How a High Performing Mom Reclaimed True Strength in Her Body
Learning to get out of her head and let her body lead for a change was key to Rebecca’s transformation.
Rebecca is an Embodied Breakthrough client who wears many hats. She’s a project manager, a mom of two kids and 3 animals, a painter and incredible writer who is working on her memoir.
But chronic pain began to interrupt her active lifestyle. From lower back and hip pain to migraines from neck and shoulder tension, she wasn’t feeling settled in her body. She did everything from yoga to rigorous kettlebell training. But something just didn’t feel right.
She felt stuck and knew what she was doing wasn’t working. Most importantly, she wanted a way to feel free and to know herself better.
“I was really oriented around, you know, you push yourself until it hurts and then you do a little bit more type sports, and if I wanted to see results, I started with so many sets, so many reps. And if I wasn't seeing it, do more, and I just wasn't even listening to myself.”
By working through the Embodied Breakthrough program, her lower back and hip pain has disappeared. She’s having more fun in her body, doing spinal flows, getting up and down off the floor in creative ways, and has is experiencing more easy in even just the daily tasks of life.
She’s learned skills like listening and curiosity to develop strength she didn’t think she had, and engaging her breath daily to calm her mind and find her center.
“What if I just ask myself, today what does my body feel like it wants, instead of just starting? And supporting that beginner's brain and curiosity, all the possibilities are open when you're in that space. I haven't decided how it's gonna turn out. I don't know how it's gonna turn out. And anything’s possible.”
Rebecca has been on a journey to discover that our body is our home.
She’s let go of the scorecard and is here to let you know that you, too, can choose to have a different relationship with your body through intentional movement and exploration.
“Today is the day you get to have a different relationship with your body, right now in this moment, by just being willing to. Willing to not have the answers, not knowing if you're going to do it right...just allowing yourself to be open to the learning experience, letting go of the scorecard and getting into just learning about yourself.”
Want to be the next success story?
Let’s jump on a call and help you figure out exactly what's been holding you back with your body. Together we'll map out a game plan to get you back on track to becoming the strongest version of yourself.
You could keep researching and collecting information, or you could finally figure out what you most need to get your true strength and freedom back.
If you're ready to make your breakthrough...
Tiffany Redefined Strength and Fixed Her Foundations
Tiffany is an Embodied Breakthrough client who has broken through artificial ceilings and is forming a whole new way of being in the world with her body.
Like many others, Tiffany held childhood beliefs of not being cut out for athletic pursuits. But she discovered Crossfit a decade ago, and her ideas of what she was capable of started to change. While putting her body through the paces, she faced recurring shoulder pain that eventually became excruciating and severely limited her everyday activities.
"I was trusting myself that I was coming back to being on purpose, reminding myself yes, you can trust your gut."
She knew that doing nothing wasn’t the answer and that she needed to go back to her foundation. She discovered Embodied Breakthrough and, after her initial call, trusted her gut and committed to herself by signing up for the program.
"My gut was telling me this is the answer, knowing that you need to go back to basics and regain strength from the inside out."
Over the next year, Tiffany had a major mindset shift, learning to be patient with herself and continue to come back to her practice. To slow down and be more gentle with her body.
When she eventually started to add more movement back in, she could tell her mindset had changed, and the quality of her movement had improved. She’s developed inner strength and trust in herself.
"I don't need to give my accomplishments to somebody else. I can celebrate myself now"
Tiffany has learned to focus on what a movement feels like and enjoying what her body can do, like riding bikes and dancing.
"The space that he will create for you will be nothing like anything that you have experienced before. The safety, wisdom and skill that Jonathan has to walk with you on this path...your body is telling you that you're ready, so just say yes"
Tiffany has redefined strength for herself, and she fully believes that you can too. Let her story inspire YOU to seek support, overcome your challenges and say YES to yourself.
Want to be the next success story?
Schedule a breakthrough call and we'll help you figure out exactly what's been holding you back with your body. Together we'll map out a game plan to get you back on track to becoming the strongest version of yourself.
You could spend the next hour Googling or searching on Youtube, or you could get on a call with us and get the support YOU need for your unique challenges.
If you're ready to make your breakthrough...
Click here to schedule your call now
Your true strength and freedom is waiting for you.
