Ashley Stehlik

01/08/2026

Yesterday was an awful day for me.
The kind I haven’t had in a long, long time.

Nothing felt like it was working.
Too many bumps in the road.
Too many unmet expectations.
Every small thing felt heavy, and the story in my head was loud: you’re failing.

I was honest with Mike and the boys and told them I wasn’t okay.

Jayden said it was hard to see me like that. And I get it. I don’t often show sadness, crying, because quite honestly it’s rare I allow myself to feel these things.

But I also think it matters that he sees it—knowing it wasn’t his fault, that he couldn’t fix it, and that hard days don’t mean something is broken.

Kieran came into my room while I was in bed, handed me his little dude, and said,

“When I’m upset, I squeeze this guy and it makes me feel better. And if that doesn’t work, I pretend he’s pooing, which is funny.”

Honestly? Solid advice.😂

Mike just held me. No fixing. No solutions. Just a deep hug and the reminder that I wasn’t alone.

I still showed up for my client calls (the distraction helped more than I expected).

I took Jayden skating, and on the way home he said, “Thanks for hanging out with me, Mom.” And that landed softly in a day that otherwise felt sharp.

After that, I came home and crashed.
I haven’t worked out since Monday.
I couldn’t get off the couch.
I didn’t eat. I just… couldn’t.

And even with all the love around me.
Even with the strength I know I have.
I couldn’t dig myself out.

I’m sharing this because sometimes the tools don’t work.
Sometimes support doesn’t magically lift you.
Sometimes you don’t bounce back—you just lie there and breathe.

And that doesn’t mean you’re weak.
It means you’re human.

If you’re in a low right now that you can’t logic your way out of, you’re not alone.
This isn’t the whole story.
It’s just a hard chapter.
You, my friend, are not alone ❤️

01/06/2026

I had a conversation with a mom recently who said her biggest struggle with perimenopause is how she lashes out at her kids.

And honestly? I felt that in my bones.

As I sit here on day 2 of a snow day with two now-healthy boys, I can confidently say:
it is probably not perimenopause that’s making me want these children back in school immediately.

There are a LOT of things that come into play as women age.

Perimenopause is real.
It matters.
It deserves attention.

But I think sometimes we’re using it as a catch-all explanation for everything that feels hard — and while that might feel validating in the moment, it doesn’t actually help us create change.

Because if everything is “just hormones,” then what power do we have left?

What if — instead of blanket-blaming perimenopause — we got curious?

What if we took one moment, one reaction, one hard day and asked:
👉 Is this actually hormones?
👉 Or is this overstimulation?
👉 Exhaustion?
👉 No alone time?
👉 Hunger?
👉 Emotional overload?
👉 Three straight weeks with my family and zero silence? 😅

Fun real-life example:
It’s day 3 of my period.
I bleed heavily enough to be on blood-clotting meds.
My energy is in the gutter.
My patience for bu****it is basically nonexistent.

Is that perimenopause?
Or is that… being tired, depleted, and touched out?

You decide.

This morning the boys woke up and, like always on snow days, I let them choose whether to go to school.
(It’s a pain in the ass either way — two schools, two start times — but autonomy matters to me.)

Mini sticks turned into a full-blown fight.
Kieran was in tears.
I was THIS close to snapping and sending them both to school out of pure overwhelm.

And then I stopped.

They weren’t being as****es.
They were hungry.

So I fed them.
Sent them outside.
Told them to figure it out.

And suddenly… peace(ish).

So was my reaction perimenopause?
Or was I overstimulated and desperate for five minutes to myself?

One of the most unexpected parts of this season for me hasn’t been hot flashes or missed periods — it’s been the loss of perceived control.
Over my emotions.
My reactions.
My body.
My weight.
My tolerance.

And that scares women.
It scared me.

Which is exactly why my mission isn’t to tell women,
“Yep, that’s perimenopause, good luck.”

My mission is to help us take our power back where we can.

To get honest.
To get curious.
To ask:
✨ Is this something I can influence?
✨ Is there a small shift that changes the trajectory of my day?
✨ What do I actually need right now?

Today?
I needed silence.
So the boys went outside.
I sat down to work.
I breathed.

(And yes — even as I write this, I was interrupted to help with something outside. FFS.)

This season isn’t about blaming hormones for everything.
It’s about understanding them and ourselves.

And realizing that sometimes the most powerful thing we can do isn’t control our emotions —
it’s creating conditions where we don’t have to fight them so damn hard.

If you read this and thought,
“F**k. Me. Too.”

Then you’re my people.
And this is exactly why I do what I do. 🔥

Give me a 🫶🏻🫶🏻if you agree xo

01/06/2026

There is so much magic in these moments ❤️

01/05/2026

I had big, grandiose plans for this Monday.
Like capital-M Monday
The kind where you wake up glowing, hydrated, flexible, productive, spiritually aligned.

And Monday said,
“The hell you are.”

