The Work IN to move out of stress, tension & anxiety

Last week on the podcast we met Kim Basler. We talked about the long term effects of living in chronic stress, over exercise and disordered eating. And how common that is in the fitness industry. Of course this isn’t limited to fitness industry professionals. No matter what your profession it’s important to understand that just because you do what you do well and have done it for so long you can do it in your sleep, that doesn’t mean you’re not under toxic levels of stress. It doesn’t matter what you think is going on with your stress levels, what matters is the nervous system response.

Often we think that trauma and stress injury only happens when the nervous system is overwhelmed all at once, too much too soon. And yes that can happen. But Too much for too long can lead to the same chronic stress and trauma symptoms we see in full blown ptsd.

 I speak from experience because there was a period of about 15 years where if you had asked me if I was stressed I would have told you no way. 

Even though I never slept, I suffered with excruciating gut pain, anxiety, depression and panic attacks as well as hormone dysregulation. So much so that I felt angry all the time and lost my temper at the drop of a hat. And this went for so long and started so subtly that I believed this was just my personality. I’m so glad it’s not.

I’d like to highlight some things that came out of our discussion that could help prevent the kind of overwhelm that leads to burnout and turnover that we see all too often in a space that’s supposed to be based on wellness. And then talk about some specific things that employers and managers can do to support their wellness contractors.

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Hey there, everyone and welcome back to the work in. I'm your host Ericka and today I'd like to introduce you to the 2021 Canfitpro New Presenter of the year Kim Basler. Kim is a food freedom and mindset coach, speaker and co author of the best selling book Owning Your Choices, stories of courage from inspirational women around the world. Her global reach has allowed her to support 1000s of women with self love, finding peace with food and their bodies and igniting the fire within to go after their dreams. After sharing her passion for health and well being at Canada's largest fitness company chain, Kim shares the truth about her 30 year long battle with disordered eating, body image over exercising and burnout that required her to surrender to her inner struggles and begin to heal from the inside out. And now through her certification in eating psychology and Mind Body nutrition, as well as the hundreds of hours she's devoted to her own self development, her mission is to empower women around the world to go deeper than another diet, learn to love the woman that they see in the mirror and cultivate their intuition to take care of themselves unapologetically. So let's dive into our work in today with Kim Basler. Alright, welcome Kim Basler to the work and thanks for joining me today.

Kim and I discuss diet culture, the effect of chronic stress and body image issues on even the strongest wellness professionals, and what it takes to heal the body, mind and spirit as well as the boundaries we need to help our young fit pros set so they can have a long and fulfilling career in the fitness industry.

https://www.instagram.com/kimbasler_foodfreedom/

https://www.facebook.com/kim.basler/

https://calendly.com/kimbasler/discovery-call-45min

https://elementalkinetics.com/the-work-in/

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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How to leverage free without devaluing yourself, your business or the industry you love.

One of the most challenging things to do in any wellness business is to price your service. How much is our time worth? What about the space we’re using? How much does that cost? Some of these things can feel so arbitrary and then we’re left with what the going rate is.

How much are other studios charging for similar services? What does the local big box gym charge for their unlimited membership or individual classes? And then there’s all the free stuff that’s available online, on youtube, facebook, instagram and your local car dealership or health fair. How can you compete? 

Last week Rebecca Sebastian and I discussed this quite a bit. So if you missed last weeks episode be sure to go back and take a listen. Rebecca is such an inspirational mentor in the industry and really said some amazing things.Today I’d like to take a deep dive into leveraging free and how to do it in ways that respect the value of what you do and protect and support the industry. And how to leverage “free” without slipping into the mudslide of exploitation.

The Well Networkshop + Retreat

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Happy New year!
We're kicking off season 2  with a deep dive into the yoga side of the fitness industry to discuss all things value related.
The value of what you offer
The value of who you are as a human
The value of what you know as a certified instructor
How the business of yoga and fitness values all those things and so much more...

