PTP.027: Stephanie Lee – Author of “Southpaw: A Tale About a Girls Imagination”

Brad Miller 0:06
Welcome back to pathway to promise podcast with Dr. Brad Miller, where we are all about helping you overcome adversity in life in order to achieve success, or the promise life, peace, prosperity and purpose in our guest today has done just that. Her name is Stephanie Lee, and she is the author of South Paul a tale about a girl’s imagination. And she has also published a talk tales and trivia podcast and has been a public speaker at podcast movement. Stephanie Welcome to pathway to promise

Stephanie Lee 0:42
thank you so much for having me.

Brad Miller 0:44
It is awesome to have you appreciate it is awesome to have you here Stephanie on on the podcast today. And and what we like to talk about here is people who have had some success in life by overcoming some adversity in their life for some situation, and shared a little bit about how you are a published author and as a public speaker and a podcast or a Tell me a little bit about I know part of this process has been you working out a process of overcoming some challenges and adversities in your life. Just tell us your story a little bit about what you’ve your situation and what you’ve done to overcome it.

Stephanie Lee 1:25
But my situation started when I was quite young, and I became a little my baby. And that if you don’t know, it’s a medicine that parents take to combat nausea when they are pregnant. So I had the stroke when I was a baby because of medicine that my mother took, and it created my nothing over use my right side of my body like everybody else, it actually looks like a stroke. And I’ve had to really go through my whole life with that being an issue for me, wasn’t too much of an issue for me growing up because I had friends and you know, all that good stuff. I worked, I had boyfriends and other things. But I still had that underlying issue that created a little turmoil for me, it really was something that I could never talk to my parents about. Interesting because you have a certain disability and there was like this pink elephant in the room that nobody really wants to talk about. And I still really haven’t sat down with my mother and father and had that big talk of what really happened because of their guilt, they feel tremendous guilt. And I have since gone on the line, I discovered that a lot of the some of my babies haven’t talked to their parents about because of the guilt, they just a parents really feel terribly guilty, the children go through life and just do that didn’t make it to life. You know, with that, a lot of unresolved a lot of unresolved matters though, in unresolved so

Brad Miller 3:07
that’s not only the physical aspects of what you’ve dealt with, and whatever ramifications of come from your physical situation, but also that emotional, that family dynamic type of thing. It sounds like it’s also had some impact in your adult life as well. And how you handle things. Thanks. Now,

Stephanie Lee 3:26
you’re right. Yeah, you’re right. You know, I always had friends in school, I always had what friends, everything is perfectly normal life. And then thank goodness, nobody had ever made fun of me or asked me what went on. I was really quite I’ve lived a quite a normal life. My parents are wonderful people. They just didn’t really want to talk about what happened. me. I never. It’s quite interesting. I never even thought about asking them.

Brad Miller 4:07
Is that something you thought about? It said something you thought about now, though, Sally, you did not really. Okay. You know,

Stephanie Lee 4:16
it’s something that I just you just understood. No one said yes.

And even to this day, I still feel some kind of parents really are better off not telling me not talking about it, because it’s going to hurt them. And I know there’s hurt there because, you know, parents that just are wracked with guilt. When they, you know, ignore things and stuff. And I, I want to be compassionate, I want to be understanding person yet, there’s a part of me that wants to know what happened. But there’s a part of me that says, Well, if I knew, would that be any better? Would that make life better? I mean, it’s still be

do the same person

outwardly, I’ve changed my thought about that. I change my thoughts about it. And I don’t mind talking to people about it. But do you know that nobody asks me, even to this day, nobody has stopped and said, what really happened to you what happened, which I’m definitely blessed? Because I feel that I don’t have an answer,

Brad Miller 5:30
I really been a part of your life all along here, you’re done dynamic. You mentioned there about needing to know, or one not needing to know all the whole story from your parents. sounds similar, similar to some of the folks I’ve worked with, with adoption situations where some, you know, people have been adopted, some kids, when they get to adulthood were adopted some, you know, really, really want to know really badly about their origin story, right. And others are just pretty accepting that this is my son’s situation. And I’m good was it in,

