Sara Avant Stover

Sara Avant Stover Author | Level 3 Certified IFS Practitioner | Expert in Women's Spiritual Leadership & Business | her Self host

Sara Avant Stover (she/her) is a Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner and business strategist to spiritual, entrepreneurial women. She's also the author of The Way of the Happy Woman (2011), The Book of SHE (2015), and Handbook for the Heartbroken (2024),

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa cm Laude from Columbia University’s all-women’s Barnard College, Sara had a cancer

scare, moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and, there, embarked on a decade-long healing and spiritual odyssey throughout Asia. Since then, she’s gone on to uplift tens of thousands of women worldwide. Sara specializes in supporting women to discover and fulfill their true potential at the intersection where entrepreneurship meets personal and spiritual growth. She has been featured in Yoga Journal, the Huffington Post, Newsweek, Natural Health, and on ABC, NBC, and CBS. She lives in Boulder, CO, and is online at SaraAvantStover.com.

21/05/2026

France is teaching me something about work that America never did.

Here, work is simply one piece of life, rather than the center around which everything else orbits.

Just one piece.

What I experienced for most of my adult life was almost the inverse, and I didn't fully realize how deeply that had shaped me until I started living somewhere that operates so differently.

And what I'm seeing clearly now is how easy it is, especially in soul-led work, for your business to stop being something you do and start becoming who you are.

That's not devotion. That's codependency.

And it’s incredibly common among high-capacity, deeply devoted women like you.

This week on the podcast, I’m sharing the signs that you’re in a co-dependent relationship with your business (and how to lead from your sovereignty instead).

Here’s where to listen:

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/256-signs-youre-in-a-codependent-relationship-with/id1044976191?i=1000768152006

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/49tW9QlyUkRZohLMXSDK6x

The best thing that ever happened to my finances was hitting rock bottomIn my early forties, between 2016 and 2020, I mo...
19/05/2026

The best thing that ever happened to my finances was hitting rock bottom

In my early forties, between 2016 and 2020, I moved through a series of immense life challenges that brought me, more than once, to my knees.

Savings I'd built drained away. Work that had carried me for years started to dry up. And I watched a pattern I'd been living for years — building up, draining down, building up, draining down — become something I could no longer ignore or outlast.

It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood board games, Chutes and Ladders.

While those were without a doubt the hardest years of my life, I also look back on them with the most gratitude.

Because part of what emerged from those years was a woman who finally decided to become a good steward of her own money.

Seven years later, my net worth has never been higher, and the financial foundation I built in the hard years is what made this life in France possible.

This week on elle-même (my women's digital magazine on Substack), I'm sharing the key inner and outer practices behind that shift.

They're not dramatic. But they are simple, consistent, and they really have changed everything.

Here’s where to read the full story: https://saraavantstover.substack.com/p/i-hit-financial-rock-bottom-in-my

A couple of months into our arrival in Bordeaux last fall, Chris and I were curled up on the couch in our Airbnb, trying...
14/05/2026

A couple of months into our arrival in Bordeaux last fall, Chris and I were curled up on the couch in our Airbnb, trying to decide on a new series to watch in the evenings.

Then we remembered one that some of our friends in Colorado encouraged us to watch: Castle Impossible. We were immediately pulled in.

I’ve been fascinated by fairy tales my whole life, and now that I actually live in France — where châteaux appear around corners like they’re nothing — I’ve started meeting women who are doing the thing I’d only ever dreamed about: buying one, lovingly, courageously restoring it, and making it their own.

Kamille Longstreet () is one of those women. She traded a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles for a château in rural France— husband, two small children, and all.

Like that series from last fall, her story pulled me in so deeply that I knew I wanted to talk to her more.

This week in elle-même (my digital magazine on Substack), Kamille is sharing:

- What it was like to discover her baseline (while living in the U.S.) was anxiety
- The surprising thing her landlord said when she interrupted her nap
- What she misses most (and least) from her life in California
- The three-word philosophy she and her husband swear by
- Then perks of living with the château rooster, Mr. Darcy

…and much more.

This is an inside look into the choices, practices, and hard-won wisdom behind creating a life that feels genuinely yours.

Comment “castle” below and I’ll send you the link to read our full conversation.

A couple of months into our arrival in Bordeaux last fall, Chris and I were curled up on the couch in our Airbnb, trying...
14/05/2026

A couple of months into our arrival in Bordeaux last fall, Chris and I were curled up on the couch in our Airbnb, trying to decide on a new series to watch in the evenings.

Then we remembered one that some of our friends in Colorado encouraged us to watch: Castle Impossible. We were immediately pulled in.

I’ve been fascinated by fairy tales my whole life, and now that I actually live in France — where châteaux appear around corners like they’re nothing — I’ve started meeting women who are doing the thing I’d only ever dreamed about: buying one, lovingly, courageously restoring it, and making it their own.

Kamille Longstreet is one of those women. She traded a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles for a château in rural France— husband, two small children, and all.

Like that series from last fall, her story pulled me in so deeply that I knew I wanted to talk to her more.

This week in elle-même (my digital magazine on Substack), Kamille is sharing:

- What it was like to discover her baseline (while living in the U.S.) was anxiety
- The surprising thing her landlord said when she interrupted her nap
- What she misses most (and least) from her life in California
- The three-word philosophy she and her husband swear by
- The perks of living with the château rooster, Mr. Darcy

…and much more.

This is an inside look into the choices, practices, and hard-won wisdom behind creating a life that feels genuinely yours.

