From Pain to Power: Mindful Movement's

Join me, Carmen Hecox, as I sit down with Hema Murty to explore the profound impact of mindful movement. From the significance of a simple pause to the transformative power of breathing exercises, Hema offers invaluable insights and practical tools to navigate life's ups and downs. Whether you're juggling multiple tasks or seeking a moment of tranquility, this episode promises a fresh perspective on living mindfully.

• Hema Murty's Journey and Background in Aerospace Engineering
• Why Doctor Marty? The Story Behind the Title
• Discovering the Better Way: Merging Engineering Analysis with Fitness
• Why Women Over 50? The Underserved Demographic
• Training to Live Better: The Motto Behind Hema's Approach
• Individualized Programs: No One Size Fits All Approach
• How Clients Learn the Modalities
• Yoga and its Benefits
• Managing Stress Through Yoga
• The Power of the Pause and Meeting with Yourself
• The Importance of Brain Dump and Finding Clarity
• The Body-Mind Connection in Yoga and Movement
• Advice for Women Over 50 Starting Their Fitness Journey
• How to Get in Touch with Hema and Learn More About Her Program

Next Episode Preview: Stay tuned as we delve deeper into the world of mindfulness, exploring ancient techniques and modern applications that promise a transformative journey.

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Professional Woman’s Guide to Handling Stress https://www.amazon.com/dp/1502338335

https://createthebestme.com/ep026

https://www.getshanti.com

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Transcript

Carmen Hecox: 0:00

Welcome to Create the Best Me. I am Carmen Hecox, a personal development coach, and I am so excited to be connecting with you today. Whether you're listening to the podcast or joining us on YouTube, my goal is to help women navigate through midlife challenges with compassion, inspiration, and empowering conversations. Each week we'll dive into thought-provoking topics, designed to build self-confidence, overcome invisible women's syndrome, and find the courage to create the best version of yourself. I'll also be joined by expert guests who will share their wisdom and insights, so make yourself comfortable and let's embark on this journey together. Well, hello there fearless midlife trailblazers. Welcome to Create the Best Me. If you are new here, I am so glad you made it here. If you're a returning listener, welcome back to the one and only place where we encourage and empower women in midlife to pursue their dreams and live life to the fullest. I am Carmen Hecox, your host and personal development coach. Today's guest is Dr. Hema Murty. She's an aerospace engineer and the author of Professional Women's Guide to Handling Stress. She's also listed in the who's who in the world. An advanced yoga instructor. She's a certified online personal trainer and nutritional coach, and an expert in Indian philosophy. Her specialty is helping women over 50 get rid of their pain so they can enjoy life. Today she's going to talk to us about how she does this. Let's dig into the conversation now. Hema Murty, or let me say, Dr. Hema Murty, welcome to Create the Best Me. I am so glad to have you on.

Hema Murty: 1:53

Thank you, Carmen. I am so glad to be here.

Carmen Hecox: 1:57

Perfect. Could you please start out by introducing yourself to the viewers and tell us a little bit about your background and your journey?

Hema Murty: 2:06

Sure. I help women over 50 who have pain issues to get rid of their pain and enjoy all of their activities. That they couldn't when they had the pain. I do that through an integrated personal training, nutrition, yoga therapy, combination of every kind of tool in my toolbox. And I guess that's also explains my journey. I wanted to do that because that's basically me as a person who had pain. It was, uh, getting older and I was trying to keep myself healthy and do all the things I wanted to do. And I discovered all these tools along the way, got certified, did all the educational requirements to understand how to implement those tools to other people, myself included. Um, and all of the clients that came to me. And I, uh, have been doing that for over 15 years now. Really happy with over hundreds of clients, successful case studies later. I'm still trying to help more women get into that position.

Carmen Hecox: 3:08

Great, and I bet the burning question right now is Doctor Marty, why doctor? So let's just get that out there.

