Michelle Stephens Profile: Find Unsuspecting Beauty, Don’t Let Your Challenges Define You

I instantly knew Michelle Stephens would become a dear friend of mine when I learned during our first conversation that we both shared the same zest for travel. At 34 years old Michelle has visited over 20 countries, including Colombia, Israel, Jordan, and the UAE. Her 5-year wedding anniversary travels to India with her husband Ryan sparked the creation of The Mahaan Aasha (Great Hope) Foundation, which serves destitute Indian children and was founded by …

Welcome To Joy Discovered – Inspiring Women To Own Their Strength And Live Full Lives Of Joy

Hi my name is Sara. Welcome to Joy Discovered! Joy Discovered is a blog and community to inspire women to own their strength and live full lives of joy. I created Joy Discovered because I am a strong woman. And strong women are all around me. They’re my friends and family, my colleagues and Facebook friends. I wanted a place for us to come together and be real – because life is too short not …

Roxanne Wessman Profile: Commit To What’s Important, Lean On Your Family

Meet Roxanne Wessman, age 64. Through her life she’s held many roles: wife and single woman, stay-at-home mom and working mom, employee and business owner, and so much more, though most importantly, she’s my mom. While I’ve known Roxanne my whole life, our conversation for this profile shed light on experiences and wise insights I wasn’t privy to until now. From connecting to youth to the power of family to standing up for what’s important …

Do You Move Towards Magic Or Turn Away From It?

It could have been magic, but I turned away. It had been a long day. Kyen kept me up most of the night with his snoring (he was sleeping with us because of his cold). I spent an hour cooking a homemade veggie burger that was bland and not worth the big mess in my recently cleaned kitchen. The dogs were barking to go outside, even though they had been out just 45 minutes earlier. …

Why Practicing Yoga Is Essential For A Joyful Life

Yoga is a practice of awareness. When we get on our mat, the first step in our practice is to become aware of our physical body. Our teacher invites us to observe our breath, notice the thoughts racing through our head, feel where our body is touching the floor. Then, we move into a greater sense of awareness with intentional action. We deepen our breath to create the yogic breathing, called Ujjayi. We focus our …