until you feel more comfortable affirming yourself, and then keep doing it.” Calling a truce with body imperfections can help us feel more comfortable in our skins, something that can go a long way. For Hunt, shifting perspective inward is key. “What if we all stop and imagine being on a desert island? What would your perfect workout, body and life be like if there were no outside influences?”
Pain and Compassion Living with discomfort makes exercising challenging, but learning to respect the body’s rhythms and limitations can be beautifully empowering. “I love the quote, ‘Unless your compassion begins with yourself, it is incomplete,’” says Stern. “Taking a class together (even virtually) gives us a sense of being in this together. When we breathe, stretch and grow together through our practice, it helps us to appreciate where we are on any given day.” For Loolwa Khazzoom, a Seattle-based author and musician, it’s all about surrender. “Don’t fight your pain; dance with it— literally and figuratively. Dance from your bed. Dance in your head. Dance wherever and however it’s comfortable.” As the founder of Dancing with Pain, a wellness company that teaches a natural approach to pain relief through movement, Khazzoom says, “Our consciousness naturally goes to the places in pain and overlooks the places that feel good. Those places are quite literally our pathways to wellness.” She recommends focusing on pain-free areas of the body with the joy, power, harmony and other sensations that come from moving to enjoyable music, noting, “As we inhabit those places with our entire beings, there is less and less room for the pain, to the point that it may vanish altogether.” Marcus-Myers brings the message home with, “It isn’t your body’s purpose to be anyone’s ideal. Your body is an incredible living thing, worthy of love and gratitude.” Marlaina Donato is an author and composer. Connect at AutumnEmbersMusic.com.
Achieve the Goals of Our Dreams
F
earless Health offers holistic health, life and business coaching. President and founder Andy Farina says, “Coaching is getting the client from where they are to where they want to be.” He is a certified personal trainer and performance enhancement specialist with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. They provide on-site group (and oneon-one) personal training for businesses; low-stress /high-sustainability nutrition coaching live and online; the Thrive Project, a three-month life and career development process for business teams; and one-on-one live or online life coaching. The company was started when Farina was approached by a local firm to provide group personal training for their employees. “I had been working in gyms for almost 25 years before that, leading group fitness classes, including almost 20 years at the world-renowned Gainesville Health and Fitness, winning several prestigious awards at those gyms,” he says. In his career, Farina has helped more than 60 leaders at one company enjoy a greater quality of life while most performing at a high level; helped multiple clients keep the weight they wanted off for years— even during the holidays; worked successfully with clients in six states so far; and had his wife and adult children ask him to be their coach and trainer. His motto is, “What we are doing now will not get us where we dream at night of being!” A competitive ultra-endurance athlete
who has run in 24 Ultra Trail Marathons of 31 to 100 miles in the past nine years, Farina explains. “Often competing against athletes 20 years younger, I have to put into practice everything I coach. I have a specialty of pinpointing what is holding a client back from becoming their best version of themselves, and then use habit-based coaching so healthy living and relating become more second-nature and conserves energy for other enjoyable life endeavors.” Readers can find free instructional material at FearlessHealthCoaching.com/resources. Convincing people that they do not have to settle for less than the best in their health and life and work is one challenge that Farina cites. “And convincing them until they experience it that whatever they spend, they will get back in savings at the grocery store and doctor in less time than they could have imagined. Working harder is not the answer. Working much smarter and more focused on high-value targets is.” Farina plans on training two additional coaches and launching a photo-oriented nutrition coaching service that “allows people to learn practical and inexpensive ways to eat healthy for greater energy, stronger immunity and clothes that fit even better that is simple, doable and brings clarity like never before!” Fearless Health LLC is located at 1629 NW 36th Way, in Gainesville. For more information, call 352-337-2659, email AndyFarina@icloud.com or visit FearlessHealthCoaching.com. November 2020
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