Hema Murty: 3:17

I'm a PhD in aerospace engineering. That is my profession. At that time, while I was doing my graduate studies, I also, started doing long distance running, more, to get the brain juices is flowing. The stress decreased and just to be healthy because as a graduate student in aerospace engineering, I was at my computer a lot at my desk a lot. So, I started that program because other graduate students were also runners. So, I started baby steps just going out for a couple of miles. And I was naturally a good runner. I found out from myself and other people who told me that. And then I started, really signing up for like half marathons and marathons and just really doing the training and doing all the work. And as I was doing that, I wasn't in the age category I service now, of course. But there were still issues as a women runner, I encountered surprising instances of issues. And, I went through the usual mill that people do, the service providers, all very talented, chiropractor, sports, doctors, physiotherapists, RMTs, and. I just went through the usual strategies of trying to get the pain out and get me back into action. That's what everybody wants. And so doing that, I discovered a lot of things about the treatment process. And then, I finished my PhD of course, and I worked in the aerospace industry. I still do, and I'm a contractor now. I own my own company. But on the fitness side of things, I discovered there is a better way. And I did my engineering kind of analysis of the situation. So, that came natural to me to analyze it from that point. So, I think most service providers in the industry come through it through the fitness pipeline. They go to school, they study human kinetics. Not that I didn't, I did go through those things in order to service my clients. When you're treating other people, you better get your act together in terms of knowledge base. So, I did all the due diligence and got the education that I needed to. But a lot of people in that service industry, like trainers who do rehab training, it's called, would actually go through just that strategy of education and then get the knowledge base from there. I think the fresh eyes and the fresh perspective just came from a different vantage point. So, these solutions that I provide are non-traditional in the sense that they don't go through the same stream of rehab training that one would encounter had they tried to solve this problem from the traditional quote unquote framework. And so when I encounter a client and she's got. Issues, whatever it is that they tell me about. I look at it from a different lens, from the lens of a system of a body that has a lot of moving parts, a lot of aspects to it. There's the brain, which a lot of people forget about. They start treating the body. So, I think that engineering systems, engineering perspective that I had just naturally from solving engineering problems led me to a different solution pathway. And I was able to solve the problems with the pain. It just turned out that the solutions were alot faster than had they gone the traditional route. And I always tell my clients, you know, see me get rid of the pain. But keep your service providers on hand. I mean, when you get your appointments set up with them. Do the due diligence. Do your usual strategies, if that's something that you think you're missing, that you wanna go that route just to get a double check, or you just wanna see them. I always say that some people like to go see their service providers and just make sure everything's work in order, but those appointments can also take time and they're also very stressful. You have to go somewhere. You're in your pain zone. You're gonna have to go travel somewhere and you have to sit in an office. All very, very stress inducing kind of an environment. It's not very comfortable for them to do that. So, I provide strategies to get rid of the pain and then they can do what they wanna do. Either they can go back to their activities and say, okay, well it's not there. I'm not really caring. Or they can say, well, I still wanna see you know, my regular chiropractor or my R M T or whoever, and that's totally fine. You know, I encourage people to do what's comfortable and makes them happy.

Carmen Hecox: 7:40

So, tell me why did you, decide that women over 50 was your target market to help them with their fitness journey?

Hema Murty: 7:49

Yeah, well that's, a good journey question because I started my business, as I said earlier, about over 15 years ago and started just servicing clients in general. I mean, I wasn't really particular, but I'll, I did have a women focus because as I was going through my training, as my backstory, I found that training for women was not as good as it could be. I thought it could be a lot better, so specific to them. So, I decided to, just niche down into the women client category. And as time went on, I found that the women over 50 categories were the most underserved population in the fitness service industry. That was just my anecdotal and may not be true all over the place, but it was my, understanding of how things were going with the clients that I saw. That's the anecdotal story, case studies that they would report back. The case history would be that they would see, their usual, trainers or whoever they ran into at their usual place of working out. And that was just not a good fit for them, or it just didn't answer the questions or the pain issues they had. And so I decided since that was the most underserved population, I would just focus on that. And that became a really good thing for me because I can understand them being in that category now myself. I can understand why they would congregate towards a certain you know, one person that has specialized in that and that would be. Now of course there's many service providers in that. But, up to 10 years ago, there were no people who specialized in that category of demographic only, solely as their service, industry category.

Carmen Hecox: 9:40

And I know that, when we had spoken before, you had mentioned that a lot of the women that you work with are women that are pretty active. They're, I think you mentioned golfers, one of them liked to ride horses. So, you're finding them in a place to where they're injured and help getting them back into doing what gives them pleasure.

