Waking to Wellness and Wisdom is designed to connect you to your innate wisdom so you can live more peacefully, joyfully, and harmoniously. You’ll learn the steps to connect to your true nature. True clarity comes from beyond your conscious mind and expands the beauty in life. In this experiential course you’ll not only have the opportunity to accelerate your learning through group discussion, moving and still practices, but also through heart resonance. We’ll build this safe and inspiring space together. Information, practices, and reflection time will be woven together throughout the week according to the flow of the class. You’ll leave with the ability to implement change into your daily life. These classes are designed so you leave feeling calm, relaxed, and connected.

Dear Seeker,

Our inner music is more beautiful than you can imagine.

I created this course so you too can access these precious gifts and live from the deeper wisdom that is natural to all humans.

Many of us did not grow up with the skills or cultural modelling to connect with ourselves and understand the true nature within us. We’ve lived our lives according to modern culture and if you’re like me, you may have noticed at an early age that a lot of that didn’t make much sense. It felt superficial and sometimes hypocritical. I look back now and realize I was seeking something greater without understanding what that was or how to achieve it. When I turned 40, my life was graced with sailing into the teachings that stopped that search completely. A woman in pink gumboots handed me a book that introduced me to the most wholistic, comprehensive and effective system I’ve found anywhere and as a former airline pilot, that seeking took me to a lot of places.

If you’ve tried meditating but still feel depleted, have used energy tools but haven’t made effective changes in your life, or if you have an underlying sense of anxiety that there is more to life and you desire access to this wisdom – then this course was designed for you.

 I want you to have access to these tools and ancient wisdom without needing to continue on a long journey of seeking. I want you to know, that no matter how deeply you’ve buried this inner guidance you can access it again. It is possible even if you’ve buried it for a very long time or didn’t even know this universal wisdom exists within you.

 I buried my inner guidance for a long time. In truth, there are a number of life experiences that moved me along the path to blocking my inner voice but the clearest one happened while I was standing on the bleachers in the gym singing from my heart with pure joy. My grade 5 choir teacher stopped in front of me, looked me in the eyes and said, “Dear, I think it would be better if you just mouthed the words.”

What I heard was, “I am not worth hearing.”

I stopped singing for 25 years. I internalized those words so completely that I stopped hearing and seeing myself. I decided to earn a degree in science instead of a degree in art. I played my new role so well that I even wore a costume > the goofy hat, tie and epaulettes of my airline pilot uniform. The bullet proof door really symbolized the block I’d created within.

One day while stuck on a snow-bound highway on an achingly long commute home from work, I was feeling very tired and dissatisfied.

I had one very clear thought.

“This sucks.”

 I did not want to continue living like this. There had to be more to life.

In the next few moments I hatched the five-year plan to sell everything and take my children sailing around the world.The first thing we needed to do was have the children.

The day I took my preschooler Cory and baby Jax sailing in the South Pacific for 3.5 years was the day I began to truly listen to myself again. Most friends and family were not supportive and many of my colleagues laughed. But my husband and I had just bought a 44-foot cutter in New Zealand and we left Canada to embark on this new way of life. It didn’t even matter that all our plans originally had us sailing to New Zealand not starting there.

Near the end of that journey I was handed the book “Voyage to the Shore” soon after docking in Nelson, New Zealand. I handed the kids to my husband, hid for two days reading, accepted a mini backyard Qigong lesson and signed up for teacher’s training. Meeting the book’s author, Yuan Tze, was clearly the bigger purpose for this sailing adventure and my life.

It was a humble beginning to realize how depleted I’d become. I studied and practiced what Yuan Tze taught within his Ren Xue system and began to feel healthier and more energetic. I learned how to actually connect with my heart instead of just thinking of it as theory. I healed childhood trauma that was hidden so deeply that I’d lost its memory for decades. Creative writing emerged and my artistic self crept out of hiding in a gentle way.

When life gave me six challenging years of family illness, financial instability, moving seven times in three years including across the country twice and a pandemic, I was put to the test. Could I put into practice what I’d been learning?

The answer was yes. As the waves of life crashed into me, I was able to anchor inside each time and regain calm. I found the internal clarity to make decisions without all the information I would have liked. I was stable and able to give this to my children in a time of instability. It wasn’t perfect but it strengthened each time I made the effort.

I know now that the situation with my grade five choir teacher also holds me responsible for listening to her. I didn’t have the skills then to stay within my heart and dismiss the external “advice.” Many people haven’t learned how to do that even as adults.

I also know, that if that choir teacher had the opportunity and skills to bring awareness to herself – to understand she was reacting out of patterns (for example perfectionism, approval seeking, or lack of self-love) she may have chosen a different approach with my enthusiastic singing. She may not have sparked such a cascade of harm.

I believe our world can become more peaceful, joyful, and harmonious. When we rest deep within ourselves, it is no longer possible to cause harm – to ourselves, each other, or to nature. That love and interconnectedness within each of us take over and bring forth the creative solutions beneficial to all. To reshape our world – personal and global – we must first connect with that innate wisdom.

My life has changed from seeking externally to living from within. This internal perspective has given me greater lightness, purpose, love and a more expansive view of life. I’ve spent more than a decade teaching and living these practices. It would be my honour to accelerate your growth and wisdom by sharing these teachings with you and supporting your voyage inward. You too can access the treasure chest within.

with love and gratitude,

Stephanie 

Course components include:

Maximize Your Lifeforce

• Learn practices to gather and nourish your Qi so you feel healthier and more vibrant.

• Know how to manage your Qi in daily life so you are no longer depleted.

• Understand why healthy Qi quantity, quality, and flow underpin physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing.

• Hone focus, awareness, and stillness enabling your connection with your inner wisdom.

