Embracing embodiment: Compass 181

Meg Calvin speaks on breaking free from religious conditioning, connecting body and spirit, and new healing paths.

Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Amazon / YouTube 

Meg Calvin invites us into a bold conversation about embodied spirituality, healing from religious trauma, and reclaiming the wisdom of our bodies. We navigate the critique of purity culture, the impacts of patriarchy in ministry, and how spiritual wholeness arises when we learn to trust our desires and honor ourselves—mind, body, and spirit.

Meg shares the inspiration behind her new novel, "There, He Holds Her," weaving together the journeys of two women separated by decades but united in their quest to break free from religious conditioning. Along the way, we dive into practices like emotional body mapping, somatic healing, contemplative grounding, and the power of play for spiritual growth. Whether you're deconstructing old beliefs, searching for holistic faith, or hungry for new ways to connect spirit and body, this episode is for you.

About the Guest:
Meg Calvin is a coach, minister, and author passionate about helping others claim their desires as sacred, reconnect to their bodies, and experience healing through creativity and playful spirituality. She has empowered countless seekers to move beyond performance-based faith into deeper authenticity and joy.

Episode Notes:

If you're ready to add There, He Holds Her to your summer reading list, take advantage of some pre-order bonuses: https://www.megcalvin.com/there-he-holds-her/#pre-order-bonuses

Explore more of Meg Calvin's work and her coaching practice through her website: https://www.megcalvin.com/

In this episode:

(00:00) Discussing Meg Calvin's new novel

(03:59) Passion for crafting dialogue

(07:29) Critiquing purity culture

(11:25) Finding joy in writing and reconnection

(15:01) Understanding emotional body mapping

(17:28) Connecting with heritage through play

(20:36) Naming and expressing hidden anger

(24:42) Discussing Heity's beliefs

(28:25) Exploring Spiritual Restoration and Reflection

(30:54) Pre order bonuses and goodies

Related Episodes:

Help us spread the word

  • Tell others: friends, coworkers, and anyone else might benefit from these conversations.
  • Share us on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.
  • Review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you download the episode. Great reviews help others find us.
  • Email our host Ryan Dunn about future topics and feedback.

More podcasts

Thank you for listening, downloading, and subscribing.

This episode posted on May 27, 2026


Episode Transcript:

Ryan Dunn [00:00:00]:
What's on your summertime reading list? How about a scintillating novel critiquing purity culture, patriarchy, and exploring restorative healing? We're exploring these themes and more on Compass. Welcome back to Compass. Finding spirituality in the everyday. My name is Ryan Dunn. In this episode, I spoke with Meg Calvin. Meg is a coach, minister, and author who took a little departure from her normal writing projects to offer a new novel called There He Holds her, which uses story to explore and even push against some powerful pre existing themes in the church. In our conversation, we talked about patriarchy and purity culture and making spiritual connections through your embodied self as opposed to just dissociating the spiritual and the physical. We got into body mapping, creative inspiration, and a whole lot more.

Ryan Dunn [00:00:59]:
So just a little more background before our conversation. The book weaves together the stories of a mother and daughter who are separated by four decades. So through the novel, we find both learning to really trust their bodies and honor their desires and break free from a lot of religious conditioning that taught them as women to shrink. Heidi is the contemporary character. She's a pastor in our, I guess,

Ryan Dunn [00:01:25]:
up to date age.

Ryan Dunn [00:01:26]:
But we also kick back to the 1970s to meet our Heidi's mother, Vivian. And I think that background might help a little bit going into our conversation. If conversations like this are meaningful for you, well, go ahead and hit the like and subscribe button wherever it is that you're listening to this Compass podcast. We really, really appreciate that. And let's get into it. We're going to meet Meg Calvin here on Compass. Meg Calvin, thank you so much for

Ryan Dunn [00:01:55]:
taking the time to join us on the Compass podcast. How goes it with your soul today?

Meg Calvin [00:02:00]:
My soul is very filled, Very filled. Last day of my daughter's fifth grade, last day of middle elementary school. So I'm pausing and celebrating the changing seasons and letting all the feelings happen.

