Listen to the audio for this podcast here.
Host: Welcome to the Lifelong Wellness podcast where we talk to wellness professionals from so many walks of life around the world and get their insight into living healthier. I'm your host Wes Malik. One of the foremost things on the top of your mind, in my mind in the conversation that the country is having right now is the coronavirus, COVID- 19. And the best resource for obtaining information current and about the virus in the United States of America and from around the world is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they have a specific page for you to visit called cdc.gov/coronavirus, that’s cdc.gov/coronavirus. Now, as large events are being canceled and travel restrictions are applied to areas in China and Italy as of the current situation, we are worried in the US and Canada and around the world about contracting coronavirus. And the best line of defense is keeping your hands clean. And the CDC recommends and many health professionals recommend that you wash your hands thoroughly after contact with people or any other thing with the soap. We are very focused on disinfectants and we’re focused on hand sanitizers which may not be the case, just use ordinary soap and there's a specific way of washing your hands. The CDC and many health organizations recommend that you wash your hands for 60 seconds, the minimum being 20 seconds and there is a proper way to wash your hands. And if I could explain that to you, I will try my best. Start by liberally applying soap and rubbing your hands together and then spreading your fingers and interlocking your fingers and getting the webbing of your fingers on both sides clean as well. Make a fist and have your nails protrude so that you can see them and rub your nails in the palm of your other hand, right to left, left to right. Try to wring your hands all the way up to the wrists and of course take your thumb and cover it with your opposite hand and twist it so that your thumb is clean as well. And that is the process of correctly washing your hands for 60 seconds, which should keep you safe. Now back to our podcast, we have a very special guest today and her name is Conni Ponturo and she is a wellness professional, she's a coach and she is a Pilates professional, she is a writer as well and we are going to be talking about pain and joy with Conni. Welcome to the Lifelong Wellness podcast, Conni. How are you today?
Conni: I’m Fantastic, Wes. How are you doing?
Host: Very good. So, unbeknownst to our listeners who might be listening to this podcast at any time during the day or night, we’re up recording this podcast at 7 AM where Conni usually is teaching a full group of people Pilates at this time, she’s up to five and that's a core thing that you do. I really would love to pick your brain about Pilates from the basics. Imagine I don't know anything about Pilates, how would you describe it to me?
Conni: Okay. It’s a form of exercise. So, to demystify it, it’s exercise but the wonderful thing about Pilates is I can train someone who's never done anything in their life. And then I can train a triathlete.
Host: Really?
Conni: The equipment has that ability but what it really does is it gets you to focus on your deeper muscles. It gets you to focus on your breath. A lot of people work out very quickly, they don’t breathe, they don't think about what they're doing. So, it allows you to slow down, it allows you to get in-tuned with your body, it allows you to breathe, it allows you to be present. And for me, that’s a game-changer.
Host: Wow! I didn’t know it encompasses all these things. How does it work? I mean, how do you accomplish all these things in Pilates?
Conni: Well, first of all, we just get you to breathe, okay? That’s the first thing that most people, I mean, breathing is involuntary, correct?
Host: Yes.
Conni: But most times we just don’t think about it. So, when we get somebody to breathe and move and stretch, all the sudden like, “Wow! I never felt like this before. I didn’t know what this did. I didn’t know what that does”.
Host: Yes.
Conni: And so it allows people to just get with their body. We are rushing, we’re very fast-paced no matter where we live. And it allows you to slow down, it allows you to connect with your deeper core muscles. Everyone thinks of their core as just their abdominals but it is not. It’s the front of your body, it’s the back of your body, it’s the sides of your body. So, basically it’s your torso. If we can get that really, really strong you will have less back pain, less neck pain. So, that’s who I work with. I work with people mostly with chronic pain and get them out of that.
Host: Is it difficult to do?
Conni: No! No! It’s not difficult to do, but it can be challenging. I mean, I can challenge somebody who comes in and goes, “Oh, I do all of this kind of stuff”. No, it’s not challenging. It’s for everybody, it really is. It is a system of exercises that Joseph Pilates developed, that was his philosophy, and he wrote a book in 1945 and if you picked it up today, it’s called Return to Life. You’d say he’s writing it about me, but it was meant for kids, men, and women. So, there is nobody, no. It is a very basic technique that can be, obviously more advanced, but no, it’s really for everybody.
