Moving Your Body- Moving Your Life [Expert Interview]

Erin Stutland has cracked the code. She has developed a method of exercising which will inspire you, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Her unique combination of joyous movement (imagine looking forward to your work-out) and mantras comes together in a powerfully positive mind/body experience that can change how you feel about, well… everything.

You’re only one workout away from feeling good again, but it has to be the right type of workout. Listen as we discuss how movement in your body creates movement in your life.

Follow this link to take Erin’s Say It. Sweat It. Get It. challenge with Amy!

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A full transcript follows.

 

Erin Stutland is here to MOVE you – physically, mentally and spiritually.

She believes movement in your body creates movement in your life and that you don’t need to go to extremes to get a body and a life you love!

As a trainer and lifestyle coach, Erin has been featured in Glamour, Fox News, Shape, Yoga Journal, Mind Body Green and more. Her workout programs use inspiring mantras in combination with dance, toning, yoga, meditation and life coaching to help bring presence, focus and inspiration to your workouts and your life!

Full Transcript:

Amy:	Hello, and welcome to another edition of the PCOS Diva the podcast. This is your host, Amy Medling.  I’m a certified Health Coach and founder of PCOS Diva.
	Many of us hear from doctors that we need to lose weight. We’re told to go on a diet and exercise, and I think we get caught up in this cycle of what I call diet, deprivation and denial. We end up killing ourselves at the gym hoping to sweat out the PCOS in a way that seems more like punishment than exercise.
	I really want PCOS Diva to change this paradigm. Instead, I want you to focus on nurturing and nourishment, feeding your body nursing foods, moving your body in nourishing ways and really treating yourself in a more nurturing, nourishing way.
	Today I’m talking to Erin Studland. Erin is really aligned with this concept, and she really wants to help us shift out of the idea that exercise has to be about losing weight, but rather it’s an opportunity to connect with ourselves, our power and our present.
	Welcome, Erin!
	We can’t wait to hear more about your way of approaching exercise.
Erin:	Thank you and thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Amy:	I want to read your bio so that listeners know a little bit more about you. Erin is here to move you physically, mentally and spiritually. She believes movement in your body creates movement in your life, and you don’t need to go to extremes to get a body and a life you love. As a trainer and lifestyle coach, Erin has been featured in Glamour, Fox News, Shape, Yoga Journal, Mind-Body Green and more.
	Her workout programs use inspiring mantras in combination with dance, toning, yoga, meditation and life coaching to help bring presence, focus and inspirations to your workouts in your life.
	That sounds fantastic!
	Tell us a little bit more about your approach to exercise and movement and how can that help us get out of punishing our bodies at the gym.
Erin:	My background was in dance. My whole inspiration for movement, when I started as a young person, was because I loved dancing and I loved moving. And so it was really all about the joy of movement and music. And that’s how it really all began for me.
	I went on to dance  professionally. When I stopped dancing professionally, I was no longer going to dance class anymore. So obviously I started going to the gym more regularly because I still wanted to move my body, but it started to change for me during that time after I stopped dancing.
	The fitness classes that I was taking were all about tightening and toning and losing your weight and looking good for the beach and all that. And it was so different from where I had come from as a dancer, which was all about expression and joy and finding rhythm and flow, and taking these fitness classes I was really missing that and I found myself way more often criticizing myself, looking in the mirror and  listening to these teachers saying that’s what I have to go for: the toning and the tightening.
	It was like what you said at first, what did you say at the beginning? Deprivation and diet? What were those three words that you said?
Amy:	Oh, diet, deprivation and denial.
Erin:	Yes, that’s what it felt like. It felt like I got into a cycle in both my eating and in the way that I was moving. There was no sense of joy. And then I started really getting into yoga around the time.
	That’s where I rediscovered that joy of movement, the connection to breath, intention, how to connect with your power through movement, but the thing is for me, as much as I enjoyed and loved yoga, I was like you know what’s missing here is the pumping music and a little bit higher energy.
	I wanted to find that intention, and that power in other places other than just yoga. I’m like how can this exist in your spin class? How could this exist when you go and you take an aerobics class? Or you take a sculpting class? How can you bring this intention? How can you bring the breath? How can you bring presence? Into every avenue that you do, that you move your body in?
	And so I started working with a mentor who was kind of doing this and combining fitness with, I’ll say, spirituality for intents and purposes.
