Between the On-Ramp and the Off-Ramp with Stephanie Schroeder

She was on her way to San Diego. Barcelona had been the dream since the Barcelona Olympics, but a study abroad counselor asked the right question at the right moment, and suddenly she was boarding a plane to Mazatlán instead — in the Tropic of Cancer, because her sun sign is Cancer and that seemed aligned.
Her luggage didn't arrive. Her host family changed two days before she left. And the moment she walked through the gate and met her new family, it felt like home.
That was over thirty years ago. She still cries every time she leaves Mexico.
In this conversation, Stephanie Schroeder sits with nOMad founder Phoebe Leona in the space in between — between the Spanish teacher she was for 15 years and the retreat guide she's becoming. Between the practice she taught and the practice she's finally bringing back home to herself. Between Indianapolis, where she's stationed, and the Yucatan, where she belongs.
We talk about what it felt like when Stephanie's body said enough — the exhaustion she couldn't name, the weight gain, the drinking she used to fill the gap where rest should have been — and how yoga didn't just give her tools, it gave her sobriety. We explore the difference between the physical practice and the spiritual one, what it means when the practice you love gets tangled up with making a living, and why Stephanie believes her retreats are less about yoga and more about pilgrimage.
We also hear about her two annual retreats in the Yucatan — a fall journey into ancestral honoring timed to Day of the Dead in Mérida, and a spring shamanic experience of restoration and renewal in the jungle, where the equinox sunset at Chichén Itzá makes the serpent god Kukulkán appear to descend the temple stairs. Plus a third retreat taking shape around the Moon Goddess — women only, because of course.
And at the very end, Stephanie offers the image her client gave her that stopped both of us in our tracks: I am both on the on-ramp and the off-ramp.
That's the space in between. And she's learning to live there with grace.

Links mentioned:
Stephanie's website: creativenature.life
Stephanie on Instagram & Facebook: @creativenature.life
Fall retreat — Ancestral Honoring, Mérida, Yucatan: October 24–30: https://www.creativenature.life/retreat
Spring retreat — Restoring Balance, Yucatan jungle: March 16–22: https://www.creativenature.life/retreat

The nOMad Collective: thenomadcollective.org

If Stephanie's story moved you — share this episode. And if Mexico has been calling you, maybe it's time to answer.