About Me
There was a time in my life when I put making money and climbing up the corporate ladder as my first priority. I purchased things to make myself look and feel better. When times were tough I turned to food for comfort. I started gaining weight, my clothes didn’t fit and my moods were all over the place.
My body, mind & spirit were not communicating with each other
At first, my main focus was external. I wanted to fit into my expensive clothes and look good again, I began watching my food intake and exercising. I lost the weight for a while, then gained it: old habits are hard to shake when your motivations aren’t true.
My pattern began – lose weight, relax, and then return to my old ways. Gaining weight and feeling disappointed with myself.
Change
Finally, it dawned on me that my losing weight wasn’t all about food, and my love affair with exercise began. Soon, I was hitting the gym five to six times a week, but I was eating all the same unhealthy foods, in all the same unhealthy volumes.
The vicious cycle continued. Up the corporate ladder I climbed, training hard and consuming even harder. I was blinded by determination, invincibility and maybe even arrogance. So, what happened? The same thing that happens to so many sore, tired, self-abused bodies; mine started giving up on me. I caught debilitating cold after cold, my muscles ached from over-working, and my body was exhausted from fatigue. I had been relentless and unforgiving in my blinkered ambition and I was being taught a lesson.
My lifestyle had caught up with my body. My body was saying, “No more. I’m not going to move for you.” I went to one doctor after another. They said nothing was wrong. How could this be, I wondered? I could not even walk down the road without feeling out of breath.
My body, mind and spirit were not communicating with each other.
Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands. At the end of 2002, I decided that I wanted to discover how to live a long life in a healthy way and find balance with my body, mind, soul and spirit. At this time, I was working as a Financial Planner. I saw so many people just waiting to retire. There was no passion in their lives. It was like they were waiting for retirement and then waiting to die. That was not what I wanted for my life.
I decided to leave my job and make my health my priority. But I had no idea where to start. I decided to go to India and do a yoga teacher training course. I thought yoga was a little stretching and meditation. Easy. How wrong I was. The time I spent in India challenged all my beliefs in the most profound way. I discovered the importance of mind, body, soul and spirit working together. I stayed in India for six months. I followed different teachers around the country and learned as much as I could.
On my return, I completed my Certificate 3 and 4 in fitness. A string of courses followed. Pilates, Tai Chi, cycling, nutrition, Reiki healing etc. I continue to read and learn about living a full life. One thing I know for sure now is that your health and well-being is an ongoing journey and it is in your hands. As life changes, so too does the way I approach my health and well-being.
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