LILYA INSPIRATION | MEET KATE STONE

Emotionally honest and openhearted, we would like you to meet beautiful Kate Stone. We met Kate over ten years ago, when she modelled for us at LILYA, in a summer campaign. The New York native, has studied in France, travelled through India, taught in Thailand, lived in Indonesia and carved out an acting career in LA. Over the years we have kept in contact and watched her blossom into a teacher and mentor for teenage girls with her program "HeartSpeak". Kate is as inspiring as she is beautiful, a  natural LILYA woman from way back, read on and get to know more about Kate and HeartSpeak. Kate tell us about your life now:

I live in Ojai, California, a little bohemian enclave north of Los Angeles. I moved here just three months before the pandemic, before things went completely sideways. I live amongst a vibrant landscape — with natural hot springs, a backyard river and forage-able fruit trees and plants which are nestled into the wilderness of the beautiful Matilija Canyon. It's quiet here, I can hear myself think and it's perfect for focused, creative work. I feel like I'm living my dharma, and in a process of compassionate dialogue with my inner world and the many "parts" of myself. I know what messages and guidance my feelings are bringing me, what I need to address in myself, what needs attention and healing. As I've matured, my values have definately shifted, in the past i was running towards the next sparkly thing. I now have a clearer vision of the ideas I want to share with the world and I think more about my contributions, how I want to live, and how I can share my gifts so that when I come to the end of my life, I feel like, YES, I rocked this incarnation and I have no regrets. 

What are your favourite things to do?

Here i feel like I have come back to my roots. I've become a passionate permaculture student and flower grower. It's like my favourite thing in the world to get my hands in the dirt and grow flowers like peonies, tulips, mexican sunflowers, and poppies. I also love planting fruit trees, it's mind-boggling that we can plant something for human beings to appreciate for generations. I'm also currently enjoying hunting for my own little slice of heaven. I'm finally ready to invest in a piece of land on a little river in New Mexico which I can develop over the decades and turn it into a sanctuary, a retreat.

Tell us about HeartSpeak?

HeartSpeak School is an inner education for the outer world. It's a seven-week program that gives young women (ages 15-25) the tools, strategies, and most importantly, a psychotherapeutic framework for transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, from anxious to optimistic, from lost to guided, from control to trust, and from self-hatred to self-love.

Everything I've ever had to overcome as a young woman personally, I put into this program and after a decade of teaching, mentoring, and coaching teenagers, I'm now proudly teaching young women the things I wish I knew earlier. It's hard to grow up, to fumble around, to feel unsure of who you are and where you fit in. And it's painful to have to face yourself and become responsible for yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings.

HeartSpeak School came to me in a literal fever dream. I woke up at 4 a.m. around Christmas 2020 with the entire curriculum downloaded into my mind. I like to think of it as the harmonic convergence of my teaching life and my spiritual life. It felt like I channeled it and it's a piece of my soul's work I'd been waiting to create at just the right time.

The program is a journey into Self — this means that we become aware of and question our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, examine our perspectives and consider others. We practice new ways, more compassionate ways, more functional ways of perceiving our "problems" and challenges. I feel like so much hinges on this upcoming generation, and the road will we take. A messy initiation into adulthood seems universal, but I don't think it has to be that way. We can minimise the mess with proper education and guidance.   

Read more about Kate and her empowerment program HeartSpeak here.

Have you been to Australia Kate? Tell us about your travel experiences? Where do you want to go next?

You know, I've never been to Australia. Considering how many Aussie friends I have from living in Bali, it's bizarre. Recently, I've felt a deep calling to visit Israel, I want to explore the land where the mystics roamed, where the Essenes lived and where the divine feminine priestesses reigned. The mystery school lineage captures my imagination and in some ways, I think HeartSpeak is a modern-day mystery school — an initiation and a passing down of earned wisdom. I have a deep reverence for the sacred and the mysterious. It's my inner Scorpio revealing itself here. What wisdom did the spiritual masters have access to? How can I modernise ancient knowledge and apply it to this contemporary world? Luckily, there are many wisdom teachings floating around for those that seek them. 

What's next for you Kate?

The future feels so uncertain right now, but, I know it’s going to be better than I can imagine and I’m open to all the possibilities and inspirations. My day-to-day is bringing my vision for The School of Inner Education (the evolution of HeartSpeak) into reality, which means a lot of writing, content, and video creation. I intend to write a book based on the principles of inner education. 

Photography by @steph_helguera

Kate wears LILYA throughout