Growing Harmony Within

11/12/2025

What’s a holiday tradition you love… and one that drains you? 🎄

We all have them—the yearly rituals that fill us up, and the ones that leave us exhausted.

Maybe it’s the pressure to host the perfect dinner, the same tense conversation with a certain relative, or feeling obligated to say “yes” to every event—even when you’re running on empty.

Traditions are meant to connect us, not drain us.

What if you could reframe the habits that no longer serve you—and reclaim the joy of the season?

Join me this week for Surviving the Holidays: A Workshop for Your Body, Mind & Spirit where we’ll explore:
🕯️ How to honor meaningful traditions without burning out
❤️🛡️ Gentle ways to set boundaries around draining activities
🌿 Simple tools to stay grounded when family dynamics feel overwhelming

This isn’t about throwing out what you love—it’s about making room for what truly matters.

We’re meeting in person on November 15th from 9:30-11am at Old Central School in Grand Rapids, MN. You’ll leave feeling clearer, calmer, and more connected to what brings you real joy.
https://start.growingharmonywithin.com/survivingholidays

✨ Ready to design a holiday season that is nourishing to your soul? Sign up via the event link or send me a message to join!

11/10/2025

Which part of you takes the wheel this time of year?

Are you…
👉 The People-Pleaser who says “yes” when you mean “no”?
👉 The Perfectionist stressing over every perfect detail?
👉 The Protector who just wants to hide until January?
👉 …or something else?

Your holiday “part” isn’t a flaw—it’s a protector trying to help. But it might be working too hard 😅

Find out which part is running your holidays (and how to gently work WITH it) by taking my free Holiday Parts Quiz! It only takes a few minutes and you’ll get insight + tips tailored just for you.
🔗 https://growingharmonywithin.com/HolidayPartsQuiz.html

And if you’re ready to go deeper…
Join my Surviving the Holidays Workshop where we’ll use gentle, somatic tools to help you:
Stay grounded when family tension rises
Set kind + clear boundaries
Handle triggers without losing your cool
Find real joy (not just the performative kind)

Awareness is the first step. This workshop is the next.
Sign up here 👇
Nov 15th In person - https://start.growingharmonywithin.com/survivingholidays
Nov 13 or 14 Zoom - https://appt.link/meet-with-kimberly-erickson/surviving-holidays

Tag a friend below who needs to know their Holiday Part 😉

11/08/2025

What’s a holiday tradition you love… and one that drains you? 🎄

We all have them—the yearly rituals that fill us up, and the ones that leave us exhausted.

Maybe it’s the pressure to host the perfect dinner, the same tense conversation with a certain relative, or feeling obligated to say “yes” to every event—even when you’re running on empty.

Traditions are meant to connect us, not drain us.

What if you could reframe the habits that no longer serve you—and reclaim the joy of the season?

Join me one week from today for Surviving the Holidays: A Workshop for Your Body, Mind & Spirit where we’ll explore:
🕯️ How to honor meaningful traditions without burning out
❤️🛡️ Gentle ways to set boundaries around draining activities
🌿 Simple tools to stay grounded when family dynamics feel overwhelming

This isn’t about throwing out what you love—it’s about making room for what truly matters.

We’re meeting in person on November 15th from 9:30-11am at Old Central School in Grand Rapids, MN. You’ll leave feeling clearer, calmer, and more connected to what brings you real joy.
https://start.growingharmonywithin.com/survivingholidays

✨ Ready to design a holiday season that is nourishing to your soul? Sign up via the event link or send me a message to join!

11/08/2025

The eve of firearm deer season always brings back such vivid memories for me.

I can almost smell my mom’s chili simmering on the stove and those homemade cinnamon rolls baking in the oven. Feeling the crisp cold morning air on my face. The focused stillness of orienting to the woods, listening for movement, watching for signs of life. And of course, wearing that blaze orange—not just for safety, but as a ritual that connected me to my family and the land.

These memories are stored not just in my mind, but in my body too—the warmth of the kitchen, the crunch of frost underfoot, the alert yet calm presence required in nature. This is what somatic awareness is all about: noticing how our experiences live in our senses, our nervous system, and our stories.

Whether you’re heading out to hunt or simply moving through this seasonal shift, I invite you to pause and notice what memories or sensations arise in you this time of year. What do you smell, feel, or remember in your body?

Wishing safety and presence to all who are taking part in this tradition. 🧡

11/06/2025

Feeling that holiday family tension already? 🙃

You know the moment—sitting around the dinner table, someone brings up that topic, your shoulders creep up to your ears, and you can feel your heart start to race. The holidays can bring both joy and real stress to our bodies, minds, and spirits.

What if this year felt different?

Join me for Surviving the Holidays: A Workshop for Your Body, Mind & Spirit where we’ll explore gentle, practical ways to:
🧠 Calm your mind when conversations get heated
💖 Settle your spirit with simple grounding tools
✨ Honor your body’s signals and respond with kindness—not reaction

You don’t have to white-knuckle your way through the season. Let’s prepare together with compassion and practical skills.

We’re meeting in person on November 15th from 9:30am-11am at Old Central School.
https://start.growingharmonywithin.com/survivingholidays

Use the following link for online options.
https://appt.link/meet-with-kimberly-erickson/surviving-holidays

👉 Ready to breathe easier this holiday? Sign up through the event link or send me a message to join. Let’s do this together.

11/05/2025

Which “Holiday Part” of You is Running the Show?

