Hello my Friends,
Yes, it has been awhile.
Alot has been going on in my life.
This journey into the center of my core has literally changed my life in so many ways. It has opened up a new world and a new way of moving.
I just came back from Oregon where I spent the last 4 months helping out with my elderly mother and father.
I also have 3 sisters that live there and a brother whom I became reaquainted with after living away from Oregon since I graduated from High School in 1978.
Yes, I have been back on a weekend or a ‘long’ week, but usually with an ‘accompanying’ husband, fiance or boyfriend.
Unencumbered by the demands of my ‘usual’ partners whims and desires, I felt deep in my heart that I needed to be with my mother and father.
During my visit with my parents I played games with my mom. Playing catch with a ball, dancing to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes.
Sometimes, I would wear use my ‘iphone’ and listen to MY music via earplugs.
We were both dancing to our own tunes without bothering each other. We danced, laughed, sang and took a break in between.
Those months were very precious for me as I also learned alot about myself.
I admire my parents so much as I see their deep love for each other. Even after 65 years of marriage.
I thought to myself, how wonderful this is and how blessed I am to be amongst such a beautiful couple. My dad’s never ending wish to please my mom at any time was endearing to me as I watched this seasoned love with my own eyes.
I was willing to ‘let go’ and just be with them, even though at times our ‘personalities’ would clash.
Never the less, watching my family care for each other in this small town touched my heart and soul.
I hadn’t seen that since I left high school and traveled the world. So it is with this beginning that I share my story.
At nineteen, I left home to work on Wall Street as an assistant to eight financial advisors at a brokerage firm.
My ability to get along with multiple personalities came from being number seven of eight children in my family. I knew how to get along with anyone at anytime.
To this day is one of my strong points.. although it was a double edge sword as I probably ‘overlooked’ some things in people, mainly my male relationships that could’ve served me differently.
At 20, I became one of the first tour guides at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center. Of course that was AFTER starting in ‘custodial’.
Yes, I was the one in the white cotton shirt and pants hauling the dumpsters down Main Street of the Magic Kingdom in Orlando picking up after the horses after the daily parades.
It was never ‘beneath’ me to do what I had to do to get where I wanted to go.
Little did I know that job gave me exposure into the world of the Experimental Prototype Community of Tommorrow (EPCOT)
About the same time, I started teaching fitness classes in Orlando.
I then married, and moved to Colorado and had my son when I was twenty three.
So there I was, secretary during the day or tour guide, fitness at night, mother and wife.
The marriage ended but my passion for fitness grew.
Twenty five years went by before I dived in full time as a fitness and Pilates instructor.
I finally found my passion.
I trained women, men, celebrities, athletes, even royalty. I thought I knew everything about the core and core training.
I even created and produced a DVD called Pilates and Chocolate in 2008 and thought this was it!
Great, I found my passion, and now, I can move to the beach and just teach Pilates and live by the sea.
So in 2009, I was beach bound! woo hoo!
When I arrived, my ‘then’, mentor in Scottsdale told me of a ‘training’ that I should attend in San Diego taught by my ‘now’ mentor Dr. Theresa Nesbitt, OBGYN.
I did as she suggested and my life hasn’t been the same since.
No longer was I ‘sure’ of how I was working with my clients.. everything I was taught as a fitness instructor the last 30 plus years was challenged.
‘What’?, I asked her. “What do you mean you can’t ‘train’ the true core?.
The well trodden paths I had gone down for the last 30 years as a Fitness trainer and Pilates instructor suddenly went away.
There I was. Standing with a deer in the headlights look.
Now what?
This was the beginning of my journey inward. I literally had to go deep inside and start to look at things a little differently.
It took me 5 years, mentoring with her privately before I really understood. But it didn’t require me understanding for my body to change.
I didn’t notice it at first. It was very subtle. The one thing I began to notice is that I stopped ‘working’ out so hard.
I knew a better way to be lean, fit and achieve greater results in record breaking time as I would practice this new way of moving with my current clients.
At the same time, my Pilates practice had moved into Scripps Hospital ‘post rehab’ center and I was getting referrals from the physical therapists.
Even though I am much further along in my studies then a few years ago, my clients started reaping the benefits of my ‘neurologic’ training.
That’s when I noticed, that ‘I’ started reaping the benefits as I trained my clients.