Host: You worked on several books and you've written your own book and you’re the owner of Absolute Pilates Upstairs and your book is called Falling Into Joy: Eight Simple Steps to Allow Your Body to Become Your Best Friend. How does joy relate to your body?
Conni: Well, gosh! Don’t we all want to feel more joy?
Host: Yes, we do.
Conni: Don’t we want to feel more vibrant?
Host: Absolutely, that’s a…
Conni: More alive?
Host: Yes.
Conni: More present in our life? And so because I’ve been doing this for the past 20 years, I've found that it's the small things that we do day in and day out that make a huge difference in our life. And being able to do self-care and take care of our bodies makes us feel better. And when you feel better, when you wake up and you go, “Wow! My body feels great”. You want to take on the world. Whatever your job is, whatever your “Why” is for your life, you are really ready to do that. Because when you know when you feel crummy, you don’t want to do anything.
Host: Yes, when you get ablaze you’re like, “Ah! I can’t do anything”, right?
Conni: Right and then you also then add in the data the pre-slope with, the food that you also like, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to eat whatever today”.
Host: Yes, usually work sometimes, yes.
Conni: Yes, you know. And then when you’re feeling great, your body feels strong, you’re like, “No, I’m going to take care of myself. I’m going to eat foods that are healthier, I’m going to drink water, I’m going to rest, I’m going to take care of myself”. It’s when we don’t feel good that we go, “Ah! Whatever! It doesn’t matter”.
Host: And it’s kind of like a spiral, too.
Conni: Yes.
Host: And because one thing leads to another. You don't feel well, you become stationary because you’re stationary, you probably feel a little bit more. And exercise, I've been told from our various guests activates a lot of chemical reactions in the brain, your endorphin and it actually makes you feel better as well, not physically but mentally also.
Conni: Absolutely. It releases all serotonin and endorphins, absolutely, and you feel great. And listen, you don’t have to be crazy. I tell people, walk. That’s a huge thing for me. People should walk. If you can move your body 30 minutes at least 6 days a week, you’re good. And you can go to the mall and walk. You can go outside. I know we’re still in winter so go somewhere where you can just walk and walk in a nice clip. Great great great exercise.
Host: I think if we don't get any exercise and we can just start walking and 30 minutes is a great time. It has a lot of benefits for your health, and unbeknownst to us, if you're suffering from many kinds of problems or diseases, just getting out there that's a great first step. Of course, getting into Pilates or other types of exercises very very good as well. Especially, you know, and you do much more than just Pilates. You focus on movement, mindset, meditation as well and you focus on, you know, working with people who have pain and we have to talk about that in our podcast today. But before we do, before we do, I asked this question of all my guests and usually, the answer is somewhat similar, but with a different spin. Usually, everyone has their own take on this question and that is what does lifelong wellness over a long period of time mean for you personally?
Conni: Oh, wow. It means feeling great in my body, it means aging well, it means living fully, it means being able to do many things. I travel a lot and I go and speak around the country, around the world. So, it just allows me to feel great and it's very important to me.
Host: So, the experiences of traveling and meeting people also mean wellness to you?
Conni: Absolutely. Connecting with people, I mean, as human beings we are meant for connection. I mean, that’s why this podcast does well, right?
Host: Yes.
Conni: You share information with people around the world, people want to know different things and for us the connection is huge and that's really, really important to me. But yeah, I know, wellness and health and vitality. I call myself a vitality expert because I think that for people is really the game-changer. Once they just feel like, “Wow! I wake up, my eyes open, I’m ready to take on the day”, everything you do just sparks, just a little bit brighter.
Host: You travel around the world travel to like meet a lot of people. You, you know you're at seminars, you give wonderful talks. What do you, what are the questions people usually ask you about health and fitness? What are the most common questions you're getting these days?
Conni: Really why I wrote the book was because people said, “How do I take care of myself? What do I do? How come I’m in pain? How can I help my back? I sit all day. My neck hurts”. Remember we’re sitting in front of computers, we’re texting, we’re driving, we’re doing a lot of the same things. So, I give them stretches. You know, the question is, “What can I do right now to feel better?” That’s the biggest question. What can I do right now at this moment to change my body and to feel better? because I want to feel better.
Host: How do you usually answer them?
Conni: I usually say, the most important thing is I say it starts with your breath. And so I teach them to focus breathing and I’ll just teach it right now to you. Super simple. And so you just sit on the chair, lie down, wherever you are it doesn’t matter. You just close your eyes for a second, you’re going to inhale for two counts, you’re going o hold your breath for two counts and then you’re going to slowly exhale for two counts. And again, inhale, hold, two and exhale. And again, inhale, hold, two and exhale. One more time, inhale in, hold, two and exhale and open your eyes.
Host: Good. That’s a different way of breathing. I haven’t done that before.
Conni: Yes. So, it makes you present, right? It makes you quiet.
Host: Yes.
Conni: It makes you present and in all of these things that we do because we run from place to place to place, we get in the car, we go to work, we come home. If you can do that the first thing when you wake up, if you can do that before you get out of your car before you get out of the train, whatever to go to work if you can do that before you leave work before you come in the door before you interact with your partner or family, whatever, it allows you to go, “Oh yeah. This is me. I feel good or I don’t feel good” and it allows you to send to yourself. And it’s when we are disconnected that pain and discomfort gets to an all-time high. The more present we can do be with what we’re really feeling, it becomes different and I’m going to tell you this but for me, pain is a gift. When people say they’re in pain I’m like, “Great. What’s it telling you?”
Host: Really?
Conni: Yes because it’s always telling us something. It’s either telling us to slow down.
Host: Okay.
Conni: It’s telling us like, “Oh, wow. You’re not taking care of this body part very well”. It’s telling you to move your body.
Host: Okay.
Conni: It’s telling you maybe to move your body less.
Host: Okay.
Conni: So, it’s always giving us information. It’s tuning in to what that information is telling us. And maybe it’s just the story. Sometimes we get stuck in the story of, ‘Oh, did I tell you about my back pain? Hey, listen. I’m in back pain. I’m in back pain. Oh, I better not do that because I’m in back pain. You know, I better not…Did I tell you about my back..?” So, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And now all I’m talking about is my back pain and that’s all I’m feeling because I talk about my back pain so much.
Host: Right. It becomes the focus of our attention, yes.
Conni: Exactly. So, I’m not saying ignore it. I’m not saying…It’s just changing the story.
Host: When we feel pain it means something either we have to move more or we have to move less or, you know, different types of pain will mean different things. But how can we tell what it’s telling us? How can we interpret or decipher what that pain means?
Conni: A lot of times it’s, you know, we obviously have to. I worked with many, many doctors in Los Angeles and so, here’s the thing. I’m sure this has happened to you, Wes. You have pain and you’re like, “I’m going to ignore that. It’s going to go away.” So, we are big deniers of what’s the reality. And you say, “You know, it’s going to go away”. Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, Month 6, Month 8. “Wow! I still have that pain” And you’re like, “You know, I think it’s because I didn’t sleep well” or “I didn’t sleep” instead of just going to the doctor and checking it out. Let’s go to them if you need an orthopedic or a knee or a hip, whatever I’m talking about. And I’m not talking about serious, serious health issues, obviously.
Host: Just minor stuff.
Conni: But, a lot of times we just don’t want to hear the truth because we go…Remember, our brains are wired for negative bias. So, we always go to the worse, right? “I have a tumor. I know I have a tumor in my back. I have a tumor in my back”. So, we’re always jumping to that. And I’m like, when people come in I’m like, “Well, have you seen a doctor?” That’s the first thing that you need to do. You need to go see the doctor. Let’s make sure everything is ruled out. After everything is ruled out, then someone comes to me, then we can start to kind of look at what you’re doing every day. How are you getting in and out of your car? How are you sitting? Are you moving at all? Are you not moving? Are you doing something that’s a repetitive issue that keeps hurting your back? Do you know what I mean? So, we just start to take away leers and see what movement feels good and what movement doesn’t feel good. But it’s really investigating yourself. When you don’t feel well, if you have an injury or you sprain your ankle or, you know, something like that, it couldn’t just get better. Go, see someone.
