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
Soul Whispers with Anita Adams
Have you ever felt that quiet tug toward something greater? A whisper so subtle you might miss it amid life's constant noise? That inner voice holds the key to your authentic path, if only you'd slow down enough to listen.
In this deeply reflective conversation, Anita Adams guides us through the process of distinguishing true inner wisdom from fear-based thinking. When your soul speaks truth, you'll often experience a feeling of expansion, excitement, or lightness that feels different from ego-based resistance. She shares a beautiful guided visualization practice for connecting with your higher self, whether you're in nature or not, and explores the three essential questions that form the foundation of self-discovery: Who am I? What do I want? Why does it matter?
The interplay between movement, nature, and self-acceptance emerges as a powerful catalyst for meaningful change. Observing the "imperfections" of the natural world offers profound metaphors for embracing our own uniqueness. This process isn't merely self-improvement; it's what Anita calls "soul care," a deeper practice that ripples outward to transform our relationships and communities.
Join us for this soul-nourishing journey that might just inspire you to step away from the noise, lace up your walking shoes, and discover what your own inner wisdom has been trying to tell you all along.
About Anita Adams
Anita Adams, bestselling author of Whispers of the Soul and creator of The Wisdom Way, empowers individuals through a transformational approach to conscious living and courageous leadership. By integrating nature-infused strategies, she helps people connect with their higher selves, develop deep inner listening skills, and gain clarity of purpose to create a life of meaning, well-being, and joy.
www.joyfulinspiredliving.com
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I'd LOVE to hear from you! Send me a text!
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:Welcome to the Heart of Motion, where we explore the heart, soul and science of movement. Motion where we explore the heart, soul and science of movement. I'm your host, susanna Steers, today. I'm thrilled to welcome Anita Adams.
Susannah Steers:Anita is the best-selling author of Whispers of the Soul and creator of the Wisdom Way. She empowers individuals through a transformational approach to conscious living and courageous leadership. By integrating nature-infused strategies, she helps people connect with their higher selves, develop deep inner listening skills and gain clarity of purpose to create a life of meaning, well-being and joy. Anita and I first met not too long ago thanks to Donna Cravatta and her Real 50 Over 50 project. As Anita and I spoke that first time, I felt a connection, maybe a kind of synchronicity in our work, and I knew I had to connect to talk about it some more. So here she is. Welcome to the podcast, Anita.
Anita Adams:Thanks so much, Susannah. It's so great to be here and, yeah, I felt that connection too. It was like, okay, this is like a soul sister and we need to keep this connection going. So thank you for the invitation to be on your show. This is so wonderful.
Susannah Steers:I want to dive right in. Your work centers on listening to the whispers of the soul, connecting with inner wisdom and living authentically. What does inner wisdom mean to you?
Anita Adams:It means tapping into our true self, really quieting the noise out there and listening to what's within, and I feel we have forgotten, many of us have forgotten how to do that and turn outward, to society, to others, to you know figures in our life, to the media, to be given direction on how to live, how to be, what to do, and in the process we really lose ourselves. So my mission is to help people slow down, tune out all of that noise, unplug and then plug in to self and plug into nature, actually because I find and understand who we are, understand ourselves and then make choices that are aligned with who we really are. So that's inner wisdom, that's tuning in, to listen to our inner compass.
Susannah Steers:What inspired you to go down this road, to start thinking about things this way? Was this something that you were always interested in? How did you get to this and how did it shape your own journey?
Anita Adams:Yeah, thanks for asking. I've been somebody that's tuned in a lot for many years of my life, but it really came to a crossroads, I guess, when I was the founder and executive director of a national arts organization and chaos struck, as it struck many with the onset of the pandemic and with that everything was shaken to the core. My organization was supported by government funds and sponsors and investors and all of a sudden they all pulled out, everybody pulled out, and I was freaking out, to put it mildly.
Anita Adams:I was freaking out and I had a staff across the country that I was responsible for and suddenly, you know, it was all pulled out from underneath me and I needed to figure out what I, what I was going to do. And I would ask everybody what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Because I was just so, so scared about this reality that hit me and I brought that question to my business coach at the time and Lisa Marie Platsky, somebody I deeply respect, and she asked me well, anita, what do you typically do when you're stressed? I'm like, well, I usually go for a walk in the woods. She's like perfect, here's what you're going to do every day for the next 30 days. You are going to go for a walk in the woods. I'm like what? Give me a break.
