In Essence You Are Beautiful

Welcome back to Wildly Unplug—where we share stories of nature, creativity, and conservation, and discover what unfolds when you step outside and reconnect with your inner wild. In today’s episode, I had the joy of speaking with Steffi, a holistic psychologist, intuitive artist, and the creator behind In Essence You Are Beautiful—a deeply moving project that helps others reconnect with their true selves through art, tapping, nature therapy, and more.

Steffi’s mission is as beautiful as her work: to remind people of their innate worth, and to help them rediscover their essence—even when life has pulled them away from it.

Steffi’s Top Tip for Connecting with Nature:

🔌“Just go. Be in nature. You don’t have to do anything—just observe, feel, and let it in. And if you can’t go to nature, bring nature to you. Then, look within. What did your child self love to do? Do that again. That’s where your essence lives.”

🛤️ How to Connect With Steffi

If you’re curious about intuitive art, soul portraits, tapping, or holistic therapy—Steffi offers her services both in-person and online, including shipping her artwork worldwide.

You can find her at:
🌐 In Essence You Are Beautiful
📸 Instagram

Photographer credit: Iris Kelly Reflections (insta: Iris.Kelly.Reflections)

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For more inspiration, check out www.WildDevelopmentsStudio.com.

Wildly Unplug is part of the iRoar Network

Transcript

 Welcome to wildly Unplug, sharing stories of nature conservation and creativity. Discover what develops when you unplug and step outdoors.

  📍  📍 Stephanie, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you so much for inviting me. You've got a website and it's in essence your beautiful.com. Before we start talking about that.

Because it seems very powerful and empowering for people. But what led you to that moment? Why did you want to start that? Oh, interesting question. What led me there is feeling a little bit lost myself. I. Over the course of my life throughout different phases of my life, and then eventually finding the way back to me actually through having some challenges around health, mental health, emotional health, and starting therapy for myself and bit by bit, understanding that I lacked self-love.

One of the things that I lacked was, self-love and really understanding myself, loving myself, and I guess, so many steps after that. I got to the point where I felt like more people I wish that more people would really feel and see how beautiful they are on the inside, even if we have, our wounds from the past.

Experiences that kind of hold us back sometimes, that's why I actually started this, project mission where, you know, in essence you're beautiful. Like really seeing your essence and seeing your inner beauty and honoring it. Yeah. What was the, aha moment for you where you realize I am not loving myself like I should?

I wasn't feeling great, I wasn't feeling great. I didn't have too much energy. I had a lot of negative thinking also about myself, a lot of negative self-talk, and yeah, like I said, it was bit by bit like becoming more aware of that, like what is actually going on in my inner world and realizing oh, wait a minute, this is not a kind thought to think about myself, or. Having feeling perhaps like down or even depressed and then digging into that, like, where does that come from? Maybe I don't feel good enough about myself or, I put myself down and creating awareness around that. That was actually the aha moment, I guess when I decided to go in therapy for the first time was probably the biggest aha moment.

Yeah. So when people go to your website and check out what you're doing. What are some of the things that you're helping to guide people to do? Yeah. There's different ways to do it, but so I offer tapping, for example, like emotional freedom technique where we like tap different points on the body to really stress that we can also do.

So I, I'm a psychologist officially. I'm a clinical psychologist. I have a degree in that. And, I do look at it in a more holistic way meaning that we also do perhaps meditation. We also look at your, not only the mind, but also the emotional health, the physical health, the spiritual health even.

So it's try to zoom, zoom out in that way. And I also do intuitive art. I make intuitive art for people. And so all of these services. And then the intuitive art also has the drawings and the risen messages and the paintings. So it's broad, but the idea actually is to guide people to connect with themselves again, because we're very much in general, and this has happened to me as well, obviously.

We're very much like looking outward, and we're maybe trying to live up to expectations from the outer world, or we feel like we have to be a certain way, but actually, when we really connect more with ourselves, we can feel like, what am I really, what is it that I want?

What are my principles when I don't think about the outer world for a second? So that's what we do, depending on obviously what someone is struggling with. But yeah, that's yeah the idea of the process. I like that you said that you are a therapist, like you've studied, you've gone to school and everything for that.

Because there are a lot of classes that I've looked into like online and they're like, oh, you can become an art therapist. And I'm like, I don't feel comfortable saying that 'cause I've not gone through all the classes and everything that it takes, all the studying to be a therapist. So how do you find that?

