Sara Avant Stover

Here’s another way I think about this:

Your highest Self doesn’t give you the 10-year plan.

It doesn’t dish out complicated strategies.

It only gives you the next, right step.

Then, as you take that step, the next one appears.

So, the key is to consult with your Self at the start, so you get started on the right path.

Of course, you can always re-align as you go, but it’s easier (I speak from some painful and expensive experiences here!) to be Self-led from the start.

When you tune in and ask your highest Self what your next, right step is– either for your business or your life– what do you find out?

⭐ If you want support in visioning and working in a Self-led way this year, I invite you to my Internal Family Systems-based business workshop series that starts next week “Design Your Dream Business in 2024.” ⭐

It’s only $47 and to learn more and join us head to: www.programs-saraavantstover.com/workshop

I look forward to sharing this with you!

Here’s how I approach New Year’s intentions (and everything, for that matter).

First, some background: I used to be really hardcore (and my family and past boyfriends can attest to this!).

In my twenties, I woke up at 4 am and meditated for 1-2 hours.

After that, I’d practice the first, sometimes second, series of Ashtanga yoga.

And that intensity extended into other areas of my life as well.

As I’ve gotten older, my drive has softened and I’ve really come to trust the power of subtraction and doing less.

This week on the podcast I’m sharing a very simple practice I do when I’m wanting to implement something new in my life.

It’s one I share often with my students and clients and they report back the same thing that I find: this helps to set ourselves up for success in a way that feels ease-full.

Rather than piling our goals lists with too many things, we narrow it down in this specific way.

To learn more, I invite you to head over to the “her Self” podcast here or on your favorite podcast app:

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/149-the-golden-minimum-create-new-years-intentions/id1044976191?i=1000638822653

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7vkHqeTPHA5QLtw15pT4gB

And let me know if you have other practices you find helpful!

Dear visionary women,

Ever feel lit up by your vision at the start of the year, only to feel your enthusiasm fizzle into familiar patterns of overwhelm, self-doubt, and disappointment as the year goes on?

If so, you’re not alone. And…I’ve made something for you.

I'm hosting a special, LIVE 5-part workshop series to help you craft a business and life aligned with your deepest values and dreams in 2024.

Within a supportive community of heart-centered women, we’ll dive into strategic planning, mindset mastery, inner alignment, and actionable steps to turn your dreams into a thriving reality.

An Internal Family Systems-based business workshop, you’ll clear inner obstacles and chart your way to outer success, however you define it.

To do this, we’ll follow a 5-part framework:

✅ PART 1: Review and define the past year– and craft your unique definition of success for the next

✅ PART 2: Befriend inner obstacles & resources, so you can move forward with more inner harmony and flow

✅ PART 3: Clarify your goals and create inner alignment with them, giving them more depth and potency

✅ PART 4: Meet with your “inner committee” and develop an inner support structure that will keep you on track throughout the coming year

✅ PART 5: Create your 12-month Success Map – a precise map of what you need to do this coming year to match up your goals with your calendar

Best of all: This 5-day live workshop series is only $47.

I'm excited to share this with you!

Find out more and reserve your seat here: www.programs-saraavantstover.com/workshop

Opening into 2024 like 💫

At a gathering with friends the other night, we each took turns sharing our highs and lows of 2023, as well as our visions for 2024.

I shared that 2023 was the most creative and prolific year of my life so far– exhilarating and, at times, challenging. I finished writing my third book, created a new website and branding, built two new programs (plus two, new, on-demand ones), and gathered a small but mighty team.

Last, but not least, I underwent a massive career reinvention, moving away from what has been my focus for the past two decades– women’s spirituality– to working solely with spiritual, entrepreneurial women.

One of my mentors says that our success is proportional to the level of discomfort we’re willing to feel. But, I want to amend her words and add that our success is proportional to the level of discomfort we’re willing to feel…and HOLD… with curiosity and compassion.

There’s inevitable turbulence when our creations move from subtle energy into physical form. This includes old wounds, traumas, and parts of ourselves coming to the surface to be healed.

So while I felt enormous amounts of vulnerability and discomfort in the face of change and uncertainty last year, I also have a much greater capacity to lovingly hold and lead all parts of myself amidst it.

I can feel how my risk tolerance grows in proportion to my parts trusting me to lead and hold them through all the ups and downs along the way.

So, as we step into this new year, I intend to live it much like Michael Singer describes in one of my favorite books, The Surrender Experiment.

2024 feels like a BIG year: my book just went up for pre-sales online, and it officially launches in 2024. Soon, the most vulnerable moments of my life and crevices of my being will be shared with the world. And this feels true and right.

Amidst this, my increasing interest and commitment is to lead not only my life but also my business, guided by my inner guidance and connection to the Divine.

So, here I am, opening into….jumping into….the unknown, and my own surrender experiment this year.

How about you? What’s your intention for 2024?