Hema Murty: 10:02

Yeah, actually, that's basically my motto is that, you don't train to train. You train to live better, and, you don't, go to the gym because hey, you know, or maybe there's a category of people that like that. But, we go to do the things we do because we want the benefits of that training or whatever it is we're doing. Even a yoga class or a yoga session on our own that we may do, we do it because, oh, the rest of the day I'm gonna feel so much better. I'm gonna feel destressed. My body's gonna function. I'm gonna pick up my boxes to go and do whatever it is I have to do in my car, groceries, whatever it is. I'm not gonna get into any pain zone or any difficulty with my bones, or my muscles not functioning. So, those are the, things to remember. So, we do the things, the training and all the, exercises or the modality that we choose walking, whatever it is, we do it so that on the end of that, the benefits is what we want. So, as you pointed out, yes, all my clients have activities that they're actively interested in for their all mental health. First of all, there's a friend thing, the friend zone thing that they have with all the people that they golf with or they play tennis with, or they go for a walk with whatever it is they do. They do it with their friends, their buddies. That's a whole mental health game right there. And then, if they're missing that, if they're off sideline somehow, it's the fun factor's gone. Their mental health is taken a hit, and they're just basically not the people they wanna be. That's just gonna affect them in everything. So, getting them back into their golf game, getting them back into their tennis game, getting them back on the horse. I did have a rider who fell off and hurt her back and other things. And, you know, Humpty Dumpty kind of thing just put her back together and, you know, way she went. Of course she had the immediate service providers who saw her, but she was left with a lot of issues that prevented her from being the rider that she could be. And It was always a trauma factor also that left that residue in her body. And so, uh, training her was a good experience for me because I realized that a lot of things about the physiology of writing and was able to help her just enjoy that again and not have the remnants of that incident. So, she's able to get back, get the enjoyment, get the mental health. It's all about the mental health. I mean, I think we all know that fitness is a mental health game. Even though it's a physical body, it's the mind body connection. So, I think that's the important piece to remember. People think, oh, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do exercise. Don't do something. Do something to move your body. And then even if it's just a walk around the blocks, guaranteed to change your mood. Five minutes, you know you got this. You know, and that's the other difference between my training methodology and people that come up the usual training modalities is that, you know, it's more, a little more rigid in the sense that it's a program, you have to do it, and I'm just gonna be that person that orders you to do the program, where's in my context, I don't play that game at all. I mean, I'm just the guide. I'm just going to lead people to whatever they need. In fact, we may write perfectly a hundred percent scripted program for the client, come up to the session and not do an inch of it. Why? Because they'll present with something else that requires not this program today, maybe another day, but maybe they just need to talk to me and do some breathing. And that has happened many a time. Where I've come to the client session with a scripted program, based on what I know, what's hurting or what's not, and what are they up to, what have they done, if they've been on a long plane ride or something, and then I need to, fix that and then come to the session and find out, no, this is not what you need at all. You've had some stuff come up during the day and I think let's do something else. Let's do some breathing, let's do some stretching. Let's do some T L C. Sometimes that's, you know, all they need, and I do this remotely, by the way, I must add that since two years ago, I took away my in-person events and I haven't reinstitute them. I've actually been successful in doing everything over video and phone. To the extent that I did before. So I'm happy that I'm not, missing anything in the in-person. Maybe it's just the fact that I was good at the video and good at the phone. I don't know. But so far I have been very good with the distance type of training that I do. And so I'm one of the few online trainers. That means you can access me anywhere in the world and we can try to training sessions if you have pain and any issues. I can certainly help with that through the online modality.

Carmen Hecox: 14:48

Great. So, let's back up a little bit and, can you give us an overview of your program? What, would people expect, or what would ladies expect when they first sign up with you? What does that look like?