I have a lot of resources so I’m always sending people out to doctors, acupuncture, chiropractors, whatever, because I can’t do this alone. I’m not a doctor. I’m skilled in what I have seen over the last 20 years, but you need to really be your own advocate for your body. Because when you don’t take care of your body your entire life suffers. You know, your health is your wealth.
Host: Should we…If we have a chronic small kind of irritation like a pain, like in a foot or something like, you know, maybe I should just ignore it and it will go away by itself. Do you think that’s a good thing to do?
Conni: Sometimes, it is. I mean, you know, in the first little bit, “Oh, I sprain my…Oh, I twist it when I was running. I did a little…”. Okay. So, the first thing that you’re always going to go to is ice.
Host: Right.
Conni: Usually, ice is a pretty good thing, warm baths with Epsom salt or magnesium flakes or another great thing to do. So, you’re going to take care of that, “Oh, I’m not going to run as much, I’m going to pull back, I’m going to kind of let it go”. After that, it’s still there day in and day out, month in and month out, then you get to get checked out.
Host: Right, absolutely. Absolutely. So, how can we, what can each of us do to feel better in our lives?
Conni: Well, I think you have to be around people that love and support you, people that are yay-sayers, not nay-sayers.
Host: Okay.
Conni: People, right? People that are like, ”Yes, Wes! You’re doing a fantastic job! I love what you’re doing. It’s incredible!”
Host: The positive, yes. The positivity, the positive outlook.
Conni: The positivity. Exactly. You have to do things in your life that can make you feel good. Joy is available to all of us. Even in the most challenging of times. I mean, I started writing this book, Falling Into Joy, and like the most difficult situations came about. So, just to kind of show you that it’s not like every day is, you know, a walk in the park but it is that every day you can find your moments and in those moments if you could sit in the morning and not pick up your phone. The first thing when your eyes wake up, don’t pick up your phone, don’t turn on the computer. Sit for five minutes and to your self, “What are the five joys? Wow! This was an amazing cup of coffee or tea. I love that. Look at the light coming up. Oh, my God! I feel so good. My body feels strong, I feel healthy, I feel alive, I’m surrounded by great people”. And then you start your day, it’s a much different thing. I want you to start to know this what’s good around you instead of what’s challenging. Hey listen, we all have challenges but, you know, you can’t deny that but it’s really focusing on “what's working for me?” and “How I can make a difference”. I think that’s really important. I think all of us are here to make a difference in some way and we need to know why we’re here.
Host: You know, it’s a wonderful thing you said because waking up first thing in the morning there's a lot of negative thoughts that come to mind because you roll out of bed and I can't speak for everyone listening but maybe a lot of us have had this feeling. You roll out of bed and you’re like, “Oh no, I got to go to work”. You get like, “Oh, my God. The traffic’s going to be horrendous on that XYZ highway today”, “O, my God. I need to make lunch for the kids”, “I got to pick up my…” It’s like a (funny sound ) kind of a moment while you get from the bed to the shower, you know? (laughing)
Conni: Yes!
Host: And I think your advice is very good if we can, you know, stop that, delay that and belay that feeling for just a bit as soon as we wake up and think positive things, be grateful, possibly. I think you would always change your mindset for the whole day, probably.
Conni: Exactly and then your phone and your computer don’t hijack your morning. You get to really start and be in charge of, “How do I think for today? How do I want to feel for today? What’s important to me? Oh, what are the…Oh, I have this meeting, how do I want that to go? Oh, yes. I know I’m in charge, I feel really strong about this. Okay, that’s how I’m going to lead that”. And you can decide, you can direct how your life is going to go as opposed to, you know, everyone is…You just look at the news in your phone and people need this from you and, “Can you do this?” and Instagram and Facebook and your emails. It’s like it’s overwhelming.
Host: It is.
Conni: So, can we get a few minutes, five minutes, three minutes, that are our own, that you can really have express gratitude and joy and love for who you are and for your life and how lucky you are to be alive.
