Heart of Motion
The Heart of Motion Podcast is an exploration of the heart, soul and science of movement - and what it means in our lives.
Movement connects us more deeply to ourselves, to our bodies and to the things and people that are most important to us. Beyond a fitness routine, why do you move? And what moves you? When we can look past the hamster wheel of ''fitness" - we start to realize that when we really live the lives of our bodies - life can be a whole lot more fulfilling, and a whole lot more fun!
Host Susannah Steers is your guide on a quest to understand how we can move better, feel better in our bodies and connect more deeply to our people and the world around us. Join her for some conversation, interviews with experts, and conversations with everyday people about what movement means to them. You might just find movement feels a little different on the other side...
Heart of Motion
Presence: A Gentler Transformation
What if the key to transformation isn't about chasing resolutions but cultivating presence? As we embark on Season 2 of the Heart of Motion Podcast, I share how the power of presence and mindfulness can break the cycle of failed New Year's resolutions, bringing balance to our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. By acknowledging where we stand at any given moment—be it energized or stressed—we can harmonize our actions with our true selves. Through personal stories and reflections, I highlight the profound impact that embracing presence has had on my journey, particularly in overcoming movement-related challenges. Discover how mindfulness and embodiment can reduce anxiety, improve emotional regulation, and enhance cognitive abilities.
Join me on a journey of self-discovery that moves beyond rigid protocols toward a more creative, joyful approach to life and movement. By celebrating small wins, and making a consistent practice of tuning into our body's signals, we pave the way for authentic transformation. Presence isn't just a tool for athletes—it's a skill that can transform our daily lives, offering freedom, joy, and a deeper connection to ourselves and others. Let's explore how everything we need for transformation is already within us, waiting to be unlocked. Happy New Year, and here's to a more mindful and connected journey ahead.
Heart of Motion Podcast host Susannah Steers is a Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist and owner of Moving Spirit Pilates in North Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about movement, about connections and about life.
Through movement teaching, speaking, and facilitating workshops, she supports people in creating movement practices that promote fitness from the inside out. She loves building community, and participating in multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Along with her friend and colleague Gillian McCormick, Susannah also co-hosts The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast – an interview based podcast dedicated to promoting the kind of conversations about health that can spark positive change in individuals, families, communities and across the globe.
Social Media Links:
Moving Spirit Pilates Instagram
Moving Spirit Pilates Facebook
Susannah Steers Instagram
Welcome to the Heart of Motion Podcast. I'm Susannah Steers and I'll be your host as we explore the heart, soul and science of movement as a pathway to more active, vibrant and connected living. Nothing happens until something moves, so let's get started. It is a brand new year. Welcome to Season 2 of the Heart of Motion Podcast. I am so happy you're joining me here today.
Susannah Steers:This time of year I see people around me creating all kinds of resolutions about the way they're going to change their lives for the better, starting now New diets and exercise routines, new financial plans. You know the drill. Sometimes people make resolutions because they've just had a week or two or maybe a month of excess around the holidays and something's got to change. Maybe it's just that the end of the year is kind of a benchmark. It's a natural place to kind of look back and reflect at what we did and didn't do and decide where we want to do things differently going forward. But I also find it interesting that about 23% of all adults who make a resolution will have abandoned it by Quitter's Day. Did you know that was a thing? The second Friday in January, by the end of the month, that number goes up to 43%, with all the resolution making and breaking, it's clear that there's a group of us who want something to be different, but despite our best intentions, those resolutions don't seem to be very effective ways to promote change. There's something attractive about an instant transformation, though, isn't there? Wouldn't it be great to simply make a decision and have that be the end of it? We have what we want. We've changed. Most of us know intuitively that it isn't that easy, but I think the thing to remember is that the goal, whatever that is, is not really the thing that will make things different. It's actually who we become in the pursuit of that goal. So today I want to talk about something that I think can make a difference in how we are, how we live and maybe how we show up in the world. It's my antidote to the epidemic of transformational change strategies I see everywhere this time of year, but all the time.
Susannah Steers:I'm so tired of the constant pressure to be more this, to be less that, to be better optimized and more organized, to be whatever. I mean. Whose metrics are those anyway? What if we didn't have to make big changes? What if we could simply become more present to what is? What if everything we need is already available to us within us. It's something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and it's presence. It's a pretty simple concept. It requires no equipment, you don't have to spend a dime, you can do it wherever you are, anytime of the day or night, and the more you practice it, the better you get. At its simplest, presence is really just the state of being in the moment. In my head, it's about being fully and completely in the now Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually too. You're all in right now.
