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
Embracing Change: Finding Stability Through Movement
Change is the only constant in our lives, yet we instinctively resist it. Whether facing health challenges, career shifts, or global disruptions, change often throws us off balance—but what if we could transform this resistance into resilience?
This deeply personal exploration unpacks how our nervous systems and brains are simultaneously hardwired for patterns while possessing remarkable adaptability through neuroplasticity. Drawing on insights from resilience expert Brad Stulberg, neuroscientist Norman Doidge, and mindfulness pioneer Daniel Siegel, we discover how "rugged flexibility" allows us to stay rooted in core values while adapting to changing circumstances.
Using movement as both metaphor and practice, we explore how physical training teaches us valuable lessons about adaptation—the delicate balance of stress and recovery that builds strength, the importance of mindful awareness, and the power of community support in navigating change.
This episode reveals how disorder isn't something to fear but rather the necessary catalyst for growth and evolution. By accepting where we are, staying present through discomfort, practicing patience, and leaning on our communities, we can navigate change with grace and emerge stronger on the other side—perhaps not returning to our old selves but becoming more resilient, compassionate, and connected versions of ourselves.
Some resources used in the creation of this podcast:
Brad Stulberg, Masters of Change: How To Excel When Everything is Changing, Including You, New York, NY, HarperOne.
Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness; A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds - Not Crushes - Your Soul, 2021, New York, NY, Penguin Random House
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration, 2010, New York, NY, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation, 2011, New York, NY, Bantam Books
Norman Doidge, M.D., The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, 2007, New York, NY, Penguin Books Ltd.
Hans Selye, M.D, Ph.D, D.Sc, F.R.S.C, Stress and the General Adaptation Syndrome, 1950, British Medical Journal.
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 Susanna 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.
Susannah Steers:Way back in 500 BC, greek philosopher Heraclitus suggested that the only constant in life is change. I think it could be argued that resistance to change is another pretty universal thing. Whether it's a career shift, a health challenge, aging or even just adapting to new routines, change can throw us off balance and we can feel uncomfortable and even vulnerable. I've been thinking a lot about change in recent years, and I guess I wanted to share some of the things that I've learned.
Susannah Steers:Our brains and our nervous systems are hardwired to create patterns of activity to promote speed and efficiency in our actions. The more we practice those patterns, the more deeply ingrained they become and the faster we're able to act. In certain ways, we program ourselves into thinking or doing things on a pretty predictable path. It's an efficient way of doing things, if you think about it. When we encounter situations outside the familiar, though, or when we attempt to do things differently, we're a little less efficient at first, a little less sure, less immediately capable. We might even be afraid. What if we could approach it differently? What if we could see change not as something to fear but as an opportunity for growth?
Susannah Steers:I've always figured that it was part of my job as a movement teacher to support people in creating or managing changes, particularly in their bodies. Movement is a great way to create change and to begin to see where change might be possible, and it can be a powerful way to shore us up when change is happening for us. People walk into a Pilates studio for a reason, walk into a Pilates studio for a reason, and often the physical changes they seek are actually a pathway to handling other aspects of their lives in different ways. Today, I want to look at ways that we might explore to move through life's twists and turns without losing our footing. I'm going to share some of my own perspectives and we'll explore some science-backed strategies from researchers. I respect particularly Brad Stulberg, a resilience and performance expert, as well as neuroscientist Norman Doidge and mindfulness pioneer Daniel Siegel. And, as always, we're going to keep movement at the heart of things.
Susannah Steers:In his recent book, Master of Change, brad Stulberg suggests that we might view change not as an acute event but as a constant of life, a cycle in which we are ongoing participants. In the book he introduces a concept that I love, something he calls rugged flexibility. The idea is about being tough, determined and durable while at the same time being adaptable, able to bend easily without breaking and to consciously respond to change, resulting in a gritty endurance that allows us to thrive in the face of change. You might picture rugged flexibility a little like a willow tree. The tree's trunk is like your sense of self and your values. In a storm, that trunk stays rooted, but the branches bend and sway in the wind. This picture kind of gives us an image of constant movement as well as a sense of stability and constancy.
Susannah Steers:So let me bring it back to the body for a sec. Let's say you've injured your knee. It might be tempting just to give in to the discomfort and say to yourself I'm injured and I can't do the things, and then just put your feet up and watch TV instead until the injury is healed. That's a choice you could make, and if you're out for six to eight weeks, you might be climbing the walls by the time you're cleared for full activity. So let's think about it another way. Yes, you've had a setback.
