Body Image & Exercise - Creating a Safe, Non-Judgmental Space for Women to Enjoy their Exercise

In the episode of me&my health up we discuss the body image cultural obsession and the association with exercise particularly from within the gym and fitness industry. Our guest speaker Anna Hearn has walked in the path of a pre-teen, teen and adult carrying concerns around body image, exercise and dieting. Such concerns lead to anxiety, body hating and ultimately unhappiness until Anna decided enough was enough and it was time to find a solution. Little did she realise at the time this journey to find an answer would lead her to where she is today - founder & owner of Haven Wellness. Anna established Haven Wellness to offer a special place for women who are seeking something new in fitness and yoga culture - a unique body-positive, size-inclusive community offering soulful yoga, fun group fitness classes, dedicated one-on-one personal training, and a range of therapies supporting members in cultivating a peaceful relationship with food and their bodies! And she has built a super cool community of like-minded women that are supportive, kind and non-judgmental. 

Tune in to hear Anna’s story and what she learnt. Anna shares her tips on how to break the body image / dieting / exercise obsession and how to create your own safe space of body acceptance and self love.

About the guest speaker Anna Hearn & Haven Wellness

Yogi, Body-Inclusive Personal Trainer and & 'Body Respect' Cheerleader Founder of Haven - Australia's first HAES-aligned, body-positive, weight-neutral, inclusive fitness, yoga and wellbeing studio for woman offering personal training, small group fitness classes, yoga and stretch classes, non-diet nutrition and dietetics, fat-positive counselling, body-image coaching and beauty therapy.

With a history of disordered eating, an obsessive relationship with exercise and poor body image, Anna had a light-bulb moment when discovering body positivity, HAES and non-diet communities. As she immersed herself for her own healing she also began adopting the approaches professionally.

Haven was born from Anna’s internal conflict working in traditional fitness centres and a drive to offer a space for woman that she could guarantee was diet-culture-free.

At the heart of Haven's approach is body respect and self-compassion. Anna shares this with her community and team from a place of integrity and personal experience, supporting members to establish a peaceful and sustainable relationship with food, body and movement focusing on self-care, not self-control.

Meet Anna and explore Haven over a complimentary Cuppa & Consult (https://www.havenwellness.com.au/newcomercomplimentary)

https://www.havenwellness.com.au

https://www.facebook.com/havenwellnessstudio

Not in Sydney? Please reach out! We have a network of wonderful aligned professionals across the country and beyond - we are always happy to chat and recommend resources and communities to support you: anna@havenwellness.com.au.

Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more

Transcript

Anthony Hartcher: 0:00

Welcome to another insightful episode of me&my health up, health up seeks to inspire and enhance and lighten the well being of others. I'm your host, Anthony Hatcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and Lifestyle Medicine Specialist. Today we're talking about a very important topic, certainly an important topic to me and the community. And it's on body imaging and exercise. In previous episodes, we've covered body imaging from a dietary point of view from a nutritional point of view, and the eating disorders that come as a result of the obsession around body imaging. And today we're going to look at it from an exercise point of view. So I've brought along someone that is so passionate about this topic. Anna Hearn, how're you doing? Anna?

Anna Hearn: 0:48

I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Anthony Hartcher: 0:50

You're welcome. Anna has has so passionate about this, she's actually set up a wellness Haven. And this wellness Haven offers, as you know, a special space for women who are seeking something new and you know, in their fitness and the yoga culture. It's a unique body positive size inclusive community, offering soulful yoga, fun group fitness classes, dedicated one on one personal training and a range of therapies to support these women. And as well attached to all this is a super cool community, which is all about supporting one another on their journeys of wellness. So, Anna, Welcome, and thanks for joining us are really keen to find out how you've come about with this, you know, wellness Haven your journey to getting there? Yeah, so tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Anna Hearn: 1:51

