In this episode of The Empowered Exhale, Stephany talks about the difference between fitting in and truly belonging, and the realization that being able to adapt to almost any room wasn’t always the strength she thought it was.

She shares her experience with people-pleasing, shape-shifting, reading the room, and unconsciously adjusting parts of herself to feel accepted, loved, and safe. She explores what happens when you spend years becoming who you think other people need you to be—and eventually have to ask: Who am I when I’m not trying to be loved?

Stephany also talks about learning to reconnect with the parts of herself she once believed were “too much,” letting people be disappointed without immediately abandoning herself, and recognizing that not every person, friendship, relationship, or room is meant for us.

In this episode:

• Fitting in vs. actually belonging
• How people-pleasing and shape-shifting can become automatic
• The fear of rejection, disappointment, and being misunderstood
• Losing yourself while trying to maintain connection
• Learning who you are outside of your roles and relationships
• Why boundaries can feel so uncomfortable
• Allowing yourself to be fully seen—even when everyone doesn’t like it
• Choosing self-trust over constantly looking outside yourself for approval

A question to sit with this week:
Who are you when you’re not trying to be loved?

A Season You Actually Want

If this conversation has you thinking about what you actually want—not what you’re supposed to want, what everyone else expects, or what you’ve always done, I created A Season You Actually Want for you.

This private podcast experience is an invitation to look at what’s already taking up space in your life, get honest about your actual capacity, and intentionally decide what you want this next season to look and feel like.

🎧 Purchase A Season You Actually Want

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

Female friendship can be one of the safest, funniest, most beautiful kinds of love we experience.

And it can also break your heart.

In this episode of The Empowered Exhale, Stephany gets real about the complicated, tender, messy parts of adult female friendship, the parts we don’t always say out loud.

We’re talking about friendship breakups, being left out, feeling like you’re always the one reaching out, jealousy, reciprocity, different communication needs, and what happens when years of history no longer mean a relationship still feels good.

Stephany also shares her own experience of ending two friendships that were nearly twenty years old, and the grief, clarity, and hard truths that came with realizing that loving someone and having history with them doesn’t always mean they’re meant to stay in your life forever.

This conversation isn’t about labeling people toxic or cutting everyone off. It’s about learning to look honestly at the relationships in your life while also being willing to look at yourself.

Because friendship asks for grace, reciprocity, honesty, boundaries, and sometimes the courage to let go.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why friendship heartbreak deserves to be acknowledged
• The difference between someone knowing your history and truly knowing you
• When longevity gets confused with intimacy
• What reciprocity can actually look like in real friendships
• Jealousy and why it doesn’t automatically make you a bad friend
• Being left out and the very human desire to feel chosen
• Different friendship communication styles and expectations
• Giving grace without doing all the emotional labor
• Grieving friendships you chose to leave
• Allowing yourself and the women you love permission to evolve
• Becoming the kind of friend you’re hoping to find

Stephany leaves you with two questions:

What kind of friendship am I craving in this season of my life?

And…

Am I willing to be that kind of friend, too?

If this episode made you think of one of your girls, send it to her. Maybe it’s your twenty-year friend, the woman who somehow felt familiar from day one, or the person you’ve been meaning to reach out to.

Follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday, and if these conversations are resonating, leaving a rating or review helps more women find the show.

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🤍

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

This week, a calf injury brought my 21-day movement challenge to an unexpected halt and almost immediately, I noticed the old all-or-nothing thoughts creeping back in.

But maybe consistency was never about maintaining the perfect streak.

In this episode, I’m talking about what it looks like to adjust without abandoning yourself, why you might not actually need to “start over,” and the deeper promise underneath the plans we make for ourselves.

I also get curious about the emotional and spiritual symbolism this injury brought up for me, especially around forward movement, doing, control, rest, and surrender, while sharing this experience from right here in the messy middle.

Because maybe consistency isn’t doing the same thing every day no matter what happens.

Maybe it’s continuing to choose yourself, even when the way you choose yourself has to change.

In this episode:

• Keeping promises to yourself when life interrupts the plan
• The difference between consistency and rigidity
• Why adjusting doesn’t mean quitting
• Letting go of the need to constantly “start over”
• Self-trust, rest, receiving, and surrender
• The emotional and spiritual reflections my calf injury brought up
• Staying connected to yourself in the messy middle

🎧 Press play, take what you need, and give yourself permission to let today count...even if it looks different than you planned.

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

What would you say if you could sit across from a younger version of yourself and have coffee with her?

At 25, I thought I was behind.

I thought I should have been building the career I imagined, figuring out love, and becoming the woman I thought I was supposed to be.

Instead, I was in a toxic relationship. I was depressed, anxious, drinking, numbing, and trying to function while quietly feeling completely lost.

And for a long time, I judged that version of me.

Why did she stay?

Why did she make those choices?

Why didn't she know better?

But healing has taught me something very different:

You were never supposed to know then what you know now.

In this episode of The Empowered Exhale, we're having an honest conversation about the women we used to be—and what changes when we stop looking at them through the lens of shame and start looking at them with compassion.

We're talking about:

• Feeling "behind" because your life doesn't look the way you thought it would by now
• The ways we numb, overwork, overthink, stay busy, and leave ourselves when feeling becomes uncomfortable
• Why knowing something isn't healthy doesn't always mean you're ready to leave it
• The difference between understanding what happened to you and allowing it to define the rest of your life
• Taking accountability for the ways you've hurt others without making shame your permanent identity
• Why familiar doesn't always mean safe
• Learning to make one different choice at a time
• Looking back at who you were with the information and compassion you have now

And toward the end, I'll invite you into a gentle exhale with me, a moment to sit beside the younger version of you and offer her something she may have needed all along:

Understanding.

Because maybe she wasn't stupid.

Maybe she wasn't weak.

Maybe she wasn't ruining her life.

Maybe she was doing the best she could with what she knew, what she had, and what she was carrying at the time.

And maybe the woman you are today deserves some of that same grace.

You don't have to have the rest of your story figured out.

You're allowed to be in the middle of it.

Come as you are.

Leave a little lighter.

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

For most of my life, I was really good at surviving.

I was the dependable one. The responsible one. The helper. The fixer. The woman who could figure it out.

The “strong” one.

But somewhere along the way, I started asking myself:

What if I don’t want to be strong like this anymore? What if I actually want to live?

In the very first episode of The Empowered Exhale, I’m taking you behind the microphone and introducing you to the real me, not the Instagram bio, the degrees, the certifications, or the polished version.

Just Stephany.

I’m sharing pieces of my story, from experiencing trauma at a young age, struggling with anxiety, depression, PTSD and my mental health, to achievement, partying, searching for belonging, and eventually finding my way into the healing work I now do.

But this isn’t a story about reaching some magical finish line where everything is healed and life is easy.

Because I’m still becoming, too.

I still go to therapy. I still overthink. I still have hard days. I still catch myself falling into old patterns.

The difference is that I’m learning to meet those parts of myself with curiosity instead of judgment.

I’m learning that the versions of me I once wanted to “fix” were often the very versions that learned how to keep me safe.

And maybe you have a version of yourself like that, too.

The woman who learned to hold everything together.

The woman who became incredibly good at functioning while quietly carrying more than anyone realized.

The woman who survived.

Maybe she doesn’t need your judgment anymore.

Maybe she deserves your gratitude.

And maybe she doesn’t have to carry everything into this next chapter with you.

That’s what The Empowered Exhale is about.

Not becoming someone new.

Coming home to yourself.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The difference between being strong and being stuck in survival mode

• The parts of my story that led me to healing work

• Mental health, trauma, anxiety and the search to understand myself

• Why healing isn’t a finish line

• Learning to ask “What do I need?” instead of “What’s wrong with me?”

• Honoring the version of yourself who learned how to survive

• Rest, joy, self-trust and learning to actually experience the life you’ve built

• Why I created The Empowered Exhale and what you can expect here every Wednesday

Before you go, sit with this:

What have you been carrying that was never yours to hold?

Maybe it’s someone else’s expectations.

Maybe it’s guilt or shame.

Maybe it’s the pressure to always be the strong one.

Maybe it’s a story about yourself you’ve believed for so long that you’ve forgotten you’re allowed to question it.

You don’t have to figure it all out today.

Just get curious.

Because you don’t have to spend the rest of your life surviving.

You’re allowed to live it. 🤍

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

If you’ve been carrying the weight of everyone else while quietly losing yourself, you’re in the right place.

This podcast is for the woman who looks like she has it all together but feels exhausted behind the scenes. The one who’s tired of surviving and ready to reconnect with herself.

Each week, we’ll have honest conversations about healing, identity, relationships, mental health, self-trust, and what it really looks like to come home to yourself.

No perfection. No pretending. Just a space to breathe, reflect, and remember that you’re not alone.

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter.

I’m so grateful you’re here.

Be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss a new episode.

Connect with Stephany:

https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍

Send us Fan Mail

If this episode resonates with you, follow The Empowered Exhale so we can meet back here every Wednesday.

And if someone came to mind while you were listening, the friend, sister, coworker, or woman who always seems strong but might be carrying more than anyone realizes, send this episode to her. 🤍

Connect with me

Want to stay connected, learn more about me, explore ways to work together, or find my latest resources and offerings?

👉 https://linktr.ee/stephdmitchellcoaching

The Empowered Exhale with Stephany D. Mitchell

Come as you are. Leave a little lighter. 🎙️🤍