On root wisdom, sacred boundaries, and remembering how to grow
I didn’t set out to propagate plants.
But somewhere in my early spring season, I started channeling my latent creative passion into my family’s short term rental setups, and discovered I had a knack for creating cozy, welcoming places. This led to a fetish with plants as living decorations, and then an obsession with tying knots into macrame plant hangers. And in order to have enough plants to go into the plant hangers –without going broke– I decided to try my hand at propagating.
When a small army of baby philodendrons and spider plants began to overtake my window sills –and, thanks to the macrame plant hangers– my walls, and ceiling, I noticed something:
The plants weren’t just surviving. They were sensing. Adjusting. Remembering. And in their quiet way, they were asking a question I had long forgotten how to ask myself:
What do I need in order to grow?
In our culture, we’re taught that intelligence lives in the head. That logic is king. That healing is linear. That transformation is a 5-step checklist, and if you don’t transform “properly” you’re a failure.
But the Wildwoven Way—and, it turns out, a whole new wave of plant cognition research—whispers something different.
“Where there is life, there is already mind.”
That’s Paco Calvo, founder of the Minimal Intelligence Lab in Spain.
His research on plant behavior suggests that what we think of as “cognition” isn’t something that happens in the brain alone (or even at all), but something that happens in the relationship between an organism and its environment.
In the sensing. The adapting. The timing. The flow.
Which sounds a lot like the Wildwoven Framework to me.
So what if we let plants remind us not just of who we are, but how we change?
Below are three plant-inspired metaphors—paired with the Wildwoven seasons they reflect—and a few gentle invitations for each one. They’re not steps. They’re not to-dos. They’re threads to follow if it feels right to you.
❄️ WINTER | Root Apex ↔ Root Medicine
Stillness. Deep sensing. Restoring the roots.
The root apex is the sensitive, subterranean tip of a plant’s root system. It’s where sensing and adaptation begin—detecting moisture, nutrients, gravity, and even kinship. It’s how the plant knows where to grow, even in the dark.
But here’s the thing: the root apex lives underground. Unseen. Slow. Quiet.
Just like the Winter season of transformation.
This is the season our culture tells us to skip—when everything visible seems still, –and therefore, according to western culture, unimportant—but everything essential is happening beneath the surface.
This is where gut-level clarity begins.
Where the soul whispers instead of shouts.
Where we stop performing and start listening.
🌾 Winter Invitations:
Honor your need for quiet before clarity.
Notice what your roots are reaching for—and what they’re pulling away from.
Resist the urge to “make meaning” too soon. Just sense.
Trust that the dark is fertile, not empty.
What if your next chapter is already germinating… but just isn’t visible yet?
🌱 EARLY SPRING | Sensorimotor Intelligence ↔ Emergence
The first green shoots. Tender yeses. Gentle experiments.
In early spring, plants don’t explode into bloom—they explore. They sense. Shift. Respond. Pause.
What plant cognition reveals is that plants aren’t passive or predictable. They don’t simply react—they interpret. They remember past threats. They anticipate the sun. They adapt their growth based on current and changing conditions.
This is the sacred intelligence of early spring: Tiny movements with massive wisdom behind them.
When you’re in the early spring season of transformation, it’s easy to doubt yourself. You’re fragile but stirring. You may feel like you’re “not doing enough.” But emergence isn’t performance—it’s a series of conversations with the world.
🌾 Spring Invitations:
Let your growth be guided by sensation instead of pressure.
Try one small, brave thing—then pause and listen for feedback. Not external feedback, internal feedback. How did it feel? What would you adjust?
Trust your ability to adapt in real time.
Begin before you feel 100% ready.
What if readiness is revealed through the doing, not before it?
🌼 LATE SPRING / EARLY SUMMER | Photosynthesis ↔ Creative Expression
Unfurling. Play. Wild bloom. Voice.
Photosynthesis is how plants turn light into nourishment. Creative expression is how we do the same.
Your poems, your voice, your rewilded joy, your full-body laugh in the middle of a hard day—these are not “extras.” They’re how your soul eats. They’re how you metabolize aliveness.
