Episode 92: Breathwork, Creativity, and Soulful Leadership Stephanie Pereira-Lima
Podcast
Episode 92: Breathwork, Creativity, and Soulful Leadership Stephanie Pereira-Lima
“The most important thing to me is being able to speak my truth… it's an ongoing day-to-day process.”— Stephanie Pereira-Lima
Welcome to this week’s episode! We are learning about using breathwork as a tool to move through creative blocks. I am joined by Stephanie Pereira-Lima, an Intuitive Healer, Soulful Leader, Breathwork Guide, and Reiki Master. She works intimately with spiritual women & emerging lightworkers in awakening their soul purpose so they can create a life that is led by their soul and rooted in freedom, abundance and joyful service.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.
What’s in This Episode:
Steph first gives us her definition of creativity which she believes is, “the physical manifestation of someone's soul essence.” I ask her to explain to us deeper about what she means. “I see every individual as a soul, meaning the part of us that is very much all knowing, all loving… it's really that light that they have. It's that sense of joy, that sense of love.”
Steph shares her creative process and how she drops into flow to find her center which may include: Stretching, movement like ecstatic dance, changing up her environment, and using time blocking in order to create a container to create. She dives into what it means to integrate masculine and feminine energies (all human have both) in the creative process to create containers in order to create flow and structure.
Steph talks about how transformational breathwork is. She defines it, “Breathwork is an active meditation practice. We are dynamically engaging our breath in a rhythmic pattern. And I specifically guide, it's called a three part breath. You breathe through the mouth the entire time… a lot of people describe it as 10 years of talk therapy in one session, and just that process of hyper oxygenating the body, we're tapping into the subconscious mind.”
Topics Covered:
Steph’s definition of creativity and the role of the "soul essence.”
How Steph’s journey has evolved from corporate leader to spiritual leader.
She shared how breathwork and how it can help with creative blocks and spiritual awakening.
Integrating masculine and feminine energies (all human have both) in the creative process.
Steph shares about overcoming the challenges of being visible and sharing one's authentic voice.
The importance of self-healing and connecting within, rather than looking for external validation.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts about this episode. Leave a comment below!
xo, Chef Carla
PS: Sign up for Stephanie’s 3-month online experience, Journey Deep Within Save $100 by mentioning this podcast episode in your application. I support her work 100%. Ask me any questions via email or DM me on Instagram @chefcarlacontreras
PPS: Interested in The Content Retreat? Join us + learn more here
Disclaimer: Always seek the counsel of a qualified medical practitioner or other healthcare provider for an individual consultation before making any significant changes to your health, lifestyle, or to answer questions about specific medical conditions. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
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About Stephanie Pereira-Lima
Stephanie Pereira Lima is a corporate leader turned Intuitive Healer, Soulful Leader, Breathwork Guide & Reiki Master.
She works intimately with spiritual women & emerging lightworkers in awakening their soul purpose so they can create a life that is led by their soul and rooted in freedom, abundance and joyful service.
She supports them in healing their own blocks & limitations through holding compassionate space, intuitive guidance, spiritual mentorship, somatic breathwork and energy work.
Her vision is to activate the old souls with big missions so they can light up the world through sharing their unique blueprint, gifts and codes.
Steph was born in sunny Miami, Florida and is a first-gen from Brazilian-Cuban lineage, and now resides in the suburbs of New Jersey with her husband, Nico & free spirited pup, Salsa.
Find + Work with Stephanie:
Learn more on Stephanie's website
Follow Stephanie on Instagram
Listen to Stephanie’s podcast, Soul Space by Steph
Apply for a free Soul Purpose Energy Audit with Stephanie here
Sign up for Stephanie’s 3-month online experience, Journey Deep Within Save $100 by mentioning this podcast episode in your application.
Chef Carla Contreras (00:01):
Welcome to Nourishing Creativity. The cycle of the last few years has left you and me feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, and creatively drained, nourish your very full life through interviews with creatives and entrepreneurs about how they create and move through their creative blocks. If you don't know me, I'm Chef Carla Contreras, a food stylist and content strategist. You can find me, chef Carla Contreras, across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. Steph, welcome to the podcast. Can you share with us who you are and how you serve your community?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (00:46):
Yes. Thank you so, so much for inviting me. I'm very, very grateful. And I actually want to invite your listeners to just take a deep breath before we dive in, if that's okay. So wherever you are, hopefully if you're not driving close your eyes, you might even want to place one hand over the heart and just take a nice deep belly breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Amazing. Thank you Carla, so much. I am an intuitive healer. I'm a soulful leader, a breathwork guide and a reiki master. And today I work with women that are on their spiritual and healing path in awakening their soul purpose and creating a soul aligned life, meaning a life that is filled with freedom, abundance, joyful service, and guided by their intuition. And I actually have an invitation as well. I offer a one-on-one free reading called Sole Purpose Energy Audit.
(02:02)
And in this session I take a look at their natal charts and through the lens of astrology, human design and gene keys, along with my own intuitive guidance, we take a look at what's potentially blocking and really there in terms of preventing someone from fully stepping into their sole purpose and aligning with their soul. So just a little offering that I want to drop in. And a second invitation is Journey Deep Within, which is a private group that I will be guiding starting September 10th. It's a three month journey online virtual experience where we use breathwork and energy healing and sacred sisterhood to support this transformation. So just wanted to name that and happy to share some links after.
Chef Carla Contreras (02:54):
Beautiful. Can you share with us your last meal? I'm so curious as a trained chef, and it might be a drink.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (03:02):
Yes. This morning I had a really delicious cup of cacao, and just last night I had a gluten-free pasta with broccoli and cacio pepe sauce.
Chef Carla Contreras (03:16):
Oh my gosh. Amazing.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (03:18):
Simple, simple. But it did the trick.
Chef Carla Contreras (03:22):
Can you share with us how you define creativity?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (03:25):
Yes. For me, creativity is the physical manifestation of someone's soul essence.
Chef Carla Contreras (03:33):
When you say their soul essence, because I want people, especially people that are new to this type of work, what are you referring to?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (03:42):
Yeah. So I see us as not just human, but I see every individual as a soul as well, meaning the part of us that is very much all knowing, all loving, and has had many, many, many experiences, not just in this current human existence, but maybe past lives or in other dimensions. And I don't want to go too crazy there, but someone, soul essence, it's really that light that they have. It's that sense of joy, that sense of love. And really to me it's the intangible parts of them.
Chef Carla Contreras (04:28):
And this is how you guide your clients and the people in your group experiences.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (04:33):
Yes. Well, very much so. It's really connecting to the truth of who we are, which is very much the fact that we're not just humans here working and having to pay bills and do the thing. There's a deeper part to us that we often disconnect from once we move into adulthood and we start to receive all of the programming and the conditionings from society of how we should be. So really it's pulling back those layers unbecoming, as I like to say, and really getting back to the core essence of that joy, of that truth of our authenticity and bringing that light forward in our day-to-Day, and obviously in the work that we're doing.
Chef Carla Contreras (05:23):
I'm so excited to dive into your work. What is your current relationship with creativity? And I know that you have many different iterations. You have Instagram, you have your newsletter, you have your podcast.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (05:37):
I would say it's an evolving and flourishing relationship. Previous to the work that I am doing now, I was in corporate for about 10 years, and when I was in that space, I did not have an Instagram. I was not necessarily even interested in being online and creating posts and sharing my beliefs and my voice. So it's been a very deep journey for me to allow myself to be visible and to come forward in this way. And so it's been about a little over two and a half years at this moment. And to your point, I do have my Instagram and I have my podcast called Soul Space by Steph, which felt the most easeful way for me to express myself. I find that voice and conversation is more in alignment with my energy and my flow versus writing a blog, for example, that might be fitting for someone else's energy type, but it's definitely an evolving one and a relationship that I'm cultivating each and every single day.
Chef Carla Contreras (06:49):
Thanks so much for tuning into this podcast. I want to let you know about the content retreat, expand your presence and take aligned action. September 21st and 22nd. This retreat is in person and online for entrepreneurs and small business owners to step away from the frenzy of their everyday lives and into a transformational accelerator for content creation, brand alignment, and business expansion in order to leave their mark in a bigger, brighter and more aligned way. Get more information in today's show notes or DM me Chef Carla Contreras on Instagram. Can you share with us how you nourish your creativity? I would like to dive deeper into, and I'm going to put parentheses around this, your creative process because you have also a way, and I've witnessed you in person at the content retreat where you sat down and you had Oracle cards and Palis Santo, and it was just beautiful to witness you in your process. If you could share with us, what does that look like in all the different aspects of work that you do?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (08:04):
Absolutely. So there are a couple components. First and foremost, my breath dropping into on a day-to-Day. It might be just a 10 minute practice, but at times I do feel the need to drop into a deeper maybe 40, 45 minute flow in order for me to really clear my channel, clear my thoughts, and come back into my center. I also love music and movement and really allowing myself to sometimes even just stretch or doing kind of ecstatic dance movements just to shake off some of the stress and the stagnant energy and get back into that energized place. Another thing that comes to mind is environment. So just yesterday I woke up and had this deep urge to be by the ocean and where I live right now in New Jersey, I'm very much in the forest and with the deer and the groundhogs. And so anyways, jumped in the car and allowed myself to sit by the beach for a couple of hours because that's what I needed in that moment.
(09:19)
So nature is extremely important for me and it's very much part of my process. But more importantly, the thing that I've learned to create and adopt is blocking out a significant window of time where I'm not attending to emails or clients or really anything external or outside of myself, and I'm able to just create this container where I can just drop in without the linear time space pressure. And so at the content retreat, it was wonderful to have that dedicated time and physical space to drive to and to drop in. But as you saw, I will do a little bit of movement. I've got my PA Santo, I pulled some cards and closed out all of the windows and tabs and just had this one. I was working on my newsletter that day and have this one thing in front of me and really be able to dive into that. So that I think in a nutshell, describes my creative process.
Chef Carla Contreras (10:24):
So it sounds like for me, and I know that we've talked about this before, there is this merging of this in masculine and feminine energy.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (10:33):
Correct.
Chef Carla Contreras (10:33):
I love your philosophy when it comes to creating a container that merges these energies.
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (10:40):
Absolutely, yes, masculine and feminine. When we speak to this from an energetic standpoint, it's really the quality is what we're speaking to, not the gender. And so the masculine energy really it's the structure, the logic, the practicality. It's the energy that allows us to bring to life the creative ideas. The feminine is the intuition, the creativity, the feelings. It's the dark and the shadow, and it's often the, let's say the messier, wilder parts of us. And so all of us have both, and we really are in this process of learning how to integrate and how to balance, because again, we can have all of these creative ideas, but if they're simply floating in the blender of the mind, it really, in order to bring that to life, we do need that masculine structure and that container to bring it forward. So yeah, that's how I would describe it.
Chef Carla Contreras (11:48):
Can you talk about breath work? Because you are going to do a breathwork for activating visibility in the next content retreat. And I'd like to know what is it like to do it with intentionality for a purpose like say, visibility?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (12:08):
It is profoundly transformational. And so just to explain the practical pieces, and then we'll talk about the healing parts of it. But breath work is a active meditation practice. So we are dynamically engaging our breath in a rhythmic pattern. And I specifically guide, it's called a three part breath. You breathe through the mouth the entire time. The first breath goes deep into the lower belly, the second breath expands up into the chest, and the third breath, you just visualize it leaving down your spine. And so when we start to engage in this in just a couple of minutes, you'll notice at first it's very activating. We start to bring up that fight or flight response. We bring the stress, the anxiety, some of the frustrations, the resentment, some of those denser energies. The intention is that we're bringing it up to the surface to be felt and to be cleared.
(13:12)
And so in that process, after maybe 10 minutes, our brainwaves start to drop and we really, really truly feel that shift from the mind into the body. And it opens us up to that emotional body. It opens us up to that feeling state. And then again, depending on where you are in your own journey and openness and level of consciousness, it can be very psychedelic, it can be transformational. There's this just opening and portal of presence that one can cultivate. And so when we are in a flow and we go into this, it's very much a ritual. We go into this with the intention of this is what I want to clear, this is what I want to call in or activate. And that with breath and with music and really curating this experience, you're listening to my voice. There's such a powerful journey that someone goes through.
(14:09)
And it's incredible. A lot of people describe it as 10 years of talk therapy in one session, and just that process of hyper oxygenating the body, we're tapping into the subconscious mind. We're opening up to feelings that sometimes we don't even know is there. And at times you might even feel this overwhelm of joy or overwhelm of grief, right? I always say whatever's under the surface gets amplified and really encouraging people to not fear the emotions. Our emotions are simply energetic feedback. There's no such thing as good or bad feelings. And the more that we can feel and clear and make space, the more that we can tap into our creative flow and really open that channel.
Chef Carla Contreras (14:56):
So you touched on this, and I'm going to circle back to it about creative blocks because we just talked about breath work and we talked about working with one-on-one clients. We talked about group experiences. And I'm wondering if personally, how you move through creative blocks, because you've mentioned a couple, but also what is it like to work with clients in order to move through creative blocks with them?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (15:24):
Sure. Sometimes it's really just inviting for an honest conversation with certain questions we can prompt. And quite literally my intention when I'm in a session with let's say, a one-on-one client is to be a mirror and to be the person holding that loving, compassionate, nonjudgmental space in order for them to connect to their truth, to their voice, and to bring more awareness. And then when we go into a practice of breath and energy healing, then we bring in, like I said, the rituals and really that process of allowing them to deepen within themselves. And that's ultimately, I think one of the big messages that I communicate in my work is that you are your own healer. I seek to empower and to really cultivate that connection with self and everything is, it's always directing them within. And I think we're so used to looking for validation outside of ourselves or looking for guidance outside of ourselves or needing, and this is where the codependency can be a little sneaky when we are unconscious to it. And so it's that process of just continuing to pull your energy back and really get honest and vulnerable and allow yourself to be seen.
Chef Carla Contreras (16:51):
And what is that like for you to be seen? Because I do remember this moment where you're like, I remember you were writing your newsletter and you're like, I wrote two sales emails and I want to know what is that like for you in a different realm outside of your corporate leadership job? What was that like to be seen in the beginning and what is it like now?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (17:15):
Yeah, as I said, it's been such a journey because I was not comfortable or I didn't even have the practice of, let's say, showing up online and sharing photos of myself or much less speaking about my opinions or my beliefs. And so this was a huge roadblock for me at the very beginning of stepping into and fully embodying the entrepreneurial and spiritual space that I'm in. And it took a couple months even for me to receive the clarity of saying that I am in the spiritual space and that I work with women and being open about that. And so at times it was just sitting in the frustration and allowing myself to be in those funky, denser emotions. And then eventually, and there are times where we recognize, okay, we need support. So we invest in mentors and coaches and healers. And I've had my fair share of that as well to help me move through this because I had a lot of blocks.
(18:27)
And you get to a point, and this is where I truly feel that, and especially in the work that I'm doing. I've used this word embodiment a few times now, but you literally need to walk your talk. You need to be a living, breathing expression of what I am inviting my clients to do. So it would be out of integrity for me to say, Hey, let's start meditating daily if I'm not meditating daily. So I had to, and that's very much the role of the leader. It doesn't all have to be perfect, but you just need to go first. And so I've been on that path myself, and it's extremely freeing and liberating to be comfortable to share a thought or whatever it is that I'm deciding to share in a post or on my podcast or in my newsletter. That's the path of authenticity, right? It's just being you and really recognizing, I'm okay. I'm okay, because this work showing up is your authentic self. It's going to trigger people. And I've had that. I've had some friendships and people that no longer resonated with me. They were just not a match. I've had them fall away and I had to go through that grief and allow for that process. But now the most important thing to me is being able to just speak my truth. So it's an ongoing day-to-Day process.
Chef Carla Contreras (19:58):
Thank you so much for sharing with us. Steph. Can you tell us how we can find you and how we can support you in your work?
Stephanie Pereira-Lima (20:06):
Absolutely. Thank you so much. So I am on Instagram. It's my full name, Stephanie per Lima. My website is Soul Space by Steph, and that's also the name of my podcast. Check it out. I've got a couple of free resources on my website, a couple replays to previous workshops and masterclasses if you would like to experience this yourself. And of course, tuning into the podcast and that sole purpose energy audit, that free reading. If you'd like to just connect one-on-one, happy to share a little bit more in those sessions, how I work with individuals if it feels good. So thank you.
Chef Carla Contreras (20:47):
Thanks so much for tuning in to Nourishing Creativity. You can find me Chef Carla Contreras across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. While you have your phone out, please leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. This is how others find this show. I really appreciate your support sending you and yours so much love.