HOW WILDERNESS TRAINING STARTED

I’m a busy, 40-something, mom of 2, with 5 (or maybe 30) jobs. I run three businesses. I work hard to have a strong marriage. I was at a point in my life where everyone was telling me to slow down, but I knew that wasn’t really an option with all the irons I had in the fire. My search became how to de-stress. I knew that my problem wasn’t all the things I was doing, it was the stress that was piling up. Even though I knew I couldn’t control the “stressors,” I could control how I emotionally and physically responded to stress. But how?

I launched into an all-out assault against stress. I took the classes. I got the massages. I did the yoga. I listened to a million self-help books, podcasts, videos and read the blogs. I tried mindset training and meditation. Nothing was working. I realized I had to find the thing that would trigger me out of the stress. If I could snap myself out of the sudden downward spirals, I could get a handle on the stress.

My husband kept reminding me to pray. But when I prayed, I felt like I was missing something. One day, when I was trying to pray and felt like I just wasn’t getting it, I jumped online and started searching for scripture that could help with my specific feeling. I started a journal with notes titled with exact feelings or situations like, “sneak attack at the end of a great day,” and “When you are trying to point out calmly how someone is hurting you then it turns into a crazy fight.” I would search for scriptures and quotes that connected to that exact situation and started to build my own database. My meltdowns usually happened when everything was quiet at the end of the day and my mind had space to race. I would look through the journal and be reminded, by God’s word, of what was most important. I would start my prayers with reading these scriptures and I finally started to feel like I had found a way to trigger myself out of a bad moment.

As my journal grew, I felt like this could be helpful to others. About that time, a pastor was preaching about life being the wilderness. Wilderness Training came to mind and this became the name of my journal, and now this site.

Me and my soulmate (Ryan and Monica Sawyer)

ABOUT ME: MONICA KATHLEEN McLEOD SAWYER

I’m Monica. Those are all my names. ↟ My social bio says “artist, designer, educator, sharer of resources, supermom of 2, soulmate of 1, daughter of the King, faithful lover of life, making the world a better place.” That’s edit number 222, so I’ll stick with it for a bit.

I’ve been educated in the US and London graduating from the University of Florida (Go Gators!) in art and graphic design. I’ve been a pro barrel racer and competitive swimmer. My mom, an accomplished artist, taught me how to be a great mother and patient wife (and gave me all those art genes). My dad, a celebrated orthopedic surgeon (and inventor) taught me how to focus. I am the oldest of the three notorious “McLeod Girls” now dubbed by their nieces as Kiki and Lulu.

For business, I have worked all over the country in advertising, design & marketing, on the creative team for several Fortune 500 companies. My biggest work thrill to date was for the Discovery Channel working the Eco Challenge adventure race for a month in Patagonia. Fast forward from Atlanta to Boulder where I started my own business, McLeod Creative… and then to Corpus Christi, Texas. This is where I am currently. I moved here for love.

One of the most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had was finding an amazing, old, basically abandoned theatre, The Ritz. I had been feeling like the creative class was underserved in Corpus Christi and God brought me to The Ritz. I couldn’t walk away from this amazing 1929 atmospheric theatre, so I founded Corpus Christi PATCH (Positive Action Toward Cultural Heritage), with a purpose of elevating the creative culture.

I LOVE creating resources – big, helpful resources, and I’m a researcher at heart. Under McLeod Creative, I founded The One Bride Guide and The One Community as resources for brides and the wedding industry. Never mind the full plate! I need a bigger platter!

Some of my most important roles are wife to my soulmate, Ryan Sawyer, a Dr. of Audiology, and mom to our beautiful daughters, Stella and Vivian. Ryan’s mom tried setting us up for 4 years and was finally successful!

After having our second child, I began looking for resources for family life. I dove in to essential oil education (doTERRA specifically) as well all things prepper. I started an essential oils resource site, keepitessential.com (almost done) and then this site, Wilderness Training, to serve those passions and serve other families.

I used to say being a mom and wife were my most important roles, but I think my family will forgive me as I have realized the most important role is being a daughter of the most high King, our Lord Jesus. I’m working on having grace. The Lord gave me the confidence to go after all the amazing things I’ve been blessed to do. He continues to tell me to share. The more I know Him, the more I know I need to follow his lead.

To God be the glory!