Perfectly Pl@nted
Perfectly Pl@nted
Joy Before Fear with Stacey Nievweija
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In this episode of Perfectly Pl@nted, we're joined by the inspiring Stacey Nievweija, an accomplished endurance athlete, former registered nurse, and certified health and running coach. Stacey's journey from burnout to resilience is a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit. She shares her mantra, "Joy Before Fear," and opens up about her struggles with exhaustion, recovery, and the transformative power of self-care.
A busy wife, mom and healthcare provider balancing a demanding career with her dreams, Stacey eventually found herself burned out and struggling to keep going. This setback led her to redefine what wellness meant and build a career that uplifts others. Through personal and professional resilience, Stacey has become a guide for those balancing high performance with sustainable health.
Stacey's story is rich with insights, ranging from her passion for holistic health to her experience as a healthcare provider and her commitment to helping others find balance. Tune in as we explore resilience, mental and physical strength, and how embracing joy can redefine our lives.
You can learn more about Stacey’s coaching program and follow her journey:
- Website: https://www.joybeforefear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muddfoodnjoy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joybeforefear
#JoyBeforeFear #PerfectlyPlantedPodcast #MindBodyBalance #HolisticHealth #InspireToHeal
#HealthTransformation #perfectlypl@nted #perfectlypl@nted22 #SundaySeedlings #LifestyleMedicine #HealthEquity #PlantBasedLiving #PlantBased
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Welcome to another episode of Perfectly Planted, where we dive deep into the stories of extraordinary individuals transforming health, wellness and performance from the inside and out. Today, we are thrilled to have with us someone whose personal journey from burnout to resilience is nothing short of inspiring. Stacey Nehuea is not just a registered nurse, an endurance athlete. She's a certified health coach, running coach and yoga teacher, on a mission to foster athletic longevity through the lens of health resilience.
Speaker 1Nearly a decade ago, stacey experienced a holistic burnout that left her unable to work and struggled in many areas of her life, despite her vast knowledge as a nurse. After navigating her way through this challenging chapter, she now helps others balance sports, health and recovery with her joy before fear mantra as her guide. From completing ultra endurance races like the Keys 100 to deepening her understanding of sleep, stress management and recovery, stacey has equipped herself with an impressive range of certifications in nutrition, sports coaching and wellness. Her story is a powerful reminder that grit alone isn't enough. True resilience comes from building a sustainable foundation of both body and mind. Stacey, welcome to Perfectly Planted. We are thrilled to have you here.
Speaker 2Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1So that intro has quite a bit of information. But let's go back to years when you decided to become a registered nurse. What triggered you to want to take on that career path and then, ultimately, what triggered you to make that decision of change.
Speaker 2Sure. So being a nurse was not a calling for me, it was simply a solution to a problem. I had gotten my bachelor's degree in soil science and went to go get my master's and then realized that my job was going to. I wanted to work for the government I wanted to work for, for agricultural sustainability, but I realized my job was always going to dictate where I lived and my life situation at that time. That was not going to work.
Speaker 2Being a mom of a young son and about to become a single mom to work being a mom of a young son and about to become a single mom. And so I started looking for careers of what could I do that had lots of mobility but also would allow me to pursue my love of science and work with people. One thing that I struggled with where I was going with my soils career is it was very, a lot of time on my own. It was very isolating, a lot of time out in the field and then a lot of time in the lab, and you know I love my introversion, but I also love to be extroverted and be around people. So nursing, if you look at all the boxes, seems like the right choice for me to do. However, it was not something natural for me. I was very squeamish when I was becoming a CNA.
Speaker 2I actually passed out in a patient's room when I assisted a nurse with an abdominal dressing change and the people that knew me well when I said hey, I'm going to be a nurse they're like um, you sure about that? I'm not sure that's the best idea, um, but I was just. I just stuck through it and that's just what I ended up doing for a career for a while Awesome.
Speaker 1And then when you uh made the change from nursing to being focused on health and wellness. Oftentimes I find that people will think about what they want to go do, but it takes great courage to actually do it. So what triggered you to make that leap of faith and change career paths?
Speaker 2Sure it's a series of yeah, it's a series of circumstances and I agree it does take courage. And most often with change in general for any of us, it becomes when the current situation is no longer tolerable and the fear of making change is actually the easier thing to do. Where you're at is just so full of friction that you're just like, okay, now I'm going to go for it, I'm going to change, and you just go with that fear, you just move along with it. And something I noticed while I was a nurse at first I thought I was part of the solution, I was helping people get better and sure, when you're on the floor, you're. You know you can make a difference in someone's life and your decisions depending on what kind of unit you work on.