	That’s sort of where my method came out of, was bringing this sense of intention, presence and power into a little bit more mainstream kind of exercise, because I think what happens, and this is what was happening to me, and I know this is what happens to all of my clients, we really talk about it and break it down, is when you go and you’re doing an exercise class and it’s hard or it’s difficult or your heart starts beating or your leg starts shaking or you got a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and you don’t like what you see, you instantly go up into a negative conversation. You instantly go up into criticism, or you say, “God, I’m never going to lose the weight,” or, “I’ve never been athletic, ” or, “This is really hard,” or, “I suck at this,” or whatever it may be.
	And so I wanted to create a method that help us interrupt that conversation and bring it back to the present moment and bring it back your power. That even if you’re lifting weights or you’re doing an aerobics class you can do that. And that’s what we incorporate in the mantras, it’s the work.
Amy:	Yes. That’s one of the reason that I wanted to have you on this podcast because I think what you’re doing is really powerful and women with PCOS need to make that shift and we  tend to have a lot of body hatred. You know we hate often that we look because PCOS symptoms can cause the excess hair growth where we don’t want it, and that mid stomach, bloating and obesity from insulin resistance, male pattern baldness, acne. So when we look in the mirror we often, you know, don’t love what we see looking back at us and that certainly carriers over at the gym.
	I also think too just the way that we feel, I mean I think sometimes you we feel low energy, we’re bloated, we’re moody, we’re feeling depressed, and I love that thought that you’re really only one workout away from feeling good again, but it has to be the right type of workout. It can’t be yet going to the gym and getting on the treadmill and then you know thinking, “Oh gosh! I could fill my thighs rubbing together and everything’s jiggly. And look at that woman over there. Boy! I wish I looked like her,” that monkey chatter going on in your mind does not serve us and we really need to move towards this place of self-love and acceptance but how do you do that when you’re caught up in a negative monkey chatter, it’s what I call it.
Erin:	Yes, yes I think that they’re all so very true. And I think it’s absolutely true, as you said, that you are only one workout away from feeling good. But I think the first thing that I think is important to think about, in regard to this, is even before you go when you work out I think is really important to be clear with yourself as to why you’re moving your body. And I think this is the first thing that we can easily get off track on, because you know it’s like. “Oh! My doctor told me I need to lose weight” or you know I got to look a certain way.
	So usually the intention is from some kind of punishment quite honestly. I ate too much the night before, I can’t get rid of the PCOS, or whatever it may be.
	And so what I would invite listeners to do is that first moment before you even consider exercising is take a deep breath, connect to yourself and say, “Why is this important that I move my body”. And I think there’s many beautiful intentions to be set there. It could be because I want to connect to my own power, because I want to connect to myself, because movement is going to be a  form of healing for me.
	Even if I move slowly,  even if I move an extreme low intensity, even if I just take one little step at a time.  Can this be a form of healing and connection for me?
	Period, end of story.
	Can it be an opportunity to get more oxygen flowing into my cells? Can it be an opportunity to brighten up my mind? To spark a new idea? Can I go and exercise because I want to get some new ideas. When you go for a walk, unattached to your cell phone,  the number of ideas that you come up with usually on  a walk is outstanding.
	So I think that first thing is really about getting clear on your intentions before you even put on your clothes, your workout clothes, and say this is why I’m going to move my body. Almost like it’s an offering to myself, my greater self. The part of myself that I that believe in, that I love, that I know and that I trust.
	I think that by changing the intention of it, could really change everything for you. And then it’s so important that when you go and set off to go and do your exercise, whatever it may be, that you remember that intention throughout. So when it gets hard or when you start to notice “Ugh, I’m feeling my thighs” or you know whatever it may be and you come back and remember, “Wait a second! Why am I doing this again? Oh right! To connect to my power. To heal myself, my mind and my body.”
	You know, and you keep coming back that intention. And one of the ways and that we do that, in truth and in particular, but that I absolutely recommend people do, in whatever kind of exercise they’re doing, well first of all I think it’s important to find something that you enjoy.
	That’s kind of what you talked about. Just because someone tells you to go to kickboxing class, if you hate that, do not do that. Start with something that feels pretty good for you, that feels okay for you. If that means walking, riding your bike, maybe it’s yoga, maybe it is a spin class, trust yourself enough to say I know what my body needs right now. I know what my heart needs, I know what my mind needs, I’m going to trust myself enough to start really easy with something that I enjoy. I think that’s really important.