Grow Your Heart Connection

• Learn the fundamental qualities of the heart and how to expand them so that you can brighten the quality of your life.

• Connect with these heart qualities and know when you are off track and no longer living from this loving space.

• Cultivate your heart connection so you can receive your inner wisdom.

• Understand why your relationship with your heart affects you, your relationships, your connections to nature and your ability to make true changes in your life.

Play with Patterns

• Learn what patterns are, how they formed, and why negative patterns are the fundamental block to living in your true nature.

• Bring awareness to your body sensations, emotions, thoughts, and behaviours that are not serving your life well so you can create new patterns - ones uplifting your life and other’s.

• Know how to be gentle, loving and playful as you investigate and learn about yourself on a deep level.

• Discover the 10 fundamental negative patterns of the consciousness so you can recognize them and transform them.

• Understand why your heart and Qi are necessary to go beyond conscious thought so you can transform your life from the wisdom of your True Nature and not from the mind that created those negative patterns.
  

Practical Implementation

• Learn practical ways to take these tools beyond your morning practice and into daily life so you can accelerate your growth.

• Use tips and tricks to return to a calm, centered state no matter the external circumstances.

• Be inspired to develop small daily practices creating a foundation for wellness and wisdom.

• Understand what true clarity means: that it goes far beyond regular understanding and decision making and connects you to the totality of the Universe.

• Be empowered with new tools and skills even if you’ve fallen asleep in meditations and tried many ways to strengthen your inner guidance or seek connection at a spiritual level.

This course is for you if:

• You have a deep desire to explore your inner world;

• You’ve been seeking higher wisdom and haven’t found a complete, wholistic system that creates effective change in your life;

• You’ve tried meditating and still find yourself tired and depleted;

• You’d love to be nourished by a supportive group and are willing to hold space for and listen to others;

• You’re open to learning new tools and practices for self-discovery including some that gather Qi (similar to energy);

• You’re curious about writing and sharing as part of your introspection and growth processes;

• You’d like to feel clarity, calm, and a new sense of adventure – the kind that starts within.

You’ll Receive
During this intensive, you will:

• Be heard, seen, and celebrated for who you are.

• Be guided into your heart to help bypass your mind to go deeper than your conscious thoughts.

• Practice moving meditations to enhance your connection to your lifeforce and gather Qi.

• Learn deep listening skills to increase harmony to your relationships.

• Receive handouts to consolidate learning, enhance understanding, and inspire self-inquiry in your own time.

• Be able to share with and learn from your circle members through a private learning platform.

• Have knowledge, awareness, and tools to take with you into daily life to continue your inward journey towards increased clarity, joy, and harmony.

Why is the option of sharing an integral part of this course?

To help yourself and to help others. Let’s look at that in more detail:

• Being held in loving presence and being witnessed can bring new layers of healing and insight. Depending on past experiences, being seen and heard as you are may also empower a sense of self.

• Receiving reflection from others may add layers of new meaning and bring up new information and questions within the reader for further growth.

• Hearing someone else’s insights, experiences, and learning can crystalize or accelerate your own understanding and growth.

• Sharing aloud is powerful. It brings out authentic voice, cuts through patterns of fear, and allows the speaker/reader to hear themselves in a new way.

• Connecting with like-hearted others can inspire and encourage us to delve more deeply into ourselves than we have ever dared before.

• Being together and building a field of trust and openness can move us into our hearts creating opportunities for realization and wisdom to arise naturally.

• It can be a catalyst for self-discovery helping you feel more grounded, clear, and joyful.

• As your joy and internal calm increase, they radiate out to others around you creating a mutually beneficial cycle.

• Remember, you’ll always have the option to pass – no one will ever be forced to share their thoughts, feelings or insights.

• Together we build a powerful Qifield for learning, growth, and connection.

Your Commitment

• You become an integral part of a supportive circle when you join a class. Your presence - physically, mentally, and emotionally - are important for both your learning and the development of the group. Please arrive on time and be in a place that allows you to have undisturbed focus.

• Focused and respectful listening encourages, inspires, and connects. It suspends judgement, provides space to hear what wasn’t spoken aloud, and enables learning. Be willing to listen with your heart.

• Your words and insights are valuable to others. Come with a willingness to share as you’re able.

• Humour and lightness are welcome here. Come with a sense of adventure and an openness to try something new.

Your Facilitator (she/her)

Stephanie Ross has spent over a decade helping people connect to their hearts and uncover their deeper wisdom. As a Spiritual Mentor, Yuan Qigong Master, Ren Xue Teacher (Level 6), and Writer, she teaches life-cultivation, facilitates healing circles, and empowers people around the globe. She caters to each person’s needs with an open heart and a trauma sensitive approach whether in person or online. Drawing on her own experience with internal exploration, writing, and life development practices, she brings all her learning in service to others.

Stephanie is deeply committed to supporting women on their path to awareness. She is guided by these foundational pillars:

• We each have a unique voice deserving healthy expression;

• Everyone can create a healthy, joyful, and peaceful life when using sound and trustworthy knowledge and skills;

• Through deep introspection and questioning, we can fundamentally change our life;

• Awareness of ourselves opens pathways to creating a more loving and harmonious world.

Creating a new world starts with reshaping ourselves.

What this class is not:

• This class is not passive. Participants should come with the understanding that they are part of a supportive circle in which deep listening and sharing form an integral part of the experience for everyone. You will always have the option to pass, however, for the benefit of everyone, you’ll be encouraged to share as and when able.

• This class is not intended to replace medical support. This class will provide opportunities to examine topics which may bring up past experiences and/or uncomfortable sensations. The facilitator does not provide counselling or medical advice. Neither the facilitator nor the class contents are intended to replace professional therapeutic support or medical advice.