The letting go and cleaning up in order to move forward

Whew, what a day!  I'm finally sitting down after a day full of taking down Christmas for 4-5 hours, vacuuming up ALL of the pine needles (which still smelled SO good), running to the store, making myself food for dinner tonight and some for this week, cleaning up the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher.  Whew!  All of that little bitty stuff that takes so long!

I kept my Christmas decorations up for as long as I possibly could without annoying myself because I LOVE Christmas.  The entire holiday season, from before Thanksgiving until New Year's day just makes me happy.  I love the Hope and the Energy of the Season.  I love getting little things for all of my clients and people in my life whom I love.   I love all of the lights up in town squares and downtowns.  I love all of the colors everywhere.  I love the decorations up in my home, stores, everywhere...

So, I prolonged it as long as I could, but now, onward into 2014, which will be a completely different year for me, for many of us, for so many reasons and thank goodness!  2013 was beyond brutal for me in so many ways.

So, I am sitting down to work on the first pieces that I am creating and unrolling in what I am coming to think of as my own body of work, "Embodied Confidence (TM)".  I have a couple of one day playshops (with very different focuses) that will be happening in February (Intro to Embodied Confidence) and May (Moving Your Inner Goddess:  Love your Body.  Love yourSelf.  Love your Life.).  I have a 5 week series starting in March (Moving Your Inner Goddess:  Feel Strong.  Be Strong.  Live Your Strength) that is focused on empowering women to get themselves and their bodies moving in Many different ways.  We will be exploring within a safe and nurturing group environment to start the create the knowing within themselves that they, and their bodies, CAN do it!  Then I will be doing a 2 day retreat tying everything together this summer!  How amazing is that?

I'm also going to be working with a large fortune 500 company and a couple of office complexes to create fitness programs for employees.  I'm incredibly excited about it!

SO, I had to let go of Christmas to move into this year and I am SO happy to be moving into this year.  What about you?  What are you excited about this year?  What magic are you creating in your life?

As you move, Life moves.

What a productive, awesome day!

So far, I have gotten 20 out of 29 things on my to do list done! Woohoo! I expect to be at 23 by the time I go to sleep. I will get the rest of them done tomorrow & Tuesday. Ahhhhhhh. I feel like I am finally getting it all together & things are starting to gel & move in an amazing way in my life.

I have come up with another tag line as well, "Life Moves As u Move.". When we take action, when we shift something in ourselves, when we make a commitment to changing something holding us back, life will cooperate with us. If we do nothing & continue to do nothing, life will respond.

I did not do an email last week because I was cleaning up clutter in my house that just needed to go. Very symbolic. Cleaning clutter out of my house is cleaning clutter out of my life.

Many more big changes in my life for me during the last few months. It is becoming absolutely the norm in my life. I have not really felt ok since Bella got sick. I also did nothing for my business for many months and I am now paying for it, but I am taking action, big action. I have recently partnered with an incredible organization, Achieve Fitness Systems, and I am super excited about where my life and my business will go with them on my team. It is a team/a family of fitness & wellness professionals coming together to offer more than any of us can individually and I get wonderful, affirming, positive coaching from the CEO, which is helping me move past all of my sadness and inertia and start to see & feel possibilities again.

I am embarking on a big, new, exciting speaking and presenting aspect of my business. I am adding many residual streams of income by learning to and getting in the habit of thinking even more outside the box. I will be creating my own Body of Work playing with aspects of Feminine power, Embodiment and Movement. I'm also creating another very powerful Body of Work with an amazing man about Integration & Embodiment of the Yin & Yang-Feminine & Masculine.

In many ways, this is the time of my life with the most change, the most excitement of possibility, the most I've believed and known it is all changing and I have the tools & the support & the knowledge to do it because of the love & support of so many amazing people. In many ways, it is the most terrifying, the most exhausting, the biggest utterly not in control Surrendered time in my life. Dichotomy. Actually very much the Ultimate Balance of Masculine & Feminine.

