Meet Stephanie Osborne

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Osborne. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Stephanie, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

For most of my life, I’ve been a hungry ghost for validation. Because I felt so empty in this aspect of my life, I compulsively outsourced my sense of confidence and self-esteem; and I was damn good at it. I performed, achieved, pleased, appeased, swallowed my intuition, smiled sweetly, gave the hugs I didn’t want to give, and did whatever else it took to feel like I was worthy and valid. I made most of my decisions based on what others told me to do, and I had very little trust in my own intuition.

What’s helped me build my confidence has nothing to do with what I’ve achieved, earned, built, or gained. In fact, the path towards confidence and self esteem has constantly required me to strip back everything I’ve thought I was, owned, or wanted. To paint you a pretty picture, within the past year I broke up with my best friend, I walked away from what I thought was a perfect marriage, sold or gave away all my furniture and half my wardrobe, and lost all my savings in the process; and yet I’ve never felt so at peace and fulfilled. It’s because letting go of these things was a result of the decision to follow my heart no matter what. By letting go of everything and everyone who were my main sources of validation, I’ve rebuilt my sense of confidence and self esteem like I’ve never experienced before. I’ve opened myself up to the God-sized holes my husband and best friend had left behind, and I’ve remembered how to fill them up myself.

How, you ask?

Well, by sitting with it. All of it. The love, the rage, the grief, the tears, the memories, the pain, the beauty- all of it. I will never run from myself again, and I finally understand what it means to love myself without condition. I listen and feel and observe this experience until I have nothing left but my infinite presence. There’s a lot I could say about this process I’m in, but I’ll leave it with this- I’m no longer a hungry, empty ghost, and she’s now a whispering reminder of one of the most valuable things I will ever earn: my own liberation. Some tools which have helped me along the way have been Chinese Medicine, Dynamic Meditations by OSHO, and sacred plant medicine (particularly iboga, the hunter of truth). For a long time I engaged in these things because I though they would “fix” me and make me shiny and new; instead, I found they simply opened me up to remembering the truest, most magical forms of myself- shadows and all.

And so, my friend, it has been through sitting with and embracing the fire burning me to ash and surrendering to new realities pummeling my old ones down that I’ve found an unshakable sense of confidence and self esteem. I’m no longer concerned with who I am and what I have, but instead with how I am- how I chose to engage within this life.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a licensed practitioner of Chinese Medicine. In other words, I practice acupuncture, herbalism, body work, medical qi gong, and a wide scope of other modalities which integrate western medicine with eastern. I feel my passions ignite when I’m with a patient interested in the psycho-spiritual aspects of this medicine and when I’m assisting women with fertility and/or regulating their cycles. I currently work at Balance Point Acupuncture, a clinic in West Palm Beach, Florida. I’m also a yoga teacher, barre instructor, and have a background in assisted stretch therapy and correctional exercise for posture and balance. Every once in a while I’ll teach a class at Vault Fitness in West Palm, and I’m always excited to teach at events and retreats.

I also have my side brand/business called “The School of Whispers”. It’s gone through many transformations over the years, but the mission has remained the same: enable people to live life following the subtle whispers of their body, spirit, and heart/Universe/God (to me, it’s all the same). The methods of listening I teach are based off of esoteric concepts, Chinese Medicine, indigenous wisdom, and my own journey.

Through this platform, I’ve started “The School of Whispers Podcast” where I do just as I said before: teach about eastern medicine concepts and philosophy, share my story, and have guests on sharing how they’ve learned to live by the calls of their own whispers. I also share guided meditations through this platform. I’m currently taking my yearly winter break from producing for the pod, but you can binge all 69 episodes on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and more.

As I’m on this break from the show, I’m still- as always- in creation mode. I’m currently writing a book series called “The Shadow Dancers”. It’s a fiction fantasy where I’ve weaved spiritual teachings I’ve learned to embody while learning to dance with my own shadows. I’m more than halfway through the first book and plan to make this at least a three book series.