I had the option to go to bed early… but that Canada game kept me up till 11:30.
Worth it?
Ugh that loss 💔

Then I realized my Garmin was almost dead and I couldn’t find the charger. Which mattered because I was very committed to starting the week with quality sleep stats, yoga, and general main-character energy.

Except my watch completely fu**ed up overnight and told me I got 3 hours of garbage sleep.💤

I woke up naturally at 7 (no alarm, thank you very much) and almost skipped yoga because I knew my watch would die and if it’s not tracked… did it even happen?🫣

I forced myself up anyway.
Did 25 minutes of yoga.
My watch died 6 minutes in.

Tracking matters to me. I wish it didn’t. But it does.

I’m tight.
I’m not flexible. I find stretching annoying.
And yet… I want to be more flexible.
Absolutely rude, if you ask me.

Cold-rolled my face. Moisturized.
Then assessed my wrinkles and thought, f**k, I really should be doing something about this.

Opened my email and found out the buses were cancelled.🤦‍♀️

Jayden was probably staying home anyway because he’s so stuffed up no one wants him near them.
But Kieran? He was supposed to sleep in and happily head off to school damn it 🤪

So now it’s Monday.
Launch day for
And both boys are home.

To top it off, I threw creatine into my coffee instead of collagen.
Didn’t even notice a difference.
Which makes me question how often I do this.😜

And here I am, laughing, because I know there’s a lesson here.

I’m an all-or-nothing person.
It’s why my weight yo-yos.
It’s why my business ebbs and flows.
It’s… maybe a problem?

Or maybe 2026 isn’t about doing all the things
Maybe it’s the year of **good enough**.
Less perfection.
Fewer impossible lists.
More showing up as I am—even when Monday has other plans.

If your week started like this, I see you.

Let’s hear it. How’s your Monday going at not even 9am 🤪

12/31/2025

Yesterday at Metro I had two conversations that stayed with me. The kind that feel accidental… but absolutely aren’t.

The first was with an elderly woman I helped grab a bottle of 7-Up. We talked about inflation. About life.

And then, quietly, she said she wished she had grandchildren. She talked about time. How precious it is. How fast it goes. No BS. Just truth.

The second was with the woman working the cash.

She asked about my New Year’s plans and I mentioned being away at a hockey tournament. Her whole face changed. She told me how much she misses those years. The tournaments. The families. The connections her child brought into her life.

Her kid is grown and flown now. And before I left she said, “The days are long, but the years fly by.”

I don’t believe for one second those women were random.
They were a message.
A mirror.
A reminder at the very end of 2025.

As I head into 2026, I’m not setting goals.
I’m not grinding.
I’m not chasing hustle culture milestones.

F**k. That.

I want connection.
Real, deep, meaningful s**t.
Conversations that linger.
People who see you.
Moments that matter.

Not “how’s the weather?”
But “how’s your heart?”

Because the days might feel long…
but the years?
They fly.

What are your thoughts on entering 2026? I would love to hear 👂

12/26/2025

I hope you all had an incredible Christmas.

Here’s some food for thought my beautiful friends.

10 days til the official launch of the Dangerous Age. But if you want in early jump on that waitlist and get in Jan 1st!

Waitlist here

https://www.ashleystehlik.com/coming-soon-03

You feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and maybe even resentful, not because you’re failing, but because you’ve spent decades managing everyone else’s life while yours quietly waited in the background. That exhaustion? Totally valid.Yep. That’s the midlife struggle nobody warns you about. You’ve...

12/23/2025

Dear 18-year-old me,

I wish you could see what I see now.
How special you are.
How beautiful — not just on the outside, but in the way you soften around people, the way you care deeply, the way your heart is always reaching for connection.

You were kind in a world that didn’t always deserve it.

I wish I could tell you this: you don’t need to sacrifice yourself to be loved.
You don’t need to stay quiet.
You don’t need to tolerate bu****it just because someone tells you that you should.
You don’t need to earn your place by enduring pain.

What came next for you — the abuse, the years of shrinking, the harm you accepted because you thought that’s what love looked like — was horrible.

And I hate that you believed it was normal. I hate that no one taught you that love doesn’t require suffering.

I look at you in this photo and what breaks my heart is knowing you never felt beautiful. You never felt worthy. You never felt deserving of real love. And that tells me everything about how cruel your inner voice was — how deeply fu**ed up your self-talk had become before you ever stood a chance.

Looking back now, I don’t see a girl who was weak or naive.

I see a girl who was desperate for love — and didn’t yet know she deserved it without pain.

Deep reflections often come after a visit with family don’t they?

12/19/2025

This one is for YOU

The one who has unreasonable expectations of yourself

The one who feels like it Is never enough

The one who holds themselves to impossible Standards

This one is for YOU

Ever wonder why, no matter how motivated you are, you keep doing the exact opposite of what you know will help you? Self-sabotage isn’t about willpower, it’s about hidden fears, unprocessed emotions, and patterns your brain learned long ago.You set goals. You make plans. You get hyped. And then....