Anita Adams:What kind of business coach tells her clients to go for a walk in the woods? I need business advice, not nature therapy. But she really pushed to get me to do this. She knew that this was mine to do, and that's one of the things I love about Lisa Marie she is so tapped in and she listens to the divine, the divine within, and she understood that what I really needed was to unplug from the kick, the crazy, the chaos, because I could not. I could not understand my my next steps, because I was so wound tight that I needed to step away. And so I did.
Anita Adams:I stepped away and I went into the forest and every day I was you know this raised to the sky. What am I supposed to do? Like, I was just so stressed. But over time I started to relax, I started to calm my nervous system, I started to really connect with the beautiful environment around me and I started to feel this inner peace and I even started to feel grateful for all of this environment that I was immersed in and grateful to Lisa Marie for getting me out in this, in these woods and in this higher state of being. I asked again what am I supposed to do? And that's when I heard the whispers within really speaking to me. When I heard the whispers within really speaking to me, and ever since I'm like okay, you know, this is I was reminded. I was reminded about the power of the pause, stepping away and tuning in and listening.
Anita Adams:I got the guidance I needed and what was really interesting, susanna, is that the first thing that I heard when I really started to listen. Was that what I wanted was to close this business? And that shocked me actually. It was like what do you mean? No, I don't want to close this business. No, you know, and I really pushed back. I can't be right. I can't be right Because it was my identity, right?
Anita Adams:I built it 18 years I've been running this business and the idea of letting it go scared me. But when I really dug in and really listened to those internal knowings, I understood that, yeah, I actually lost my passion for that business years ago and I was holding on to it like a life raft because I simply didn't know what else I could possibly do and I didn't want to let go of that identity. The ego, you know, was really holding on to that pretty tightly. But I did. I listened, you know, and I took the time. I actually found more money for that, sustained us for another year while I wrapped up things, helped my staff transition, and then I started to listen, like really listen. So what is it that I want, you know, and started following that journey and it led me on a completely different path. And you know what I've been following, my joy, and I really think that that's the key is to what lights you up, what sparks joy in you. Follow that and you won't be misdirected. So that's been my journey.
Susannah Steers:Well, it seems like I mean. So much of what you're saying resonates with me, and you know nature and I find that movement and embodiment is part of that process for me. In a world full of noise and distractions and goodness, it just seems to get worse every day. There's just more piling in and more information and more noise and more things that we're supposed to attend to. You know, it can be hard to recognize our own inner guidance. Like you say, it's like this little whisper in the background. What maybe, are some signs or experiences that suggest that it's the soul that's speaking to you and that it's telling the truth, that it's not just some fantastical imagining that you're creating for yourself.
Anita Adams:Yeah, great question. So, Susannah, what I would say is you need to really tune into how it feels in your body. Does it light you up? Do you get excited? There might be fear that percolates, because when your soul speaks to you, when you actually really get good at listening to it, it's going to speak bigger and bigger, in the sense of your potential is going to be.
Anita Adams:The vision it paints is big. It's a big vision and it can be really scary, but it can also evoke this sense of oh, wow, oh, could I, could I do that, you know? So this is this is what we look for, this is what you look for in your body. How does it feel? If you, if it feels icky or feels uncomfortable in the sense of like, oh, you know, do you know what I mean? Like that tightness around it, then no. But if you're feeling something that sparks joy, sparks some excitement, and it feels that there's that tingling in your body or for me, it feels like a tingling it feels no, what it feels like is expansion. It feels like there's this that is happening. It's like, oh, you know, wow, that's kind of cool.
Anita Adams:I remember one of the first things that I got as a hit was to create a retreat center like a place to bring people to. And there was that like whoa, wow, that'd be cool. And then there was like ooh, ooh, I don't know, that's scary, right. So it's the noticing that first impulse, because if, once our eagle gets in there and our brain starts to take over, it can feel we can move to that fear side. So it takes practice, you know, it takes practice to really recognize the signs and I find that when we make time for ourselves and, as I mentioned, the walks in nature really help that, creating that space, creating the time and space, you tap into the sensations more readily more easily.
