Each month at Beauty In Strength we highlight one of our valuable members that has put extraordinary effort into her fitness. BiS is about recognising the pure Beauty we have in every aspect of our lives. It’s not just about how we turn up everyday to training it’s how we ‘show up’ to life on a day to day basis.
Please introduce yourself and tell me a little about yourself and your work?
My names Jess, (grey shirt) I’m 29 and I’m a full time medical scientist. I love being outdoors particularly at the beach, it’s my happy place. I also love cooking, languages and animals of all sorts. In terms of fitness I’ve always struggled to make it a real priority and consistency has lacked. Entering a career where my hours are random each week hasn’t helped, and establishing a routine has often been the challenge for me when it came to regular movement. Always having a very close family network my whole life meant that when I lost my mum to cancer three years ago, my foundations were shaken to their core. As time passed I realised that I needed to make myself and my health a priority, more in earnest than I have before. Seeing my mum robbed of so many adventures still to come broke my heart and made me realise that we really do only get the one body we’re born into and we need to be kinder to them if we want them to keep housing us for so many years. I knew my body wasn’t getting everyday movement that it so badly wanted and I also knew that I’d probably need some help to get going.
What does Beauty In Strength mean to you?
To me the phrase “Beauty in Strength” has always felt like a really original idea. Women are powerful beings, just being born on this planet female regards us a huge amount of strength. We are born with the right and incredible ability to create, carry and nurture life into being. Everyone we see around us came from a woman. Just that simple idea alone, indicates to me just how much strength each and every one of us holds innately and doesn’t even think about. To me that is so freaking beautiful! Beauty in Strength doesn’t have anything to do with appearance, it has everything to do with who we are inside in our very fibres and harnessing that potential that has been sitting there all along.
What were your initial goals before starting the BiS program?
I wanted to develop a healthier relationship with movement, not “exercise” per say but the idea of moving my body in a meaningful way every damn day. I wanted to get to a point where it felt weirder to not move everyday rather than the opposite.
How do you think your sessions have helped you?
The first thing I noticed was the stability it provided. It was a very simple routine that I began to look forward to each day. Particularly every Sunday night I would find myself thinking about the new week of workouts that would commence on the Mondays. Every night after I finished work, whatever time that was, I would put on some music that made me dance and do the workout for the day. They were so quick that it never really felt like a huge inconvenience of time but they always got my heart beating harder, and it became personal time just for me.
Physically they allowed me to develop a core strength that I haven’t ever really felt before. All of a sudden I could hold a plank for more than a minute without shaking like a leaf and I could do pushups on my toes which I’ve never been able to do more than 1 of. Also I honestly noticed my butt got visibly perkier as a side effect – no-one can be sad at that right!
In your opinion, what is the biggest benefit of exercising?
The way it makes you feel about yourself. You can be having the shittiest of days, and as soon as you get your body moving so your blood is actually pumping around your body properly you look at yourself with a whole new set of eyes. It makes you feel stronger and more capable within yourself and that process can happen really quickly, it doesn’t have to be through a hard slog all the time. A little bit every day was the game changer.
Has the BiS philosophy helped you in your everyday life? How?
Definitely! Something Darcia always did at the beginning of all the group sessions was ask everyone to think of something that they were grateful for. I always thought this was a beautiful reminder to remember how many wonderful things there are in life, and how easily we forget to pay attention to them, and I found myself trying to take time regularly to stop and think for a second about what I was thankful for instead of worrying so much about what wasn’t right or missing. It also made me realise that with a bit of TLC my body too was strong and capable and had the capacity to keep getting better, an idea that I often reserved for other people but not myself.
What would you say to someone who’s looking at getting started?
Do it! Be brave, step outside your comfort zone and give it a try. Guaranteed there’s only good things to gain.
Share your success. Is there something happening in your life right now that you are proud of? Our BiS community would love to celebrate with you.
I’ve continued to move every damn day which might not sound big to everyone else but its a big deal to me. Feeling my body get stronger has also rekindled in me my desire to do my yoga teacher training qualification and I’m currently looking into making that a reality.