Stories of Inspiring Joy

Maritza Diaz is a communicator, motivator, do-gooder and the founder of Little Giant Life. Little Giant Life was created to help you live your giant life. Whatever your dream is, it’s Maritza’s hope to give you the extra nudge needed to make them come true.

In today's episode, Maritza shares her very personal journey of healing her mind and body. Martiza’s reflections on what it meant to not move her body, to truly slow down, and to listen to the cues her body was giving her will remind you of just how important it is to take the time to tune in and listen. When we tune into our body we can begin to live more fully in the present. Her words on the sense of calm that surrounded her, and how that time allowed her to observe herself, her surroundings, and her life - will encourage you to take this time for stillness too.

To learn more about Maritza and her work with Little Giant Life, visit her website www.littlegiantlife.com and you can find her on Instagram @littlegiantlife. Plus, Maritza will be offering free and low-cost meditations, coming soon!

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

Juliene Sinclair is a Bozeman-based artist who believes in fiercely pursuing your dreams. For Juliene, this includes a combination of persistence, patience, perseverance, failure, hard work, trust, doubt, self-forgiveness, and self-motivation. She turns boring walls into epic attractions, and in this week’s episode she shares her journey following her inspiration, and the twists and turns along the way.

Juliene has always been an artist, and as a kid she drew, painted, created and imagined. As she shares in today’s episode, as she got older, art fell by the wayside. It wasn’t necessarily her passion, and like so many of us do, she chose to go in a different direction. It wasn’t until her first job as an engineer that Juliene realized something was missing. She wasn’t happy or fulfilled the way that she had hoped or anticipated, and she started playing around with the idea of having a side hustle in the hopes that she could start painting again. Through the ups and downs of engineering, she realized that creating art wasn’t supposed to be the destination, it actually needed to be the journey no matter what her circumstances were.

To learn more and connect with Juliene and her work you can visit her website www.julienesinclair.com and follow her journey on Instagram @julienestudios

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

Mai Nguyen is a creative entrepreneur, lifestyle influencer, and the voice behind Little Mai Sunshine, a lifestyle brand and sophisticated personal publication striving to openly share intimate conversations in various aspects of everyone's lives—wholesome living, mental health, personal style diary, travel, and simply everyday life—in an effort to help us all achieve a deeper connection with our realities and build healthier communities.

In today’s new episode, Mai shares her version of her story - in the form of a poem, “These Stars Are My Words.” She always believed that her mind was her enemy, a clutter mess of her triggers, anxiety and fear. She was always questioning herself, and it was an every day battle with the negative voices in her mind. She speaks so beautifully on nourishing our thoughts with love and positivity, and cultivating a powerful connection and presence with our thoughts and our minds. As Mai shares, we can find peace in our madness, and hope in our universe.

To learn more and connect with Mai, visit her website www.littlemaisunshine.com and on Facebook @littlemaisunshine Instagram @littlemaisunshine Twitter @maisunshine55 Pinterest @littlemaisunshine

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

Heidi Kühn is Founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, a humanitarian-nonprofit organization founded in September 1997 with a vision to transform MINES TO VINES--replacing the scourge of landmines with sustainable agricultural farmland.

In today’s episode, Heidi shares her quest to eradicate landmines from the face of the earth, and to plant the roots of peace worldwide. From landmines to grapevines, Heidi is on a mission to heal the world, and that healing started with herself.

To learn more about Heidi and Roots of Peace visit their website www.rootsofpeace.org, and on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and you can find her new book Breaking Ground: From Landmines to Grapevines, One Woman’s Mission to Heal the World at booksellers nationwide and online retailers including amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound.

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

Kayla Bell is the founder of Arrow + Phoenix Swimwear, a Black owned eco-friendly and sustainable swimwear brand based in the United States.

In today’s episode, Kayla shares her incredible journey starting Arrow + Phoenix, the inspiration behind her company and its mission, and her biggest dream. Born in New Orleans, Kayla has a strong sense of culture and she lets her travels inspire her and her collections. Her mission through Arrow + Phoenix is simple: To empower women, give back to the community, and provide creative, affordable, and comfortable swimwear that celebrates diversity, sustainability, + positivity

To learn more about Kayla and Arrow + Phoenix visit their website https://www.arrowandphoenix.com and on Instagram @arrowandphoenixswim @iamkaylambell_ and use the code THANKYOU at checkout for a special discount.