Amy:	Let me just interrupt you there for a second. I think a big clue, and you mentioned in the beginning of the call, is kind of connecting something that brought you joy and movement as a child and for you it was dance. I know for me I loved to play sports, and now I have my three children but two really sport-o boys, and it’s fun for me to get out and play volleyball with them or shoot some hoops. And  that really brings that that joyful sense of movement back into my life. I just encourage you to look back at your childhood. Did you like riding bikes? Did you like swimming? Like you, did you like dance and reconnect with that.
Erin:	Yes. I love that you said that, because one of the things, in the shrink session, and particularly, even though it is very dance and there is some kickboxing and reason mantras, which we’ll talk about in a little bit, but I think that my whole objective with shrink session is to bring about playfulness in movement. Like 100%. It should feel silly at times and it should feel a little like, you know, I’ll tell people in my class, “Listen, if everybody’s going right and you’re going left, go left!” You know what I mean? I want there to be a sense of real playfulness and childlike silliness, like you said.
	I think you’re exactly right. I think when you reconnect to that, the child mover in you that’s where you really start to open up and you start to let go of inhibitions, you’re no longer judging yourself. When you’re playing sports, you’re probably feeling that way, you get back into that- the competitive fun, the athletic part of yourself.
	I think that’s a great recommendation is to think, “What did I really enjoy doing as a child?” And even if you don’t end up doing that thing that you loved as a child, can you bring a child-like mentality to your movements? Whatever you’re doing. I think it’s important. If I go take a fitness class of some kind, I always feel like if I didn’t laugh, at least one time during the class, then I missed something.
	You know what I mean? Even if the teacher’s not telling a joke or doing anything funny, I feel like at some point you should have a little laughter or a little whoop! And a little holler. Because to me that brings about playfulness. And I think it’s really important to do that in your movement.
Amy:	I think a lot of us to get really up on perfection. You know we want to be perfect but this is a perfect place to just kind of throw that out the window and you know you are enough. Perfection, I love this concept of it’s the lowest possible standard because it can’t exist.
Erin:	Yes, yes.
Amy:	When it comes to exercise there is no perfect and whatever you’re doing is enough.
Erin:	You know one of my new mantras for myself this year interestingly because I’m someone who has that perfectionist attitude about a lot of things in my life. And I think that it can really hold us back, whether it’s around exercise, or business, or relationships, or whatever it may be.
	One of my mantras this year is, really, quite honestly, is, “That was good enough.”
	It sounds like, what? Wait. Wait what do you mean that was good enough? No, yeah that was good enough. That workout that you did? That was good enough. Was it the most amazing workout ever? No, but that doesn’t matter. It’s okay. It was good enough. And I’m finding in my life, that’s a really empowering mantra quite honestly. To say you know what? I showed up, I did my best, I leave the rest, and that was good enough.
Amy:	Yes, absolutely.
Erin:	There’s something very sweet about it.
Amy:	You talked about setting intention and then we kind of got off on this other track, but let’s bring it back. After you’ve set your intention for the work out what’s next?
Erin:	Well I think it’s great to attach your intention to some sort of a mantra. I’m a big fan of the mantra of what is it that you want to tell yourself during this workout? What’s the new idea or the new thought?
	Actually, one way to come up with that is the first question that you ask yourself is what do I need to let go of in order to be really present right here, right now in my work-out? Or in what I’m about to do?
	What idea? What thought? What belief do I need to let go of in order to be really, really present right now?
	It doesn’t necessarily have to relate to the workout. For example, just the other day I was thinking, “What do I need to let go of in order to be really present with what I’m doing?” And what came to me was I need to let go of this idea that I need to know, that I need a plan, that I need to know exactly what I’m doing in order to be successful. I need to know at all times what I’m doing, then if I know what I’m doing, then I’ll be successful, or happy or satisfied. Right?
	It doesn’t have to relate to the workout or my body, but I realized that was something that was holding me back just in that moment in my life. I say, “Okay. I’m going to let go of the need for a plan.”
	I would invite you to tune into yourself and I just want to give an example so that you can see it’s not necessarily maybe what I need to let go is that I’m not good enough.  Or that I have to lose the weight just to give you some ideas. Go ahead and say, what do I need to let go of in order to be really present.
