Meet Nancy Stevens, founder and owner of Nancy Stevens Coaching. In the soon-to-be-released book The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools for Navigating Loss, Grief and Transition, Nancy shares her story of quietly stepping away from a dream she believed in — and the simple daily practice that brought her back.
The Wellness Universe (WU): Hello Nancy Stevens, please tell us about yourself and what inspired you to write your chapter in the book The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools For Navigating Loss, Grief and Transition.
Nancy Stevens (NS): I’m an ACC-CPIC certified integrative coach, author, and workshop presenter. For my chapter, I chose to focus on a facet of loss that doesn’t always get named: the loss of something meaningful we’ve started that comes to an end, and the feelings that follow that ending. My chapter, “When You’ve Quietly Quit — How to Find the Way Back to Yourself,” comes from a season of my life during COVID when everything felt scattered all at once — a broken shoulder, a son’s job loss, aging parents to worry about, and a coaching business that wasn’t gaining the traction I had hoped for. With so much uncertainty in the world and in my own home, I listened to the doubt in my head as if it were real feedback, and I made what felt like an informed decision to step away from coaching altogether. There was no announcement, no dramatic exit — I simply stopped showing up for the dream I had been building. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this quiet quit wasn’t the end of my story. It was a pause, a container holding that dream dormant until I was ready to return to it. I wanted to write this chapter because so many women experience this exact kind of loss — not dramatic, but quiet. The loss of believing in yourself, the loss of a dream you once felt certain about. I wanted her to feel less alone in that moment, and to see clearly that finding her way back is not only possible, but it is also closer than she thinks.
WU: What tool do you share in this book, and what can we expect to experience as a result of using this tool?
NS: I share The Morning Rise Ritual, a simple daily practice for returning to yourself one morning at a time. Readers can expect a reset nervous system, a quieter inner critic, and a rebuilt sense of trust in themselves. It blends gentle physical care, intentional stillness, and present-tense affirmations spoken aloud or inwardly. This ritual is not about doing more. It is rooted in something far simpler — beginning each day in intentional stillness, tending to your body, listening inward, and declaring what you desire to move forward into while becoming comfortable with the person you are now. It seems simple. It is simple. You don’t need to be ready, and you don’t need to feel like yourself yet. You just need to begin tomorrow morning. That is enough. This is a framework, not a formula. Readers are invited to take what resonates and leave what doesn’t, making it entirely their own.
WU: How did creating and using your tool move you forward from initial loss to feeling equipped and comfortable?
NS: As I moved through loss both named and unnamed, I found I had more capacity to get through my day simply by waking, hydrating, and sitting in stillness to process, call in gratitude, and pray. These simple elements laid the foundation for every other piece of the Morning Rise Ritual to take shape and land. From there I would move into my affirmations, spoken aloud on my walk or quietly within. One thing I still say every day is:
“Everything works effortlessly, smoothly, completely and totally for me always.”
Saying it plainly, in the present tense, slowly rebuilt the self-trust I had lost.
This ritual was a slow flow, one practice at a time. Sometimes I moved forward only to slide backward when life got busy, letting the energy of busyness unconsciously dictate what followed. It took time, desire to tend to myself, and permission to make this a priority to reap the harvest of the practice. Loss makes you feel as if the ground beneath you no longer supports you. Disconnection becomes the norm, and more time is spent in our heads, letting thoughts and emotions drive what follows. It is here, in the simple tangible actions of hydrating, gentle stretching, and intentional stillness, that we reconnect to our nervous systems and tap into our innate wisdom, feeling calmed and soothed. This was my journey of feeling equipped and comfortable again, from a keen sense of loss both personally and in the time of COVID.
Connect with Nancy on the Wellness Universe. Follow her on LinkedIn and Facebook.
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25 Tools for Navigating Loss, Grief and Transition
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