Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Rodriguez.
Hi Marissa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in West Lafayette, Indiana & moved to Fresno, CA when I was about five years old. Left to the Bay Area for school & lived there for nearly a decade before moving to LA. I was raised by a single mom who did her best to give me all the opportunities I needed to succeed. My love of writing started when I was very young, probably as soon as I could pick up a pencil. I had journals, notebooks, & stray scraps of paper all over filled with scribbled stories of handsome princes, beautiful princesses, outer space, and true love. Growing up, life was difficult. I was teased, I didn’t have a lot of friends & I grew up in a pretty strict household so I used my writing as an escape. I basically created realities that were better than my own. Those stories were my safe place. As I got older, I began to write less & less.
By the end of my first year of college, after a gut-wrenching critique in a workshop that completely destroyed my confidence, I locked up my creative writing all together. I’d kept journals over the years but nothing that I would ever think to share out in the world. And then I popped. It was around July 2019 when things started to shift for me. At that point, I was already starting to post more of my personal writing on Instagram as I was sharing about my pending move from SF to LA. The more vulnerable posts helped crack me open & bring writing back into my everyday life. That truly sparked something in me again & once I moved, the energy of this city stoked that spark even more. Mix all that renewed energy with the intense emotions of a heartbreak & bam, you have the perfect mix for what came next. Poetry, and a lot of it. Writing poetry came very easily & it felt like a really amazing outlet to express my emotions. As I was processing my break-up & the uncomfortableness of being in a new city, I found my voice but in a much more powerful way. It was incredibly uncomfortable at first but with some really great encouragement from my dear friends, it became easier & easier.
And then in June 2020, I self-published my first book called Whispers of You. I’d always wanted to be a published author, it was one of my many dreams in life, but I had this notion in my head that I had to do it the “right way”. Not even sure what that means now but there are two reasons I truly took the leap to self-publish. One was because I read that one of my favorite authors/poets Rupi Kaur self-published her first work & second, I told a guy I went out on a date with that one day I would. So I did. It was a bit of an emotional struggle because collecting all of my poetry into one book was like gathering pieces of my heart to give to the world. Although, once I did, it was probably one of the proudest moments of my life. Since then, I have felt more myself & have expanded so much in my writing.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Well, life isn’t an easy road for anyone & the journey to uncovering yourself from years of conditioning of who you’re supposed to be is arduous for all of us. My road here has been filled with lots of tears, lots of heartache, and a million moments of pure love. As I mentioned, growing up wasn’t easy but I first had a major crumbling moment when I was 25. I had gone through an absolutely insane ending of a relationship that triggered a lot of my deepest core wounds to come to the surface. I spent many nights drinking at home alone & sobbing on the floor of my studio apartment. I can’t remember what the breaking point was but I knew that I needed to make a change in my life. That was when I started “working on myself”. I was doing anything & everything that I thought would help make the hurt go away. I had reiki sessions, dove into astrology, participated in self-development courses, literally anything that I thought would make me better.
I had a lot of pain I’d buried deep that had gone unprocessed for most of my life. I spent most of my time thinking, processing, uncovering & dealing with those repressed feelings for nearly two years. I’d say the second major crumbling came when I was moving & at the end of another relationship just before I turned 27. I was in a new city, out of my comfort zone, & in the middle of a heartbreak. I felt lost & very alone. Add in the absurdity of what 2020 brought with the lockdowns & I was even more lonely than before. Thankfully, I had a pretty solid online community of women that helped me through those tough times of isolation.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am still evolving & nailing down what my main thing is going to be but for now, there are a few different areas I am working on.
Currently, I am working on collecting new poetry for a second book & continuing to share more of my personal stories online. Eventually, I’d like to start a blog or potentially gather what I have written into a book.
Recently, I hosted my first workshop that I created called “The Art of Living with an Open Heart”. The workshop is designed to hold space to have the conversation about what is holding us back from living fully from our heart, how to honor where we are at, & discuss ways of practicing a new way of living. Living with an open heart is one of my main passions in life & a huge part of what I am here to do in this world. So, I plan on developing this workshop more & more to see what it grows into. That said, the next one will be in January 2021!
On top of that, I am working more closely with two of my dearest friends. These women are my guides & mentors who co-founded The Revolutionary Woman, which is a space for women to come together to heal, learn to love themselves, & find the courage to use their voices. I attended the group circles & workshops about three years ago when they were first starting out & have done almost every program/course they have created. I attribute a lot of my growth to being apart of what is now called The Moon Society. Over the last year or so I have slowly stepped into a more supportive role & we recently decided it was time that I officially joined the team.
Lastly, I am also starting to widely offer Reiki sessions. I received my Reiki certification in December of 2019 & have only done sessions with close family & friends. As we go into 2021, I have been feeling called to share it more openly. Reiki is a part of what helped me open my heart on my healing journey & I’d love to help others in the same way. The cool thing about being a Reiki practitioner is that we are simply a channel for energy but it is you that is doing the work of getting your energy moving. So I am not the healer, you are.
For now, I am focusing on refining & developing my workshop & hopefully sharing those on a grander scale in the future. Other than that, my writing, Reiki, & working with The Revolutionary Woman are my main focus. I definitely have some bigger plans for 2021 but keeping those close to my heart for now.
Pricing:
- Book – $10
- Reiki Session- $55
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: sunnymarissa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunnymarissa/
Image Credits
Royal Addis TSN Photos
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