Speaker 2I worked, you know, on a acute care trauma unit. I've worked in a units that had um, uh, uh, kidney, uh, uh, lost my words um, uh, people transplants, kidney transplants, and you know so a lot of the patients that I take took care of. They were very, very involved, very high acuity, and so, while you are making a difference in that person's life at the moment, what I started to realize, especially when I worked on a neurology unit um, took care of a lot of complex spine patients, people with high, high, high daily pain, you know, and their quality of life is so low. I started seeing that the health care system that we have currently in the States, what we call the health care system, is often more of a bandaid, that there's so much before the clinic, before even you go and make an appointment to talk to your doctor, let alone you end up in a hospital for some reason. There's so much that happens, years, months, decades of processes that occur that put somebody there, and a lot of it was unavoidable, and there's this big void of people not getting that care.
Speaker 2And then I became one of those people. I was still working as a nurse, I worked multiple jobs, I worked a lot of night shift, I worked part-time jobs at a running store, I ran ultras to reduce stress and I wasn't sleeping a lot and surprise, surprise, I ended up having a lot of health issues come up. But I'd go to my doctor. My labs look great, you know like my numbers look great, everything looks great, and they're like just rest. You just need rest, like just go home and breathe. You know you're fine, but I wasn't fine until, all of a sudden I ended up burnt out where I couldn't even get off the couch, let alone show up for a shift, and nobody had an answer for me. It was incredibly frustrating.
Speaker 3And that's a story we hear a lot. Stacey, I mean, treating the numbers and not the individual is really hard. But but how did? How did becoming, how did getting to burnout and becoming a part, a patient in the system? What clicked, finally for you to say I need to not be part of the problem and look for a way to become a part of the solution?
Speaker 2I think a big part of it is just that I've always been a type of person that if I go through something, if I end up in a dark space, there's no way I'm the only one who's gone through that, and I'm definitely not the first one, and I'm a firm believer that when you go through the dark and you find light, you shine really bright and you carry that light for someone else because other people have done that for me and that's it's just. It just made sense and a lot of what I went through required so much resource. I mean, I'm talking thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars wasted and spent and not everybody has that.
Speaker 2You know it was very lonely, it was very isolating, it required a lot of resources and I still wasn't getting the answers that I needed.
Speaker 1So no, I was just going to ask what. So what changed what? I mean, you know not what. What was that next step for you?
Speaker 2Yeah, as far as.
Speaker 1Your next step of your journey? Yeah, so you were. You were, you moved into health coaching, but what you know? What was that next step Like? What was? Did you Google?
Speaker 2did you? You know what was your next step.
Speaker 1That said, okay, I need to make a change.
Speaker 2It took a number of years. So you know my burnout was almost. You know it's in June of 2025, it'll be a decade. You know where I admitted that I was burnt out, but I was burning out before that and so you know you mentioned I ran the Keys 100. I was burnt out when I ran that race. I didn't want to admit it, but I was like things were not going well.
Speaker 2I just kept pushing through. So at that time I didn't have a solution so I just kept on going. You know, I was um, put my career on thoughts on hold for a while Cause I was taking care of my son, who was working like doing high level hockey. So we're traveling all over the place. Like you know, being a hockey mom of a kid that's in a junior league is really intensive. You know, he was in high school, but it was a lot of travel, a lot of like doing the things and then supporting my spouse while he was working his career. So you know, I was the family CEO for a number of years and so that was put on hold and then I felt like I was getting better because I could still go do these epic things.
Navigating Resilience Through Adversity
Speaker 2You know I can still go run these ultras and stuff. And so I thought, because I'm fit, I must be OK, I can still go do these things, so therefore I must be OK. And then the pandemic hit. I got COVID the week before the world locked down, before I live in Washington state. So I got COVID the week before we locked down and I didn't end up hospitalized. But what happened is it got into my nervous system and so from 2020 till 2023, I would get better and then get worse, get better, get worse.
