Marelda Rodrigues, Grief Massage and Wellness (2025)

17/12/2024

✨ It’s that time of year when I take stock of my year and go inward for inspiration and focus for the year ahead.

I let go of making resolutions a long time ago.

Why?

Because setting up false promises without a strategy, action steps, or measurable results felt like a waste of time.
Left without direction, the mind wanders—often into pastures where cows graze, not where humans grow and build resilience.

If you’ve been wandering those pastures—carrying your losses, replaying old memories, and holding unresolved emotions—you may feel stuck, aimlessly grazing instead of using your potential to its fullest.

But here’s the truth: that’s a choice.

You make that choice over and over to avoid scary truths and uncomfortable feelings like everyone else because it's easy.

And just like that, you can choose differently.

To move beyond the weight of loss, guilt, shame, regret, and sorrow, you need more than just wishful thinking. You need a solid plan, one that’s guided and intentional. Winging it with Google searches or casual chats with friends isn’t enough.

A real grief wellness plan means:
✅ A clear vision for your life past suffering.
✅ Consideration for every area of your life—your priorities, health, and values.
✅ Intentional, well-mapped steps to make your journey less scary and more doable.
✅ A timeline, plotting those steps into your calendar.

Most of all, your plan requires focus, effort, and vulnerability. And yes, that’s where it gets tough. But tough doesn’t mean impossible—it means doable with the right support.

✨ My clients tell me the same thing:
Once they decided to stop suffering and start thriving, the shifts were quicker and more sustainable than they imagined.
With the right tools and encouragement, they moved beyond pain into a life that felt aligned.

So, ahead of your first steps into 2025, ask yourself:
👉 What will you choose in order to move out of suffering sooner rather than later?
👉 How will you leave behind the cycle of overwhelm, stuck emotions, and mediocrity?
👉 What difference would it make to have guided support to create a life of growth and resilience?

Stop waiting for life to change on its own—take control with a plan that aligns with your values and breaks the cycle of suffering.

DM me about a 60-minute strategy call to create a clear path to growth, resilience, and the results you’ve been craving.

14/12/2024

Have you ever stood in front of your closet, frustrated by how packed it is, yet feeling like you have nothing to wear?
Or am I the only one?
You reach for the same old clothes because it’s easier than digging through the clutter. But deep down, you know that pile of “just in case” outfits is taking up space—not just in your closet but in your mind.
Imagine finally clearing out those clothes that no longer fit or feel good. Suddenly, there’s room to breathe, and you feel so much lighter. Choosing what to wear feels simple and joyful.
And then you wonder why it took you so long to get to this happy space. What exactly felt good about the stagnant energy of that cluttered closet? Anything? If not, why did you wait so long for this level of ease?
The same thing happens when you let go of outdated stories that no longer serve you. Those “just in case” beliefs—like saying yes to avoid conflict or staying small to keep others comfortable—are weighing you down.
And it's rewiring you brain in ways that stunt your growth, limit your potential, and distort your reality.

Rewrite Your Story, Empower Your Life! is your invitation to clear the clutter of old patterns and stories. With just 30 minutes a day for 5 days, you’ll create the mental and emotional space to design a life that fits you today.
It’s time to stop wearing outdated beliefs and step into your true self. Ready? Click the link below to register.
We start on Monday, December 16. The link to register is in the comments.

10/12/2024

Old stories aren’t always obvious.
They’re subtle, like using a dull knife in the kitchen. You can get by, but everything feels harder, slower, and more frustrating.
Maybe you say “yes” when you mean “no.” You avoid conflict to keep the peace. You question every decision, unsure if you can trust yourself.
These patterns don’t mean you’re weak. They mean you’ve been operating with tools that no longer match your life today.
Your brain’s fear center wants to keep you safe, so it clings to outdated strategies that helped you survive in the past. But what kept you safe back then is holding you back now.
Safe = Not growing into your highest potential.
Imagine entering the new year with clarity and confidence instead of replaying the same frustrating patterns.
Rewrite for Wellness, Empower Your Life! is a 5 day challenge program designed to help you identify the outdated stories and tools keeping you stuck. You’ll unleash exactly where your growth awaits by:
✅ Recognizing outdated stories.
✅ Creating safety to embrace change.
✅ Practicing small, intentional shifts.
✅ Getting support to guide your growth.
✨You don’t have to carry those dull knives—or outdated stories—any longer. Use the link in the comments to get details and sign up for the challenge.✨
The challenge starts on December 16. Link to register is in the comments.

