Creating A Nourishing Relationship With Physical Movement

Welcome to the Satiated Podcast where we explore physical and emotional hunger and satiation and healing your relationship with your food and body. I'm your host, Stephanie Mara Fox, your Somatic Nutritional Counselor.

I'm so excited to be talking to Kim Basler today. Kim is a food freedom and mindset coach, speaker and coauthor of the best selling book, Owning Your Choices, stories of courage from inspirational women around the world. Her global reach has allowed her to support 1000s of women with self love, finding peace with food and their bodies and improving their mindset to become the best version of themselves. Through her certification and Eating Psychology and Mind Body Nutrition, fitness certifications, and hundreds of hours she has devoted to self development, she exists to empower women around the world to go deeper than another diet, learn to love the woman they see in the mirror and cultivate their intuition to take care of themselves. I've known Kim for years, she is my March birthday buddy, and her authenticity in everything she shares is inspiring. Welcome, Kim!

Kim Basler 01:21

Stephanie, thank you so much. I am just so excited to be here in this room with you having this conversation, but also to share this wisdom with your community and your listeners. I'm just really, really excited to be here. So thank you.

Stephanie Mara 01:36

Yeah, I'm so glad to be able to connect with you. I know we haven't seen each other in person in like years. So it's, you know, exciting to connect with you now. And I would love to just start off with you sharing a little bit around how you got into this work. Because I know on social media you share so authentically about your journey. And I would love to share more of that here with our listeners.

Kim Basler 02:01

Yeah, for sure. I always want to be respectful of our time and make sure that we can talk about all the great things we're going to talk about today. I will just start by saying that at the young age of 12, I went on my first diet. So that was simply because I grew up in a home where there was a lot of dieting going on. And I know that as I think back to that decision at such a young age to feel like there was something wrong with my body, I now understand with my new wisdom that there was something much more deep rooted than the body story that I was carrying. But, at that age at 12, I decided to start to try to lose weight. And I went at it the way everybody was going at it back in the 80s. And I restricted calories. I weighed myself every single day. And I eventually joined a gym at the age of 14, and became an instructor for fitness at the age of 16. So I really jumped into this pursuit of health and fitness at a very young age. Unfortunately, though, instead of it going in a true positive direction, a lot of my behaviors, my choices that a lot of people did not know were going on was rooted in a lot of body shame, a lot of disordered eating, I struggled with an eating disorder in high school, and a lot of shame around the scale and what the scale would tell me and giving the scale the permission and the power to tell me whether or not I was allowed to like myself that day, whether I was allowed to feed myself that day, how hard I had to exercise. And my story with food, you know, it lasted 30 years. But there's a lot more to my story too, which I think speaks to so many of our stories when we're trying to change ourselves. I'm assuming that a lot of your listeners are women, but we are taught that if we change our bodies, we will be happier, we will be more lovable, we will be more successful. But a lot of those deep rooted feelings come from these feelings of unworthiness, struggling with comparison, perfectionism, and those deep rooted core beliefs that I had eventually made their way...I was working in management in 2013. By this point in my life, I have two children. And I'm trying to be the supermom, trying to be all the things, still exercising way too much, both in my job as a fitness professional, but also in my own training. And I was carrying all of these expectations. And I had made this identity of who I believed I was and I kind of was checking the boxes to make sure that I was staying on that path. And what ended up happening for me when I was working in this leadership position, and I was working, I had 75 fitness instructors underneath me and I was trying to be a mom and trying to be the best person I thought I had to be or should be.