The holidays have a way of activating specific, often unconscious, parts of ourselves. Are you led by the meticulous Perfectionist, the peace-keeping People-Pleaser, or the Escapist?

Understanding which part is in the driver’s seat is the first step to navigating family dynamics, social obligations, and internal pressure with more grace and less stress.

I’ve created a quick, insightful quiz to help you uncover your dominant Holiday Part and understand its positive intention.

Take the free quiz here: https://tinyurl.com/GHW109HQ

​Growing Harmony Within is a consulting business whose goal is to help you through stressful situations in your life using somatic work, parts work or a change in lifestyle, diet and exercise.

11/04/2025

Ready to take that next step in befriending your nervous system? 🌿

Now that we’ve explored what Somatic Experiencing is, I’d love to introduce you to the core practices I offer regularly throughout the year:

🧘♀️ Tending Together - FREE 30-minute zoom sessions to gently practice somatic awareness and nervous system regulation in community
🌊 Find Your Inner Calm - In-person workshops diving deeper into polyvagal theory and practical regulation techniques you can use daily
📖 Befriend Your Story - Small group series exploring how our nervous system patterns shape our life narratives through relational trauma repair and parts work

Plus seasonal workshops like Surviving the Holidays - available NOW for registration!

This timely workshop gives you practical tools to navigate family dynamics, stress, and emotional triggers during what can be a challenging season.

These offerings are designed to meet you where you’re at - whether you’re new to somatic work or ready to go deeper. Your body already knows how to heal; sometimes it just needs a little guided support to remember.

For more details and how register follow this link:
https://growingharmonywithin.com/classes.html

Which of these resonates most with where you are right now? Comment below 👇

11/04/2025

After 3 years of deep study, including 12 intensive in-person training days this year, I am honored to announce I am now a certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)! 🌱

Those deer in the forest we’ve been talking about? The ones who startle, orient to safety, and complete their natural stress cycles? My training has been a profound journey of learning exactly how to help humans do that too—helping the nervous system complete what trauma left unfinished.

This isn’t just another certificate for my wall. It represents hundreds of hours of learning how to safely guide people in listening to their body’s wisdom, releasing stored survival energy, and building true resilience from the inside out.

The body keeps the score, but it also holds the map to healing. I’m so grateful to now offer this powerful, body-centered approach alongside my parts work.

Thank you to everyone who has been following along this journey—your curiosity about your own nervous system inspires this work every day.

11/03/2025

Tending to Sourdough, Tending to Ourselves: A Gentle Invitation

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with gluten-free sourdough—a practice in patience, presence, and tending to a slow, living process. My first round loaf turned out beautifully (I may have done a proud little dance in the kitchen AND the picture really is mine), while last weekend’s rushed batch was—well, let’s just call it a humble reminder that some things can’t be hurried.

It got me thinking about how we tend to things—our projects, our relationships, and especially ourselves. What would it feel like to bring that same attentive care to our own body, mind, and spirit?

That’s the heart of my Tending Together sessions. In these free, 30-minute gatherings, we create gentle space to ground, listen, and offer compassion to whatever needs attention—without judgment or urgency.

If you’re craving a moment of intentional pause and compassionate curiosity, I’d love for you to join the next session:

Tending Together: A Guided Space for Body, Mind & Spirit

📅 Date: November 6th
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM Central | 4:00 PM Pacific
📍 Where: Online via Zoom

These sessions are hosted through my Tending Together Community, where you’ll also find replays and a supportive group. Not ready to join the community? No pressure—just send me a message, and I’ll share the Zoom link directly.

Let’s tend to what matters, together.

11/02/2025

Our bodies are brilliant record-keepers—they remember everything, even when our conscious minds don’t. That’s why healing isn’t just about “changing your thoughts.” It’s about helping your body feel safe enough to release what it’s been holding.

In my workshops, we practice simple techniques like orienting (looking around to consciously notice safety) and tracking (noticing sensations without judgment). These aren’t complicated exercises—they’re ways of returning to your body’s innate capacity for regulation, much like that deer returning to grazing after assessing its environment.

What helps your body feel truly safe? I’d love to hear what works for you. 🌿

11/01/2025

Ever feel like your body is telling a story your mind hasn’t caught up with yet?

That flutter in your chest when you walk into a crowded room… the sudden fatigue after a difficult conversation… the way your shoulders tense when certain memories surface. These aren’t random glitches—they’re your body’s way of communicating what words cannot.

Somatic Experiencing helps us listen to this bodily wisdom. It’s not about analyzing or fixing, but about gently noticing and allowing your nervous system to complete what it couldn’t in moments of overwhelm. Like helping a frightened animal gradually relax into safety, we learn to regulate from the inside out.

What body sensations have you noticed speaking to you lately? 💬

10/31/2025

Think of a deer in the forest. It’s grazing peacefully (calm). It hears a twig snap (startled!). It freezes and ORIENTS—its head shoots up, it looks, listens, and scans for safety.

Once it determines the coast is clear, it shakes off that jolt of energy and goes back to grazing.

We are designed to do the exact same thing! But in our modern lives, we often get stuck after the “twig snap.” We ignore the jolt, tell ourselves to “just relax,” and power through.

That energy has to go somewhere, and it often manifests as anxiety, overwhelm, or chronic pain.

Somatic work teaches us how to complete that cycle: to notice the startle, orient to safety, and release the energy, just like that deer. It’s about rewiring your body’s innate ability to find calm.

Does this resonate with you?