Rooted & Rising: We Created the Room Women Needed

HOPE Magazine’s Rooted & Rising masterclass brought women together for honest conversations about healing, rest, reinvention, wellness and choosing themselves in a new season.

Last night, more than 30 women and supporters gathered virtually for ROOTED & RISING: Reclaim Your Wellness, Purpose & Power After 40.

We came from different places and carried different stories, but we shared something important: a desire to pause, tell ourselves the truth and consider what life could look like if we stopped merely functioning and gave ourselves permission to flourish.

At the beginning of the evening, I shared something I have come to understand about women especially those of us in our 40s, 50s and beyond:

We can become very good at functioning.

We take care of everyone. We show up. We work. We lead. We solve problems. We keep our families moving and make things happen, often without anyone knowing what it costs us to hold everything together.

Rooted & Rising was not created to fix women. It was created to give us a place to ask:

How am I really doing?

What do I need in this season?

What would it look like to choose myself, too?

“Functioning Is Not Flourishing”

Our HEAL guide, licensed marriage and family therapist Demetria M. Jackson, M.A., LMFT, gave us one of the most powerful truths of the evening:

“Functioning is not flourishing.”

She invited us to notice what may appear manageable to everyone else but is quietly costing us more than we have acknowledged.

Demetria reminded us that being prepared for whatever might happen next is not the same as experiencing peace. She challenged us to recognize exhaustion before burnout and understand that our actual capacity is not a character flaw—it is information.

Restoration, she explained, is not about fixing ourselves. It is about returning to ourselves.

Moving From Wrestle to Rest

Our REST guide, Taydra Mitchell Jackson, challenged the belief that rest is something women must earn after everything and everyone else has been handled.

“Your capacity is not infinite,” she reminded us.

Taydra asked us to examine the difference between what has been assigned to us and what we have assumed out of habit, pressure, obligation or the desire to be everything to everyone.

She also invited us to stop carrying the full weight of outcomes we cannot control:

“Do what is yours to do, and let Him do the rest.”

Rest does not mean abandoning purpose. It means releasing what was never ours to carry so we can move forward with greater clarity, creativity, energy and faith.

Rebuilding With Intention

Our REBUILD guide, Dr. Stephanie M. Kirkland, led us into a conversation about identity, wisdom and the courage to move forward.

She reminded us that rebuilding does not require us to erase our past. It asks us to honor what we have learned while releasing versions of ourselves that no longer belong in the next season.

During the conversation, Dr. Stephanie spoke honestly about letting go faster, moving when discernment has already provided the answer and refusing to remain in contemplation simply because the familiar feels safer.

She also emphasized the importance of sharing wisdom across generations. Women should not have to navigate every transition—from identity and relationships to health and menopause—in silence.

As she told us:

“You can’t find your tribe until you tell people who you are.”

Choosing Yourself Intentionally

Our THRIVE guide, Gillian Brooks, brought the conversation into our everyday wellness choices.

She spoke about boundaries, non-negotiables, trusting her inner voice and choosing herself intentionally. For Gillian, thriving is not about punishment, perfection or performing wellness for other people. It is about self-preservation and creating a life that feels true.

During the Q&A, she shared her hopes for the next decade: living out her dreams, mentoring younger women, experiencing greater freedom and continuing to choose herself.

Her reflections reminded us that wellness is not simply about adding more tasks to our lives. Sometimes it means protecting our peace, listening to our bodies and allowing ourselves to imagine something new.

The Conversations We Need After 40

Some of the most meaningful moments came during the Q&A.

Women asked about boundaries, discernment, restlessness, the next decade of life and what happens when we delay moving forward.

We explored an important possibility:

Maybe restlessness does not always mean something is wrong.

Maybe it is fear. Maybe it is anticipation. Maybe we are being stretched.

Or maybe we have reached the end of a season, and something inside us knows it is time to move.

These were not surface-level questions. They were the kinds of conversations women often carry privately while continuing to work, lead, smile and take care of everyone else.

That is why rooms like Rooted & Rising matter.

Why This Room Was Personal for Me

I have produced events with hundreds of women in attendance. I have secured major corporate sponsors and generated significant revenue. From the outside, it may have looked as though everything was working.

But inside, I was still broken and unfulfilled.

Over the past several years, I experienced grief, the end of a relationship, panic attacks and a diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukemia. In my 50s, I finally went to therapy. I began doing the work of learning who I was beyond what I could produce and how much I could carry.

Most importantly, I learned how to rest.

Today, I am happy. I am at peace. Rooted & Rising was born from that journey.

I did not create this event simply to inspire women for two hours and then send them back to life as usual. I created it because, for 20 years, HOPE has existed to help women heal, grow, reinvent themselves and keep becoming.

The Conversation Continues

I am deeply grateful to our moderator and HOPE Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Cheryl Pullins, and to our guides Demetria, Taydra, Dr. Stephanie and Gillian for the wisdom and transparency they brought into the room.

I also thank Dr. Shanna Scott for helping shape the strategy, structure and vision of Rooted & Rising, along with Elizabeth, Bianca, Andrea, Gordon and the entire HOPE team for helping us bring the experience to life.

And to every woman who showed up: thank you for choosing yourself.

The event may have ended, but the conversation is just beginning.

As we move forward, we will continue asking the questions Rooted & Rising placed before us:

What are you ready to release?

What are you ready to stop carrying?

What are you ready to redefine?

What are you ready to choose?

Who are you becoming?

At HOPE, we will keep creating the room for women to discover their answers.

Angelia Stone is the founder and publisher of HOPE Magazine. For 20 years, HOPE has created space for women to feel seen, valued and celebrated as they heal, grow, reinvent themselves and keep becoming.