I will continue to move forward. My body & my spirit will heal, as I continue to take care of myself. I know I am being carried & I know Bella had to leave me for me to have space to create any of this. And...

I can and I will...Watch Me....
My Goodness I am tired, I just need to rest, please take over for me, I know u got this, thank u.

Things I tell clients over and over (and over!)!

The things I find myself telling clients over and over and over!

So I've noticed several things that I find myself saying to my people repeatedly during a personal training session and in general. I decided I should write them down and share them w everyone so I can help even more people to connect their minds and their bodies as well as to change their bodies!

1). Sit back with ur butt first, then bend ur knees-most people sit and do squats with their knees and with bending over only. I teach a specific way of moving that gets people actually engaging and strengthening their glutes rather than just stressing their knees and/or their backs. This is important for SO many things: decreasing back pain & knee pain, strengthening leg muscles so they support knees and backs, having a nice butt, etc!

2). Pull the bottom pointy ends of ur shoulder blades together & down-most people hold a lot of tension in their necks, traps (the muscles running between the neck and the shoulders) & shoulders and tend to hunch forward on top of that. They do everything from the upper upper back, traps and shoulders. I teach people to use and strengthen the muscles in the lower upper back so that their shoulder blades are sitting where they r supposed to be. This takes huge amounts of stress and usually a lot of pain out of those over-used areas! It improves their posture 100%, which in and of itself makes their entire body look different!

3). Navel to Spine-in most people, their Transverse Abdominus doesn't fire properly. This muscle, (the underneath layer of abdominal muscle, which literally supports the entire body from it's center) can only engage with the navel pulling in and down into the lower back, like an ice cream scoop is scooping out the belly. It is very subtle & challenging for most people to learn how to do. I teach people the difference between this and just sucking in their stomach, BIG DIFFERENCE! I have people paying attention to and keeping it engaged throughout their entire workouts. When people do this, it supports their lower back, improves the strength of their entire core, improves low back issues and changes the way their entire body looks!

So those r just 3, but probably the most used phrases that I say in all of my core conditioning classes and with all of my one-on-one fitness, movement & Personal Training clients. Enjoy! Play w them urself and as always, let me know if u have questions, comments or feedback!

Non-Stop and Magical

This week has been non-stop and magical in so many ways: deep & loving women's circle, huge networking event & dinner w one of my besties, expansive healing group, dinner out, possibility charged business meeting with a man who is going to help me get where I am going, much needed massage and wonderful connections with so many wonderful people.

Everything in my life is changed and changing. I can feel it.  The things I was deeply, in the core of my being, worried about, I have let go of.   I know without any doubt that it all IS & that it is all unfolding, period.  Everything I've worked for in every aspect-physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually-is happening & unfolding.

The key here is that I had to get to absolute, complete willingness to lose everything I "have". I am not really in control anyway.  It's all perfect, even if I don't know it.  All I have to do is do my part, be an instrument, allow and know.  All week, I have been remembering that the Angel Card I pulled on New Year's Eve was WILLINGNESS.  It could not have been more true.  I had to go with so many things and events put in front of me.  So many things happened that I would never have wanted or could have had a clue were going to happen, so many things I had to completely release.  After this lesson, this big piece of growth for me, then and only then would I be on the track I was born to be on, whether I knew it or could do it myself without all of the work I've done in every aspect of my life.

We are multi-dimensional beings.  We are the physical, mental, emotion and spiritual.   It is impossible for us to not be, whether we believe it or not.   So own it, be it, be you, be the Big You. Allow, accept, quite fighting yourself.   Once u really and truly do, the payoff is much more than you can imagine and bring about by doing the things you are doing.  Trust me, "Let Go, Let God", on a very profound level, is real.   I see it in so many of my friends and know it within myself.  Namaste dear ones.   Namaste.

So how is YOUR posture?

