HeartStories

01/30/2024

So honored and excited to get to be part of the 1st Annual Miss Frisco Scholarship Miss Frisco Scholarship Pageant!

We are excited to introduce to you the amazing Crystal Gornto as one of our hosts of the 1st Annual Miss Frisco Scholarship Coronation 🎤!

Crystal is the Founder, CEO HeartStories
She is an innovative workshop facilitator, specializing in creating immediate and profound connections within teams and groups that result in better communication, stronger relationships, and increased buy-in to the overall mission.

With over a decade of experience, she has successfully guided 7,000+ women to connect intimately through storytelling. Crystal's trademark workshops offer fun and engaging activities that foster strong team bonds by leveraging stories as bridges of connection, providing a safe space for vulnerability, and deepening understanding among team members. If you're seeking unconventional ways to strengthen relationships, Crystal is ready to bring the spark you've been looking for.

Crystal has been a Frisco resident since 2004 and a local business owner since 2013. Her experience as a pageant contestant provides a deep appreciation for the value pageantry provides a woman in her career and life. She recognizes that confidence, poise, and mastery of interview skills are a few of the transferable skills pageants offer.

Crystal is the proud mother of two young men born and raised here in Frisco. She values her relationships with God, her family, and her incredible friends more than anything else. In her free time, she can be found laughing, with the ones she loves.

Photo credit 📷 Vanessa Corral Photography

08/29/2022

Saudade Dad: Your Love Remains

We’re celebrating you today, Dad. It’s your 77th birthday. This is the second time we’ve celebrated your birthday without you physically here with us. Daddy, it still hurts so bad. I’ve lost so much since you’ve been gone. I wish we could talk about it. I wish I could hold your hand. Sometimes I wonder if the ache of not having you here will ever go away. But deep inside, I know the ache won’t ever go away, because while I’ve lost so much, I have also found so much.

I keep finding my name in your Bibles and your devotionals. I’ve found your notes scribbled in the margins, which led me to answers I desperately needed in those exact moments. There’s no other way to explain it, Dad.

Your love remains.

We’re celebrating you today, Dad. It’s your 77th birthday. This is the second time we’ve celebrated your birthday without you physically here with us. Daddy, it still hurts so bad. I’ve lost so much since you’ve been gone. I wish we could talk about it. I wish I could hold your hand. Somet...

03/22/2022

Not enough of us know how to sit in pain with others. Worse, our discomfort shows up in ways that can hurt people and reinforce their own isolation. I have started to believe that crying with strangers in person could save the world. -

03/10/2022

Who is feeling this with me right now? 🖐️

I don't know who originally authored that little tidbit of wise revelation, but I am high-fiving her with my life these days.

It's profound how much the wisdom of living and growing will change the value you place on the opinions of others.

If only I knew then what I know now.

You too? ❤️

Pst . . . Pass it on!

03/09/2022

Be that girl who roots for the other girl, tells a stranger her hair looks amazing and encourages other women to believe in themselves and their dreams. . . especially on International Women’s Day! 🎉💕

May we all be that girl!

This video is a glimpse of who we are and how we live this mission every day around here!

At HeartStories we've been inspiring joy by encouraging busy women to prioritize life-giving friendships through authentic storytelling since 2013. This creates bonds with girlfriends who become your chosen sisters. The ones who are there for you through the good, the bad, and the ugly of life.

We get it – making time for friendships is hard. We’re a team of women juggling all the responsibilities of career and family too. Experience has taught us that there’s no substitute for consistent, authentic friendships with other women who are FOR you.

That’s why we're committed to reconnecting busy women to inspire the joy you crave and the courage to pursue your purpose. There is no better way for that to happen than laughing and sharing stories, surrounded by other women who have dropped the judgment and dropped their guards to celebrate life and insist on joy in the middle of whatever crazy life brings!

No matter the season or the state of our world, you'll find us sharing inspiring women's heart stories online and in person through events, trips, and connecting experiences of all kinds.

We believe in YOU!

Follow us for more encouraging stories and to be the first to know about our upcoming gatherings!

heartstories.com

❤️

03/08/2022

Exactly what being a parent feels like. 🎯

You hit the ground.
No one expected you to die.
Of course, you're still making dinner!
Right?!

😜 💪

❤️

03/01/2022

In a time when we've all lost so much in so many different ways, this is such a poignant reminder from Dr. Edith Eger that even still, you have the power to choose what you will give your attention to.

What's one thing, person, memory, dream, experience, or goal you still have that you can shift your attention to this week?

02/27/2022

Feeling down? Our beloved HeartStories Sister, Leah Frazier gave some incredible tips to beat the winter blues during her highlight on Good Morning Texas February 9th!
As a certified meditation teacher & certified mindfulness practitioner, she shared tips to boost your energy, your vibes, & your joy! One of our favorites was:

“The Brain Dance” - Movement of certain sections of your body helps establish endorphins & activates the prefrontal cortex to help get you innovative and creative.

First, start with the top, only move the top in gentle movements.
Then, only move the bottom.
Then, one side or one side or the other.

Leah says that doing this with your body really helps to jazz up your brain and get you feeling happy and peaceful and joyful. In the end, it balances all the energy in your body and your brain out. If you’re feeling down, just get up and move!