Yeah, sure. Sure. Well, like many women that I've met, that I've come across, I grew up learning that it really wasn't okay to be in a bigger body. Bigger bodies were deemed an attractive, unhealthy, you know, they were given titles of lazy and greedy. And that message sort of came through from society from the adults around me. And I think as a young kid and impressionable young, kind of sensitive kid, who I, you know, I see, I saw myself as chubby compared to my, my older, smaller, skinny blonde sisters, I felt like a bit of a black sheep, I'm dark here, I felt like the chubby one in the family. And I just really took that message on. So as I become, as I, you know, sort of hit puberty, I started becoming really, really self conscious of my body. And I was I started dieting around age 11. And that set off decades of a disordered relationship with food and just a really terrible relationship with my body. So I would say at points, and I really, really, really disliked my body, I really hated my body. And from there, you know, I spent, I tried everything under the sun to kind of fix myself, always thinking that my body was the problem. And if only I could find the perfect way to control my body through diet through exercise, then, you know, unicorns and rainbows will pop out of the sky, and everything would be happy and perfect and live the perfect life. But what really happened was these Yeah, decades of just a really unhealthy relationship with food and body. And it wasn't until I discovered healthy to resize the non diet approach of the body positive movement and learnt about weight stigma and size inclusivity a weight neutral approach to movement to health, that everything really shifted for me. So I started to adopt that for my own personal journey, and dive, you know, deeper and deeper into that. And of course, then, at the time when I was a personal trainer just starting out, and I couldn't help but want to share that with my clients. So at the time, I was working from a sort of traditional women's studio, and although there was a level of community, which was lovely, which I enjoyed, there was still the traditional focus on you know, I should be measuring my clients every month with a tape measure. We should be selling them protein shakes, we should be selling them this meal plan even though we weren't nutritionists. And this is something that is really common in traditional gym and diet culture. So I just felt really conflicted. I was working in this space yet my and personal integrity was offering something different. So I just realised that if I wanted to stay in the fitness world, which I wasn't sure if I did, I needed to find a space where I could take my clients and guarantee that I could offer them a diet culture free space. So that's how Haven was born. And just a little quick background to and how I actually got into it. Fitness. In my late 20s, I got into fitness for the purpose of changing my body for controlling my body before that had been quite a kind of boozy, younger person, you know, partying quite a lot. And there were ways that I could control my body through that, through drugs and through, you know, drinking and sort of partying and skipping meals and that kind of thing. But as I got older, I started to explore movement, and I got a personal trainer and started working out. And then I got heavily into running, which I always shared as I got heavily into running and yoga, and I got into them to change my body to control to manipulate my body. But what kept me there was the benefits that it gave me mentally and emotionally. For me, I have anxiety, so it really helped me manage that. And it also built up my confidence. And I also stayed for the community, because both the running community and the yoga community were really were a big part of my life, at different points. So I started a running group. And it became really successful, I was heavily into using exercise obsessively, I was running, leading runs, you know, six times a week, I was doing hot yoga after every run or doing some boot camps, and you know, just doing lots of lots of physical movement. And like I said, I had, I started, sorry, I, I was leaving the running group. From that I wanted to build it into a business. So I studied my Cert three and fitness to be able to do that. And then that led me into the personal training. And then like I said, that led me into I think Haven as I discovered the the non Diet and Health at Every Size approach. Sorry, that was a lot of information.

Anthony Hartcher: 6:42

Very helpful. And I you know, it's really nice to hear your story, because you know, the listeners that be people out there that relate to the journey you've been on. And yeah, I think it's great to share that story. Because, you know, the more we share, you know, that, that this is not uncommon. It you know, it's a common feeling amongst the community, then the more the more we can do about changing it. And certainly, you know, this podcast is all about creating that awareness, but understanding so that we can make positive change in the community,

Anna Hearn: 7:17

great to have the chance to share, share the message, and it is such a common thing. It's a common thread in our society, of having this body dissatisfaction. And I realised that I've met so many women, and it's like, regardless of shape and size, so many of us have this preoccupation with body This dissatisfaction with body. So I think that really reflects the problem in our society.

Anthony Hartcher: 7:41

In terms of, you know, there'll be listeners, certainly listening in that thinking, you know, I have this disconnection with my body, this hate, you know, you mentioned the word hate and really wanting to change it and change it to a particular image and doing anything to try to fix yourself. What what is your message to those people that are experiencing that thinking and really want to, I guess, getting a more joyful and more happy place? You know, what would be your tips in terms of helping those people?

