Awakened Conscious Conversations
Healing the world one episode at a time by offering realistic solutions to the journey of life. Both self hosted ( By The Gentle Yoga Warrior) and guest episodes.
Many of our guests have overcome significant obstacles and transformed their lives.
Rich with deep talks and solo endeavours, often offering tips on living a more conscious life.
Many episodes include a bonus optional meditation!
Awakened Conscious Conversations
Heather Stewart on thriving without the myth of work-life balance, navigating midlife shifts, and turning crisis into clarity
Forget balancing acts—the more we try to separate “work” from “life,” the more exhausted we feel. We sit down with Heather Stewart—former corporate finance executive turned yoga teacher, coach, and host of Illuminate Your Worth—to explore a bolder approach: integrate everything so your health, relationships, work, money, and spirit pull in the same direction. Heather shares the moment that reshaped her lens and birthed her Thriving Life Method and a simple truth: resilience is built before the crisis.
We dig into midlife realities—menopause, shifting identities, and careers that no longer fit—and how small, honest choices restore agency. Heather offers practical tools you can use today: treat your brain like a factory, not a warehouse; dump everything onto paper, group it, delete the dead weight, and delegate; then regulate with a five-five-five breath to decide from calm, not panic. We talk about triggers and communication, partners who choose not to “light the fuse,” and why “should” is a red flag for misalignment. Sometimes the answer isn’t a new profession—it’s a healthier environment for the work you already love. And none of it sticks without sleep, boundaries with devices, and community you can lean on.
If you’re craving clarity, steadier energy, and a life that feels like it belongs to you, this conversation is a compass. You are the boss of your world—trade balance for alignment and watch the strain fall away. If the Aligned Activation Audit sounds right for you, email info@heatherstewart.coach with “Aligned Activation Audit” to book a free one-to-one. Enjoy the episode, share it with a friend who needs it, and if it resonated, follow, rate, and leave a review to help others find the show.
A note for every episode: we do not necessary agree with all the views on our podcast and leave listeners to make their own mind up with what they do or don't agree with.
Want to be a guest on Awakened Conscious Conversations? Send The Gentle Yoga Warrior a message on PodMatch, here:
Hello everybody, I'm your host, the gentle yoga warrior, and this is Awakened Conscious Conversations Podcast. And joining us shortly will be the amazing Heather Stewart. I'll just tell you a bit about Heather and what we're going to talk about. What we're going to talk about today is there's no such thing as a work-life balance. So I'm really intrigued to hear what Heather has to say about that. So I did a bit of research on Heather and taken from her website, etc., Heather Stewart is a dynamic force in the wellness world. She seamlessly married her background in corporate finance, is totally dedicated to holistic health. So without further ado, please welcome the wonderful Heather Stewart to the show.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. I'm so excited that we got to connect and have this conversation.
SPEAKER_00:I am too. Dear listeners, we had a few technical issues, which um, but it it's it was it in many ways. I always think when things like this happen, it's part of the learning as well, isn't it? Definitely and and Heather, I know I wanna when I when I last reached out to you, I I wanted to do a show on work-life balance, and there's no such thing, because I found that really fascinating to find out how that can not be such a thing and uh and and what we're gonna learn from that that not being such a thing today. But before we start, would you mind sharing a bit about your journey so far in your wonderful life? Right.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's an interesting tale, really. So when I went when I was younger, you know, we don't always, not everybody has a really clear idea of what they were meant to do or what they wanted to do. And I ended up because I was good at it, I ended up as a CPA, a chartered accountant. And I went to university, they said, go to university, do this career, you'll be successful. And I did all the things I was supposed to do. So I was I was in my late 30s, and I was a corporate finance executive. You know, I had a company car and I had stock options, and I had all the things that were supposed to make you happy. And I wasn't happy. So it's so interesting. And I I started to take yoga for stress relief, and that kind of started this whole cascade of changes, and I thought I was just going, you know, to relax from from my job, but it started this whole change in my life, and it it's quite a career shift over the last 20 years, but I ended up deciding to leave my corporate career, so I just quit. And I had friends who thought that I had lost my mind because I quit my job. I had one friend who was gonna take me to the mental institution, like he was really serious. He was gonna take me to have me evaluated. I thought all I did was quit my job. But, you know, people place importance on careers and being successful. So I quit my job and I went traveling for a little while. And I went to