Susannah Steers:I think you've created some specific practices for tuning into your inner wisdom. Is there anything that, in a few minutes, you could walk us through? Maybe one of your favorite methods for quieting the mind or inviting those soul whispers?
Anita Adams:Yeah, absolutely. When I take people out into nature, I walk them through a practice, and so that's a big part of what I do is I actually take people with me, but you don't need to have a guide. You can head off into nature on your own. I'm wondering would it be appropriate here to walk through like a visualization exercise, that?
Susannah Steers:would be great. Okay, yeah, let's do it.
Anita Adams:Okay.
Anita Adams:So sometimes you just don't have the time to get out, you know, and I get that. So I have a gentle little practice that I do with some of my clients and you can do this anywhere anytime. So I invite you, if you're driving, don't do this, put it on pause and come back and listen to this at a later time.
Anita Adams:But if you're at home or somewhere that you can just get comfortable in a spot, I invite you to put your feet on the floor and I invite you to close your eyes and we're just going to take a couple deep breaths in through the nose, out through the nose, do one more time in through the nose and out One more time and release. I want you to imagine your favorite place in nature. It could be the beach, you know, standing by the ocean, your feet in the sand. Maybe it's a favorite forest trail, maybe it's on top of a mountain or by a river. Just find that place that you've been to before, that you love visiting. Maybe it might be an old childhood place that you've gone as a kid. Pull that place up in your mind's eye. Now I want you to really notice with your eyes, your closed eyes, your eyes and your mind. What do you see in this environment? Notice everything. Notice the grass, the ocean, the trees, whatever it is, the ocean, the trees, whatever it is. Take in as many things from this environment. Now, what do you hear? Maybe bird songs, crickets, the sound of water rushing over rocks. Maybe the wind in the trees. Maybe the wind in the trees. Maybe the wind in the trees. Maybe the wind in the trees, maybe the wind in the trees. Can you smell anything in the air? The tang of the ocean, the salt water? Maybe the flowers, pine needles, rich scent of the earth. Now, what can you feel? Maybe it's the warm sun on your skin, the wind blowing through your hair, even feeling the clothes on your back, your feet in your shoes. What are you grateful for in this moment? The space that you're in, the people that are in your life, the comfy shoes you're wearing, and the smallest thing. Now turn inward and what do you feel on the inside? Breathe into the feelings. Is it love, contentment? Maybe you're feeling something that happened in a relationship and it feels heavy. That's okay too. Just acknowledge it. Just acknowledge it, breathe into it. Just acknowledge it and breathe into it. Take a couple deep breaths, move back into gratitude, pull back and see your space again, take it all in and maybe even see yourself standing in this beautiful environment and when you're ready you can open your eyes. So that's a little bit of a grounding exercise that can help you get really present. It's I know I kind of I went through it fairly quickly because we're on a podcast when you go into nature it's the same, the same idea like really take a moment to connect with your environment.
Anita Adams:Notice with your eyes everything you know, from the different colors, the shapes, the way the clouds are forming. Notice with your nose the scents in the air and sometimes you can even taste the air and if there's safe berries to eat, pop one you know in and really enjoy it. Notice what you feel. Stop and touch a flower or some of the bark, put your hands in the ocean, let your hands sink into the soil and just really feel it and then think about what you're grateful for. The gratitude really expands, it opens our hearts, right, and then go inward and check on what you're feeling.
Anita Adams:Don't always feel great and that's all right. We can acknowledge the discomfort, the sadness, whatever it is, and just allow it to flow through. Because when you open yourself and allow and accept, then it actually does flow through and it can flow, flow out as well, so we can make room for the joy and the love and all that other beautiful stuff. So this is the practice to connect with your higher self, to tune into that inner wisdom and, like I said, I encourage you to be outside in nature and to walk in and move the body in that environment. And sometimes we just can't, for whatever reason. And so taking five minutes to do this practice, to go to that favorite place in nature in your mind's eye and just really see it and imagine you're describing this to a loved one who can't be there and you want them to experience it. So go into the details as much as possible and it's incredibly releasing, freeing, and it will make space for you to receive that's such a beautiful practice.