Anna Hearn: 8:14

That's a great question. Well, I think that like, for me, it was a recognition of, I could, I could can continue pursuing, you know, this pursuit of the nurse of smallness of controlling my body, but it come with a lot of disordered behaviour. It really messes with your mental and emotional state. And I just wanted to let go of that. So I chose the pursuit of peace over that. So, you know, I guess it can help to sort of weigh up what's what's more important, you know, how you look, or the the peace mentally, physically and emotionally. And so that was the kind of the recognition for me, and I sort of gave it all up. But I had, obviously, I had come across this non diet body positive approach. And, you know, just starting to explore that. I think just dipping your toes in and seeing if this is something for you, would be the first step. And you can do that through exploring the, the online communities. You know, social media and online communities can be really dangerous in some ways, because there's such the focus on the Fizbo, the Instagram models and all of that stuff, but you can use it for good as well and start to follow somebody positive plus size models and people that are coaching in the space fat positive activists and follow podcasts like this, like your own and just dive into it and see if you know, these messages are resonating. And then of course, so sort of expanding your thoughts around yourself and your body to be you know, you're much you're worth much more than just your parents and your body and how Health can look like something very different at different times in your life and from one person to the next. And it's not just all about, you know, what you wait and how you move and how you look. So I think that this comes in a lot for a lot of things, building that community of resources and people who are supporting this approach, and starting to kind of, I guess, crowd out the other direct cultural messages with the messages that are really going to support you on this path.

Anthony Hartcher: 10:28

Fantastic. Now, that's really helpful. So it really is getting, finding those right environments, you know, that support you and support where you want to go without being you know, that feeling feeling of judgement? And exactly, yeah, yeah. You mentioned this thing of, you know, this dieting and body imaging culture. And, you know, the fact that you weigh in your measure and things like that. And, you know, we often talk about that measurement helps us a guess, understand if we're moving towards our goals, or away for our goals. And, you know, in your approach, you know, you don't like this weigh in sort of concept, what is your alternative? Like, what do you suggest listeners do that, you know, are really fearful of the scales? Or, you know, don't want to go down that path? What else can they do in terms of knowing that they're heading in the right direction? Yeah,

Anna Hearn: 11:26

that's a great question. I just want to point out that it scales can be, yes, they are like, a tool, you know, they can give you a quick sort of, you know, result, and I'm doing that, and, um, you know, inverted commas. But we all know that the scales aren't reflective of like body composition, for example. So they don't even like work necessarily for that sort of purpose. I think two, they're quite heavily related to the BMI. So body mass index, which is very outdated. And if you're not aware of this, it was designed by a, I think Belgian mathematician in the 1800s, or something for population, it was never designed for the individual, which I find, you know, it's, it's crazy, that still used now sort of separating the world into these three or five categories, and determining your health based on this, it's just far too broad. And so in their body positive and sort of non diet space, you know, we know that that is really kind of irrelevant. But what the scales do is they can just keep you fixated on body dissatisfaction on you can, it ends up being something that you measure your worth against, you know, good if you've lost the way that you're bad if you haven't, you know, can just keeps you in that same mindset keeps you fixated on the sort of the body preoccupation and the disordered body image concerns in that. And it also leads to what I call fitness, trauma, or gym trauma. So I'll give you an example of a story that my client shared with me. And I've heard about this from a few different people to this sort of gym, a chain of gyms that would put the client on a scale every week when that way and ring a bell if they had lost weight. So what that leads to is that if the bells rang, the whole gym would clap and congratulate the person. And if the bell wasn't wrong, then that person feels really defeated, deflated and quite shamed as well. So I think it can be really damaging in that way. So one, it doesn't work, it doesn't accurately depict what's actually going on with somebody's body to leads to, you know, obsessive fixation with a number on the scale and self worth relating to that. And, and then I think there are much more interesting ways to kind of measure your success and, but to be honest, I, personally, I'm not a big fan of results. And and measuring because of my background, and for somebody who has had a disordered relationship with food and body numbers can sometimes not be a great thing. So it can be really helpful to maybe steer away from them completely, or perhaps for a period of time, if you're kind of recovering healing, looking at moving away from diet culture. For me, personally, I just stepped right away from that kind of movement. So with running, I was, you know, I was aware of my timing and my, you know, my case and all of that, and there was this competitive nature to that, naturally, I'm not that competitive. So, perhaps for me, it was easy to kind of step away from that. And now, my approach to movement in my own practice is just to move like in ways that feel good in that moment. And that's kind of at the heart of what we offer here. And so we do really invite we'll talk about compassionate movement here at Haven and we're inviting the members to connect them with their body and kind of check in with how they feel mentally, emotionally, physically and what it is they need, do they need a hard sort of strong, fast, etc. Question or doesn't need something a little more grounding, slower paced, it doesn't always need to reflect numbers or, you know, to know that you're sort of making progress. And I'm putting that again in inverted commas. Because for some of us, it's not necessary about that progress and always kind of moving forward, sometimes it's just about like feeling good in your body. And that's the way a person like to move. I would just point out, though, like, we have a lovely range of trainers here, too. So, of course, as a trainer, and I do very little training now, because I'm managing the studio, but there is, you know, we will have some kind of programme, obviously, that we're working with, and we're working towards something and yes, some clients will present with a specific goal or something that they are working towards, or, you know, an injury recovery or something. So the elements of sort of measuring around that. But we do it from a place of sort of celebrating the body and how it moves, and that without needing to always talk about the numbers and, and the specifics around it, if that makes sense.