Ryan Dunn [00:02:16]:
Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of changing seasons, the impetus for our conversation here is a book that you have coming out called There He Holds Her. And it's a little bit of a change in directions for you and that the past books that you've written have all been nonfiction. You work in really kind of concrete ways with ministry work and coaching and conference presentations. And now you're releasing this novel. Why? Why the departure, so to speak, into the world of noveling?

Meg Calvin [00:02:48]:
Yes, I experienced the best art and I consider book books are art. They are. They serve others best when they first served the one who released them co created it. And so I selfishly wrote the book that I want to read. Okay. And so I combine my favorite genres of spirituality and theology with this sweeping swoon worthy romantic book. And then the second reason was I thought about the. My fellow high achieving Christian over committed holy roller.

Meg Calvin [00:03:25]:
Whether they're on staff or not, they are on all the floors and they have read all the Enneagram books and self care books and the life hack team dynamic books. All the books paddled the canoes. They've done all the things and, and I thought what if, what if self care could be entertaining? What if fiction could be a healing modality in a self care book for these high achievers in the. In the spiritual space. So that's the book I wrote.

Ryan Dunn [00:03:54]:
How very thoughtful of you. What did you learn about yourself in doing this?

Meg Calvin [00:03:59]:
I learned I have a deep love for dialogue in crafting that. I already had a deep inner knowing that I did love that because I've watched certain movies and I study them in a sense and study the craft of dialogue. And I've been in an improv troupe for four years now. And so I love, I have a deep love for creating transformational dialogue and this. And so when I started this book three years ago I had doubts of can I, can I do this? Well, can I do this? But just come returning and trusting that that old saying, follow your bliss. The deep, the deep love and obsession I had with crafting transformational dialogue that was, that carried a lot of weight with less words when needed and yeah, yeah, so I learned, I learned, I definitely learned that about my myself for sure. That there is, there's power. I'm going to land the plane soon, I promise.

Meg Calvin [00:05:02]:
I learned, I learned there is power in. Yeah, it's very meta right now. This question you're asking me is very meta to the book itself. In I learned that even, even when there is doubt of am I qualified to answer this call that one can find great confidence in what, what lights them up, what they're very curious about all the time. Which that dialogue has always been that way to me. And just trust that God put that desire there first. And all throughout the book there is this undercurrent of this quote by Dr. H.

Meg Calvin [00:05:36]:
Emily Katie. She kind of was a huge. Not kind of. She was a huge metaphysical practitioner Christian leader in the unity movement in the early 1900s and she teaches that desire is God knocking on the door of your heart. This book for me was living that out every day. Just even when the self doubt would creep in just returning to this desire wouldn't be here to write this weird Transformational book if God didn't put it there first. And I can trust that I'm qualified because of that.

Ryan Dunn [00:06:06]:
Okay, well, you've mentioned it's a book of healing and healing modalities, and healing can't really occur until you name name the hurt. Right, Right. So there, there are several points of, I guess, critique offered through the book, and in that, it's naming the hurts that then are calling people towards healing. And one of the critiques offered in the book is against something called Purity culture, which likely our listener has been exposed to, but maybe it hasn't been named for them. So can you describe, like, what purity Culture is for us and maybe even offer a couple reasons why this needs to be criti.

Meg Calvin [00:06:50]:
Yes, it's so interesting. As a millennial, I, when I visit with young women in Generation Z right below me, they have never heard of this word. And there's, as you. As you know, I'm sure as a pastor, you know as Well, I turned 40 this June. So in Texas, where I was raised, purity Culture, we kissed dating goodbye along with the book. And I'm, as you know, I'm so thankful that documentary came out. And I wish him all the healing and all the things, of course. And so what is Purity Culture? So Purity Culture is the evangelical movement that tied a woman's spiritual worth directly to her sexual purity.

Meg Calvin [00:07:29]:
Of course, I'm speaking as a woman from my journey, my experience, virginity pledges. I had the ring. Modesty rules. Intense, intense shame around the body and. And why it needs to be critiqued is at a deep level. When you teach anyone to turn off their sexual desire entirely, you teach them to turn off their body entirely. And when we can't trust our bodies, regardless of sex, gender, orientation, when we, when we can't trust our bodies, we end up subconsciously not trusting any of our desires as safe. And what grows in that void? What I explored in the archetypes in these characters in the novel is perfectionism grows, people pleasing grows.

Meg Calvin [00:08:17]:
And there's this belief that the desire itself is dangerous and separate from God. And so that has been. That has been my. My experience with Purity Culture and other. Other people that I speak with that went through youth group at that time in the late 90s, early aughts.

Ryan Dunn [00:08:34]:
Yeah. There seems to be really, historically, across Christianity, this theological line of thinking that the body in itself sinful. Right. That we need to detach from the body. And certainly one of your characters, Hetty, is wrestling with this a little bit, so person who is very grounded in intellect She's a pastor and then challenges this notion. She learns to sit and encounter herself in her physical being. Right. Have you had a similar experience in terms of awakening to the communication of the body?

Meg Calvin [00:09:19]:
Yes, 100%. And I have a United Methodist Church to thank for that.

Ryan Dunn [00:09:23]:
Okay.

Meg Calvin [00:09:26]:
Circa 2014, I went to a Somatic Enneagram retreat in Houston at a Methodist church with my grandmother. And at that retreat, the facilitator did what great facilitators do and got me back into my body and through exercises, cried more than I humanly thought was possible. And it was at that moment that she asked me, Meg, if what is now, I had to pause because I know people on your show are probably aware of the Enneagram. Is that a right assumption to make?

Ryan Dunn [00:09:59]:
Yeah, yeah, we. We. It gets dropped just about every other episode, I think. Yeah.

Meg Calvin [00:10:04]:
It's so true. I used to call it the Myers Briggs invented by Richard Rohr, but I know it's not that shout out to Helen Palmer. It's not. It's not Richard Rohr. Anyway, so I am an enneagram 3 with a 2 wing, and which made me a very charismatic preacher. So when I. I started preaching and teaching and singing, I had missionary grandparents in the Methodist Church, and they would carry me around like an ecclesial show pony at conferences and churches. It was, God did lots of good things, and I would preach and I would sing, and simultaneously, subconsciously, I was equating unconditional love with applause.

Meg Calvin [00:10:43]:
And I began my nervous system. Obviously, as I'm sure lots of pastors can attest to, my nervous system began with wiring the story in my being that I was only worthy of love if I was preaching and singing and teaching and leading in ministry. And so I did. I was on a church staff at the age of 17, went to seminary, stepped away to start my writing coaching business in 2020. And so at this retreat, this. I would. I wouldn't have left ministry and started writing as much as I did unless this moment happened. And so the facilitator asked me, as the only three at this Enneagram retreat, by the way, which was quite funny, of about 50 people.

Meg Calvin [00:11:25]:
Interesting stuff. She said, meg, if you could do anything all day and no one was around to applaud you, and no one was around to see that you even did it, but it would still bring you joy, but no one would know you did it, what is that thing that you could do all day and lose track of time and be in flow? And I knew instantly it was my favorite part of ministry. And that was the writing part. And I'm. And so that moment got me back into my body in a very healing way. And then, similar to Hetty, Hetty finds her biological father. And I had the joy of doing that, too. Four years ago, after we were separated when I was three, we reconnected when I was 36.

Meg Calvin [00:12:07]:
And the healing that occurs from that experience and how my. We always hear that trauma is stored in the body, and a lot smarter people can talk about that than I can. But I. How my. The. How my body felt so safe around my biological father when we reconnected, it was so. So beautiful. The truth that was in.

Meg Calvin [00:12:33]:
That was in those first three years of life with him and that my body remembered it. It was this magnetic pool of. Of safety and love. And so the past four years has. Have been me diving in even deeper into listening to how my emotions show up in my body and how memories show up in my body. So, yes, Hedy and me, our spiritual and emotional arcs are very much identical. Although she doesn't leave the ministry where, as I did to start my business.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:02]:
Yeah, okay.