Hema Murty: 15:01

Yeah, well before even, we set up any sessions or anything, we'll have a consult call. So, the consult call, is normally minimum 15 minutes. It ends up being a chat for half an hour or longer. And I, we get to know each other because as much as we like to think that personal training is, you over there telling me an exercise and showing it to me and I overhear, it's not it, you're in the person's space and it's a very intimate scenario. You kind of need to understand a person's body. You need to understand their mental framework. You need to understand their mood. You need to understand their life also. What are they doing the other 23 hours? You're not seeing them. What's their sleep like? What's their personality like? Are they prone to, mood shifts? Are they prone to high stress that is unexpected, or is that a norm? So, there's a lot of things like multifactors that go into designing a training program. So, you're trying to kind of maybe be their best friend for a while, and hope that they will see you as the person that they can count on. To, be that person, that friend. So, in order to do that, you have to get some kind of, familiarity with the person and get to know them. So, I like them to get to know me. I like to get to know them. Obviously, I need to write a program for them. So I like to get to know all of their, lifestyle habits and personality and interests also because, just because a training program is good for them. Doesn't mean they're gonna do it. And if they don't do it, that's just as well as, a useless piece of paper. What they need is something they like to do. So, you have to understand where they're coming from. So, all to say that, we have a short, as possible little chat, a consult call. At that point, after a week or so, I will ask them if they wanna continue working with me and in what capacity they want. So, I offer three modalities. I offer the get out of pain session, which just means a one time session where I'll get them out of pain, whatever it is that's bothering them, and then they can go on their merry way, whatever they wanna do after that. The second modality is a regular program, but it will be, a once a week, five minute zoom session where I'm making sure they're doing their program okay. And they have no issues. There's nothing surprising that's gonna come. You certainly don't wanna wait four weeks to, ensure that their program is working for them. If you don't want that. You wanna make sure it's happening on a week to week basis, if that's something they're comfortable with. So, it's all about their comfort zone. Then there's the high end program where, those clients just want me in their life. I am their buddy, and every training session we do together completely. Me on the phone if they're remote, and they, don't need video. A lot of them have worked with me so long that they know all the safety features of an exercise. So, if I say something, if I name an exercise, if I prompt them for something, they know exactly what they, because I've already worked with them in person or I videoed with them in Zoom. So, they know me enough. They've worked with me enough that they'll do it automatically without me, with my eyeballs on them. So, I can leave them alone. So, I can just train with them for the hour on the phone, prompt them through cueing, verbal cueing, and they will tell me feedback if, hey, that doesn't feel good. Okay, then are you ensuring all of these factors are good? And I can talk them through it. So, there are those women in that category who will see me all of their sessions and they have access to me. That category of client has access to me through text. So, if they're on a plane and this has happened. They're on a plane and they're traveling, and they're doing a stop and they have to get on another plane. One client, I had, a couple actually, but one in particular comes to mind that couldn't move. So, something got triggered during the first plane and then she had to do a connector to get to her destination. And she was in the airport and sat there and then found out, oh, wait a second this is not right. I have great pain in, you know, whatever it was that was going on. So, I think she told me at the time, if I can recollect that she tried a few things that she remembered from our toolbox together. Unfortunately, there's no one, answer to anything. So, she did do her due diligence, tried her best, but nothing was working, and she could see was going south, so texted away at me. Fortunately I was able to get her out of it. And we did a few things. She didn't mind looking strange in the airport. So she did a few motions actually, and she went to the ladies' washroom and did them and then came out and she said, oh, I'm so glad I was able to get on the plane, because otherwise she wouldn't be able to get her connection. She wouldn't be able to get back home in time. So that was a real serious situation. But that has happened a couple of times with a few clients. But those are the clients in that high-end, daily contact program where they are allowed to talk to me throughout whatever's coming up, I can get them out of it. So, those are the categories of people and we train as long as people want to. Of course in the last category, I'm literally in your life and it's just, you know me, in your life, part of it. And then they just do, they get on a regular plan with that. But the second category in the middle one is out and in, meaning that if they're going away, like one client is going away for a long extended time. So, we are just putting her, protocol on hold and then she will, climb back in when she's back to Canada. So, the first get outta pain people, they, it's their option if they wanna get on a regular plan or they just wanna program, they wanna do themselves, I provide that. So, those are the modalities people work in. The actual, what we do during the session is a combination of a million things because I have a lot of tools in my toolbox. So, there's no one, program that everybody's doing that's the same. Each program has an individualized, kind of a pattern. So equipment also depends on who's doing what and what they need. So, there's no one cookie cutter, one size fits all in any of those. They're all very different programs and they all address different issues, which they should because all women are different. So,

Carmen Hecox: 21:29

So, let's back up a little bit. How do these, three different tiers. How do these, people, there's the one time help me get out of pain. And then there's the middle one. How do they, learn these modalities you do? Are you sending them videos or is there like a place where they can log on and watch you do the modalities so that they can kind of learn.

