School did not come easy for me. I didn’t really try to understand any of the information presented, I more just tried to memorize and hope for the best. Hoping for the best scored me a lot of B- and C’s. Not bad for an average human making a minimal effort. School at any level always made me feel like I wasn’t good enough or that something was wrong with me. I often felt like I was an outsider looking in (yet trying desperately to fit in at the same time). I remember the relief I had when I graduated from college, it was over, I made it. My degree was mailed a few months after graduation, pending some unpaid student bills, when it came in the mail, I cried. A lot of my peers were going on to more schooling, internships, training and post grad work and I remember being SO DONE with school.
{{{Wait you guys, I totally just remembered that I dabbled in some schooling a couple years after I graduated from college. It was probably the oddest class that one could enroll in. Wait for it….”Belly Dancing for Fat Loss”. I mean, c’mon! I think I was 24 and somehow my Mom and I became enrolled in a continuing education class at Joliet Junior College in which we would belly dance in a college classroom under the intimate glow of fluorescent lights. The instructor even let us borrow her veils and finger symbols. After each class we’d have a date at the strip mall Chinese restaurant across the street. That’s my kind of college experience, I can’t believe that shit was not for credit.}}}
Isn’t it funny that we spend a large chunk of our formative years sitting in school learning when we’d rather be playing and then we become adults and we’re ready to learn. My love and appreciation for knowledge has grown exponentially since I left a classroom. Maybe it’s the wisdom that comes with age, maybe it’s because my body and brain are finally in sync, maybe I crave real life adventure and experiences that couldn’t be found behind a desk, or maybe it’s because I am learning on my terms and soaking up information that interests me in a very specific way. It’s also plausible that I just love being “right”, so it makes sense to arm myself in facts which aid in my quest of knowing it all. Whatever the reason, I cannot stuff enough information into my brain. I am constantly learning. I learn by watching my kids live their lives, I listen to podcasts, I read books and reread them (and highlight them, and read them out loud to my husband), I research (okay, I google), I participate in life and observe, I go to counseling so I can better understand my role on this planet, I hold empowerment workshops that teach me just as much as I teach them, I buy tickets to world class speakers and trainers, I subscribe to newsletters, I read wellness blogs, and I ask questions. I do all these things to try to quench my thirst for facts and knowledge, but you know what else I did….
I WENT BACK TO SCHOOL!!!
I enrolled in the premier health coach training program through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. It’s a year long program and it feels so good to be so aligned with what I am studying. The trainers are people whom I adore within the health and wellness space such as, Mastin Kipp, Mark Hyman, Joel Furhman and Sarah Wilson. The content is structured in an up-to-date and engaging manner. The subject matter is so refreshing and fills my soul on such a deep level. The crazy thing is that 3 months into the program, we have barely scraped the surface of nutrition science, the program touches on so many outside factors that contribute to our health such as our spiritual wellness, relationships, career and physicality. Also, subgroups such as finances, joy, creativity and social life. It’s incredible.
Use this interactive tool as a way to gauge which areas of life you’re killin’ and which need a little resuscitation: https://www.integrativenutrition.com/circleoflife
I am smashing my old insecurities about being a shitty student, one online course module at a time and it feels so golden! #May2020
mpoweredstate 