Rain Clouds and Strength
This week, a very prominent magazine interviewed me about my Women’s Strength Nation movement. I was speaking with the fitness editor about what Women’s Strength Nation is truly about.
I started Women’s Strength Nation after a very emotionally challenging year. We all have our storms and it was my turn to battle the rain clouds. Rock bottom for me was a stretch of two weeks where I was having daily anxiety attacks that would last four hours from noon until 4:00 each day. One particularly bad one left me on my living room floor (literally) sobbing my soul out and a dear friend spooning me as she told me to breathe into my heart.
I believe that women battle different storms than men. My own deep suffering made my heart ache knowing that other women are going through this too.
Women’s Strength Nation is about facing your own storms so that you can create change in your life. I know that you want to feel better, be better and live bigger. Change begins inside of you. How you do something is how you do everything. Your fitness is one of those “somethings” and it reflects the story that is being told inside of you. Women’s Strength Nation is a community that will walk through the storm with you. We’ll walk out from under the rain clouds stronger, together.
At this point the magazine editor paused, then shared with me how much this resonated with her personally. She was deeply unhappy with her current fitness level and she knew that she was capable of doing better. She felt as though she had let herself down. It was profound to me that even an editor of a fitness magazine faces the struggles of creating supreme health and fitness. Once again, I was reminded that this conversation is relevant for sooooooooo many women. We are more united than we realize. We think that our storms are unique to us. In truth, we are all under the same rain cloud – but we are in different cities, different countries and different circumstances.
I encourage you to take a look at your own life. How do you do the “somethings” in your life? Because how you do something is how you do everything, including the actions you take (or don’t take) towards your health and fitness. Ask yourself these questions:
- Am I happy with each “something” in my life?
- Can I do it better?
- Am I achieving the excellence that I know I am capable of?
I’d love to hear from you and hope that you’ll join my community. Let’s talk about our “somethings” and our rain clouds. Breathe into your heart and let’s exit the storm stronger, together. You deserve to be exuberant, vivacious, untethered and unlimited.
Please share your “somethings” with me below by adding a Comment, or reach out to me via email.
In strength,
Holly P
Your message spoke to me today. I am a 54 year old mother, daughter, wife and special education teacher. I have struggled with my weight for years. In the last 3 years I have had 5 major back surgeries….2 fusions. I want my life back , my body back. I am currently doing Pilates on a reformer machine with a trained instructor. However, I can only afford one session a week. I know I need to build my strength back. Can you help me?
Thank you very much.
By the way, I will be in San Diego during your event, but for a different conference. Wish I could participate!
Hi Leslie:
So nice to hear from you! The event this past weekend was amazing – hope yours was too!
Building and maintaining strength in a busy life is absolutely a challenge. It is hard to make the time for your body and your needs…but you MUST. Pilates is a great start and you will need a bit more. I created 4 unique strength programs in my book Lift to Get Lean and the Newbie program would be perfect for you. It requires a gym, so stay tuned for an at-home version that you can do with dumbbells. There are also great classes and home videos out there that can help guide you. You CAN do it, and you can almost do it all. Stay strong and just keep moving forward. You can do it!