	And then I would shift into what is a powerful thought or a mantra, that I could bring into this work-out. It could be something like, “I’m powerful” is really simple. “I’m strong enough,” that’s a great one. It could be, “My vision is clear.” And that’s something that we do in shrink session is offer all these different kinds of mantras for you to start to really play with in your workout. And then you have that mantra and that’s going to be something that you’re going to repeat throughout your workout. Especially, in particular, when things get difficult or challenging. When you start to notice that you go up into your head of complaining or judgement or whatever it may be, that you come back to this mantra that says, “I’m strong enough,” “I am powerful now.”
	I think that if you’re using music to work out what’s really powerful is if you can say the mantra to the rhythm of the music. No matter what the music is. You find that rhythm and you say it with the rhythm of the music because I think something really happens when we’re moving in synchronicity with music and mantra and our bodies and all things start to move together, there’s great power in that.
Amy:	Oh yes.
Erin:	I think with the mantra is the next thing that I would recommend. And maybe you make a list of that before you go exercise. Maybe you start by writing down things that you’re worried about, or that you’re afraid of and you turn those into mantras. And you start to play with those.
	I think what happens also is a question I often get is, “Yeah, but I don’t believe it,” “I don’t believe that I’m strong enough,” “I don’t believe that I’m powerful now,” which I feel you, and I understand that and you don’t ever want to push something on yourself that’s going to make you feel worse, but here’s what I think happens. This is why I believe that movement in your body creates movement in your life, because I think that it’s very difficult.
	If we sat and did a meditation and I had to do those mantras, it’s a little bit harder because you’re energy is a little bit stagnant. It’s very easy for the mind to kind of get slippery and start to think about other things, but I think something happens when you’re actually in motion, you’ve got motion going. When you’ve got motion going you start to move emotion in your body, right? So that sadness that makes you feel stuffed starts to move, it starts to release because you’re moving.
	And it’s almost impossible not to slowly start to feel energized. I think that when you do movement with mantra, the mantra is so much more powerful because you’re not putting the mantra on something that’s just stagnant, if that makes sense? You’re putting the mantra with movement. There’s motion, there’s emotion.
	It allows you to feel a little bit more connected to that spot, then if you were just sitting there trying to affirm your way into something.
	Does that make sense?
Amy:	Yes. And when you talk about mantras and not feeling authentic, if you’ve been berating yourself for years, I find adding the words, “what if?” helps you to make that shift because it’s not really definitive, but it kind of opens the door to opportunity. You know, what if I loved myself more or what if or maybe?  I think if you’re having a hard time saying those mantras, introduce maybe or what if.
Erin:	I love that.
Amy:	Until you get comfortable with it, but this to me this approach to exercise is so powerful and if we’ve been telling ourselves that negative story while we’re exercising for so long you know,  my thighs are too big, I’m too slow, I’m too fat, whatever and look where it’s gotten us? Can you imagine making that shift to these positive mantras while exercising where that will take you? I mean it’s just really exciting to me. It seems so kind of basic, but it’s very powerful.
	And I have to say, so you mentioned your shrink program, and I had the opportunity to try some of your workouts with the mantras and it really shifted my day. I know I did one when I was kind of caught up in that that PMS sort of moody, irritability place, and it definitely brighten my day. I’d love for you to explain a little bit more about your shrink session program and how that all works.
Erin:	The shrink session program, as I mentioned, it’s really the combination of some dance, there’s a little bit of kickboxing, but really the basis of it is how can we bring movement and intention together in a really fun way.
	All of the routines that I created are dance oriented and then we bring in these mantras that you’re saying to the rhythm of the music, with the movement and so that every movement that you do, the objective of it is to not just do the movement, let’s say you’re doing some punches, it’s not just to do the movement and do the punches, because great! Yay! We’re burning calories, and we’re getting stronger, it’s actually to do the movement, and then pair it with a thought and a belief, a new idea that the movement all of sudden has meaning, right?
	The movement, when you do those single punches, now that movement means I am strong. It’s a symbol. It’s almost like a gesture. A psychological gesture, if you will, of I am strong and then you pair these movements with the mantras as a way to interrupt that internal conversation as you said.
	“I’m fat. I’m slow. I’m not good at this.”
	The truth is you can’t take more than one thought at a time. You can bounce back and forth between thoughts, you can think, “I’m too slow,” “I’m amazing,” back to “I’m too slow,” “I’m amazing,” but at one time you can only think one thought. The power of the mantras that if, through exercise, you’re continually thinking this one thought, “I am powerful now – I am powerful now,” while you move, after five minutes of doing that you’re going to feel different in your body, because you just gave yourself five beautiful minutes of thinking wonderful thoughts while you’re moving your body.
