Free Weight Loss and Tension Reduction Workshop with Michelle Harkey Saturday, May 31

Michelle Harkey will offer a free seminar in weight-loss and relief from tension May 31. Courtesy photo

By MANDY MARKSTEINER

Have you ever felt stuck in a body that’s overweight and unhealthy? Or have you resented your body because it doesn’t work right?

Michelle Harkey has a message of transformative hope and healing, especially for women who are successful in other areas of their lives, but don’t see results when it comes to their bodies.

As a coach, Harkey specializes in helping her clients rekindle their mind-body connection. Through that process, her clients experience profound results in weight loss, better health, improved relationships, and a newfound ability to reach their full potential.

She will give a free workshop called Lose Weight and Tension for Life 6:30-7:30 pm. Saturday, May 31 at the Tea Room in the Rosebud Café in White Rock.

There are several ways to tell if your mind-body connection has been broken, Harkey said.  You have the sense that your body is not really yours; that it is ugly, bad, or even evil. You may lack the ability to sense pain or pleasure in your body. You’re not enjoying a really good sex life. You’re not experiencing joy. You can’t break through weight=loss barriers.

Harkey became interested in exploring the connection between mind and body when she was first getting started as a massage therapist. She noticed that after seeing people week after week there would still be chronic tension.

“No matter what I did as a massage therapist, it still didn’t cut it,” she said. “Most of them didn’t even realize how tense they were. And I asked myself, ‘How can I help these people?’”

In order to help others, Harkey had to help herself. She transformed her body, her thoughts, and her whole life.

The transformation began with revisiting her childhood. When she was a young child, she was sexually abused. The abuse led her to disconnect from her body.

In an effort to protect her self, she withdrew and confined the essence of who she was to her mind. In high school, she was a highly intelligent wallflower who graduated with honors. The problem was that she was completely living in her head, like a mind being carried around by a body.

She went on to graduate from college, start a successful career as an accountant, and get married. The problem was that she wasn’t connected with her own body and she wasn’t feeling a lot of emotion, just a dull sadness. There was certainly no joy and no passion.

“The only thing that I wanted to do was bury myself in a book,” Harkey said. “I had no idea what I was missing out on. The cost was huge, especially in not being there in my relationships.”

“When I reconnected, I was able to feel emotions, to feel my body, to sense when I was hungry, to know what I was craving, and what that meant. I also was able to tell when I wanted some exercise,” Harkey said. “Now I feel like I am being a good mother because I am connecting with my children on an emotional level . . . It also showed up in my finances.”

“What propelled me forward was that I had an amazing increase in energy,”  Harkey said. “Years ago, when I talked to people, I was very sedate. People who remember me from back then say, ‘You’re so excited and happy, you’re like a three year old.’ It was an inner shift—I think I really started to find myself.”

Harkey coaches women to reconnect with their inner selves. “When you do this, you lose weight,” she said. “Sometimes life hands us circumstances which we internalize that later show up as excess weight, chronic tension, emotional dysregulation, and more. There are ways to release this from our lives so you can live in health and vitality and have energy every single day.”

“If someone’s body isn’t healthy, they may be saying something like’ I’m not worth it,’ or ‘I need to protect myself,’” Harkey said “Our bodies don’t lie. They reflect our inner belief systems. If you believe you’re not worth the time and investment, your body will show that.”

Society says we need to be beautiful to be loved. Women tend to think they need a perfect body to deserve love, but that is going about it backwards, Harkey said.  You need to love yourself first, and the body will come.

During her free workshop, Harkey will introduce her special method for reconnecting. A transformative process called “innercizes.” She’ll not just prescribe 30 sit-ups a day, but instead help you work from the inside out to find the root cause.

Getting to the root cause involves confronting your comfort zone, acknowledging your own personal triggers, and leaving behind patterns of self-sabotage, Harkey said.

“You may realize that the comfort zone from which you’re operating every day is not comfortable at all, Harkey said. “Joy comes from reconnecting.”

“Not everyone has a huge traumatic event to overcome, like abuse,” Harkey said. “Little things can cause disconnect: growing up with a brother who says you’re fat and ugly, getting yelled at by your boss, driving through heavy traffic, or witnessing your mom obsess over her weight.”

“For women, there is so much emphasis on how we look, especially if we don’t look like a size two Photoshopped model. We often blame our bodies, and say, ‘maybe it’s my body that’s the problem.’ And when we say that, we sever the connection with our body,” Harkey said.

“The good news is it’s possible to reconnect,” she said. “When you reconnect you live more fully. The connection shows up in your relationships, your finances, and your spiritual connections.”

Rosebud Café located at 35 Rover Blvd. Suite G, in White Rock. Attendance at the seminar is limited to 35 women. To register, go to www.michelleHarkey.com, watch her videos, and sign up for the event.

The first 20 people who watch all the videos and sign up will get a free one-hour Somatic Integration Session (a $135 value).

The next 15 people who sign up through the website will also get a Somatic Integration Session for one-half off.

Somatic Integration is like a massage, because it involves physical touch and relaxation. During your session we will find the muscles that are tense and explore the mental aspects of what is keeping the tension in place, Harkey said.

Mullein Leaf Massage is at 3500 Trinity, Ste. A-5 in Los Alamos. The phone number is 505.695.2095. Visit the business online at www.michelleharkey.com.

Search
LOS ALAMOS

ladailypost.com website support locally by OviNuppi Systems