#1 Wellness as Resistance: Disruptive Wellness

Natalie: 00:01:00

Let's dig in. This is episode one. I did it. Woohoo. I'm proud of myself. I'm just gonna pause for a moment to really celebrate this one. I created this podcast and I put it into the world, and honestly, let me celebrate you. The fact that you're listening just means so much to me that you're giving my podcast a try.

Natalie: 00:01:27

I'm so honored and grateful, and I hope it will be of value to you. I wanted to create a safe space to have insightful, thought-provoking and critical conversations surrounded wellness. My hope is that these conversations will challenge us, inspire us, teach us, and motivate us to take action and create positive changes in our lives.

Natalie: 00:01:46

As a wellness educator and coach, I get to have so many interesting conversations, and I really wanted to open up the discussion to more people. I was having a series of conversations and business interviews with a bunch of [00:02:00] different women. I was trying to better understand their wellness needs as members of my target audience.

Natalie: 00:02:05

A lot of different things came up. Some women laughingly admitted that they didn't have time for wellness practices and self-care, but they knew it was important. Others shared that they wanted to learn different wellness strategies so they can build their own toolkit and faced with different life situations.

Natalie: 00:02:22

Still others shared that they regularly practiced a variety of wellness strategies, including exercise, meditation, yoga, and being in nature. What I found the most surprising is that all the women, whether entrepreneurs or professionals, felt stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, and burnt out because of their work environment or workload.

Natalie: 00:02:43

I had a hard time reconciling the fact that the women who seem very knowledgeable on wellness are regularly engaged in a variety of wellness activities. Still experience these negative feelings to the point where we're showing up in other areas of their lives, whether they're physical health or relationships or personal joy.

Natalie: 00:02:59

Wellness wasn't leading them closer to their desired outcome. What kind of wellness is that? Who wants wellness? That doesn't leave you feeling well? I was triggered in these conversations because it instantly took me back to the old Natalie I used to be. You see, I'm now a wellness educator and live a pretty balanced life.

Natalie: 00:03:18

I'm able to control a lot of my time and freedom while living fully and authentically, but I wasn't always that girl I can identify with being completely and utterly overwhelmed in life. Back in the day, I was a busy be go-getter, hard worker. I said yes to everyone, would schedule five activities in a day, work seven days a week, stayed up till 3:00 AM working on projects, accepted every social invite, and the list goes on.

Natalie: 00:03:45

My to-do list was so long it didn't even make sense to have one because I could never keep up, so I just hopped from one thing to the next with no sense of clarity for what was priority, what was not, and what thing I actually needed to do to move [00:04:00] the needle forward with my goals. I was the one people could call on if they needed someone to talk to or wanted me to help them, or wanted me to fix something in their lives.

Natalie: 00:04:09

My answer was always yes. I felt very proud of myself that I could multitask, be a good friend, work hard as an employee, and as a business owner, and do all the things. It didn't matter that I felt overwhelmed and exhausted and stretched thin at all points in time. Secretly, I wanted one of those sci-fi movies to come true, one where I could clone myself or get a robot to help me like I need iRobot, but iRobot for Natalie.

Natalie: 00:04:37

To be honest, I didn't even have time to notice. I was struggling though. Because I was always onto the next thing. I had my head to the ground and was working hard. After all good things come to those who work hard, right? I'm definitely not lazy, and I accepted that this is what everyone has to do to get ahead.

Natalie: 00:04:54

It was like a rite of passage. Look at all the other entrepreneurs and professionals that I saw doing the [00:05:00] same thing. So many eventually got their success, so I just rinse and repeat. No? I wouldn't remember to eat or to even go to the bathroom. Because I just didn't have the time, and then the end of the day would come and I'd be exhausted and I'd just fall asleep on the couch with my laptop still open.

Natalie: 00:05:19

Isn't that a true badge of an entrepreneur? And it's not that I have a problem asking for help. That's actually not hard for me at all. Acts of service is my love language, but A, everyone is not as reliable as me. And B, I often couldn't even recognize all the areas and tasks that I needed help with because I was just doing so much.