Susannah Steers:People talk a lot about mindfulness these days. You'll find tons of apps and videos that can help us calm our squirrelly active minds, regulate our heartbeats and our breathing and basically bring us back to ourselves. Quite often, though, once we're unleashed back into the world out of that moment and the stresses and pressures and outside distractions descend on us, we drop back into a reactive state where that squirrel brain ramps right up again and we're spinning. It's hard to stay true to any kind of inner vision against the force of all that outside pressure. I don't know about you, but when that happens for me, I feel less grounded, less focused, more apt to make rash decisions, or I tune out, or, on the other side, I tend to push my body too hard when I'm just not up to the task. We live in a fast-paced world where information overload is the norm. Our attention is constantly being pulled in a million different directions and our nervous systems are stressed in ways that our biology is not really equipped to deal with easily. Presence, mindfulness and embodiment all give us an opportunity to shift that script. I think of these words all as different facets of the same thing In my mind. Presence integrates the idea of mindfulness and the notion of embodiment into a state of being that brings all the parts of us into harmony.
Susannah Steers:Right now, research shows that mindfulness and presence can have some powerful positive effects on our physiology. There are mental health benefits like reduction in anxiety and depression, better emotional regulation and less ruminating thoughts. There are actually neurological changes that support these improvements in the brain. There are changes in the amygdala, which is the brain's fear and stress center. Imagine being able to look into the world through a lens that isn't already clouded with too many emotional preconceptions and excess lizard brain shenanigans. You can think better too. Research shows better cognitive function in people who practice mindfulness. Your attention improves and you can focus more. You're able to think more creatively and adapt to new situations better, and your working memory gets better. Working memory is that short-term memory that stores information temporarily while you're doing cognitive tasks like comprehension, problem solving, reasoning and learning. According to the data, movement and physical health also improve the more we can be present. Blood pressure gets lower, sleep improves and people experience less chronic pain, as well as immune function improvement, and it just feels good too. You feel less stress, you're happier, and the research indicates that people seem to have a better capacity for self-insight and a greater sense of purpose. How they are in the world starts to shift in some pretty powerful ways.
Susannah Steers:But how does any of this being present business relate to movement, to fitness and wellness? Maybe this stuff just sounds like so much woo. I mean, how do you get anything done with all that being in the moment stuff? Well, I'd like to share with you a little personal experience. Before the pandemic, I had several years of increasing challenges with my own body and movement. Despite spending tons of time and money trying to sort things out with various medical practitioners and experts, movement was becoming more and more difficult and less and less comfortable. For someone who has earned a living and found great fulfillment in movement over a lifetime. I was not okay with this on any level. Over a lifetime. I was not okay with this on any level. I kept searching for answers. I just wasn't finding any solutions that would move the needle in the direction I wanted to go.
Susannah Steers:In the fall of 2019, I got some x-rays that showed that I had, sometime in my checkered past, fractured several vertebrae in my spine. Weird that I didn't know that, but when I think back, there were maybe some intense moments that might have been to blame, or maybe I was born that way, and then life and pregnancy and constant drive started to wear down my ability to manage load on these compromised bones. I will likely never know. But now, with that little x-ray diagnosis, I felt like I had something I could sink my teeth into. This was a problem I could get my head around. I was certain that this new piece of information would help me shift things, so I made my plans and got to work.
Susannah Steers:Sadly, things just kept getting worse. The fractured vertebrae were just another piece of the puzzle. And as I was still searching, it took the wise words of a dear friend and movement practitioner to wake me up. She said something like, and she was more poetic than this, but it was something like you have everything you need inside of you. Your urgency around this is making it worse. I heard her, but I didn't really know what to do with it.
Susannah Steers:And then the pandemic hit, as happened for so many people. My business was in tatters, no income to speak of, and the stress was through the roof. I couldn't see any of the practitioners I'd been relying on to keep me moving and I quite literally fell apart. I was well and truly broken in just about every possible way. I felt like a complete fraud. How could I possibly lead people in finding their way back to movement when I couldn't do that for myself? They say that necessity is the mother of invention.
Susannah Steers:I was not okay with the decline I was experiencing and, despite promising protocols that promised some kind of relief, no one seemed to be able to help me. I had, over the years, consulted experts in fitness in movement, physiotherapy, osteopathy, orthopedics, neurology, acupuncture, menopause, mental health and more. Acupuncture, menopause, mental health and more. I had gone down deep rabbit holes, taking extensive continuing education courses to learn more about all kinds of movement and body-related things, always in search of more knowledge so I could figure this puzzle out. I saw some incredibly gifted, knowledgeable and experienced people, and each one seemed to have a small piece of something that created a glimmer of understanding and a short-term shift, but nothing that supported any real, meaningful, sustainable change.