Host: Fantastic strategy for the beginning of the day because it’s important to start your cycle of the day off right. Technology sucks a lot of life out of us sometimes. We spent a lot of time on it and there are positive things there, there are funny memes there are funny videos, but then again there's depressing news and, you know, depressing things that come out and you see those. How else can we maintain if we start off our day right? How can we maintain that throughout the day? What are other things that we can do to maintain that joy in our lives?
Conni: You know, if we can at lunchtime be with people that make us feel good. I think that’s the thing. You want to do something, a job that makes you feel good. And if you’re in a challenging job, can you switch that around and instead of it being, “My boss, I hate”. How can you put it on you? How can I change this? How can I change that? And again move. Especially, when people come in they say, “Oh, I don’t feel great today”.
I say, “Great! We’re going to do a nice and easy workout. We’re going to breathe and move”. And always, 99.9% of the time people say, “Wow! I feel 100 times better”. So, especially when you’re maybe depressed or not feeling good, moving your body will really change you. So, in the day if you can have movement, if you can have a connection, if you can think about the joys and the peace that you have and how lucky you are, I think all of that kind of contributes to…And, you know, take everything with a grain of salt, obviously. You know, looking at the news and everything. You know, you just really got to take care of yourself first. You know, put your energy mask on first.
Host: I had a boss many years ago and he takes his lunch break to drive some golf balls near the…
Conni: I love that.
Host: And he’d always come back in the greatest mood. I mean, you'd ask him anything and he would like, “Yeah, sure. I love we can do that. It’d be…”. (laughing) Now, I understand why because, you know, getting that physical exercise, even during, you know, the mid of the day or even after the day’s over. When the day is over, it's usually that's the time when people go work out, you know, after four, five, six, after work. But some people find it very challenging because you’re drained of energy. It's really hard to think that, “Oh no. I got to go to XYZ or somewhere to do some physical activities. It’s hard to get motivated at that time.
Conni: It is. It is and here’s my tip for that. Just go there. Get your car to the gym or to a class.
Host: Yes.
Conni: Now, when your car is there if you feel like leaving then leave. But 90% of the time if your car is outside of the gym, you’re going to step outside of the car and get inside. 90% of it is what our head is telling us and that’s our biggest challenge. We have the stories, “I really don’t want to do that. I’m really tired. There’s a meeting tomorrow…” and on and on and on. If you can get here and workout, honestly, I’m telling you 20 minutes, 10 minutes you will feel 100 times better, 100 times. And I’m going to tell you this, I have to do it to myself, too. I’ve taught all day and I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t really like to go to a yoga class”.
Host: Yes.
Conni: But I go and I’m like, “I’m so glad I went!” You know, if you just have to do it. I also teach Yoga Nidra sleep-based meditation and so that’s done lying down. Same thing, people like, “Oh, I’m tired”. Then they come out, “I’m so glad I did it”. So again, our brain, not always our friend, stops us from a lot of things. We have these stories. If we an override that nad get ourselves to whatever location or just out to the park or, you know, grab a friend and say, “Hey, let’s just walk a block a couple of times”. We will ultimately feel better. Our bodies are meant to move. Our bodies have done a lot of sitting in these last years and they were meant to move.
Host: You’re absolutely right. Tell me a little bit more about this yoga-based meditation. Is that correct? Yoga-based meditation?
Conni: It’s, you know, it’s interesting. Yoga means union and Nidra mean sleep. So, it’s really the union that’s what…And so, it’s not yoga exercises, it is called Yoga Nidra.
Host: Yoga Nidra, okay.
Conni: Yes, it’s done. And yo can Google it and it’s all over YouTube and stuff like that. And so, it’s done lying down and people are like, “Oh, I can’t really meditate. I can’t stop my brain”. And I tell people, “You’re never really going to stop your brain. Your brain is not…If you can think of your brain like a puppy. So, you’re trying to train a puppy, you “Come here, puppy. Sit” and the puppy turns and tries to walk away. And you’re like, “No, no. Come back, puppy. Sit” and the puppy walks away. That’s how your brain is. Your brain is constantly moving. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Shiny objects in every moment. This kind of meditation someone is talking to you the entire time.