Kim Basler 04:56

And eventually all of these pressures and the stress of the life that I was creating for myself, I was feeling like that woman with all the balls in the air and just dreading for something to fall down. Because every single minute of my day was scheduled. And as I appeared to be happy, because I always would run around and run into the clubs with my happy face on and everybody thought I was happy, down deep, I was falling apart, because I just couldn't keep up with it. And what ended up happening, which I think happens to so many of us, when we are not living in alignment with ourselves, when we're not taking care of ourselves from the inside, eventually, there is going to be likely some type of health impact that starts to occur. And that's what happened for me. I started, my initial signs were I started developing hives all over my body. And I had never experienced something like that before. I was not sleeping anymore, I couldn't sleep through the night, I was pretty much waking up on the signal of the clock every 90 minutes. So every sleep cycle, I woke up, my body just could not get into a place of rest. And you could imagine that when you're not sleeping well, and you're not feeding yourself and nourishing yourself with for the amount of food that you need. And you're not having pleasure in this life, the stress accumulated. And then of course, it started to impact my relationships, my relationship with my husband, my relationship with my children. And when you start to feel those pressures, and down deep, you know, they're there, but you don't know how to, quote unquote, fix them, because you feel so attached to the identity of what you think you're supposed to be. And eventually, what started to happen is I started to experience chest pains in my body. And then eventually, the final straw, if you will, that made me make a change, or I believe a higher power helped me make a change, was where I was developing suicidal tendencies with my thoughts. And so, for me, my pivotal part that got me where I am today was the time that I surrendered. I surrendered to... I was at my mom's for Thanksgiving, and everybody's happy. And I was physically there. But I wasn't there emotionally. I wasn't there, celebrating with everyone. And I remember, I actually don't actually remember exactly what would have been said that would have triggered me, but I just broke down into tears into my husband's arms. And I just said, I can't do this anymore. And it's that evening, I took a leave of absence from my job, went and saw my doctor. And that's where my healing journey began. And as much as we might think, oh, things got better after I made that decision, no, things got actually much worse. Because so many of us where we hold our worth in our jobs, we hold our worth in our identity or in our body. And I knew I knew I had to leave that space. And all the fears. I remember growing up and having a fear. Like I actually remember saying to a therapist, like, what will I do if I can't exercise because I just dreaded my body getting bigger. But I had to sit, I had to sit in that darkness to really sort of unpack where this was all coming from.

Kim Basler 08:16

I removed myself from social media. And I sat with myself for a month in my house, in a lot of shame, in a lot of feelings of failure. And then eventually I was able to allow myself to receive some of the support that was coming into me that I had pushed away for quite a while. I hid for quite a while. And so when I allowed myself to go back on social media, I allowed myself to go back to fitness instructing, but not the management. I knew I was done with that, I had to move away from that space. That's where I happen to have the Facebook banner for the Institute for the Psychology of Eating come across my Facebook feed. And I always think this is so powerful because I had never heard of the Institute at all. And to read about it and to see yourself like being spoken about because I knew that it wasn't just another health certification platform. I knew that this was something different. So I began my research. And I made that big decision to enroll in the certification, which was a big scary thing. Like, here I am. I'm 41 years old. I left my whole career, I have no financial growth coming in, and to take that chance on yourself...And at that time I believed I needed it for my own healing. But I also did believe though this will be my next career. Because I so desperately needed to have a career and I needed to have something to do like my whole life identity was built on having purpose. Anyways, I studied through the institute through the year of 2017 and started my business in January 2018 as a food freedom and mindset coach and it has evolved beautifully exactly how it's been meant to. It's required a lot of growth, and continued self awareness and healing. But it's bringing me to this opportunity right here with you. So I think it's a great thing.

Stephanie Mara 10:14

Yeah. Wow, thank you so much for sharing the truth in our stories in that, like, oftentimes, when we start on a healing path, things often get worse before they get better. Because when we actually start slowing down and being with what is that can feel incredibly uncomfortable, and all the reasons why a focus on food or body or even our careers were there to begin with, were they're protecting us, supporting us in some way. And it sounds like you really slowed down to be with it all. And I'm curious about what did you find happen when you stopped trying to change your body through exercise and food intake? Like, what did you notice in that evolution, and even with those you have worked with since then, what have you noticed that journey be like?

