Many women have been conditioned from an early age to override that inner voice that says “no”. That gut feeling that this is wrong, we don’t want this. Our intuition. That conditioning infuses us with the culturally acceptable boundaries for who we are as women in our families, in business and in the world. We are all complicit in our own limitations. At some point we had to agree with it. But that conditioning chafes when you wake up to your dark side and realize what you have is not what you want and you can do something about it. That’s our work IN today.  The benefit of finding the “no” to open the door to “yes”.

We’re shifting gears a bit over the next few weeks as we take a look at some essentials for fit pro success. Now I know not all of us are fitness professionals. But we all are fitness and wellness consumers. And because of that I want to take some time to share some of the qualities that make good instructors better and great instructors great. These are things we can all look for when shopping for wellness options that work for us. 

Our work in today is the #1 boundary fit pro’s need to set and that we can look for as savvy consumers of fitness. 

We are after all only guides on the path to healthier lives. As guides we need to have a firm understanding of how to navigate in a trauma informed way in a trauma filled culture.. Over the past few weeks we’ve discussed the first half of that trauma informed navigation starting with the center point for yourself, co regulation and then activation. Now I want to share the secret sauce to anything trauma informed. It comes in 2 parts.

exercise and diet is one of those kinds of stresses that can be good, right? They can stress the system in a way that produces good adaptations. But they can also push us to the edge so and beyond that edge. So the challenge for fitness professionals and coaches is to understand that piece and then structure workouts, dietary protocols, nutrition plans, classes, whatever our thing is, we want to structure them in a way for the individual that makes that hard enough, challenging enough to trigger an adaptation without setting off one more internal alarm

Co-regulation is a full format communication skill that’s rooted in your own self regulation and awareness, defined by your personal and professional boundaries and directed by curiosity and discernment. These things are accessible to all of us with practice.

Welcome back to the Work IN. Today I’d like to begin a series of episodes on integrating trauma informed principles in the fitness industry. Ready or not, everyone who comes to you for health and fitness goals is also carrying some level of stress and trauma and being affected bay that in known and unknown ways. And Fun fact, you are too.