Hema Murty: 21:54

Yeah, so the get out of pain, no, it's eyeballs on you. Because they haven't, probably more than likely they're in the category where they haven't worked out with me. That's normally the category that goes into the get out of pain zone, meaning they've heard from a friend that I can do that, but that's something that I'm good at. And, they're not just ready yet for signing up because they've got something else going on, like a gym membership. Or they're happy with their trainer, that they regularly see whatever the case may be. But they know that I can get them out of pain, so they will have video chats with me until that pain is gone. So, I'll develop however many sessions I think it'll take. Sometimes it's just one, depending. For example, I also teach regular yoga classes online. And there was one client in the class who I've noticed, could probably use some assistance. So I did ask them separately outside of class and they said, yes, there's an issue. And so what we did was set up a, one time, online Zoom to get rid of it and the issue that was bothering them, and then I wrote up what they would need to do regularly and asked them to call me back if in a week that was still there or if there was something that didn't feel right during the solution process, that procedure. But because they had worked out with me, in a yoga format, they kind of got used to how I cue and then, were able to take the instructions and I sent them video. We did it together first. So, I explained, then I said, I will be sending you a video. Of how this exercise is carried out. And then I told them a few modifications in case while they were doing it, I wasn't around, like, suppose they did it at night or something, or you know, some timeframe where I was not available then, I don't want them to be stuck, of course. So, I gave them two or three variations. Hey, if you're doing this and this doesn't feel right here, this is how you can change this at this point. And this is how you would do this exercise if these other conditions are not met, and then you can change it this way. So, I gave them a few options and that way they're not stuck, you know, that's the worst place to be. So, they'll get themselves out of the pain zone, report back to me and say, all good. It'll work. You're great. All this stuff that I get from them. And then, they're good to go. So, basically a video format. Yes. And I drop them on a Google Drive. You know, and to that, location, they have a shared space there with me. So, all my clients will have their own folder on the Google Drive and they can access. Also tracking, I do insist on a tracking form where they tick off when they've done track, their box, when they've done their classes, their exercise formats, whatever it is that I've prescribed for them. So that way I can check also. And there's a lot of understanding too, that life is life and sometimes you don't get to your workout. And that's totally amazingly fine. And that's, I think another exception that makes me different is that I feel it should be realistic because I came through that, you know, through the life being, sometimes inhibiting to doing a perfect plan of fitness, that best intentions and all of that. And sometimes you get up and life will present you with a good curve ball that day. And maybe all you can muster is maybe one sun salutation. And then you gotta get out into the ward zone for something that's gotta be fixed. So that understanding is something that I totally agree with them, that they should, feel, fly with it, do whatever they need to do, and work around it. The work act should work around the light. You should not live for the workout. Unless, unless you're in that very slight small category of humans on the planet that find the workouts to be your thing. And if that's so great, that's, you know, if that's something. But for most of us, me included, the workouts are a way, all the fitness things that we prescribe are a way for me to get through my day better. Get through all my activities better. I don't have to worry about knee pain. When I'm asked to go walking with my friends. I don't have to worry and say, well maybe it might strike while you guys are chatting and walking up a storm and I'll be, stuck. So no, I don't want any of my clients or myself to be in that category. And so the workouts are a way to say, life can go on and I'm not gonna miss a beat. I'm gonna enjoy every ounce of it, and I'm gonna do all the stuff I need to do, to make sure that happens. And enjoyment is part of that. So,

Carmen Hecox: 26:40

How have you incorporated yoga into your fitness program? And what are the benefits that you've seen some clients, receive from doing yoga regularly?

Hema Murty: 26:50

Yeah, so in the West, yoga is, interpreted as the asana portion or the physical portion only. But I teach the original concept of yoga. Which was developed in India thousands of years ago. Maybe 10,000 or more. And that concept of yoga is not only the physical thing, that we see here, like a yoga class, which is what I, said I teach. I teach that according to the Western concept'cause that's what they call it and that's what they'd understand. And so that would be the asana or the movement portion of it. But in India, or the original concept in India, and even now, I got to give that caveat that unfortunately some of the feedback from the west has gone back to India. So, now if you go to India, you'll probably get the Western styled version so unfortunate, but that's just the way the world goes. But the original concept of yoga, going back to that, is an integrated fitness system. So, everything I teach would be yoga. And so the original concept of the yoga work, is that integration, aspect of the human being, the mind, the body and something extra, call it intuition, call it whatever you want. That aspect of the human being, which gives us that extra something special. We're not just mind and body. We have some extra oomph to us, and that aspect of it is what yoga says we can use to be the integrated person we need to be. For example, and I talk about this in my book, The Professional Women's Guide to Handling Stress, where I describe, the situation of any professional women or women in any kind of a career path or just everybody basically, is that your mind wants something, your body wants something else, and then there's your intuitive sense thinks you should be doing something all together different. And that's when there's no yoga. So, yoga is the Sanskrit word, which means integration. It means everything is integrated and so you want to get to a state. The goal of yoga is to get to a state where what your mind and body wants are in keeping in resonance with what your intuitive sense thinks you should be doing so that there's no disparate, of paths that causes the anxiety in the mind. Which causes all the stress. And this course of all stress is when different parts of you want different things. And the answer to that from the yoga perspective is while the asana of the physical practice does help. Why? Because we all know that movement and mental health are related. There's that mind body connection. So, what the western, side of it says is basically if you move your body in a certain way with breathing, you take your mind away from your issues for the moment, and then it gives you a clearer perspective. Why? Because you've got a little refresh button set, reset. So, that's one aspect of it. So, how do I incorporate yoga is the traditional sense. So, I could even call my practice a yoga practice, and it wouldn't be just the physical asana with a mat. In fact, mats were never used in the class that I took because I took a very university level. Yoga, I have a master's in yoga from India. And so in those cases, those scenarios, you don't follow any of the traditional Western style yoga classes. It's completely different. But all to say that that incorporation of yoga is from the traditional sense, which is an integrated body mind. I call it spirit, for the lack of a better word, or intuitive sense is another way of saying it. Or just something extra that you'll feel and you are more than the mind and body. You have some sense about you that you know that you should be better? Because I think a lot of people come to the fitness arena because A, their doctor told them to. B, they know that there's something missing from their life, and that's what I call that intuitive sense. C. They think that if they do something else, they will solve some of their problems. If you keep doing what you're doing, you're gonna get what you get. Right? So there's that old adage that I heard somewhere, someone must have said that before me, I'm sure. And basically you have to do something different. And moving your body differently is always a good start because it's the lowest hanging fruit, it's the easiest thing to do. So I think there's that sense that people think that that would help. And of course they're right because if the body is having issues as we age, then the yoga mindset and the yoga body, the yoga spiritual sense will all help. And so that's how I've incorporated it. I have, got to incorporate into this answer the fact that 90% of the people who attend my yoga class are all people who say, I hate yoga. They started out saying, I hate yoga, but I love your class. Uh, well maybe this is yoga. Maybe, what you attended before was not. So that would be my answer to that.