Kim Basler 11:00

That decision, when I made the decision to stop you standing on the scale, and I had used it for 30 years, I knew that that was going to be the pivotal part for me, because as long as I was hanging on to those numbers, I would still be in the pursuit of trying to change my body, I made that priority to focus on healing. And when I allowed myself to no longer try and change my body, I was able to cultivate a level of trust with myself, and really almost surrendering, surrendering in the most strong, empowered, grounded way, surrendering to letting my body take care of me. And letting letting my body tell me what I need. And that element of trust wasn't just necessary for my body healing, like it was necessary for my whole life, was just trusting myself. So it's been powerful. And so with my clients that I work with, I'm very specific, and kind of very intentional on who I work with, because I can, I'm also continuing to make sure that I stay on my path. So that's always a big part of the time with my clients at the beginning is really understanding them and where their thoughts are coming from. And what they have ultimately learned is that when we let go of trying to change our bodies, we're able to let go of the, the pull and the control that we've been so like, gripping onto so tightly. And I also believe that ultimately, it's allowing them to see themselves beyond their body, which that, you know, obviously, the term body neutrality, like the body is, our body is here, it's here to help us do amazing things in this world. But when we can take our focus solely off the body, it allows us to see all of the other amazing gifts and talents and strengths and abilities that we all possess. And they're all unique to ourselves. But when we are so narrow, narrow thinking and so one way focus that I can only achieve my happiness, my success, my beauty this way, it just limits what's possible for us. And quite honestly, it's not really up for us to decide, in my in my beliefs anyways.

Stephanie Mara 13:16

Yup, agreed. Our body is gonna do what its gonna do and all we get to do is support it in thriving and listen to it. And I'm wondering, just in that process of you listening deeply, I'm curious how your teachings as a movement teacher has evolved, like how, when you stepped back into that role, how did it feel different?

Kim Basler 13:38

Yeah, so that certainly has evolved to I mean, we're now in 2022, I actually was still teaching in the gym in the fitness studio up until March of 2020. So I was still teaching in that space up until that point. And I think what really helped me was the group I taught to. I always tended to do a lot of my teaching to this one particular style class was to definitely an older, an older crowd, or those that were not there for aesthetics. They're there for all of the amazing functional benefits of movement. So I think teaching them really helped me stay in my lane. What I did afterwards, after I left the gym, and I opened up an empowered movement community, I really wanted to create an online space that let women, ideally women, because that's pretty much who I was attracting, let them come in and know that they're going to be safe. Let them know that my coaching is going to be inclusive, that there isn't going to be any conversation about changing their bodies and really focusing on the true benefits of movement. And it's helped me, it's helped my clients, it's helped get more people moving. And it just has made moving my body so much easier. Not only when I'm teaching classes, but when I'm choosing to do what I want to do for movement. When I let go of the rules and the expectations of what the movement was supposed to achieve for me, and I got to intuitively just ask my body, what do you need, because that was really the big focus of 2021. When so many of the gyms were obviously closed, I took myself out into the trails, and I walked trails in frigid cold weather with my dog. And sometimes I was in silence in the woods. Other times, I was listening to a podcast that continued to support my journey. And that would never be possible if I was too focused on where my heart rate is, and how many calories I burned, and how much burn is happening in my muscles like, that just doesn't matter anymore. So it opens up so many great opportunities for awareness in our bodies, for sure.

Stephanie Mara 15:47

Yeah, I'm really hearing you taking this on as a personal practice, and then offering your wisdom to those that you've been supporting over the past many years. And I'm curious, what have you discovered are some kind of those top things that a person can do to start to develop more kind of like nourishing relationship with physical movement, because, especially with fitness culture, we've moved away from just the joy of physically moving in our body, and that our body wants to be in movement, and it's become so correlated with everything that you just said, the numbers, the burn, even trying to change our appearance. And so I'm curious, what are some things you have discovered to support someone in kind of healing their relationship with like being in their body in movement?

