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Compar-itory

I heard this word for the “first time,” though it sounded familiar, yesterday, from the amazing Emmanuel Acho (check out his series on youtube: Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man)

He skimmed past the word, but I was like “YES” And then my daughter asked me about “purgatory,” an in-between world, believed by some religions, as a place neither good nor bad… sort of void of beauty and happiness. And don’t we put ourselves in “Compar-itory” all the time? It’s not “good” or “bad,” but devoid of happiness and joy. It’s the place we go to NOT live our best lives, NOT live our full potential, NOT be fearless and free and full of LIFE. It’s the strange human belief that someone else’s life is more special than ours.

I used to be stuck here BIG time. And when my ego got a hold of this, he went buck wild in my head with “she is better…. she is prettier…. she has it all …. you’re a LOSER.” Every now and then, I’ll catch myself starting to go into that world, seeing someone farther ahead on a business path or finding prosperity before she is my age (I sometimes get a crazy notion that I am of “advanced” age, and I assure you; I am only getting started) But the practice is back to the G word GRATITUDE will save you.

Thank you, God, for these legs that carry me. Thank you, God, for these arms that hold. Thank you, God, for this roof over my head. And I was reminded in a really fabulous clubhouse room (are you on clubhouse?), that even things that seem like a negative gift can be spun into a positive one and we can be grateful in that moment, too.

Thank you, God, for the coffee that spilled, reminding me that I have more coffee I can brew. Thank you, God, for the cold weather, that I will rejoice in the seasons. Thank you, God, for my sassy child, that she will grow up strong in her self!

Did you discover you’re in Comparitory?

What’s your way out?

Remember: the more you tell the ego to shut up, the less he will come around.

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Side Lying Exercises

Side Lying Series…

A little rant from Carrie here.

Side lying is NOT

Side lying IS

Why?

Because the base of everything we do: every position, every movement, is ALIGNMENT.

The top image does ZERO for your core, back, stability, etc. It’s just a fluff move.

So, let’s get intentional and do some side lying!

Here’s more help:

How’s your side lying practice going?

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When to Refer Out

Fitness Professional ;

We should all be referring clients that need help to those that can help them.

RIGHT?

In your back pocket should be a trusted
-chiropractor
-physical therapist
-physician
-nutritionist
-accupuncturist
-massage therapist
-mental health therapist
-midwife
-doula
-(add in here a housekeeper, chef, oils expert, and other self care practitioners)

Do you have that?

Time to start networking!

One major reason my clients trust me is because they can tell me what’s going on, and I can say “hey, I know this great….” and I MEAN it. I’m not sending them to someone that just fell off the pickle truck!

Another major reason my clients come to me is that I can help them with their fitness choices that I appropriate for THEM, not for my agenda.

You have a list of exercises to teach today.
Do you know what to do if a new mom walks in your class?
What about someone with a chronic pain problem?

This is one of the things I help professionals do: I help them learn how to help clients more through options in fitness that empower them to do more and to actually get stronger, not just fall in line.

I’m also really good and helping clients with core and pelvic floor issues, which A LOT of our clients have (did you ask?).

If you want to have better answers and better options for your clients with core and pelvic floor issues, you really need to take my ABC Method Course for fitness professionals (and coaches). It is 12 hours of helping you with all the little things that can change your clients’ entire experience with you…. help them reduce pain, get strong, achieve the results they want, and live better!

We all want that, right?

I have a February class open right now. Head over to theabcmethod.com
OR email me.
I’m accepting limited engagements for private sessions. So, if you work with a team, a gym, or a group in fitness, I can gear the course specifically to you.

I look forward to helping you!

Carrie

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Can Diastasis Recti Heal on Its Own?

Now that we know that Diastasis Recti is a typical occurence in pregnancy and other conditions, many people ask “Can Diastasis Recti heal on its own?

Can it simply… come back together?”

The human body is amazing. We are constantly evolving from the inside out, creating new body cells, making new brain connections, subconsciously doing all kinds of functions.

In my practice, I have found that there are “natural core engagers.” These are people who have internal awareness of their deep core muscles and they naturally find their strength from the deep core muscles for everything they do.

