actions. In these unconscious moments, we often wound those we love, even when our intention is to help.

The pause creates space. It gives the opportunity to be present with all the choices available to us. It gives power to utilize discernment. To choose a response rooted in love - a response guided by grace.

Practice the pause.

When you’re angry,
Pause.
When filled with doubt,
Pause.
When filled with worry,
Pause.
When overcome by fear,
Pause.

And when you pause,
Pray.

Transformation Tuesday “Every flower that ever bloomed had to go through a lot of dirt to get there” Barbara Johnson In ...
04/14/2026

Transformation Tuesday

“Every flower that ever bloomed had to go through a lot of dirt to get there” Barbara Johnson

In anything we want to transform, we have to first understand that it requires patience and commitment. Transformation rarely occurs overnight and without difficulty.

Perseverance then, is required.

Even a flower must persevere in its efforts to push up through the soil. And if it encounters a rock along the way? It goes around it. It finds a way to surface, or else it will die.

As I shared last week, the great news is that we don’t have to, nor do we persevere alone. In truth, it’s when we rely solely on ourselves that we struggle more. God asks us to give the struggle over to Him, so that we have the capacity to keep moving forward in our efforts.

So if there is something in your life you have been longing to change, ask God to help you. Maybe it’s felt too big to try, you don’t know where to start, or maybe you’ve already tried and given up. Ask Him.

I assure you, nothing is too big for Him, nothing.

“You can do more with the grace of God than you think.”
-St. John Baptist de la Salle

04/13/2026

Very near and dear to my heart, humbled and honored to walk this journey with you. 🙏🏻🌼

Carrying grief is heavy. It can feel suffocating and relentless — settling into the body, and weighing on the heart and mind.

But grief is also holy.
It bears witness to the deep and abiding love we carry for a child uniquely and perfectly created by God.

Through movement, prayer, and compassionate connection, we begin to loosen grief’s grip and soften the places where we feel stuck. Together, we make space to return to peace, hope, and love.

This retreat offers quiet reflection in nature, somatic-based practices to help release grief held in the body, guided journaling, and prayer—creating room to receive God’s grace and healing presence in our hearts.
In a space where your story is safe and honored, you will be reminded that you do not carry this alone.

Journals and light refreshments provided.

Held at the beautiful Blue Star Resort & Retreat Center, Columbia Falls, MT


Register through link in bio.

Address

Columbia Falls, MT

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