India because I was doing yoga and I was just super interested. So when I came back, I opened my own yoga studio. I had started teaching yoga, so I still teach yoga 20 years later. I went back to school for two years to become a registered massage therapist, which here I'm in Canada. So here in Canada, it's it's a it's a big course to become a massage therapist. It's almost like you're doing pre-med. And I actually did that for 14 years. I still teach yoga. I'm not a massage therapist anymore. In 2021, I had a stroke, and I was doing some business coaching on the on the side as well as teaching yoga and and being a massage therapist because I was running my own business and I had the business background. I saw these health and wellness people who are struggling to be successful. So I thought I can help them. So I started business coaching to help these people be successful because we need all of these people in the world. And I didn't think they should struggle. So, but when I had my stroke, it was right during the time of COVID when no one was allowed to do anything. And because it was quite busy in the hospital that I went to, it was it was Halloween and it was an inner city hospital, and I spent three days in the emergency room because there were no beds. So you saw all of human life passing by you as I was, I had my own little cubicle, thankfully, and I could close the curtains, although I was still in that space for three days, not really clear of what was going on. And the stroke had affected my vision, so I couldn't see properly. I couldn't put on my glasses, so I wear glasses to read. And whenever I put on glasses, I got really nauseous. So I couldn't do what people do when they're facing something they don't like, which these days is the scrolling of social media. I couldn't do any of that, so I just had to lay there and think. I was I called it, I said, I had a three-day silent retreat. So wow. And I just said at one point, yeah, I was just I just said at one point, okay, okay, I'm here. Like I'm gonna stop arguing about why I'm here. Because at first I was like, this is crazy, I'm super healthy, this is impossible. I just said, okay, I'm here. So what is it that you wanted to tell me, you know, universe? Because obviously you needed to get my attention in a really big way. And I felt like I was there because I wasn't listening. Like I was listening, but I wasn't listening. There was something they were trying to get my attention about. And my, we were just talking about my podcast. So my podcast now is called Illuminate Your Worth. But for almost four seasons, I had one called Back to Me, which came from that stroke. And I interviewed over 250 people on that podcast, all about their journeys and what it was they were offering into the world, because I'm like, this is my way to give back. So I had that podcast, and my whole program of how I help people, it said basically, Heather, business coaching, way too small, too small, you need to expand. So now it's like I call it the thriving life method. It's like it has to look at your whole life, which is part of where the work-life balance comes in. Because if I dive right into it, you can't pull your life into this is my work and this is my life. Because that's that'd be a strange operation to do to yourself. Instead, it's like you have to integrate all of the parts of your life that so that they work together like and support each other. So when you try to say, Well, this is my work over here, and we push it off to the side, it's almost like saying, This doesn't support me, I don't like it, I don't want that. I want this part of me over here, which is life, but I don't want that part. But you you should want that part of your life. And if you don't want that part of your life, maybe you need to examine the work that you're doing, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so my people in jobs they don't like, isn't it? And they just kind of don't, they just they kind of plod along for years without examining it.
SPEAKER_01:And they don't feel like there's options, and I would never say to anyone to do what I did. I mean, mine was a bit extreme, right? You know, I not only did I quit my job, but I sold my house and I got divorced all within a month.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, wow, that's a lot, it's a lot.
SPEAKER_01:One of those things is a lot, but all three, you know, and I would never tell anyone to do that because for many people, that is, they can't even wrap their heads around it. But everything just lined up for me in such a way that it would, that was a no-brainer for me. I looked at the pieces, I said, oh, well, of course, this is what I need to do right now. And it's funny because 20 years ago, coaching, there wasn't people would go see therapists, you know, but coaching uh wasn't really a thing. And my idea, like therapy is valuable and it helps people kind of unpack and figure out things in the past, but coaching is more like that future vision of yes, stuff happened in the past, let's take that and use that as fuel to help you move forward. But there was not really any of that going around at the time. So I was just like, I was self-guided, my self-guided adventure.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, uh it was a good job you did that because you came out of your your own your own way, um, your your thriving life method, didn't you? You using your thriving life method to help people.