Here’s where to read our full conversation: https://saraavantstover.substack.com/p/this-american-mom-traded-a-one-bedroom

I’m opening 3 spaces for 1:1 mentorship, before my rates increase on Friday.While I’ve been working with women for over ...
13/05/2026

I’m opening 3 spaces for 1:1 mentorship, before my rates increase on Friday.

While I’ve been working with women for over 25 years, over the past year in particular, I’ve been supporting women to step into a whole new level of their work (and life).

Before I increase my rates later this week, I’m opening 3 spots at the current pricing for women who are ready to go deeper into their work, their business, and their soul’s expansion.

This is for you if you’re a coach, healer, therapist, or visionary leader who:

➤ Knows you’re meant for more — but feel held back by fear or over-responsibility

➤ Wants to grow your income without abandoning your peace, truth, or rhythm

➤ Is done with burnout, hustle, and second-guessing

➤ Longs for a space where your soul’s potential is fully witnessed — and midwifed into form

Inside our work together, we’ll blend:

💫 Internal Family Systems to lovingly clear inner blocks

💫 Soul-Aligned Strategy to grow sustainably and profitably

💫 Feminine Spiritual Leadership to shift from force to flow

💫 Intuitive Guidance to receive next steps from your highest Self

These are first-come, first-served and they always fill quickly.

✨ If your heart whispered yes... you don’t have to walk this chapter alone.

Let’s walk it together, in trust.

Comment “Mentor” below and I’ll DM you the link to explore your options.

Everyone romanticizes life in France, and we're here to tell you what it's actually like. Valerie Rivera (creator of Del...
12/05/2026

Everyone romanticizes life in France, and we're here to tell you what it's actually like.

Valerie Rivera (creator of Delightfully Disoriented en France) is eight months into her second year in France, and I’m eight months into my first.

Valerie was one of my very first friends here. Sometimes Chris and I meet up with her and her husband, Ralph. And, lately, we've been doing what we call “girls' days” in Bordeaux— a chance to explore the city, try a new restaurant, and wander.

We’re both Francophiles in our forties who are passionate about business. We both work with clients, we both travel for it, we both write on Substack, and we spend a lot of our girls' days talking about what it means to do all of that from France.

This Thursday, we're taking our girl talk live.

Join us for a candid conversation about l'art de vivre, working from abroad, and what our new lives in France are teaching us day-to-day.

Here’s where to join us live (and we’ll also post the replay on Substack after): https://open.substack.com/live-stream/197173

Life’s big decisions always end up making themselves.This is a philosophy I’ve come to live by (even more so last year w...
06/05/2026

Life’s big decisions always end up making themselves.

This is a philosophy I’ve come to live by (even more so last year when we tried to move to Europe, and every door we pushed open turned out to be the wrong one).

On one of our very first dates, in the fall of 2020, I told my now-husband Chris that I wanted to move to Europe within the next five years, and that if that wasn’t something he could imagine, we probably shouldn’t go out again.

It was a bold thing to say to someone I barely knew!

But by that point in my life, I’d learned the hard way that clarity about what you want is an act of love, not an ultimatum.

While Chris couldn’t commit to an exact timeline, he said yes, he thought he’d be open to it. And that was enough for me.

Nearly four years later, the door to Europe swung open and suddenly the move we’d been dreaming of was possible.

What followed were two scouting trips through three countries, countless calls to Lufthansa to change our flight itineraries, a landlord’s surprise voicemail, and a casual mention of Bordeaux over a Buddha bowl at lunch that changed everything.

I wrote the whole story this week on elle-même (my digital magazine on Substack), including a final plot twist I still can’t quite believe.

This is for everyone who’s grappled with the uncertainty of a big decision and wondered if it would ever become clear.

Comment “BDX” and I’ll send you the link to read more. 🇫🇷

After two weeks back in the U.S. for my mom's 80th birthday, leading a retreat at Kripalu, and a visit with my dad, I bo...
01/05/2026

After two weeks back in the U.S. for my mom's 80th birthday, leading a retreat at Kripalu, and a visit with my dad, I boarded my flight back to France and felt something unexpected:

I really, really missed my life in Bordeaux.

April “Les Nouvelles,” my monthly edit, is up on Substack.

Here's what's inside:

🇫🇷 Reverse homesickness, and what it taught me

🌿 A road trip through Provence in spring

🧺 The shipping container that finally arrived (and what was in it)

👩‍👩‍👧 The women's brunch in my Bordeaux salon

👖 The pants you need to know about

📚 What I'm reading

✨ Some adventures I’m most looking forward to this May

Read this month's issue here: https://saraavantstover.substack.com/p/reverse-homesickness-a-cast-iron

I just passed my two-month anniversary on Substack, and I’m already convinced that this is the platform I want to go all...
30/04/2026

I just passed my two-month anniversary on Substack, and I’m already convinced that this is the platform I want to go all-in on (and this is coming from someone who’s never said that before!).

Not because of the analytics or the growth— although it offers those things too— but because, for the first time in years, it makes showing up daily online feel enjoyable again.

This week, I sat down to record an episode about why I believe Substack is structurally different for women who lead with depth and relationship, and why I'm encouraging many of the women I mentor to get over there, too.

If you're a healer, coach, therapist, teacher, or wisdom-keeper who wants to share your work in ways that feel enjoyable and authentic to who you are, I encourage you to listen in.

Here’s where to listen:

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/255-how-substack-is-the-platform-that-finally-rewards/id1044976191?i=1000764580262

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2mgHdytGgWO3JR2xnOQhnW

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