If wellness were a tripod, its three legs would be mind, body and soul. Maple Grove is home to a specialist in each category, and lucky for us, their willing to share their wisdom.
Mind
A lot of things stand in our way, but the most daunting might be us.
Doug Kasper started Unlocking Empowerment with the goal of helping people realize all of the resources around them and within them and then line them up to take full advantage.
“A lot of times people have roadblocks because people have built the outcome of what is going to happen,” says Kasper, who hosts Motivational Mondays workshops at Maple Tavern the first Monday of each month and works out of the Functional Medicine Naturopathic Center in Maple Grove. “That is a possibility, but there are also tons of other possibilities, and they are just locked in on (why not to do it).”
After years with his home theater business, Kasper asked himself “why not?”
“I think my own calling in life is to really make a difference for individuals on a very holistic and organic level,” Kasper says.
Overcoming yourself, your mindset and your environment might take what Kasper calls “passionate goal creation.”
“It’s about who you really are as opposed to being from a standpoint of what you should do or what you should accomplish in life,” he says. “These are things that I really want. When we get done with those sessions, people are really energized, and they realize this is what I really want in my life.”
Body
Routine workouts are good, but unique sessions are ideal.
“If you always keep the body guessing, it’s never going to plateau on you,” says Briana Brewer, a personal trainer with Orangetheory Fitness in Maple Grove. “You are going to continue to see those results.”
If you want to shed a few pounds, train for an athletic event or just feel better when you get up in the morning, your metabolism is instrumental.
Brewer, who has three years of personal training experience, says many small meals (5-6) with the proper protein intake keep your metabolism burning calories all day.
“If you do eat more meals a day and keep them closer together, instead of just eating breakfast, lunch and supper, your metabolism gets a little bit of a boost and helps speed those results,” Brewer says.
With some early morning sessions, not all clients arrive in a good mood, but Brewer says, no matter what is going on in their life, they leave in a better place.
“They might be frustrated about life or work, losing a family member, and they just push themselves in that workout,” Brewer says. “It helps them release that frustration, the sadness or other things that are going on with their lives.”
Soul
This might seem difficult, but just sit there.
Laure Schwartz, the spirituality director at Advent Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, says people seem afraid of such simple, calm, self-reflection despite the mindfulness that can blossom.
“Even 10 minutes in the morning of simply being with yourself and noting in a journal,” says Schwartz. “What are you sensing in your emotions? What are you sensing in your thoughts? And what are you sensing in your body?
“Once they start to pay attention, they will discover some kind of activation in mind, body and spirit.”
Schwartz says this reflection or meditation is important because physical, verbal and emotional trauma can be stored in the body for years and ignoring it can be detrimental.
“The body actually picks up cues of what our experiences are long before it gets to the conscious level,” Schwatz says.
Schwartz’s retreat at the church in March is called Practicing Compassion, a habit we must first practice for ourselves before empathize with others.
“We first must learn how to have compassion for ourselves because we tend to over criticize self, which makes us critical of others,” Schwartz says. “Then we find it very difficult to incorporate and integrate compassion in our lives.”
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To hear about the programs, retreats or training sessions offered, email Schwartz, laschwartz@healinghousesaintpaul.org, Kasper, doug@unlockingempowerment.com or Brewer, studio0024@orangetheoryfitness.com