Kim Basler 16:30

I love that question. I would say, first of all, we have to let go of the rules. And that links back to healing from diet culture that links back to healing our bodies stories. But if we can let go of the rules that this form of exercise, and I'm going to use the words Exercise and Movement interchangeably, just so that everybody understands. But you know, if we can let go of the rules of how something is supposed to look, and that could be the form of movement that you're choosing, that could be the duration, that could be the time of day, there's so many rules that are linked around fitness, and if we can let those go, that is one way that we're able to cultivate that inner knowing because movement has so many beautiful benefits. And like yesterday, I was saying I was having a had a bit of an emotional morning after I wrote a post and I knew I needed to go for a clearing walk, I needed to go out and clear my head, if I would have went and you know, pounded myself through an intense workout, I wouldn't have been able to have that space. So you know, it just allows us to let go of the rules, it allows us to let the movement be what it's meant to be. And I find that for a lot of people, I've seen this with my clients a lot where there's a lot of negative association with the word exercise, right? They think of it, they think of sweat, they think it's hard, they think that they're going to quit on themselves, or they're going to fail at it. When we can allow it to simply just be movement, not just be movement, let it be movement, let it be an opportunity for you to say what feels good in my body. That was one of the beautiful questions that I always learned from our mentor, Marc David, was like, if all forms of movement burned the same amount of calories, you know, what form of movement would you choose? Another friend of mine phrased that question slightly different that if your forms of movement and exercise that you're doing currently did not have an impact on your body, they didn't change your body, would you still do them? And these are such powerful questions for us to ask ourselves. Because ultimately, if we can start doing the things that we want to do, because of the beautiful benefits that come without changing our body, then we're going to be more likely to stick with them. And at least be finding the courage to get started. Because it's hard to get started. We have so many of our belief systems wrapped up around this. But this is why again, like it's you know, I never know who's listening to these podcasts, but I remember holding on, I had a heart rate monitor that I was a part of this online, you know, the platform that owns this monitor, I had ranked, I was ranked at the top because I had been using this heart rate monitor for so very long. And, you know, I believed that I had to hold that status. Again, it was all about the titles, right? And then one day, I was like, why am I wearing this thing still? I don't even look at the results of it anymore. And I really got to challenge myself and unpack those beliefs about that. So I mean, I let go of that thing, too. So I think depending on who's listening to this right now, take a look at the things you're using and say, Are they helping you? Is your Fitbit helping you? Is your Apple Watch helping you or is it actually hindering you and allow yourself to be open. And of course you and I both know that the benefits of saying, you know, I don't want to move in that way today or maybe I don't want to move at all. Some days. Some days we just need a rest day. But I guess that's why I also believe that, because I don't associate exercise with changing my body, I want to move. See, I love to move my body. But that might mean for me going out for a walk with my dog. I don't see that as...I mean, it's beautiful beneficial movement, of course. But I want to do it. I don't have to talk myself into that. So, yeah.

Stephanie Mara 20:20

Yeah, what I really hear you saying is really check out the expectations. You know, what are you believing you're going to get out of using these external tools? And is that actually supporting you? Or is there more pressure being put on physical movement? And when we take that pressure away, we get to step back into the joy of moving our body again.

Kim Basler 20:43

Yeah, absolutely. And I guess the other thing I want to add too, which I think is always really important is identifying your Why. Because if you're exercising because somebody else tells you, you're supposed to, or you have these, you know, these belief systems, I mean, they're gonna, they are often are the ones that hold us back. They're often the ones that we sabotage ourselves with, right? So really getting clear on why you're wanting to do it and having that conversation, and just, you know, finding that support of people that can help you through it. But yeah, we got to let go of the things that are telling us that we're not enough, right? Like for sure.

Stephanie Mara 21:16

Yeah. I'm also hearing that you have really kind of checked out like the story you have around your body, and got really curious about that. And I'm curious, just for you of what do you feel like started to shift and change the body story you were telling yourself.

Kim Basler 21:35

I had to start by identifying the beliefs, like everything. That's why I'm so big on mindset, like we can't create any change at all if we don't get down to those core beliefs. So yeah, I had to identify that I had a story that, and I said it to my therapist many times, I would be happy if I didn't struggle with my weight so much. So I really believe we have to unpack these stories, and then identify whether this is our truth. Because if this is not the truth that we want to carry, we know that we're able to change it, and being able to just move forward with a new story that you want to create around your body. My body, I have learned, like, for someone who attached her entire worth to her body, my body is like, I celebrate it still, I take care of it, I take care of my health. But like I've discovered this beautiful passion and worth beyond my body. And I think that that's what we all need is to see our purpose. And you don't have to go out and be searching for this gigantic purpose, or this gigantic reason why you're here. I'm not saying that. But for us to solely put all of our focus into, you know, my body measures my worth, no, not at all, we're so much more than our bodies. And when we can figure that out...which means that we have to learn how to celebrate ourselves, Stephanie, we have to learn how to congratulate ourselves and, and be able to accept compliments, like these are all pieces of us, increasing our self worth story that goes beyond our bodies.

Stephanie Mara 23:12

Yeah, what have you found, has really supported those you have worked with in starting to shift that because it can be such a process, that internal dialogue is so ingrained of, I need to push myself more, I need to do better, I need to work harder in career, in exercise, in all of these things. And what you're bringing out is like actually, these things start to become more nourishing, the more that we step into a deeper connection and relationship with ourselves. And so what have you noticed been really supportive in starting to help individuals or guide individuals into that shift?

Kim Basler 23:50

For me, what I've done with my clients is getting them recognizing their strength. Recognizing the things that they've accomplished, which is an interesting one, because when I ask for people to recognize their strengths, or things that they're good at, so many people focus on their careers, they focus on things that they've collected, their jobs and all that. And of course, those things are wonderful. But what are we outside of those things? Right? Like it's those, those pieces of, you know, how you offer love to somebody, how you hold space for someone, those are the things that I really think we take...we don't give them enough...We don't shine enough light on them. You know, the little things that make us unique. That would be a big focus. I'm just trying to think back to your initial question. What was your initial question?

Stephanie Mara 24:33

That was actually a perfect place to start. Oh, you just...as soon as you said, "I focus on, like, addressing people's strengths" I immediately thought of our internal strength. You know, I think that there's so much that when someone thinks of even the word exercise, you know, they think of like, oh, how can I look strong? This has kind of even been a cultural norm, especially over the past couple of years, especially for all of the extra pressure that have been put upon women of just like, "Now it's not just you need to look a certain way, you also need to, like, look strong." And we've lost that, how do you FEEL strong in your body? And what are your inherent strengths? That if we're always looking on how we can get stronger, we kind of miss out on how can I celebrate myself for the places I already am strong.

Kim Basler 25:21

Yeah. And that makes me think about all of the strengths that we have all gathered, if you will, from our past, like, I'm a big advocate for us looking through our past and the things that we've grown through and the things that we've had to go through. And what we learned about ourselves along the way, like the lessons that we've learned, the stories that we've been able to heal from, the trauma that we've been able to heal from, this is all important, because to me, if I'm being completely transparent, which I always am, I don't actually care about someone's body. Like, I really don't care about how you look or how you eat, I really don't care. What I want to know is about who you are. When we take the focus off of the body, and we allow ourselves to be authentically who we are, that's where I believe we're also sharing our gifts more, and we're showing up authentically in the world. We're willing to, to own who we are, be who we are, and be willing to say, you know, for instance, can I help you with this versus worrying about oh, well, maybe they won't want my help, like, it's offering yourself being who you are genuinely. But again, if we're caught up in our body stories, I'm not even going to be able to recognize an opportunity where I could offer service or offer help to someone, because I might be just focusing on that person so much smaller than me, she's probably thinking I'm this or that, right? So I just think that the body stories and the focus on our body, it puts these walls up around us, it prevents us from seeing what opportunities are there for us. It prevents us from asking for help, right? Like there's so many things that holds us back in, I honestly could talk about this for... and I love these like completely open conversations because it gets me thinking, which is why I love talking things out. I'm speaking from my own story. I was very, very narrow minded, very narrow minded on what I believed I had to be in order for me to be liked, worthy, seen, validated. I sought it. That lane prevented me from doing what I do now. Creating the space, the community, the friendships, the connections, all around the world, because I'm now broadening my wings, and I'm spreading them wider. But if I only stayed in this one lane, it was limiting for me.

Stephanie Mara 27:41

Yeah. And you've now created a movement membership. Right?

