What if the hardest things you've lived through are invitations into your life? Ruthie has survived what most bodies are never asked to hold. I wanted the details, and she gives them. What I did not expect was how present she stayed while telling me. No performance of having healed. Just a woman living from right now, with a grace that makes a listeners body settle.
In this deeply honest and expansive conversation, Sarah sits down with writer, speaker, coach, and beloved internet friend Ruthie Lindsey to explore the thresholds that have shaped her life—and the wisdom she's found on the other side of them.
Ruthie shares the story behind the pain narrative that defined much of her public identity: a devastating car accident at seventeen, a wire accidentally left in her brainstem, years of chronic pain, addiction to approval, the collapse of a marriage, spiritual deconstruction, nervous breakdowns, and the long journey of learning who she is beyond what she's survived.
This may sound devastating, but somehow Ruthie lifts us all up during her story telling. She gives us home and holds up a light for anyone navigating their own threshold.
Together, Sarah and Ruthie explore belonging, identity, chronic pain, somatics, spirituality, relationships, and the tender process of becoming more fully human. They discuss the difference betaween healing and fixing, why some thresholds never fully end, and how life can become richer, simpler, and more meaningful when we stop waiting to arrive somewhere else.
This conversation is filled with laughter, honesty, and the kind of wisdom that can only come from living through what once felt impossible.
In this episode:
- Growing up addicted to approval and external validation
- The emptiness that followed becoming homecoming queen
- The car accident that changed the course of Ruthie's life
- Living with chronic pain and redefining healing
- Why pain can become a portal rather than an obstacle
- Spiritual awakening, deconstruction, and Richard Rohr's concept of order, disorder, and reorder
- Learning to descend more fully into the body through somatics
- Letting go of identities built around suffering
- Finding joy in ordinary moments, sunsets, plants, and neighborhood cats
- How Ruthie met her partner Eric and the healing power of being deeply seen
- The role of relationships in co-regulation, repair, and transformation
- Why thresholds aren't always about reaching the other side
About the Guest
Ruthie Lindsey is a somatic coach, speaker, and author of There I Am: The Journey from Hopelessness to Healing. After surviving a near-fatal car accident at seventeen and navigating decades of chronic pain, Ruthie has devoted her life to helping others reconnect with themselves through compassion, embodiment, and self-trust. Through coaching, retreats, writing, and speaking, she guides people through life's thresholds with humor, honesty, and a deep belief that every part of us belongs.
Connect with Sarah
Connect with Ruthie Lindsey
- Ruthie Lindsey - www.ruthielindsey.com
- Join Ruthie on Instagram, where she shares reflections on how to fall more in love with your life.
- Learn more about events she is hosting and teaching at this year.
- Read her longer writings on Substack - it's a space for deeper thoughts on healing, relationships, and being human
- And if her work resonates with you, she invites you to work with her!
