Select Page

Inspiring-Chick-300x260Hannah Cornell-Schroeder is the Founder of Soothe Your Soul a healing sanctuary located in Oxford Michigan.

Web Site: soothe-your-soul.com
FaceBook:  Soothe Your Soul     
Twitter: Soothe Your Soul
Instagram:
Soothe Your Soul  

Here is the story of Hannah’s Courage

Do you remember the moment you decided to take the leap into owning your own business?
How did it feel and what was it that made you take the leap?

The moment it felt real was when I was sitting with my friend at Casa Real, having a Margarita/Business meeting discussing my dreams and ideas and she supported all of them.  It made it feel so real.  We took steps to design a logo and develop a website and I felt official.  Before that point it was all just a dream in my head. That meeting propelled me forward and gave me momentum.

How long had you been dreaming of your business?
What inspired it?

Soothe Your Soul grew out of my broken heart.  Ten years ago, my first husband was killed in an accident.  As I grieved and tried to begin to heal, I had a hard time finding resources to assist my children and myself.  I actually traveled out of the state several times looking for complementary healing and support in my grief. I met some of the most amazing people and found so many ways to support our healing that I’d never heard of. I began to practice yoga. I learned Reiki. I received CranioSacral Therapy. I started to meditate. I used Feng Shui to change the energy in my home.  I used essential oils to help with moods and anxiety. I began to receive massage for the physical pain that my grief was causing me. I began working weekly with an amazing therapist and energy worker. When I began to feel stronger, I knew I needed to give back the gifts that had been bestowed upon me and share what I had learned with my friends.  Out of that desire grew Soothe Your Soul. I knew my family couldn’t be the only ones that needed these services. There had to be others looking for different ways to heal, grow and live a better life.  I started very small.  I just wanted a space where people could come learn about some of these strategies, maybe experience a massage or some energy work and see if it would help.  Now almost six years later we’ve made so many amazing connections and added so much more to my original vision. It makes my heart sing with joy. My goal is, always has been and always will be to serve in a genuine and loving way.  To provide a safe and nurturing space for healing and wellness to unfold.

I always had a dream of creating a space where I could provide some peace for other women.  My daydreams and visions over the years varied.  When my kids were little it started out as a dream of a business existing that could provide healthy meals for my family that I could pick up after my long work day, this magic place also had a babysitter and child care referral book and a reading area.  Maybe a mom hide-away?! Good quality kids toys that someone else had already investigated for lead paint & educational value. Then a few years later I wanted a store to share all the things I loved.  Books, cds, home decor, knitting stuff, maybe offer some yoga, and I wanted my kids to each have a corner to share what they loved.  I had an idea about a reading room where the local teachers could come and be a guest book reader for a day and read their favorite book, I would donate a copy of that book to their classroom.  Lots of ideas came and went over the years depending on my hobbies and whims of the moment! I just never really saw how I would keep them in business because in most cases all the stuff was free in my mind!  Ha!

Soothe Your Soul was a name I picked back in 2005.  The name came to me in a meditation and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it at the time, so I just held onto it.

Then in 2008 my Dad was building on to his law practice in downtown Oxford.  He added a small cute space (aka garage or carriage house) that he was going to use for file storage.  The construction started in the fall and I walked into the space one chilly night when just the walls were up and the space felt so great to me, like a hide-away or cozy tree house.  I asked him if I could use the upstairs space to practice my Reiki on my clients and he said no.  He was hoping to actually use it as a garage and park his car in there in the winter.  I pestered him until construction was complete and he agreed to let me rent it.  By then I had a logo, a website and my dream was marching on with very little effort.  I decided to carry just a few products.  I had no business loan, very little savings and 1 credit card. I ordered a few things and asked a few talented friends to drop off some of their art on consignment and I opened my doors on 2/2/2009 and in March of 2011 we moved to an amazing space across the street that was much larger and allowed us to share more of what Soothes the Soul.

How long have you been living your dream now?

Since 2/2/2009!

Do you have any regrets?
What has been the hardest part of taking the leap?

No regrets ever!

The hardest part of taking the leap as a wife and mom is remembering that I’m the one leaping and they may not be as ready to jump as I am.  I am always leaping in this adventure and trusting my heart and instincts (probably not standard business practice) and sometimes I need to slow down and share my vision with the people who are impacted by it.  They are always supportive; sometimes I just need to slow down enough to share my ideas and vision with them.


What part of taking this leap are you most proud of?

I am proud that I am in this business with and for everyone who walks in the door. We are all the same.  We all want to feel better, learn more, stretch, grow, heal, laugh, dream and believe we are supported.  I believe we have built that energy and that space here.

I love it when customers ask me “what do you do here?”  The answer is simple…we help you to TAKE CARE OF YOU! We do that by providing a safe, comfortable, inspiring and uplifting space where you can…get a massage, try a Reiki treatment, explore the benefits of homeopathy, learn about how craniosacral therapy can help you, take an affordable and empowering class, meet other people who are making the most and best out of life, shop for gifts for yourself or others that have meaning and give back in some way.  And that is just the start.  We’d love to meet you, to get to know you, to hear your story and to leave you feeling better for having walked through our door.

Can you share a quote that deeply inspires your work:

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

I love this quote.  I first read it on a trip to Sedona and it challenged so many of the beliefs I had about myself and my worthiness.  I have a habit of playing small when I am insecure and I didn’t understand it until this point.  I always thought it was because maybe my ideas were silly, stupid or simple and what I realized through time, reflection and study is that once I stopped playing small my life started to shift a lot.  There can be fear in that and there were moments I would retreat and pull back to my own ways and there are days I still do that.  However, I’ve found in my moments of transparency and honesty I have the most connection to myself, to source and to others.  My grief post is a perfect example of that.  I did not write that to share.  I just sat down at my computer and let my fingers flow to record my most honest and vulnerable feelings in that moment.  I felt they just needed to get out of me and onto the paper and then I would feel better.  I didn’t feel the need to have a conversation with anyone, just to get the feelings out of me.  Then as I read what I had typed an overwhelming feeling came over me and I knew I had to share the post.  I was terrified.  I didn’t want my friends, husband, co-workers or family to see the vulnerability, anger and sadness I was feeling.  I just wanted to pretend I was okay and it was a day just like any other.  But the voice in my head kept telling me it wasn’t about me, so I listened and I published it. To this day I still connect with others because of it. The light that I am, in spite of my fears, faults, grief and anything else I may think about myself cannot hold a candle to the the light we all have within that calls to each of us and asks to be seen and shared.


 

Hannah has been so gracious to allow me to share her very raw feelings in a beautifully written blog post from February of 2014. Because grief has impacted so many I know, I invite you to read her perspective on how it has impacted her life. Read Hannahs Dear Grief Blog Post Click Here