A couple days ago I told you about one of my favorite clients, Cathe (not her real name), volunteering to open up and share her progress (and setbacks), her ups and downs, her challenges and triumphs during our coaching calls for the 3 weeks.
Cathe is a normally shy person but professionally successful single mother who shares the same struggles as the rest of us. By opening up her process to getting the happiness she wants and deserves, she feels others will benefit by knowing they are not alone—and what better time to begin than the New Year.
These events and their outcomes will resonate with you, perhaps you can identify with them, and certainly you’ll learn from them beyond the value Cathe’s received from learning to love her body through our time together…
My clients encouraged me to share our times together…and with the permission of those clients the edited transcripts help others discover the benefits of the Body Knowledge System™. Here is the transcript from my week 1 call with Cathe.
Come to the call…
for a risk free peek into my coaching process with Cathe.
Cathe: I eat all the right things, I take the steps instead of elevators, and I move my body AND I feel gross, I FEEL FAT!!! I counted every calorie; I parked in the farthest spot in my office lot; kept accurate records of every calorie I burned at the gym; and I wrote down how full I felt after every meal—as if, lettuce, celery and fat free salad dressing can be considered a “meal”? !
Coach Stephanie: Ok, what happened last week that was different?
Cathe: How can I appear as the keynote speaker on the annual company cruise when my power suit zips up my muffin top?
Coach Stephanie: So, what is your body trying to tell you?
Cathe: (a slight whine) I am fat? My head, my calorie calculator, indicates I’m starving.
Coach Stephanie: Is this about your body, or about speaking on the company cruise?
Cathe: ( pause) In spite of everything I know about calories in, energy out, my body gains weight when I really, really need to lose a few to look my best on the speaker’s platform…Professionally this is a great opportunity, a plus…a promotion.
Coach Stephanie: And personally?
Cathe: (long
pause) My kids. I’ll miss my daughter’s basketball playoffs…and my son’s Parents’ Weekend at the University…
Coach Stephanie: I hear you. The sadness in your voice. About not being there for your children.
Cathe: I’m the sole support for them…I need to go on that cruise!
Coach Stephanie: (laughing) If the cruise was to the Gulag would you still feel so ambivalent?
Cathe: (a pause, then a hoot) Honestly? No.
Coach Stephanie: That’s your body speaking, right?
Cathe: Yes…my body always speaks the truth.
Coach Stephanie: Of course she does.
Cathe: Oh! Its 5 minutes to the hour…what do I do?
Coach Stephanie: What does this weight gain, your body, trying to tell you about your speaking engagement, this cruise conference?
You can experience the same thing by joining one of these teleclasses…for a risk-free peek into my coaching process.
January 15, 2013 at 3pm Eastern – Learn How to Include Your Body with Your Work
- Become someone who connects their mind to their body and really knows what the right answer feels like.
January 29, 2013 at 3pm Eastern – Learn that the “E” Word (Exercise) is Easy and Fun
- Learn how to naturally incorporate exercise into your pre-existing lifestyle.
Look for my next email week to find out how Cathe answers my last question and read more about her progress in our coaching calls. Until then, feel free to comment or ask questions on my blog, Facebook, Twitter or by email.
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Tags: Body Relationship, Inspiration
I know the holidays are still a couple months away, but I’m going to go ahead and say it…
Enough with New Year’s Resolutions!
For most people, the holidays are a time of enjoying food, family and friends. And after they’re over . . . they find themselves in a self-deprecating pit.
So — they do what everybody else does, and they vow to go to the gym five times a week to atone for their “sins” that they’ve committed over the past weeks and months.
Enough Already!
I remember how that used to feel. And it’s terrible. But I found a way to not only experience true freedom during the holidays, but every month that followed, too.
And I want that for you.
So, during the months of November, December and January, I’m doing something I’ve never done before.
I’m calling them holiday “bite-size” coaching sessions, supporting a healthier you. I know you’re busy during the holidays, (so am I), so I’m making this super flexible for both of us.