Like therapy and painting. And tapping and nature and all that. How do they all play together? That's an interesting question. You just said, you mentioned the word nature, which I think, okay, so there's like mother nature, right? We all know what we're referring to when we say Mother Nature, but actually we are a reflection of mother Nature and we also have our nature.

The way that we are. And I believe that, and that is also why I which I actually didn't mention but I also take people into nature to do therapy there because nature can really like, calm us down. Calm the nervous system, quiet the mind heal the emotions. And so that is a very helpful resource, I feel to help us with whatever we might be struggling with.

And but to make that, that parallel and to feel the connection with ourselves, like from a place where we can feel our natural self again, which actually has a lot to do with nature. For example, if we look at, like a river, like a river and how it flows and you try to mirror yourself through that.

Like, where am I in that? Like how do I flow through my life? Or how would I like things to flow a little bit more? And in this way, as we open up to the bigger nature that is around us, we also get more in touch with, who we are as a person and our natural state of being. I hope that's a response to your question.

Yeah. Hey, you had mentioned something earlier about, other people's perceptions of you and, I saw something online the other day and it was a picture of an empty room and it was like, these are all the people that pay for your bills. And at the end of the day it, at the end of the day, it's just yourself.

Like you have to be in touch with yourself because people can move. People come in and outta your life. You have to be in touch with yourself and what you really want or you're not gonna be happy. Do you find that when people are doing the painting, are there are. Do you guide people through paintings or are you doing the paintings for them or both?

Both. Yes, both. It depends on what people want to experiment with. There's people who are like, I want a soul painting. I wanna see what that might look like on, on Canvas, for example. But then there's also people who who wanna do the whole intuitive painting journey. And the good thing is that, you don't need experience or you don't need to have gone to school or whatever.

There's people who are like, the last time I took a brush in my hand was when I was three years old, which is fine because it's not about what it looks like. It's about really like having the experience and then allowing the process to really help you and guide you through whatever it is.

But of course, I'm also there as an external guide to help people like maybe do exercises to connect with what they're doing to tune into their intuition and, and to paint or to create from a place of not, the mind, what it should look like or. My goodness. These colors don't combine or, it's all like the mental activity and we try to dive a little deeper and, what do I feel like doing?

Make it playful and go with that kind of flow. Yeah. Just like the river, as I said. Yeah. You said soul painting. Can you describe a little bit more what that is? Yeah, so I, I personally believe that we all have a soul. Which is like the most the deepest inner most part of our being, something like this.

And the more that we connect with our soul, actually the happier we are because our soul is really like the core of our being and all of the desires and the it's really the essence of who we are. A soul painting when I do soul painting, I, I aim to represent at least a part of what the soul of that person is expressing in that moment.

So that's basically how it goes. And obviously it requires me to meditate and to go in a deeper state of connection, to draw upon nature because I live very, actually, very close to nature. And yeah, so I tried to empty myself, and then I allow something to flow through that is a representation of what, nature is showing right now.

Yeah, this is what the soul this person could look like if we were able to make it like a visual thing. Like a soul portrait. Yeah, something like this. Yeah. Okay. Is okay. That's really cool. And then that's different from an intuitive painting. Because the intuitive painting is just allowing yourself to play and Exactly.

Okay. Yes. And then sometimes people will ask for a painting for example, that just, to put up in their living room, but it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their soul. They're more like, just make a beautiful painting and make sure it matches whatever my furniture, which is perfect as well.

But for me, like this is my way of painting is not. Technical it's more, intuitive. Some people have that gift, it's very technical and they can paint the mountain and whatever. Unfortunately, I cannot do this for you. What I can do, if people were like, oh, I grew up near that value or mountain or whatever I could tune into the energy of that and perhaps, the soul of that mountain and then paint from that space, if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. And you had mentioned tapping earlier too. Can you describe a little bit more about that? It like, I feel sometimes when I get stressed I find myself like, tapping my chest or like my head. Is that something that we just instinctually do or it, what are the benefits of that?

Yeah. I think you're very right. It's actually yeah, again, it's like our natural response to something that we're going through, whatever it is, and we have, this body, this vessel that actually knows how to balance itself. But we're since we're very much, like I said at the beginning, like we're very much looking outward because we're programmed that way to, to make sure that we get through the day and we're doing all these things and we have these goals and all of this is done and we forget to tune into the body. Or we're just, a little bit out of touch with the body or a lot, as was the case for me. But anyways, to come back to the tapping, yes, I think in that moment, it's like when you have your belly hurts, you will place your hand there.