Anthony Hartcher: 16:11

I totally hear you Anna. And it does make a lot of sense because I agree with you The scars and a true reflection of what's going on. And it's just a number and subtotal number and doesn't really tell you if you know whether you're you're losing fat and gaining muscle, which is generally what people want to achieve. And so therefore, it can give you a distorted view of what what's really going on. And it's good to have other indicators. And I really liked your point about that sort of that more compassionate feeling towards exercise. And, you know, if you were to go to numbers, they, you know, I guess the scientific world or that rule measured approaches the heart rate variability measure. But for me, it's intuitive, like when I, you know, when I personally go to the gym, I know when I'm feeling flat, and when I'm feeling energised. And I like how you allow the people that come to wellness haven to check in with how they're feeling, and then do a session around oriented around how they're feeling. Because I think that's where ultimate success will come. Because as you know, when we turn up, we're feeling flat, and we need to do an energetic session with just be able to keep up and we're going to feel terrible about ourselves, because it'd be other people that feel really energetic. And, and they're doing great, you know, they're they're keeping up with the moves, but you know, because you're feeling flat, you just can't and then you feel inferior, and you know, effects. Yeah, self talk and, you know, feel inadequate. And yeah, so I really like how you do that sort of back compassionate check in.

Anna Hearn: 17:48

And like in saying that, too, like I said, we do have, I mean, people come for all different reasons here. So we'll always sort of invite them into to check in with their body in that way. And some people might be, who might not resonate with having a disordered relationship with food and body might not feel so like so concerned around numbers and that sort of thing. So it's also a like, individual basis, as well. So we're working with the individual and learning about them and knowing what they need and what kind of approach they need as well.

Anthony Hartcher: 18:19

Have you got any strategies around that? disconnecting from comparing yourself to others, because it's just the you know, it's that perimeter? We haven't sort of perimeter instinct around, you know, we do we assess things when we first see them, you know, and we then we sort of make that judgement as to whether they're a threat or non threat, and that's, you know, within us, and so we're constantly judging our surroundings. And so a normal sort of response, but then how do you stop it from them taking over and, you know, then flowing on to thinking I'm not as good as that person? And, you know, like, if you've got some strategies around helping that judgement, life?

Anna Hearn: 19:06

Sure. I mean, I think that comes up a lot for many of us, and especially in traditional gym culture, and that and then that's something that I think I hear about a lot from new clients and that coming in and so one thing I refer back to her mentioned about having a surrounding yourself with a, you know, community and resources and that of people doing this kind of work. So the more you can kind of bring in that kind of approach, and that the information that really supports you and crowd out the rest, the more you sort of build this resilience around that traditional diet culture. So I think that's really important, like having a community that can be like you can build that online community, obviously here like community is a massive part of Haven. So What's lovely about him we're very lucky because we have a haven, you know, is a safe haven for women who are looking for this different approach and we've built it so that the people who come here, I meet them I greet, you know, meet and greet one on one to a concert and share with them what I messages about and let them know that we really invite them to let go of comparisons, that's one of that it's part of our ethos, we like to invite them to let go of judgments, whether that's judging their own bodies, or judging others, because that those biases that we have around other bodies can really impact our own relationship with our body. So gently kind of using a compassionate frame of your own mind, compassionate dialogue with yourself to let go of judgments when you enter the door, so we're so when you enter the door, just like kind of little drift away. And we're lucky here to have no mirrors. So we, I made the decision when I opened haven to have no mirrors. And I know that mirrors can be really helpful for alignment and that kind of thing. But I found that with our approach, the benefit of not having the distraction of seeing your body, especially if you know you have a history with disordered food body relationship, you know, you can catch yourself in the mirror if you're in a vulnerable place, and that can really throw you off. So we decided, I decided that the benefit of not having mirrors outweighed the benefit of having them and we're able to, because we're quite small and intimate, we do a lot of one on one and that so we're coaching our clients and helping them feel how the shapes are the moves, exercises, feel correctly feel well in their body. So having her mirrors, I think that cuts out that comparison straightaway, because you just not catching yourself all the time. And the other thing I was gonna say was kind of creating your own little bubble, I call it a haven bubble, it's putting that armour around that resilience to protect yourself. And it can be just a matter of having a little moment of internal dialogue, dialogue with yourself, reminding yourself that, hey, I'm entering the space where I might feel a little triggered, I might feel like moving into those comparison thoughts of other bodies, but hey, I'm going to honour I'm just protect and care for this body that I have in this moment. And we're always trying to invite our clients to bring it back to caring for this body they have right now, not the body they had, you know, before the baby or the body, they want to have the body in their head 10 years ago when they're at the smallest, but the body that they have now, because bodies are always going to change. So the ability to be resilient with that and build, have a sense of acceptance. And to be able to honour and celebrate, this body is really powerful. And look, it's a practice that takes time, it's not something that you just learn about. And then all of a sudden, tada, you love your body and you don't compete. It's not the way it works. So I often gently let people know, to just fix, you know, this is a practice, it's it, don't expect it to be linear, and be kind to yourself.

