Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Snyder.
Hi Ashley, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up very fast at a very young age. I experienced a traumatic past of sexual abuse, beginning at the age of nine years old until the age of 12. Due to my past, my life looked different than an average nine-year-old’s life. I subconsciously changed physically and mentally and went into survival mode. I didn’t know that I had changed at this time in a not-so-average way for a nine year old until I started to do shadow work in my mid-twenties. The shadow work helped me identify triggers and make sense of why I do certain things to date as a result of my past. What did survival behaviors look like for me as a child because of these experiences? I would hide under my clothes and wear extra undergarments, I became quieter and stayed away from people, I observed others more, I became more cautious, suspicious of others and places, and didn’t trust anyone. I wasn’t safe anywhere, is how I felt. Eventually, in my mid-twenties, I became more discerning and started to pay attention to my intuition, and if I didn’t feel right, then I got the heck out of dodge very quickly. My survival mechanisms kept me safe and that is what I needed in those chapters of my life.
Because of the past sexual abuse, absent father, and lack of affection from my mother and other close family members, I felt like a lonely motherless child. I made very unhealthy decisions and became a single mother at the age of 17 years old. I found lust versus love, and I did not know the difference. I gave undeserving attention to anyone that wanted my attention. I didn’t know they had ill intentions for me too.
I made enough sales to get by with the extra money I was making in my side business, but we were still struggling. Two streams of income, one child (at the time), loneliness, struggle, and defeat still lurked in my life. I became depressed for years. I became a workaholic more than I was born to be; I numbed myself with alcohol and nicotine, and sex to distract me from my reality. It wasn’t until I got fed up with being fed up and I began to work harder in my side business to make more money to be the provider I wanted to be for my daughter. I gained confidence as I got better in sales, and I met very positive and connected people. I learned all that I could from those people and grew as a woman, mother, and savvy business owner. I had the confidence to go after a career and to get paid my worth. My worth, in my eyes, wasn’t a high stake but it improved from how I viewed myself before I took action to change my life. I was still struggling, but things got better. I didn’t give up, and I kept moving forward even when I didn’t know where I was going or could form thoughts of where I wanted to go besides being debt-free and having more money than the month.
Fast forwarding, I surrounded myself with people that were doing better than me and wanted to see me win too. I grew mentally and spiritually because of my new friend’s belief in me, which made me believe in myself to change.
In 2020, I created an LLC, “The Amore Code,” when I got home to Columbus, OH. An organization that wanted to empower mostly traumatized women to be intentional in breaking adopted limiteding beliefs from their past and self-doubt to grow in self-love and gratitude. Gratitude is a gateway to awareness and mindfulness, mindfulness is a gateway to action, action is a gateway to self-confidence and abundance, and it is a continuous beautiful circle. So, I created a gratitude journal like I always wanted to do. I am and always have been an avid journalerd, and I wanted to share this new way of mindfulness with others who wanted change and were open to doing the things that helped me to potentially help themselves. It took two years to finish the journal; however, I finished the gratitude journal and published it in December of 2022.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. I am and will always be a work in progress. I, too, struggle with fear, self-doubt, and managing limiting beliefs that were/are placed on me. I am human and perfectly imperfect, just like anyone else. I wanted to give up on my business, to give up on finishing the gratitude journal, so many times because there were issues one after the other, and I didn’t know what I was doing; however, I kept going forward blindly and figured things out. Loved ones encouraged me as they had to constantly remind me to manage my perfectionism issues.
Honestly, I have a lot to still work out as far as the direction of the company and brand, but I have several testimonies of my product helping them in their lives, and that keeps me going.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Amore Code, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
The Amore Code, LLC was established in 2020. I began working the business in December 2022. The Amore Code is intentional in breaking adopted limiting beliefs and self-doubt to empower one another to grow in self-love and gratitude.
I am still figuring out the brand and what I have to offer as I am growing too. My mission was to get started and avoid making excuses to help people on their healing journey. That’s what The Amore Code is about – empowerment, feeling fear and doing it anyway, being supportive of one another, creating self-awareness, shifting our mindset, and being ambassadors of self-love and self-care to better our lives how we see fit.
I am proud that I didn’t know what I was doing, and I got started anyway. I learned as I went, and I still am learning as I go. I am also proud of publishing my first gratitude journal, “Grand Rising! A Guide and Journal to Waking Up Intentionally Grateful” (see picture), not knowing how it would be received. I worried for nothing because I have received countless testimonies and positive feedback from individuals who purchased the gratitude journal. I have evidence and have seen how I am helping people, especially women on their gratitude walk and healing journey, and that keeps me going. The Amore Code, LLC is a vehicle to fulfill my assignment to serve and help others by sharing my art and story. If I made excuses, feared to be different, or did nothing, I realize that I would be robbing others of what it is I am supposed to share with my people on their journey.
On August 31, 2023 (my birthday!) I am launching a timeline logbook (see picture) called “My Timeline Log” that acknowledges milestones and celebrates any wins or events in your life that you want to remember.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
So, when Covid-19 happened, mental health became a real thing for those who did not already know it was real before. The Amore Code is in the mental health space, and I knew I had to create something that would help people.
Not only did the experience in Simi Valley, California inspire me to create this business, but the Covid-19 crisis confirmed that it was time to start this business. There were millions of individuals existing versus living out loud, and they did not know the difference. For decades, the majority of the world has distracted themselves from their buried past with too many public outings, work, and helping their friends with their problems instead of dealing with their problems and healing themselves.
Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, people felt secure in the distractions or in the habit of being distracted to avoid dealing with their past or current issues. Those distractions could have been going out a lot, overly inserting into social circles, overly volunteering (while they felt empty) to feel needed, substance abuse, etc., Covid-19 took those distractions away. Being prohibited from hanging out in groups or socializing in a building forced people to stay at home. For a lot of individuals, being forced to stay at home was traumatizing in itself, and difficult to not feel alone and feel like a failure. They could not and did not want to “sit with themselves.” One may have experienced verbal and/or physical abuse in the home and had no way out. A person had no choice during the Covid-19 stay at home order but to face their reality. I pray now that people want to face their reality and make it better.
Because of this, I built an online presence to meet each other where we are in our lives and encourage and uplift one another. My intent was to create togetherness for journal lovers impacted by trauma, like myself, and to invite anyone willing to start journaling as the result of feeling better about themselves and their lives through the power of release via writing.Contact Info:
- Website: www.theamorecode.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamorecode/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theamorecode/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/theamorecode/