Susannah Steers:Well, when I finally hit that wall, I realized that all this information was great, that I was the common denominator. I was the only one who could put the knowledge I had gleaned into context inside of me. I didn't need more of anything. Maybe I just needed a deeper awareness of what was going on inside me and how all these pieces fit together. That mean I had to let go and learn, with no push, no heavy drive, no grand plan, except to be with whatever I found. I needed to do that to understand it, and it was terrifying.
Susannah Steers:I felt like I was in free fall, things being what they were. I didn't feel like I had much of a choice, though, so I let go of all the things I was supposed to do. I stopped doing the things that were supposed to be good for me but left me feeling terrible. I decided I would do the small things I was capable of, no matter how tiny and insignificant they felt, and pay attention. I would start exactly where I was and do only the things that felt right, and most of the time I didn't know what right was until I tried it. It was an exercise in deep presence. I walked my neighborhood with my dog and started swimming again. I am someone who will always up the bar whenever I have the chance, so I made a promise to myself.
Susannah Steers:The only imperative in all this was that I had to show up and stay curious. If I went for a walk and could only go a few blocks, that was okay. I had to listen and hear what my body was telling me. What is available for me today, what is possible. Some days it wasn't much. Other days I surprised myself. On those days I had to take care that in my excitement, my performance goals didn't override that inner wisdom. I rested when I was tired.
Susannah Steers:This went on for months without feeling a whole lot of progress, but for the first time in a while I wasn't getting worse, and that was new. So I kept doing it. I learned that when I brought my awareness to the moment, to what was truly happening in real time in my body, in my mind and in my emotions, I could begin to choose the kind of movement, the intensity, the flow and even the level of rest I needed to nourish my progress. It brought me face to face with outdated ideas, beliefs and old stories that no longer served me outdated ideas, beliefs and old stories that no longer served me. It showed me the things that I had been chasing that were really not aligned with what I needed and not only wasted my time but actually got in the way of my progress. I began to see habits in my thinking and behavior that really weren't working for me. This process of being present was self-care at a level that I had never experienced.
Susannah Steers:Now I'm still on this path. I'm by no means an expert, but I am a convert. No more miracle protocols for me, no more shortcuts. I've always been about fundamentals anyway, and now I am more committed to presence over protocol than ever. I have a renewed enjoyment in creative pursuits, good books and play. My body feels better than it has in years and I'm getting stronger again. Finding presence was something I did because I had no other choice, but it has undoubtedly changed my life for the better. So that's my recent healing journey.
Susannah Steers:Maybe it's relatable, maybe it's not, but it showed me pretty clearly that all the various parts of our bodies and minds are connected in complex and interrelated webs within us and we move through our lives in relationship to everything and everyone around us. To be in an authentic and connected relationship with anything where needs are met and support happens in the right places at the right time, we need to be real, and we can't be real unless we're paying attention and embracing everything the good, the bad and the ugly, the light and the dark. So here's where I want to bring it back to the idea that everything is connected. Our physiology is intimately connected to all those things we do and feel Heart rate, circulation, nervous system, balance, muscle tone, mobility all these things are influenced by what's going on for us, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Susannah Steers:If we have unresolved stuff going on that we've stuffed away, it can affect how we move. If we're overwhelmed already and trying to throw more at our bodies, things can go pear-shaped pretty quickly. And if, absent of any kind of medical issue, you cannot seem to motivate yourself to any kind of movement. Maybe it's not that you're lazy, maybe there's something else going on. The only way to unpack any of this is to become aware of it, to reserve judgment, to put away your stories, invite curiosity and simply observe that right there is presence. And here's the beautiful thing. A movement practice can be a beautiful place to explore presence in a really gentle way, a little starter pack if you will. With practice you can dive in as deep as you're interested in going, and movement with all its connections to our bodies and minds offers a great way to get going.
Susannah Steers:Working with clients in the Pilates studio, I see a lot of folks who come in with a super defined idea of exactly what they want to achieve in their bodies and in their movement and how they want to get there. They move through their programs with purpose and focus, but always inside the context of what they already know about their own bodies. This was me for a long time. I would only acknowledge what was going on for me in the moment if it wasn't going to slow me down. Otherwise I would quite literally tell inner me to shut up and get out of the way. Now this perspective can get darn good results for a long time and you can see that in the popularity of the boot campy take no prisoners.
