Your body is your own business | Janis Isaman
In this episode I talk with movement specialist Janis Isaman on the theme of body awareness: shifting our attention from outward appearance to the inward experience of our bodies that is our birthright—and our empowerment. Join us.
Listen here…
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What our bodies look like
Janis Isaman
is nobody’s business but our own.
In this episode, meet Janis Isaman, a movement specialist who has helped hundreds of people to rid themselves of physical pain and remember what it feels like to be at ease in their own bodies.
Janis is the founder of My Body Couture, a one-on-one private fitness studio that provides customized movement and nutrition coaching. She’s also a passionate advocate for healthy body awareness, pushing back against damaging norms around body image and cultural stereotypes of beauty.
My conversation with Janis centers on the theme of body awareness: shifting our focus of attention from the external world to the internal, felt experience of our bodies. We discuss some of the reasons we’re often uncomfortable in our bodies, and explore a several practices for returning to ease. We also spend time unpacking cultural narratives that often lead women and girls, in particular, to judge ourselves based on outer appearance versus inner experience. (Though, this discussion may certainly be of interest to members of other genders, as well.) Finally, we touch on the healing wisdom of learning to live according to our own definitions of beauty.
Join us for conversation on these topics and more in this episode of the Wake Up, Human podcast.
Episode at a glance: what you’ll learn by listening
- What are the two principal reasons many of us fall into pain and/or discomfort in our physical bodies as we age?
- What can we learn from a 10-year-old child about being more at home in our bodies? What might we learn from our grandparents?
- How can we discern the difference between working on our bodies for our own benefit, and working on our bodies for others’ approval? (Hint: it’s simpler than you think.)
- What’s the most helpful thing not to have in your workout or movement space?
- What social norms around physical appearance does Janis refer to as “cultural terrorism,” and why?
- What is the one tool Janis would first offer to girls and young women for cultivating empowered body awareness?
- What we wish we knew when we were 12 years old, and what we would love to share with 12 year old girls right now.
Links and resources mentioned in the episode:
- “4 Easy Steps to Take Back your Power & Overcome Body Insecurities,” the article by Janis Isaman on Elephant Journal that inspired the conversation
- Kristin Neff’s work on Self-Compassion (not mentioned in the final cut but recommended by Janis as an excellent starting point for this work)
Find Janis on the Web:
Website: mybodycouture.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/mybodycouture
Instagram: Instagram.com/mybodycouture
Twitter: twitter.com/mybodycouture
Elephant Journal: https://www.elephantjournal.com/profile/janis_isaman/
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jisaman
YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/user/janisisaman
Clubhouse: @janis
It’s almost a human right, to be able to move the body freely.
Janis Isaman
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