Susannah Steers:What if you approach the situation with rugged flexibility instead? In this case, it might mean changing up your workout routine, shifting to things that you can accomplish without causing problems for that injured knee. Instead of skipping the workout completely, you might choose to modify your exercises, reduce the load volume or shift to other activities that you can manage. You might need more recovery time or longer breaks, I don't know. It might even mean something more complicated. The idea is to be open and to find something you can do to help yourself weather the change without abandoning your goals and your values completely. If you can embrace the change instead of resisting it, you'll probably learn something new about yourself and your body in the process, and when you come back to full strength, it won't be the old you. It will be a new, wiser you.
Susannah Steers:Regardless of the choices you make, you'll have to bring awareness to the potential challenges of your circumstances. Before making any knee-jerk reactions to a change, take a moment to assess the situation, to understand the implications and to make a loose plan for moving forward. Focus on what you can control. What are the aspects of your training that you can still influence? Be adaptable to new variables when they arise, and when you can incorporate a variety of exercises and different training methods, you'll probably be better equipped to adapt to those unexpected changes. If movement and conditioning are important to you, keep your eyes on the prize. By focusing on your core values and your goals, you'll likely find your way through tough territory without feeling utterly defeated by the unexpected change. So here's where things get even more interesting. I spoke earlier about how our brains and nervous systems create patterns of neural pathways to help us move quickly and efficiently, but science also shows us that our brains are wired for adaptability.
Susannah Steers:In his book "The Brain that Changes Itself, neuroscientist Norman Deutsch describes a process by which the brain is able to rewire itself in response to new experiences. It's called neuroplasticity. If you've spent any time at Movies, beer, pilates, you've probably heard the term a time or two. We can see neuroplasticity in action quite dramatically in someone who learns to read or speak after a stroke, for example. What occurs is a profound repatterning of the brain. That can seem utterly miraculous, and it kind of is Neuroplastic. Change happens when specific signals are repeatedly sent between neurons, creating new pathways from your brain to your foot or your foot to your brain, for example. When a previous pathway becomes unavailable, your brain, given the right conditions, can figure out a detour. Deutsch stresses that learning and experience play crucial roles in shaping both the brain and its functions. Good quality repetition and reinforcement of desired actions are important in developing new pathways, and it's a two-way street the brain affects the body and the body affects the brain, both sending signals that influence the other.
Susannah Steers:In our Pilates studio, my team and I often ask people to notice what they experience is different when they're exploring postural changes or learning a new movement skill. Awareness of the body and its movement is the first step toward encouraging some of this neuroplastic change. Your brain needs to be aware that something is different and it needs to sense that that different is meaningful to you in some way. Then it's important to experience or practice the new thing as often as possible in a short period of time that encourages your system to shift its attention from an old way of doing things to a fresh way of organizing and traveling those new neural pathways. The truth is that every time we face a challenge or step outside our comfort zone, our brains create new pathways. It's like carving a new trail through dense forest. At first it feels hard and unfamiliar, but over time it becomes easier and then almost automatic.
Susannah Steers:So where do we start? If we're talking about action steps for navigating change, then the first strategy might be to learn to embrace discomfort as a part of growth. And while the body can serve as a beacon of sorts, a truth teller, I think we can extrapolate this strategy into pretty much the rest of our lives. When we feel resistance, whether it's learning a new skill, changing our habits or starting a new job, reminding ourselves that our brains are creating new connections is important. Discomfort isn't a sign that we're failing. Instead, it's proof that we're evolving.
Susannah Steers:So let's go back to Brad Stulberg's work for a minute. For years, when discussion turned to topics of the body, conversation often revolved around ways to help the body to find homeostasis for best health. The idea behind homeostasis is that the body will do everything it can to find, or revert to a state of balance inside itself. Now, in my mind, while there is comfort in knowing that the boat will essentially try to right itself, it seems like kind of a reactive way of getting there, doesn't it? Brad Stelberg talks about allostasis instead. In his view, healthy systems adapt to change and find new forms of stability instead of rigidly resisting it, as in the more traditional concept of homeostasis. Rigidly resisting it, as in the more traditional concept of homeostasis. Stulberg emphasizes that this is called stability through change. In essence, allostasis is about embracing change as a natural part of life and finding a new equilibrium after a period of change. It's about recognizing that true stability is not about staying the same, but about adapting and thriving in the face of constant change. To me, it feels like a much more engaging and way less linear dance.
Susannah Steers:Change changes us in the process. We are growing, evolving and changing every day and every moment of our lives. When we can ride that wave, the experience can be a whole lot more fulfilling and maybe a little less traumatic too. Awareness, self-compassion and positive self-talk go a long way towards helping us recognize and manage change. Sometimes we seek change. There's something we want in our lives, enough to disrupt the status quo. At other times, change happens and it feels like we have no control over it Losing a job or a global pandemic, for example. The way we deal with the process will go a long way to determining how successful we feel in moving through it.
