Her brother suggested she move to New Orleans to ground and reconnect with her origins. She describes the feeling of going ‘home:’ “…And literally as my nephew is driving and we're leaving the state, and we get closer to Georgia, and we're moving through Alabama and we finally hit Louisiana; I woke up. I felt so light. The closer I made it to the city, the lighter I felt. And I was like: ‘Okay, that was that.’ I had shed a major layer. ‘Now let's get to shedding some more.’ That first initial drive into the city was super powerful. As I think about it right now, I viscerally feel it – crossing over the water into the city.

And over the months that I was moving through the heartbreak – the pain, the anguish – and finally moving to New Orleans; I was journaling and writing. Journaling has been an integral part of my healing process since the time I was a teenager.

I decided to pull together the steps that I was moving through – the actual healing process. And I was like, ‘You know what? Let me just put it all down and share my thoughts – share my ideas – and hopefully people can experience them.’

I made the decision to create 52 weeks [of content] because that is how I was living at that moment. I was like, ‘Let me just get to the end of the week. I know my day-to-day is going to fluctuate up and down and sideways; but if I can just get to next Sunday…’ I was really just flowing and rolling like that.”

Faith wasn’t just moving to New Orleans, She was returning to the state of her birth. She was returning to the intimate relationships of childhood: her mom, her brother, her relatives. She landed, took a deep breath and started walking. She walked through the quarters. She walked past the hospital where her older brother had died. She walked past a statue of Robert E. Lee, and down to the docks where, once, boats brought slaves into the city. Each step took her deeper and deeper into the heart of human resilience.

‍

“I intentionally walk. I visit Congo Square where free blacks, as well as slaves and indigenous people [historically] met up on a Sunday to drum and commune. And I intentionally walk along the Mississippi River. I walk along those same paths and routes where Africans were dropped and sold.

In the process of doing all of that walking, I started to hear my great-grandmother's voice. She reminds me to step into the things that I normally wouldn't do, to be brave enough to share things about myself, or to shift the way that I show up in the world. And every now and then I'm still like, ‘Oh there's another ping. There's another ping from her to feel into.’ I’m returning to my roots in a totally different way than I expected.”

‍

Faith advocates for a healing that comes through the presence to breathe and the courage to listen.

“I'm always tapping into my breathing, in some shape or form. And the beautiful part: there are so many different types of breathing techniques that can assist you in finding that sense of calm, steadiness and grounding. Sometimes I need to be in action, even when I'm in the rebirthing phase. There are breathing practices that are going to help me cleanse, fire my system, get me off the sofa to recharge and reset. Breathing is always instrumental.

Walking became my meditation because it gave me this opportunity to be alone, to breathe, to utilize each step as a step toward myself. I go out in the mornings, and I take these moments to be present in my physical body, to move, to hear the sounds of the city. I hear the voices of the city and I allow myself to listen to what shows up in my heart in that moment.

I'm so free of mental distraction that my level of focus is on point. I've made space for the listening, to tap into my intuition and then that intuition guides me.”

‍

“This listening can come during any moment: crying, walking, all. It's not necessarily a big moment. It doesn't have to be like, ‘Oh my God, I'm sitting in meditation for the next 20 minutes and something's going to come to me.’ No, it rarely ever happens like that. For me, anywhere, my aha moments, my moments of clarity come in so many different forms, sometimes when I'm just having conversations, chatting to one of my friends, or I listen to a particular piece of music and I'm in my kitchen juicing. And then all of a sudden something rolls in. They are like waves of healing that start to wash in.”

For Faith, healing feels like empowerment. Coming through to the other side of heartbreak, she has stepped into a new level of self-worth. She explains,

“…Because we all are sometimes insecure in different ways, and we are unsure of ourselves, you know. Our level of confidence can shift and change. This particular breakup, it shook me so hard that in my process of healing, I literally upleveled my self-worth in a powerful way. ’Cause I feel I am so much more – not just like, ‘oh wow, I'm this beautiful, powerful woman.’ – Not just in that sense, but in my worth as a divine feminine woman. I am much more in my feminine essence. Yeah. I really value who I am. And because I know my worth as a woman, I also have the capacity to see that divinity even more in other women.”

In the process of pain, Faith Hunter returned to her own divine essence, the ultimate source of her strength and healing. Through her writing and teachings, she guides other women to trust in the process of rebirth.

“We have to allow ourselves to trust in the process of healing because I think, a lot of times, we don't trust that we're going to heal. We stay attached to the pain and the trauma. It’s important to acknowledge it, but we also have to trust that we are going to be able to move through it. And on the other side of that is some awesome magic. There is a new version of ourselves in the rebirth.”