Susannah Steers:Pain is weakness, leaving the body kind of fitness programs all around us. They serve a purpose, but they don't leave much room for learning new ways of being and new ways of doing in the body. So as we grow and change as humans and different things happen for us and around us in our lives, this approach can't always give us what we need. What I've learned is that, unless we're in that top percentage of elite athletics, it's not so much the specific activities that we do but the things we learn about ourselves and our relationships with ourselves, our activities and life in general that create lasting change. The journey is the destination. The sparkly winds we may achieve along the way are just dressing on the cake to keep us motivated.
Susannah Steers:So what might it look like in practice? This being present thing, I'm going to relate it to a Pilates practice. But you could take it to the gym or on a run or out on a ride on your bike if you want. But you could take it to the gym or on a run or out on a ride on your bike if you want. It could be as simple as this when you show up for a workout, take a minute before you start to tune into how you are right now. Are you feeling energized, enthusiastic, relaxed, tired, stressed, in pain or are you grief-stricken? None of those things in and of themselves would necessarily dictate whether you worked out or not, but acknowledging the state you're in when you arrive might inform things about your workout, like the level of intensity or the kind of work you're going to do that day.
Susannah Steers:What's going on in the room? Can you bring your attention to your own body, to your own work or play? You may not be able to be completely present, but when you notice your attention is elsewhere, do what you can to bring it back to you. In this moment and this one, do you feel your body warming up to the task, getting lubricated, waking up, finding harmony and flow, or is it a slog, with you feeling less good as you go? Can you actually feel your body or is your mind running the show?
Susannah Steers:The idea isn't just to stick with easy, but really to feel into how your body is managing what you're doing and staying curious so you can choose what you need in the moment. If something you're doing doesn't feel right, ask yourself what might feel better. Is there something else your body needs? What could you do that might support you differently? Could you try going faster, slower? Perhaps you want lighter weights or heavier ones. Maybe you want extension before you do flexion. Maybe you'd like to start seated or standing instead of supine. What if you tried it upside down or backwards? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. And it's not about the novelty, though. It's just about paying attention to what you're feeling and exploring options in that moment. Sometimes that's doing something new. Sometimes it's about leaning into work you already know and finding the ground through that.
Susannah Steers:The more you practice this way, the easier it gets, until it's just a part of what you do. Gradually, you'll find that your grocery list stays at the gym door. I'm amazed at how often I see people coming into the studio looking frazzled and stressed. I wasn't sure I was going to make it today. They say my team purposefully puts some kind of breath or embodiment activity at the beginning of every program, just to help people drop in. As they breathe and attend to how they feel and what they're working on, the studio, chatter begins to subside, we see the stress levels drop and we watch people's bodies become more integrated and coordinated. By the time they're done, they're feeling much better. It can be like a moving meditation, whether you're going full out or taking it easy If you're a competitive athlete, you might be thinking that this approach contradicts the kind of structured training plan that you're used to.
Susannah Steers:Your training plan is designed to get you from now to the date of your competition in a way that will have you strong and ready to peak at just the right moment. You want to be efficient and effective with each training session. You know that the only way to get better is to work through hard things. You're used to pushing yourself and your boundaries, and there is nothing easy about that, and I want you to remember that you are not the thing you do. Even though your sport or athletic pursuit may feel as important to you as breathing right now, there is some part of you that is not about that thing you love to do, and that part is what runs in the background and supports the thing you do, so you ignore it at your own risk.
Susannah Steers:Perhaps the key is in finding ways to set goals with compassion for ourselves. Balancing goal setting while respecting our current limitations is a delicate process that requires self-awareness, compassion and some strategic planning. If you're working on a training schedule, here's a way to explore things Using mindfulness, presence and self-reflection. Bring awareness to your own strengths, your weaknesses and personal boundaries with respect to your chosen goal. Now, no judgment here. This is just where you are now. Can you see any gaps between where you are and where you want to go? Look at weaknesses and gaps simply as current limitations, not as immutable characteristics. It's all part of being here now. Things will likely be different tomorrow. Set your goals. Athletes are pretty used to setting specific, measurable goals with timelines attached. Make sure your goals are realistic given your current situation. Timelines attached. Make sure your goals are realistic given your current situation.
Susannah Steers:I once had someone come in and ask me if I could help her get ready for a heli-skiing trip in six weeks. I hadn't met her in person yet and I allowed as how it would depend to some degree on her current level of fitness, but that I would do my best. When she came in for a session I realized that heli-skiing was, for her at that moment, a pretty unrealistic expectation based on the fact that she was having trouble simply navigating the stairs in her home without dysfunction and pain in her knees. We could have worked toward heli-skiing next season or to skiing bunny runs more comfortably in a few weeks, but the gap was just too big for a heli-skiing trip in six weeks. It's important to find a middle ground between pushing yourself and being kind to yourself, and I mean that gently. I think you always need to be kind to yourself. This is a tricky one In our work together.
