Stories of Inspiring Joy

Sarah Menlove is a Certified Mastery level coach through the Health Coach Institute. She specializes in body image and intuitive eating last, helping clients around the world break free from body shame and restrictive eating to live their most bold, authentic lives. Sarah combines principles of intuitive eating, health at every size, self compassion, transformational coaching techniques and energy healing to support her clients to re-build trust with their body and themselves.

In today’s episode, Sarah shares her journey into health coaching, and how sustaining a stress fracture changed her life, for the better. She shares three of the most powerful things she learned during this time, and how she found herself and her joy.

To learn more Sarah and her work visit her website http://sarahmenlovehealthcoaching.com/ and on Instagram @sarahmenlove.health and you can find her private Facebook community here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Lauren Chiarello is the founder of the NYC-based Chi Chi Life, which melds her three passions: fitness, fundraising and events, and cancer advocacy. Lauren is truly a lover of life, health and wellness, and building community through connection of shared experiences.

Lauren is a force, truly inspirational and the definition of resilient. She’s also a beautiful storyteller, and the visual she paints describing the journey leading up to her cancer diagnosis, surviving cancer (twice!), entering recovery, and the ectopic pregnancy she experienced in 2018 will leave you both inspired and speechless.

To learn more about Lauren visit her website chichilifenyc.com and on you can connect with her on Instagram @chichilifenyc

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Anza Goodbar is an empowerment coach, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. She uses her coaching, speaking, and writing to inspire, empower, and challenge women to elevate their lives - and that's exactly what she does in this month's episode.

In today’s episode, Anza shares her story of self-acceptance through overcoming negative body image and difficulty with her weight, combined with wanting to be invisible in order to ensure that she'd be safe after experiencing sexual abuse as a child. Through her own journey, Anza has developed a passion and a love for working with women who are committed to living out their dreams, but may lack the confidence to ask for what they want. She helps them really go for it - the same way she has in her own life.

To learn more about Anza, her story, and her work as a coach, trainer, and speaker, visit her website anzagoodbar.com and you can connect with her on Instagram @anzagoodbar and on Twitter @anza_goodbar and on Facebook @coachanzagoodbar and you can join her Facebook group here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Gia Duke is a life coach, speaker and author with a heart 10x the size of Texas, so some have said. Not to mention a soon to be podcaster, nonprofit founder, and foster youth and rescue pup advocate. She’s also the author of Get Your Heart On: The How-To Guide for People Who Want to Make a Difference.

In today’s episode, Gia shares her journey working to make a difference in the world from a space of heart, compassion, and determination to make it happen. Gia shares with us her love and passion to help people, who want to help people, take action to make a difference in the world. Gia’s goal is to inspire people to think about how we’re all connected and to remind them that most of us really want the same things. To love and be loved. To feel like we matter. She’s on a mission to brighten the world by creating more love, compassion, and understanding, and in this week’s new episode she offers her top tips to take care of ourselves, while taking care of others.

To learn more about Gia and her work you can visit her website and you can find her book, GET YOUR HEART ON® // THE BOOK here her podcast here and on Instagram @giaduke and Facebook @giadukeproductions

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Kesha Austin is an empowerment coach for millennial women, and she specializes in individual, family and group coaching. She has a unique, engaging & highly effective approach to help people dig deep to discover their true potential. She’s dedicated to helping women discover their true purpose & learn to overcome adversity in the process.

In today’s episode Kesha profoundly and vulnerably shares her story of overcoming adversity to find joy, peace and fulfillment. We’re all meant to learn from our experiences, and Kesha’s reflections on her decisions and the impact they’ve had on her life will remind you that each stage in our journey is there for a process. Kesha’s refections surrounding overcoming abuse and trauma, eviction and losing her car, will remind you of the power in surrender. Over time she moved from being a homeless mother of two children to becoming an assistant VP at one of the nation’s leading financial institutions. Her decision to open herself up to new opportunities, to trust in the path that is here for her to follow, and what she’s built and created for herself and her family along the way, will remind you of the power of allowing yourself to fly.

To connect with Kesha and learn more visit her website www.keshaaustin.com and connect with her on Instagram @coachkeshaaustin Facebook @coachkeshaaustin or call 214-802-4150

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Jesmane Boggenpoel is the author of My Blood Divides and Unites: Race, Identity, Reconciliation. In her new book, Jesmane explores the importance of dealing with the past and moving forward with purpose.

