Spirituality of Strength Training: Recent Episodes
Anna Willard
Welcome to the Spirituality of Strength Training! The show covers everything from the strength training, spiritual practices, meditation, mindfulness, soul awakening, healthy lifestyle, yoga, and the science of healing physically, mentally, and spiritually. Anna Willard is a health profession who discovered the integration between mind, body, and spirit and the importance of healing all three together as one during her own healing journey. Hear from health professionals, psychiatrist, spiritual leaders and strength coaches. Enjoy!
Listen in as Anna Willard shares how to mourn the Past, Present and Future during these times of COVID-19.
She also shares the importance of how to mourn well by living a life with passion. The root word for passion is to endure well, to suffer well.
The psoas, (the muscle of the soul in Eastern Medicine) is the most intimately connected muscle to our nervous system. ~ Drew Ragan
How to face and heal trauma vs getting stuck in “woe is me” When in the exercise zone, it frees your mind and physical blocks Training with joy from the childlike spirit Self - Judgement creates less energy and restriction in body How to have self-love without the other person and the importance of community How to balance the craziness from news along with self healing, self-care How to stay open to messages of love within the body
Trauma brings transformation. It is a choice how it will change you. It can destroy you, or it can create strength to love and live in the midst of hope.
Liz Mullinar the CEO at Heal for life Foundation shares her wisdom and experience as a healer and psychologist.
Listen to this short solo episode as Anna’s is in complete flow with her thoughts giving you insight and wisdom to this new year and new decade. Here are three simple things she talks about to help you accomplish things beyond your wildest adventures.
Letting go is an expression of grief, grieving is a process of forgiving. ~ Anna Willard
A new year, a new decade brings change and invites transformation and transitions within our life. For us to embrace the fullness of any type of change there is a grieving process of letting go of the past, good and bad, joyous and hurtful moments.
Silence and Solitude brings us to the wisdom of our oceanic cells and the deep desires of our heart's soul. ~ Anna Willard
"Self-Forgiveness is accepting the reality truth of our failures, flaws, and imperfections" ~ Anna Willard
Todays Short Sweet Solo Episode Anna Willard talks about three simple steps to follow when practicing self-forgiveness. Acceptance, Daily Doing, and Positive Understanding. Listen in as she shares how she too struggles with this practice of forgiveness.
From modeling, to stunt driver, to becoming a Hypnotherapist Belinda brings us to a entire new perspective within this practice of forgiveness.
All three of these women bring a broad and deep perspective to forgiveness and the intersection to mind and body within this practice. In this episode you will learn different aspects of forgiveness like How to have grace and faith Develope a level of self-trust How letting go is a step by step process Its ok to start small Mindfulness within forgiving self
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Anger is an empowering emotion, nothing is wrong with it. The danger with Anger is when it goes on for too long. ~ Marina Catacuzino
Marina started the Forgiveness Project out of anger during the time of the Iraq War.
Her passion to bring peace through this practice of forgiveness is compelling and transformational.
Jill Colman shares her story of forgiving her ex-husband who cheated for two years of their marriage. In this episode she walks about . . Its ok to forgive without letting them off the hook Forgiving self without repeating the same pattern Self acceptance is the key of forgiveness How to ride the waves of emotions through forgiveness Letting go while holding onto self trust Control and trust are complete opposites Body acceptance is key within the practice of forgiveness
Enjoy this short sweet episode with your Host Anna Willard as she reads part of her book:
Spark Your Youth: A 21-Day Fitspirational to give you hope and the power to believe.
She continues this theme of FEAR from the last two episodes and gives insight to what we may truly fear and the importance of living out our dreams.
"We fear the pain within our weakness" ~ Anna Willard
Todays Short Sweet Solo Episode Anna Willard talks about how to overcome our fear, how to deal with the pain it brings and the difference when we face our fears and weaknesses vs when we continually train our strengths.
Is Love over Fear a spiritual bypass of our fears?
Listen to Anna Willard as she shares from an athletic point of view how fear is very healthy.
She list when it is good to fear and it is not good to fear
Slow is the New Strong
To build a stable foundation of strength, it requires a slow approach. Listen to another short sweet solo episode with Anna Willard as she shares the benefits of going slow when learning the kettlebells.
She list three simple benefits by taking things slow
Self Awareness Ability to self correct Stay true to yourself
Anna encourages everyone to not only slow strength training down but all areas in life so that you will be able to stay true to you!
Death brings life, it is a transition stepping into the unknown to become open for a newness within life.
