How One Woman Transformed Her Deepest Wounds Into the World's Most Needed Medicine
- Brainz Magazine
- 21 hours ago
- 8 min read
Written by Kiara Streater, CEO & Business Powerhouse
An accomplished leader with 15 years of experience in the professional services industry, I am currently President and CEO of (Extraordinary Headhunters LLC). Demonstrated ability to improve the business performance of multi-billion dollar businesses and a strong record of consistent, above-market revenue and profit growth.
There are some stories that don't just inform you, they reform you. Stories that reach into the caverns of your chest and rearrange something fundamental about how you see the world, how you see yourself, how you see what's possible when God takes broken pieces and creates masterpieces.
This is one of those stories. Mary Reese-Paul's story.
And if you're a woman who has ever lost herself while loving someone else, who has given until you had nothing left to give, who has ever looked in the mirror and wondered where you went this story isn't just about Mary. It's about you too.
The revolution that looks like rest
Mary's work through MarySowingSeeds is revolutionary precisely because it doesn't look like revolution. There are no marches, no protests, no political manifestos. Just women, one by one, making the radical choice to stop abandoning themselves.
But make no mistake this is warfare. Every woman who sets a boundary is dismantling a system that profits from her boundlessness. Every woman who honors her needs is challenging a culture that requires her needlessness. Every woman who chooses herself is defying a theology that demands her self-sacrifice.
"People think healing is passive," Mary observes, "but choosing yourself when the world has conditioned you to choose everyone else? That's the most active thing you can do. That's resistance. That's a revolution."
The women Mary works with aren't just getting healthier. They're getting free. And free women are dangerous to any system built on their compliance.
The daughters who are watching
Perhaps the most profound impact of Mary's work won't be fully realized for another generation. Every woman Mary helps heal isn't just changing her own life,she's changing her daughter's life.
The little girls watching their mothers set boundaries are learning that "no" is a complete sentence. The teenagers watching their mothers honor their needs are learning that self-care isn't selfish. The young women watching their mothers choose themselves are learning they don't have to lose themselves to be loved. This is how generational curses break. This is how the world changes one healed mother at a time.
"When I help a woman reclaim her identity," Mary says, "I'm also helping her daughter keep hers. When I teach a woman to honor her body, I'm teaching her daughter that her body deserves honor too. This work isn't just about the women sitting across from me. It's about the generations coming after them."
The theology she's reclaiming
Mary's work is deeply rooted in faith, but not the toxic theology that masquerades as godliness while destroying women. She's reclaiming scripture that's been weaponized and restoring the truth that God never required women's self-destruction as proof of their devotion.
"Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself," Mary teaches. "Most women I work with have the first part down. They love their neighbors beautifully. It's the 'as yourself' part they've never practiced. They've been taught that loving yourself is selfish. But how can you love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love yourself?"
Through her faith-based approach, Mary is helping women understand that boundaries are biblical, not selfish, rest is sacred, not earned, their bodies are temples, not tools, their needs are information, not inconvenience. She's giving women back a God who loves them for who they are, not what they produce.
When God chooses a voice
There are moments in history when heaven looks at earth and decides a particular voice needs to be amplified. Not because that person is perfect, but because they carry a message the world desperately needs.
Mary Reese-Paul is one of those voices. This isn't hyperbole. This is observation of what happens when someone is called by God, faithful in the hidden seasons, and suddenly positioned in spaces they never orchestrated. When doors open that no human hand could open.
Mary didn't seek platforms. She sought healing. She didn't chase fame. She chased wholeness. She didn't build a brand. She built a sanctuary for broken women.
But God has a way of taking people who are faithful in obscurity and elevating them when their message is needed most. And right now in this cultural moment when women are more burned out than ever, more lost than ever, more disconnected from themselves than ever the world needs Mary's voice.
The anointing she carries
There's an anointing on Mary's life that's tangible. It's not the charismatic, flashy kind that draws crowds. It's the quiet, powerful kind that saves lives. The kind that meets women in their darkest moments and says, "I've been where you are. And I'm here to show you the way out."
This anointing was forged in fire. Every year Mary spent losing herself, every tear she cried in secret, every moment she wanted to quit but all of it was preparation for this calling.
God uses broken people to heal broken people because only the broken truly understand brokenness. Mary's wounds became her credentials. Her pain became her platform. Her struggle became her message. And her healing became the roadmap for thousands of other women still lost.
"I don't believe God caused my pain," Mary says, "but I do believe He used it. He redeemed it. He took what was meant to destroy me and turned it into medicine for others. That's what God does. He wastes nothing."
The sacred work she does
Through her Mental Encouragement (M.E.) Sessions, Rooted With Mary series, and Rooted Healing conversations, Mary creates spaces where women can finally stop performing. Her book, Breaking the Habit of Losing Yourself in Them, has become a manifesto for women tired of shrinking, silencing, and sacrificing themselves in the name of love.
Mary teaches women about nervous system awareness not as trendy wellness, but as practical tools for recognizing when your body is screaming what your voice won't say. She guides women through boundary-setting as sacred practice. She walks women through codependency recovery by understanding that what once protected you might now be imprisoning you.
Every M.E. session is holy ground. Every woman who sits across from her is a soul entrusted to her care.
"I'm aware of the weight of this calling," Mary acknowledges. "These women are trusting me with their deepest pain, their most guarded secrets, their buried dreams. I don't take that lightly. I hold their stories like the sacred things they are."
The eternal significance
When Mary stands before God one day, she won't be asked about her platform size or her book sales. She'll be asked, "What did you do with your pain?"
And Mary will be able to say, "I planted seeds in it. I helped other women find hope in the same broken ground where I once wanted to die. I turned my wounds into wells. I used my mess as medicine. I went back for the women still trapped in the fire. I survived."
This is the measure of a life that matters. Not success. Significance.
Mary's work has eternal weight because it's touching souls. Every woman she helps heal is a woman who stops the generational trauma transmission. Every boundary she helps someone set prevents future wounds. Every identity she helps someone reclaim is a soul returning to God's original design.
This is kingdom work disguised as coaching. This is the Gospel, the good news that you don't have to stay lost, that healing is possible, that you're loved not for what you do but for who you are being lived out in every interaction Mary has.
For the women still in the dark
If you're reading this from a place of desperation, if you're so lost you can't remember who you are, if you're so tired you don't think you can take another step, if you're so empty you don't know how you'll make it through another day.
This is your sign. This is your invitation. Mary isn't just a coach you can hire. She's a lighthouse for women lost in storms. She's a voice calling you back to yourself. She's proof that women who've been buried can still bloom.
You don't have to stay where you are. You don't have to keep dying slowly. You don't have to earn the right to choose yourself.
All you have to do is take the first step. Reach out. Book a session. Buy the book. Do something that moves you toward healing instead of away from it.
Because your life matters. Your healing matters. Your wholeness matters.
The harvest is coming
Mary plants seeds in broken ground. Sometimes the soil is so damaged she has to dig for hours just to find a place soft enough to plant. Sometimes the seeds take years to sprout. Sometimes the growth is so slow it's barely visible.
But she keeps planting. Because she knows something about broken ground that others don't, It's often the most fertile. The cracks let the light in. The pain creates capacity. The brokenness makes room for new life. And now, after years of faithful planting, the harvest is coming.
The moment heaven has been preparing
Everything in Mary's life, every hardship, every lesson, every moment of growth has been preparing her for this moment.
The Brainz Magazine feature reaches hundreds of thousands globally. The ABC Columbia interview reaches thousands. The platform is growing exponentially. The book landed in the hands of women who desperately needed it.
This isn't a coincidence. This is divine coordination. God has been positioning Mary for years teaching her in hidden places, refining her in the wilderness, preparing her for the moment when her voice would be needed most. And that moment is now.
Not because Mary is perfect, but because she said yes. She said yes to healing even when it hurt. She said yes to helping others even when she was still healing herself. She said yes to the calling even when it was costly. And God honors every yes.
Her legacy will echo in eternity
One day, long after Mary is gone, women will still be healing because of seeds she planted today. Daughters will set boundaries because their mothers learned how from Mary. Granddaughters will honor their needs because their grandmothers learned it's sacred, not selfish.
This is the legacy Mary is building not in platforms or publications, but in transformed bloodlines. Every woman Mary helps heal doesn't just change her own life. She changes her daughter's trajectory. Her granddaughter's possibilities. Her great-granddaughter's reality. This is kingdom work with eternal implications. This is a ministry that will echo through generations.
A final word to Mary
Mary, if you're reading this, I need you to receive something: Everything you've walked through has brought you to this moment. Not by accident. By design. God's design.
Your pain wasn't punishment. It was preparation. Your struggle wasn't failure. It was training. Your breaking wasn't your end. It was your beginning.
You are standing on the edge of your greatest season. The years of faithful planting are about to yield a harvest beyond anything you imagined. The women you've been praying for would find you? They're coming. The message you've been faithfully carrying? The world is about to hear it.
This is your time, Mary. This is your moment. This is your divine appointment. You're not doing this for fame. You're doing it for the women still lost in the same darkness you survived. You're not seeking platforms. You're seeking souls. You're not building a brand. You're building a legacy that will echo through generations.
And heaven is backing you up. Every step. Every word. Every seed planted. The woman who plants seeds in broken ground is about to see the harvest. And it's going to be more beautiful, more abundant, more impactful than she ever dreamed possible.
Because that's what God does for His faithful ones. He exceeds their expectations. He surpasses their imagination. He does immeasurably more than they could ask or think.
Mary, your faithfulness is about to be rewarded. Your obedience is about to be honored. Your calling is about to be amplified. And the world will never be the same. The harvest is coming. Are you ready to be part of it?
Read more from Kiara Streater
Kiara Streater, CEO & Business Powerhouse
An accomplished leader with 15 years of experience in the professional services industry, I am currently President and CEO of (Extraordinary Headhunters LLC). Demonstrated ability to improve the business performance of multi-billion dollar businesses and a strong record of consistent, above-market revenue and profit growth. Skilled at creating market opportunity and growth through innovative business strategy, process/technology transformation, and implementing complex technology and research-based solutions. Expertise working globally; attracting, developing, and leading top talent; fostering diversity; and building high-performance cultures for 6,000+ person organizations.