05/12/2024

You know those moments when shame, regret, or self-criticism sneak in and make everything feel unbearable? When the weight of it presses so hard, it’s like you can’t catch your breath?

You feel this in the rising muscle tension, heaviness of sadness, yearnings for a better way to handle your missed opportunities, suppressing your true feelings because you don't want to "upset" those around you..

You’ve tried talking about it, hoping it would get easier, but the relief never seems to last. The answers you’ve been given don’t quite fit. Something’s missing.

And most of all, the feeling of hopelessness from walking on eggshells, even around your own heart, are no longer the right option.

That’s because grief isn’t just in your mind—it’s in your body, too. And until you address it there, the cycle continues.

Your heart knows this. Because your soul speaks to it.

Imagine this instead:
Having tools you can reach for the moment that heaviness sets in. Tools that calm the storm inside you, bring you back to yourself, and leave you feeling lighter, stronger, and more at peace.

This is your chance to finally learn how to reshape your grief story in a way that aligns with who you are, not the expectations of others.

Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! isn’t just another workshop. It’s a life-changing step toward healing from the inside out.

✨ Join me and discover how to turn the weight you’ve been carrying into something empowering.
✨ December 7th, 2024 | 9am-12pm CST | Online via ZOOM

This is for you if you’re ready to stop searching and start feeling real relief. Your story deserves to be retold. 💖

✨The price is currently $99, and it goes up to $150 at midnight. The link to register is in the comments.

03/12/2024

Over the holiday weekend, I had the chance to care for two elderly cats. At 18 years old—88 in human years—they’re dealing with aging in very different ways. One has diabetes and needs insulin shots; the other is healthy but still aging. Watching them gave me a real-life lesson in how aging affects the body, and how that cascades into overall health.

Aging is complex, influenced by nutrition, stress, movement, sleep, environment, connection, and lifestyle choices. But when grief enters the picture, it accelerates the aging process. Grief isn’t just emotional—it affects your body at the cellular level. Chronic grief causes inflammation, disrupts hormonal balance, and speeds up oxidative stress, all of which contribute to cellular damage and disease.

Here’s how grief impacts cellular aging:
Chronic inflammation from grief damages cells and accelerates aging.
Stress hormones like cortisol weaken the body’s ability to repair itself.
Grief-induced stress creates free radicals, harmful molecules that damage cells.
Telomeres (protective caps on your DNA) shorten under stress, reducing cell life.
Persistent grief weakens your immune system, making you more vulnerable to illness.

What’s important to understand is that the body doesn’t distinguish between types of loss. It reacts to the stress signals, and the stories you tell yourself only intensify the internal fire. While you may avoid addressing grief, it’s still affecting your body at a cellular level, speeding up aging and disease.

This is why it’s critical to address cellular aging before it progresses too far. By the time symptoms show up, cellular damage and disease are already taking root.

The time to act is now.

That's why I'm hosting Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! on December 7, 9a-12p on Zoom.

This isn’t just another seminar. It’s a place where science and compassion come together. The feedback from previous attendees was very positive. Like them, you'll learn proven techniques to release grief from your body and transform your health, vitality, and energy from the inside out.

In the Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! workshop, you’ll learn to:
Reclaim your health and energy with self compassion and nurturance.
Break free from cycles of burnout and stress.
Connect with others on the same journey and feel truly seen.

Transform your body’s story from aging to vitality. The link to enroll in the workshop is in the comments.