Kim Basler 27:46

Yeah, I have my empowered movement community. It has just slightly changed in this platform. But I love this space that I've created. Again, something birthed out of COVID. So like, not everything, you know, has happened has been has not been good. I created this space, it started out with me teaching online spaces, online classes. And so now I have this community of classes, there's over 100 different types of classes in this space. And I've created it now so that it's an on demand space. And it's very, very, I want to believe, pretty reachable for people to join if they're interested. And you can do it at your own time. It's like any on demand space, right? You do it at your own time. And I of course I bought the Facebook group that's connected to it so that I still have connection with the girls that are members of it. And I look forward to seeing where it grows and changes because I have pivoted the way it looks a little bit. But I love it. I, you know, I brought that out because this is one of my strengths. This is one of my...I will always want to encourage people. I'm an inspirerer, an educator, and motivator in my core. So to not use those strengths, I feel it would be a loss, you know. So anyways, that's where I am right now with it. I always have more dreams of opening up more opportunities for community. So...

Stephanie Mara 29:01

Absolutely. And you know, I'm so glad you're speaking to just this offering that you have because I have found that it's so important for individuals to know that there are people out there who are creating spaces to welcome all bodies, and that all bodies can be in movement together, no matter what even you're navigating within your body or even what those inner stories that, you know, your mind is telling you about your body, that there are these spaces that you can be like, hey, come do what you can do, be in movement with us, and, you know, that everybody is welcomed. And so wherever that grows to, I love that you created that, just even like you said, you don't actually care about the external body. It's like alright, how can we create this space for all bodies to feel welcomed?

Kim Basler 29:47

Yeah, and I mean, I'm very clear on that. Whenever I promote it and talk about it. I'm like, if you're looking for classes that are super, super hard, this is not your space. Like you know, I want I want movement to be fun. I want people to feel encouraged. I want people to be able to recognize that, you know, when I started these classes two months ago, I could barely get through 10 minutes. And now I'm able to do 20 minutes. And I want to celebrate that. And I think that, I don't think I know, that a lot of online platforms, you know, they're just not supporting who they need to support. My goal, always with movement, and fitness, has always been help those that are needing more help, because the keeners in this, you know, the front row people, they're just gonna go, right, they're gonna find spaces, but I want to be there to help the people who are hiding in the back row. The ones that are peeking through from the window. And so my online space is very supportive. And, and I've had members say to me that even though they might not be moving with me, like they might be doing it at, you know, a different time of the day, they still feel like I'm with them. And I have no problem playing with the camera, and getting in there and making my way into your living room. So yeah, I have fun with it.

Stephanie Mara 30:58

I love that. So, what do you feel like has been one of the biggest mindset shifts, that has helped you get to where you are today that you feel has supported others that have been on a similar healing path as you?

Kim Basler 31:14

I mean we've kind of alluded to it already, it's just recognizing that we are so much more than our bodies. And once we are able to allow that, it creates space and opportunity. I have always been very passionate with, not only just helping somebody with the initial stages of healing their relationship with food, and you know, seeing their worth, but I like going further. I like to help them learn how to spread their wings a little bit, I like to tap into the things that they thought about and have never had the courage to do, or the dreams. That's because that's really what it's about for me. We've had things in our life that have held us back, that have kept us sort of stagnant and stuck, right, because it's like, I can't go do this, because I'm not that. And when we can remove those barriers that other people have potentially put on us and we've adopted or we put them on ourselves, when we can move them out of the way with the skills and the things that I like to teach, we then can say, you know that the my golden questions that I'm loving right now, you know, would be like, what would happen if or imagine if? And just allowing yourself to dream. I was saying that I didn't grow up as a dreamer, I didn't grow up with an environment that encouraged me to spread my wings. So I've had to learn how to do that. But we all have that. You know, and it could be just that, you know, your dreams don't have to be these big dreams, they can just be beautiful...But it feels so good to do the things that your heart's been whispering at you. And, you finally say, I'm going to go and do this. And I'm going to detach from the outcome, but I'm going to show up for myself. These are the pieces of self love and self trust that I love to cultivate. And it's pretty cool how it changes somebody's outlook. I love it.