SPEAKER_01:And and it was interesting because when I was in the hospital and I was thinking about my life, because when you injure, like a couple of years ago, I was touring in Egypt and Jordan, and I was in the desert in Jordan, and the the only rock in the desert, I tripped over and broke my wrist. That's a whole other adventure. That was a whole other adventure. I thought it was hilarious. I mean, everybody was quite concerned, but I found it quite entertaining. Yeah, yes, definitely it hurt, but I don't remember that part of it. I just remember the adventure of going through the hospitals. But when you break something, you can look at it and go, yep, that's broken. And I know how this is gonna heal and I know what to do. When it's your brain, I feel like in a way it's this mysterious black box thing. You know, they told me that I'd had a stroke. Actually, they told me I had three strokes by the end of it. And they showed me on this picture, I'm like, oh, that's really interesting. I don't know what to do with that information. Like, do I exercise it? How do I heal it? What do I do with it? So I was looking at my health. I'm like, oh, I'm really healthy. Okay, that's good. So I have a really good chance. They told me that because I was so healthy, because my blood vessels were so healthy, that it actually they said, you know, you could have had some of this stuff happening and not even realized it because your brain is so healthy. I'm like, well, thanks. So I knew that I was physically healthy and emotionally I was in a good space. I was like, okay, you know, I'm not scared, I'm just kind of curious about why this is happening. And my poor husband, my current husband, was very stressed out. He was more stressed out than I was. And you know, and I had community around me. I realized, you know, one of my friends found out what happened, and she knew I couldn't. My husband told her that I couldn't get emails or anything. So she phoned everybody she knew and said, send Heather a voice message. So they were all sending me voice messages that I could pick up while I was in the hospital. I was like, you guys are the best, you know. Oh so kind, so beautiful. Right? So these it's like I was kind of like looking at the parts of my life to see what I needed to do to support myself. So I knew I was physically okay, emotionally, I felt good. I had this great community. My job, I had messaged my clients saying, Oh, I'm sorry I have to cancel, I'm in the hospital. And they were all saying, Oh my goodness, don't worry about it. Some of them actually bought gift certificates to support me while I wasn't earning any money. I'm like, oh my God. So then the next thing I was worried about was like financial, because when you work for yourself, if you don't work, you don't get any money, but my financial is fine, and I'm just talking to the universe. So I'm like, okay, I feel like spiritually I'm dialed in. So I'm like, all my pieces are working. Wow. And then I went, oh my God, these are all really good pieces to teach someone what they need so that when they hit a bump in the road, like a stroke or something, they can they can have all these parts that come in to support them instead of them having to suffer needlessly. Like it's almost like having these parts aligned for whatever. I mean, everybody's different, everybody's gonna be different in what they need, but having them aligned for you is like an insurance policy for one life, life is gonna happen regardless. I hate to tell you. So true. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow, it feels like it was it was a it was a strong journey, but it from here when you speak, heather, you you you feel like you really balanced in your approach to things and and okay, it it was shocked these things, like you said, it hurt when your foot hurt and the the strokes and things, but it you kind of you certainly did use those stumbling blocks as as ways to kind of like grow or rather see them as kind of like gifts to to grow. And I know from reading about on your I've just like to say your website is one of the most prettiest websites I've ever seen. I just love the way it's set up, it it's fantastic, and I know that you help you kind of specialize, correct me if I'm wrong, in helping middle, middle, midlife women find the way because I think sometimes we can carry stuff, can't we, that we haven't got rid of in midlife, and then when it kind of hits and all the hormones hit, it's kind of cutless change.