And just like plants don’t photosynthesize in darkness, we can’t keep creating from a place of depletion, shame, or silence.
In the Late Spring and Summer seasons of transformation, expression isn’t just allowed—it’s essential.
🌾 Late Spring and Summer Invitations:
Let something bloom without apologizing for it.
Create from joy, not just urgency.
Let visibility be a form of nourishment—not a transaction.
Say what you actually want to say.
What if your creativity is how the light gets into the world?
🐦🔥 ROOTED SUMMER | Shade Avoidance ↔ Boundaries as Direction
Embodiment. Discernment. Deep aliveness.
Plants can sense when they’re entering crowded territory. They absorb red light but reflect far-red light—so if the far-red increases, they know they’re surrounded and can choose to grow in a different direction.
This is called shade avoidance.
They’re not avoiding out of fear. They’re discerning where they can thrive.
What a beautiful reframe for boundaries.
In the rooted Summer season of transformation, we don’t set boundaries to shut the world out—we set them to grow toward the light.
We’re not avoiding people—we’re attuning to where our energy is best invested.
🌾 Rooted Summer Invitations:
Let your boundaries be data, not drama.
Notice where you’re shrinking—and redirect.
Ask: “Where is the light now?”
Practice saying no with compassion and conviction.
What if your boundaries are the blueprint for your next evolution?
🌾 So… What season are you in?
If you’re reading this and nodding, maybe you’re already on the Wildwoven path. Or maybe it’s been calling to you for a while now.
This isn’t about plants, really.
It’s about remembering how to be a living thing in a world that treats us like machines.
Hi. I’m Transformation Coach, Kristin Halberg.
My work is rooted in story, nervous system wisdom, and nature’s blueprint for transformation.
I don’t offer 10-step programs—I offer companionship, reflection, and a map made of seasons.
Reflections on a Challenging Year: Finding Meaning Beyond the Struggle
I scoffed at the student motivational speaker at my nephew’s graduation.
Her speech was uplifting—full of big dreams and bold declarations about how she and her classmates were going to change the world. Normally, speeches like this get me teary-eyed, filling me with HOPE that the next generation might actually save us.
The weight of grief clouded any sense of hope, and I couldn’t see past the pain to recognize the potential for growth.
“Yeah right,” I muttered internally. “Just wait thirty years. Half of you will be in active addiction, and the other half will be sucked right into the greedy capitalist dream.”
Navigating grief is a challenging journey. In the midst of our loss, my partner and I struggled, neither of us able to face clients, let alone ‘market’ our businesses.
These weren’t our best moments. Justin spent his days deep in online political debates, while I spent the first half of the year binge-watching Marvel shows. I wanted to BE Jessica Jones—her brand of sarcasm and self-deprecation hit me right in the feels.
The Turning Point
A few weeks later, still horrified at my jaded thoughts during that graduation, I decided my depression had gone on long enough. So I did what I always do when I feel stuck—I researched my way out.
I found an online course that promised inspiration, and one of the first activities was to reflect and harvest my year.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need to do this. I already know—my year SUCKED.”
Still, I answered the first question: “Did you have a vision for the year?”
YES! I had big plans to grow my business, but then Josh WAS KILLED IN A F-ING CRAB ACCIDENT WHILE HELPING SOME ARROGANT CAPTAIN WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE.
I moved to the next question: “What occurred, evolved, or happened since you set this intention? How would you describe your results?”
The anger bubbled up again. SAME ANSWER. “DITTO,” I scrawled, jabbing my pen hard enough to rip the page.
But then came another set of questions: “What were the highlights of your year? What are you most proud of? What had the most positive impact on you and/or others?”
At first, this stumped me. The bitterness and disappointment I’d been clinging to blocked access to any positive memories. But then I remembered something small yet meaningful—
In the spring, I got to drive my niece to her club volleyball practice two hours away every week. Since she’s a teen, those alone moments are rare. But every single time, she’d say, “This was fun, Auntie Kristin. We should hang out more often.”
That memory softened something inside me. I moved on to the rest of the questions, slowly re-evaluating my year—not through the capitalistic lens of productivity and success, but from a human perspective.