Stephanie Mara 32:58

Yeah, this is such an important aspect that you're bringing in right now of, oftentimes, we continue to focus on our relationship with food, because it's the safe place to focus on. And that actually, it's those, like you said, those little whisperings of Oh, but could there be something more for how I want to be showing up for my life. And it doesn't, like you said, doesn't have to be this big thing. It could be like, I just want to feel more present in my body, with my family, with my friends, in my world. And so we also get to see that this is a journey. That it's like, Oh okay, I'm focusing on what's going on with my food and my body image for a reason. And it's kind of starting to create space to explore these other things that are those little whisperings of calling you to step into your life more.

Kim Basler 33:44

I love that and it makes me think of the word I always use is awareness. So if I can cultivate awareness and connection through my food, well, I can create awareness and connection through my relationship. And it travels, right? I always say to people, like, be ready because this is just the beginning, right? But we do have to give ourselves the beginning. Because we know that so much of our life is based around food, we need food to stay alive, we use food for celebration, we so many of our family events are based around food. So if that is a place that somebody is needing support, it makes 100% sense. And the other thing we haven't talked about is the concept of embodiment, like being in your body. And those are those things that have to be initially cultivated because then it allows the next stepping stones and the next foundation to lay, right? That beautiful expression, you know, you know, we are the the author of our lives, right? And here we are, in this chapter, we're going to work on this chapter, which is healing our relationship with food and body. But then when we can turn the page, and I'm turning the page with new skills, with new strength, with new support systems, right, which I think is so so important in our healing journeys, that is having people in our lives that can help us stay connected to ourselves. And then we can continue to write out our lives however they're going to look.

Stephanie Mara 35:04

Yeah, so the embodiment piece, the Satiated listeners know that I'm all about baby steps when it comes to healing, bite sized little steps that we can take. And so what have you found is a really powerful, like, bite sized baby step that someone can start to take when they're like, Ooh, I would like to step into more embodiment in my life, but I don't know where to begin or how to do that.

Kim Basler 35:27

Yeah, well, I mean, it just depends on the individual. But I have found that through through movement and dance, like that's been really powerful with me celebrating my my feminine energy and myself as a woman, is celebrating my body, my worth as a woman. So movements been dance has been beautiful. Now, you could go and do what...I've been pretty bold, like, I started out by going back to my Latin dancing. And then I went and signed up for a chair dancing class. And then I did Bachata and Salsa, like I did go, right. But you don't have to do that. Like, you can simply start by putting on your favorite song, and allowing yourself to move to music. And if you have to do that in your bedroom and lock the door, and you need to shut the blinds and turn the lights off then do that. But it's this ability to be in our bodies. And to celebrate that we are in life. I love also connecting with my hands on my heart and feeling my life inside of me that that's been hugely healing for me is knowing that there's, there's life in there, right? I mean, to me, again, it always goes back to like if I've got a lot of narrative in my mind, about my body, and about me not being enough, we have to be able to take those baby steps to at least start by listening to some of those thoughts, because so much of our dialogue is happening, like without us even recognizing that it's there. So, again, whoever's listening to this podcast right now, like you're listening to keep taking in this wisdom, keep taking it in, and then begin to practice it, because we know that it only goes so far to listen, this is great. We're planting seeds. But I'm gonna encourage anyone who's listening right now is to take that next step. And you don't necessarily have to worry, like my type A personality would say, well, which is the right step? What's the next thing I should do? And you can't do anything wrong here, like, like, ask yourself, ask yourself, What could I do today that would help me learn to accept my body a little bit more? And just by posing that question out into the world, out into the universe, it shows that you're ready to listen, you're ready to receive. So even simply asking yourself that question, and I will say asking it into a mirror, right, or, you know, doing it into a journal, like really deepen those connections with yourself is super powerful.

