When Grateful Hearts Speak

A few key takeaways from Sonya Beck's healing path over the last several years: Don't beat yourself up, You're NOT crazy, You are your best advocate and if you know in your gut that something's not right -listen to it and follow it! Getting a new diagnosis, or going through the trial and error and finding someone that will help you FIND a diagnosis can be absolutely exhausting. Son...

Author, fitness instructor, world traveler and yogi, Laine D'Souza embarked on a new journey after covid. From growing up in Hong Kong to meeting her husband in the Villages of Central Floridia, they knew they wanted more from life then what they were experiencing. They moved to Laurel Hill, in the Fl panhandle, on 140 acres of land to build a cattle ranch from the ground up. Laine tells us ho...

Mary, who's been teaching for us at Grateful Hearts Yoga since January 2025, shares her story! From growing up in catholic school and first learning of yoga there, to dipping a toe in and then fully immersing in yogic teaching and philosophy in the 70's, Mary shares her passion for and credits yin yoga and all forms of movement as the keys to aging well and continuing to be able to do the...

From battling depression, anxiety and addiction most of her life to thriving as a single mom and business owner, Staci is living proof of endurance, mindset and belief in what one can accomplish. Her ongoing health struggles have only added fuel to her fire for living despite what she's been dealt and she tells us how it all came to be. She tells us how her relationship with God strengthened d...

Part 2; we dive into Robin's year of struggles and joys, how she overcame the dark cloud of depression she was under as well as rehabilitated her self after her 13th foot surgery. She shares about her "year of yoga with no poses" and how leaning on her deeper understanding of yogic philosophy helped her elevate her practice when she finally did start coming back to the studio. Join u...

A year of chaos, and no podcast recordings, but we're back to tell about it! In this episode Gracie shares her story of 2024 and all that happened and didn't happen.. nearly losing her youngest daughter, Angel, who had gastric complications from her former gastroschisis disgnosis at birth and current Prader-Willi Syndrome struggles, Gracie tells how she and her husband have refused to stay...

Have you taken the time to read our beloved City's Mission Statement? It is as follows: To Improve the quality of life by providing exceptional municipal services. Vision: To be known as a forward-thinking, hospitable and growing community that embraces diversity with a family-centric culture. Tim shares with us his family history and how he lived and worked for the City of Fort Walton for man...

You may have seen him cracking jokes and "stirring the pot" in the infamous Crestview Word of Mouth Facebook group but here is a look behind the screens of Brannon's gigantic heart for people. He's owned Atlas Martial Arts gym in South Crestview since 2010 he says: to fill a void our community was lacking for kids and adults to practice martial arts. In this episode we learn abou...

Randy and Dana from Earth Farm 9, just North of Crestview Fl in Laurel Hill, tell us all about their life and what they offer at their community driven farm environment. Randy began early on in life working in the food industry as a chef and eventually owning his own juicing company and then his own restaurant. He began to face challenges in life with his health that drove him to think about the i...

A Pennsylvania native, Christina now calls the panhandle her home and seems to be the catalyst of beautifying many of our local businesses! You may have seen her work on nocticeable places like Main Street Automotive, Gordon's Martial Arts, Crestview Manor, Ohana Heating & Air as well as Pounders to name a few. She's completed 45 different artwork projects in Crestview alone out 85 over the last t...

One of our newest Grateful Hearts Yoga teachers, Amy Taula, shares information from her life experiences on relinquishing control in life & in parenting, letting go of limiting belief systems and tuning into our intrinsic power. Amy describes our body’s incredible ability to heal through processing emotion, sound healing & breath work, with her personal favorite: kundalini yoga or with using God-g...

What a treasure it is to have family around who have lived through so many of life's challenges. Gracie's Great Aunt Faye Shaw is just 92 years young with lots of love left to share. Faye's testimony of God's love, as she shares in this episode, started as young as five years old for her when she nearly died of pneumonia. She knew then that she was created for a purpose and was giv...