Meg Calvin [00:13:03]:
All right.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:03]:
Yeah. It's revealing when you start reading about Hetty, talking about things like CEUs and continuing education units and that kind of thing, like, oh, there's. There's some real life experience here.

Meg Calvin [00:13:16]:
Like, 100%. Yeah.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:21]:
Are there practices that.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:22]:
That you employ now that kind of help you connect, I guess, the. The emotional or spiritual with the body?

Meg Calvin [00:13:32]:
Yes.

Ryan Dunn [00:13:32]:
Or vice versa, I guess. You know, sometimes, like, you talk about trauma being stored in the body. Like, maybe, like, are there practices that you use for listening to the body that reveal something then to the head?

Meg Calvin [00:13:44]:
Okay, so emotional body mapping. It was a groundbreaking 2014 research led by Dr. Lori Newman, Laurie Newman May at Alalto University. And what they found by doing this study over hundreds of volunteers is that regardless of gender, orientation, ethnicity, what have you, all the things that make us different as humans, there is. There are identical physical sensations to every emotion. And so shame shows up the same way physically. And sadness. And the chart, the image.

Meg Calvin [00:14:26]:
Just looking at the image alone of where there is heat happening, where there is heat in the jaw and the forehead, when there's anger, where there is a. The body's totally blue. In a moment of depression, there's no heat. This study alone was extremely helpful to me six years ago, and I've loved sharing it with others who we. When we. Especially those in ministerial settings most of the time, we have great empathy for our parishioners. We have great empathy for Our clients. And because of that is probably where I'm going with this.

Meg Calvin [00:15:01]:
It's hard to separate their feelings and their preferences from our feelings and our preferences. And like Hetty or her mom, Vivian, the book. Because of past trauma that was done to our body, we fled to our brain to be safe, and we had this intellectual fortress up. And so that's. We're a brain on a stick every day of our lives. And, and so from either of those places, it is hard to know how do I feel about this invitation to be on my kid's board at her school, or how do I feel about this person that's asked me on this date. And so emotional body mapping is massively helpful to help people begin to notice before the part of my brain that puts words to things, labels or makes a meaning or rationalizes this experience. My body's already done the work for me, and I can trust it.

Meg Calvin [00:15:53]:
And so sitting in the question of my nose just crinkled when someone invited me to be on that board. Of course, I'm speaking from my own experience. There's so much disgust there to work on a board. For me, I'd rather just drive a kid somewhere, like, donate money or help could I move heavy tables. And so starting to notice how does my body respond to opportunities? And then not judging it, not making up a should story. Oh, I should. I should want to go on that play date with that family when really just listening to the body first. So that's.

Meg Calvin [00:16:29]:
That tool is massively helpful. And then the other tool is one that our heritage has been doing for eons. And it's not New Age or metaphysical. It's. It's in our, it's in our roots as Christians that, that is contempl. Practice of contemplation and contemplative grounding. And so I love using apps like the Insight Time doing breath work or grounding exercises. These quiet.

Meg Calvin [00:16:58]:
These quieting moments where the body can, can speak and we can notice. And so, again, I, I, I love. One of my favorite things to do is reintroduce, and I have a feeling you might relate to this. I love introducing people to saints of our, of our faith, like Hilda von Bingen. Did I say that right?

Ryan Dunn [00:17:23]:
Bingen, as far as I know, say it with purpose. And we're all like, yep, yep, that's how you say it.

Meg Calvin [00:17:28]:
Say it with a German accent in her case, yes. Like her deep connection to the earth and to trees. And it's like, that is. We have so many great resources in our own heritage. And we also celebrate the other heritage. And then the last step, which for high achievers is extremely hard sometimes. And they're like, meg, what do you mean? You want me to go get in a go kart and run and race really fast? The other practice to get you back in your body to listen to its wisdom is, of course, play. Yeah, play.