Anthony Hartcher: 22:57

Great point. And you know that last point on you know, accepting that it's a journey, you know, it's not somewhere you just arrive, you know, you'll, you'll wake up, you'll feel great, some mornings, you'll wake up and not feel great and not have the energy. And you know, it's really just going with how you are in that present moment. And that's what I really like that approach you have with the, you know, the Haven wellness bubble is, you know, when you come into this space, you know, just accept who you are, embrace who you are, and, and be in the now and move as you are, as you are feeling and you know, and I think you know, like, and I'd like to pick up on an earlier point you raised about really embracing the movement and doing movement, that's fun, as opposed to having a predetermined thinking that this is exercise. And this is not exercise, you know, it's black and white, you know, if I'm not doing high intensity, I'm not training, you know, I'm not doing the right training. And, you know, it's all about high intensity training. But I think, you know, the earlier point you raised was around that. Really enjoying what you're doing. And that's a key measure to success that you're progressing is that enjoyment and being and marrying that into what you just said about being in the now, what are some of those exercises? Like can you give us some examples of the fun sort of things you do at Haven that people could, you know, take on, you know, if they're not close proximity or Haven, you know, they're some some distance away from Haven that they could do themselves and really enjoy that movement knowing that they're, you know, they're embracing their body and they're, you know that they are getting exercise.

Anna Hearn: 24:50

Yeah, sure. Well, I'll just refer to an experience that I've had recently so I have recently just started going back to a yoga studio where I used to go I actually used to work there. for quite a number of years, when I was quite sick and heavily into obsessive, you know, obsessively exercising and doing hot yoga, and it took me I feel like as I learned about this non diet approach and Health at Every Size, I stepped away, I actually took quite a big break from the the movement exercise that I had been doing. And it was like I needed those couple of years where I was still doing, you know, different types of some movement, and obviously, you know, running some PT and classes in that. So moving in that way, but not doing sort of any real structured exercise. So for me, it was like, I needed to take that step back to then approach it with a fresh lens. So I've recently started to go back, and I was quite nervous, because I thought I might be really triggered, this is a studio with mirrors. My body has changed, physically changed a lot. Since I was in that culture. I, you know, I definitely felt like, you know, so we're not wearing a crop top, for example. And, you know, I could definitely sense like it was it was that that kind of culture, but I was able to, because I had this fresh lens, this new perspective where it is not about how I look, it's about how I feel on my body and just wanting to enjoy the movement. So for me, I was able to put that aside the concerns that comparisons and all of that and just enjoy how it felt to be in my body. So I did sort of arm myself, you know, put up that little haven bubble before I went in and just had that little moment of internal dialogue, like, Hey, this is a practice for me. And so for me yoga is that practice, it's something where I can go to, and I can sort of block out the rest of it. And it's something I really love and really enjoy and enjoy being in the moment. For somebody else, it might be something completely different. It might be swimming in the ocean, or it might be you know, playing with the kids in a park. Or it might be going through a specific class or doing a class online or something. But I guess it's helpful to remember that exercise movement doesn't have to be this measured, structured, you know, thing that gives you a specific kind of result, it can be movement can come in all sorts of shapes and forms. And I think it's helpful to find the one find the things that serve you. I think we're also taught in our culture, that is morality around exercise, that you're a good person, if you exercise and you know, go hard or go home, no pain, no gain, sort of push, push, push, and where I think and what we find here, the longevity in a relationship with movement, if that's something that you want to explore and build on, is finding a movement that you really enjoy, that feels intrinsic, like you want to do it for something intrinsic, not the external purpose of looking a certain way or, you know, being as you know, up there as somebody else, you know, that competitive side. So if you can find the thing that really serves you, that you find some element of joy in some element of, you know, you feel comfortable has to be kind of accessible to you, you don't want to feel like you're doing something that's out of your reach or uncomfortable in your body. It's, you know, in a space that feels accessible and comfortable, then that's going to give you that sort of longevity and in terms of like not being able to, you know, contain such this. Again, going back to the community thing, there's so much out there online, once you start delving into the body positive or fat positive world. There's a lot of cool people doing some amazing things. So I can suggest a couple of online owners and becomes Diane Bondi, these are from some of my favourite bigger body of Yogi's that love to follow, there's a great, like app website called join, which is really cool. And it's like all body parts of different bodies doing different kinds of dancing and movement, which is really fun. And those kind of things you could do in the comfort of your own home, you know, without worrying about how you feel being exposed to others and build up your confidence that way. But yeah, I think, um, finding what it is that feels really good for you and having some element of joy is something so powerful that you can take anywhere.