Here are 5 rituals for a more restorative December

This time of year is filled with mixed messages and conflicting needs and desires.

On one hand, it’s winter, which means my body years to rest and slow down.

It’s also the holidays and the start of a New Year, which are time to socialize and put fresh energy forward on new projects and intentions.

How we each navigate these two ends of the spectrum will be unique to us, and they’ll likely shift from year to year.

For me, it’s been an incredibly full year, filled with intensive interaction and creativity. All enjoyable stuff! Yet, I’m feeling the pull to disengage and rest deeply.

With this, I’m unplugging today to step into my rest cave.

2024 is going to be a big year, with a book launch and so much more. So I know that taking this time off is even more crucial.

I’ll be enjoying these 5 rituals, and I send you blessings as you move through this time in the ways that feel best for you.

Happy holidays, and see you in January!

Love,

Sara

On honoring our mentors:

When I was 22, I attended my first 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat at Wat Suan Mokh, or The Garden of Liberation, in southern Thailand (a very special place, if you ever get a chance to go).

While there, I immediately felt like I was coming home. There was something about the crisp, matter-of-factness of the Buddha dharma that felt so enlivening, so right.

Even though Buddhism still has a very patriarchal slant in Thailand– requiring me to sit in the back of meditation halls and be the last in line for food during meals– I stuck with it.

In the years since then, I’m grateful to have found some women on the Buddhist path who’ve inspired me by not only their devotion to but also their unique expression of, the Buddha dharma.

These women include: Khandro Rinpoche, Lama Tsultrim Allione, Tenzin Palmo, Pema Chodron, Sarah Powers, and, most recently, Tory Capron.

I first learned about Tory several years ago, through memorable anecdotes from some of her closer-in students. Even through those second-hand stories of fierceness and transparency, Tory’s teaching began impacting me.

And it wasn’t until a few years ago, right before Tory was diagnosed with ALS, that I was able to study with her in person. I so appreciated her emphasis on embodiment and radical inclusivity, along with her willingness to be fully, unabashedly herself.

During her decline from ALS, all the way through her death last week and having a chance to sit beside her dead body, I learned about death in a much deeper way than ever before.

I learned that it’s both scary and not scary, and both are true and okay.

I learned that spirit truly does live in our breath and animate our bodies until it’s time for it to leave.

I learned about courage, service, and facing life on life’s terms.

Thank you, Tory, for your example, your teachings, and your devotion to the dharma. Even though we only knew one another for a short time, I’ll carry you with me (and call on you!) always.

I had a powerful experience last week.

On the final day of recording the audiobook for “Handbook for the Heartbroken” (save the date! It comes out on May 7 with Sounds True), as I read the final paragraph in the conclusion, I started to cry.

Those tears stayed with me as I left the building, walked to my car, drove home, and went for a long walk around the lake behind my house.

They were the kind of tears that hold all the feelings: joy, sadness, gratitude, awe, to name a few.

I remembered how, twenty years ago, I first began interacting with Sounds True when I was writing book, video, and CD reviews for Yoga Journal.

They’d send me their catalog each season, which I could go through and order anything (for free) that I was interested in reviewing.

It was a good gig: I accumulated a huge collection of spiritual and personal development programs, while also receiving $50 for each review I wrote for Yoga Journal. As someone who deeply loves to learn, this was one of the main ways I did that in my late twenties when I had more limited financial resources.

At that time, I was also dreaming about writing my first book. I visualized sitting in the recording studio at Sounds True– speaking aloud my own book or program that would one day be shared in their catalogue.

And, there I was last week, doing just that.

So those tears were for dreams fulfilled, but more so for the very intimate and potent relationship I’ve had with the spirit of this particular book. While the living of everything that went into was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it was also the most poignant and transformative. Meanwhile, the writing of it was one of the easiest and most joyful experiences of my life and career so far.

I feel so much gratitude for the chance to bring this book into the world, and I wept at having my final, personal touch point with creating it. It’s now being carried by the flow of the universe (and the distribution process) to enter the world next year….

This week on my podcast I recorded an episode talking more about this experience, as we all form relationships with our creative offerings (be those a business, book, program, or something else), and that relationship is deeply sacred and life-altering, in both directions.

You can listen to the her Self podcast on your favorite app

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/148-the-huge-ah-hah-i-had-after-finishing-my-third-book/id1044976191?i=1000638070076

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2k00a4jJykItPOsHqlBYVw

Above all, I look forward to the special being that is this book reaching your hands (or ears) next year. And I’m grateful to taste a dream fulfilled in the process.

5 money mistakes NOT to make in 2024

(And how to work smarter– not harder– so you can earn and keep more in the year ahead.)

I created something new for you!

But first, I’m not a fan of toxic, financial positivity.

You know what I’m talking about: striving to be only “high vibe” around money.

When we hear– and tell ourselves– that we live in an abundant and infinite universe and that money flows to us consistently and in ever-increasing amounts from multiple sources, we can feel like there’s something wrong with us when we’re NOT experiencing this reality.