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, all the hormones, yes. You can see me take my sweater off and put it on and off and on and off and on. And it's interesting because when I when I started, I thought, well, you know, I'm gonna help all these health and wellness people, and then because I was went through menopause myself, I think I'm about 10 years post now, and and I was seeing my friends around me, and I became convinced that divorces happen around this age because women suddenly, well, first of all, they're going through this hormonal fluctuation, which they may not, they may not understand, and they might not. I can remember, like as an example, because I have this long meditation, like for over 20, I actually was a meditator before I started doing yoga. So I've been meditating for a long time, and one day, this was early on in my menopause, I was really angry. And I was my husband, my beautiful husband, had done the laundry and brought it upstairs in a laundry basket and put it down. And I was so mad. I was like, and I kicked the laundry basket across the room. And this is not, that is not typical for me. I don't, I that's not what I do. And I was standing there, kind of shocked at myself. Kind of, I was like, part of me was angry, and part of me was going, What's wrong with you right now? And my husband's very smart. He just looked and he said, Okay, I'm just gonna go to bed. He didn't say anything. So the next day I just said to him, I don't know what was going on right there, but I couldn't talk to you because if I talked to you, it wouldn't have come out the way that I would want it to come out. And I think that if you don't have that knowledge of how your inner self, your that that was not somebody, like there was no reason for that. I knew there wasn't a reason to be angry, I knew that there was something else going on, and I mean hormones, cascading, poodos. So I could have that conversation within the next day, but I think if you're not aware of what's going on for you, it can escalate into fighting. And I can see a lot of couples having that conflict. So women have that going on. Plus, if you have children and they've left, you don't have that thing to occupy you anymore. Plus, if you're in a job that you don't love and you just feel like you're just getting along, that's gonna affect you. So it's just like all of these pieces kind of converge in midlife, whatever midlife is for you. And whether you have children or not, and whether you have your own business or whether you have a job or whether you're married or not, like all of these pieces converge and it can be hard to manage. So I said, Well, I've gone through it now. I I guided myself through it, I've seen a lot of my friends come through it, I've been helping clients through it. This is where we may women may finally step up and go, okay, I could use some help because we're so good at doing it all ourselves, right? We're so good at handling everything and not asking for help. It's like, okay, it's okay to ask for help, actually.
SPEAKER_00:I had to learn that too. No, absolutely, I totally agree. And and and sometimes there's a bit of shame because we we've kind of been brought up in society to think, oh, there's something wrong with us if we do ask for help, but they going for the menopause is a time when we do we do we do need help. And I was just gonna say your husband sounds so uh mature and understanding, and he's a yoga teacher too, that's why.
SPEAKER_01:I said he's also a yoga teacher, so I think he was like in he's he knew enough and he knew me well enough to say, okay, that's unusual. I just will step away from that for now. So, because you don't have to engage, you can step away. I mean, we have these rules about you know, don't go to bed angry. Well, what if you can't turn the anger off?
SPEAKER_00:You gotta just like and don't light the fuses if you don't have to. Exactly. And you can choose, I mean you can choose to engage or or not, and and have the discernment to think, well, actually, that this is not about it. Didn't take it personally, which was was brilliant.
SPEAKER_01:So big, so big, and that's true of almost everything in life, right? It's it's not usually about you, whatever's going on with that person. It's it's I'm gonna say it like 99.9% of the time, it's about what's going on with them, and you just happen to be helping reflect to them what's going on. I I was at a um a meeting of women last night, actually, and we were having a presentation on the intelligence of water. It was fascinating, total side topic, but it was the psychic medium that I know she's been working with water, and you put intention into it and photograph it. But one of the ladies there was saying that she had said something to her son, like, can you pick up that can? And he got so angry because he heard that he was a litter bug and that he never picked up after himself and that he was messy instead of just well, I guess not you to pick up that can. But that was just something inside of him, right? So and I think women probably have needed help. Like we've all everybody, all humans always need help. We're a community for a reason. But I think that women, especially, we have this responsibility put on us of you know, you have to take care of the children, you have to take care of the house, you have to take care of your husband, and now you have to go get a job. Remember that song? It was like bring bacon home and fry it up in the pan, like you're some kind, so we have to be these super women. It's like that's unfair. Yeah, we don't expect that of anybody else, just ourselves.