Speaker 2And it's really during COVID that this all started coming. You know, I remember lying on the couch thinking, if I make it through this, like I'm going to live life so differently and I'm going to stop letting fear get in the way. And so that started manifesting in little things, like I sent you the picture of the open water swimming. It's not because I'm a great swimmer, I am a terrible swimmer, I am a very frightened swimmer. But when I was on that couch, sick, pretty sure I was having a heart attack, but didn't want to go back to the ER because they were telling me you don't, you just have COVID and we don't understand this, so stop coming in, please. You know, I was just like I'm going to start doing things I've always wanted to do that scare me beyond belief, and so open water swimming was one of those things, and so I just started doing that. And then I realized I don't want to go back to be a nurse, I don't want to go back to what we call the healthcare system, so I just started taking things that were helping me certifications that were helping me get the information that were helping me, certifications that were helping me get the information so I could feel better. It was all completely selfish. How I ended up here was just because I was trying to take care of me and nothing more than that, and I couldn't get the information from physicians or from any. I mean, I was doing naturopaths, functional med, you name it. I tried it. Crystals Sure, I'll give it a try. Like I was down for anything. You know, give me a placebo that works, I will take it. Like I was so desperate because if it works, who cares Right? And so that's how these certifications that are all over the place started racking up is because I was trying to get better.
Speaker 2And then I wanted to return to sport in a different way, because I'm what I call an adult onset athlete. I played a little bit of sport when I was younger but I didn't really get into running until my twenties. It was completely out of stress. I don't have a big athletic background. I don't didn't understand training theory. I didn't understand that what I was doing was pretty dumb, like how I was training and how I was functioning wasn't the best thing, let alone I wasn't resting and recovering. So the yoga, all that stuff was all selfish. So I could feel better. And then it just kind of started coming together.
Speaker 2As I was having this desire to want, you know, to get back into sport, to get back into running, I realized some of the coaches that I was trying to connect with also weren't quite what I needed.
Speaker 2They were going to push me over the edge again and then, I don't know it just it kind of came out of nowhere. You know we hear a lot of talk about resilience these days and when we think about it, you know it's a lot of what's between our two ears. But it also we need resilience in our physical bodies because, let's face it, it's our first and only home. If we don't have this, we have nothing, absolutely nothing. You don't get to exist. We have nothing, absolutely nothing. You don't get to exist, and so it just kind of came out of.
Speaker 2It was born out of desperation for me wanting to live a different way mentally, emotionally, but also wanting just to recover physically, because I was so sick and nobody had answers for me. Still, nobody can fully explain the course of how the things that happened to me with COVID, where it affected my brain, it affected my nervous system. You know, I had a situation in 2023 where I acted as if I had a severe brain injury and autonomic dysfunction. I couldn't control my heart rate. Every night I went to bed. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to wake up the next day. I was pretty sure.
Speaker 2I wasn't going to wake up the next day it was fortifying, and so I was just determined, like I've got, to find a way through, and I'm not the only person.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, and Stacey it's funny because we you white knuckled for about a decade. A hundred percent, yeah. And so many men and women I'm going to. I'm going to focus on women, because we hear this a lot from women that we just think we don't have time to not be okay. And so you're hanging on the ledge by your fingertips and you're trying not to fall off.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, A hundred percent. You know you can. I mean, I've watched it happen when I go into healthcare. Well, like with my son or my spouse, where I'm just in the room with them, and the way they get treated, versus the way if I said the exact same symptoms. You know the gaslighting is real. You know patriarchy harms everybody, but specifically when we have our own specific challenges, and then you know on to boot. On top of all this, I started going through perimenopause, and so I was like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? Can we add another thing on that?
Speaker 3nobody knows what to do about perimenopause awesome you've got it coming at you from all directions all angles, all angles you had no grace.
Speaker 2So this, this was honestly born out of a lot of time when I could study. I would study so I could feel, figure out how to feel better. But there's a lot of months where I couldn't read, I couldn't study, I couldn't drive, I couldn't listen to music. All I could do was think. And it just started coming to me of like, okay, how do I build resilience? And then why aren't there people out there helping us learn to build overall health resilience? Like I started Googling it, it didn't exist, so be what you need.
Speaker 3Be the change.
Speaker 1Be what you need. I love that yeah.
Speaker 3So and Stacey, that's a great segue into, I mean, can you share a little bit about your coaching philosophy, one of the? It's interesting because, vesame, although we we've known each other for I feel like it's been 20 years.
Speaker 1It's been a long time, Daphne.
Speaker 3It started as a relationship where we worked. We moved into a coaching relationship and now we're trying to share our stories. But coaching is so important in terms of you know that coaching relationship and your philosophy around coaching. Can you talk a little bit about how your journey has informed that and what your strategy is for athletes that?