Then one day, it occurred to me that I didn’t ‘need’ a massage anymore.
I was always one of those gals that loved my shoulders massaged, especially if there was a man around with strong hands. I was always nudging up to him.. with that helpless look in my eyes.. like ‘please can you just rub my shoulders’?
The other thing I noticed is that I stopped ‘stretching’.
The need to ‘stretch’ had disappeared as my normal musculature started to retain the ‘basic’ stretch required as my joints lined back up like when I was a child.
I was always a workout fanatic. But all of a sudden, I stopped working out so hard and my body started to take a new shape … effortlessly.. as if I had no control.
As I started teaching my clients about their inner core, MY body started to change.
And their experience with me was enhanced even more!
No more concerns about ‘tweeking’ a muscle, or hurting their back.
When we started focusing on the ‘unconcious’ movements.. everything started to change and align.
They also began to move effortlessly from the inside out.
Tummy’s became flatter, back pain and knee pain disappeared.
We both were on a journey to discover how the human body was meant to function.
Wow! What a concept!
How do I tell these women that there is something that they don’t even know that they don’t know yet?
I left a well paid, well-trodden path to join a pioneer in brain body connection.
During my studies with Dr. Theresa, the focus was on ‘less leaking’. Curing incontinence. The ‘involuntary’ leaking of urine that has become an ‘epidemic.
Even with girls 25 years old.
Why? Diet, Sitting all day, and the amount of alcohol consumed from ‘social anxiety’.
How do I tell women all over the world that an untoned inner core shows up in many different forms.
Not only ‘leaking’ but pain.
It wasn’t enough to know that ‘full blown’ incontinence starts with a little ‘leak’ here and there and making women prisoners. The number one reason that women are now going into nursing homes from ‘incontinence’ only. That is the only thing wrong with them.
This didn’t catch my attention.. because I wasn’t leaking.
Even though I wanted to help other women.. I couldn’t really relate.
As I studied more and more with Dr. Theresa, I learned that so many other ‘ailment’ and misdiagnosed symptoms have a common denominator. A weak inner core and pelvic floor.
I am talking about things like, spinal deviations, hernias, knee pain, hemmorhoids, sexual disfunction, flat feet, bunions, osteoarthritis and I am just scratching the surface.
Until now, most people didn’t know how to access the inner core. They assumed if they do crunches and planks that it works your ‘core’.
What they don’t realize and neither does your OBGYN by the way, is that there is another whole core inside of you that also regulates all your health systems.
Digestion, depression.. you name it.
I was blown away.
Dr. Theresa said, “ Kathleen, we have to help these ladies” “ we have to let them know that they are not broken, and that they don’t need pills pads or surgeries. We need to teach them how their bodies truly function correctly so they will can live empowering lives into their later years’.
I became even more frustrated when I saw women move their bodies. They complained of knee pain, shoulder pain. The trainer would just change the exercise, when in fact it the ‘nervous‘ system that needs to be updated.
Until that happens, your outer core will continue to bear the burden and pain.
Not to mention, the ladies not ‘telling‘ anyone they ‘leak‘ a little.
NO! It’s not normal. Address it now and or it will affect every area of your life.
If you don’t want to address the ‘leak‘ what about the pooch, the back pain, the knee pain?
It is all related to the inner core, which includes the ‘strongest‘ layer of the pelvic floor.
No, you can’t train it like you do a bicep. It’s not about pulling your navel in, or doing a kegel.
I have always been ahead of my time with regards to ‘fitness’ matters.
Today is no different. I will wait until women become more curious about their bodies. I will wait until they are ready to take their bodies to another level.
It has changed my life and my decisions. I no longer live from the ‘outside’ in.
I spend the ‘extra’ time I have enjoying my life. Today that means putting programs together for not only women, but for trainers.
When someone asked me what inner core/pelvic floor training does.. I said, well, it gives you a flatter tummy, perky bum and better sex.
I have experienced all three! So have my clients!
Even though, those ‘outward’ appearances improve, it doesn’t hold a candle to what goes on with your insides.
You start to feel and move better each day. You experience Inner Awesomeness once again.
You move with stature and grace and carry yourself with ease and confidence.
I wanted to tell you my journey in hopes that it will help you with yours.
La Dolce Vita !