SPEAKER_00:I totally agree with, and I like the way you said that. That is so unfair because we don't expect it from other people, and yet there's there's so many pressures, and hence why the the I'm sure there's a lot of listeners who were who can kind of relate and thinking, oh, how can the heather help me on on this on this journey? Which sometimes has paid as being a boundary, but actually, in some some traditions, it's seen as a beautiful time of change once we kind of come through. We're kind of free in in so many ways. So if I'm I'm a listener today wondering how I can connect with you, Heather, and what the next steps were, would you please mind sharing?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely. And it is true, we often I'll just add one thing to that. So when women do that to themselves, they're teaching their children to do that to them as well, and they're teaching their daughters that they need to be that way. Which to break the cycle, you have to own your own life. And I actually, so awesome, like, yeah, this is just yesterday I launched the aligned activation audit, and I'm offering this to call people for free. It's like it's a one-on-one meeting with me where we just go through each of the areas of your life and we unpack it a little bit and we figure out where is a good place for you right now? Like, what do you want? And what does it what should it look like? And then how where's somewhere for good for you to start? And I thought, I actually just came back from England. I just spent three weeks in England. Yeah, I walked the Cotswolds way 106 miles by myself. So talk about time alone to think about things, and some days were really hard. And as I was walking, thinking, you know, can I make it? Can I make it? I'm like, well, I can choose whether I make it or not, you know, and it's not quitting if I decide that I've had enough today. And I it was like this constant conversation going on in my head. It's like people are having that conversation with themselves all the time. So if I could be someone to help have that back and forth conversation with someone, I'm like, that's that's brilliant, Heather. Let's do that. You know, I'm talking to myself as I'm walking down the trail. So I actually just activated it yesterday. That for people who are interested, they just email me info at Heather Stewart.coach. And if you put in the into the subject line or somewhere that you were looking at the aligned activation on it, then I'll just send you the information. Oh fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that that's a great, that's a great gift to give to listeners. So listeners, I'll also put the the details in the show notes as well, because that that you know, we don't always have to do things alone, and it's always good to have an expert like Heather who's kind of been been through it all and will know how to kind of show you and help you find your find find your way or and be kinder to oneself because we that's hard for us some days, you know. Yeah, it is. You know, like you know, sometimes we feel really overwhelmed because uh I can do this. I'm thinking, especially because I'm quite creative, so there's all the there's all these different things I kind of want to kind of want to do, and a lot of it's some people say it for cheaper, but it's for joy as well. So if I'm a listener and I'm thinking, oh, I'm overwhelmed, I I just don't know what to do next, what tips would you give give them?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so one of the things that I get people to do, and I've worked with 30-year-olds on this. I'm like, how can 30-year-olds be overwhelmed? But then I remembered what it was to be 30. I was like, yes, okay, because I'm I'm about to turn 60.
SPEAKER_00:So you're not looking a million years, have you?