Leah says that doing this with your body really helps to jazz up your brain to get you feeling happy & peaceful & joyful. In the end it balances all the energy in your body & your brain out. If you’re feeling down, just get up & move!

More tips from Leah on beating the winter blues:
💫 - Go Out in the Sun! Place your hands towards the sun and receive the direct flow of energy through your hands which have energy sensors flowing through them.
💫 - Eat more “sun foods” & “superfoods” - those foods that soak up the sun (kale, spinach, arugula, etc.). Put liquid chlorophyll & flower essences in your water every day for extra natural sun & plant energy.
💫 Move the body!! Check out the “Brain Dance” on YouTube!
💫 Meditate 🧘‍♀️- try to work 30 minutes per day
💫 Practice Mindfulness - try to stay in the present moment…& find joy & gratitude for the things in your life today. Also, if you’re feeling down, know that it's ok. Show yourself the same compassion that you would, if you were loving someone else who is going through the same thing.
Follow for more of her meditation & mindfulness tips.

02/26/2022

I won’t stop thinking of, aching for, and praying for the people of Ukraine.

I’m praying that unexplainable peace and comfort invade the hearts and minds of children and their parents. That every hiding place is protected. That vulnerable people are miraculously sheltered from harm.

Praying that soldiers feel the courage and passion of giants as they defend their land.

Praying that Ukrainians everywhere see our hearts, minds, and social feeds draped with yellow and blue as a visible signal of our love.

Praying that our solidarity with them would bolster their WILL to defeat the enemy and they would sustain an unshakable belief in what they
are fighting for!

Praying that the dawn comes quickly and the watching world sees the Ukrainian flag still waving! 🇺🇦

Standing for peace, love, and humanity.

Standing with Ukraine.

Kneeling for Ukraine.

02/25/2022

In his darkest hour, Winston’s track record of failed strategies and countless lives lost haunts him, threatening to weaken his resolve. In the strongest, most tender moment of the film, Winston’s wife Clemmie, (Kristin Scott Thomas) takes hold of his hands. They are the same hands he’s been wringing in fear and trembling over making a decision that, no matter the outcome, will inevitably cost everything. She leans in, looks deeply into his eyes, and says,

“You are strong because you are imperfect. You are wise because you have doubts. From this uncertainty, the wisest words will come.”

In that moment, he’s able to see that the mistakes from his past, all his imperfections, and all his doubts have prepared him exactly for this moment. That without the painful journey, he might make the most foolish decision. It’s precisely because of the painful road he’s traveled that he can conjure the wisdom to choose what is best, despite all the other voices clamoring to take the lead.

You have that same wisdom.

In your most difficult moments, when you remember your imperfections, feel completely inadequate, and doubt you have the wisdom to make the best decision, trust that your wisdom will come. You see the path ahead through the eyes that carry the wisdom of the path behind. You’ve journeyed through things no one else may understand.

You are strong, not in spite of your imperfections, but because of them.

Be encouraged today.

You are exactly who you need to be, to do the next right thing.

to more love,

Crystal

Read or listen to the full blog:

"Your wisdom will come"

http://heartstories.com/your-wisdom-will-come?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

📸 : Jack English / Focus Features

02/20/2022

This got me fired up! 🔥

I read an article that left me enraged over a condemning narrative shouting that women should constantly pour themselves out, without any replenishment. My anger began with tears of sadness, nose tingling, and eyes watering. The outright deceitfulness of saying to care for yourself is godless. She manipulated self-care memes with disturbing images that twisted the meaning/the intent and the truth to leave women believing that the only way to be a good woman is through constantly feeling empty and drained. Oh, and if that leaves you feeling unfulfilled or unjoyful, there’s simply something not right with you.

This is so far from the truth.

It’s condemning. It’s distant. There is no love, no compassion in this. This message is shameful.

It’s literally FULL of shame.

How, does a woman physically thrive enough to care for others? How does she become strong? Does she starve herself of food? Go without sleep? Deny her need for solace? Never recharge? Never replenish? Only martyr herself for others? Oh and if she’s faithful to this martyrdom, she should certainly feel fulfilled and joyful all the time!

Everything in me fights against this.

There is another path. There is a more loving path. There is a more human path. A more realistic path. A more compassionate path.

It’s the path of renewal.

It’s tending to the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs of your body so that you have the strength to show up, full of joy, for your life of service to others.

If you’re tired, hungry, sad, or lonely, those are signs of life, not selfishness.

It’s why babies cry before they can speak. They are signals you need care. You are designed for rest, renewal, connection, and creativity. If you want to live a flourishing life in humble service to others, as I do, these things are non-negotiable. I’m certainly not the expert at practicing them, but it’s why I do what I do.

I’m fighting for you.

We need you to flourish.

We need you to do what you’re called to do.

Pay attention to your signs of life.

to more love,

Crystal

Listen in or read the full blog at:

https://heartstories.com/signs-of-life/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

02/19/2022

DO NOT listen to the whispers that try to convince you you're too old, your time has passed, or your best years are behind you. They are lies!

The journey of your life has been challenging. You have fought so hard to become the woman that you are.

You have SO much more to offer than you ever have before.

Yes, YOU. Exactly who and where you are right now.

Let that soak in today.