Ep20 - Toxic Fitness Culture and The Pressures We Place on Ourselves, Body Image Struggles, What Chronic Stress Can Do to The Body & Mind, Choosing Love over Fear

An incredibly special episode with an incredibly special person in my life - I invite my bestie Makaila Nichols (@makaila.nichols.wellness) on for this action packed episode where we dive into A LOT in regards to what we both went through in our journeys out of toxic fitness culture and navigating body image and crippling mindsets that came from being in that space for so many years, different struggles with chronic stress and how that manifested in our lives and in our physical bodies, our journeys towards self love and choosing ourselves and ALSO how we met (it's a really crazy story...)

 

There is of course something to be said about going after what you want and working hard towards your goals yes - but there is SO much value here in realizing that you are a HUMAN BEING, not a human doing. Often times we think we need to be doing more, working harder, more successful, rush rush rush, now now now, more more more... when in reality if we're running on autopilot and with the blinders on, never stopping to take a breath or to prioritize what truly matters to us, we not only miss our whole life, but we slowly start to run into road blocks put in place by our bodies in hopes that we slow down - and then when we IGNORE those signals and don't slow down, we are FORCED to stop or come crashing down in a way that we never expected. 

 

This is exactly what happened to Makaila (and myself for that matter). We both were working in over drive, ignoring all signals from our bodies that we were heavily stressed, in fight or flight mode and BARELY surviving - and yet we kept pushing on. It was a rude awakening for both of us when our bodies LITERALLY started to give out on us, we experienced extreme fatigue, pain or injuries, rashes or skin irritations, mental breakdowns and more...

 

It wasn't until we were quite literally FORCED to slow down, to question our daily lives, to look within, that we were then able to slowly begin the healing journey...

 

And there is SO much to be learned in that healing journey... I hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it! 

 

**STAY TUNED FOR OUR BESTIE PODCAST - coming to your earbuds real soon ;)