Susannah Steers:If you've ever done a boot camp or gone to the gym, you may have heard slogans like "pain is weakness, leaving the body and go hard or go home, or any number of other quips the fitness industry uses to promote a take no prisoners, 150% effort as a way to get certain kind of results. Well, I don't love any of these. Some effort is required to make a change. You are going to feel uncomfortable. If we want to get better at anything, we have to take ourselves out of our comfort zones, asking a little more of ourselves than we think we're capable of. But rather than throwing everything we have at the change, perhaps we could start by bringing awareness, sensitivity, compassion and care to the process. Sensitivity, compassion and care to the process. That's not just fluffy, feel-good puffery. There's science to back it up.
Susannah Steers:In 1936, Dr Hans Selye introduced a concept called the General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS, to explain how the body responds to physiological stress. In the years since, the GAS model has been widely used in exercise science to understand how the body responds to exercise and to design training programs that promote adaptation without causing overtraining. The principles of GAS have been used to ensure that athletes are gradually exposed to stress, allowing their bodies to adapt and recover along the way.
Susannah Steers:The model describes three different stages. The first is the alarm stage. You are outside your comfort zone and you know it. Imagine taking on a new physical activity, like learning to row, for example. If you've never done it before, you'll probably experience some coordination challenges. You'll tire quickly and you are going to feel it in your legs, in your core, in your back, in your shoulders, likely that day, and maybe for a few days after as well. There's probably not much in your daily life that will prepare you for that kind of movement. So if you want to row, you're going to have to feel that discomfort.
Susannah Steers:The next stage is the resistance stage. This is where your body begins to adapt to the new stress. After a few weeks of rowing, your technique gets better, your core and your legs are more involved in the process and your back and your shoulders are beginning to understand the assignment. You're gaining strength.
Susannah Steers:The third stage of general adaptation syndrome is exhaustion. If the stress persists or is too intense, the body's resources are depleted, leading to a decline in function. Now, since 1936, there have been advances to Dr Saley's work and, despite some questions to its validity in terms of specifically resistance training, I think it still provides us with a valuable framework. If we're looking to create a change of some kind, we need to provide the body with enough stress that it begins to adapt, but not so much stress that it cannot recover and begins to break down.
Susannah Steers:Did you know that strength gains in the body are largely made during the rest and recovery phase and not during the workout itself? In an intense workout, little microscopic tears happen in your muscle tissues. This is a normal and necessary part of the process of muscle growth. And then, during your rest phases, your body repairs those tissues, creating what's called hypertrophy, resulting in increased strength. It's growth. When we don't allow adequate rest, recovery and muscle growth are hindered. When we overtrain, we're essentially getting in our own way, pushing harder for diminishing returns. Brad Stulberg says it quite well - "Stress plus rest equals growth. These are the things that build resilience.
Susannah Steers:I think this all seems pretty clear when we're planning the change, like when we're looking at the arc of a training plan. We could periodize our training with sessions of intensity and recovery and create a schedule that gives us a reasonable expectation of building capacity within a certain time period. If you've ever trained for the sunrun or for a marathon. You're probably well familiar with this kind of thing. You gradually build your run and then you taper it off shortly before your race so that you can be strong, ready and not too tired when the starting gun goes off. Individual athletes will have to explore how best to manage their own lives inside of that training plan, using rugged flexibility. Individual issues like injuries, illnesses, sleepless nights, travel and other circumstances may have an impact on the overall plan, but they needn't upset the apple cart completely. Things might feel a little different, though, when we're not anticipating the change, whether it's an injury or a pandemic.
Susannah Steers:A sudden and unexpected change can feel as though we have to react immediately and with vigor to an unfamiliar situation. When this happens, finding a sense of groundedness in ourselves is, I think, critical before we can move forward.
Susannah Steers:When the pandemic first hit and we all stared down that huge, gaping maw of uncertainty in front of us, we all reacted differently, based on our circumstances and our experience and our beliefs and our fears, and the facts as we understood them played a role too. As a business owner and the owner of a service-based business where people gather together in small groups, I felt as though my business and I were in free fall. Like so many others, I was afraid I was going to lose everything, and in that fear I overreacted. I jumped in to learn everything I could learn, which wasn't much, because this had never happened before and everybody was learning on the fly. And as soon as I heard the latest info from the health ministry, from WorkSafeBC and from my municipality best practices from fitness industry, I went about crafting my plans, communicating with all my people and making stuff happen. It felt like I was doing something.