Anthony Hartcher: 29:08

Yeah, I totally hear you. And I totally agree, it's, it's really, you know, if it brings you joy, then you'll want to do more offers, and particularly if you can find others to surround you, that also enjoy that type of exercise. So, I just with those, those online, you know, yoga classes and the app that you mentioned, yeah, if you could share that with me and then I can put it in the in the field. Yeah, notes and that way the listeners can go directly to those links. So tell us a little bit more about Haven wellness and how you accommodate for those uniquenesses about people. You know, there's obviously different body shapes and sizes, different people, different age groups. And people got different goals. And so there's all these differences and wants and needs. And obviously, yeah, that's what you specialise in at Haven. So I'm really keen to find out how you actually accommodate for those needs. Yeah,

Anna Hearn: 30:14

that's, that's a really good question. And let's look at something that's, it's such a beautiful thing in our world that, you know, there is diversity in bodies. And it's really lovely to see, like, in one of, in my yoga class, for example, I love it when I see bodies all practising in different ways. And I always will offer suggest and mentioned throughout and mentioned at the start of the class, you know, I'm here to guide you, but ultimately, it's your body, your roles, you're the master of your body, and I don't know how you feel, only you can judge that. And some, some clients come with, without, you know, some people who are new to movement and new to yoga or, or gym, and that don't have too much body awareness. So it can take time for them to learn how to read their body, and how to listen. And so they will just sort of copy follow along. And that's great. And that's what they need in that moment. But we try to just always offer variations. So we will invite people to take this is one way to do it, this is another way to do it. This is another way without there being a hierarchy as such, like this is the easy way or then you can do this, if you are strong, you know, we sort of just make it like this is a way and this is another way. And sometimes sort of give a little bit of information around why this shape would feel better. If you have, you know, if you if you resonate with having Tight, tight legs, you know, sometimes tight hamstrings and knowing that our members are not, we're not really serving like elite athletes, or anything, these are everyday lovely people who don't necessarily know everything about anatomy or anything. So we just try to keep things in an easy, comfortable, accessible language and just try to offer things that that makes sense to them. So for example, if you resonate with having tight hamstrings, then perhaps you'll use a block to support you in the shape. So we use things like blocks and props and yoga, for example. You know, in our fitness classes, we might have a range of different needs. And I guess, we do find that certain types of bodies and needs come to different classes, there are different things that appeal to different bodies. And that and because we're still quite small, we've just recently actually moved into a really beautiful big warehouse space, we are growing into our space. So we are sort of, you know, welcoming new members in there and, and getting bigger, better classes, a store that's still quite intimate. So we we do it tonight, everybody well, and so we can help to serve them from having that knowledge about what they need. So it'd be the same sort of thing I mentioned, suggesting, here's one way to do it is a bench set up if you'd like to have a little bit of support and feel more comfortable with less gravity at play, or you could do this variation. If you've got lots of energy and your your joints are happy and healthy today, you can take it into a jump or, you know, just sort of give a little bit of information and education and gently support and offer the variations.