Meg Calvin [00:18:01]:
And that's different for every person. For some, it is fine motor skills, making jewelry. For others, it is improv, like myself. For one client I had, she was a doctor, and it was. She wanted to race go karts. And so we made it a weekly routine that she would go and be as out of control and chaotic and fast as possible. And it was in those moments of play that we remember. Oh, this is what deep gladness feels like.

Ryan Dunn [00:18:27]:
That's fantastic. I love that image of a doctor. That's. I can't wait to get on the go kart track. Let's go.

Meg Calvin [00:18:36]:
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Ryan Dunn [00:18:39]:
I want to touch on the back. On the. On the body mapping a little bit. When you talk about feeling heat in the jaw or in the shoulders, is there a way that we can kind of pinpoint that on our own?

Meg Calvin [00:18:52]:
100%, yes. So in the. I have the. I'm looking at the image right now, and it will not feel like, from my experience, others I've worked with, it will not feel like heat or cold. It could. There's a physical sensation that you feel. And like you said, at the start of our time together, one of the first steps to heal something or forgive something is to name it. And when the body mapping came into my life, I had just lost someone who I loved deeply, and she had crossed over.

Meg Calvin [00:19:32]:
And the client's book I was working on, their childhoods were very similar in a traumatic way. And I couldn't open the manuscript without my body shaking. Shaking. It was such a. I was so triggered to use that buzzword. But it is authentically what happened. And as I was working with my coach that introduced me to this, I was asked, let's just name the feeling. And I said, oh, I'm just.

Meg Calvin [00:19:57]:
I'm sad. I must be sad that this person has. Has died and that no one protected her when she was a kid. And now this client, in an eerie way, her memoir is very similar. I'm. I'm very sad. And then my coach asked me, where do you. Where do you feel.

Meg Calvin [00:20:13]:
Where do you feel that sadness? And I said, oh, it's. It's in my. My jaw is so tight, and it's. My forehead is really, it's just tense and it's just sadness. And my coach asked me, we. We started doing work with this body mapping. When I looked at the body map, I saw, oh, these physical sensations aren't that of sadness. That would be more in the chest for most people.

Meg Calvin [00:20:36]:
There's a louder emotion here that I'm not naming and I've never been allowed to name, and that was anger. And so then when I named that, I, of course I was sad she died. And what was a louder emotion? That was my block with serving this client was I was angry at her parents for not protecting her. But in my family system, I wasn't allowed to be angry at them because they did so much for me. And so once I named that anger and gave it a sound and gave it a somatic, a body movement, Punching a pillow, punching a bag, going to a rage room, throwing a fit in a healthy way and moving that anger, I was able to actually serve that writing client by being in her memoir, in the pits of her pain with her. And so that was. That made me a. A believer in this.

Meg Calvin [00:21:26]:
In this work of this emotional body mapping, just noticing visible sensations when opportunities come my way, when people come my way. And was that a helpful response?

Ryan Dunn [00:21:36]:
Yeah.

Ryan Dunn [00:21:37]:
Yeah. I'm curious, is there a way to kind of inventory, like, as you're.

Meg Calvin [00:21:41]:
Oh, did I cut you off? Okay. To inventory? So is the question any given moment, checking in on your body?

Ryan Dunn [00:21:53]:
Yes. Yeah.

Meg Calvin [00:21:54]:
Oh, okay.

Ryan Dunn [00:21:55]:
You know, is there a practice for kind of leading us through a sense of mindful intention about what our body is speaking to us?

Meg Calvin [00:22:05]:
I would imagine such a easy question you're asking.

Ryan Dunn [00:22:10]:
I mean, maybe it is just to have that intention and maybe I'm making it too complicated.

Meg Calvin [00:22:15]:
No, no, not at all. Not. Not. Yeah, not at all.

Ryan Dunn [00:22:18]:
To sit and feel.

Meg Calvin [00:22:21]:
Yes. I've. I've always used it with people I serve when they, they. They have a situation where they. There's a should story coming up. I know I. I know I should. I should go see this person.