Susannah Steers:Renowned sports psychologist, dr Saul Miller, once asked me, susanna, what do you do with an athlete who will literally kill, to get the point? And he was someone who worked extensively with NHL and NBA athletes, so you can imagine the level of kill we're talking about. First, the only thing that will make you a better hockey player, mountain biker, dancer, skier, whatever is to practice that activity period. Practice it a lot is to practice that activity period. Practice it a lot. But if you want to be a better athlete overall, if you want to survive your sport and support not just parts of you that do the sport but all of you, then a mindful, connected movement and presence practice will help as you go, set both difficult and easy goals to maintain motivation and create a sense of progress.
Susannah Steers:I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I have a Garmin watch that tracks all kinds of things, including the number of minutes of intense activity I achieve each week. I have it set for 150 minutes of intense activity, which is the minimum recommended, so that I can feel like a rock star when I regularly hit three or four times that. It's a small thing, but it feels good. Who really cares? Practice self-care and activities that rejuvenate you, and in that I include presence and mindfulness. Never forget to celebrate the small wins along the way.
Susannah Steers:Recognize where you are right now, when you can embrace presence in your athletic pursuits. You can look at every movement as an opportunity to learn. Be open to changing your plan as you learn more. Mastery comes with a whole lot of repetition, but, like anything else, the quality of what goes in affects what goes out. Attend to what you're doing, even if you've done it a thousand times. Find an environment that allows you to surround yourself with people and resources that support your growth Mentors, peers and professionals who can help when you need it. And remember that progress takes time. Stay flexible, adaptable and present, whether you've got a serious goal or you're just looking to feel better and more connected to yourself and your movement.
Susannah Steers:Deepening into your own presence can be a powerful thing. As you can imagine, though, it's not a quick fix. It's not a hack. It takes some practice and some discipline. It might change your timelines, it might change your goals, but if the end result is a happier, healthier, stronger you, why not? There is a freedom that being present provides and a simple joy in just being. There's no comparison, no FOMO. There can be a simple pleasure in just being alive. From that place of simple joy, the world around us is a different place too. Calamities feel less calamitous, emergencies less emergent, the world slows down and we can respond rather than constantly reacting and overreacting.
Susannah Steers:I've talked a lot today about the power of presence and the fact that you can do it anywhere, anytime, to enjoy the array of benefits it can provide, though you can't treat it like a drive-by practice. As with learning any skill, embodying it takes practice and time. The more you do it, the more accessible a state of presence becomes. One of my favorite quotes is success doesn't come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently. If you pick up an app that helps you to be more mindful and that feels like all you can do for now, great, do that. Do it as often as you can, even if it's just a couple of minutes, a few times a week. Stick with it. You may find that, with practice, your world opens up a little, and maybe you can start to sink into presence during a walk or a workout. Once you start to feel it, you could explore how it might be to feel present in new ways with your partner, with your kids, in nature, in your community.
Susannah Steers:I feel like presence is an antidote to so many of the things we're dealing with in our own bodies, in our lives and in our world. Yep, I'm going there. I know some of my friends will be rolling their eyes at this, because I'm prone to some of this big picture unicorns and rainbows thinking. But what can it hurt If we all found ways to be present more often? It might show us the ways that we're similar and open us up to more compassion and care for each other. Maybe it'll bring us back into relationship with each other and with nature. Maybe it can help us heal the wounds that we don't even know are there.
Susannah Steers:For now, though, why not just start with ourselves? We can start small and easy with a bite-sized practice you know you can take regularly. Start with this moment or this one. Maybe it's a daily meditation or a walk, maybe you'll find it during a workout, maybe during a meeting or a ride on the bus. When you think about it, bring your mind to the task of attending to what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you feel and where you feel it. How are you responding? How are you breathing? Do you need to respond or can you just be?
Susannah Steers:I love to play with this inside a movement practice because I find it's so much easier to carry it into the rest of my life If I'm only practicing it when I'm meditating. It feels like it kind of stays in my head. Now. That might say more about my meditation practice than anything else, but I've said it before, movement is where everything makes sense for me, so for me this is a great place to practice it. I'm no expert. I am sure you will find your own way. If you have big things you want to achieve, or if you just want a deeper relationship with what is, maybe you can forget the resolutions and the transformation. Everything you need is already inside you. Everything you need is already inside you. Maybe becoming present with what is can open possibilities for you that you never imagined possible. You are enough just as you are, and I believe in you. Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe and, if you love what you heard, leave a 5-star review. Happy New Year.