Anthony Hartcher: 33:05

Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's excellent. I really like how you accommodate for all different variations of flexibility and capability. And certainly, you know, it's helped me in the past is knowing that there's options, because I certainly, I'm one of those people that have tight hamstrings. There's certain things that I really struggle with. But knowing there's an alternative, and there's a block, it really serves me so

Anna Hearn: 33:32

good for everybody. Even though the traditional pose looks one way when you said in a yoga book, or a fitness book or whatever. Yeah, I think that's really helpful. One thing I just add to that we do because our community is so it's we're so big on community, I really do love to meet everybody that comes in because it's important to me, for one, I really just want to protect the culture that we have. So we've built this lovely community of women who come here because it's the safe space, we're not for we're not about bums on seats, we're not for just everybody who can go to any gym and are quite comfortable there. You know, we for those women who are looking for something where they are safe and supported and don't feel intimidated. And so me being able to meet the clients, new clients as they come in means that I can have those conversations and make sure that we're the kind of space for them and and that we can offer them what they need and that they'll find value from it. And that way I get to know the clients a little bit and then I can share with the other trainers, hey, we've got this lovely new client she's got a little bit of sort of, you know, trauma from gyms in the past and it's just really look after and you know, so we kind of communicate with our team that way.

Anthony Hartcher: 34:41

That's beautiful. I love how you look after your new members like that. So how do our listeners you know, if they're within close proximity, so you know, please share, you know where Haven wellness is located, and how can people best get in touch with you because they may relate to your story. But maybe too far away and just you know, wanting to have a conversation with you. And yeah, so how can people best contact you? And how can they come along to Haven wellness,

Anna Hearn: 35:09

right? Well, for one, I'm always up for chats if anybody does, even if they're not nearby, and I just want to chat with somebody who maybe they do resonate with my story. And they want to get a little bit of advice, or just hear from from my kind of lived experience and perspective. I'm always open to that. So they can reach out to no problem. And I've actually got a lovely big network of people that I've been connecting with all over Australia and the world who are in this space as well. So I can maybe put them in touch with somebody if they're not here. But we were located in Summerhill in the heart of the inner Western Sydney. We've just recently moved into a beautiful, big spacious, airy warehouse, which was really lovely for COVID. We've got a private yoga room, lovely mezzanine, where we do our Boogie dance classes, which is super fun, we have an amazing teacher for that Joe. And then we have our lovely trainers who offer all you know, they'll have this sort of different approach and experience in that to bring and we offer a small group fitness and personal training out there in the gym space. And then we also have a couple of therapy rooms. So we have a lovely team of professionals, we have a couple of counsellors. We have Nina who you know, Nina, our lovely, wonderful non diet nutritionist who's just such a pleasure to have so helpful for our members. And we also have a dietitian just part time as well. And beauty therapist actually lovely sort of nurturing body positive beauty therapist who does massage and all the traditional things. So we offer all of this, and we're in the heart of Summerhill, you can find us at Havenwellness.com.au you so it's probably the best place for those that are nearby and want to pop in. If they are unsure anything, I can always just give me a call for a chat first or they can go ahead and book a covering consult I call it so come in and meet with me and I'll show them around and learn about them. And then I can offer them a free class if they want to try that out. Set them up with one of the trainers or whatever. And we're also on Instagram and on Facebook. And it's Haven Wellness Studio on Instagram and Haven Wellness on Facebook.

Anthony Hartcher: 37:24

And listeners will certainly incorporate those links and how that you know how to easily contact and so thanks for you know, sharing, you know your story, the insight that you have in relation to body imaging, body respect body love and exercise and how we can go about enjoying what we do without, you know, passing judgement of ourselves or comparison by getting into our Haven Haven wellness bubble. I love that. I'm gonna find my haven Haven Haven wellness bubble.

Anna Hearn: 37:59

It's not maybe it's not a haven Haven bubble for all but maybe it's some sort of armour to protect yourself whatever you resonate with that makes sense

Anthony Hartcher: 38:07

Totally, totally. Yeah. So thanks again Anna. And it was a absolute delight to have you on the show and and yeah, thank you listeners for tuning in to another episode of me&my health up. And stay tuned because it'd be more to come on not only this topic but all other topics health and wellness. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.

Anna Hearn: 38:31

Thanks, Anthony.