A Heart So Full, Mind-Blowing Advice and a Perfect Love Story

Who are you sister? Tell us a little about yourself. Hello! I’m Stefanie. I live in Gilbert, AZ where I am an elementary school teacher, which is my superpower! Besides being a teacher I’m a runner, a reader, a friend, and family member. I’m opinionated, but mean well and love fiercely. My amazing honey and those close to me would agree with that!

Let’s do some one word answers. Ready, set, go!

Morning Drink: Coffee
Indulgence: Afternoon naps
Lusting After: My new home
Spirit Animal: Orca Whale
Head Space: Full, lots of change going on in my world right now and my head is at full capacity! All good stuff, but lots of it.
Heart space: Full, I’m so blessed to have the most amazing man in my life and we both have amazing families. Plus, I have the best friends on the planet! My heart is SO full.
Bloom of Choice: Anything because I LOVE fresh flowers.
Go-to Gemstone: Amazonite – the main stone of my newest mala. It is bringing me balance!
Favorite Compliment: Grace – that I show it, give it, receive it, all of it!

What does practicing joy mean to you? Practicing joy means living in my life right now. It is a way of living for me, not an emotion. I can feel happy but I decide every day to live in joy. Some days it is harder than others and I have to make a more conscious effort to live in joy, but it is always there and I always find it. Joy is a necessary way of being in my world!

Biggest life lesson you’ve learned lately? The reminder, again, that I can do hard things. Sometimes those things are bad hard and sometimes they are good hard, luckily right now they are good hard. In fact I’ll venture to say great hard, but there a billion irons in the fire right now and it is hard to manage them all.

I am freaking exhausted by all of them to be honest, but the pieces are all falling into place and the view is going to be un-freaking believable!! Big and beautiful things are being created for our lives and I’m super pumped about them!

What is your definition of success? Success for me is measured in memories and relationships rather than things. I’m not a “things” person so I love my people, my tribe, and I love them hard. They are what matters. They are my success, so success is having a rock solid group of friends and family that we can call our tribe. And success to me is having someone to share my life with, a partner to support and be supported by.

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3 things from my life list that light you up:

Traveling to new places all over the globe!

Marrying my prince charming

Continuing to make a positive difference in the lives of children

What do you do when life gets messy? Have a glass or two of red wine, cry, and journal. After the crying and journaling, I talk to my tribe. I have to play out the scenarios and form a plan (that doesn’t always work), and that holds me over for a bit so that I can move forward. Then I stand tall and get shit done!

What has been your favorite journey? LOVE – love is my favorite journey, always has been and always will be. I was cold to if for a few years and I’ve been completely lit up by it again in the last couple of years in many different ways. First step was Elevate ’15. I feel in love with a tribe of women who are the most amazing souls on the planet and they opened my heart to love the very first weekend we were together. (That is no joke either, ask anyone who was there and they will tell you, my heart opened beyond imagine that weekend in Ojai.)

Second step, prince charming showed up not even two months later. A mutual friend introduced us and the rest is a beautiful love story – my favorite one of all time! I might be biased, but I love our story and I love him! Yes – love is my favorite journey.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given? Not everything you think and believe about yourself, others, or the world, is the truth. Sometimes we have to get super real with ourselves to uncover the truth and it can be a whole lot different then what we thought. *mind blown* (I can still hear Molly Mahar saying these words to me)

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