So how is YOUR posture?

I have SO many people tell me their posture is horrible and they want to improve it. Hmmmmmmm, funny thing, I specialize in helping people improve their posture, decrease back pain, and change their bodies in many many ways with awareness and targeted corrective movement.

Not to mention that your body language, (posture being the biggest, most obvious and seen part of body language) communicates so much about you to anyone who sees you. We unconsciously or even consciously form opinions about people from what we see, good or bad.

So Y pay attention to posture and body language? Who cares what other people think about you, right? You know who u are and you like you just fine. Right? Well....maybe not so much.

First of all, your posture actually does reflect how u feel about yourself. For example, one posture seen pretty often these days is one of people with very rounded shoulders and flat back. Many many people these days feel very beaten down and consistently over-stressed and it shows up in this posture. It also reflects how many people spend their lies sitting down, slumped over at their desks and/or behind their computers, which simply adds to the above mentioned.

Secondly, The physiology of ur body effects u mentally and emotionally.
What you do with your body, in any way, effects how you feel. Bad posture also effects circulation, muscle balance, etc., which effect so many things, including causing pain, which we all know effects people mentally and emotionally.

Thirdly, Ur body shape changes w ur posture. Do an experiment: stand in front of a full length mirror. Stand with your shoulders completely rounded over and your pelvis tucked under. Look what it makes your body look like. Hmmmmm, does your belly pooch out? Do u look like u need to lose 10 lbs, like u r sad, older than u r, have no muscle tone, etc? Now, stand up tall and let your shoulder blades slide down your back toward your hips and your chest open. Hmmmmmmm, do u look like u just lost 10 lbs? Do u look happier? Do you look younger? Hmmmmmmmm.

So posture really does matter, for many many reasons.

What are you doing to improve yours?

Don't cheat yourself. Be all that u can be. Feel as great as u can feel. Let others clearly see how amazing u r! Don't hide u, u deserve to be showcased and to shine brightly! Start with your posture, it will make all of the difference in the world for u, for ur body and for ur spirit.

Profound Knowing, Sensing, Feeling

I had a very profound day.

So, as I sit here with mellow music on and candles burning all around me, I reflect  back on what was so profound about today.  As it is with the profound, it is challenging to put into words.  It is a feeling, a knowing, a sensation in my body.  I will do my best:

It was a very productive day;  I scoured my refrigerator (which I cannot remember the last time I did that, felt really good), baked all morning (peanut butter bites made w chick peas, PB, honey and raisins-quite tasty actually! And gluten free, egg free bread, yum), vacuumed my house, washed my sheets & comforter, etc.  it was a productive day! 

It was also a very profound day.  While I cleaned the fridge, I had on the Nia routine I am going to learn next.  I love the music, it has the sound of the Native Americans, is very primal while also being upbeat and often fast-paced.  As I watched the video, I saw many of my friends on the current Nia Trainer Faculty.  It was my dream for 13 years to be a Nia Trainer and teach people to teach Nia.  A little over a year ago, I had this awareness that I didn't want to do this, my "life's dream".  I had no idea where this came from, it just showed up and everything surrounding me was supporting that it was not the path for me. So, I consulted with a few trusted people in my life; one very much in Nia, one who used to be very entrenched in the Nia world and is not at all now, and one who has never even done Nia.  I wanted insight and mirroring for what I was seeing, feeling & sensing in my body.  I simply needed and wanted support and love, not anyone to tell me what I should do, that was my decision and I know that any decision I make, it is important for me to call on the people in my life to assist me in seeing clearly, as to not fool myself and/or make a giant misguided mistake.

As I watched the video, I had no pangs of wishing I had been there.  No pangs of wanting to be immersed in that world.  For u see, Nia was my box.  My cocoon encasing my butterfly, if u will.  Being a trainer was my box.  It was my story I had held sacred for so long.  Now, it no longer fit, even more so now.  Saying that The changes I have made in the last year are great in a gross understatement.  The changes I have made r profound and they resonate on a profound level within me.  I really am a different person, I feel and know it in my bones and in my soul and have it mirrored back to me in many ways every day.