Susannah Steers:The only problem was that the orders kept changing. Sometimes even within a day or two we were fully closed. We were partially open. We could open under these conditions, but not under these ones. This was okay, and then, suddenly, it . wasn't Early on, it It felt important to me to keep everyone informed about every step of what we were doing, to find ways to provide the services I'd promised. After a while, though, this was a little like overtraining I was exhausted, my plans weren't all that effective and I began to fall apart.
Susannah Steers:There is a saying between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. That space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. One of the biggest things that I learned during that darned pandemic was to give myself a little bit of grace and a little space when the you-know-what hits the fan. Take a breath, take another one, ground myself, think, feel and then act. And when I started to work from that place, things got a lot easier and I felt a whole lot better about it too. You'd have to ask my team, but I think I became a better leader in the process.
Susannah Steers:That took me a while to figure out, but if you find yourself in the midst of a sudden and unexpected change or if you're working inside of the chaos, there are things you can do to carve out a moment or two to settle things down and create that space between stimulus and response. Here's one from Daniel Siegel. It's a grounding breath Inhale for four counts, hold for four counts and then exhale for six counts. The longer exhale gently stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, that rest and digest part, and begins to signal safety to the brain. A few cycles of this breath and you may begin to find the space to respond rather than react to sudden situations.
Susannah Steers:We're kind of moving into the mindfulness arena here, and I've heard people talk about mindfulness and meditation in a way that seems really disconnected from daily life. There's life, and then there's this stuff that you can do that will help you feel better, and to that I say yes. And. You can wait until the storm is over and use mindfulness and meditation techniques to settle yourself. With practice, though, you can begin to bring those things into your life, even during crazy, chaotic or changeable times. Dan Siegel talks about something he calls the SIFT technique. That can be a hugely useful tool in navigating some of the things you'll wrestle with as you navigate change. It's a way to reframe some of the things you might experience along the way. It brings attention to your sensations, your images, your feelings and your thoughts S-I-F-T around a given situation.
Susannah Steers:So let's imagine that you've decided you want to feel better in your body. You decide to add some new physical activity to your life as a way to make that happen, but a few days in, you're feeling sore, you're tired and you're generally pretty discouraged. This is not the feeling you were going for.
Susannah Steers:So what are your sensations? You've got aching muscles, fatigue. In your head, you've got pictures comparing yourself to others in class, or maybe you're imagining injury and getting scared of that. You might be feeling frustration or self-doubt and you might have thoughts like I'm too old for this or I'll never get stronger. Raise your hand if you've ever felt any of that. So first, well, done you for noticing what you were experiencing. That's the first step.
Susannah Steers:Next, let's look a little more closely at those S-I-F-T elements and see if we can reframe things a little bit. So, sensations that soreness and fatigue in your body means growth. You're asking more of yourself and you're evolving in new ways. That's a gentle reframe. How about those images? If you're having pictures comparing yourself to others or imagining injury, shift to a positive visualization of a few successful moments you had, and what you'll be able to do, you know, create pictures of what you'll be able to do as you gain new strength. And as far as those feelings go, if you're thinking about others doing things better than you, well, instead of looking at what they're doing, recognize that you showed up and yeah, it was hard, but you persevered and you know what? Consistency brings results. You may not be where you ultimately want yourself to be, but you are making progress. Maybe shift your thinking from I can't do this to I'm learning.
Susannah Steers:Small, mindful changes like these help us foster self-compassion and motivation and resilience. Accepting who and where you are right now, being present for all that means in the moment and having the patience to move through it gently, can improve your resilience. That acceptance isn't resignation or settling. It's simply saying here I am, this is hard and I'm here for it.
Susannah Steers:Brad Stulberg talks about change as a cycle and this, I think, affects us in so many different ways. He sees it as a period of order that moves into a period of disorder, that moves into a period of reorder. Now, order is when life feels stable and predictable. Disorder is when things start to fall apart. Reorder is where we build something new from the chaos.
Susannah Steers:For me, this brings to mind our world before the pandemic. Things felt pretty predictable, if not always exactly what we wanted or needed. I know I went about my days simply expecting certain things to be true. The pandemic threw all of that out the window. Entire systems of health, of economy, of safety, on a global and individual scale were rocked to the core. The pandemic exposed all kinds of cracks in what many previously believed to be a solid foundation. We went from what felt like even an imperfect sense of order to a profound disorder, and it rocked us all to the core.
