Devonia Reed – Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Podcast

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Listen in as Devonia Reed chats about the idea of “planting seeds” to change our thoughts.

“I do not regret the things that I’ve experienced because I know it’s all for a reason…to help other people.” – Devonia Reed

ABOUT THIS GUEST: Devonia Reed is an empowerment advocate, educator, author, and public speaker. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education and her Master’s degree in Reading. Ms. Reed is also certified in Educational Leadership. Ms. Reed has served as a public school educator for over 16 years in various capacities. She also served as a program director of Girls of Grace Youth Center, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to mentoring girls and young women. She is a member of the Women Speakers Association and as a single mother of four boys, she juggled the responsibility of raising her boys and educating at risk students. She has dedicated her life to educating children, and acting as an advocate on their behalves. Ms. Reed’s life experiences and her passion for making a difference in the lives of children has “Pushed her into Purpose” and enabled her to be successful in her quest to have a positive impact on the lives of youth and women. She is now empowering others to be “Stretched to Greatness”.

 

Sam Nordberg – Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Podcast

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Listen in as Sam Nordberg shares how letting go is crucial to getting out of her own damn way.

“Letting go…was one of the best things I chose to do. ” – Sam Nordberg

ABOUT THIS GUEST: Sam loves creating kick ass courses.  She works with passionate people to take all of that “stuff” out of their head and turn it into a course. With over 10 years’ experience training others, she makes the process quick, easy and plenty of fun. She loves watching someone get a new concept and loves it when people take what’s been taught  and build on it, implement it and get great results. Sam loves that she gets to share what she enjoys, with 100’s of people. www.samnordberg.com

 

 

Syndee Hendricks – Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Podcast

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Listen in as Syndee Hendricks  talks about how she’s created amazing results using her amazing gifts.

“The biggest obstacle for most is that we’re baggage collectors…it clutters everything up and makes people almost immobile.” – Syndee Hendricks

ABOUT THIS GUEST: An award winning entrepreneur, Syndee Hendricks is a Business Turnaround Expert. She is an Intuitive Coach, Consultant, Author & Speaker with an extraordinary level of integrity, and insightful gifts. She strategizes to connect passion and purpose with your dreams and goals accelerating your journey to success for powerful results! She has over 25 years of successful proven experience in coaching people. She’s worked nationwide with thousands of people. Her passion is to inspire the possibilities and assist in achieving them with each person with whom she connects so that they can re-invent themselves to live the life they envision. www.insightful-coaching.com/

 

 

Spiritual Growth Begins in the Gym by Olga Reinholdt

Guest Post by Olga Reinholdt

Spiritual growth begins in the gym. This is why.

It was a text on my phone that arrived at 6AM from across the world.  “We’re done, don’t call me anymore.”

So, that was the finale of our complicated, passionate, and long distance relationship. Although the relationship wasn’t spotless, the break-up came out of the blue. The fact that everything was decided for me, that I wasn’t even given a chance to say a word, at least to bid farewell, that my time zone and beauty sleep were not regarded made it more bitter.

I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up, took a shower… I didn’t know what to do. Without thinking, I rolled out my yoga mat because this is what I always did after a morning shower.

Inhale, stretch, exhale, bend…  “We’re done, don’t call me anymore”…

…Jump back, plank, exhale, chatturanga.. “We’re done, don’t call me anymore”

…Reach up, inhale, exhale, down-faced dog, stretch… “We’re done, don’t call me anymore”

…Second round, third round, round after round, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, with the “We’re done, don’t call me anymore” pulsing in my head…

Triangle pose, half-moon pose, warrior pose… “We’re done, don’t call me anymore”

All of a sudden I physically felt something… different. I felt that those words, that text, that person on another continent were not real compared to the long and thorough sun salutation, the mat that still smelled of rubber and was a little slippery, that feeling of openness in my chest and the way I felt my leg muscles.

I became grounded. I managed to accept that it was just a break-up and it will be as bitter as I allow it to be.

By focusing on my body I discovered that I could reach inside myself and find a sacred spiritual essence that is stronger than all those calamities of everyday life.

“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity,” Guruji BKS Iyengar wrote in his book “Light on Life.” Iyengar teaches a lot about the culture of developing the body (I speak about Guruji in the present tense because his spirit is present although his body is not). Iyengar yoga is often mistakenly considered a “body focused yoga”. This is not true.

