Interview with Stephanie Hrehirchuk, author of “An Accidental Awakening” : About her books, motherhood and more – Part I

Motherhood is no cake walk. It is tiring, messy and stressful sometimes but the secret of finding peace and calmness in such a situation is the real deal. Stephanie Hrehirchuk shares her extremely inspiring journey of discovering her true-self and the recipe for happiness while juggling various responsibilities, in her book, “An Accidental Awakening”

Mommy Me is really honored to collaborate with Stephanie and I really thank her for this very very interesting and helpful interview. She is truly a very sweet, gentle personality and there is something for everybody to learn from her story. I hope you all will enjoy this interview as much as I did!

Mommy Me : Tell us a little about your story

Stephanie : I’m a work from home mother of 2. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I have a beautiful, big black cat who is 21 years-old. I’ll be married 17 years this April. I was a personal trainer for much of my career until a spinal injury forced me to reinvent myself. I’m not even close to having life figured out, but I’ve found that nature, a good cup of tea, and dark chocolate go a long way on a challenging day. Especially when shared with a dear friend.

Mommy Me : When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer and what was your first book? 

Stephanie : I remember writing as a child. My grandmother encouraged me to enter one of my poems in the local fair as a young teen. I won $14. Writing was something I enjoyed but never considered as a career. Even though Anna and the Earth Angel was my first published book (a children’s book published in 2017), I actually started writing An Accidental Awakening 10 years ago. It published last year.

Stephanie Hrehirchuk, Author of An Accidental Awakening

Mommy Me : How did you feel when you published your first book?

Stephanie : I was over the moon when Anna and the Earth Angel came out. I remember that day clearly. I picked up the proof copy from the printer just before picking up my daughter from school. She was in grade 4 at that time. She walked across the school field to meet me, as usual, but when she saw what was in my hand, she ran straight for me, skipped her usual hug, grabbed the book from my hand and read it the whole way home from the back seat of the car. She never spoke until she’d finished it. It was her joy and excitement about the book that became the best part of publishing for me.

Mommy Me : Tell us a little about “An accidental awakening” 

Stephanie : It’s really a self-help memoir. I wanted to share my experiences in a way that both entertained women and also provided practical support and inspiration for moms struggling to balance family, health, work and spiritual life. The story is about one year I spent exploring yoga as a substitute for my regular exercise which I could no longer do because of a spinal injury.

Every 40 days, I drove to a cabin in the woods to meet up with a group of mainly strangers (and my dear friend), to practice yoga. What I didn’t realize when I signed up was that the exercises involved so much more than yoga and that year would push my boundaries, beliefs and perceptions farther than I could have imagined. With 2 small children at home, I had to bring those practices into daily life as a mom.

Mommy Me : Why did you choose to write your story and who do you think this book will benefit the most? 

Stephanie : I believe like many memoir writers, I wrote it initially to understand everything I had experienced that year. So much transformation occurred, it took time, and writing, for me to process it all. I understood and integrated my experiences better while I wrote about them. Then came the day when I realized that if all of those experiences had been so profound for me, perhaps they would be of benefit to other women and moms.

The Part II of this interview will be posted in another few days in which Stephanie Hrehirchuk talks about her favorite part of the book, some real advice for us, the millennial moms who stress ourselves to be “supermoms” and she also shares her productive everyday routine. So, keep watching this space!!

Let me know you liked reading this article in the comments or you can also share it in the email, info.mommyme@gmail.com

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