Or you're cold, you will, you'll hug yourself. It's things that we do and it's helpful because, we know that kind of helps because it's in our instinct, as we said, and as for the tapping. With the tapping, we actually tap on certain points, energy points in the body that are designed, or at the very least, have the potential to release energy, stuck energy. Because usually, when we're stressed, we're more tense and then energy builds up builds up and it cannot flow anymore. So we're no longer like the river in that moment. We're more, we're more like stagnated.

So I'm by, by tapping the points, the energy can start to flow again. That's what happens through the tapping. Yeah. Very good. And. You said you take people out into nature. Is this a guided experience? Is it like a therapy session where you're talking out in nature? Can you describe that a little bit more?

Yeah, it can be all kinds of things. Just like there's a forest like nearby here and I've taken people there or groups there for intuitive painting. And then everybody just, picks their spot. And obviously I guide everybody like, from the beginning. So the first step is always to find a spot where you feel safe.

'cause the safety, like feeling okay, this is my place right now at the release right now. That's always a starting point. So I take them out in nature and then, they'll pick like a spot and then we start the process and I walk around and then, guide wherever guidance is needed.

Yeah, so it's, that's one thing, the intuitive painting. The other thing is definitely also therapy sessions where we tap, where we do maybe like a little bit of talking and then, like a meditation together. I feel like everything can really be done out in nature. Of course. Given that doesn't rain or whatever, there's no storm going on, that might be a bit more tricky.

But I definitely believe that, nature in and of itself is such a resource in our, healing or, working towards more wellbeing, that this is just such a. Such a privilege. If we can do whatever kind of therapy or activity out in nature, it really adds to the benefits.

Yeah. Do you find that people are more in touch with their intuitive nature when they're outside? Exactly. Because it's like the on a subconscious level, I feel that we recognize ourselves in nature, and that might sound a bit odd, but I'm talking more about the principles of. Of nature, we usually feel better when we're like, we feel like a tree.

We're like well grounded and we feel our roots and, and also like I said, with the river, we deep down inside, we all just want to flow through life, so it like being in nature and looking at it and seeing how it works, so to speak. And then.

Discovering within ourselves how we are actually similar or at the very least, have the potential to be that way as well. That really helps us, I feel, to move forward. Yeah.

Had a thought and then I lost it. Oh. Do you have a, I know you can't say like names or anything. Do you have a. Like a success story or a story that you can share about somebody that came to you and through doing some artwork and getting in touch with nature, they came out on the other side feeling so much better.

Yeah. I think yeah, going back to the intuitive painting actually I remember, everybody obviously comes with a different intention, because we're all different people, even if we're in a group and we're friends, we all have our, specific story. And and I remember there being someone, first we did this exercise with natural pigments.

It's like a kind of like powder thingy, but it's actually really it's strong from plants, and and then people can it's very funny because a little bit of this powder, if you add a little bit of water, it's like, it's very abundant. It's like the color is very vibrant.

It's very and then I remember one person saying and she had been going through this process where she felt a bit more she was feeling a lot of scarcity and not knowing how to move forward or, I remember her saying about, it was like some maybe at work or some, she was experiencing this at work, but also at home.

Like her relationships, like she, she didn't really feel like she could be herself. And then with this simple, small exercise that we did at the beginning, she noticed I had no idea that out of, this little bit of powder, like so much would come out of it. And she then we moved into this other exercise where we really used like a canvas to paint and she said, I feel so much more free now to actually, be myself and maybe be myself a little bit more in my relationships as well.

'cause that was one of the things that was blocking her. So at the very least, she, she had an opening in her mind around, scarcity mindset. Wait a minute, maybe like a little bit can give me a lot. Which is huge for the mind because usually when we're, we can have very rigid mental structures, where we're always like choosing the same thing because we really believe that's how it should be, or that's how it is.

Or, or I'll never have enough, that kind of belief systems. And so at the very least, she could break out of that. And also like the feeling that, oh, maybe, it is okay if I'm a little bit more myself in my relationships and, to have the courage to do that and then feel like, how does that, which effect does that have on my relationships?

Or how can that evolve? Yeah, that is, wow. Yeah. That is cool. Do you have a particular exercise or activity that you find yourself gravitating towards, and maybe that changes throughout the course of your life and your healing journey? What is an activity that you really enjoy doing? I do all kinds of exercises.

I also needed to keep myself, balanced. Also I feel that, when I offer services I try to experiment my experi, experiment myself and experience the exercises that I give to others, obviously. So I'm I always test them on myself and yeah, I like to journal a lot.

I always go back to journaling. Definitely. Journaling is very, I actually don't even leave the house without having some paper with me or something I could write on or in or whatever. And that really helps me a lot. I feel writing but also for example, one of the things I did such a simple exercise, but usually like the most simple exercises are like very.

I like to draw spirals. Yeah. And I just do the spirals, so I'm not thinking, I'm not like, oh, I'm not thinking about form or what it should look like. It's more like spirals and you can like, a spiral can either go outward or inward depending on, how you look at it.

So when I want to turn in more to myself, maybe, out all day, or maybe I had a stressful day and I feel like, oh my God, I need to come back to myself. Then I draw the spiral inward, when I tend to feel in a different situation, maybe I feel a little bit stuck, or, I feel like, I'm just not, I'm feeling off and I feel like I wanna liberate myself.

I wanna break free from this, and I will draw the spiral outward. It's such a simple thing, but I feel but not just, once you know you, you repeat it. And it becomes like a, yeah, like a meditation it's an exercise that you just, yeah. You just do it until you feel like, okay. At the very least, I've calmed down a little bit, or I feel an opening or whatever.

Yeah. I have to try that now. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a simple shape, like you said, but you can use it in two totally different ways. Do you have a. Favorite moment. When you think about nature and outdoors, what is a like standout moment for you where you're like, that was just the absolute coolest experience I've ever had out in nature.

Ooh, wow. That's a tough one. Because I've had so many. Let's see. Can I think about that for second? Absolutely. Yeah.

Let's see. You talk about rivers a lot, do you rivers or mountains? What do you prefer? Both. Oh my goodness. That's an even harder question. I prefer to go back to the other one. It's a very interesting question because I actually, I live in the Andes in Peru, so it's all it's mountains.

And then there's lovely, there, there are a lot of rivers actually, with lots of clean water just coming from the mountain, right? Yeah. And that's amazing. There's also like some very amazing lakes up there. I like the water element a lot. And I have to say, I like the combination of both, you know how we have that here, but I also, I know that's not the question, but I must say I miss the sea because the sea, the ocean.

Different being, different soul, very different. So I do feel that at the very least, like twice a year I need to go to Mama Ocean because she calls me, I have to go. Yeah. But I would say I will always need the combination of maybe the mountain or the valley, which is more like the earth element.

And then the. The river and the water be obviously the water elements. I would say the combination. Yeah. Yeah. I just spent two weeks in Florida by the ocean and I went to dinner just the other day and we had the choice between a restaurant that was inland a little bit, or one right on the water.

And I'm like, 'cause we have the Ohio River right here. And I'm like, I gotta be right on the river. I gotta the water calls to me. I just, I don't know why, but it does. Do you have a favorite animal? I'm trying to make this more common between adults talking about their favorite animals. 'cause you never hear adults talking about them.

Oh, that's true. Oh my goodness. You know what I have so many there's a lot, because I also feel that, every animal also has a kind of soul, like an archetype they have a meaning, a message to bring. And I would say like the butterfly is one of my favorites.

If I'm gonna have to pick one, I would say the butterfly. Yes. I feel like that fits from what little I've known about you and like you went through a change and a chrysalis and you've Oh, yes. Into something beautiful and inspiring others with beauty. Yes. The butterfly has been with me.

I've needed her a lot. Definitely. Yeah. What's yours? My favorite animal is the sea turtle. Oh, I like that. I love sea turtles. I found out I was pregnant with my son and the morning before I was going on a big trip to help out at a sea turtle hospital and I had a very rough pregnancy. And right from the very beginning it was very difficult.

And going to this facility and seeing these sea turtles that had been hit by boats and were missing fins and going through like really horrific. Physical trauma, and I'm like, okay, if these turtles can do it, I can do it. And just, they're so stoic and brave and there's just something about 'em. I just, I love turtles.

I think they're very they're like ancient. They're so wise and beautiful wow. Yeah. That's very significant it seems. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Beautiful. Did you have time to think about your favorite. I did. And you know what, the funny thing is that actually you have quite a bit of, animals also in your space, right?