Listen in as Anna Willard gives insight to how she has recently been dealing with a death within her life. How easy it is to bypass emotions, How scary it is to lean into our emotions How healing our emotions can be.
When we live from a place of force, we are working against the flow of life. Letting go is not completely in flow, there are times in life you need to hold on!
Listen in as Anna Willard shares three things to be aware of when forcing things in life versus being in the flow of the rhythm of life.
Dance is a form of expression and connection
Dive in with Hayley Shannon a healing dance practitioner as she shares many gold nuggets of truth from her experience as a dancer and now a healing dancer facilitator.
Have an open mind a willing heart to learn to love through our differences - Anna Willard
In less than ten minutes Anna shares from her experience how we can create a neutral ground within fitness and religion. She uses the analogy how different types of fitness can be beneficial at different times in life to how we can also benefit from different forms of regions and spiritual practices. Her main goal with this episode is to help us see how loving is learning through our differences.
Within this episode you will learn how magical water can be for our soul and heal our mind giving us the freedom to simply play and enjoy the beauty of nature. As you listen you will also here how she sees the interconnection of the spirituality of water as she touches on these three concepts:
How water can help those who suffer with PTSD How water can spark creativity, awe and wonder How water can be a hug from mother earth
Paige specializes in neurophysiologic therapy of Brainspotting to assist athletes in de-conditioning mal-adaptive brain-body neural pathways from perceived sports failures, sports injuries and surgeries. She uses photobiomodulation-light therapy to assist athletes in healing their sports injuries and surgeries by up to 50% faster including concussion-traumatic brain injuries.
Awakening moments do not have to be a tragedy but can be from the beauty from life.
Our first international guest Ela Staniak give here wisdom and insight about the connection between mind, body, spirit within the fitness industry.
She shares her personal story that brought her to understanding the connection of spirituality within the physical from the death of her parents to living in beautiful Australia.
In this episode she dives into three key elements to maintain consistency, but first she explains the importance of trust as an undercurrent or a thread weaving these three concepts together.
Discipline within the Daily Persistence within weeks, months, and years Patience within the process
As you listen to Angela explains these three types of doshas, you will gain body wisdom and knowledge to be more attuned with your health. By understanding the elements of each one, pitta, kapha, and vatta, you will be given the tools to know how to improve your health to the exact needs of your individual body
In this episode she dives into three aspects how and when words take away from the wisdom of our body. Talking too much about the goal or decision tricks the brain to feel like it has accomplished it already Talking can take away from the time and space needed for practice the lessons learned from the discussions. Being over coached, mentored takes away from brain body connection and the wisdom from within our body TAKING ACTION WILL ALWAYS BE THE KEY TO MOVE FORWARD YET THE MOST CHALLENGING
Alison Mattek is a postdoctoral research scientist in the department of psychology at the University of Oregon. She works in the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab, and received her PhD in the Psychological and Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College.
Three types of meditation
concentration of the mind - anchor your focus on a certain thing, it is concept of being better control of your mind, tame the monkey mind contemplative practice - curate your thoughts into better thoughts, from negative to positive thoughts. Vedic - allowing your mind to meditate with a certain mantra, allowing your mind be in flow
Anna Willard shares what she believes spiritually and her journey struggling through this life learning the layers of love and embracing the spiritual through the physical.
Join her today as she shared the key concept of believing in a greater power, an infinite and intimate power of love.
eam Wallace joins us for deep conversations and questions about religion, systems, and health, and much more!
We jump right into depth with the trauma living in the Church and this was the game changer for Andy.
From starting a career in modeling, Troy Casey turned to holistic nutrition to help decrease his stomach from bloating. As he continued to understand more about nutritions he continued to broaden his knowledge about health and healing and is known as the Certified Health Nut.
Danny J Johnson is a bright light to this world with her smile story, and strength to move forward from the challenges in life.
We start off with a deep dive into her story how she discovered she was pregnant as a teenage and the roller coaster ride of wanting an abortion to give her child up for adoption. During this story you will gain a new perspective and see the good in every situation in life and how you can be the light in any circumstances
From the corporate world within the beginning days of Microsoft to Tarot Cards and Yoga. David Flenniken shares his story how he managed his spiritual life living in the corporate world and what lead him to create his own Tarot Cards and to teaching yoga.
From back surgery to strength training, Pastor Shannyn shares her vulnerability of the life lessons with healing her body to be holy work.