Stephanie Lee 6:00
right? That’s what happened when I started writing the book. That’s where it all changed. Because very, very bad relationship with a man I we dated for 10 years. And he was a really controlling person. And I knew that I couldn’t move on, I could move ahead with my life. It was my life is changing. I was coming, more introspective. I was becoming more peaceful, but he was starting I wasn’t, he wasn’t serving me as a companion as a good person. He was really bringing me down, he was kind of dragging me down a little bit. So that’s when I discovered podcasting. And I could do other things with my life. Besides my mundane life that I was leading with him, we we had definitely, you know, kind of relationship had kind of come to an end, per se, live separate lives, really. And so I needed something to do, that’s when the podcast can suck to contribute came about. And I will tell you, it came about because I personally, as well as probably a lot of people that listen to my podcast, wanted something that it could just do for 1520 minutes, kick their feet up, and relax, sit, relax, listen, enjoy. That’s like the whole crux of my podcast with just for 15 minutes, get away from the news from everything else that’s going on in your life, and just talk about pop culture talk about things that are going on that are that are good and and so that really helped me a lot. And that’s certainly for that moment. And, and, and right. And then the book came about, strangely enough, because my niece had mentioned my disability I realized that she found out about it through my sister, sir. And I’d never even talked about it. So I need to know more about my disability than I do.

Brad Miller 8:06
So they were they were curious they were they were curious with a question you about your, your disability,

Stephanie Lee 8:12
they didn’t question me, they probably release my sister sat down with him one day and said, this is what’s going on with Stephanie. And they had that nice chat, but I’ve never had the opportunity to have a nice chat with them. But it was my niece who

said something about my disability. And that is the impetus to write my book was that one moment and I said, You know, I should put my I should put my story into a book and I should make it so that it doesn’t offend my parents who are definitely guilty but starts with a character that is, you know, pretty much normal and then something happens to them a cataclysmic situation on the weather, earthquake or something, right. And she has to fight her way back. But after the cataclysmic disaster she doesn’t have beautiful right arm and she has limited us to her right leg. So it’s kind of using my disability as the theme but her at that point, going to make steps to get her life back to where she’s happy. And, you know, using imagination and using her

Brad Miller 9:37
and work Howard and her you know, her real strong will to have a life that is not to have a life that is good for has worked for her. So you been able to tell your story through through your in a very real way through the through the fictional story of lives. The character’s name is Quinn, Dylan, is that right? In your book? Is that right? wondering who’s the South Paul and it’s kind of looks at life from below differently than maybe some others do. But it goes inward, her imagination in order to deal with life and deal with things. And that’s right now,

Stephanie Lee 10:19
of course, there’s a lot of similarity. And, you know, there are a lot of similarities because I feel that a writer is very, you know, personal because they’ve had a life and they’ve had things going on. And that, of course, it’s going to show through, and they’re writing because it’s what they know, it’s very personal. So and reading the book, there are a lot of similarities to what happened to me, I was sent to boarding school, and then I was sent to camp and really, my mother really was so guilt ridden. Having me really go places and do things outside the home made her feel guilty. It’s kind of like what you say, when you say, you know, we don’t hear from you. That’s a good thing. You know, we know, we know, everything’s good, kind of what happened. So a lot of things in the book, a lot of the stories in the book and what happened to me when I was in boarding school, and I was actually bullied, they call it bullying back then. But I was kind of bullied a lot in boarding school. And after three years, I went back to the public school system, and it was fine. But for that three year period, it was a very, very hard thing to me. Sometimes people I mentioned it in the book, sometimes people and you know, girls and boys young, you know, people, I’d say, Yeah, 16 or so they make they make fun and bully people that have less of an advantage that can’t fight back. And they take advantage of that. That’s what I want to mention, too. And so when Dylan has to face that, she has to face the strength of, Hey, you know, this is what’s going on. And I’m not happy about it. And yet, I’m going to prove to myself and to everybody, I am going to be a success, that I am going to make it in this life, no matter what it takes. And so she starts to Yeah, so she starts to use her imagination, being creative, and an artistic way, right? And draw

scenarios that she wants

to have as she is, imagine, all these things going on that are perfect in her world. And slowly she’s just seeing things get better, you know, things are better and better.

Brad Miller 12:57
So she Transform, transform her innovative in her life was really transformative to her outer life for her things that happened, right, it sounds like you in your case, you took the bold action of deciding to process is by writing the book and some things on this line. And that is had some impact in your life. So that’s a bolt action that you took, what what did you learn about yourself, as you wrote the book, what did you How was is taking this action? How was it informative to your transformation

Stephanie Lee 13:27
was transformative. Because I was able to say, how I felt, you know, about life and about kind of holding back. So you’d

Brad Miller 13:37
you’d held back for a long, long time, and this was finally expressing yourself, is that right?

Stephanie Lee 13:42
Right. Yeah. And so I was finally able to say,

life isn’t about how I look physically, you know, I can be, you know, funny and attractive and all these things, and it’s not really a bad my arm, it’s really about other things, I have so much more to offer than just that one thing. And it took me really until I was about 15 that and, you know, it sounds crazy. But I was living with this kind of underlying kind of rough time. And I completely could have just let it go, and, you know, lived a more and what you call, you know, quote unquote, normal life and a freeing life. But at 50, I chose to just move ahead and do like podcast and I was what I like to call ushered away from that relationship that was so bad, you know, you find that when a person doesn’t serve you in a person doesn’t see Neil need that person, your life, all of a sudden things work out, and that person’s move from your life somehow. So that was a rough situation. But all of a sudden, this relationship I had for 10 years, all of a sudden, wasn’t, didn’t happen. And it was just all of a sudden, the pathway was clear. Well, you

Brad Miller 15:11
had a new path, yeah, a new path, you took some, you took some action, you took bold action, you started to write a book, he started doing a podcast, start processing things, and you had to change in your, in your relationship, all this happened. And it’s because you decided to deal with your inner life. And so that’s a, that’s a great thing. So in that context of dealing with your inner life, I’m just wondering if, in this process, have you learned any kind of, you’ve been informed, are powered by any kind of understanding of a power greater than yourself or some spiritual realm, Francis coming from meditation or anything along this line, and tell us a bit of how that has power given you some strength?

Stephanie Lee 15:53
Well, that is actually what started the separation mental with my ex is that I was becoming more spiritual at that point. I was Andrew my podcast, which was, you know, new to him. And then I started really get into that inner

state of mind where I was very reflective about my life. And I, all of a sudden became this person. That was wonderful. I, I felt so free because I was writing this book, but I also felt like, I didn’t hate people as much like the relationship I had. The whole crux of the relationship was, I think, everybody, I hate everybody, you know, that was, that was my exes.

And so that was like, really like you. And then all of a sudden, I had this podcast going on, and I had, you know, writing the book, and all of a sudden, someone said to me, people are good, you know, they’re not evil people, you know, there are people in the world. So I started I started to have a different attitude towards towards people. And I started to feel love and acceptance. And that if, you know, if you want to have negative people in your life, it’s because you think negative, right? If you want positive people, you know, a positive situation. And so I began to study that and really reflect on that. And I did meditation and I certainly am a spiritual person, my mom grew up a Christian scientists, which I kind of didn’t really want to be, I don’t really adhere to that. And so it was my mom who was a very, she is a very metaphysical person. And she has often said, because that I was, you know, so set that he had turned metaphysics just to, you know, to get quiet and peaceful within herself

Brad Miller 18:09
back a step you guys want to ask you. You’ve been talking about your spiritual connections and about meditation practices, things like David you also mentioned about how you know, you had that your meditative and your spiritual practice also changed your view of your relationships mean, you saw people have been basically better or good compared to a more of a negative viewpoint. Tell me a little bit about emotional connections with people have a positive nature that How does that feel you how does that connection with other people or, or emotions like love or care or generosity? How does that come into play here in terms of fueling your transformation?

Stephanie Lee 18:51
Well, I became a podcast and actor why my book, and then I was studying metaphysics, and my mom, Charlie, and metaphysics, she left Christian by filming an ethics which is something great, and all of a sudden, I started to see my world differently. I started to meditate and turn to look at the world differently. I started to appreciate the outside world, people that were in the outside world world, my attitude changed, it changed to an attitude of love, acceptance, and looking at, at people as just like myself, wanting to learn more at live on Earth, it’s very peaceful, and have wonderful exchanges. And that they can, you know, give me certain gifts of, you know, love and, and I, I give that back. So, it’s a very positive experience. And it really changed with my attitude of like, my, you definitely got better and better and better, and then the relationships that that they got more positive. And so now, even when I’m like, driving down the road, instead of like, when someone cuts me off, or something like that, I say, Oh, you must be, you know, having a bad day. You know, I try my, my whole thing is that

look, you know, you understand more about people and about maybe, you know, they’re just, you know, having a day, you know, and, you know, I’ve certainly had bad days, that’s good. I, I’m not as PayPal I guess what you call it, I really, you know, I’m really, you know, I, I love what I’m doing and, you know, you know, there’s not a lot of people that

are not encouraging, you know, that there’s for really wants to see me succeed. And I want to see people succeed seed and hoping his attitude, my attitude changed. And when your attitude, change it to something good, you are surrounded by people

start to try to different sort of folks. Yes, that’s

right. That’s right. And, you know, you can’t, you know, you can’t call them and attract negative people was just impossible, you know, if you’re positive, positive people come into your life, you know, and, and that is precisely why going back to past relationships. That’s exactly why people that didn’t, I don’t like to use the word serve, but then exactly mesh with me anymore, just dropped away. And, you know, I stopped for example, we used to go to the restaurant and, you know, have a couple drinks stuff that people don’t, you know, people weren’t helping me there. And people weren’t as accepting their so. So that kind of is something I’ve learned throughout the whole process. And I’ve

Brad Miller 22:08
been kind of a mentor to you in this process, already, resources that you’ve used for helping you with your meditation. Yes,

Stephanie Lee 22:15
I had a mentor, I have a couple of mentors. I absolutely love Bob Proctor who is a mentor, he was on the secret. And that was kind of my first introduction to spirituality, and thinking really on my own, and forming opinions and thinking about prosperity, and abundance, and about love and acceptance, and all this, all these wonderful things that you have to have in your life. And you have to give them give people that and then we’re fun. That’s what you’ll get back. Right? Instead of just, I just, I want, I want I want I want you can’t, I can’t live like that. So that’s looking at, in my opinion, the wall way she should be so happy to give and to be interested in to really understand people want to know more about people. And in response, they will love you and want to be around you. When you

Brad Miller 23:25
live a life of generosity. You see the abundance and had more of a fulfilled life style where you’re looking, looking, looking at the meaning less ness of life, you begin to look at the meeting fullness of life and, and makes all the difference

Stephanie Lee 23:40
it’s a wonderful thing to thing that you know, I I believe that, you know,

there is a similarity everybody, right, I’m everybody’s here

Brad Miller 23:55
trying to do the best trying to, you know, have the best what people some people don’t understand is that you really need to just, you know, you have to give them your love and, and your attention and everything, and then you and then you receive it back. So it’s positive steps, what are some of the specific ways that you do that now, what are you know, you mentioned how this you have basically made this transformation from kind of a negative approach to more of a positive approach. And now there was some, you know, really important moments there’s some some, you know, you’re nice said some things to use. Some other things have said, said thanks to your which really pivotal, but I’m interested down the application of it in your life right now, what are some of the disciplines or habits or rituals or routines or what is some of the things you do now that maybe you didn’t do before, that help you live out this new lifestyle, that you have this new promise life is all I had to call it,

Stephanie Lee 24:55
I

was meditation. And that was kind of the beginning. And then I really started having this mentor shift with certain people in my life that really impacted my life and really made me understand that, you know, you really need to do certain things to get back certain things, I write a gratitude list every morning, certainly, you know, pray and meditate and really understand that whole process that you really need to be very focused and concentrate on giving to people. And that’s really the crux of it. I do read a lot of metaphysical books, and you’ve got books.

And I really believe that

when you do and take the time, you will benefit and everybody in your world benefits. I do a lot of

metaphysical reading I to, like I said, the gratitude list. And I am always reminded, you know,

this tour square, everybody comes from one source and, and that is everybody’s trying to figure out life and including me, and the, you know, try to figure out how they can have the best life and what really, life on earth is all about? I mean, everyone’s trying to figure out what, what it what it’s all about, and how, what it means to bring meaningful this to your life?

And what’s the meaning of life? Right? What, what is why, as, you know, human being and in our bodies, what are we trying to, what is the meaning of all that, and there’s so much, you know, so many people trying to figure out out, you know, what, you know, the universe is what got, you know, whatever, you know, call that big thing that happened, people are trying to find that out. And they are so curious about, you know, what, that you can call it

right, you can call it God, or you can call universal, you know, intelligence, that kind of thing. Everybody has people that don’t like the word

universal intelligence, it’s really all the same thing, top to a scientist in physics. And they’ll say, you know, energy is, and then you talk to a theologian, and they say, God is, it’s the same thought process, you know, it’s looking for, it’s looking within, to find his way

Brad Miller 27:52
I like to look, it’s connecting, connected with a power high, bigger than yourself, to transform your inner life and its mission manifested in you, how you live your life now, and giving your life sense of purpose and meaningfulness. And so I guess, out of this whole process, and Stephanie, I’ve just asked, just, what do you see right now as your purpose in life? How has this changed you, and what do you see as your purpose in life right now,

Stephanie Lee 28:18
I see my purpose in life is to be abundant, and to live a very, very happy and content life, and to really to help others that have similar situations they need help with, and I and I, or they need someone to guide them to help them and understanding and that’s the big thing, understanding where everybody comes from, and how I can help them being there. Being a nice person being a compassionate person, there are so many people that need that so many people are angry, like I was for such a long time. And there are so many people that need the, you know, the love and the encouragement and, and I’m so happy that I’ve discovered that and further peaceful life, when you actually discover

the best, you know, you know, there’s a level where you grow, and you grow, and it’s nice to just see myself, you know, understanding and becoming growing and growing and understanding and so wonderful, it’s wonderful to see that it’s not

English, not a party, you know, it’s really, it’s going to stop stop you from moving ahead. And that is the biggest thing that I learned from, you know, my past relationship is that you can’t be angry and, and have anything you want in life.

I mean, that’s just the thing. And so I’ve had to take a step back and look at, you know, my my parents to, I was so angry at them for, you know, doing certain things, when not tempt me go through physical therapy, they kind of dropped the ball a little bit because of the guilt. But I’ve gotten to the point where just you can’t blame them, they just did the best they could write the best thing to have. So I have to kind of take the bull by the horns and say, This is my life, I’m in control. Now, I’m going to take my life and try to be best I’m gonna try to do the best

Brad Miller 30:38
and you got you got that experience you’ve had out of your writing and your podcast you to offer other people. And so it also asked another question, I like to ask folks as well. Stephanie is howdy out of this whole process. You’ve had to kind of look at your value system a little differently, I believe. And so I would just ask you, at this point your life How would you define prosperity?

Stephanie Lee 31:01
Well, prosperity is like the signing what Richard you know, prosperity, get them to buy. It doesn’t me.

Brad Miller 31:10
So asking for you. What is right for you right now

Stephanie Lee 31:16
is prosperity and everything. It’s about its prosperity, or being Richard prosperous, and money and money, but also being rich and prosperous, and your relationships, in your abundance in your love of life, and your, you know, everything. So, you know, I have a, I just love it, you know, the science of getting rich, it’s the, you know, that kind of thing. It’s not just, it’s not only about monetary, it, it absolutely means getting rich in money, and all the abundance that you can have in life. And I think that that is really the important but I also think that I mean, I don’t want to ignore this. But I think that getting rich financially, you can help other people as well other less fortunate people by, you know, giving to causes and stuff like that, too. So, there’s two sides of it. And there’s the inner side that says, abundance is living a life of being caught, you know, having a large sum of, you know, your whole life, there’s also the thing out the, the, you know, the money and being able to do more, you know, they have being able to give more to certain organizations and certain people that really get to So, and, and being, you know, you know, when you have a right when exactly, but when you have

money, monetary freedom, it’s certainly obviously better than being, you know, you’re poor. And that torn is is definitely reflected in the negative attitudes. Sure, you know, and so, having the abundance of money means that even kids more to people, and that you are a better person. So I would say it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a really transformative, you know, life and if you see yourself as being abundant and being rich, then you’ll see it and all

Brad Miller 33:32
Yeah, well, you have a life it’s more fulfilled than you see things from a more

that there’s no lack in the world. There’s no it’s not a scarcity issue. It is what is the abundance is available to you. And it’s certainly you’re really interesting and fascinating, your story, both your your writing your podcasting you’re speaking has been one of transformation where you’ve moved from kind of lack and negative and anger and all kinds of other the things to now fulfillment and joy and some energy and some prosperous life of one whose generous and receiving generosity and the full life and that’s awesome. So you see, like, you found some good things here that you’re sharing with other people in many ways. And so tell us a bit Stephanie, what you’re working on now. I know you have a new book coming out and some other projects you working, what are you working on now? And how can folks be in contact with you if they want to learn more about what you’re you’re up to?

Stephanie Lee 34:30
Well, the book that I have now Sasquatch imagination, I started writing just the book. And then I realized it was a little short and I realized it could be a prequel, a backstory of hook Wunderland was and now I’m working on the actual story of her, helping the people helping friends and people, many people she doesn’t know with their situation and helping them where she needed help helping them with their problems or their

situation, helping them find a more peaceful life. So, that is the story of, you know, when Dylan and that’s going to be the next chapter here in the south posteriors as I like to call it and so that will be a bigger book this one is a most small business just the critical just the backstory and window and we’ll move ahead and help people with the same situation where she needed help she now knows how to help people she now understand something that she didn’t understand before and that is helping other people and that’s kind of like

sure you know

so

Brad Miller 35:54
if people want to and that will be available on Amazon and that those type of places and just said yes,

Stephanie Lee 36:00
it’s going to be available on

Lulu dot com is my publisher saleable on that discounted rate that will be available evil and print it on Amazon Barnes and Noble online ebook edition and I’m so excited about it because at the book is, you know

Brad Miller 36:24
the book is the second edition or the SEC or the next volume as it were, I guess at South Paul a tale of a girl’s imagination. And so we’ll

Stephanie Lee 36:35
go up imagination and

it’s just so exciting for me to know when you’re excited about something and you’re excited about something all of a sudden you get to the end and you’re like, Oh my gosh, do I really want to you know, leave this anticipation and move to the next level a little bit that is edit you know that the production coming to an end but I’m thinking okay, now I have this next next book I’m working on. Sure

Brad Miller 37:04
that’d be great to end with spin. Yeah, well, you’ve got a fascinating story. Stephanie and you got a lot going on here. And and you certainly been been a delight to talk to you today here on the pathway to promise and we look to hearing you know, hearing more good things from you as you continue to contribute to the greater good and you have now made a commitment it sounds like to be helpful to people who are going through similar situations is you and be helpful to people and on a spiritual level and on a level of overcoming anchor and at first you things like that or have a positive and productive life and I just want to thank you for being our being our guest today on the on the pathway to promise