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

Martha Alderson is the author of the best-selling “The Plot Whisperer.” She writes novels for readers, plot books for writers, and most recently Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks for anyone looking to enrich their lives with more creativity and inspiration.

In today’s episode, Martha shares the moment she realized she wasn’t owning her story. She realized she was playing small, hiding behind helping others, and not nurturing her own creativity. It took Martha years before she had the courage to own her story, and her experience. Today, her story is out of the shadows and into the light, and the freedom she feels is unmatched.

To connect with Martha and learn about her new book, visit her website https://marthaalderson.com and on Instagram @marthasalderson Facebook @PlotWhisperer Twitter @plotwhisperer and you can find 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

Mayuko Okai is an Intuitive Eating coach with over ten years of experience as a Registered Dietitian. In her past life, she was a clinical dietitian, seeing over a dozen patients a day in the hospital.

Growing up, Mayuko always sensed that her purpose was to help others find good health and happiness. Hearing about people becoming terminally ill, she felt a calling to help prevent such tragic stories. In 2009 she started her career as a Clinical Dietitian at one of the largest public hospitals in the country. But Mayuko hopes quickly crumbled as she spent her days reciting nutrition spiels to patients at their bedside. Her role didn't feel valuable or reflective of my calling.

To learn more about Mayuko and her 90 Day Intuitive Eating Coaching Program visit her website www.mayukookai.com and on Instagram @mayukookai.rd and you can find her Facebook support 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

Ilyse Soutine is an author, speaker, subconscious transformation coach and creator of The Subconscious Shift Method. Our subconscious dominates 95% of our behavior, and Ilyse helps entrepreneurs reprogram their limiting habits, thoughts and beliefs so that they thrive and fulfill what they were born to do in this world.

In today's episode, Ilyse shares her journey from severe depression and anxiety, to the thriving life she’s living now. Ilyse suffered from PTSD, severe depression, and anxiety for most of her life due to the extreme and severe trauma caused by violence she experienced as a child. Even when the attacks would subside, it was difficult for her to get out of bed. Her depression, fear, anxiety overwhelmed her to body to such a degree that she felt like a heavy weight and she just couldn’t budge.

To learn more about Ilyse check out her website https://ilysesoutine.com and you can connect with her on Instagram @ilysesoutine and on Facebook @sheawakens

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

Victoria Albina is a Certified Life Coach and Certified Breathwork Meditation Facilitator with a passion for helping women with their most important relationship: the one with themselves. She’s also a nurse practitioner and functional medicine expert with a Master’s degree in Public Health as well as a certified breathwork facilitator, an herbalist, a life coach, and the host of the Feminist Wellness podcast.

Victoria shares her journey coming to this work after a lifetime of being sick, and her realization that her mindset, thoughts, and sense of self were all at the core of her health issues. After a lifetime of co-dependent and perfectionist thinking, she decided it was time to make a change. Keeping others happy with her, and approving of her, was more important than her joy. She kept coming up short, because she wasn’t in alignment with her own authentic self. She was living for other people, and it showed in her physical and mental health. It wasn’t until she learned to listen deeply to her body, to feel her feelings, which she had been expertly avoiding for decades, how to understand and give love to her nervous system responses, and that her thoughts create her feelings, that everything began to shift.

To learn more about Victoria, her free meditations, and her work visit her website https://victoriaalbina.com and on Instagram @victoriaalbinawellness and on Facebook @VictoriaAlbinaWellness

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

Marla Goldberrg is an Energy Healer, Intuitive, Speaker, Teacher, International Best Selling Author, and Host of Guided Spirit Conversations podcast. In today’s episode, Marla shares her journey with fear, and overcoming it. You’ll never have regrets if you make the effort, and there’s no such thing as failure because everything is a step towards growth and expansion.

Her mission and purpose in life is to inspire, motivate and educate her clients and all that she connects with through her books and podcast, through the use of her tools and techniques to help them enhance or shift their life circumstances.

To connect with Marla and learn more about her work visit her website www.marlagoldberrg.com and on Facebook @mghealing Twitter @marlaghealer Instagram @marla.goldberrg and on Amazon 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