For my clients, it’s not the “typical” person; it’s usually someone I find once in a while. These core engagers usually have a kinesthetic background AND didn’t lose touch with their early brain connectivity to their muscles. Many of them have dance or gymnastics backgrounds early on in life. These practices tend to be core focused and spend a lot of time on theories of alignment. All of this matters.

A natural core engager may find post pregnancy or post body trauma that they can go back and more easily access those muscles, that they realize their next best step is to go within to find deep core strength, that their alignment and breathing will make a difference in how their entire body feels and moves, and that their strength has to be developed or re-developed from the inside out.

These people are not free from needing additional resources and help.

Many of them come to me with words like “I used to be able to do…. but I’m not able to access it now; can you help me?” Many need intervention and additional services from physical therapy (I have yet to meet ANYONE who wouldn’t benefit from physical therapy). But as far as recovery from Diastasis Recti, natural core engagers sometimes recover on their own and still use outside help for better and stronger recovery.

Recovery from this and any injury or dysfunction is very nuanced. If you’re struggling and asking yourself WHY, then you should seek additional services from my fitness work AND a physical therapist specializing in core and pelvic floor.

Don’t assume things like “it’s too late for me,” “I can’t do it because I’m not a natural core engager,” or ” I’m too…” fill in the blank with old, young, fat, skinny, out of shape, or whatever your ego is telling you today.

You CAN recover.

I have seen it in the most unlikely of conditions. It does require, for core engagers and people brand new to finding mind-body connection, diligence, practice, and patience.

I’m here to help.

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Where is the Middle of the Road Now?

So… I know a lot of what I’m going to say falls on deaf ears, and I know that for the most part, my friends and followers are also middle-of-the-roaders. Some pull a little to the right and some pull a little to the left. I have exited most of ones trying to pull the train completely off track in one direction or another.

And most of y’all can tell I’m a little left of center, only because left of center includes all of the human race and the planet as core to policy and politics.

It used to be that there were “fringe” crazies. Those far right and left trying to pull apart logic and justice were few and far between. That would be the crazy uncle that no one wanted to talk about.

But now, fringe is creeping in and hijacking the center, trying to pull people off the road entirely, spreading disinformation with malice intent.

And that’s not ok.

It’s easy for me to just block “them” and pretend they don’t exist, but they do, and they are wreaking havoc on the peaceful middle ground. Reaching across center to shake hands is one thing; trying to dismantle absolute absurdity is quite another.

I don’t have a solution other than to just elevate the voices of the middle ground. To love thy neighbor. To speak truth to bullshit when it arises. To support peace keepers. To believe in US.

And we need better mental health care in this country #justsaying

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It’s a New Dawn It’s a New Day

Hey girl, put those PEARLS on!

It is a new dawn. It is a new day.  Here comes the sun. A renewal of thought. A renewal of the arts. A renewal of collaboration. A renewal of LOVE.

No, I don’t believe one man has all the answers. THAT IS THE POINT.

There never should have been a time when people were under the false belief that one man (other than Jesus) has “all the answers.”

Never should any man ever proclaim that he did. It is up to US. We are the ones we have been waiting for. Let’s bring a new day of love and appreciation for all of God’s children.

Amen

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In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is the transcript from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, borrowed from https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.“

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. **We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.”** We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
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Listen Up, New Mom!

(circa 2010)

Listen Up, New Moms and Mums!

I have very few pictures of myself in this era. I remember being very uncomfortable in who I was. I tried to hide behind black clothes and shades.

Now I look at other women who have had babies and marvel at their strength. But I couldn’t see ME as strong at that time.

My warped image of strong was that I would have babies and my body would instantly rubber band back to look and feel exactly as it did before the long process of pregnancy and childbirth.

And when it didn’t, I went into a shame spiral.
I got angry at myself and my body.
I got confused about who I really was and what I was really doing.

IF YOU ARE A MOTHER, YOU HAVE PRODUCED AND SUSTAINED LIFE.

Top that! Seriously! Take a moment and marvel at the miracle you are. YOU. Appreciate that body that performed that miracle with you!!!