Susannah Steers:First of all, thank you, I appreciate that. Um, I want to talk more about the natural world and how it relates, and when we spoke we, we kind of took a deep dive into our perspectives on nature. And for me, as a movement educator, I have this belief that movement is relational and it connects us to ourselves, to each other, to the land, to the water, to the air, the creatures around us, and maybe it sounds kind of hippy-dippy, but when I can immerse myself in that relational feeling, then I'm a part of nature, I'm not separate from it, and it really gives me a sense of, as you spoke earlier, a sense of grounding, a sense of connection, a sense of peace and often a sense of wonder too. You spoke earlier about nature being a sacred portal to your higher self. Can you say more about that?
Anita Adams:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It is a portal to our higher self. It connects us. It helps us also recognize that we are part of this incredible web of life. We are one, we're part of it. Nature reflects back to us who we are in many ways too.
Anita Adams:So when we're immersed in a natural environment and we can see the beauty of it and its imperfections, like there's nature's not perfect, but it is, and it's perfect perfect in its imperfections Everything works together. You know, I remember when I was walking early on this, that 30 day challenge and which never stopped, you know, like that, that was gosh five years ago and I'm still pretty much out every day walking in nature. But it was pretty early in that journey where I started to really notice the imperfections of nature. You know the burls, the big bumps coming out of the trees and these gangly roots, and you know there's something called dog's vomit slime mold. That's actually what it's called Dog's vomit slime mold and it's this bright yellow mold and it looks so cool, so neat, but it's, you know, looking at the imperfections of nature and appreciating it and then turning inwards and going, wow, that's, I'm like that, I'm imperfect, I've got bumps and extra bits and things that you know I might not before have loved.
Anita Adams:And now I look at my body and myself and I'm like, okay, you know, like you're perfect the way you are and you know I'm 56. It's taken me that long to really come to accept all of who I am, and nature played a huge role in that. Just really stepping out and seeing the beauty and the imperfection around me help me appreciate and see the imperfection of who I am. We're all imperfect and it's perfectly beautiful.
Susannah Steers:Your book, the Whispers for the Soul, is described as a love story about learning to love yourself deeply. What does that process look like? Is it the same for everybody? Is it different for everybody? What does it look like?
Anita Adams:I think that what is the same for everybody is really giving yourself the time and space to build a relationship with yourself. That's how you fall in love with yourself is by giving yourself time and space, and for me, I love that time and space in nature. I think it speeds up the process of falling in love with who you are. And that's what most people are not doing. They're not slowing down, they're not making time for themselves, they're not making themselves a priority. How can you know yourself if you never make time for yourself, you never slow down to really tune in. And that's how you love somebody is when you give time to them, right? That's how you fall in love with whoever. It's by getting to know that person. And so what you want to do to fall in love with yourself is to really get to know who you are. And that might sound weird. You might think, oh, I know who I am, but a lot of people don't. They're so tuned into everything else out there and what society dictates we should be like and how we should live and all that that we've lost connection to what's really important to us. So, making time and space for yourself, honoring your soul, this is more than self-care. Self-care is, you know, taking a beautiful bath with candles and whatnot, and that's great. I'm talking about soul care. Soul care is really going to getting out to know who you are.
Anita Adams:Asking questions and the questions there's three. I call them the three most important questions, three MIQs who am I, what do I want and why does it matter? Why does it matter? Why does it matter? So you need to ask those first two questions. First, who am I? And I'll tell you who you are. You are love, capital L. You are light, you are joy, and we need to come to really embrace that, because we're all love, light and joy. That's the divine within. That's the divine within. And when we can tap into that, when we understand the divinity within us and we tap into that love, light and joy, then we fall in love with who we are and we understand that there's so much possible for our lives.
Susannah Steers:It seems like that's probably a place where you can let go of a lot of stuff too. I mean, as you said, like letting go of a business that you didn't know that you wanted to close until the soul whispers gave you the idea, and or maybe it was already there in seed form inside you. But I think there's a place in that, as you get to really sink into yourself and yourself, knowing that a lot of the noise can fall away because it's just not important anymore.
Anita Adams:A lot of the noise falls away and what else happens is we begin to trust ourselves. And that's so powerful, it's empowering, it's enlightening. It's when you can really trust yourself and make decisions from your authentic self. Then you move through life with greater ease and you do let go of all of the BS, you let go of things that really don't matter.
