We Orient Towards Thrive

That’s one of our core values here at Yogahealer. As such, we decided to have everyone who works here on Team Yogahealer, to go through Body Thrive. Since I’ve been through the Body Thrive course numerous times, and am a Yoga Health Coach, I had the honor of leading the team through the 10 Habits, with my gal Grace Edison, fellow admissions specialist and Yoga Health Coach, assisting me. We had a blast. We evolved. We shifted into thrive.

We’re a small, but global team here at Yogahealer. The cast of characters includes Irena, our operations manager, in Greece; Liza, our IT wiz, in the Philippines, June, our marketing expert, also in the Philippines, Sunil, our graphic designer in India and Maria, our customer service specialist, in Canada. As well as Grace in Canada and me in the good old US of A. This was our first go at having a work team go through Body Thrive together, but it will definitely not be our last!

The Power of the Posse

When we take on a new endeavor, we’re excited, we’re pumped. We’re confident of our success. After a while, though, that excitement can fade. This is evidenced by the multi-billion dollar diet industry that leaves 50% of Americans still overweight. Then there are the millions of self-help books out there, and many millions of people who are still disorganized, chronically late or just plain unsatisfied. What’s up with that?

It’s the lack of peer support, the lack of a like-minded posse giving support and guidance along the way. The members of Team Yogahealer supported one another like champs. Liza quit drinking coffee, June got to bed before midnight and Sunil’s headaches cleared up. We helped each other troubleshoot our challenges – lack of fresh produce in the Philippines, late dinners in Europe, long hours on the computer, which are tough on the eyes. Before the group, these problems seemed insurmountable. Together, we found solutions.

The Body is the First Step

We all want to thrive in our lives, in all aspects. We want thriving relationships, families, work that fulfills us, organization in space and time. In short, we want to live awake lives. Here’s the thing though – we can’t have those things if we are suffering in our bodies. The body is the vessel that carries us through this journey. You can’t cross the ocean and discover new worlds in a leaky boat. That’s why the Body Thrive Habits are so important. When we are thriving in our bodies, we are able to thrive in our lives.

I’m one of those foodie-geeks who likes to take pictures of my culinary creations. Here are a few of my earlier, lighter dinners:

Each of our members contributed to this post, sharing their personal Body Thrive experiences. Read on and hear first hand, about the power of shifting habits.

June, Marketing manager:

I slipped into earlier lighter dinner habit quite easily, which is quite surprising given that in our culture dinner is actually the heaviest meal of the day. I love being able to prepare earlier. Then a few weeks later earlier bed time naturally followed. It’s amazing how small habits can have such great impact on you overall. I feel the support of the team and it’s such a great feeling going through the habits together and knowing I am not alone with the struggle. Thanks so much Cate and especially to Alex for leading the group, you are awesome!

Sharing a photo of my daughter with one of our plant-based meals 😀

Irena, Business manager:

I was having a ride on the body thrive path, but I was missing out the destination because my focus was on “being perfect”, large goals and unreal expectation.

The biggest discovery for me is “kaizen” approach in a habit building. Less is definitely more, with small steps in new nurturing habit building. For the first time I wasn’t overwhelmed, I was more motivated and my label “perfect or nothing” was in shadow.

Guided calls with experienced Alex and Grace were more than inspirational for the weekly thrive orientation with great sharings from Yogahealer team which were all attending this program. Even more tailored thrive profiling and focused support we were getting on 1-1 discovery sessions with Alex and Grace.

If you need creative experience exchange, share your voice on Body Thrive FB forum with world wide based Body Thrive tribe.

Body Thrive and beyond, precious content, videos, daily planning sheets and much more useful tools were on daily plate navigation. One habit by week, without criticizing overview of the previous habit proficiency level. The best thrive rhythm is my thrive rhythm. My personal and professional thriving are happening simultaneously.

It is so relieving that we don’t need to walk on the thrive path alone…I am grateful to Cate Stillman and her visionary Body Thrive program.