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. It's all the walking. Um, so what if so your brain is a factory, it's not a warehouse. So when we're overwhelmed, we're usually trying to keep everything inside our head. So the first thing I get people to do is as big a piece of paper as you can, write down everything that you're trying to keep in your head. Like, even just like, you know, don't forget to book the dentist or cancel that thing, or it doesn't have to be all-to-do list item stuff. It's sometimes it's just I'm really annoyed about XYZ. So it's just like write it all down. Sometimes I'll use the back of a door and I'll put post-it notes because then I can move them around. So then you then it's out of your head and it's in front of you because when it's in concrete form, it doesn't feel so nebulous, it doesn't feel so the energy is not swirling. You can see it, it's right there, and you can say, Okay, this is not something I need to worry about, and you can throw it out or wipe it off or cross it out, and you can see where things can get grouped together, like, oh, I can so I use that, I actually use that every week on myself, not because I'm overwhelmed, but because I want to organize my week. So I'll put everything on its write everything down on paper that I need to think about for the week. And then I actually use Notion as my it's kind of like my to-do list. I've got it all separated out. So it was like, does it need to be worked on this week? Does it need to be worked on next week? Does it need to be worked on sometime in the future? It's also the holding place for all my ideas because I'm I'm like you, I get lots of ideas, but I used to joke with people that I was an ideas doula. So I birth lots of ideas, but I can't raise them all. So sometimes I just birth them and give them away, or I just put them in the holding pattern for a someday because they're not all important right now, but I want to capture them. So once you get all that down, you can say, okay, then I just send them into some breathing, maybe. You know, there's a breath um cycle you can do where you inhale to a count of five, retain for a count of five, and then exhale for a count of five. So it's not quite box breathing because you don't hold the exhalation. And you just do that for like a cycle of five or ten rounds to just ground and calm your nervous system, and you go back to that list of things, and then you can start to figure out what's priority, what's just nagging at me because I can't let it go. Sometimes it's just something you just gotta erase out of your life. You know, what is it that I can give to somebody else, ask somebody else to do? Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00:I like that. I like that, give it to someone else to do because we kind of like try and do it all ourselves. And I the well, I'm guessing there'll be stuff on there as well that sometimes we think we should do it, but we don't necessarily want to do it, but we won't let go of it, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's like I did a podcast episode once called Stop Shoulding All Over Yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'm gonna listen to that.
SPEAKER_01:That's that's a good uh good one to should doesn't mean that you should, right? Should is like when when I hear people say I should do that, that means to me I can hear underneath that I feel like I'm supposed to do that to be a good person. I feel obligated to do that because I'm mature and because you know I have to be responsible, but I don't want to. Yeah. So then be mature and responsible and say you don't want to. That's more mature and responsible than doing the things that don't fit you. You know, that's why I call it alignment activation. It's like you can see people who are and the Diane, my friend last night who was giving the presentation, I could see her at the beginning of her presentation, she wasn't as comfortable. But when she got into her presentation, you could see it was like, I am living my truth, and just the way she was speaking and then the energy uh that she was putting out, versus someone who's dragging their butt to their job every day and they're sitting at their desk and they don't feel like like some people in jobs. Like I have a client who it's funny because she came to me because she was feeling unhealthy and she didn't like how her health was going. And when we unpacked it, it was her job because she wasn't being appreciated. She loved what she did. So it wasn't her profession, it was the location she was working and the the environment she was working in. So we worked and got her a new job doing the same thing, and she's so happy and so much healthier. It's like it's not always what you think it is, right?
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes it's just a symptom. I can see that. And then we don't and with working with you, you're able to kind of ex extract kind of her her her truth, and it, and and and it's so she didn't have to drastically change her career, she just had to change like the environment. That's that's really helpful.
SPEAKER_01:And we get those blinders on of like, especially as we come near the end of the year, we get the I can hear January on the horizon of the I need to get in shape, I need to get in shape. What if that's not what the problem is?
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's something else. What if it's something else? Maybe it's maybe you need more sleep. It's one of my favorite things to to prescribe for people to sleep more.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but there's so many people that don't get enough sleep, uh, and and I've I know the effects if I have on that. I'm quite good. I'm like a cat, I can I generally can kind of curl up and and sleep. But I I I've heard so many cases where people find it hard to sleep. And the times when I have found it hard to sleep, I know it's it's really affected me. So I think sleep is so important. And I would say people put away the electronic devices at least half an hour before you sleep. It makes a difference, that blue light.