How Hollie Eliminated a Decade of Hip and Knee Pain and Reclaimed Her Physical Freedom
Hollie has a spirit and energy that can easily light up a room. But chronic pain and tension were keeping her feeling stuck and limited in her body.
With a family history of arthritis and being told she would suffer the same fate, she felt pain in daily movement from the age of 16, often struggling just to get out of bed in the morning. She stopped going to the concerts she loved because even standing was painful. She shrank her world down to protect her body.
"I go into the gym thinking yeah, okay, I can do that. And when I can’t, I'd feel utterly disappointed in myself and embarrassed in front of other people, because I can't do what they're doing."
She tried it all, from physical therapy to cookie-cutter gym training, running and one-size-fits-all yoga. While much of mainstream fitness culture didn’t resonate with her, she stayed persistent until finding Embodied Breakthrough.
"I don't just want to give up. I’ll keep searching. I'll find the right thing. And here we are."
Now Hollie gets out of bed free from the aches and pains that doctors told her were her destiny. Not only that, but she's running completely pain-free. Movements she never thought she'd do, she's mastered like the deep squat and just nailed her first crow pose -- a handbalancing movement she always wanted to try.
By fixing her broken foundations and getting her core to work properly again, she is more aware and connected to her body than ever. Instead of her world shrinking, it's now expanding.
"Through the movements that we've been doing together, through the foundation building, that's helped me discover that I am really agile. I am really well balanced. And I love exploring what my body can do now."
She started to understand that challenges and obstacles will always present themselves, but we can learn something from each and every one of them, becoming a stronger person in the process.
"And I think the biggest thing is, say yes. Say yes to yourself...I feel that's what holds us back in life, the fear of the unknown. Step into it, step into that unknown area, step into that little bit of uncomfortableness and see how far you can go. You will go so far."
Let Hollie’s story inspire YOU to seek support, overcome your challenges and say YES to yourself.
Want to be the next success story?
Schedule a breakthrough call and we'll help you figure out exactly what's been holding you back with your body. Together we'll map out a game plan to get you back on track to becoming the strongest version of yourself.
You could spend the next hour Googling or searching on Youtube, or you could get on a call with us and get the support YOU need for your unique challenges.
If you're ready to make your breakthrough...
Click here to schedule your call now
Your true strength and freedom is waiting for you.
How This Busy Doctor Unlocked Her Physical Potential
As a busy doctor, Sam struggled for years with boring exercises to reclaim her mobility.She wanted to finally get the splits, backbends and other creative movements to give her more creative expression as a dancer.The problem was most routines felt like a chore — boring and repetitive. Even with years of yoga training, the deeper levels of movement intelligence and movement confidence escaped her.Her real passion was pole-dance, but she kept struggling with hip pain, tight shoulders and nagging issues with her body.Before we started working together, she thought that maybe the movements she dreamed of performing just weren't made for her body.By building a fun, smart program based on her unique limitations and imbalances, we were able to access the splits within weeks, and the backbends came soon after.Here's how she did it:
The best part? Sam started looking forward to training
The truth is that it ceased to be training, at least in the traditional sense of punishing your body with grueling workouts that leave you feeling broken and tired.Movement practice became something Sam could actually look forward to after a long day of work.It became a daily ritual of nourishment, play and exploration.
Keys to Sam's success
As a busy doctor and wife, Sam couldn't afford to spend hours a day training or pumping herself up to do something she didn't want to do.Here were the keys to her success:
- Building a routine that worked for her lifestyle and schedule by practicing after work
- Focusing on developmental ground patterns that taught her body to feel safe and increase confidence, like quadruped crawling, squatting, and getting up and down from the ground.
- Coaching that addressed her unique imbalances, strengthened her core and taught her body to work synergistically
- Accountability and feedback that helped her celebrate her successes and build positive momentum despite things not working in the past
Want to experience results like Sam's?
For years Sam tried to do it alone without coaching, getting mediocre results with yoga and static stretching.