I am blessed with tender habit building and thriving as my lifestyle!

Sunil, Graphic designer:

These small habits were really seems very small and may be we will not believe the power of these at first time. But as per my personal experience they worked a lot to me and really they changed my habits of eating and sleeping too. People in team were also having some habit problems they also helped me together. It was an awesome and life time experience to me as i was struggling with following early to bed habit.

Thank you for the group support by Cate and especially Alex who leads us and helped me in achieving some targets that were  impossible to me earlier.

“Checking menu to order only something healthy for me and my daughter.”

Grace Edison, Admissions:

It wouldn’t scratch the surface to say that Body Thrive has changed my life. Through itty-bitty micro-habit change, I have been able to achieve a 15 year old dream of coming off my anti-depressants (not to mention losing 40 lbs)! I went through the 10 habits for the first time in June 2015. In January 2016 I was hired as part of the Yogahealer team in admissions.

Having the opportunity to help Alex coach our team was such an honour for me. Opening sharing my story with my caring and compassionate co-workers was so connecting for me. The feeling of truly being seen and heard by the people you work with is so important.

Our team is spread out all around the world and it really gave us an opportunity to genuinely connect, grow together and get to know one another – to work toward a common goal and foster support on a much deeper level. I truly believe we became stronger as a team, caring about one another’s successes no matter how small. We were accountable as a team, each one of us wanting to lead by example to encourage and lift each other up. Hearing others achieving their goals inspired the rest of us and this created space to life one other up to higher and higher levels of health and wellbeing.

A team that Thrives together jives together. I made that up, but it’s totally true! I am grateful that Cate gave us this gift and that Alex was such a great coach!

Maria, Course Concierge:

I have had many challenges postpartum and I have been trying different things to survive. Two and a half years ago, I discovered yoga and its teachings. Yoga practice helped me with being content, meditation and most of all affirmation and thinking the best in every situation. This calmed down my dark thoughts, made me less angry. Although I am in the right path, I know that I am missing something. A year ago, my sister introduced me with Yogahealer. I subscribed with Yogahealer newsletter and whatever free resources available. And still it is not enough. Then I came to work for Cate and we started our own Body Thrive course and everything just click. By this time my yoga asanas is non existent because LIFE, my eating habits is out of whack and basically yo-yo dieting had me at my most overweight since being pregnant.  The 10 habits that Body Thrive teaches you appeared so simple but at the same time so complex. The challenge is in being consistent and that’s where Cate wins. The introduction of Kaizen. This may be popular somewhere but this is the first time I encountered it and it freed me of perfectionism. It liberates me from berating myself if I had a bad day and stuffed my face with junk foods and sugary treat. One of the glaring change that I had is successfully eliminating coffee and replaced with hot water with lemon. The things that I learn from this Body Thrive course has been incorporated in our family lives as well. My children who’s 5and4 years old, practice their ahh-ing before sleeping. This little tidbit of information is in Cate’s Body Thrive book and I know we can do it. All in all, Body Thrive revived my yoga asanas, my workouts and helped me get back to my feet both my mental and physical self.

Thank you Cate for creating Body Thrive and thank you Alex for leading the course. Namaste.

*this is pretty much what my yoga practice looks like lately.

Liza, Information Systems

Having Alex Biondo initiate the Body Thrive for the Yogahealer Team makes a lot of difference than trying to do it alone. The support is awesome and everyone else wants to do the habits. For me, it’s been a challenging first round of Body Thrive. Sticking it out and committing to the habits is difficult especially in a big family — 4 men (husband + 3 sons) and my daughter. A few of the habits that have been here everyday is drinking warm water with lemon in the morning, tongue scraping and pooping. Pooping from 2-3 times a week to everyday — just amazing! But this is not the end of it. I am committing myself to do the habits one step at a time, one habit at a time.

Super loud shout out to Cate from the Philippines for creating Body Thrive!