Meg Calvin [00:22:35]:
I know I should. I know I should be on that board. I know I should. And then when we. We quiet the mind, we. We do a breathing exercise together and then we. And then we notice. So, yes, I think we're already.

Meg Calvin [00:22:47]:
I think, yeah, I'm right. I'm right there with you. And then we notice when we think about this opportunity or this person that has come into our life, what have you, what physical sensation is happening in the body, and it's been. Was that helpful?

Ryan Dunn [00:23:06]:
Yes.

Meg Calvin [00:23:06]:
And then going from There. Oh, that's weird. I have goosebumps on the back of my arms, which is shame. Why do I feel shame about telling the school no, that I won't bring cookies or whatever? And so then checking in. Is. Is that narrative serving me? Is. Is that. Is it not serving me? It's not serving me.

Meg Calvin [00:23:26]:
So, Bodi, it's okay. You can. You. You don't need to feel shame around this. I love you. I see you. You can say no. And.

Ryan Dunn [00:23:35]:
Yeah, well, speaking of shame, one of the harms that the book addresses is it's really like the patriarchal system, especially as it's expressed in ministry. And I say shame because I have a sense of guilt in participating in that. And what it looks like expressed in your book is that it can create a sense of competition for women. So what alternative to the competitive patriarchal model are you presenting in the book?

Meg Calvin [00:24:14]:
Yeah, Hetty. We meet Hetty, and she's. She thinks that the way to go about being a minister is being in the boys club, even though denominator. Even if. And I always think of that. Did you ever see the show Parks and Rick?

Ryan Dunn [00:24:26]:
Yes.

Meg Calvin [00:24:27]:
Yeah. And that hilarious scene in the. Might be the first four episodes. My husband and I have watched that show so many times, but Leslie is going to go in the courtyard and break up the boys club. And she goes out there. Do you remember that scene?

Ryan Dunn [00:24:39]:
Yes. It's been a long time, but, yeah.

Meg Calvin [00:24:42]:
And she goes out there, and they're like, hey, Leslie, what's up? They welcome her. There's no voice club. And so I say what I'm about to say, knowing that that is also true dualism. I hold both to be true for some reason. We'll have to read the book to find out. Hetty has this belief that she needs to view her. Everything that makes her a woman, her female anatomy and whatnot. She views it as a liability.

Meg Calvin [00:25:07]:
And she's. We see her. She. She's a curvy. She's more curvy, substantial, but she. She wears really tight, constrictive sports bras. She wears big, heavy scarves. She's literally hiding everything that would be considered a liability.

Meg Calvin [00:25:22]:
So she could be one of the guys. And we meet her friend, Reverend Barbara, who works for the AME Church. And Barbara does things differently. Barbara, hopefully in a way that's not didactic or preachy, as some beta readers told me the very first draft was. Thank you, beta readers. Barbara shows this newish research, and she lives from it. And that's rooted in the works of Dr. Elisa Viti, who speaks about the science of infradian rhythms.

Meg Calvin [00:25:58]:
And what that means is that people with ovaries, we have different neurological superpowers every week because of our hormones. And what I. In a very bizarre way, Jesus came to me in a dream. Not in a bizarre way. That is part. Dream interpretation is part of our faith. I have to remind myself of that, that I never. Oh, I'm afraid someone will judge me.

Meg Calvin [00:26:21]:
But, oh, my goodness. God speaks through dreams. It's all over the canonized scripture. And Jesus came to me and said, bring the blood back in the church. I was like, Jesus. That is provocative. What do you. Oh, I don't know if I can do that.

Meg Calvin [00:26:35]:
And so how I answered that call was through Barbara's character. So we see Barbara, who is a pastor, leaning into. Because every week, because of hormones, I have different neurological superpowers. One week is great for big ideas. One week is great for networking. One is great for detail work. One is great for evaluation and rest. And so we see Barbara's character excited to go to this CEU event to network for some funds her church needs because she's ovulating.