Carmen Hecox: 32:13

So, stress is a big factor in people's health. How does your program help women manage their stress when they're over the age of 50?

Hema Murty: 32:24

Yeah, well stress accumulates with age. And so, when women are over 50, the number of things they have to keep track of, the number of balls that they're juggling just increases. It never goes down. It's always add-on. Right? So with, any kind of a personal training program or a yoga therapy program, which is what I do, it is more about self-awareness awareness. So, the awareness of a person is what you're really looking for. And what I start out with my clients is to, and I talk about this in my book, is to just sit down with yourself even for five minutes a day and you'll see the world of difference it makes. Stress is basically that a disconnect between your mind telling you something, your body telling you something else. And again, that intuitive sense telling you something else. And that causes stress because it's a disconnect. And so, it just yells louder until you say, okay, okay, I'm gonna do something about it. I'm gonna stop. So if you give yourself that five minutes of even just a breathing session, it's enough to say, okay, I'm listening to you. Now I get what I may need to do. And it could be one of many things, but it will come to the person. They will come to a point where the stress will reduce itself. So, as I said, pointing to like the people in my class who hated whatever other classes they went to. I hated Joka, but they found the real thing clearly answers to them. And those people have, testified, you know, they're their testimonial to me that they're amazed at how much better they can handle life's things. And all it is, is a pause button, that's all we're introducing into their life. Pause and take stock. You know, what's going on. And I think meeting with yourself is basically what's going on. You know, every morning if you carve out five minutes. And time is a premium for everyone. But everyone has five minutes where they're scrolling through feeds. Don't tell me no one does that. So I know everyone's got five minutes. So instead of scrolling through the feed, just put your phone away for those five minutes, scroll after, and then, um, take stock. You know, you might do a breathing exercise. And I have exercises in that book that I was talking about. Or you could just take a piece of paper and start scribbling all the things that are going on with you. What, you know, just do a brain dump. What are all those balls that you have in the air? What are you juggling? And perhaps just from the brain dump, you might find that a solution to your own issues. You may find some clarity just from doing that because you were trying to keep it all here. And if you do a brain dump, Suddenly it's on the page and you can afford to let go of remembering all of those items. You can maybe just remember what you need to get done today. Maybe there's an emergency report for you, better start attending to, or maybe there's a kid issue that you need when no one children's issues or something that needs attention for today. And that would be today's thing. And just a get a more aware of all the things that are going on and why you feel that way. Also physicality, you know one of my clients told me, I don't put my shoulders to my ears anymore when I walk. So, and she's been working out doing personal training with me. It's not even yoga, you know? And so movement is an amazing tool. So,the Indian traditional yoga definition is that is the body mind connection that you put your mind onto your body's movement, and that's the integrated approach. And then from that comes an awareness. You've triggered an awareness that carries throughout the day. And that's where the amazing, you know, the amazing spark comes and you feel, oh wow, that workout really helped me. Well, it was just you, you know, putting that mindset into your equation and creating that awareness. And that makes, you know makes everything so much better. Because all of a sudden you're attuned to what your body's doing. You're attuned to what you're getting. What's your input? What are you taking in? A lot of my clients who've gone through have started making life changes with no prompt for me. Because they realize once the body mind connection has been made, they're plugged in to that self-awareness loop. They realize that, oh, well, maybe I shouldn't be watching TV after eight because I really feel like. You know, I want more quiet. And they decide these things on their own. Why? Because they're connected. So I think just plugging into who you are, what you need, where you wanna go. These are fundamental questions. And sometimes we go, I was just talking to somebody this morning saying sometimes we go through life like a groundhog, just, we keep going, tunneling through and we never stop, look up, even the groundhog pauses and looks up. We may not even do that. Sometimes we just tunnel through to the next day and, plop on our bed and hope we fall asleep because we haven't done any proactive activities on the sleep cycle either. So, I think all of that to say that, stress increases with age because of all the things we keep on our plate. But I think stress reduction strategies are, part and parcel of my training program in terms of the yoga therapy. And, personal training and all the stress reduction strategies that I introduced into my clients, and they find they carry themselves very differently. They, they no longer have forward necks, you know, they sit back with good posture and it corrects on its own. That's the magic of it.