Rebecca Sebastian is a 20-year yoga teacher, 10-year yoga therapist, yoga studio owner, yoga non-profit founder, leader, and host of the new podcast Working In Yoga.  She is a woman on a mission to up level the business skills and savvy in the yoga industry so we can create the socially and morally ethical and nourishing businesses yoga professionals deserve.  

I can’t think of anyone better to talk about some of the value conflicts that we as fitness professionals face in the fitness industry as a whole and especially in the yoga space. Now If you’re not a fitness professional don’t x out just yet. Because believe it or not the instructor that you love, that’s up in front of your favorite class, that always shows up for you and rarely takes a day off,  they’re just like you and have most likely been right where you are at one point. They struggle with the same things you struggle with. So  whether you stand up front, back of the room or front row, we’re all either our own boss or we work for someone else and we are all students of life. I know you’ll find just as much value from the perspectives we’re sharing today..

https://www.sunlightyogacenter.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sunlight_yoga_center/

https://www.pinterest.com/sunlightyogaapothecary/_created/

https://www.sunlightyogacenter.com/working-in-yoga-podcast

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Happy new year everyone! Super excited! Can you believe it’s actually 2022 already? Where did the year go? 2021 is over, it’s done, no looking back. Only forward.

Today I’m celebrating the first birthday of The Work IN and I want to thank each and every one of you for sticking with me this year and helping me grow this little infant of a podcast into the adorable baby it is today! It’s so cute, don't you just want to pinch those little cheeks!

I want to take this opportunity first to welcome you into this second season and then to share a few upcoming events to watch out for and share some of my favorite resources for working in the virtual wellness space. I will take a moment to say that some of these links are affiliate links which simply means that I get a little thanks from the company when you purchase using the link I share, it doesn’t affect what you pay at all. And along with that disclosure I want to assure you that I don’t share things like this unless I have used them personally and I love them enough to pass them on with a full recommendation.

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Goal setting and new years resolutions are a waste of time. Does anyone even do them anymore? 
Let's talk about a better way to find success in 2022!

Finding a "WHY" that outweighs any excuse
Staying connected to how you want to feel to guide your choices
Using paradoxical intentions to overcome invisible obstacles

Happy New Year!!

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Drawing on her 18 years in recovery coupled with her years of teaching experience and leading workshops on social emotional learning, Gina helps abuse survivors overcome the life altering impacts of abuse and discover hope and joy by teaching them how to nurture a relationship with God and themselves.  Gina helps her clients feel safe, seen and supported while teaching them how to overcome shame, fear and anxiety and build a peaceful, playful and purposeful life using the 5 Keys on her  Bridge to Breakthroughs program. 

Gina is a wife, mother of one grown daughter and passionate about serving others and the power of God's unconditional love. 

We coach all kinds of people working in the fitness industry. When you work with people you work with trauma. And the more I learn about trauma and effects of trauma the more I understand how important it is for instructors and coaches to be aware of how trauma can affect the body. We’ve all had clients and students who struggle to get the results they look for, or seem stuck in chronic pain. And while most of us are good about having our people fill out the medical & physical  histories before planning a program, none of us are prepared to dig deep into the mental and emotional histories our clients may have. That is outside our scope. However, the symptoms of a lifetime of trauma or stress exposure can show up physically. When we understand how the nervous system and stress response works we can design programs to help our clients start to move out of stress tension and trauma.  

Today on The Work IN Gina and I discuss
1.  The importance of being in your body in healing trauma.

2. How trauma is stored in the body (ie. back pain, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, etc.) and how to heal that.

3. The importance of brain and body in working with clients in the fitness industry. More specifically, why pushing clients without acknowledging and celebrating small victories can impede growth and discourage clients.

Elementalkinetics.com
https://www.ginarolkowski.com

The Well Networkshop & Retreat

Kinetic Grace Meditation collection

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Today I wanted to share a little peek behind the curtain around this idea or refilling the well. Whether you're a fit pro or a participant or someone who hires fitness professionals this is a really important concept. Refilling the well is basically how we avoid burnout. When you think about it, everything we choose to do requires some kind of energy expenditure. We work out, we work, we take care of our family, we plan the holidays, even the things we choose to do for rest can sometimes require a lot of energy, like getting a family of 4 to Disney. Fun yes, a lot of work also yes. 