I also love to teach online and in person workshops on Chinese Medicine, so if you want to keep an eye on when my next podcast or workshop will be published, you can follow me on Instagram @schoolofwhispers (business account) or @__steef___ (personal).

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1) A quality I’ve fostered that’s been impactful for me has been courage. I’m actually a pretty cautious person, but many times in my life I’ve been called to do the thing that absolutely terrifies me. I have a feeling you’ve experienced the same exact thing. I’ve come to learn that it is what I’m here for- to transcend the fear, access my courage, and open my heart to what I may find on the other side. Fear will always be a whisper for courage, and courage is usually the pivot point for transformation and liberation, so I’ve accepted that I can’t eradicate those little fear trolls completely. They’ll always come and go.

If I can give anyone advice who’s new to this awareness and is still feeling trapped by fear, I’d advise you to carve out time to embrace this sensation. Fear is just a name. What does it feel like to you? Find a safe space and carve out time to get know how your body responds to stimulus that induces what we call “fear”. Yes, I’m suggesting you consciously call in fear and to observe it. And that’s all you need to do to transcend it- sit with it and observe it. THAT is true courage. Being in observation of your fear is the big difference between someone who reacts unconsciously and someone who acts with awareness. Feel, observe, remind yourself you are safe, and stay with yourself unconditionally through the process.

2) Learning about the five elements in Chinese Medicine has been extremely impactful for me and has completely changed how I live my life. This theory provides us with a structure on how to live in harmony with the nature outside of us as well as the nature within us.

I wish I could get into it deeper with you here, but it’s a lot! I’ll give you a little bit of an overview: the five elements are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Each element has it’s own correlation with the seasons (ex. fire is summer, earth is late summer, metal is autumn, water is winter, and wood is spring), temperatures, colors, smells, tastes, emotions, directional movements, and more. So much more! By learning about each characteristic within each element, you can gain deeper insight into your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state.

If you look up 5 element theory, you’ll find an image of the elements organized in a circle with arrows pointing to one another- this represents the fact that each element influences another. As you can begin to understand which elements you’re most influenced by, you can use the 5 element theory to learn how to find balance through diet and lifestyle shifts and more. I recommend you read a blog post on “meandqi.com” that’s called “The Five Phases Theory In Chinese Medicine”. You can also check out episode #10 of my podcast “The School of Whispers” to learn more.

3) A skill that’s been extremely impactful for me in this new phase of my life is called the “letting go technique”. I’ve learning this from the book, “Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender” by David R Hawkins, and I’ve also read several other books which teach something similar. But, what I love about David R. Hawkins’ version is it’s extremely simple. This technique is designed to induce an experience of liberation from the mind and emotions. In practicing this, I’ve been not only told I look lighter and younger, but I truly feel this way. I no longer spend as much time obsessing over the past or holding onto emotions and stories longer than necessary.

The process, which I’ve alluded to a few times in this article, is simple: when an emotion comes up, stop what you’re doing and allow yourself to feel it. Don’t try to change it or run. Feel. Then, before your mind tries to start creating stories or logic around the emotion, observe both the mind and sensations in your body. (For me, observing has required I let go of my identity and lean back into a part of me that’s formless.) Observe its energetic qualities and allow it to travel to new spaces within your body. Eventually, the emotion/story will no longer feel relevant, and the energy of the sensation will completely dissipate. Repeat again and again and again.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am always looking for humans to interview for my podcast!

My ideal guest is living according to the calls of the whispers. The whispers are the subtle messages from our bodies and spirit/the Universe around us. Often within our journeys, the whispers become screams which stop us in our tracks; some of us chose to surrender to the wisdom of the screams and launch themselves into learning their subtle language before the screams return. My intention with my interviews is to share stories and new methods of listening (because there’s never only one way) so that we can help inspire others to take time to listen to their own whispers.
If this sounds like you, you can either find me on instagram (@__steef___ or @schoolofwhispers) or email me at [email protected]

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