We’ll do twice a month, half hour sessions (during a time that’s good for both of us) and I’ll give you the tips, techniques and tools that you need to be proactive this Holiday season … NOT reactive.
And by the time January rolls around . . . you’ll be joining me in saying, “Enough with resolutions!” because you won’t need to make any. Because you won’t be feeling fat and out of sorts with your Body like you may normally feel.
I want to make this a no-brainer for you.
And I know that funds get tight around the holidays. So, I’m offering you the lowest price I’ve ever offered before. Like ever.
Normally, 8 hours of my time would cost you $900. Not this time. I’ve decided to cut that by a third.
No, that’s not a typo. It will only be $297 (my Holiday gift to you).
Here’s how to get started . . .
1. Go here (NOT a sales page) and fill out this quick contact info form.
2. Sit tight and you’ll be hearing from me shortly.
It’s that easy. Only $37.13 per coaching session . . . and that’s a bite size price (total due by November 10th — after that the price goes up to $397). Two (2) 1/2 hour coaching sessions each month at a time that is flexible for both of us plus 2 more group sessions in January.
So if you know this is right for you . . . if you know it’s exactly what you’ve needed over the Holidays for a while now, fill out this form, and we’ll be connecting in no time.
To abolishing resolutions!
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Tags: Body Image, Eating Healthy
Some of you took advantage of my no-cost offer to share my Healthier Lifestyle Resource Kit with you last week. Unfortunately some of you missed the offer so I’m offering it here one more time so you can benefit from the information you missed.
Requests for my Healthier Lifestyle Resource Kit keep coming along with several great questions! I wanted to share them with you so here are the three most asked questions so far:
Q. Why does your system work, when all the others fail over time?
A. My system works because it empowers you to stay motivated by finding what works for you by doing it YOUR way. My system becomes your system!
-From Susan J. in Newport Beach, California:
Q. Who says it works forever?
A. My clients and their experience. As soon as you renew your relationship with your body, you are committed to her, and she to you. You have co-created an eternal relationship that sustains itself and rewards both of you with the results you desire.
-From Jill C. in Manitoba, Canada:
Q. What’s the magic method or secret ingredient?
A. You and your experience co-creating the relationship with your body. The process involves working with your BFF, your body, to determine what works for BOTH of you in every area of your life. My system will give you and your body a wide variety of tools and techniques to choose from as you restore that healthy, happy, sexy person you were born to be! From fun forms of motion, food choices, attracting new and better relationships, to doing the work that expresses your way of being in the world.
-From Marie O. in Chicago, IL
I want to share all I know about our bodies, ourselves—
My Body Knowledge is Your Body Knowledge— of Your Body.
In my system, everything begins with your body.
Through experience, my system becomes your system.
My system works for me, and when you do my system your way,
It’s now yours, Your System, Your Way.
Because it’s your system, your way; your system works with you and for you, every day.
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Tags: Eating Healthy
TIME IS STRUCTURE:
Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. We spend our waking hours filling in our calendars, Day Runners, Outlook scheduler with appointments, calls, letters, email, errands, meetings, and other obligations. Time is the great equalizer among men and women; every one of us has the same number of minutes in a twenty-four hour period, 168 hours a week. How we choose to fill those spaces determines who we are, what our priorities are, and expresses our commitment to what we want in our future.
This oh- so- serious – subject deserves a little lightening up!
Enter The Body Knowledge System® a sustainable solution to our health and well being:
DANCE YOUR DAY AWAY!
The elements of dancing lend themselves to everyone’s schedule as soon as we become aware of how to apply them to our activities. It’s your time, it’s your body, and it will become your dance. Take any activity, professional or personal, and apply the metaphor of motion to enhance the experience, improve your production, and enjoy the process! Rather than suffering through your responsibilities, professional obligations, personal tasks; dancing through your day brings benefit beyond your body’s wellbeing and health. The magic of movement increases your breathing
that aerates your brain, making your more alert and smarter. Free form motion lifts you emotionally and spiritually as well. As you move to your own music, you strengthen your body with your personal grace. All of these elements increase your confidence, empower your work and play, and your body awareness becomes body AWE!