By investing in coaching and learning how to activate her body properly, she was able to unlock results in weeks that she was unable to find for years.If you're busy like Sam and looking to make a breakthrough in your body, investing in coaching can be one of the best decisions you can make for yourself. I know because I've spent tens of thousands of dollars investing in my body with coaching and every time it helped me create more freedom and ease in my body.Our clients repeatedly tell us they only wish they started sooner.If you're ready to unlock your physical freedom and pain-free body, click here to book a free breakthrough session with me.We'll get on a call for 45 minutes and help you create a plan to unlock your physical potential. My program is not for everyone, but if you're committed and ready to do the work like Sam, you can make great changes in your body starting now.Schedule a Free Session
The Whole Story: How I Rehabbed a Stiff, Broken Body with Natural Movement
Until this point, I haven't shared the whole story about how I've healed my body from years of neglect.For too long I've been trying to make a logical argument about why mainstream fitness is broken and how we got to this strange, disconnected place.And I've recently realized what a giant mistake that's been.Because the reality is that understanding why things are the way they are doesn't change much (if anything).
So it's time I share with you exactly how I've transformed my body
I'm including all the messy parts because I think those are often much more valuable than the well-groomed, before-and-after picture stories with perfect lighting.And believe me, my journey to rebuilding my body from a hunched-over, fragile desk worker to the adaptable, resilient strength I enjoy now is far from a nice and neat overnight success story.My hope is that it will inspire you to create and build a new story with your body.If it does, please share with myself and the rest of the tribe. I'll give you some details on that at the end.Before I jump into things, I want to be clear: I didn't always have the outlook on fitness and movement that I do now.
In the beginning, I just wanted to impress people and look good naked
My journey didn't start with wanting to be resilient and injury free. In the beginning, I just wanted to look good with my shirt off, and be able to perform cool tricks with my body.But for a long time, I ignored my body completely. The thought of exercise and going to the gym just felt boring to me. Watching Netflix, going to the bar after work, and playing video games was much more appealing because of the instant gratification it offered.It wasn't until years of neglect working at a desk for 8-9 hours, not eating well and generally wrecking body that something changed for me.
I got inspired by Bruce Lee, and I was instantly drawn to learning the martial art he had synthesized from a decade of study, Jeet Kune Do.So I sought out a teacher. And once I found one, I was hooked on training.Nhan introduced me to things like barefoot running and practicing martial arts outside, not just in a sweaty gym. He also introduced me to what would later become my nemesis: training with gymnastic rings.All of a sudden fitness was fun to me again, and it was all I wanted to do.
But all my enthusiasm mostly lead to overtraining and injury
Look, I was excited, okay? I had high aspirations for myself and set my standard of achievement against the likes of Bruce Lee and Olympic gymnasts.Looking back, my naivete was kind of charming.I was raised to believe you could "be whatever you want," so that's what I aimed for.I wanted to be able to kick someone in the head and do an iron cross. The problem was that I had no idea what I was doing and had very little body awareness. So mostly, I just ended up injuring myself.That didn't stop me, though. I dedicated myself to corrective exercise, working on my posture, and spending hours a day doing mobility exercises.But the sad truth was that despite spending hours daily in the gym, I hurt all the time.Something as simple as reaching to pick something off the floor could create a spasm in my neck or back. A basic movement like a pull-up could send my shoulder into pain that would take weeks to undo.I woke up feeling like an old man in a 24-year-old body and couldn't figure out why, or how to fix it.
Wherever I looked, I found something wrong
It seemed like no matter what I did, there was always something going on with my body. I would stretch my neck and find some relief, then my shoulder would start bothering me. I'd do some yoga, then find my ankle or hip yelling out in pain.I wanted to be able to run, climb, do cool parkour movements and have fun moving my body, but it felt like no matter what I did to try to fix myself, nothing seemed to give me lasting results.There were a lot of days where I felt hopeless, and honestly, like giving up.And while I'm ashamed to admit it, some days I found some guilty pleasure hearing about others injuring themselves or dealing with chronic pain. It helped me feel like I wasn't the only one that was broken.Those were the worst days, the days where I felt depressed and like giving up.But luckily, I'm a pretty damn stubborn person, so I kept searching.
I spent thousands of dollars on treatments, coaches, and body-mind therapies
It wasn't just Youtube videos, online courses, and coaches that I worked with to try to fix my body.I worked with countless massage therapists, chiropractors, physical therapists, and even mystical energy healers.There were the times I tried aligning my chakras, doing daily qigong barefoot at sunrise, and of course, working endlessly on my posture. The nutritional side didn't go unexplored either. I guzzled bone broth, ate paleo, downed turmeric, inhaled probiotics and sipped mysterious mixtures of Chinese herbs.Some of it gave me relief, but the pain and dysfunction always found a way to creep back in.I know now that one of the biggest mistakes I made was healing then jumping straight back into challenging movements gymnastics and martial arts training too quickly.But because I didn't really know my body, I wasn't aware of the damage and counter-productiveness of what I was doing.And most of the experts didn't seem to think that healing from chronic, long-term injuries was possible.
