Loto Journal
Through personal storytelling and letter writing, follow our Founder, Jennifer Axcell, as she travels the 🌎 globe as a digital nomad and Desert Mother, exploring Consciousness, rest, and Self-care.
Including thoughtfully created blog content about somatic healing practices, nervous system regulation techniques, and contemplative practices, Loto Wellness Collective’s blog focuses on the art and science of rest and renewal, drawing inspiration from Christian mystics, monastic wisdom, modern neuroscience, and depth psychology.
Reader’s Note: In an attempt to bring a conscious sense of responsibility to our language (where inclusivity and equality matter), in our Loto Wellness Collective blog content, except for direct quotes, the pronouns often used for God are They/Them in reference to I AM. When referring to Jesus specifically, the pronouns He/Him are used. Also, we have taken the liberty of capitalizing the term “True Self” so you will know that we are not referring to the “false self” (psychological egoic self), but the foundational self that we are in God.
The Slow Path Back to God: Why Contemplation Still Matters
Contemplative prayer flips that whole dynamic. It’s less “Lord, do something” and more “Lord, show me what is already true.” It’s less striving, more surrender. Less performance, more Presence. Less noise, more spaciousness.
Mirror Twins
So let me leave you with a question, one that's been weighing on me lately: Who in your life reflects you back to yourself — not the version you wish you were, but who you truly are right now?
And maybe the harder question: Are you willing to look?
The Returning: The Way of the Ascetic
The Ascetic pathway is for those who encounter the Divine not through abundance, but through simplicity. Not through stimulation, but through stillness. Not through addition, but through the sacred work of subtraction.
The Returning: The Way of the Sensate
The Sensate meets God through the senses — through color and fragrance, through texture, taste, and sound. For them, beauty is not ornamentation; it is revelation.
Fear of Being Seen
I know this residual fear of being fully seen—in my truth, in my body, in my voice—has kept me playing small. But next year is calling me into expansion, into more trust, into a bolder embodiment of what I've been cultivating all along on my healing journey. These mirrors I face are preparing me for what's to come.
Morning Altars: Beauty as Creation Care
Nothing stirs my heart like stepping into nature, with open hands and heart, to gather what the earth offers in each season—fallen leaves, pinecones, stones, seeds, petals, feathers. Out of these humble materials, beauty is born. This is the practice of Morning Altars, nature mandalas created as impermanent works of art, meant to honor both the earth and the Spirit that animates it.
The practice, founded by artist and teacher Day Schildkret (morningaltars.com), invites us into a conversation with creation itself. It is part ritual, part meditation, part play. We collect what has already fallen, arrange it with intention, and witness the patterns of symmetry, surprise, and story that emerge. Each altar is temporary—eventually scattered by wind, rain, or passing animals. This impermanence reminds us of the fleeting nature of life and the call to treasure the present moment.
The Returning: The Way of the Naturalist
For the Naturalist, creation itself is the sanctuary. The forest becomes the temple, the tide becomes the hymn, and the rustling leaves become the voice of God. It’s not that nature points to God — it’s that nature reveals God. Every living thing becomes a verse in an unending psalm.
The Returning: The Way of the Traditionalist
For the Traditionalist, ritual is not an empty formality — it is the rhythm of divine remembrance. Within sacred structure, the Traditionalist finds a steady heartbeat, an embodied language of devotion that anchors the soul when the world feels unmoored.
View from the Precipice of Change
Erosion. Hmmm, that word feels like the best way to describe what life has felt like for the last two years—So many layers of my identity are being stripped down, false narratives revealed and healed, and comfort zones surrendered away.
My life mirrors this canyon landscape: each season has been carving away what no longer serves, slowly revealing what's essential.
Into the Eremos
For the mystics, the Eremos was never about isolation; it was about encounter. Even Jesus withdrew to the Eremos again and again. It was where He fasted for forty days, where He wrestled with temptation, and where angels came to minister to Him. The Eremos was both exile and embrace—the wild, quiet space where everything unnecessary fell away, leaving only God.
Returning to Oneness: Christian Nondualism
Nondualism is the remembrance that God is not somewhere far beyond us, but within us and around us, breathing through every cell of creation. We are not apart from God—we are expressions of God. Each of us, a reflection of YHWH in flesh, just as Jesus revealed.
One Who Wrestles With God
Perhaps that is what the mystics knew all along: that sometimes the only way to find YHWH is through the body that breaks, the fever that humbles, and the desert that strips us down to the soul.
Rescued from the Desert
With a single bar of spotty cell service, plenty of water, food, shelter, and fuel, I decided to hunker down for the day and figure out my options. After getting a call though to my dad, who researched the problem, I welcomed my parents' invitation to drive out to my GPS location with the necessary part to fix The Beast (the name I call my Dad’s Chevrolet Suburban).
The Returning: An Introduction to Sacred Pathways
This is not a map for finding God. It's an invitation to remember. To return.
Deep Calls Unto Deep
Did you know that cenotes are natural freshwater sinkholes and underground cave systems formed when limestone collapses? They serve as both sacred sites and freshwater sources for the Maya. I was lucky enough to swim in the Cenotes Choo-Ha and Tankach-Ha.
Strong Plans, Loosely Held
Biblical Feasts: Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)—Renewal
Yom Kippur is not merely about wiping away wrongs; it is about restoring union. The people are reconciled with God, with one another, and with themselves. Alienation is dissolved. Oneness is remembered.
Happy Fall Ya'll
**Trigger Warning 🐍 Snakes**
The snake teaches that transformation is not only about release but also about refinement. To shed an old skin is to grow more into who you already are. To embrace this shedding is to return to your True Self.
The Fall Equinox 🍁 A Sacred Turning
The Fall Equinox is an invitation for us to gather what has been fruitful in our own lives and to release what has run its course. It is a season of both gratitude and surrender.
Contributors & Collaborators
Loto Living and Loto Journal, would not be possible without the ongoing support and generous contributions from an incredible team of writers, artists, healers, editors, creatives, and pastors.