The focus is on humans as the divine creation. However, that divinity can’t be achieved unless our body is healthy, powerful, strong, and unless we reconnect with our nature.

“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind, and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open. It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”

A healthy body cannot be achieved just by eating well, or just by meditating, or just by jogging, or just by stretching… a healthy body is a combination of strength, power, endurance, flexibility, skillful nutrition, unobstructed energy flows, and regeneration of cells and tissues.

You need to exercise your muscles, your cardio-vascular system, your tendons and ligaments, and create healthy hormonal background to reclaim your body to contain your divinity.

This isn’t to say that it has to be done in a yoga shala or on a yoga mat in your living room. Whether you’re lifting weights in gym, doing push-ups in a park, shoveling snow from your driveway, your body is at work and that’s what matters most.

When I felt that craving for burning muscles and decided to suspend my yoga practice and start regular gym sessions, I was prepared for a long talk with my yoga teacher, overflowing with the guilt for making that choice.

She said: “This is great. This is yoga. Follow what your body asks from you and give it the work it needs. This is the best form of yoga to practice.” I am grateful to her for those words.

I often see how development of the body and spiritual growth are thought of as contradicting concepts. The idea that spiritual growth implies disregarding the body is quite a misconception.

In his book “The Journey Home” Radhanath (Richard) Swami describes meeting with an old friend, Harry, many years after their spiritual journeys separated them. Harry became a celebrity fitness trainer on Malibu Beach, living in a beautiful villa where he bulked up. It was all about physical fitness. There was Richard- bald, serene, wearing the saffron clothes of a monk, and confessing he’d never even had a bank account.

Harry couldn’t believe how different they became.

The Swami didn’t think so:  “God lives in the heart of every one of us and our body is God’s temple. We work together: you teach people how to improve their temple whereas I teach people what to fill it with.”

The body is a temple. The body is an important tool. For spiritual growth, it is essential to have a healthy body.

We may think that reading books, listening to teachers talking, praying, and preaching develop our spirituality but the only real way to develop spirituality is to live the spiritual life.

Just like the only way to become a painter is to paint.

You can study the visual arts, distinguish styles and genres, visit galleries, and watch painters at work but you won’t grow into a true painter until you start painting. In the same way, spirituality doesn’t happen without exercising it in life. In many ways, our body is our paint.

I’m not saying that body-builders and fitness fanatics are on the path to spiritual enlightenment. The same goes for the yoga. Lulu Lemon pants, intense stretching, and naming you poses in Sanskrit won’t take you there.

The process of building a strong temple for the soul should not be confused with grasping at the superficial body image.

What makes exercise a path to spiritual growth? Here are 3 principles:

Awareness.

When you exercise, focus on your body. Be introspective. Many workout routines and gyms are designed so that the exerciser pays little attention to process. The idea is to exercise without noticing and to just “get one in.” This sends a message that the process of exercise is to eliminate the pain of working out by distracting your attention with loud music, television, fashion fitness, and the latest fad.

If you want your fitness routine to take you further in your spiritual journey you should do the opposite: remove distractions and concentrate on the process.

Buddhists say, it’s not the challenge and the effort that create pain: it is the avoidance of challenge and effort that causes pain.

Challenge is necessary for growth. By facing it, embracing it, and welcoming it we make real blissful and painless progress.

Gratefulness

People frequently exercise because of deficiency~ they think they’re not attractive enough, not slim enough, not strong enough, not fast enough…

Life shows that no matter the achievements, if a person starts off from the point of deficiency, the person will only progress deeper in said deficiency.

You were given a lot: this body, this day, this air to breath, this sun to keep you warm, and this food to satiate you. Be grateful. Approach your body with gratefulness, praise its divinity, its natural perfection, and you will be rewarded with so much more than just a slim “beach body.”

Compassion

Ahimsa is one of the basic moral principles in Buddhism and one of the petals of Raja yoga. Ahimsa means causing no harm, being compassionate, and to care for all life.

The same principle is applied to us.

We must exercise with the best intentions making sure the routine causes no harm to our bodies.