Jesmane’s story is one of identity and heritage. Born into poverty and state-mandated third-class status, Jesmane was weighed down by self-doubt, feelings of inferiority and shame. “Who am I really?” - is a question we all often ask ourselves, and it’s a powerful question that Jesmane poses in this week’s new episode. She grew up in South Africa during the Apartheid, and in this week’s new episode she shares her struggles with identity, and how through exploring her early life, embracing the difficulties that surrounded her upbringing, and ultimately crafting a new narrative for herself - she’s been able to bring about greater acceptance, inclusion, and boundless possibility.

To connect with Jesmane and learn more visit her on her website https://myblooddividesandunites.com and on Instagram @jesmaneboggenpoel and Facebook @myblooddividesandunites and Twitter @jesmaneboggenp1 and you can purchase her new book here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Fiona Joy Hawkins is a mainstream Composer/Pianist/Vocalist with an international following, whom she greets weekly with pandemic-inspired, live-streamed concerts.

In today’s episode, Fiona shares her journey finding music, and the role of the piano in shaping her life. When Fiona was diagnosed with Tourette’s, she realized that it’s often our weaknesses that give us strength. Having Tourette’s taught her about life, and it made her stronger. The piano, and music, became her best friend and comfort. Fiona believes that music is a gift from another world, from ancestors of the past communicating to inspire and give us hope. As Fiona shares, music is a universal language that connects us, speaks to us equally, and yet it’s received by all differently. Fiona’s wish is to open more hearts to the power of music.

To learn more about Fiona and her work visit her website fionajoy.com and flowthegroup.com and on Facebook @fionajoyhawkinsmusic Instagram @fionajoymusic & Twitter @fionajoymusic and her videos on YouTube here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Latifah Al-Hazza is a travel enthusiast, freelance travel journalist, and the co-owner of Femscapes Sojourns, a woman’s travel company.

In today’s episode, Latifah shares where her love for travel began, and what led her to start Femscapes Sojourns. Latifah’s love for travel began when she was very young, and she started traveling when she was just 3-months old. Over the years her passion only grew, and in her senior year of high school she traveled to Tanzania to create a documentary about school conditions there. It was her first time traveling to a third world country, and the experience opened her eyes to the path she wanted to take.

To learn more about Latifah and Femscapes Sojourns visit their website https://femscapesojourns.com/ and https://www.thealhazzaadventures.com/ and you can connect with Latifah on Instagram @tifahhhh and on Facebook @femscapesojourns

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Sandra Shaw Homer has lived in Costa Rica for 29 years, where she has taught languages and worked as a translator and environmental activist. For several years she wrote a regular column, "Local Color," for the English-language weekly, The Tico Times.

In today’s episode Sandra shares powerful and beautiful vignettes excerpted from her book, Evelio’s Garden: Memoir of a Naturalist in Costa Rica. An excerpt from a forthcoming memoir of her life in Costa Rica, Evelio's Garden, was published in Oasis Journal in 2014. Her creative nonfiction and poetry have appeared in subsequent Oasis editions, as well as in several print and online travel and literary journals and on a few web sites, notably Allyson Latta: Memories into Story, and her own blog, WritingFromTheHeart.net.

To learn more about Sandra and her work you can visit her blog www.writingfromtheheart.net and on Facebook @writingfromtheheart.net and you can find her book, Evelio’s Garden on Amazon and Kindle, on B&N in print and Nook, and on Powells.com.

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com

Marilyn Kapp is a renowned spiritual medium and Author of LOVE IS GREATER THAN PAIN: Secrets From the Universe For Healing After Loss.

In today’s episode, she shares her first experience at just two years old communicating with those who passed, her journey channeling and embracing being a medium, and the inspiration behind her new book, “Love is Greater than Pain.” Marilyn reveals the beauty in the transition from the physical to the spiritual plane, helping those who are dying, as well as those left behind. With personal stories and transcripts from channeling sessions, Marilyn teaches us how to interact with the afterlife and to joyfully embrace the reality that love truly is greater than pain.

To learn more about Marilyn and her new book visit her website www.marilynkapp.com and you can find Love Is Greater Than Pain on Amazon here or wherever books are sold.

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, visit www.storiesofinspiringjoy.com