And I just saw the, it was funny when the experience came back to my memory I saw the hummingbird bird behind you, the hummingbird yet, and actually I hadn't experience with a hummingbird, which we see a lot here actually, however, I was in, in the forest just nearby and, yeah, and there's this little stream, so I was by the water but also, surrounded by the trees and the wind.

And I had actually a, an instrument, like a flute with me, and I just felt like playing it a little bit. I don't play it very well, I play it and it's I just like the sound of it. And I was playing. And all of a sudden this hummingbird comes so close it felt like, almost like it came to, I don't know if that's actually what happened.

You, in my mind it was like, oh, it came to, whatever the sound and it was so close. It was the closest I'd ever seen. It was like a one meter. It was like, okay. And I just sat there and I was playing. I was looking at the most, felt very precious and very synchronized as well. I felt like I was in a kind of flow, out in nature and everything was I don't know, it was flowing together.

So that, that was for me, one of the amazing experiences I've had out in nature. Yeah, that is very cool. There's just something so special when you get up or an animal chooses to get up close. To a human, because usually we're, I feel like we're used to them running away from us. And when they choose to come up and check us out it just feels like a special gift.

Yeah, I agree. So how can people find, do you do anything like online or is it all in person? No, it is both. In person and online. Paintings or drawings or whatever can also be shipped. To whatever country people live in. So yeah, and then also like online, I also work online. Also our therapy, because that's usually what people wonder about.

Does it also work online? And it, it does, of course, one needs to feel resonance with, with the online medium. However, I feel that a lot has to do with the connection. Like we're talking now and we're like tuning into each other and speaking. And I. That space that we're in allows the therapy to flow.

So yeah, our therapy can be done. Holistic psychology can be done through, the online medium tapping, whatever. It's, but of course if someone feels inspired to come to brewery, this is a lovely place. People are welcome, welcome here as well. Definitely. Perfect.

Where can they find you then? That's good to know. You can do online too. Yes. So my website, it's a long one. It's like you said at the beginning, www in essence u are beautiful.com. So that's where people can find me. And there you can find my email address. My yeah, my cell phone number. I'm also on Instagram.

People can find me there and if they want to find me physically. I am near Cusco, which is like a city in Peru. And yeah, this place is called the Sacred Valley of the in. Oh, that sounds really cool. Yes, it is. It's an amazing, it's an amazing place and people have very beautiful experiences here as well, so yeah.

Do you post a lot of your surroundings on your Instagram? I do. Not all the time, but I do, I try to share also this amazing space and abundance that is here. Yeah, definitely. Because I also like, like we've been talking about, for me, it's also part of what I offer. Yeah. I'll be sure to tag all of that in the show notes so people can hop right over and check out everything that you're doing.

And before we go, do you have one tip for someone that would like to connect or maybe reconnect with nature? Do you mean outer nature or inner nature or both? Ooh, how about both? Why not? Oh, okay. I just made it so much harder for myself. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. I. Getting out in nature is just, that's just what it is because nature does the trick.

You don't have to like, I feel like a lot of it is just being there. Just being like nature, it's not like you have to go and you have to do something specific. It's more observe perhaps, open your awareness, observe, really look at things and allow it to come in, to soak in that vibration that yeah, that nature of which we are all a part of which helps us recognize ourselves in that as well.

So I would say that. But also if you, for some reason you're, you are very far from a place in nature, you can also bring nature to yourself, right? You can have plants flowers at your home, whatever you feel like having. I think that's, I also, I live out in nature pretty much, but I also have plants in the house, so it's yeah.

And with your inner nature obviously outer nature is gonna help a lot on a subconscious level. However, if you wanna make it a little bit more concrete I would say. You know how when we're kids we just it's like with the favorite animals, you just, you're so in tune with yourself and you just do whatever, you're not so much like thinking about what will others think of me.

And you're just, you just do your thing much more than when you're an adult. So I would say whatever gave you a lot of joy and happiness when you were a kid, try and see how you can either, do that again or maybe grab the essence of that and do that in here and now. So for people who, for example I don't know, they would sing a lot.

Or they would enjoy riding their bicycle. Try and reconnect with those things because I feel they're very pure. What we used to do as a kid usually says a lot about our essence because we were very much free to be ourselves in that moment, or we felt at the very least, a. In many cases.

So yeah, I guess that would be it for now. Yeah, that is great advice. Stephanie, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you so much. I had a lot of fun. Thank you, Lauren. Yeah, thank you. And until next time, get outside and see what develops. 

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