30/11/2024

✨Upcoming Online Event✨

Is grief consuming you behing the scenes of your life without you even being aware?
Yes, Grief has that uncanny knack.
And it gets louder during the holiday season, when you may be feeling your most vulnerable.
What if the suffering of grief didn’t have to define your life?
Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, your identity, a dream, or purpose, the pain can feel like it’s here to stay.
But what if you could rewrite that story—one of hope, growth, and self-compassion?
**Back by request**

✨ Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! ✨
📅 Saturday, Dec 7
🕘 9 AM - 12 PM CT | 🌐 On Zoom

This powerful workshop is your chance to transform how you navigate grief. Past attendees have called it a game changer. Will you be next?

Here’s what you’ll gain:
💡 Shifts in your perspective—understand how grief impacts your life and how to rewrite your story for healing and empowerment.
💬 Kinder self-talk how to's —replace self-criticism with self-compassion to navigate loss with more ease.
🤲 Simple mind-body insights—calm your nervous system with somatic practices that align your body and mind.

🎟 Early bird offer: Limited time offer valid until Dec 3 - you have to decide and act quickly. DON'T MISS OUT!!

It’s time to step into a far more hopeful story that the one you're currently living or telling yourself.
🌱Don’t let grief hold you back—this is your moment to heal.

👉 Ready? Sign up now and let the healing begin.
Link to register is in the comments

27/11/2024

Taking clients who've faced tremendous losses (not limited to bereavement) through a wellness journey that helps them feel hopeful and empowered in just a couple of weeks is the most beautiful thing.

What I love about these clients who have so much sadness, discouragement and plenty of reasons to stay in suffering is this. They:
-> decided they no longer wanted to swirl endlessly in the years of pain
-> took their wellbeing and healing into their hands decisively
-> chose to be guided differently because none of the traditional approaches to grief were really bringing them results or moving them forward.
-> they set their self judgement and criticism to the side to ask for help and committed to the process of grief wellness
-> they put their grief and vulnerability on the table to be witnessed as a way of clearing mind clutter that built over the years with ineffective guidance.
-> they now understand and embrace where they need some course correction and are on their way to thriving.
->stopped sitting on the fence because their asses hurt, and simply surviving was exhausting, and jumped into the path to thriving.

Truly, it's like watching sunflowers turn in the direction of sunshine (their future, where they're thriving).

If you want what they are building, drop me a message. No reason for you to not thrive. Wouldn't you agree?

18/11/2024

How are you preparing to move through grief this upcoming holiday season?
Grief is heavy and unpredictable and brings with it the tendency to isolate yourself. This is especially true whether you’re working through past, present or anticipated losses.

Add to that the upcoming holiday season, and it can put you into a further downward spiral and emotional chaos.

You’ve probably suffered through this year after year, or might be in this space for the first time. Either way, the feeling of dread following you around is unpleasant.

How would it feel to learn simple ways to feel soothed and more at peace, when it seems like the world is just moving on and you're stuck in a deeply sorrowful replay of your losses?

When you attend Heal and Thrive After Loss, a free online presentation, in just one hour, you’ll learn heart centered ways to set an uplifting tone for your day, and create calming touch points to your busy days.

Isn’t that worth your time over doomscrolling on social media or allowing your mind to wear you down with scary, unsettling thoughts that keep your fears alive?

More importantly, every second you stay in the unpleasant feels, you put your health and overall wellbeing at risk.

Set yourself up for a self nurturing holiday season!

Join me on Monday, Nov 18, 6-7p CT on Zoom so you can access wellness any time grief feels burdensome and hopeless.

The link to register is in the comments.

16/10/2024

We all have a grief story.
As time passes from the loss event, your brain utilizes new information and experiences to reconstruct the story.
The reconstructed version may or may not align with your dreams and desires.
So you’re left telling a story you believe to be true but doesn’t align with your desires and hence is misaligned with your growth.
Do you feel like your grief story no longer serves you?�
Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! is all about putting you at the center of your healing journey, attaching the right emotions to align with your dreams and desires, making your healing feel effortless, and learning one of the most important skills in your healing journey - grief skills.
Turn your suffering in your current grief story into an empowered growth story.
Link to get details and register is in the comments.

