For the past stretch of time, I’ve been writing quietly — processing, healing, remembering. What’s emerged from that silence is something I’m ready to share in a new way.

I’ve launched a new space on Substack, under the name Isla Wren.

This isn’t a departure from the voice you’ve known here — it’s a return to it. A soft but powerful reclaiming of stories, soul-truth, and the wild-hearted writing that comes from living deeply.

You can find me here: https://islawren.substack.com/

My first piece is called A Letter to No One— a raw and honest reflection written after the end of a relationship that taught me both heartbreak and self-belonging. If you’ve ever poured your love into someone who couldn’t receive it, I think it may speak to you.

This new space is for anyone walking the road of becoming:
those learning to hold themselves more gently, more fully, more honestly.

If that’s you, I’d love to walk together.

With care,
Isla Wren

In the safety of a handmade cradle of loving kindness, together we shall explore the inner realms. Wildscapes of opportunity await. Attuned through effortless imagination. When the mind squeezes, contracts to the familiar noise of tight. Let us instead stay with uncertainty.

The instant spark of a body’s remembrance. An ancient fire waging within the heart of a little one still being warmed by the flames. Free of defenses and tools for tending. Walls rise up, shutting down the senses. This my sweet one, is where magic is born.

Through awe and wonder a choice to voice instead of familiar dynamic, notice, go inward and focus what story is coming up to be retold.

It is you I ache to know in this portal of feeling. Breaking free of the past and a present experience mind keeps stealing. Safe it is to feel, not alone, I am with you and by your side.

Nothing could ever be wrong in the wisdom of this moment. Coming down to the point of here and now. The more of it all you see, is always here. Being revealed sensed not sought, different from longing.

Light and loose stepping forward. Expanding into loving awareness, rainbow waves in this increment of time. Choose color in place of the palette of gray. See what I see, relax child, and know what it means to be free.

Excavating fine lines like the ripples of a slender, smooth, stone falling through the water’s surface.

Now this, it is or it isn’t. Stillness, perfection, redirection, resonant sequencing the stars blanketing the night sky as the sun touches the hillside.

We know only to hear what curiosity provides. Waves rolling we go under. Ease as loud as thunder.

The answer cannot be found any other way than with magnificent wonder.

I know your darkness

I have it too

Take my hand

And we’ll see it through

To the light

Burning bright and true

Even in the darkest of nights

Everything is right

Within the ring of gold

Deeper still

Wide open

A mirror of blue

Coming together

Falling apart

Rise above

To find love

Mysterious and unspoken

Where nothing is broken

A treasure waits for us

To be brave, relax, and open

Although, learning the hard way has taught me a thing or two. I am where I am today through the enduring support of teachers, mentors, friends, and family who continue to reflect the truth when I lose my way.

I have walked through divorce, bankruptcy, getting sober, profound loss, and moving more than twenty times with or without cats. I lived on both coasts, in the deep south, off-grid in the Maui jungle, and in the Colorado mountains. I do not have your answers; I have experience and a deep well of empathy born from heartache and choices.

Authenticity is a vehicle for transformation; I make sense of my experiences through writing, allowing my self-expression to create space within my mind. As my awareness deepens, I become more willing to accept what is and observe rather than react to life. This newfound space gives me the golden opportunity to grow more curious about the moments of surrender. These choice points are harbingers of wisdom, and if fully received, a gentler way back home to myself becomes available.

As a Reiki Master, mindfulness practitioner, leader in self-transformation, and lifelong student with almost ten years of living alcohol-free, I am infinitely grateful for the opportunity to share my voice through writing.

Today, writing guides me to own my inner authority and offers permission to source my doing from my being. Rather than follow the lie of scarcity down a familiar rabbit hole to the land of never enough. Instead, through the writing, I explore the inner landscape — grappling with the “shoulds” and “woulds” fear brings forward in my mind. Being confronted with these thoughts, I am choosing to attach less and move toward the embodiment of my essence, unencumbered by the veneer of ancestral masks.

Letting go of the bullshit that weighs me down. Many stories of unworthiness and confusion that aren’t even mine are handed down through generations.

“Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love, and the way we make sense of the world. It is the root of our deepest wounds.”

— Dr. Gabor Maté

We were wounded in a relationship, and we will heal in a relationship — community is the key to unlocking the transformation we need to regenerate this planet.

My aspiration as a writer is that my words be medicine that light the way to our collective healing. May my work reveal what is beneath the armor of protection, and together, we remember our wholeness and rediscover the wellspring of joy within.