Gayla has described herself in this episode as a "Lover of Women" and it definitely shows after the first few moments of getting to know her. She owns her strong personality which is inspiring to most or possibly polarizing to some. She holds a space for other women that gives them the opportunity to dig deep and find the best versions of themselves and to show up authentically in the wo...

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and they that dwell therein." -Zora Neale Hurston This quote sums up Skylar's ability to dive into her curiosities with such focus and force, which satisfies her true thirst for knowledge. From the human body and what makes it tick to...

Growing up as a small town Marianna, Fl girl, Cynthia Mitchell knew she was meant for bigger things and never quite felt she fit in at home. She packed up at 18 and couldn't wait to see the world and that's just what she did. She tells us about "Living a lot of Life" in her 20's from her professional life in retail to how she left everything and began sailing. One of her biggest trips included sai...

Nothing is good or bad, right or wrong, all is filtered through our lens of perception based on our lived experience and what we know to be true at the time. When we know better we do better or we'll just stay stuck in repetitive patterns of destruction until something just has to give. Lets vow to do better, together. Some advice from me to me that I thought I'd share with you all in case it migh...

Misty Peterson is a Buti teacher at Grateful Hearts Yoga and a dear friend of ours. In this episode Misty divulges her truths and her JOYS. As she was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adolescent and not having much help with it, she began to learn about her own mental health and how it was tied to unhealthy habits and weight gain. She noticed how society treated her when she looked one way vs another...

"Father & Husband first, restaurant owner second" as Kakela Peters describes himself, has lived the majority of his life locally in Crestview, Fl. Personally, I have enjoyed getting to witness his road to success from moving back home with a family and a dream to making his first $300/day profit in his food truck to over $3,000 a day in his brick and motor that we all love to frequent, to opening...

From growing up in Nashville, TN to finding her forever home in Crestview, FL, Misty, owner of My Favorite Place Spa tells, us how her business began and what the transition to Crestview and out of the military was like for her family. Misty opened My Favorite Place in 2018 and is opening a second, North side, location this September! Misty genuinely cares about her employees and their experience...

The Sound of Freedom is crushing the box office and spreading awareness all over the country of the Child Sex Trafficking crisis, but what's next? Our yoga friend and Veteran, Dave, shares with us about his experience working with a local organization; Called 2 Rescue out of Pensacola. He tells us about the many moving parts involved in any given rescue mission and shares touching revelations of b...

Homelessness is not only a major issue in our community of Crestview, Fl but around the world. In this episode we meet Ann Sprague, a Baker, Fl. native, former school teacher and guidance counselor who is now devoting her life to following God's newest calling for her by helping the homeless. C.A.S.H. Crestview Area Shelter for the Homeless as well as the Cold Night Shelters and Soup Kitchen&#...

Joanne Klepal is a certified Asian Bio-Energetic Therapy practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher, Master Practitioner of Neuroscience Linguistic Programming(NLP), Coach and Master Practitioner of Timeline Therapy and author of Natural Healing Techniques with Cory Croymans. She has practiced, coached and trained in England, India, Thailand and the U.S. She is a global wanderer who's traveled to more tha...

An Incredible yoga teacher and human being, Somi tells us all about growing up in Iran, her family dynamics and her eventual immigration from her country to Finland, to the United States and how she landed in Crestview, Fl! Robin asks Somi about the immigration process, about the role yoga has taken in her life and why she decided to begin teaching yoga. We learn about Somi's spirituality and what...

As we get to know Derek and how Uplifters came to be we also discuss what its like to raise kids while running a business and also touch on special needs parenting! Derek's youngest child was born with Down syndrome and he tells us how it felt to receive that diagnosis for his only son and how he handled it moving forward. Derek agrees that men don't always need to be the "fixers" and sometimes we...

Get to know your hosts and why they've started this podcast! In this episode Gracie interviews Robin about her childhood through adulthood/motherhood and paths that led her to Crestview, Fl and ultimately Grateful Hearts Yoga! We learn about her gifts of compassion, keen organization skills and her entrepreneurial spirit which helped lead her to developing her own patented product, the KomfyRoo! R...