Carmen Hecox: 38:18

I understand that self-care is a critical part of your program. Can you talk a little bit about why it's essential, and how you encourage your clients to incorporate it into their routines?

Hema Murty: 38:31

Yeah, for sure. and as I said, just in the last, bit with the yoga, mindset aspect. The yoga aspect or the Indian traditional, science of yoga is that, we look at the world through an integrated approach. We know who we are. We know where we wanna go, and we know what helps us and what doesn't serve us. When you do that, your stress reduction goes down. So that total aspect, that total practice is a very self-care practice. I mean, in India they didn't call it self-care. In India, they wouldn't call it life coaching. Well, maybe now. Okay, this is 2023. So I'm talking about, you know, 20, 40 years ago when I studied. So, I think, you know, I grew up in the yoga tradition, so I've been doing this since I was a child. So I knew you know, the whole yoga aspect of it, the yoga, science of it, and the traditional aspect of it. The cultural aspect of it. So, self-care, is a term that the Western, tradition has introduced. Very good term because it's not part of the training process. But if you go to the gym, it's self-care because you're not doing it for anybody else. You're doing it for yourself. If you choose on any day. On any given day, suppose you choose, a healthier option for food, then that's self-care. And if you choose to go for a walk around the block, that's self-care. So self-care means self-awareness and the yoga mindset and the, training women over 50. I think it all hinges around that self-awareness. What do you want? You know, it's a funny question, but it's true. A fewer people ask themselves and I, you know, it kind of segues back, from the previous question. This question segues, from that because, juggling many balls into the air of all the things you have to attend to and all the things on your radar, and you forget that the I, that one in front of all the zeros that you're carrying, so you can carry a hundred things, but if that one, which is you, Is not present to what you need, then you know it's not going to be going well for taking care of all those ideas. If you wanna take care of the world around you, you must be able to be as fit and present as possible. And I think a lot of people don't answer that. What do you want? But in my training program, the first thing that you know, clients get to ask themselves is, where am I? Am I where I wanna be? Because if not, that's where your disconnects come from. And that disconnect creates the stress that disconnect can creates more, outward awareness rather than internal awareness. So selfcare, self-awareness will come out there just fallouts of the whole training program. Why? Because the first thing I ask them when in the consult call is, What do you want? What would you like to have? there's no one size fits all. There's no thing that says you have to be this weight. This is the structure you have to be. These are the clothes you have to wear. This is what you have to eat. And the whole nutrition, stuff, in that equation has been taken way out of proportion because what I see, I mean from the Indian mindset, there is a common sense approach. And I'll explain what the Indian mindset is. You eat food and there it ends. Just do what you have to do. I mean, but over here I find that there's a big spectrum. When you start talking fitness people start throwing kale in your face. You know? I mean, it's just becomes a really weird phenomenon. Like what happened to enjoying life? I coach all my clients to say, just keep to your regular habits. Don't go weird. Don't go buy weird food. Weird in their vocabulary because that's what they say. That's their word, not mine. You know I just say, just do your regular whatever your family eats, you eat, and don't go into any crazy zone. Self-awareness tells you when you're full. Self-awareness tells you when you're hungry. Self-awareness tells you what you need to eat, what will fuel you, and what it creates fun. So suddenly, you know it's a Saturday and your family wants to go out and have fun. You should be a part of that totally. And you should never negate anything. The other day I saw some reels about packing food for travel, and I thought, No, don't pack any food for travel. You've got this travel experience. Why don't you just enjoy it? The airports are chockfull of nice surprises. Go enjoy it. It's not going to affect you unless you have some medical reason for not eating a certain food. It should not be, forbidden. That's just acts as a stressor. Once you say, I can't eat this and I can't eat that, automatically just cleaved your mind into adding stress to your plate. I think the better thing is what I teach my clients self-awareness. So clearly if you are full, you don't eat because the body doesn't know what to do with that food. So, and there it ends. There's my nutrition program in one word. So just enjoy life. It's so short. A lot of my, friends with younger children, they tell me how fast they grow. Well, you're growing too. So are you going to turn the corner and then something different's gonna happen. Look at 2020, I mean, there's such a major change. So you don't know what tomorrow brings. So try to enjoy today as much as possible and don't deny anything for yourself. Don't pack travel food, just enjoy the airports. They're so fun. And there's a lot of fun things you can do at an airport with your friends. Hopefully, you're traveling with friends or family or even by yourself. Discovering how amazingly stress free would that be if someone just said, oh, well I'm gonna get over there and I'm gonna discover what this new airport has for me. Or, when I get to my destination, I'm gonna discover what that city has to offer. I'm not gonna worry about something cast in stone to deliver my enjoyment, that's not gonna be fun at all. So, I mean, I've diverted a little bit from your question, but self-care means being aware. And so that also segues into the nutrition piece of my training, which says, you know, you're aware of what your needs are and if something you need is, something that you need to go get for your own nutritional needs, then that will be satisfied through that. You'll discover what that is for yourself. Nobody has to tell you anything.

