Hi! I'm Crystal
I'm the creator of Heels of the Wolf
I split by time between Charlotte, NC and Miami, FL with my husband and fur babies. I used to write a lot when I was younger and as the common theme goes, life just got in the way as I’ve gotten older and my writing fell by the wayside. This blog started as a way for me to process my grief after the sudden loss of my dad in 2017. I had to get the words and thoughts that were swirling around in my head out after such a sudden loss or they may have fully consumed me…
Since then, I still share my musings on loss, but this has also turned into somewhat of a travel blog. I’ve always had the travel bug, but it got so much more intense and I literally became feverish about traveling after my dad died. My dad’s death was an event that rocked me so much and made me realize our lives truly are so short and finite - we really are just tiny specs of dust. So my sense of urgency to travel really ramped up. After his life was cut short too soon, I promised myself I would live out all my travel dreams and do so in a hurry. Tomorrow is not guaranteed and really nothing in life is (my thoughts on that here). Your life can change forever in a split second and there is no going back. So since we don’t know what life will bring us, then we must live out our dreams NOW. For me, those dreams center around travel and seeing as much of the world as possible… your dreams may not revolve around travel, but whatever they are, I hope to be a little bit of an inspiration to live yours out in the here and now.
Additionally, my health dramatically declined in the years following my dad’s death. I was experiencing such intense stress from the grief, my cortisol levels were constantly spiked, which ultimately led me to a terrible hormone imbalance. I was suffering from anxiety, panic attacks, chest pain, faintness, dizziness, extremely debilitating fatigue, I developed skin and autoimmune issues, I mean you name it. I have been on a years-long hormone healing journey since then to balance my stress levels and ultimately balance my cortisol - this means I have had to make a lot of lifestyle changes. I plan to share out some of what I’ve learned about managing stress and how that impacts female hormones, specifically around these lifestyle adjustments. I recently got my 200 hour yoga teacher certification - yoga, meditation and mindfulness have been instrumental on this healing journey. We don’t get a second chance in this life, so we must take care of ourselves both physically and mentally. And part of that is doing whatever it is that lights us up! I hope this blog inspires people to live consciously and to not wait to live out their dreams. Time is our most precious resource, as we can’t get it back…
My dad went to N.C. State University in North Carolina, which is Wolfpack territory. I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and am a Tarheel through and through. They are rival schools, yet we bonded over that rivalry. This blog name is a nod to the aforementioned major changes in my life on the heels of the loss of our pack leader. Wolves are also a sign of wildness, so I hope to inspire you to reclaim your wild... 🐺