Redefining Growth & Success
Looking back, this shift—choosing to move through my jaded year and see what else was there—became a pivotal moment of growth for me.
One of the reasons I was so jaded was because I was filled with self-loathing. I couldn’t “fix” Josh’s wife’s grief, or Justin’s, or even my own. But leaning into my pain and feelings of failure ultimately made me a better practitioner.
It forced me to learn that it’s not my job to fix.
It’s my job to hold sacred space.
To BE there.
To allow what is.
“Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. … However, we are, in fact, in the process of change…”
Those long periods—when something inside us seems to be clawing its way out of our skin… when we’re frozen with uncertainty about our next step… when we feel completely untethered… when we’re angry at the world because deep down, we’re grieving something big—
Personal growth is challenging enough without the added weight of grief and loss. And when we measure success the way the world expects us to—by external achievements, productivity, and met goals—it can leave us feeling like we’ve failed.
But what if there was another way?
I created a guide called Measure Your Year—a reflection tool designed to help you assess your growth through a lens of self-compassion and personal transformation, rather than capitalist productivity.
If you’re looking for a new way to measure your year—one that honors your inner journey as much as your external accomplishments—download Measure Your Year Guide + Bonus Meditation and start your reflection today.
Because even the hardest years have lessons worth harvesting. And you deserve to recognize just how far you’ve come.
I know you’re probably tired of hearing about stress—believe me, I get it. But here’s the thing: whether you’re sick of it or in full-on denial about its impact, stress doesn’t care. It will continue to wreak havoc on your body and mind unless you take real action.
Even if you have great tools for stress management—maybe yoga, trail running, or meditation/prayer each morning—that’s awesome! But here’s the catch: Unless you can interrupt your body’s response to stress in the moment, right when it’s happening, your system is going to keep reacting the same way it always has.
The tools I teach aren’t just for long-term stress management—they help you stop stress in its tracks, as it’s happening. That way, you can choose a different response before your body decides to do something reactive or careless.
Stress becomes a bigger issue when you get used to it.
Over the past few years, have you gotten so used to daily stress—pressures, irritations, annoyances—that it just feels normal? Here’s the kicker: This is exactly when stress is at its most dangerous. When you think you’re handling it but you’ve actually become numb to it, that’s when it messes with your clarity, decision-making, and health.
Think about your response to the most recent headlines—maybe shootings or other tragedies. Did you just flinch and mutter, “The world is a mess,” and move on?
That’s a sign you’re numb to stress. And it’s costing you more than you realize.
When stress runs unchecked, your body pays the price.
Here’s how it works: your stress response system is meant to be self-limiting. Once a threat passes, your hormone levels should return to normal. But when stress is constant, that fight-or-flight reaction stays on. And that long-term activation of stress hormones, like cortisol, disrupts your body’s systems.
This constant churn can lead to:
Anxiety & depression
Digestive problems & headaches
Muscle pain & tension
Heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke
Sleep issues, weight gain, and memory problems
It’s time to interrupt that cycle. This is why coping with stress as it happens is so important. It’s not just about surviving—it’s about thriving in the face of life’s demands.
The body’s stress response is designed to protect you, but if you’re not actively interrupting it, it can quickly start to work against you, leaving you drained, overwhelmed, and disconnected from your true self.
That’s why managing stress in the moment is so crucial. The tools I teach help you do just that—interrupt the stress response as it happens, so you can choose a different, healthier reaction before it spirals into something bigger.
But here’s the thing: sometimes, no matter how many yoga sessions or long runs you get in, you need something more when life feels like it’s hitting you from all sides.
That’s where true soul care comes in.
When life knocks you sideways and a bubble bath just won’t cut it, you need a deeper kind of self-care.
That’s why I created my Soul-Care Checklist.
It’s designed to help you:
🪄 Steady yourself even when the world feels like it’s crumbling. 🪄 Reconnect with your inner calm and reclaim your strength. 🪄 Find clarity for what’s next, even when you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed.
If you’re ready to give yourself the deep care you need, grab your Soul Care Checklist today.