After moving to Seattle, she hit rock bottom and rediscovered herself with again within fitness. Yet she had always been part of some type of fitness, listen in to how this time returning to health changed her.
Anna Willard jumps in with how using the phrase of "my story" can cause more harm than healing. She shares the importance of understanding the interconnection of our stories and how stories are to unite each other. When we hold onto the fact of "my story" we negate this connection and the invitation for all of us to heal. This is the strength and art of letting go and to become open to a deeper strength to move through us to heal in ways we never thought possible.
This conversation with Dr. Parker is rich, insightful, deep and will leave you with a greater wonder about god, religion, and spirituality. In this episode she gives her knowledge within history, the biblical text, and her own personal experiences as an Baptist African American women professor.
THIS EPISODE YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS!!!
Have a playful spirit and accomplish your dreams, goals, and much more than you could imagine
Learn how you are creating a childlike spirit and incorporate a playfulness approach to any goal you have within your life.
You will learn how having a childlike spirit of playfulness will help you let go of . . . .
outcomes other's opinions failures
This episode is full women wisdom like:
The mental game for Iron Maiden The art of training pull-ups, pistols, and press The importance of staying healthy while loved ones life is in a health crisis How visionalization can assist the healing process How believing it is possible is a game changer The struggle of training with the hormones with a female body The bond between Mother daughter friendships Body Image - The Struggle is REAL How being easily offended is creating a weak char
Tired of workout out by yourself? You want to join a group fitness class yet you fear not being able to keep up with the group?
Do you long to have some type of deep connection within your workouts with others and yourself?
Listen to this episode and you will Learn the power of working within yourself along with a other to build a strong connection within your spiritual being.
Wisdom comes from being wrong We gain strength through struggle Being stubborn is being persistence Power of group exercise How to have courage in the presence of fear Letting go of expectation is the art of coaching How us as leaders and coaches need to guide vs direct How aspiration can create body shame The importance of working out alone How perfectionism silence true strength How to avoid burnout within fitness Strength to face our own demons and face trauma
The Struggle to embrace Self-Worth gives us the Strength to Love - Anna Willard
Today's episodes is another short sweet solo session with your host, Anna Willard. Dive in with her as she discusses three hiccups that trip us up from living from our worthiness of love.
Labels Achievements Push-back
From being a victim of domestic violence to becoming an author of 10 different books Laticia Action Jackson took focused action on her life and started to N-Powered herself.
She has three different degrees, with numerous visit on global television stations, United Air Force Ventrin and an Bodybuilder Fitness Olympia.
Laticia shares her journey how she built health within, the struggles of being a women of color and racism and her love for others.
Ever wondered what it is like to work with Anna Willard?
Listen to today's episode as she interviews her former clients Chandreyi and Ryan Davis.
Learn how Chandreyi shares how she thought fitness was the one thing that doesn't happen for her and how this changed while training with the kettlebells!
Everyone has privilege. It is how we use privilege to create change? - Chrissy King
Dive in with Chrissy King on some of these important topics regarding the health of our nation
From motivated to become skinny to become strong Time, Persistency, Consistency, Patiences the four things to put into practice for any skill throughout life How fitness is still white washed and what roles need to do to create the change
"Become Empowered with the kettlebell instead of allowing the weight to have power over you" - Denzel Allen
Denzel and Anna dive into their experience training for the Beast Tamer and Iron Maiden and the similarity their stories have with the physical and mental limitations. Listen in and learn how they broke through these barriers.They also share their story of how they both started surfing and what that has opened up for them mentally and emotionally.
Your worth is not defined by the number on the scale, the number of reps, the number or weights or the number in distance you can run, swim or bike.
To be able to accomplish anything within this world you must know first your worth, and allow this mindset to remind your body that it is already worthy. Believing in your worth allows your body to step into is potential and achieve these goals.
"Have the courage to accept Love is our salvation" - Gina LaRoche
Gina gives her insight on the importance of Love, Hope, Dream, and our health.
She dives right in with the Seven Laws of Enough: Stories Matter I am enough (we do enough and we have enough) I BELONG No one is exempt Resting is Required Joy is available Love is the answer
Today's episodes is the first short sweet session with your host, Anna Willard all about trying vs doing.
Trying eliminates our power and strength and takes away our ownership to the process of accomplishing our goals.
Learn how you are creating a mental and physical barrier when using the word try.
Listen in to how you can replace this word with this empower phrase of "I am working on." She encourages you to practice this new phrase and be aware how it changed your mind and body.
