Physical Freedom

Rebecca is an Embodied Breakthrough client who wears many hats. She’s a project manager, a mom of two kids and 3 animals, a painter and incredible writer who is working on her memoir.

But chronic pain began to interrupt her active lifestyle. From lower back and hip pain to migraines from neck and shoulder tension, she wasn’t feeling settled in her body. Her rigorous kettlebell training program encouraged her to move in a way that just didn’t feel right. She felt stuck and knew what she was doing wasn’t working. Most importantly, she wanted a way to feel free and to know herself better.

By working through the Embodied Breakthrough program, her lower back and hip pain has disappeared. She’s doing spinal flows, getting up and down off the floor often, and has more body awareness when doing daily tasks like taking out the trash. She’s learned skills like listening and curiosity to develop strength she didn’t think she had, and engaging her breath daily to calm her mind and find her center.

Rebecca has been on a journey to discover that our body is our home. She’s let go of the scorecard and is here to let you know that you, too, can choose to have a different relationship with your body through intentional movement and exploration.

In this episode, we talk with Tiffany Walsh, an Embodied Breakthrough client who has broken through artificial ceilings and is forming a whole new way of being in the world with her body.

Like many others, Tiffany held childhood beliefs of not being cut out for athletic pursuits. But she discovered Crossfit a decade ago, and her ideas of what she was capable of started to change. While putting her body through the paces, she faced recurring shoulder pain that eventually became excruciating and severely limited her everyday activities. 

She knew that doing nothing wasn’t the answer and that she needed to go back to her foundation. She discovered Embodied Breakthrough and, after her initial call, trusted her gut and committed to herself by signing up for the program. 

Over the next year, Tiffany had a major mindset shift, learning to be patient with herself and continue to come back to her practice. To slow down and be more gentle with her body. When she eventually started to add more movement back in, she could tell her mindset had changed, and the quality of her movement had improved. She’s developed inner strength and trust in herself. She’s learned to focus on what a movement feels like and enjoying what her body can do, like riding bikes and dancing. 

Tiffany has redefined strength for herself, and she fully believes that you can too. 

In this episode, we had the honor of talking with Embodied Breakthrough student Hollie Lemin. Hollie is a passionate human dedicated to overcoming challenges and becoming the strongest version of herself. 

Hollie is no stranger to challenges. With a family history of arthritis and being told she would suffer the same fate, she felt pain in daily movement from the age of 16, often struggling just to get out of bed in the morning. She stopped going to the concerts she loved because even standing was painful. She shrank her world down to protect her body.

She tried it all, from physical therapy to carbon copy gym training, running and yoga. While much of mainstream fitness culture didn’t resonate with her, she stayed persistent until finding Embodied Breakthrough.

Now Hollie gets out of bed without aches and pains. She's running completely pain-free, has mastered the deep squat and is feeling inspired to try new things like rock climbing. By fixing her broken foundations and getting her core to work properly again, she is more aware and connected to her body than ever. Instead of her world shrinking, it's now expanding.

She started to understand that challenges and obstacles will always present themselves, but we can learn something from each and every one of them, becoming a stronger person in the process.

Let Hollie’s story inspire YOU to seek support, overcome your challenges and say YES to yourself.

Physical pain is often the reason people seek out body work, and it can also be the catalyst that leads them to greater body awareness.

As we discuss with author and certified Rolfing expert Mary Bond, body awareness is useful in learning your limits and capacities. By slowing down and learning to be present in yourself through your body, you give yourself time for more feedback to take place. 

We talk with Mary about our movement starved bodies in this digital age, and how our tunnel of awareness narrows with our constant connection to screens. We also get into everything from dancing and aging to somatic resilience and boxing with Parkinson’s.

It’s easy to constantly judge ourselves for what our bodies can’t do. But if we remained curious and interested, celebrating our movement capacity right now?

Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Taken too far, even a healthy pursuit like trying to get in better shape or eating healthy can become toxic.

So, where do we learn to push ourselves to constantly do more, achieve more, BE more?

How do we use overtraining to avoid difficult emotions or areas of life we’re unhappy with?

In this episode, we chat with PHD, personal trainer, and burnout recovery coach Kersten Kimura, discussing the need to examine our mindset and deeper foundations. 

Kersten explains the spectrum of burnout, healing, and finally finding balance by asking the hard questions like what does my body need? What do I need right now?

Forming a healthy relationship with your body begins with self-acceptance and loving yourself NOW. 

Mentioned in Today’s Episode: