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They say you can tell a lot about a person by asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up when they were 5. I wanted to be the Ice Cream Man.
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And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds but had you asked me why the answer is pretty close to who I am now. I wanted to be the ice cream man because everyone was happy when the ice cream man came around. Everyone came out of their house and was so happy at that moment. I wanted to be someone who could do that, bring people out of their houses, and make them happy.
My Story
I’m wise enough to know now that you can’t make people happy but over the years ... through my career, I like to think that I’ve at least been able to bring people out of their metaphorical houses. Through my work, I’ve been able to help people feel safe enough to reveal themselves ... feel safe enough to leave their “inner houses” or comfort zones and come out for just long enough to find their inner strength and happiness.
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The ice cream man had ice cream to pull people out of their homes. I use health, healing, and humor to get people out of their comfort zone “homes” and get connected to each other and reconnected to themselves.
The funniest part of my ice-cream man dream is my parents would rarely let us buy ice cream! My dad was a naturopath and all-around health nut so ice cream was a rare treat! Beyond that It was too expensive to buy ice cream for everyone ...
I am the last of 7 children to Italian immigrant parents. My mom calls me her “favorite mistake”. I love the honesty of that statement. My mom was almost 41 and thought she was going through menopause. She went to the doctor and surprise, it was me ...5 months in utero! She also soon found out she had late-stage breast cancer.
I share this story because it demonstrates my early beginnings as a healer, (according to my parents at least.)
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My parents said I was doing healing work “since the day I was born”. My mom said I helped heal her while she was pregnant with me, that having me on the way gave her extra reason to live. Later I learned from a doctor friend that baby cells are the only cells that grow faster than cancer cells. So from a more scientific point of view, I like to think that my shiny new baby cells helped give cancer a run for its money. After giving birth to me my mom fought cancer and won. And since then I’ve been doing healing work in some form or another.
As a child, I would massage a shoulder or hand saying I need to “help move things around”. And after doing so, people’s pains would mysteriously disappear. It wasn’t until my 20s that I understood my healing abilities and not until my 30s till I felt comfortable calling what I did healing at all. If I’m being completely honest ... I think we are ALL healers. Many people just don’t know it. I think by “moving things around”... by moving energy around I am able to awaken the healing abilities within my clients. I believe when our body or life for that matter, is not able to heal on its own; it is because something is blocked. I believe by moving blocked energy around, by freeing up that stagnant energy ... people are then able to heal themselves.
So I can’t take credit for all the healing work ... I can only take credit for my ability to awaken the healer within my clients ... they do the rest. In my younger years, It was my interest in energy and healing that led me to become pre-med when I went to college. However, when I learned how NOT healthy the world of medicine could be I got disenchanted and I changed my major to English literature.
Needless to say, my mom was not amused by my decision!
To let me know how not amused she was about my English literature major, she refused to continue paying for my college housing and made it clear that I was not welcome back home with my new “literature love”.
I got a job to cover my housing.
I got several jobs actually:
Night club shot girl—fired
Waitress---fired
Sales girl at The Gap—fired
Bartender---fired in two days
And eventually fitness teacher---ding! ding! ding! We have a winner!
I excelled at teaching fitness. Like my healing ability, It just came naturally. Beyond that, I had a ballet background so even though I didn’t always know what I was doing ... I at least looked like I did!
My classes were full right from the start. Students would say they never got such a great workout with great results so quickly. I was having fun, my students were having fun and I was connecting people. I felt like I was finally the “ice cream man”. Once I discovered my passion for teaching fitness, I never looked back. I collected any books on fitness education I could find, took certifications, found mentors; everyone from sports doctors to athletes.
After absorbing all of the knowledge around me, I developed my own training methods. It’s been over 20 years now ... And I am still committed to empowering people to connect both their mind and body through movement. Over the years In my group and personal fitness sessions, I shared my knowledge and gave clients the tools they could use long after working with me. What’s the expression ... give a man a fish and he eats for a day but teach a man to fish and you feed him for life ...
Educating my clients on how to move more efficiently is one of the things I’m most proud of in my career...
Over my years of working with clients, I realized that their beliefs and patterns oftentimes were not always in alignment with their goals. So I intuitively and strategically began working with them to uncover their hidden blocks to help them to realign all parts of themselves with the vision they had in mind for themselves and goals they had in mind for their lives.
These days my work has morphed into not just fitness and wellness transformation but entire life transformation!
Long story short.
I never did become the ice cream man.
Instead, I became the person who helps to awaken dormant Super Powers!
I do however still love ice cream.
Pretty sure it doesn’t love me back I eat it rarely because it’s loaded with sugar and let’s be honest …. Sugar is mildly less addictive than crack
But gelato in Italy? Game on .