"Fitness is not all lululemon and being a thin yoga model" ~ Allison Tenney
After her own personal white woman wake up call after her first Ignited Womxn Summit event, Allison Tenney dove into the white privilege and started listening to the stories from women of color.
THIS EPISODE YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS!!!Kick start off the New Year with the right mindset for your biggest dreams. We have the strength to define what we find impossible to be possible. Enjoy this short sweet episode with your Host Anna Willard as she reads part of her book Spark Your Youth: A 21-Day Fitspirational to give you hope and the power to believe.
"Gifts giving is a physical sign of connection between the relationship of being seen and known from the other" ~ Rachel Paz
She stated this shortly after she shared how she didn't give any gifts during the holiday season! Listen in and learn how to handle the heaviness of the holidays.
Today sit back and enjoy this short sweet episode with Anna Willard as she read a part of her book Spark Your Youth and learn about the power to dream!
"Just like movement and exercise keeps our bodies alive, dreams keep our spirits alive - our gifts, our talents, our passions!" ~ Anna Willard
Maggie goes into how training with the kettlebell has changed her life within her mindset and shares a very important life lesson. This life lesson is how not every battle in life needs a to be fought, but how to walk away with kind and grace. Make sure you listen to the very end to learn the kettlebell skill she is referring to that taught her this very important life lesson!
When we come home to our bodies, we come to the dreams our soul and spirit long to live into the physical of our being.
December is a perfect time to reflect on Dreams! Enjoy this short sweet session with your host, Anna Willard, and learn three simple steps to move towards a dreamed fulfilled life!
Get Quiet Day Dream Backwards! Brain Storm Everything and All things!
During this hour you will be intrigued with the kettlebell and how it change and challenged Anne leading her to be one of the most influential woman in the kettlebell world.
You will learn about the different certification StrongFirst offers, the magic of achieving the Level One SFG Certification. (SFG - Strong First Girya - Russian word for Kettlebell user), and the motivation behind achieving the Iron Maiden (pistol, pull up, and press with a 24 kg).
When we stand in our power stance, we give our voice a physical platform to speak from and tell our truth. The weight of our words can be heavy to speak and we need a strong stance and a strong body to give us the confidence to speak. The Kettlebell swing literally trains this power stance. As it is training the body to become strong within its power, it is training the mind to become mentally strong within its confidence.
"The term "FIT" is a tricky one. To me, that word carries far greater weight than just the physical element. I think being FIT means acknowledging and accepting ourselves entirely. ”
- Kim Schaper
Such an amazing episode with Kim Schaper! She shares the depth of her story within the mental and spiritual effects of eating patterns. She tells the how injuries forced her to face her emotional body of sexual trauma, divorce, and unhealthy relationships.
Enjoy this short sweet session with your host, Anna Willard.She first gives you the freedom to be lead by your highest authority, your body's wisdom intuition.Then she leads you through this practice of listening to your intuition, your body's wisdom, through these three simple steps: Trust the moment Lean into your body Be open for conformations
Derek Clark is know as Rapping Dad! He is a motivational speaker, author of 7 books, been featured on numerous TV shows and has 250 million view on Social Media.
Most importantly this man gives his knowledge and guidance through this process of forgiveness.
Near the end of the episode he shares his big forgiveness story. From being burned with boiling water, to almost aborted, he shares the power of forgiving his past to empower his future.
Reita Johnston shares her journey of self-love through this practice of Forgiveness as she payed off a ton of debt and set herself to live from a place of Freedom.
This transformed her to become a Life Coach, a Reiki Healer and has studied at the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. She guides her clients to this same freedom she has given herself with the act of forgiveness.
Take a deep breath! This is a heavy Episode!
Dean Smith is know as the Forgiveness Guy from his epic journey of forgiving the man who murder his mother when he was only 12 years old. As he guides us through his journey of forgiveness he invites us all to picture our own B.O.B Burden of Bitterness and shares how he still incorporates forgiveness as a continuous practice throughout his life.
Betsy Shilling is a beautiful soul sharing her insight to the practice of Forgiveness within the physical and mental and emotional body. You will learn from her the following: the difference of working through anger vs living in anger where forgiveness lives within the body how to call people in instead of calling people out the rhythm of forgiveness within the waves of anger the importance of growing pains and embrace these pains how to forgive our body, our mind from past regrets
Forgiveness is a continuous practice similar to Fitness, it is a continuous practice to obtain our truest health.