"This is just something you'll have to deal with"
The most maddening thing was when I would ask body workers how to permanently heal from the pains I was facing, and most just smiled, nodded and said:"Your shoulder is probably just like that, sorry."And you know what, for a while I believed them. I thought maybe that healing from injury and the imbalances I've ingrained in my body through years of desk work were just too much to undo.Maybe I was just "like this," and needed to accept a sub-optimal, broken body.Maybe having the body I truly wanted wasn't possible, and it would be easier if I just accepted that this is just "the way things are."But that was a conclusion too depressing for me to accept for very long.One thing I've learned about myself is that I refuse to settle. There was a voice within me that kept saying "Healing, total healing is possible."And then I was led to a strange, unexpected breakthrough...
How the floor became my teacher
When I read the headlines that sent shockwaves through the internet, "Sitting is the New Smoking," it sparked something for me.A big reaction to those headlines was the explosion of standing desks. If sitting is killing you, then we should obviously be standing instead, right?The problem with that, I realized, is that we just end up replacing one static posture for another.It's not actually sitting that's the problem. It's doing the same thing, all the time. It's living a life divorced from the way we're meant to move in nature that's the real problem.So, I started sitting on the floor. I started squatting, kneeling and sitting in all sorts of positions while I worked.I was looking for ways to emulate what I would have been doing as a wild human at work, at home, and in the park.Which led to my biggest breakthrough of all...
Movement started to become the end (not just a means to an end)
Most people don't want to hear that they need to address and look at their whole life. It's uncomfortable, it requires change. You might need to look like a weirdo sitting on the floor or standing while everyone else destroys their posture hunched over at the desk.I didn't want to hear that either. I was looking for the Two Movements That Build Healthy Shoulders! and The Five Keys to Fixing My Posture Once and For All.I wanted to feel better so I could do the things without injuring myself, so I could look good and impress people.But a funny thing ended up happening. I stopped obsessing over all those things because I found when I focused on the process, things got better a lot more quickly. I felt better when I was staying present and mindfully moving through life.Things hurt less and I didn't have all this pressure on myself that I needed to perform X number of sets and reps for every single part of my body to create the ultimate, unbreakable self.Movement became the thing itself. I fell in love with movement as a journey, as a process, not just a way to gain aesthetics, impress others, or get out of pain.Am I saying I'm above those things now? Certainly not. But they aren't the main focus for me now.What lights me up is learning more about my body, and what it's capable of. What excites me is feeling the pleasure of movement, of exploring a new place to move, or a new challenging skill to master.I love being able to have freedom and control in my body and confidence that it's going to be there when I need to work in the garden, go for a hike or climb a tree.But I also understand that it didn't start there for me, and it doesn't for everyone.Which is why I want to help you with one of the biggest transformations I made:
How I reintegrated the missing key primal movements back into my life
These are movements you won't find in a gym routine, a CrossFit workout, or a yoga practice (not that there's anything wrong with those things).These are the missing movements you need to learn to reclaim your naturally resilient, strong body.At first, I did these as an isolated practice, which at first can actually be a good thing because dedicating time to relearn and get acquainted with your body is always a good thing. But over time, I found that it was easier for me to actually do them if I integrated them into my life.These days I know longer wake up in pain. I have confidence in hiking, climbing, practicing martial arts and rolling around on the ground. Because I know myself and my body, I rarely fear I'm going to injure myself. I know my edges and I'm able to continually push them safely to expand my possibilities for play.The best part is that movement for me is now automatic. It's not something where I have to force myself to get off the couch and go to the gym because I feel guilty.I move because it's a habit that takes little effort to maintain. Movement has become a joy for me because it's no longer all about training. It's about exploring what my body is capable of.
What's the new story you want to create with your body?
In the next post, I'm going to show you how you can integrate these missing primal movements back into your life.The best part is that it doesn't take any extra time.In the meantime, I would love if you share with me a little about your story and how you feel natural movement can help you.Click here to share with the tribe in the private online group.And if you know someone that has given up or is struggling with their body, please take a moment to share this with them.