hiya, Reader.
that is a photo i took of the path i walked most days when i lived in Saussay la Campagne, about 90 minutes outside of Paris.
i carry the memories of the sun and space, the sound of the birdsong, the rich wind whipping through my hair with me now that we have migrated back to the US.
people ask me if i miss France. and i respond with
how can i miss something that is still with me?
i can respond that way ONLY because at a certain point, when the isolation became too much, me and my soul decided to become present and to live with what life was handing me.
🫶 what i discovered - when i was able to slow down enough to catch up to the beauty, the spaciousness, the calm surrounding me - was a feeling of certainty that i am where i am supposed to be.
🙏 and a gratitude beyond anything i had felt before for the natural world, my life, and the way that i show up to witness it. (read the full story below ⬇️)
it is what you too can discover with us during FORTIFY: 21 Day Embodiment Reset, which opens TODAY.
🇫🇷 what actually happened in France 🇫🇷
the origin story of the iNCOMING
we have known each other for a lifetime. it’s Stephanie 👋 and when J’Aime walked into my Pilates & GYROTONIC® studio in CA back in 2016 there was an instant friendship.
i remember J’Aime saying that sometimes it is difficult to make friends as an adult and how cool it was for our instant connexion. how much fun it was to work with this amazing girl, helping her to embody the beautiful concepts of bodymind movement to help improve her capoeira.
and how incredible to learn from her higher perspective and beautiful presence. she led me to intuitive readership and the celestial realms. so grateful. 🙏
that’s how it all began.
our connexion continued after i moved my life and studio to France in 2021, during the pandemic, in the middle of la campagne in France, isolated from my family, friends, immersed in a foreign country, in an unfamiliar language and medical and social system, pregnant for the first time.
at first, it seemed like paradise. the time difference with the US allowed for sleepy mornings; the fresh air and space in the garden gave me an appreciation for this spacious new timelessness; and when mon fils, Justin-Thilou came earthside, wow, i have never felt a love that instant and that deep.
and… i quickly realized i wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
among the amazement of a new baby, the instant connexion and the utter and complete joy, all of a sudden i also felt alone. utterly alone. the postpartum period was beyond difficult, my formerly free, performance body existing for what seemed purely this little life, and the relationship between my husband and i fractured. i didn’t even have a car!
navigating this period was in many ways traumatic.
i eventually realized that no one was going to get me outta this situation (that i also eventually realized i created!) but me. my outer world was tethering me to this space and time:
there was no where else to go but inward. so that’s what i did.
i moved my body in nourishing ways to rebuild my foundation, literally from my root up. walking in the fields of golden colza proved incredibly healing.
i untangled my energy from my partner’s, as difficult as that was - like uprooting an oak tree - because distance felt better than forced connexion.
i found solace in the changing seasons of the country, the trees and flowers and wind all spoke to me more clearly than ever.
and i found peace. not for a fleeting moment. but an embodied frequency that i could return to whenever life felt hard again. in fact, i began to choose the peace and calm that i was seeing reflected around me in la campagne.
my inner reality matched my outer reality, perhaps the most congruently ever in my life.
everything changed for me during those 5 years. i became present. i confronted my anxiety. i allowed my rage, frustration, anger and so many tears to pour through me.
i lived in a lot of discomfort. i wept to the moon when things felt too much. i felt the almost unbearable impulse to leave.
and yet, i stayed. because i realized this is my opportunity to become conscious. this is my opportunity to become -
the supermama i knew i was
the partner i wanted to see in my life
the creator of my own reality.
i went to France to have a baby and learn the language and in the midst of it all, i found myself.
and then, one day when my son was about 2 years old, and i was daydreaming about what to call the movement that i felt coming through my body intelligence - BOOM! the iNCOMING was born in one download. followed by an intuitive PING! to tell my dear friend, J’Aime all about it.
you know what she said when i called her tell her?
whatever you need sis.
what a gift to have a friend reflecting such unconditional love and support.
that’s the secret sauce of life, radiant beings.
join us and fortify yourself in community. you do not have to do it alone.
in love and expansion, xx Stephanie & J’Aime