Natalie: 00:05:40

Even with help in some areas. At sometimes I was still carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was the leader. I was the owner, I was the employer. I was the visionary. I was the one executing. Nothing got done without my involvement. I was zipping and zapping until I wasn't. My zip got zapped.

Natalie: 00:05:59

My life literally hit rock bottom when my marriage collapsed out of the blue, it began the darkest period of my life. I was so busy zipping and zapping. I hadn't truly realized how bad things had gotten in our relationship and how distant we'd become. Time was all a blur in those days, and not only was I not making my marriage a priority, it wasn't even a focus.

Natalie: 00:06:20

There were just so many other things to do, but seemed more important, at least in the temporary. So my husband fell to the way, way back burner. My busyness and overwhelm was costing me my marriage. What was even worse was that I had completely lost sight of myself. I didn't know who I was anymore. I had put myself and my needs on the back burner for so long that I was like an empty shell.

Natalie: 00:06:44

Unbeknownst to pretty much everybody, I had a mental breakdown and entered a deep depression. Next episode, I'll share more about my wellness journey, but for now, let me jump back to those business conversations I was having. Why was burnout and being unfulfilled so rampant? [00:07:00] It was like a disease that everyone had.

Natalie: 00:07:02

I had just returned to Canada a few years prior and was not used to seeing such high levels of stress. You see, I had recently spent eight years living on the small sunny island of Antigua. I had moved there right after grad school. It was interesting observing a society that functioned completely different from Canada and by Canada, I mean the Metropolis, greater Toronto area.

Natalie: 00:07:26

Canada was fast paced. It was go, go, go. It was a lot of movement, a lot of speed, a lot of hustle, a lot of work, a lot of events, a lot of people. Antiga was the exact opposite. A lot of slowness, a lot of waiting, a lot of stillness, a lot of downtime, and even a lot of boredom. At first, this was extremely hard to adapt to.

Natalie: 00:07:50

You remember the person I used to be? Well, I brought that same person to Antigua, and it was hard for me to adjust. I was just so used to getting things done [00:08:00] quickly and efficiently. And let me tell you, island time is, it's different. It really is its own metric that ebbs and flows on its own schedule, and there is no agreed upon understanding of it other than anti urgency, anti rush.

Natalie: 00:08:18

That's the thing in Antigua, there are really firm boundaries set by the population, by society itself regarding their time. And what as a people they will and won't do with their time. The vast majority of people place huge value on having time to rest, chill, having peace and quiet time with their families, time to themselves.

Natalie: 00:08:39

This is fiercely protected like I've never seen before, like line in the sand protected, and it's a beautiful thing to observe over time and even more so. When I returned to Canada, I came to appreciate and miss this antigen way of living. I loved how they viewed time. Time was in their control and they [00:09:00] used it to create the life they wanted based on their values and desires.

Natalie: 00:09:04

Whenever something didn't align with their lifestyle and it challenged their time, the answer was no. No matter what people were gonna choose, their time, their peace, and their relaxation. I got to observe and eventually adapt to this way of living for myself.

Natalie: 00:09:26

This lifestyle was a mindset shift and a new wellness practice, a practice of disruption and resistance, and in return, the reward of control and freedom. As an educator and proud graduate of the Bachelor's and Master's of Education programs at York University, critical thinking, self-advocacy and social disruption are core to my identity.

Natalie: 00:09:48

I think coming out the womb, everyone in the delivery room knew this baby was gonna be a little different. This baby was not gonna be complacent or settle for what other people expected or wanted. [00:10:00] No, no, no. This girl was gonna be a bold leader who likes to ruffle feathers, lean into discomfort as a way to create change and empower and motivate others to do the same.

Natalie: 00:10:11

As an adult, I maintain the same persona. I like to challenge things, improve processes, dismantle broken systems, question, knowledge, and ways of knowing. I am obsessed with growth, impact, and transformation while remaining authentic. So when I look at wellness, I'm not just looking at things that make me feel good.

Natalie: 00:10:31

I'm looking for bold transformation. I'm always asking what is helping me become a better version of myself and move the needle closer to the life I want? Mental health and wellness are hot buzzwords right now. Everyone is talking about these topics. There are so many books, videos, workshops, podcasts, employee programs, et cetera, et cetera.

