Louise Stanger is a speaker, educator, licensed clinician, social worker, certified daring way facilitator and interventionist who uses an invitational intervention approach to work with complicated mental health, substance abuse, chronic pain and process addiction clients.
The other day I traveled to San Diego and had the opportunity to hear Shelby Stanger (who also happens to be my youngest daughter) speak to a crowd of 500 influencers at Creative Mornings. Creative Mornings is a community that hosts monthly events to bring people of all backgrounds together to share their passion and purpose.
During Shelby’s talk, she described her journey as going “From Worry to Wonder,” detailing how she created and developed her podcast Wild Ideas Worth Living, which combines her love of journalism and outdoor adventure.
Even though I am one proud momma, I had yet to hear the story of how Shelby discovered her inner self, thereby launching her podcast. She started by mesmerizing the audience with her first job out of college – that of junior reporter for the Vans Warped Tour and discovered through trial and error that she was not a good fit for a traditional 9 to 5 job. She intimately revealed her bouts with self-doubt and depression and how she used her ability to seek help and wise counsel to heal and embrace inner peace.
Acting fierce, she proved she would do anything for a good story from supping down the Amazon, learning how to barrel in the Mentawai Islands, facing vitiligo (a disease that causes the loss of skin color), speaking in front of 500 people about starting her own podcast and landing interviews with some of the most influential outdoor adventurers in the world. Along the way she acknowledged her encounters with rejection and wisely shared that “no just means not now,” it does not mean forever.
These stories and her presentation all culminated into Shelby posing the question: I wonder if I could do X. The audience was invited to ponder their own.
Shelby then shared some life lessons. Here are a few:
- Being outside helps create positivity. Surfing, hiking, walking, meditating, etc.
- Start the day with a grateful spirit. Give love and appreciation to others daily.
- Set clear and present goals.
- Seek help and guidance when needed.
- Allow yourself to learn from the masters.
- Get educated about what you want to do.
- Set deadlines so tasks get done.
- Act and actualize your ideas.
- Learn that there may be roadblocks along the way.
- Keep going no matter what!
Driving back to the desert, I realized that all my daughters have “wondered if” and had gone through their own journeys. Which brings me to my middle daughter, Felicia Alexander…
After a career in corporate America and pedigree degrees from Stanford and UCLA, Felicia wondered if she could open a boxing gym with heart and soul and BoxUnion was born.
Felicia had long ago realized the power of boxing as a healing art, having taken it up after her father died unexpectedly and tragically. Felicia wondered if she could birth a gym where souls come together and form a union, where you could box to the beat of the music, find your flow, de-stress and leave stronger in mind (not just body).
Today you can catch her knocking it out of the park with her business partner Todd Wadler with locations in Santa Monica and West Hollywood and sharing her story with other women entrepreneurs (UCLA Velocity).
And she and her husband Greg have also had a strong influence on my grandson who at age 11 wondered if he could create his own line of sweatshirts, which he dubbed “Above Average” being sold at Kitsons LA.
If you want to experience how powerful boxing is, join me on August 22 for a morning of fun, healing and networking in the West Hollywood BoxUnion.
Finally, my eldest daughter, Sydney Holland, wondered if she could take on the world…
Ever since Sydney was a little girl, she has been a serial fashionista. At 14, she wondered if she could start a jewelry business and at 20 she wondered if she could develop Goddess Nail Polish and in her thirties tried her hand at an eco-conscious clothing line called Liv Green.
Having weathered many personal storms, Sydney says she is a wildflower born in the midst of accomplished tulips. As such, she took a nontraditional path to entrepreneurship.
Today, she credits her sobriety as the foundation of which she has built her life on. Wanting to conceive and raise a family of her own, she had a deep yearning to become a mother and through her struggle to conceive she discovered not just the beauty, but the healing power of crystals. Six years and three children later, she is the mother to twins and a neuro-diverse learner with autism.
Sydney also launched with her friend and colleague Courtney Abbiati The Urban + The Mystic, an online boutique that sells handcrafted boxes made from reclaimed wood filled with crystals and other healing properties to create that special moment for someone you care about. For Sydney, these crystals give a greater sense of peace and understanding and all-around knowing that the world is, in fact, in order. She learned that the most beautiful things can come from the most unlikely of places, like say a wildflower amongst tulips.
As for me, I have wondered how I can turn tragedy into triumph. I have always passionately helped individuals and families who have been ravished by substance misuse, mental illness, process disorders and chronic pain. Having grown up in a home beset with a myriad of problems, I developed the skills to become resilient and creative and I wondered if I might be of service to others. If you want to know more about my journey, check out my memoir, Falling Up, for sale on Amazon and on my website.
Today you can find me speaking across the country, writing and working with families and their loved ones to become authors of their own lives and to transform their worries into hope. I still pick up my own phone, so give me a call and let us discover how you can turn worry into wonder, how you can journey from fear to hope!
To learn more about Louise Stanger and her interventions and other resources, visit her website.