Seeing the similarity of Fitness and Forgiveness Anna leads you to the blessings and the freedom Forgiveness give to your emotional and spiritual flesh. While at the same time she shares forgiveness does not deny or negate the pain of trauma, cutting words or the hurt from others, but it is the beginning of your healing practice.
Kristen Hicks was a firefighter/NREMT for 10 years and now empowers audiences all over the world to be Unapologetically You! During this episode you learn the connection between your spirit and body and how to tune in to both by the power of your breath.
You will also learn . . . .
Spiritual massage How converse disconnected us from the earth Seven Standard Chakras GUP - God Universe Higher Power Personal Power Emotional feelings vs Emotions over taking the body The power of the
As we get back to the basic childlike movement in a form of play, we are able to heal our subconscious or our super conscious of our child like spirit. After listening to this episode you will have the insight to live from your innocence and take the steps towards your wiser future self.
Janae and I jump right in the discussion about water sports and the lessons water teaches us. Janae being a fresh paddleboard instructor and me a former water skier you will learn . . . .
the different characters of water the different lessons each character of water gives the importance of respect self and nature / water how to make falling into the water fun how to enjoy failing similar to falling the ebb n flow of water and life
Wholeness is making decision for the greater good of our well being and embracing the unknown - Anna Willard
Enjoy this Short Sweet Episode with your host Anna Willard as she guides you to live a life from your wholeness.
You will learn how our decision between good and great determine if we are living from our wholeness or our fractured self.
After listening to this episode you will have the insight to live from your wholeness embrace your holy being
"There is more room on the outside" ~ Stacey Sorgen
Stacey shares her incredible wisdom and the importance of expressing our emotions through our body. She tells her personal story of how she found her passion working as a wellness coach and how exercise helps her manage anxiety and depression.
Enjoy this Short Episode with your host Anna Willard as she guides you through the difference between Fitness and Health. In this episode you will understand the difference between fitness and health, how goals are the intersection of fitness and health, and how to use fitness to expand our limitations and grow into our whole health. Fitness is a pillar that helps support the structure of our health, properly integrating fitness into our daily life we are able to expand the structure of our health.
Camy is a ball of energy and a passionate Self-Love Coach and Trainer. She shares her story how she was a competitive athlete and body builder and the transformation of a back injury spun her into the health profession.
Enjoy this Short Episode with your host Anna Willard as she guides you to the beauty of brokenness.
You will learn three important steps to let go of of anything that does not server your full health.
Say it out load Cry it out Become Open After listening to this Episode you will have the strength to let go of anything that is not serving your true health, this could be from gossip, to coffee, to toxic relationships.
Dr. Derek McNeil shares his insight about Hope during dark moments in life, the importance of being alone while healing from trauma, and the relationship between body work while healing the mind and the spirit.
From her experience of being guided to the Kettlebell, she shares how we all can be lead by the spirit to our deepest desires with these three simple awareness cues: Awe and Wonder, Captivation by the beauty, Energized you. Thank you joining! Anna Willard is excited to take this journey with you! If you enjoyed what you heard, subscribe to receive future episodes and share your love with a great review and 5 Stars. To train with Anna Willard with Kettlebell head to www.annawillard.com
Fall of 2017 there was a school shooting at Freeman High School, the school where Anna Willard graduated from, the school where her mother works as a school nurse and where her baby brother attends. Shocked and devastated with this traumatic event she found comfort within the strength of the Freeman community. Inspired by the teachers and the community, Anna Willard interviewed Kenny Davis. wisdom as a teacher and coach, and how to age well through strength and stretching programs.
"When we are attracted or drawn to someone or something, there is a deeper purpose for the attraction. It is the journey of discovering the purpose." ~ Anna Willard This episode Anna Willard, your host, shares how the kettlebells found her through an injury causing her to live on pain meds. You will feel inspired and uplifted through her story. During this 20 mins, you will be given the courage to continue to move through life's journey no matter what difficulties it may bring.
During this episode Dr. Morgan Oaks shares his knowledge as a Chiropractor, Shaman and a High Performance coach. We dive into the importance of the spirit living within the body, the importance of healing the spirit with mediation, prayer to when it is needed to have a physical adjustment.
During this Episode Andrea Chang shares her artistic approach to kettlebell training. She is an amazing kettlebell coach and movement specialist. She has helped me move back to my strength as an athlete and a health professional. She is the owner of Kettlebility a Strongfirst (the gold standard for kettlebell training/cert) strength studio. She is bright spot in the strength world and brings her artistic flare to programing and coaching. To train with Anna Willard Kettlebells head to www.annawillard.com