Heather Stewart on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Heather Stewart and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
My mornings are where I love to sit and choose my frequency for the day. It is important to me that I do this intentionally and intuitively.

Most mornings, I have the luxury of a full 90 minutes to myself before the world stirs. And I love this time.

I definitely don’t wake at dawn! My sleep is sacred, but I do rise early enough to greet the day on my own terms.
A warm cup of tea, my meditation mat, and an open window to the sky mark the beginning. There is a large tree outside my window that I love gazing at in the morning.

This time isn’t about productivity or checking boxes. It’s about tuning into what’s already present and the energies of the day, how I feel, and what I’m being invited into.

Sometimes I pull a card. Sometimes I journal some thoughts. But always, I listen.

This isn’t about achieving a particular ‘state’, it’s about noticing what’s real, what’s rising, and what I feel I’m meant to carry forward. It’s how I choose what kind of leader, woman, and creator I’ll be today.

And from there, the rest of the day flows with greater clarity, joy, and alignment.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Heather Stewart — transformation guide, coach, and artist, and I help women stop living the life they were told to want and start creating the life that actually feels like theirs.

I started the way many of us do. I spent years climbing the corporate ladder in finance… CPA, senior leader, successful on paper. But inside? I felt disconnected and drained, quietly asking myself, “Is this really it?” That quiet question became a turning point.

I walked away from the “shoulds,” stepped into holistic wellness, and followed a winding, very real path through yoga, meditation, massage therapy, personal training, and my own healing. Through it all, I wasn’t chasing a perfect life… I was discovering what a thriving one actually feels like.

That journey eventually transformed into my program, The Thriving Life Method… a grounded, creative framework for helping women come back to themselves.

We look at six key areas of life – Body, Emotions, Community, Occupation, Money, and Spiritual Engagement, and ask: What’s working? What’s not? And what would truly feel like YOU again?

I don’t fix people. I remind them they were never broken.
Together, we design real change, not from burn-it-all-down energy, but from aligned, doable action that fits your real life.

Most of the women I work with are smart, heart-centered midlife women and are often the ones everyone else counts on. Somewhere along the way, they lost touch with their own needs, creativity, and joy. With me, they get grounded practicality and soulful support. We talk about nervous system regulation and desire. Money habits and meaning. Their wild dreams and their real-life calendars.

My work sits at the intersection of coaching, wellness, and creativity. I’m also a painter and surface designer. My art is part of how I reconnect with myself and make sure I am following my own formula.

Right now, I’m focused on expanding The Thriving Life Method through my podcast and workshops, reaching more women who feel that whisper: “there has to be more than this.”

I’m here to be a mirror, a guide, and a gentle disruptor. I live to help people reclaim their own rhythm, align with what matters most, and remember: thriving isn’t selfish. It’s how you become the woman who gives from a full, radiant cup.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I had to be, I was VERY quiet. I was shy and didn’t want to draw attention to myself.

I was quietly creative, deeply intuitive, and constantly observing… I was the kind of kid who felt more than I could explain and noticed what others missed. I loved making things and imagining how life could feel more spacious, more alive. I loved daydreaming and imagining adventures and other places.

But like so many of us, I learned early on how to be responsible and fall in line with societal expectations. I got good grades, chose the “safe” path, and built a solid career in corporate finance. I was a CPA, I was in senior leadership, and I had all the boxes checked. It looked successful on the outside. But I kept bumping into this quiet knowing: this isn’t it. I felt as if I were living someone else’s life.

That whisper led me through several pivots… from spreadsheets to soul work. I studied yoga, meditation, massage therapy, and personal training. I thought I could help people by showing them physical wellness, and all along, I was still searching for what felt real, what felt like me. And slowly, I started stitching together a life that felt deeply aligned, not just impressive on paper.

So, who was I before the world told me who to be?
I was a guide, even then really… I was curious, expressive, a meaning-maker. I just hadn’t yet been invited to remember it.

Now, that version of me leads everything I do: in coaching, in creativity, in conversation. That version of me reminds me (and my clients) that thriving isn’t about chasing more. It’s about coming home to what’s already true.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me how to stop performing strength and start living it – and a key learning… how to ask for AND accept help.

A few years ago, I broke my wrist on vacation in Jordan. This was a moment that should’ve been resting, and in a moment, joy turned into pain, immobility, and a forced pause.

It wasn’t just physically hard. It was humbling. I couldn’t do the things I normally rely on to regulate, to feel useful, to feel like me.

But here’s what I learned: Success can validate you. Suffering reveals you.

That broken wrist slowed me down enough to notice just how much I was still holding, pushing, doing. Even after leaving the corporate grind, I was still trying to earn my worth through effort. It took being physically unable to do the things I wanted to do to realize I had more healing to do, not just in my body, but in how I relate to rest, productivity, and my own enoughness.

Having this adventure (yes, I call it an adventure, since it let me go somewhere I hadn’t been) stripped away the noise. It didn’t care about my titles or certifications or how many people I helped. It asked: Can you be with yourself, even when you’re not producing? Can you let others support you? Can you trust that you’re still whole when you’re not “doing” anything?

That experience forced me open in the best way. It deepened my work, softened my edges, and made me more honest about what I could do, being kind with myself when I couldn’t do… and being able to receive help.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Most definitely… but not the whole story.

What you see in my work… the coaching, the teaching, the podcast, the art… for sure that’s all me. It’s not a persona. It’s not curated. But it is the part of me that’s been called out to serve. It’s the part that’s learned how to put words around the wisdom I’ve earned. It’s the version of me that knows how to hold space and lead others well.

But the full me?

She also needs quiet. She needs time alone, barefoot walks, unread messages, and mornings with no plans. She’s deeply intuitive, creative, and a bit resistant to being “on” all the time. She loves people, but not noise. She’s more mystic than marketer, more question-asker than answer-giver.

So yes… the public version of me is real. But it’s not the whole of me. And honestly? That’s on purpose.
The most real parts of us aren’t always the loudest. Some of them are meant to be shared. Others are sacred, and just for us.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
That you can build a beautiful life on the outside AND still feel lost inside it.

I understand that thriving isn’t about checking the boxes or finally getting everything “balanced.” There is no such balance; it’s more about finding a way to be resilient and in harmony.

It’s about feeling like yourself in your own life. Most people think that if they just hustle harder, fix one more thing, or finally get it “right,” they’ll feel better. But I’ve sat across from enough women… these are smart, capable, giving women… to know: it’s not about doing more. It’s about coming home to yourself.

And that doesn’t usually happen through success. It happens through a pause. Through burnout. Through breaking your wrist on vacation and suddenly not being able to “hold it all together” — literally or metaphorically.

I understand that real change doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it starts with a whisper. A quiet knowing. A moment of honesty that cracks something open.

I understand that people don’t need fixing. They need remembering.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://heatherstewart.coach/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherstewartcoaching/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherstewartcoaching/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heatherstewartcoaches
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeatherStewartCoaching