All tagged freedom

Are You Hiding? 👀👀 (One Shift to See More Progress Instantly)

Are You Hiding? 👀👀 (One Shift to See More Progress Instantly)

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, coaching, mindset

A lovely thought to consider: we’re all these big, powerful, multitudinous forces, under the surface, imprisoned by nothing but our thoughts. That’s true for some of us, and others of us are kept in hiding by bigger forces making it unsafe to show the whole of who we are. It’s worth considering why any one of us isn’t allowing our full selves to shine; I’d imagine, if we pull on these threads, we’re playing roles we didn’t necessarily choose and staying in them most of all because it’s easy to do so, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

How do we get from keeping our heads down, hiding away, playing our parts to the bold, unapologetic, magical mermaids we are? Some common advice is to, “fake it ‘itl you make it.”

I’m not big on, “fake it ‘til you make it,” because that feels really…cheesy and inauthentic to me.

How's THAT Working For You?

How's THAT Working For You?

Stephanie Ondrusek
Bold Body Initiative, body image, coaching, offers

We tell ourselves we'll be happy when we're small enough, we'll eat the cheesecake on Friday when we've earned it, we'll love ourselves when we hit our goals.

We believe the freedom to wear a bathing suit, the deliverance that allows one to choose the curly fries as well as the salad, and the liberation to appear in candid photos are things for other people.

(Who are those people? We don't know, but they're certainly not us.)

We keep aiming to shrink ourselves, and, as a result, we stay hidden.

How's that working for you?

Movement is a Method of Expression.

Movement is a Method of Expression.

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, mindset

My relationship with movement changed again when I was in my early 20s. I found lifting, and even the EXACT workouts from my swimming days took on a new life: I could feel how my workouts fit together. I began to decipher what my body was trying to tell me. I could challenge myself, having hard evidence that I had it in me to achieve difficult goals.

If I had continued to believe that movement was nothing more than a credit card, giving me a balance to have extra fries, I never would have learned how to express my deepest truths through the activities in which I engage.

My power would have stayed hidden in the cupboard under the stairs.

For me, it was lifting. For you, it might be walking in nature, competing with a Crossfit team, or taking a dance class.

Freedom: it’s yours.

Give Yourself Permission to Run.

Give Yourself Permission to Run.

Stephanie Ondrusek
coaching, mindset

Embracing the idea that we will get it wrong comes with the freedom TO get it wrong. When we sit with the idea that we won't hit a home run on our first (or second, or even third) at-bat, we come to see that the attempt is where the magic is, and the results are nothing more than data.

We're encouraged to take a step forward on the scraggly, winding path to change, as opposed to lacing up our boots and consulting the map for the zillionth time at the outset (and never actually moving). We know it won't be perfect, but it will be motion that produces some sort of result. We know we will know more after an effort, even if we don't succeed, than we would if we stayed stuck. We learn to trust ourselves to course correct along the way.