	We crowded out, more or less, the negative thinking. We didn’t even let it creep in there into the movement. The truth is, you know we all we know this. When you really let yourself move and you get out of your own way, it feels wonderful. The endorphins start to kick in. You start to move the energy in your body, it feels great.
	The only thing that prevents us from feeling great in movement quite honestly is our mind. That’s it. Our mind. It’s the only thing that prevents us from enjoying movement and feeling good because our bodies were designed to move. And that’s really what shrink session does. It’s not creating any space for the negative self-talk so that you really are flooding your muscles, your cells, your mind, your subconscious, your conscious mind with these ideas, these positive ideas.
	What happens is that, even like you said you felt brighter afterwards, yes it’s a great workout and all that, but usually that energy and that state of mind carries with you throughout the day. So that you feel more powerful in your business. You feel more confident with your children, with your family.
	That’s also one of the beautiful things about the program. It’s not just about the exercise, it’s about how this also has an impact on the rest of your life.
Amy:	Yes, you know I really see the purpose and the mission of PCOS Diva as helping women move beyond the pain and struggle of PCOS so that they can live the life they were meant to live without PCOS holding them back. And a program like this really helps you to get the energy in the focus and the confidence in the power. And as you said, you know I had mentioned when I introduced you, to connect with your present and your gifts and how you need to show up in the world and serve the world and, you know, live out your purpose.
	I just think that this is a great tool to allow you to do that. I’m just really excited that you agreed to come in and talk to us today.
Erin:	Absolutely.
Amy:	How can women learn more about The Shrink Program or your other offerings?
Erin:	We have a great, really cool program coming up pretty soon it’s called the Say It, Sweat It, Get It Challenge. It’s an opportunity to do some really awesome and fun short workouts, easy workouts totally for free. It’s a six day challenge and throughout the course of the week, I give everyone short five minute workouts, because I don’t think it takes going to extremes to love your body and love your life.
	I don’t think you need to be this crazy gym rat. I think that it starts by getting up and moving the energy just by five minutes a day. And so I give you these really short, fun five minute workouts. There’s a great inspirational Facebook group to help to support everyone. We have women of literally all ages from twenty to seventy- all shapes and sizes, all fitness levels.
	One of the things I love about the workout, or that I encourage when people do those five minute workouts, is that if there’s anything challenging that I’m doing in the video, you can simply march in place and say that mantras so that you can start to practice what it feels like and start to know what it feels like to move with the mantras. You can jog it out, you can march in place, you can step touch, it’s not about doing exactly what I’m doing in the video, it’s you being great.
	It’s a really fun week. This is like my favorite week of the year when we do the challenge because I get to meet so many wonderful new people. A lot of times you’ll get people that haven’t moved in a very long time and they really are like, “Oh my God! I can’t believe five minutes has such an impact!” You know? You wouldn’t think, but five minutes can really shift your whole day.
	One of the things that I love that we give away at the beginning of it, I have created something called the Soul Stroll, which is a music soundtrack, upbeat music, with mantras, so I’m coaching and giving mantras over it. What’s so great about the Soul Stroll, original it was created so that people could take it for a walk, but usually people take that Soul Stroll, that soundtrack, you can clean your home with it, or dance around your home, or go for a bike ride, or go for a run, or whatever kind of exercise you like to do and still get those mantras.
	We give you a free Soul Stroll on the very first day of the challenge. Even if you just get the free Soul Stroll to sign up for the challenge it’s totally worth it. People love that. They’re always begging for more of those. It’s a really get little goody that comes with the challenge.
Amy:	We will have the link to the challenge and also Erin’s site below the podcast, and I know I will be participating in the challenge. I’m really looking forward to it and checking out the Soul Stroll recording. And I hope that other listeners consider joining us. It’d be fun to have some Divas participating together.
	Erin thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your approach to exercise. I think it’s just a fantastic way to kind of shift that diet, deprivation, denial thinking to one of abundance, and on your bio you have a little line that says you know you do your program expect to sweat joy, and I love that.
	Join us for the challenge and expect to sweat joy, and thanks again Erin, and thank you to everyone listening, and I look forward to being with you again soon. Goodbye.