SPEAKER_01:I actually have my devices all set so that at 10 PM they all stop working.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's very good.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I could override it, but it's my signal of that's enough. You know, that's enough. And because I don't, I'm not a very good sleeper, it's interesting. I wear a Fitbit to and people some people are too sensitive to the electronics. I seem to be able to manage it, but it tells me that I sleep like a parrot, which is funny. It's like, you know, I'm awake a lot during the night and you know going in and out and in and out and up and down. It's kind of like life. So, but if I don't get enough sleep, that's not that's not good for me. I know I I can feel that I'm not functioning at my best if I don't get enough.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, it does just have an impact. If I'm, you know, uh it's one of my favorite questions to ask people is like, is this something in the world? Is this something that you wish everybody knew in the world?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I do. I wish everyone in the world fully understood that they are valuable, that they have a purpose, and it doesn't have to be a Hollywood epic purpose. It's your personalized purpose of why you're here. It's the thing that you can feel the joy from it, right? So there are people in the world who think that they don't have any, they're not worthy of anything, they're not worthy of joy, they're not worthy of happiness, they're not worthy of relationships, they're not worthy of prosperity. It's like you are worthy of every single thing you can ever imagine, plus more that you can't even imagine. But something has happened that you don't believe that. So my goal in the world is as I that's why my show is called Illuminate Your Worth, my my podcast, because as I help shine lights for people, I want then I want them to shine lights for other people and light it all up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, perfect. If we all do it, then we all we kind of shine torches for for for the world and we help each other because it's I I always I feel that's a really beautiful mission to have Heather. And having listened to your a bit of your podcast earlier, I found it very soothing and uh uh uplifting uh and natural. Like you can you and and speaking from the harp, so it was a real real pleasure. And I'm I'm definitely listening to the SHUDS episode. It's it sounds really fantastic, and I'll put the details of your your your website where people can get that free one-to-one session in the show notes. And I was like perfect, I was like to ask uh my lovely guests if is there something that you wish we had covered today? Is any like closing remarks you would like to leave our listeners with?
SPEAKER_01:I always like to leave people with this idea, and it's a little bit of tough love. So I am kind, I am compassionate, I am loving, but I'm also the oldest of four children. So I I you know I helped my sister and my brothers come into adulthood a little bit, and my my answer to them was always, well, you are the boss in your world. So you can choose how you react to this, and you can choose how you want your life to play out. Yep, there's gonna be stuff that you step in, but you choose how that plays out. When I had my stroke, I chose how I wanted to play it out. When I broke my wrist, it could have been the end of my trip and it could have been a huge catastrophe, but instead I made it part of the fun and part of the journey. So you have the power. That's what people need to know. You have the power and stop giving it away.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic, Heather. Yeah, well, goosebumps listening to that. Yeah, we have the power, people remember that. Dear listeners, as always, please stay tuned. It's a meditation inspired by today's show, but the one and only Heather Stewart. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back. Always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or if that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, let's begin. So today's meditation is going to be a very simple but effective anxiety-quashing meditation. So anxiety can be worrying about things or fearing things that haven't happened, or what we're projecting may happen. So instead, we're going to learn to tap into the present moment. And it's a very simple tool, but yet effective. As you inhale, you feel as if the lungs expand. And as you exhale, you feel as if the lungs come in. But you're finding those precious, magical moments of calm within all this. And that comes from a deeper, more present connection with the breath. So as you inhale, everything expands. And as you exhale, everything comes in. A bit like the tide in the ocean. So inhalation is nice, long, slow, and calm, like on a summer's day. And exhalation is nice, slow, and calm. So the movement of the breath out, the movement of the breath in. There's nothing else for you to do but focus on the breathing right now. With a sense of presence and ease. And as the mind tries to entice you into thinking about maybe something you did in the past or something which you would like to do in the future, or even something that you're worried about in the future. It's just to think to yourself, just for a moment. These are thoughts. The present moment right now is me connecting with the breath. I allow these thoughts to be, but I am unaffected in a sense that I am now connected with the present moment. And you continue just listening to the breath. And then each time the breath goes off somewhere, you just come back to that thought of I am breathing. I am breathing, I am breathing. So you might say, well, by saying that you're thinking, but you're having your mind on a single point of focus. And by kind of coming back to something that we do automatically, like the breath, we're kind of learning to be more in the present moment because we're observing it with a sense of calm, a sense of peace. And just by being still just for a little bit longer, hopefully that's brought you a sense of calm.