CHOREOGRAPHY
Planning, coordinating, and learning apply to every performance whether on the stage or at your desk, in your home or on the field, at work or at play. When you check your calendar, you notice the restrictions, the limits of each period. Like chains wrapped around your body, stifling your creativity, the tick-tock of time confines your body and your mind to the allotted space—at the same time, it cramps your mind and stuffs your spirit.
After imagining your dance, the next element of choreography is warming up the muscles prior to motion. Whether you’re studying for a test, preparing to write a business email, planning a menu, researching a report, the first step is preparation. As a dancer stretches and breathes consciously for release and relaxation, a working person prepares for the assigned task that is part of their job description.
Theatrical wisdom reinforces the importance of practice and preparation prior to performance. Regardless if your scheduled hour or day contains professional obligations or personal play, you’ll enjoy filling those minutes once you’ve warmed up in anticipation of the quality of your performance.
Warm up on the dance floor is physical and motivated by your body. Warm up for each activity during your day to create more productivity during the time you are filling with action. The prep benefits your body, oxygenates your mind, and inspires your spirit.
Try this tomorrow: When you awaken, stretch your muscles beginning with your toes and work your way up to the top of your head. Once out of bed, extend your fingertips over your head, out to your sides, and gently down to the floor in front of you. Scrunch your shoulders as you inhale deeply, and then relax your shoulders as you exhale.
Feel the music?
Hear your body purring in appreciation?
Move your happy feet and get on with your day!
Relish in Today & Take On Tomorrow
PERFORMANCE
Looking at your watch, checking your Day timer, you smile in anticipation of your next activity. Warming up before taking the first step in your dance for that hour will ease the transition between tasks, between mental efforts, between people. If your work requires face to face relationships, either intense or casual, your warm up allows others to interrupt (cut in), change partners, or simply “Exit Stage Left” without causing undue hardship to your or your schedule.
Maintaining the image of your dance throughout your day, allows you to go with the flow. Whether today’s dance is a solo performance, a partnership, a line dance, ballet or a folk dance, your grace, strength, and overall wellbeing brings your best performance to the stage. Depending the dance you select to perform during the period, your movement has the most positive effect on your partners, group, and the audience.
Even though the alarm goes off to signal the end of one activity and beginning of another, your finale awaits you not the impersonal, objective hands of a machine indicating the top of an hour. You may shift from a waltz to a jitterbug, from a tango to hip hop, from flamenco to the electric slide between hours, days, or even minutes, depending on your task, your approach, your feelings about the action and your best approach in the moment.
Try this tomorrow: After appropriate warm-up, perform your activity with your music in mind. Sway in your desk chair, tap your toes beneath your desk, slide across your kitchen, skip to and through the open doors, tippy-toe up the stairs, step up, swing and sway at every opportunity.
Life is a Spontaneous Smash Dance—or it should be!
APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!
Dancing through your activity broadens your perspective, bringing inspiration and awareness to improve your performance. Before the phone rings summoning you to a meeting, before you put your keys in the ignition to drive home, after the last forkful of the evening meal, always remember to TAKE A BOW! Take several bows, you’ve earned the appreciation of your body, your mind, your spirit—and your audience.
Listening to the admiration from inside and outside you, as you cool down and ease into the next hour, the next activity, this is not the finale. Your dance continues into the next warm up, inspired performance and appreciative cool down before the next time period, the next activity.
Try this tomorrow: Before the final curtain, before you close your eyes to sleep, reflect on those spaces in your day filled with action PLUS motion when you dance through the time doing your work. Are you smiling at the recent memory? Of course you are! You’ve sprinkled sparkle on your schedule, you’ve lightened your load, you’ve created anticipation for the next page of your Day timer—and the dance you will do as you fill the hours with accomplishments
Warm up, perform, and cool down.
Take your bows, relish in today and take on tomorrow!
Dancing through your day becomes a habit, a custom, a daily practice.
“Practice Your Dance! Dance Your Practice!”
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Tags: Dancing, Life Balance, Mind Body Connection, movement