12/10/2024

Just because it doesn't fit mental picture of grief concocted by a brain in denial, don't assume your body is on board with it.

Just because it's not the death of a person or pet, doesn't mean it's not grief; bereavement is only one of so many different types of grief.

Given the chance, your brain will keep you in distraction and denial all day, while your body bears the brunt of the changes in physiology related to fear, sadness, anger, or shame.

Your biology keeps you alive, not your psychology.

So get out of your head, drop down into your body and feel all the feels related to the life change happening in your world. That's all your body is asking for.

This is how you build emotional fitness.

Denial in the emotional space is the same as sedentary in the physical space.

Emotionally flabby or fit - choose well ahead of time.

I say this after being on my own personal journey out of people pleasing and burnout. I hear the language of denial everyday as I speak with those in the midst of major life transitions (especially women in their 50s). "I wouldn't say it's grief." is what I hear followed by
"I'm anxious about..."
"I haven't been able to sleep...."
"I'm so disappointed...."
"I feel I need to find my purpose..."
"I feel lost...."
"I put in so much work..."
"I put in all these years..."
"They didn't appreciate...."
"They just don't understand..."
"I'm just going to cry..."

Any of this sound familiar in the context of life transitions and denial?

**************************

Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! is coming up on Oct 18.

You’ll discover:
-Why your current grief story feels misaligned and keeps you stuck.
-The tools to rewrite your grief story into one of healing and empowerment.
-How to tell a new story—one filled with hope, growth, and self-compassion.

Link to learn more and register is in the comments.

11/10/2024

The most uncomfortable part about grief is not the emotion.

It is the cascading fears of unplanned loss of a person, pet, relationship, finances, hopes/dreams and connection to self.
And it is the timing of the unplanned loss that leads to despair.

The emotion is a reminder of the unplanned bits, and it is felt in the body as it tries to cope with the onslaught of stress hormones.

The best time to plan for loss is often.
Go beyond the edges you're avoiding.
Talk about the reality of sudden losses (death, fire) or long standing ones (illness, court involved).

An example in my life is that my dad constantly talked about his death and how life could look like for me upon his passing.
He normalized his passing.
By the time he actually passed away, I was able to grieve (internal) and mourn (external).
I did not go through heart wrenching suffering. My nervous system had been primed for at least 5 years through conversations, reviewing my dad's will with him many times, and even learning how he wanted to be dressed for his funeral and where to find the right clothes.
I am deeply grateful to him for doing this.

Learn grief skills and plan for losses before they happen.
This brings a freedom you cannot imagine because a primed nervous system is more resourceful and resilient.
An unprepared nervous system falls prey to the protective but unproductive ego and unevolved thoughts - not the resources you want or need in your time of need.

Want to learn more?

Join me at my event Grief Retold: Change Your Experience With Loss! happening on Oct 18, 9a-12p, in Wicker Park (City of Chicago). Details in the comments.

09/10/2024

I just witnessed someone I know who is brilliant, lives in her head, always has a plan and feels no need to feel the uncomfortable emotions, become so unraveled and emotional with her current ambiguous loss she cannot run away from. She is still struggling to not tear up. She has no idea how to feel her grief.

Ambiguous loss comes about through life transitions that bring changes in context and don’t have a real beginning or end. It is not the death of a person or pet.

Grief skills are more important to your survival and thriving than driving skills.

Now is a perfect time to gain grief skills if you tend to live in your head about grief, and have no idea how to feel it comfortably in your body.

Do yourself a huge favor and learn to be comfortably conversational about the chaotic nature of grief and its effects on your body, the different kinds of grief, and each grief’s unique vocabulary. It doesn’t have to happen in a week but start somewhere.

And if you’d like to learn simple ways to get started, join me for Grief Retold: Change Your Experience with Loss!

More info in the comments.

Marelda Rodrigues, Grief Massage and Wellness