Susannah Steers:As I say this, I think about the way the world has emerged from the global pandemic. We were all in such a hurry to get back to normal that I'm not sure we're recognizing that we are different on the other side of it. We are scarred by the experience and in other ways we are better for it. I think this is our reorder phase. We don't know how we're going to do it yet and in some ways we are in profound disagreement about it. I think this is our reorder phase. We don't know how we're going to do it yet and in some ways we are in profound disagreement about it. I don't think it would be a stretch to imagine that the current polarity we see in our worldviews may stem from a resistance to the idea that things are different now. Entire systems are in need of reorganization. We just can't seem to agree on how we're going to get there.
Susannah Steers:The pandemic showed us that the world could not support the ways in which we, especially in the Western world, were living on the planet. If we can recognize that the world we live in is constantly evolving, perhaps we could find ways to live in new relationship with it and with each other. And here's what I believe to be key. Disorder isn't something to avoid. It's where the growth happens, in "he Brain that Changes Itself. Norman Doidge illustrates this beautifully with all his stories of people recovering from strokes or trauma by rewiring their brains through consistent effort. They didn't return to their old selves. They became stronger versions of themselves. We can't avoid change. It is happening gradually all the time - where we have a tendency to stick our heads in the sand about it; and sometimes it happens suddenly and we can't help but have to deal with it. So how do we move through disorder into reorder? I think we have to start by focusing on what we can control our daily habits, our mindset, our support systems and let go of what we don't have any control of.
Susannah Steers:I know the pandemic taught me a lot about that and about myself. I was afraid of the virus and what impact it could have on my health and the health of my family and my friends and for those I felt responsible to protect in my community. I was afraid of the wider economic consequences and of my own financial situation. My physical, mental and emotional health suffered, and I'll admit that I felt utterly broken in the face of it all. Now, though, I can see that the cracks let new light in Traveling my familiar paths only made things worse. First I had to let go of those old patterns. Then I had to learn how to care and have some compassion for myself in ways that I had never done before. I learned to pay attention differently, to see where it might be possible to think or act in a different way, and at first it felt like I was just letting go of everything that mattered, basically giving up. I understand now that I was learning a new way of being. It was somewhere in this period that I found Brad Stulberg's work, in particular the Practice of Groundedness, and as I read his book I realized that I was intuitively playing with what he calls the pillars of groundedness: acceptance, presence and patience.
Susannah Steers:I am no expert, but I am diving into this wholeheartedly. Those of you that work with me will likely have noticed some more purposeful moves in the direction of self-knowledge and self-care in the Pilates studio and in our programs and even in the podcast. More than ever, I believe deeply that everything we really need is inside of us, but we can't know what that is or how to access it until we focus on fostering awareness, building new skills and opening ourselves up to fresh perspectives, instead of fixating on the outcomes that we can't predict and trying to get there in the ways we've always gotten there before.
Susannah Steers:When I'm working with people to find more freedom and healthy movement in their bodies, I am always looking at the relationships between things. Those relationships have power. One thing Daniel Siegel emphasizes in his work is that relationships literally reshape our brains, a concept he calls interpersonal neurobiology. When we connect with others during times of change, we build resilience together.
Susannah Steers:I know for a fact that Moving Spirit Pilates would not have survived the pandemic without the incredible community that has developed in that studio over the years, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful. I see the power of community in the Pilates studio every day. When one client faces an unexpected health challenge, people rally around them, not just with words, but with presence. People come to work on their own stuff, but I see that the friendships and connections that have evolved, create beautiful support systems. People feel seen and heard and that provides a supportive environment for everyone, and that is my hope that we keep doing this.
Susannah Steers:If you are facing change right now, lean on your community or start building one. If you don't have it yet, join a class or a group where people share similar goals or challenges. Connection isn't just comforting. It can be life-changing. Change isn't easy, but it's possible to navigate it with grace and strength when we accept it, embrace some rugged flexibility, ground ourselves in mindfulness and lean on our communities for support. It is my deep hope that, as we as individuals and in our near and global communities as we face new challenges, we can work to understand ourselves and the problems we face together. That takes some courage.
Susannah Steers:The path through disorder is never linear. Whether we like it or not, it's where the magic happens. If we can let go of black and white thinking of this versus that or us versus them paradigms and explore the wide range of new possibilities, we might just find a new, even more beautiful normal.
Susannah Steers:Thank you for joining me today on the Heart in Motion podcast. If this episode has resonated with you or sparked an idea about how you navigate change in your own life. I'd love to hear from you. You can find me at Moving Spirit Pilates. Email me at sue at movingspiritca, or find me on social media at the Moving Spirit or at Heart of Motion Podcast. Until next time, whatever kind of change you are navigating now, go with all your heart.