Natalie: 00:10:53

Yet we continue to see huge numbers of people feeling stressed, overworked, dissatisfied, and [00:11:00] disengaged. And the thing is, it's not just employees who feel this way. Many entrepreneurs and business owners feel this way too. There are several reasons we can acknowledge for why this is happening. Lack of work-life balance, overworked due to understaffing, lack of support, lack of appreciation, et cetera, et cetera. I've been really thinking about this. Why are people so stressed here in North America? This land of opportunity that so many people have migrated to hoping for a better life and future. Why was it resulting in stress, overwhelmed and burnout?

Natalie: 00:11:36

Surely that's not why so many people migrated here. Nobody says Yes, I'm happy and excited to start a new life where all I do is work all the time. Hardly see my family and friends, feel underappreciated and undervalued at work, and then wake up and do the same thing day in and day out. Yay. Like that doesn't happen.

Natalie: 00:11:56

But then it dawned on me, it's not specific workplaces [00:12:00] and employers that are the problem. It's society, specifically Western large metropolis type societies. Society is giving us this expectation of speed, of urgency, of hustle. It promotes multitasking, overworking and sacrificing. It values the needs of the employer more than the needs of the employee.

Natalie: 00:12:21

It actively resists the feelings of harmony and balance. It strings you along with a consistent paycheck and the hope of increasing pay and benefits over time, and you tell yourself when you get more money, your life will change. You'll slow down, you'll reclaim your time. But deep down, you know, this is likely a futile dream and truthfully, you've settled and accepted that this is how life has to be.

Natalie: 00:12:47

Now what's worse is this is really a self-inflicted experience because society is a collective of individuals that live within community and how shared beliefs and values and culture, and we are those set individuals. [00:13:00] So we play a part in the expectations and norms that society produces. Okay, let me pause because I don't wanna get too deep.

Natalie: 00:13:09

I'm a natural disruptor and passionate about challenging a status quo, not accepting excuses, calling things out, taking bold action and confronting things that need to change. I realize the reason why self-care and other wellness strategies aren't making a big enough impact is because people aren't resisting society's expectations and parameters.

Natalie: 00:13:30

People are doing more yoga, more meditation. More journaling, more breath work, but it's on society's terms. What if we were to disrupt and disturb society's expectations for how our lives should be? What if we were to intentionally embody wellness as a form of resistance and use our inner power to create from this place of resistance, a new way of living?

Natalie: 00:13:54

One where we were in control and lived in alignment based on our values, our goals, [00:14:00] our desired outcomes, not society's own. This, my friends, is what disruptive wellness is all about. Together let's create a community, a collective of women, and everyone else is welcome, who are willing to explore question unlearn, relearn, and disrupt their understanding of wellness.

Natalie: 00:14:20

A community who is willing to prioritize their wellness and take control of it in radical ways that are meaningful to them. Now in order to shift from our present reality to the new one, we envision we need to take inspired action. Every episode I will challenge you with a call to action. Today's is a reflective journaling prompt.

Natalie: 00:14:41

I want you to take some time to deeply think about these three questions. It will also be in the show notes for your reference. Number one, what is it costing you to not prioritize your wellness? Number two, what is it costing you [00:15:00] to live within society's expectations for your life instead of your own?

Natalie: 00:15:06

Number three, if you continue on this path, what will your life be like five years from now? After the call to action, I like to say an affirmation, and I invite you to say it with me. The affirmation is as follows. My life will change the moment I take action to change my life again. My life will change the moment I take action to change my life. In closing, I wanna thank you for listening to today's podcast.

Natalie: 00:15:43

If it resonated with you, please send me a message and let me know your thoughts. Next episode, I'm talking about my wellness journey and how choosing myself saved my life and my marriage. I'll be on your podcast feed and in your email inbox every Thursday, so make sure to subscribe to From the Full Cup [00:16:00] Newsletter in the show notes.

Natalie: 00:16:01

This podcast is brought to you by Captivate best podcasting platform, period. If you're looking to start a podcast, I promise you this is the easiest way you can start a free trial by clicking the link in the show notes. Until next time, continue to serve yourself, your loved ones, and your community from a full cup.