Meg Calvin [00:27:07]:
And when women are ovulating, they are very charming. They're great negotiators. They're great conversationalists. It's a superpower that Elisa Beatty's work is turning us all onto. And so here we have a female pastor in Hetty who's shut all that down. Her body's a machine, and it's also a liability because she's a woman, and she needs to be a brain on a stick. And then we see Barbara also being a female pastor who is leaning into the superpowers of her. Of her hormones.

Meg Calvin [00:27:38]:
And so Hetty's arc is moving from hiding her femininity to inhabiting it. And I also bring in, in the novel, of course, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and all the OG Scholars like Karen King and Cynthia Bourgeau and Margaret Starbird. And so they also reclaim this feminine face of Christian leadership that was buried in caves and jars and German antique stores for centuries.

Ryan Dunn [00:28:06]:
Well, in looking back on the whole process now of both writing this book, going through the beta reading and. And being ready now to release it, what's like the. What's the good news that you've learned through this? What's hopeful?

Meg Calvin [00:28:25]:
Yes, there is a resounding passage that occurs in the book is from Joel, and I should remember the exact address, but I do not. And God speaks over Hetty. I will restore to you the years, the Locusts have eaten. And so in this there is so much hope for any, any time lost was not time wasted. And God is, is, is giving. God is a God of restoration. And so it asks the question to readers and it I've heard back from men and women both and which was so exciting, it's so exciting to hear from both that this book invited them to sit in the question of am I filling my life with religious busyness in the name of piety or performance based faith or am I filling my life with authentic spiritually healing practices? And that's the biggest question this book asks. And so if not everyone's open or ready for that question, my friend Jamal, who was also in ministry, said, meg, this book is a spiritual portal that not everyone's ready for.

Meg Calvin [00:29:52]:
And I received that as a great compliment and also a reality check that not everyone's ready for this book and that is okay. But for those that are ready, if you're a people pleaser, it's going to give you permission to want what you want, that God want gave you those desires. If you wonder if, if you've waited too long on on some to act towards something, just know it's never too late to heal a relationship, cope to co create with God that idea you put on your heart when you were 17 like it's, it's never too late. If you are one that you feel unseen in your own story, this is a mirror to your unlived story. And then lastly if you are, if you are a person who was taught that your body is a problem, this is a path back into your body.

Ryan Dunn [00:30:42]:
Well Meg, this has been helpful. It's been fun for folks who want to learn more about both you, your work and also the book. Where are they going to find that stuff?

Meg Calvin [00:30:54]:
Yes, yes yes yes. So there are tons of pre order bonuses that I'm giving away. So the book officially comes out June 9, but if you order before then you get lots of goodies. And what I mean by goodies is I offer a dream interpretation training, a Spotify playlist that follows the book. There's free free coaching with me whether it's book coaching or a marketing coaching I also offer with this novel. There is a women's community called the Treasure within that I steward and that helps women come back home to their bodies listening to their bodies reclaim their desires as safe, remember and strengthen their God given intuitive abilities which we'll need a whole other episode for that. And how those spiritual gifts are a part of our Christian faith and we see them in scripture. And so with pre orders, there's also an opportunity to join the treasure within this women's community that we follow the novel as part of our curriculum.

Meg Calvin [00:31:59]:
So all of that [email protected] and then of course I'm on all the social media networks. Yeah.

Ryan Dunn [00:32:10]:
All right. Well, Meg, once again, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure.

Meg Calvin [00:32:15]:
My honor. Thank you for the opportunity.

Ryan Dunn [00:32:17]:
You bet. So what are you taking away from this conversation? If you're ready to add there he holds her to your summertime reading list. Well, check out megcalvin.com thanks for for taking this journey with us. We also want to extend a big special thank you to the team at United Methodist Communications for making this podcast possible. If you haven't already. Again, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and review Compass on your favorite podcast platform. It really helps others find us and join the conversation. And again, thank you so much for listening.

Ryan Dunn [00:32:49]:
I'll talk to you again in two weeks time.

Ryan Dunn [00:32:51]:
Peace.

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2026 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved