In Her Shoes: Constance

Every heart holds a story. It’s through sharing those stories that we relate, learn, and know that we are not alone. Today we are honored to hear from Constance Porazka. She is a ray of sunshine that we love seeing around our Wichita community! Grab a cup of tea, open up your heart, and let Constance tell you what it is like to be IN HER SHOES…

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Sometime life can look wonderful, but below the surface, something is missing.

That’s where my story begins. Something was missing. I had what appeared to be an amazing life. A big home, wonderful parents, two amazing children, a successful career and a husband by my side, but all of those things also came with stress. Life always does to one degree or another, but in my life it was building. My parents were aging and needed care. My big house was filled with things and responsibility. My job was becoming more and more demanding. I was always juggling, and at some point it all became too much and I dropped.

While I was building this life with all things I thought I wanted, I hadn’t thought to build myself, my resilience. So I really did drop, but I found a way out, a way forward. Even better, I found it within myself, my power, my resilience, my path to joy.

My name is Constance Porazka and I am the founder and CEO of Retreat to Joy.

So what did I find? Mindfulness, and I began to practice diligently. Simple skills and techniques that gave me the power to respond not react, to be resilient to the ever-changing world around me, to retreat in order to recharge and move forward in a better way.

Retreat to Joy is a Mindfulness Training and Curriculum company.

Mindfulness, as I use the term, is being fully present in the moment, not stuck in the past or worried about the futures. It makes us aware, focused and resilient.

After finding these skills, I became aware I was not alone. Everyone has stressors in life. Sometimes we handle them well, but other times, we simply can’t and we need the skills mindfulness can bring.I knew,  I wanted to share.

I began to immerse myself in mindfulness world and training to bring the techniques to others. I found that some paths were not for me, but there were others that I definitely wanted to share, but where and how?

I begin by teaching individuals, through a Mindfulness- based stress reduction course, which I continue to do, but I always thought I could do more and begin looking for opportunities.

As I continued to explore, I realized that workplaces were the ideal environment for mindfulness skills. So many teams fail to reach their full potential because members are disengaged, unaware and lack resilience. I begin to see the power of mindfulness for a team, practiced as a community to improve focus, productivity, engagement and innovation, but even more to improve people’s lives. We spend the majority of our waking life working and we carry all those feelings and stressors home with us too.

I begin developing curriculum for companies, teams and entrepreneurs; breaking down the skills and techniques to teachable, reproducible and most importantly usable portions. We tackle key issues like stress resilience, communication, awareness and expectations.

I firmly believe that teams need to take the time to assess, build skills and most importantly breathe if they are to thrive. I have built my company around those ideals and our goals is to let people know they may need to retreat, step back, so that they can gain the perspective, awareness and resilience to find joy and power in their present moment.

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Thank you so much, Constance, for sharing your story and for bringing us along on your journey of bringing mindfulness and JOY to the community! You can learn more about Retreat to Joy on Facebook.

Every heart holds a story. Do you have a story that you are willing to share with women and girls around the world? Find out more HERE! It’s through sharing our stories that we relate, learn, and know that we are not alone.

Remember that you are SEEN, LOVED, and YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Here’s to HOPE…