Susannah Steers:I'm kind of coming back to this relational idea because movement is my jam. I'm thinking when you asked why does it matter? After you've done some of that deep soul work and asked the first couple of questions, and why does it matter? That sort of seems like a place where the rubber meets the road right?
Susannah Steers:That's where we meet the world around us with this self that we've come to know. Do you see some kind of interplay between that mindset, that deep inner work, and movement in your work?
Anita Adams:So I just came back from meeting a group of women on the Camino in South France. So it was a 10-day journey. We walked 115 kilometers and what I discovered is that people really opened up and found clarity through movement. And it was because, again, you're away from the computer, you're away from the distractions, you're walking, and there was a lot of one-on-one that happened with these women where I would ask them questions and guide them along on this journey.
Anita Adams:And there was an opening, a release, a understanding, a deeper connection to self. And it is through the movement that helps that. It helps to stimulate something in our bodies. It releases the stress, the cortisone levels drop, you are starting to really feel relaxed and when you have that sense of being grounded and more relaxed, there's an opening that happens and things start to emerge and clarity comes to you. So the movement plays a big role in really understanding self and finding the clarity that so many of us are seeking.
Susannah Steers:One of the things that I see sometimes well, quite often in the Pilates studio if I've been working with people for a while is that the changes that happen for people as they really sink into an understanding of their own bodies and being in their own bodies and their patterns and their movement and how they're living inside of all of that and it's kind of like the world opens up in brand new ways and sometimes in ways that they never anticipated, like your company. But I'm curious you speak a little bit about a ripple effect with this kind of personal growth and that connecting more deeply with oneself can lead to stronger, more compassionate communities too, and I think in this day and age we need as much of that as we can find. Can you share how connecting with your own inner wisdom has maybe influenced things like your relationships or your role in community, or what kind of ripple effects you see happening in the people that you work with?
Anita Adams:Yeah, absolutely so. When you build a relationship with yourself, when you start to really love and accept yourself and you have self-compassion that spreads out, there's the ripple effect You're able to have deeper, more meaningful relationships with others. There is this sense of expansion that happens my relationship with my husband, for instance. I'm able to not freak out for lack of better words on certain things that used to bother me, because I'm accepting myself now and I'm understanding that there is this is my stuff that I need to work on. If he does something that upsets me, it's like well, why is that? Why is that upsetting me? It's because I'm not valuing myself. I'm interpreting his actions as not valuing me, but it's really me not valuing myself.
Anita Adams:So I look at those incidences as triggers for you then to go inward and explore why am I triggered by that? And that helps you understand yourself at a deeper level. And when you can understand yourself at a deep level, then you can be in the world in a way that is embracing and accepting and loving of others as well, and it all comes home to self right. So I believe the world would be a much healthier, happier place if more people worked to understand who they are and to love and accept who you are. So when you have that love and acceptance of self, you are able to have that love and acceptance and tolerance and understanding of others as well. So that's how it spreads out. But it has to come home to self first. Love and accept yourself and you'll love and accept the world.
Susannah Steers:And others If there were one piece of wisdom or advice that you could leave with our listeners what would it be?
Anita Adams:Love yourself, make time and space for you, slow down, unplug, go for a walk in nature to honor your soul.
Susannah Steers:I love it. Anita, thank you for sharing your insights and your presence with us today. For listeners who want to learn more, where can they find you and your book?
Anita Adams:Yeah, thank you, you can go to my brand new website. I'm really excited that I just launched a new site. It's joyfuljourneyca and that's, yeah, the joyful. I call my followers the joyful journeyers, so I'd love you to become a joyful journeyer, and that journey is all about connecting with self, and my book is available on my website and on Amazon, so you can find Whispers of the Soul there Fantastic.
Susannah Steers:I will put links to that in the show notes so if you didn't catch it, you can go back to the show notes and find them there.
Anita Adams:Awesome.
Susannah Steers:Thank you so much for joining me today. I always love talking to you. It's been an absolute pleasure and I hope we can talk again soon. I always love talking to you. It's been an absolute pleasure and I hope we can talk again soon.
Anita Adams:I would love that. Thanks so much, Susanna. Thank you very much.
Susannah Steers:Bye-bye. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe and, if you love what you heard, leave a five-star review and tell people what you enjoyed most. Join me here again in a couple of weeks For now let's get moving.