There are a lot of exercise routines out there that are extremely demanding for an unconditioned body. Since intense and demanding routines promise fast and impressive results, many people push their bodies way beyond healthy limits to achieve those astonishing results fast, disregarding the all the harm that FAD diets, HIIT training, and unskillful routines can cause. Metabolic syndrome, damaged joints, risk of heart and brain stroke, and eating disorders, just to name a few, are not uncommon with the body development routines when ahimsa is not observed.

Compassion to the body doesn’t mean being lazy. Compassion doesn’t mean not challenging the body or neglecting its natural requirement to move and develop. Compassion is giving your body the best treatment you can.

Remember your divine self, create your temple without attachment, grasping, or arrogance.  Even when you do just a routine exercise, do it from the point of abundance, love, compassion and gratefulness that will open the gates to your soul.

 

ABOUT THIS GUEST:  Olga is a life coach with Accomplishment Coaching organization. She truly believes that happiness is a choice and she helps women cultivate their happy lifestyle. She’s a professional fitness trainer who promotes an anti-fitness concept. She helps women create the body that empowers them for making their dreams come true without that dieting, sweating, “six-pack”, “no-pain-no-gain” nonsense. Olga is also a motivation ninja, idea generator and “no excuses” coach: she’d rather help you find a way or make one. She hosts a podcast “Fitness for Grown-ups” (in Russian), co-founded an online fitness club “Best for Health” and provides personal online life coaching and power anti-fitness program. Not so long ago she packed 30 years of her life in two suitcases, moved with her husband and a three year old from Kazakhstan to the USA, and started a new exciting life from scratch. Now she helps women find their own point of self-actualization and freedom, and create resources for awesomeness, with healthy body being an essential one. She’s bilingual, a big fan of Russian rock music, devoted Iyengar yoga practitioner, singer and rock-model in the making, and a Buddhist at heart. www.olgareinholdt.ru/en

 

Listen to Olga’s Get Out of Your Own Damn Way podcast interview HERE.

 

 

 

 

Olga Reinholdt – Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Podcast

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Listen in as Olga Reinholdt talks about the possibilities in ALL opportunities (including one that surfaced during the show).

“Acknowledge and appreciate your own intrinsic ability to get out of your own damn way.”  – Olga Reinholdt

ABOUT THIS GUEST: Olga is a life coach with Accomplishment Coaching organization. She truly believes that happiness is a choice and she helps women cultivate their happy lifestyle. She’s a professional fitness trainer who promotes an anti-fitness concept. She helps women create the body that empowers them for making their dreams come true without that dieting, sweating, “six-pack”, “no-pain-no-gain” nonsense. Olga is also a motivation ninja, idea generator and “no excuses” coach: she’d rather help you find a way or make one. She hosts a podcast “Fitness for Grown-ups” (in Russian), co-founded an online fitness club “Best for Health” and provides personal online life coaching and power anti-fitness program. Not so long ago she packed 30 years of her life in two suitcases, moved with her husband and a three year old from Kazakhstan to the USA, and started a new exciting life from scratch. Now she helps women find their own point of self-actualization and freedom, and create resources for awesomeness, with healthy body being an essential one. She’s bilingual, a big fan of Russian rock music, devoted Iyengar yoga practitioner, singer and rock-model in the making, and a Buddhist at heart. www.olgareinholdt.ru/en

Vanessa Canteberry – Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Podcast

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Listen in as Vanessa Canteberry discusses how to break the cycle of being broken.

“You have to be broken in order to be blessed.” – Vanessa Canteberry

ABOUT THIS GUEST: Vanessa Canteberry is the Founder and CEO of InspiredByVanessa. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She’s determined to continue to break the cycle of poverty, negligent and unnecessary hardship. Vanessa worked in Corporate America for 20 years as a Secretary. After being laid off in 2011, she knew something needed to change knowing she was a single parent of three. Vanessa was not able obtain employment and the mere thought of being unable to support her son attending high school and two daughters attending college was unbearable. For that reason, Vanessa challenged herself. She took a stand on faith and changed her mindset. Now, she is a business owner, Speaker, Coach and Best Selling Author, working from the comfort of her home. She is also committed to teaching individuals how they too, can become a business owner and overcome obstacles in their life. www.InspiredByVanessa.com