I'm about to embark on rolling out a "new piece of work for me".  I also had more come to me today about what I will include and what I will not while cleaning, watching and listening to the video.  It is A playshop integrating Feminine Power, Movement and Embodiment.  It is a big step AND it is just the first step on whatever is coming next for me.  I just sense and know (even more so today, in an unexplainable way), that even more is going to shift, change, transform and grow.  The level at which I am being invited to do work within myself is profound, big and unimaginable...even more so last year, not even a glimpse of it, and yet here I stand.  It takes everything in me to focus and allow and do my work as to keep moving forward as I am intended to be doing. 

Now, realize, this decision last year was the exact opposite of comfortable for me.  It was a leap of faith in pretty much every sense of the word AND it was necessary for my next piece.  I didn't consciously know this then, I have always known that everything into my life led into everything else, but had no idea where I was going, I just trusted that this was my way...

How many times have u stopped urself from doing something because it was uncomfortable?  U didn't go to the gym because u didn't have time with all of the other busyness u had going on?  U didn't really examine where ur piece in a misunderstanding was?  U didn't listen to a gut feeling because to put it into play with whatever it was regarding, would be really messy and uncomfortable, for u, for others, for many?

If I hadn't listened to myself and my body, I would not be entering a new phase for me.  I wouldn't have the amazing tribe I have around me now.  I wouldn't be growing in leaps and bounds in every way imaginable.  Listen to u.  Take care of u.  Be YOU!  The "uncomfortable" path might seem uncomfortable now, but just think what it will be like in a few years when your SOUL is extremely uncomfortable with where u ARE...all because u wanted to be comfortable and really, it created even less because u stopped urself.

Listen to ur knowing.  Listen to ur body.  Honor every part of u, even and especially if u have no idea what and where it is coming from.  YOU really know...

She loved life and it loved her right back!

"She loved life and it loved her right back!"

I love that saying!  Have u ever noticed that when u r in a great mood, making eye contact,  smiling and saying hi to everyone u see, everything in life seems just a little easier and more magical?  When we exude love and happy, everyone and everything is attracted to us. 

When we go thru our lives in this space, we are asking the Universe to love us back, even if we don't know it.  People want to give when we are in this space, it's extremely attractive, period.  It's a space of the feminine, allowing, loving, acceptance and gratitude and everyone feels safe around this and wants to be a part of what u have!  Everyone and everything is attracted to it.

It's just like Fishing-do u just stick a pole out there at the fish?  No!  U hang out and attract them.  They r attracted to the shiny object.  U r being a shiny object and energy (people, things, situations...) can't help but be attracted! 

Now see, the problem is that many of us live in the opposite space.  We live in fear, scarcity, roadblocks, and lost in our heads and thoughts, never being fully present and open for life to love us right back.

The flow is going to STOP if u r in FEAR!!!!  So let go of it!

When we r in fear, everything is contracted.  We have pain and tension in our bodies, feelings of lack and defeat and thoughts of how we can't _______________ (fill in the blank with your choice of what u tell urself)!

I invite u to try it on.  Shift ur feeling to one of love and gratitude and abundance; knowing and trusting and loving as ur go to place u live from, instead of the default drama space u revert to automatically.  Notice how ur body is.  Notice how all of ur feelings shift and change and u r much more able to be present and right here, right now, instead of always lost in the thinking thinking thinking distraction that is such a habit for so many of us.

It's just like working out, the more u do it and the more u practice, the stronger u get and the better u r at it!

So flex ur love, allowance, surrender, gratitude and receptivity muscles!  Just like the physical muscles, u will reap big benefits from the commitment to urself!  Now, stay w it and just notice how when u love life, it loves u right back!