I really think it ALL starts there. THEN we start to move into the next phase.
Bless you, mama! Love your SELF.

Amen

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The Four Pillars of CarrieFit

This is the way I have always run my business, and to those who know me or have worked with me would say that these four pillars are very much how I naturally do business.

As my business grows and continues to develop through teaching and community building, I want to make sure I have stated this, because I/We will always return to these four pillars in how to do business.

Love:

Love is not woo-woo or romantic. It is operating from the premise that we are all connected and that there should only be winners, and no losers, in how we work together.

Love indicates:

  • joy
  • peace
  • faith
  • kindness
  • ahimsa

Integrity:

I/We shall have integrity in our words and actions. In other words, we do what we say and say what we will really do, clearly. We stick to our words and to what is important ethically.

Integrity indicates:

  • ethics
  • honesty
  • clarity

Service

I/we establish a service-based business. In that, we agree that serving others is what we do.

Service indicates:

  • listening
  • caring
  • going the extra mile

Equality

I cannot separate what I do from the belief that we are created equal. Though some people would consider this “politics,” I consider this “truth” AND being a child of God.

I /we have the deep held set of beliefs that we are all created equal and have equal rights to love, integrity and service in life and business.

Equality includes:

  • being anti-racist
  • supporting movements for civil rights
  • supporting other businesses that promote equality
  • speaking against anti-equality on any level

Thank you for supporting CarrieFit.

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Resistance Micro and Macro

Stay with me here…. this might help you with more than your fitness.

Fitness people and people who train for sport know this principle.
How to get stronger:
>Resistance :pushing or pulling against something heavy or difficult
> Breakdown: the muscle fails, loses strength, and the fibers literally break down.
> Rest: the muscles worked have to have time to rest and recover
> and THEN you get STRENGTH.

Why I’m bringing this up today:
I’ve been witnessing this metaphor in the microcosm and macrocosm. I’ve been talking about it with clients when they are stuck. I’m seeing it in our minds, hearts, spirits, and society.

Within YOU: are you struggling and pushing against something? Do you feel compelled to a certain path? And the more you push, the more tired you get? And you start to think: Oh, I guess this isn’t for me.

Ask yourself: did I allow the space for the breakdown? This is tough stuff. This means you are allowing yourself to feel the way you feel. Allowing yourself to acknowledge the resistance, and possibly pain.

Allowing space for the breakdown is REALLY hard. Acknowledge that.

And then, did you allow time to rest? Did you take time and space for yourself? For self care? For just BEING, not DOING?

Because if you did, you’ll find the STRENGTH on the other side of that.

OK, friends. I’m going to go there. Strap yourself in.
This is what we’re facing in the United States and many countries in turmoil around the world.

I think the fact that we are entering a new era is no longer a theory.

Looking at what we have been through and where we are going, we can no longer deny that change is happening… a big shift. I can go biblical on you, but I won’t here. I’ll say that this era of change is likely to be kin to The Renaissance… only with more freedom for more people to have voices.

When we start to rise and acknowledge a shift within ourselves and our cultures, the resistance against that will rise. Meaning: the old systems and structures are the resistance, and it’s way too comfortable staying in the old paradigm, so people within those structures will rise to new heights to be the toughest resistance we have seen in hundreds of years.

So, my people of strong faith and resilience, we have to continue to rise to meet the resistance for the change we feel is necessary.

THAT BEING SAID, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to BREAK us DOWN. We will require rest and recovery. We will need to lean on each other for this. We will need to love and support a sister or brother while they need a break. Think of the geese as they fly. The one in the front will be doing most of the pushing and pulling against resistance. When he needs a break, he falls into the back to float on the wing strength of his brother or sister, who floats to the front.

Do you see this? Do you feel this? We will have to be the geese and allow for the feelings, the breakdowns, and the rest. WE WILL COME BACK STRONGER. And we will keep coming back and coming back and coming back. Change is happening. We’re the catalyst for change. It’s going to be uncomfortable.

Stay in it WHILE taking care of your personal breakdowns and rest. Come back stronger.

Namaste