Feeling isolated? Less than courageous? Fearful with the current global situation?
“Anytime I find someone who is walking the path with courage and authenticity, I’m going to bring that conversation to you.
What the hell does yoga have to do with authenticity? With courage? With showing up as your best self? Actually, there’s a pretty strong connection between yoga and authenticity, courage and showing up as your best self.
Click through listen to my podcast that is one of my highest rated ever. It’s touching, heartfelt, and just so inspirational. But funny enough, we didn’t get around to talking yoga until nearly the end of the episode.
Stephanie’s book Yoga Wisdom: Warrior Tales Inspiring You On And Off Your Mat is about yoga, but it’s also about the pursuit of freedom. Freedom from abuse, PTSD, trauma and self-doubt. It’s the story of one woman’s attempt to find and USE her own voice in the face of some pretty formidable obstacles. From the outside, Stephanie seemed to be living a charmed life. She was the CEO of Spence Communications, where she published numerous magazines, and during her stint as a journalist she got to interview big names. Stephanie had it goin’ on. Money. Connections. Beauty. And a seemingly great family life. But despite the shiny exterior, Stephanie’s inner life was crumbling under the pressure of a terribly unstable and abusive home life. Stephanie’s story is fascinating to me because I am VERY curious about the process of discovering and cultivating “voice.” Her case is especially interesting to me because her voice seemed so strong and self-possessed in her career and external world, but at home and in her inner life she was mostly terrified. Mostly mute. Mostly lost. Stephanie’s story is wild … in this episode we follow her from private jet setting vacations into serious rehab, and then into to a One-Flew-Over-the-Coocoo’s-Nest-style “treatment center,” and finally, we ride shotgun with her on a cross country RV trip, as she interviewed some of yoga’s living legends. And while I do love a wild story well told, I bring you this conversation because Stephanie’s struggle is a universal struggle: We are all on a path to liberation, to freedom. We are all trying to escape the things that trap us in small lives of quiet desperation. We are all trying to escape the trap of “what will people think if I do the thing I know I need to do?” - – Bronwyn Saglimbeni