Carmen Hecox: 45:15

If there's one piece of advice that you. You could give the viewers or listeners, especially women who might be over the age of 50 who may be thinking about starting their fitness journey, what would that be?

Hema Murty: 45:30

I would say spend five minutes with yourself every day. If you already spend time with yourself doing some kind of self-care program, maybe a lot of people do have that practice. Then I would say sit down with yourself and ask yourself, is there anything missing from this piece? Is there something that is holding me back? Is there a stressor in my life that I'm not addressing? So again, it's another five minute conversation with yourself and do it every morning. Don't stop at once and saying, oh, I'm good. You are good today. But tomorrow might be a different day, might present different circumstances. The world might be different And maybe that's affecting you at some level that you're not even aware of. So I would just say that one piece of advice that everyone should do, but specifically the, this demographic of women over 50 who serve the world in many different ways and sometimes forget about themselves in the loop. I would say spend five minutes on yourself each day with nothing more than maybe just you. Maybe a piece of paper, no electronic gadgets, just you, a piece of paper, a pen, and just try to spend it alone with yourself and see what do you want and just answer that question.

Carmen Hecox: 46:44

And how can the viewers or listeners get in touch with you or find out more about your program?

Hema Murty: 46:50

Yeah, I have a website which, is undergoing some renovation, but you can still access me at getshanti.com. That's G E T S H A N T I.com. And on that you can do a contact me. Also I'm on Instagram at over 50 Fitness. With Siva, S I V A. S I V A is Siva, it means Auspiciousness. So I try to Introduce that into my program? So that makes me a little different. That's why I put it into my, handle. So it's over 50 fitness with Siva on Instagram. That's a good place for me to find me. And also on my website getshanti.com. Email me at hema@getshanti.com and we can connect up and you can have a free consult.

Carmen Hecox: 47:40

Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I know that our viewers have gotten a ton of information here.

Hema Murty: 47:49

Thank you Carmen. I really enjoyed talking about my favorite topic, training women over 50 and getting them to their goals, and that's really what I'm wanna do more of. So hoping if any of you, have any questions to just talk to me and I would love to talk with you. Just have a chat.

Carmen Hecox: 48:07

Great. Thank you. Wow, I don't know about you, but I'm just left in awed over all the information Hema provided today. She's such a smart woman, and what I really love about the information she shared is that she takes the time to get to know her clients, and she designs a program that she knows her clients will follow and it will help the clients achieve their own personal goals. Hema understands that we are all different, and as we age, there are certain movements that we just can't do due to prior injuries, genetics, or degenerative changes that are just a part of getting older. Hema's information and today's transcript can be found at createthebestme.com/ep026. If this episode resonated with you, please hit subscribe to stay updated. Join me next week when we'll delve into the topic of self-care. This episode is one you won't want to miss. Until next time, keep dreaming big, take care of yourself. And remember, you are beautiful, strong, and capable of creating the best version of yourself. Thank you for watching, catch you next week. Bye for now.