Forcing ourselves to come from a place of already having abundance and prosperity, or to match our “vibration” to the frequency we desire, is self-harm.

When you do this, you’re denying the full spectrum of your humanity, and your experience.

You’re overriding those parts of yourself that hold fear, anxiety, shame, and stories of scarcity around money.

This means you’re splitting yourself off from your own wholeness, and wholeness is required to be who you truly are in the world, and to create the life and business that is uniquely right and true for you.

Because cultivating more and more financial well-being has been a huge part of my personal and professional path (and because all of the women I work with struggle with money in some form or another), I wanted to compile 5 key mistakes (and their corresponding remedies) that I’ve identified over my past two decades of being in business.

You can find thees inside my brand-new, 8 page, free guide that synthesizes the core inner and outer practices I’ve learned and applied to build a more solid financial foundation for both myself and my business....and to cultivate a more whole and sacred relationship with the money at large.

It’s called “5 Money Mistakes NOT to Make in 2024.”

You can download your free guide here: www.programs-saraavantstover.com/moneyguide

Here’s to supporting women in having (and keeping!) more money so we can take better care of ourselves and be greater forces for good in the world.

One of the things that my editor asked me to expand upon in the introduction to my new book was: Why is this written specifically for women?

I’ve been working solely with women for about fifteen years now, and I find that pausing to even answer this question for myself is helpful.

“Yeah, why AM I only working with women?”

There are many reasons.

But the one at the top of the list is that there’s a certain depth of healing that’s only possible when only women are in the room (be it virtual or an actual room).

We’re less on-guard and we can reveal things about ourselves and our lives that we otherwise wouldn’t feel safe sharing.

One of the reasons why I choose to share the most shameful experiences in my life publicly (but only after I’ve fully digested them and have the full consent of all of my internal parts), is because it liberates me of shame.

There are no skeletons in the closet, nothing I’m hoping other people don’t find out about me.

There’s a huge feeling of relief and liberation in truly not having anything to hide and being an open book.

Even just telling one other person about that thing that you want no one to know can have this effect.

Don’t let shame shackle you.

There’s nothing wrong with you.

You didn’t do anything wrong (or, even if you think you did, that’s okay, you’re human and are allowed to make mistakes).

Share your shame in a way that feels safe and, when you do, it dissolves and what’s left is a truer, more whole YOU.

A friend of mine shared this with me many years ago, and it’s stuck with me.

“The truth always feels good.”

Truth is one of the essential qualities of existence, so it makes sense that when we’ve landed on and are living in the truth, it feels “right.” And what feels “right” then also feels good.

Even when the truth isn’t something our personalities want to experience or acknowledge, even when the truth hurts, it still feels good.

There’s a relief, a relaxation, an opening when truth is acknowledged.

Where in your life are you living in the truth?

Where do you need to come into right relationship with it?

Doing this takes courage, but only by coming into alignment with the truth of what-is can we live with power and wholeness.

What I learned from growing out my pixie cut:

Several years ago, after a series of intense setbacks, I felt like my hair was holding a lot of grief and heavy energy. I remembered the lightness and liberation I felt at age 20 when I cut it all off.

So, I made an appointment with a stylist, dug up an old picture to inspire, and did it. Thrilling!

After some time, I realized, being almost 41, that I wanted to have long hair one last time before it turned gray, or before I started coloring it (I’m not sure which route I’ll want to take when the gray comes).

I estimated it would take 5 years to grow it to my ni***es again. Now, here I am, a couple of weeks away from 46. I did it!

Getting here was a journey and brought up a lot. To inspire me, I googled “growing out a pixie” and saw tutorials on how to style my hair during each phase.

As anyone who’s done this knows, there’s a point when your hair no longer looks cute short and isn’t yet long enough to pull back or tuck behind your ear. THIS IS THE WORST AND HARDEST PART.

Sometimes I wore headbands or styled it so it looked like it had been blown back (Annette Bening style). Still, I never felt attractive or that it looked like anything other than an awkward growing-out phase. I bought a wig at that point, in hopes it would help, but it didn’t, and I never ended up wearing it.

Coinciding with my hair growing out, I was also in a phase of becoming a new version of myself. Uncomfortable in my own skin. Uncomfortable with my hair. Many times, I wanted to cut it all off to spare myself.

But I knew that to get to where I wanted to be, I needed to pass through the awkward, unfamiliar, and extremely uncomfortable phases.

And isn’t that what any journey of shedding and becoming feels like for all of us? Only with hair, the process is visible for all to see.

This is the process I’ll be walking a group of deep, committed women through in my immersion, Becoming You, which starts next week. Doors close tomorrow, and I’d love for you to join us if it feels right.

You can learn more & join us here: www.programs-saraavantstover.com/becomingyou

(No pixie cuts required. And to anyone who’s in that awkward “growing-out” phase, inwardly or outwardly,
keep going!)