How did I get to where I am today? I found my connection to something bigger long before experimenting with psychedelics, and yet they have played a pivotal role in my journey. My parents grin, telling the story of my first communion. “When you saw the cake for the party, you asked, ‘Why is it a guitar?’ The cake was not a guitar but a chalice.”

Que the music “Give me another drink, from your loving cup.” — The Rolling Stones

Motivated from a young age to make a difference, simultaneously operating with an array of unconscious patterns of addiction and codependency, later to be revealed through a series of humbling professional and personal failures, I embarked on a career path in live music armed with optimism, an affinity for fine tequila, a Master’s degree in communication and a shine for men with instruments.

While in graduate school, I began to draw a connection between live music as a catalyst for transformation. Unable to name what I was experiencing, I leaned into the importance of intention, and thereby, a thread was revealed and woven throughout my winding path. The thread is a purpose-driven community, devoting my energy toward cultivating a community rooted in service.

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” ~Rabindranath Tagore

Through my work, I demonstrated a desire to harness the power of live music, inspiring activation toward positive impact. Sounds good, right? Well, it has undoubtedly been an exciting and bumpy ride, worth every moment!

I look forward to sharing my lessons, grief, ridiculous choices, wisdom, and the love I discovered. May you be entertained, inspired, comforted, and feel seen in the words I share.

Thank you from the inner chamber of my heart for sharing in the creative act of life! May you rest in your basic goodness wherever you are on the path.

Would we be more willing to let go if we knew it could be fun, like riding in the front seat of a rickety, loud, roller coaster, hands reaching high up toward the open sky? Is the feeling of freedom one we want more of? If so, then why not just let go of the story that is keeping you stuck? The one with blame or shame written all over it, yours or someone else's. Sounds simple, but it ain't easy, haven’t we all tried to ‘just let it go’? Like climbing a spiral staircase, we come around again and there is that story or feeling confronting us once again.

Though spoken of often, freedom and joy can be terrifying, uncharted territory. Without worry or hypervigilance, we must rely on something unseen to keep us safe. In actuality, we want something in the first place because of how we think it will make us feel inside. So if we want more freedom we must explore what is blocking that freedom.

The deal is to feel more of the good stuff, the unresolved hurt from the past has to be cleared out. There is only one way out and that is through my darlings, trust me I have tried all the other ways, and they do not work.

Letting go isn’t a concept that we have to do more to attain or achieve. It is simpler than that and is a way of being, a presencing of sorts. Sounds counterintuitive, in a way we have to allow all of our parts to be welcome and simultaneously release what is not ours to carry. A dance of becoming whole and remembering who we are at the core.

Letting go of the past, and all that it contains in your energetic signature is an art form available to us all, and it is available only right here, in the now-present moment.

What we must sacrifice to gain is different from what the ego would have us think. Many of us have grown accustomed to sacrifice, ingrained from childhood, learned behaviors of shapeshifting, editing, and dimming as a way to manage other people’s experience of the world. When we are little, our survival is dependent on our caregivers so it makes sense that we may have needed to be different to feel safe.

As adults, when we are sacrificing parts of ourselves, literally exchanging our authenticity for belonging we are chipping away at the fabric of our perfect soul. These micro-aggressions toward ourselves begin to hurt in ways that feel familiar of course, a form of denial is at play denying our needs for the sake of care taking another’s happiness perhaps.

What if today all you let go of is the belief that other people’s experiences, feelings, emotions, and thoughts are your responsibility?

In place of this responsibility, what would you choose to feel instead? Come back to this new feeling sensation in your body and say “thank you” as you envision a future moment that you long for. Keep it simple, and remember not to attach to this future moment either, it is a feeling we are choosing to amplify while letting the story form, go. Feeling grateful for the opportunity to practice conscious creating, for participating in our healing journey and to see ourselves as perfectly imperfect humans here to love and be loved from the inside out.

When I remember there are no mistakes, only learning, and keep looking toward the horizon, I become aware of the person I am becoming and less concerned with what I think I want. Releasing the attachment to an outcome opens the playing field and self-imposed limitations. This is true abundance, having what I need, when I need it. There is no end in sight only evolution, which begins as I become more willing to be my authentic self.

Stay curious darling and if it resonates, please share this article with someone you love.

Writing prompts:

What am I willing to let go?

What am I afraid of losing?

What is the feeling I want to feel more of?

What is one small step or action I can take right now to embody this feeling?