And we all have different ways that we get a recharge. Some of us really enjoy being around other people, others prefer quiet alone time, some of us are a mix. But whatever our thing is it’s important that we first understand it, become aware of it and then honor that, set some boundaries so that we can choose to balance that energy. So that we can refill the well.

This is especially important for helping professions like medical nursing, teachers, first responders and the like but also fit pros because people come to fitness professionals to refill their well. And I don’t care who you are, you are not a bottomless well of energy. 

Not only is your job to refill other people but you also have all the other obligations and expectations in your “real life” outside the gym and studio. If you discount these things or ignore them for too long that’s when the burnout creeps in.  

And for fit pros that burnout can kill your career. So what do we do? We usually start by trying to collect a new certification or going to a conference to get new ideas because as the burnout starts it feels like you just need more ideas. And we all need to keep up our professional credibility. All good.

What we don’t do until it’s too late is take a break or look to shift our classes around or let ourselves reset our professional boundaries. Why? Because those things will affect the financial bottom line. Yes, money matters. You can’t pay your bills with exposure and there’s definitely a fine line between building a business, philanthropy and exploitation. But that’s another podcast I think.

So today I want to explain a little bit about certifications and the difference between training and how to  refill the well to burnout proof your body and business. We're talking specifically about the fitness industry today but I think you’ll find some overlap because everyone has burned out at some point.

elementalkinetics.com/thewellnetworkshop

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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Part of my mission here on the work IN is to help equip fitness professionals with a bigger awareness of the overlap between physical and mental health so they can take their wellness beyond what the eyes can see. Not just so they can serve their health conscious clients better and level up their coaching skills but also so they can take care of themselves better. 

It’s so important that we stay connected to our own mental health and wellbeing because it’s so easy to push ourselves over the edge, to lose ourselves and when that happens it’s really hard to get back to who you are.

My guest today has a unique, first person perspective on mental illness and a beautiful origin story that’s filled with hope.  

-Paris Prynkiewicz is the host of the "Master Your M.E.N.T.A.L" podcast and author of "Crooked Illness: Lessons From Inside & Outside Hospital Walls." She is also a speaker for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) where she uses her story and voice to bring more conversations about mental health to the table. Paris has her B.A. in Psychology from The University of Arizona, her MBA in Healthcare Administration from Western Governors University and is currently working toward obtaining her M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at GCU. You can also join Paris's FREE gratitude community on Facebook where she gifts you the 28-day gratitude journal she created to help you start and end all your days on the best foot possible! Just search "FREE Gratitude Journal" on Facebook for access!

NAMI

Crooked Illness: Lessons from inside and outside hospital walls

Master you M.E.N.T.A.L.

Free gratitude journal

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

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We just wrapped up a three part series on learning and memory with my guest Collin Jewett  from Superhuman Academy. And I wanted to take a moment to pull out some key points from some of those episodes that I felt were really really important for fitness professionals. Or wellness providers or coaches in the fitness industry to hear.

1. The Creativity connection to great instruction
2. How to tap into embodied learning for our clients
3. How stress kills creativity, emotional intelligence and empathy for coaches.

The Well Networkshop + Retreat for serious fit pro's to up level their their professional creativity and confidence.

It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious clients. This podcast is for resilient wellness professionals who want to expand their professional credibility, shake off stress and thrive in a burnout-proof career with conversations on the fitness industry, movement, nutrition, sleep, mindset, nervous system health, yoga, business  and so much more. 

I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.

The Work IN is brought to you by savage grace coaching, bringing resilience through movement, action and accountability. Private sessions, small groups and corporate presentations are open now. Visit savagegracecoaching.com to schedule a call and get  all the details.

Website & free guide
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