Speaker 2may come to you as a coach. Yeah, I think, show up as your authentic self and give space for the individual in front of you to be seen and be heard, because I don't care what you're coaching, if you're a business coach, if you're a triathlete coach, whatever, we all come to the table with a series of stories we have been telling ourselves. Some of those stories serve us well and some of them don't. And if you can't create a space for somebody to feel comfortable enough to truly be themselves and be seen and be heard, the person you're coaching will not get what they need and you're not only wasting your time, but you're wasting their time 100% agree.
Redefining Healthcare for Wellness
Speaker 1So we there's we've experienced, I think Daphne has, I have, you certainly have. There's just room for improvement, we should say, within our healthcare system. I would love to learn more about what you would like to see changed in the system to be a more proactive approach, and I'm wondering how can we help redefine it? I think I always. I remember my one doctor said you are responsible for your own health.
Speaker 3You know.
Speaker 1so, whatever you are feeling, you need to address it. I can't guess that for you, and she was right because she knows that. You know physicians, nurses, any clinicians see hundreds of patients a day, and but you're only that one person for yourself and you should take responsibility for your health. So I would love to learn more about what you would like to see different in the healthcare system. I know that's a lot to change.
Speaker 2We could talk about this for the rest of the week, all day. You know, I think it's just there's so many different ways that could go about this, but I think the first and most important thing to acknowledge is that, even with the current system that we have, we have healthcare deserts. Just like we talk about food deserts, there are healthcare deserts, and that's becoming more and more so with the current circumstances that we are facing as a country of access to care. So there's not even equity and access to what is currently standing as our healthcare system. So that's the biggest thing I would like to see change. First, because there's so many people that can't even get the most basic life-saving care. So I just want to acknowledge that first, because, you know, I live in an area that's very well-resourced and I have a life that allows me to access those resources and most people don't get that.
Speaker 2So, outside of equity, I would like to see what we define as healthcare expand. I think that is incredibly important, and what I mean by that is that there are a number of different worlds and they're all siloed. You know, we've got like the fitness world, we've got you know the wellness world, and then we've got, you know our traditional medicine and then naturopathy and all these things. But even with those worlds they're very fractured and stuff and you know. So, okay, I've got, I'm a health coach. Right, it is the wild west out there is for health coaching and getting certification, and even just trying to find a good certification that you feel good about yourself is wanting to be a professional.
Speaker 2It's not easy. There's very little standardization. There's very little accreditation.
Speaker 2So one of the first things that I would love to see even being a personal trainer, you know, if you know how to take a test most of these certifications that give you credentials to work in a completely different scope of practice you just have to be a good test taker.
Speaker 2Honestly, you don't even have to know the material Like you could just go test it out, and that's scary because a lot of people do that. So what I'd first and foremost love to see is these, these other little world, big worlds, you know, like personal training, health coaching, you know, have some standardization and a higher level of you know something. Make it. Let's not make it so easy to get in the door, right, let's have some standardization. So that way, when I do actually get a provider that says, hey, you should strength train, do you know why? Because you're in perimenopause and science says that this is what building muscle does for you, that that physician would then actually have some personal trainer they could feel good about referring you to and know you're going to get the results. There's this huge, huge. There's all these gaps and then there's gaps within those gaps.
Speaker 2So I would love to see the fitness world, specifically the personal training and the health coaching world get more standardized kind of interact together a little bit, so that way they hold, you know, some weight, so the traditional medical world, and then can start talking Because you've got like the over credentialed, as you both well know. You know, like the people that have been in it forever, you know, in the medical world, the doctors, the nurses, you know, even to be a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant, you know you have to have a PhD, like very, very over credentialed to someone, that all you got to do is just figure out how to take a test and you get to practice and those worlds need to work together and they're not going to until, you know, this level comes up and then the other world just becomes more open to that.
Speaker 2You know health means exercising and what does that look like, and actually having physicians and care providers that can walk the talk. It's really hard to take advice from someone that says stop running because this and this and this, when that person is never running their lives and they're not active and they have no education on how running and lifting can help you. So you come in as an active person and they don't know how to care for you. They're like just stop.
Speaker 3No, do not just stop. Yeah, and I mean equity. So you addressed a couple of big things. Equity is huge and we love talking about health equity because we keep talking about it, making impactful changes seems like it's taking forever. Equity, and equity that includes access, that includes getting rid of the desert. Those are that is a whole nother podcast that we could have and talk about that issue alone.
Speaker 3The same thing with the siloing. I mean, I like to position the healthcare team as everyone centers around you. It may be your NP, your DNP, your PA, your MD, your DO, your naturopath, your personal trainer, your RDN, your DO, your naturopath, your personal trainer, your RDN. This revolving circle of care team, which should be the most highly certified group of individuals possible, need to be centered around you. But I agree with you, there is no, there's no standardization, and you can just take a test now and you can become a running coach, which is, which is a little scary. Yeah, yes, yeah, and I think because sorry, I mean just like healthcare because incentives are misaligned it's going to be a long time before that's going to change.
Speaker 1I was just going to say it should be the redefined wellness check or your annual visit. Yes, it needs to be redefined and you as a patient should be or me as a patient should be responsible for knowing my capability, what may have started as certain change of life or, you know, the next stage of life, like perimenopause or whatnot, so that the provider can holistically provide. But you're right, absolutely, it needs to come back to the same level and be more cohesive, because day to day, we're not sick Well, hopefully we're not. And so how can we continue to proactively get better so that we can deter those typical chronic conditions? You know, and it all starts there how can, how can we identify areas to just start now to care for ourselves?
Speaker 1So, stacey, here's where I this is my favorite question to ask our guests. What does a day in the life of Stacey look like? And I'm talking about like what time you wake up, what do you eat, what's your physical activity and how much sleep? Or how do you deter stress management? If you're feeling that way, what do you do to enhance and continue to have a positive mental health?
Finding Wellness Through Self-Care
Speaker 2Sure, so we'll start with sleep, because I think sleep there's nothing that improves sleep can't help, you know. I mean it's kind of the end all be all like as far as getting better, maintaining health and well being, and so sleep now goes really well for me. It didn't used to be something that was easy for me. I try to aim between seven to nine hours. Is that perfect? No, you know, like I think I got six and a half last night and you know when I wake up varies. I try to be consistent, but I'm usually in bed by eight and reading and doing a little meditation, that I'm up between four and six and yeah, so sleep is very important to me. You know I had to learn. Covid is when I actually learned how to sleep. I've never been a good sleeper and I actually got the whoop strap during COVID because I was looking for ways to understand my nervous system and how to get better and just to have some sort of data points, and so using the whoop strap is actually what helped me dial in my sleep to the point now that I actually do get very high quality sleep, and it's invaluable Because there was years where I barely slept.
Speaker 2I averaged three to four hours of sleep for about 15 years of my life, and that that catches up with you. And so and then, other than that, as far as food, like what I intake, I've been a successful vegan, I like to say since it's been about eight and a half years. I've tried to be vegan honestly, since I was a little girl. It just never made sense to me, and I should say plant based diet, you know, and now fully vegan, but I didn't want to eat animals when I was a little girl, like it didn't make sense. But people kept on telling me that's the circle of life, it's what you need to do, and then I'd go through. I've gone through so many cycles of trying to be vegetarian or you know vegan, plant based forward, you know all these things, and then I would go to a healthcare provider. They're like your iron's low. You need to eat meat.
Speaker 2You know, it's just like that. Darn iron is the reason why most of my life I kept on going back to eating meat. But then I finally figured it out. You know how to eat healthy enough. Eat variety of foods. It wasn't the fact that being vegan wasn't healthy, it's that I didn't even on the omnivore diet. I honestly didn't know how to eat well.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So you know you can eat like crap on any diet. So it took me up until you know my early 40s to figure it out late 30s and so, and I'm also gluten-free. So that's just, you know, and I try to. I try to eat, you know, whole foods. You know as little ingredients as possible. I still love my junk food though. Um, I don't believe there's any bad food. I had cupcakes yesterday. They were really good, they were store-bought and the ingredients list was very long and they were very delicious. Yeah and um. Then, as far as um, as far as stress or physical activity right now.
Speaker 2So I am and down to live. I live two days in a week. I do two full body strength exercises a week and then I'm actually trying to work back up on my build, my running endurance, back up. I'm starting from scratch and starting as if I wasn't ever a runner.
Speaker 2My, my fitness capacity is quite low, but over the last year I have been just working on my strength in the gym, on my strength in the gym, and what's amazing is, despite a year ago, you know, I couldn't drive and I was struggling to do a lot of things being in the gym is what helped my nervous system heal, like I started lifting heavy in 2021 as part of my healing process through long COVID and I would feel terrible.