Host: Okay.
Conni: And then there are breaks so it allows you to drop below or the thinking mind and it allows you to drop down and rest. It is the closest thing to sleep.
Host: Okay.
Conni: And in sleep, we let go of all our thoughts, right?
Host: Right.
Conni: We let go of everything when we go to sleep, either we have a good sleep or bad sleep, whatever, but or thoughts are always waiting for us on the other side. You never have to worry where are my thoughts go. It doesn’t matter, they’ll be there, you know? So, it allows you to just take a step back. And what’s the value of that is, in meditation, once you take a step back, all of a sudden when you come back out of it you’re calmer. You can think of life like clouds passing you, okay? When the cloud goes by, there’s a big fluffy cloud you don’t go, “Hey, cloud! Stop!” The cloud goes by. That’s how our life is. Good things go by, bad things go by. If we can take a step back and not be so reactive, we have a much easier time. It’s when we are reactive, when we react to traffic, ‘Oh! That person cut me off! or “Oh, my boss said this! or “Business isn’t good!” or “People aren’t doing that!” It’s when we get like that we get tighter and tighter and tighter. We have more stress and that, you know, impacts our body because that impacts our fascia. Fascia covers our entire body, or muscles, our organs and it responds to stress, trauma, you know, anger, that kind of stuff. So, we want to try to, just again, as I said before, try to get back and make things easier for us. To live a life with a little more ease and that’s what really meditation does. Sitting quietly for four minutes, if you can put a timer on, if you can just breathe, don’t worry about your thoughts, it’ll come, it’ll go. If you can do that, that’s huge, too. When you come out, your capacity for handling what’s around you is just much greater.
Host: I’ve never come across a person who said that you know, meditation has not worked for them. Whoever I've spoken to and who practices meditation has always sworn by it. I mean, don't meditate. I think I tried once or twice, but I don't meditate. But whoever I speak to swears by it. They’re like, “This is the greatest thing ever”.
Conni: It really is. It's free, you can do it anywhere and there are so many apps, my goodness, you know, online. It’s freely available on YouTube if you Google Yoga Nidra Meditation, you can see there a lot of different people that are showing it and you can do it along. But here’s the thing about meditation, people say, “Oh, I didn’t want. It didn’t work”. You really have to try. I always tell people to give it four, five times until you truly say, “Oh, it doesn’t work for me”. Because that’s when you really get a sense of, “Wow!” And is it your resistance to it? Is it coming from you? Is it people like, “Oh, yes. I tried that. I hate that”. I’m like, “Okay”. I mean, I’m fine with people, not everyone wants to meditate, that’s truly fine. But it’s interesting when we’re trying new things, we go into our judgment very quickly.
Host: We do, yes.
Conni: Right? I mean…
Host: Absolutely, yes.
Conni: I mean, someone tells you something new and you’re like, “Oh, maybe. Oh, maybe. I don’t know about that”.
Host: We have a lot of doubt, yes.
Conni: Yes. You know, I’m always like, “Just be open to it”. And just know you’re never going to stop People go, “I can’t stop my brain”. You’re never going to stop your brain, so don’t worry about that. That’s not a non-issue.
Host: What are the things you do and of course your book is about joy and fun and, you know, we try our best to have fun in our lives. We go here, we go there, we go to the theme park, you know, do the things that we, you know, want to do, but sometimes we can’t. We associate, you know, fun with a particular area or, you know, we got to go out and do that. How can we have more fun in our life without, you know, being so specific to an area or, you know, and just incorporate more fun in our life on a daily basis?
Conni: I think we have to look for it. I mean, do kids have to think about it? No, not at all. And I think we get older and it’s like for some reason that part of our life is like…Like what I said, “What did you do for fun this weekend?” You know, people are like, I mean anything can be fun. You know, you don’t have to have money, you don’t have to go anywhere. I think nature connects us to ourselves, we feel better when we’re out for fun nature walks and see what kind it hits you, what amuses you, watch a squirrel do crazy things, hanging upside down on a tree. I think we just have very serious…And believe me, I’m a very serious person but it’s like, “How can we just make it more fun?” Exercise. People come in here hot or they see me, “Oh, I should come to see you”. I’m like, believe me, I don’t have any book charting, “Oh, I haven’t seen this person”, I don’t care. And when I do exercise, it’s like, “Let’s make this fun”. It does not have to be drudgery. You know, I just have fun and move. You know, this is really interesting, I started working with a lot of teenagers lately because I got a lot of teenagers with back pain.
