Your Thoughts, Your Fitness

I’m hosting my first ever workshop!!! It feels like a dream come true, even though I never thought my first workshop would be on Zoom, during a pandemic, talking about thoughts. I always pictured myself in the mountains leading vinyasa and discussing leadership or something, while co-presenters prepared for some sort of music and wellness portion of the retreat (this could still happen. I am not giving up yet).

​But let me tell you, our thoughts are fascinating. Our brains, little computers spitting out and regurgitating mediocre and sometimes crap thoughts, need training just as much as our physical bodies do. After a few months of taking a closer look at my own thoughts, my mission became clear — a thought workshop was needed and a no brainer (hee hee, pun intended).

During years of training clients, coaching, and teaching, I’ve learned that so much of what I do involves the gentle nudging of someone’s mind. Reassurance here and there. Compassion and empathy always. And of course, motivation; I can’t physically make anyone work out, and this is true even in one-on-one in person sessions. Professional athletes will say one of their most important pieces of their training and staying in the game are their sports psychologists -- everyday athletes like you and I also need some form of mental and emotional support.

Nothing beats/replaces seeing an actual therapist, and I cannot stress that enough. However, during this workshop (which is Sunday, 4/11, 1PM EST) we’ll be looking at the tool of thought work and how it can enhance your training, as well as, how to do it. The work I’ll be highlighting in this workshop is different in the simple fact that it’s something that we’re told to do (“let go of whatever isn’t serving you” or “think positive”), but never actually taught how to do. Once it’s taught, then you have another toolkit to play with when it comes to your health and fitness. Who doesn’t want that?

What we’re not going to do in this workshop:
Address issues that need the attention of an actual certified therapist/psychologist, etc. Eating disorders, exercise bulimia, any sort of abuse--you get the picture. Not the focus of the worksop.

What we are going to do:
Address common thoughts and feelings that arise when noticing our minds, in the context of: exercise, workouts, workout performance or lack thereof, injury, pandemic…
​all will be touched upon.

Our End Game:
We’re not going to rewrite the way we think about all those concerns, but we do want to look at them and notice a few things:

• Do the same thoughts and/or feelings keep popping up?
• Do you allow yourself to feel what it is you’re feeling, or is “push this aside” often what gets told to our brains?
• Has what you’ve been doing been successful, why or why not?
• How do you want to feel...after a workout? Before a workout? In three months? In six months?

I don’t want to give away all the exercises of the workshop, and certainly we may only begin to scratch the surface in our time together. But I do hope that in the process of scratching the surface, I can help people into a healthier, more positive thought practice than what’s currently being done.

Oh, and, we’ll do a little bit of movement, just a little, to get the creative juices flowing. Hope to see you there!