Speaker 2But as soon as I got my hands on that barbell or I lifted what was heavy for me at that moment, there was something about my body like I would feel good while I was lifting and then I, when I finished, I'd go back to not feeling so great. But I really do feel that getting in the gym building muscle and lifting heavy for me is was the biggest factor in my nervous system getting better. I can't explain it, but I just I know it was there and so strength training is something I've done off and on since like 2017. You know, I did what I call runner strength training, which is you do just enough to not get injured. I didn't start lifting heavy till 2021. And it's my new non negotiable. It's the most important. It's it's sleep and then food and then lifting.
Speaker 2Those are my three non negotiables, because if I can do those three things, then it gives me more resilience, more pliability to offer the things that are happening in life. So that's what I'm doing. For physical activity, I am a person that tends to over exercise, not because I feel like I have to earn my calories, because I just love moving and I don't know when to quit. So I actually have, you know, someone who programs my strength, and even though I'm just running easy, I actually have a run coach who is programming my running. So I so I'm smart because I know myself. You know, a lot of the times the biggest benefit we can get out of coaching is just somebody monitoring us. It's not that we don't know what we need to do, we just need to be monitored. So we do it.
Speaker 2And then for stress, yeah, I think my biggest tool for stress is my breath, the thing that's always there for me, and it's just a super, super simple practice when I notice when my stress levels are getting up. Or am I checking through the day? I just check in to see can I feel the breath in my back ribs, in my lower back ribs, because if I can't, that means I'm breathing up here, I just sit there and I just try to breathe into my back means I'm breathing up here here, I just sit there and I just try to breathe into my back, try to feel all my whole rib cage 360 expand, and that helps so much. But I just I do a lot of mindfulness and meditation apps. My favorite app right now is called waking up. I absolutely love it, um, and so I often will play it by my ear and I fall asleep to it.
Speaker 2I wake up to it sometimes If I wake up in the middle of the night and then my brain turns on. I just put on a meditation and I usually fall asleep to it. So I'm a firm believer. There's so many meditation apps out there but I don't think it needs to be anything. You know crazy.
Speaker 3Nothing fancy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Sometimes it's just hearing a calming voice 100% agree.
Speaker 3I love day in the life of Stacey. So Stacey. As we wrap up today, we have two final questions for you and Bessamayne. Do you want to pop the first one?
Speaker 1Yeah, sure. So what is one thing you are deeply grateful for today, Stacey? Now you're on the West Coast, and so your day is just about starting.
Speaker 2Oh, I've been up for a while.
Speaker 1I got up well yeah, if you wake up at four between four and yes, you haven't.
Speaker 2I already got. I already, yeah, you got a run-in and everything um um deeply grateful for specifically today.
Speaker 3Yes, or yeah.
Speaker 2Or it could have been natural, yeah, yeah, I am grateful that For when people share themselves fully and what I mean by this is and being able to access like, so, like. Now you know we can access so much information, which can be really overwhelming. You know there's there's podcasts, there's Instagram, there's books. You know there's all the old school ways that we used to get information and now all the technological ways between you know our little rectangles that we carry with us everywhere. But what I'm most grateful for is being able to have access to that that people find what lights them up, and then those people go out and share it for the rest of the world and then we can we can access that.
Speaker 2That is what saved me during the pandemic. My life got very small and very insular and my business wouldn't exist. I wouldn't be sitting here with the both of you if it wasn't for people sharing their what they love, sharing their knowledge, and making it so others can access it. I mean, it's just phenomenal. It changed my life. You know. It allowed me to to learn and grow, to try to develop a new career, when those really really dark moments, when my light was flickering and wasn't so bright, I, digitally could just reach out to somebody else's light who was already shining and they recorded it and put it out there so I could benefit from it. I'm just forever grateful for that. I've told a few of my friends that like, had our pandemic and me getting sick, result from the pandemic would have happens.
Speaker 2You know we all remember before technology was around and you know Instagram and phones and podcasts are readily available I would have had a very different outcome. I wouldn't be where I am now. My light would not be able to be shining brightly. So I'm grateful that it happened for me specifically when it did, and I'm grateful for people sharing their bright light love that yes, I do too.
Speaker 3And stacy, what does two things. So I'm adding a question in here. Okay, what is joy before fear mean to you? And then we, you know it perfectly planted, we like to plant seeds of positivity and empowerment. What is one seed that you can plant with anyone so you can share your light with someone who may listen or watch this podcast?
Speaker 2Yeah. So joy before fear is a life philosophy that I put together during the pandemic of just you know, promising myself that never again would I let the fear of something not allow me to have joy, and that often the things that are going to light us up the most, that are going to bring the biggest differences, is there's going to be fear there, and that can you just consider. The joy it's not, the fear is going to go away. But can you consider joy first before you let the fear keep on telling the same old stories? Can joy and fear hold hands while you go do the thing? Go do it scared and go get that joy. Create it for yourself, because if you don't do it, nobody else can create joy for you but you. And waiting for the right circumstance, you're gonna miss out. You got to create it. You know, as Brene Brown said, joy is the most vulnerable thing we can allow ourselves to feel, and it's also in a very personal thing, and so we got to feel inside first, take up space, allow joy to be there, and if there's one thing that I could leave with with your audience is that don't wait, you can always choose joy. We spend so much time thinking about the past of like, oh it could have been this and oh I could have been. Or remember when I was this Cool, that's already written, you can't do anything about it. Try to spend more time here and now. It's never too late.
Speaker 2There is no matter what circumstance you're in, and sometimes you are alone. It drives me crazy when people say, oh, you're not alone. No, there are some really hard times when we are truly alone. But have your own back. Be afraid and choose the joy and dare. Dare to be joyful. It is an act of rebellion, especially as a woman and like a middle-aged woman. It is an act of rebellion. Take up space, you know. Strong back, soft heart. What is it? What is Renee say? I love her. Strong back, soft chest and wild heart. Yes, go for it. Dare to dream and then turn that dream into a plan. Who says it can't be you, and don't let your circumstances make you think that it can't. Just go for it.
Speaker 3That's great Amazing.
Speaker 1Yeah, I love that Stacey, you take on such a unique and what is what I think should be what would you know what health coaching should be about? A holistic view into somebody's life and their overarching wellness, and also to continue to encourage, to feel that joy, because we don't as soon as we do I'm a Brene Brown fan as well as soon as we do, we feel wait, what if what? As well. As soon as we do, we feel wait what if, what if, what if?
Speaker 1that note you know and then you start thinking yeah, and then it goes away and you have this fear come coming in, and so, because, because you don't want to be as vulnerable, um, I would love for um, if our listeners would love to get in touch with you. Um, how can? What's the best way of getting in touch?
Speaker 2Yeah, so because this is news I mean, I do have social media, but there's no, there's no post on them yet. You just have to do it. Yeah, exactlyarcom, you can. Um, my Instagram handle for my health coaching business is um, joy before fear. All spelled out one word. And then, um, I created an athlete page for myself because, um, it's something. This is my joy before fear, because if you look at a lot of athlete pages, it's always the after story, you know, and it's always like of an elite person or whatever. But you know, my athlete pages is about rebuilding, you know, and about building joyful durability and trying to make that come back. And so that handle is mud food, enjoy M-U-D-D-N-F-U-O-O-D, and joy, just because, yeah, I'm just want to share my journey of me rebuilding. Ideally, I'd love to get back to ultras. We'll see if that happens, but I don't want to limit myself and just put myself in that box.
Speaker 3So we are not constrained by boxes that we put ourselves in or that others do.
Speaker 2Right right.
Speaker 3Stacey, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2Thank you so much for having me. It was really fun.
Speaker 3And I'd also like to thank all of you that are listening to us today.
Speaker 3We hope that you're leaving with as much inspiration and actionable insights as we are.
Speaker 3Daisy's journey from burnout to resilience shows us that true health isn't about just pushing through or by hanging on by your fingertips.
Speaker 3It's about knowing when you need to pause, when you need to recover and sometimes we need to rebuild from the inside out. So, whether you're an athlete or a busy professional, or someone who's striving for balance in life, stacey's approach to fostering health resilience can serve as a guidepost, and I would highly encourage you to follow her on their socials, to check out our website, because she's an example of looking at what can happen when you get to the other side. Remember her mantra is joy before fear. It's not about just crossing the finish line, but you have to enjoy the journey along the way. So if you'd like to learn more about Stacey and her work, be sure to check out the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with anyone who could benefit from these powerful insights. Thank you for tuning in to the Perfectly Planted podcast, where we strive to bring you the tools and stories to help you thrive every day, be well.