Stephanie Mara 37:49

I just got this imagery of individuals leaving this conversation and going and putting on their favorite music and turning off the lights and just like dancing in their rooms and like allowing themselves to get into their bodies and flow. And that's where it starts, where it's like, make it doable, even if it's you sitting in a chair, because that's what feels safe. And that physical movement, you know, I also like to reframe that it can be small, it doesn't have to be these big, exaggerated movements. It's literally like moving your finger up and down, is physical movement. And so if that's how you need to dance is just in a chair, kind of like jazz hands, because that's what feels doable, like, start small, because it grows from there.

Kim Basler 38:33

Yeah. And it's almost like it brings us back to this element of play, right, bringing us back to our childlike behaviors of being able to sit, even to sit in a chair, like you and I are sitting and watching each other right now. But like even sitting in a chair, and just swaying your body back and forth, and finding a really powerful song, like I am, I love my songs that speak affirmations into me. And I use those songs and I move to those songs. It's very, very powerful, like I've had many times where I'll start to cry. And I'm like, I'm not sad, but my body's releasing. And I think it's so amazing to know that anything can happen. You don't have to go looking for it, but be open to it. And you have some tears when you're doing a meditation, or you're doing a bit of a yoga sequence, like let things flow. This is you finally, after so many years for so many of us, accepting your body and recognizing that you are a body and you're so much more than your body, but being with your body. It's like you're being with your friend who's being like having a supportive relationship with your friend, that being your body, which is so comforting that we all need I believe.

Stephanie Mara 39:39

So beautifully said. I feel like we could have this conversation forever. And I want to make sure that we leave some time for how can people keep in touch with you? And do you have any current or upcoming offerings that our listeners should know about?

Kim Basler 39:54

Yeah, thanks so much for this. I'm very active on Instagram and Facebook. So on Instagram I'm under @kimbasler_foodfreedom, Facebook, just search my name. But those are the two platforms that I tend to be on. I'm playing around on Tik Tok a little bit but I'm mostly over on Instagram. And my website is kimbasler.com. Email Kim@kimbasler.com. Things are pretty consistent that way. I offer one on one coaching, I've got a group coaching space coming later on in January. So if you're listening to this right now, and it's past January 24, just know you can reach out to me to find out about new offerings. That'll be a group program called Food Freedom Foundations. Super excited about that. But yeah, I mean, just come say hi, if you're listening to this right now, and you want to come follow me and come say hi, and maybe let myself and Stephanie know, one of your takeaways. I know that you probably appreciate that, too, is being able to see what people take from our conversations, because everyone will take something differently, right. So I encourage you to, you know, reach out to myself and Stephanie, and let us know what you took out of today's conversation.

Stephanie Mara 41:01

Yeah, love it. And I highly recommend following you on social media, I literally love everything you post, I feel like every time I see your face pop up in my feed, I get a huge smile on my face. And I'm like it's a Kim post I have to read this! I definitely recommend following you and just thank you so much for being here today and sharing your journey and your path and your healing and your wisdom. It's just such an honor to connect with you. And, you know, hope to have you back in the future. And for anybody who's listening, if you have any questions about anything that we discussed today, I will drop all of the links that Kim talked about in the show notes and also both of our email addresses. So reach out anytime. And thank you for being here today. And I hope you just have a great rest of your day.

Kim Basler 41:44

Thank you, Stephanie. Thanks for the work that you're doing and this opportunity. I loved our conversation.

Stephanie Mara 41:49

Yeah. Alright, well, I will talk to you again soon.

Kim Basler 41:51

Thank you. Take care.

Stephanie Mara 41:53

Bye

Something that Kim and I discussed on today’s call was the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. I have been a teacher at this Institute for the past decade supporting individuals in healing their relationship with their food and body and becoming certified as Mind Body Eating Coaches. If you’re interested in learning more, I will leave a link in the show notes. Looking forward to connecting with you all again next week!

Learn more about the Institute for the Psychology of Eating here.

Keep in touch with Kim here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kim.basler

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimbasler_foodfreedom/

Website: www.kimbasler.com

Email: kim@kimbasler.com

Book A Discovery Call with Kim: https://calendly.com/kimbasler/discovery-call-45min

Empowered Movement Membership: https://portal.kimbasler.com/offers/d7pczNhD/checkout