Host: Really? Interesting.
Conni: Really. It’s crazy. So, when they come in here, you know, their parents bring them and they’re like, “Ugh! What am I going to do here?” And so I was like, “How can we make it fun? What do we need to do? What do we need to do so it’s not like it’s work? I got exercise now, I got to go to school, now I got to exercise to do my back”, you know? I think for anybody we got to be creative. You know, you like the color, you use markers. Can you drive home a different way? Can you eat at a restaurant you’ve never been to? I never tried that. Oh, why don’t you try that? Why don’t you try to, I don’t know, just see a concert, someone you never thought of seeing, see a movie you haven’t experienced., watch a show that somebody told you. Just try new things. You can say, “Oh, that’s an epic fail”, not for me. That’s fine! (laughing) Again, what can be different? Do we have to do the same things day in and day out? And the answer is No.
Host: So, difference. That's the key. Try new experiences.
Conni: Yes. It just opens you up to something that you may be…I went to a wine and painting class and I was like, “I don’t think I’m very good at that”. And my father was a painter and I got so into it. We were doing some bit scene, you know, you have to copy whatever the teacher does. I loved it so much. I never thought I would do anything like that. That’s not really my skills and it was so much fun. I was so focused on the detail. I really understood why my father loved painting so much.
Host: That is awesome. Connie when is your next speaking engagement? And where?
Conni: You know, unfortunately, a few have been canceled. (laughing)
Host: Okay. It’s the times we live in. You know, a lot of things are being canceled.
Conni: Yes, it’s a little challenging, but I’ll tell you what I’m doing. My book Falling Into Joy: Eight Simple Steps to Allow Your Body to Become Your Best Friend has a webinar series. And I’m trying to get that up for April or May but that would be on my website.
Host: That’s conniponturo.com, yes?
Conni: You know what, I’m going to send everybody absolutepilatesupstairs.com
Host: That is your other website? That’s absolutepilatesupstairs.com
Conni: Right.
Host: May I ask. What’s with the upstairs?
(laughing)
Conni: So, I moved location and it was upon the second floor. And there was an absolute Pilates so I couldn’t use that name. So that’s why it had to be absolute Pilates upstairs. (laughing)
Host: Okay, alright. (laughing)
Conni: Very practical. Very practical.
Host: Is it still upstairs? I mean, I know the website is still upstairs but is yours…
Conni: Yes. It is upstairs on the second floor. But on my website, I also have things you can download. I think I have 10-minute meditation on that.
Host: Yes, you do.
Conni: And then it shows me my retreat and where I’m speaking and all of that kind of stuff. But yeah, Falling Into Joy, is on Amazon. And I also have just quickly a new book, Lead. Amazing Woman. Lead that I did a chapter in. And that is written by a woman Marsh Engle and they are seven other authors with me.
Host: Wow!
Conni: And I talk about your motivational “Why” and that just came out this week. We’re number one in six categories on Amazon, so very excited about that.
Host: That’s incredible.
Conni: But about how you can lead your life with passion and with focus. And I think we’re going to be doing a virtual summit and I’m going to put that on my website. But yeah, there are videos that go along with this book on the website and also on conniponturo.com. It kind of breaks down each chapter and make it very doable. It’s very really simple, easy to read, you know, easy to do steps because we don’t need to be more complex in our life. If anything, we need things easier, we need things simpler, we need to have more fun, we need to have more joy, and to realize we are very, very lucky to be here.
Host: Conni you put a smile on everyone's face that you meet because you’ve got a wonderful, very vibrant personality shows and it shows through. And I hope you put a lot of smiles on our listeners’ faces today. Thank you so much for being on the Lifelong Wellness podcast.
Conni: Thank you so much, Wes. This has been an absolute joy.
