The Full Story

About

~ “The body knows. When your heart sinks. When you feel sick to your gut. When something blossoms in your chest. When your brain gloriously pops. That’s your body telling you the One True Thing. Listen to it.” ~ Cheryl Strayed, Brave Enough

Intrepid with Martha is the movement-limb of my writing business, where my love for language links arms with the wisdom of the body; where my passion for articulating truth onto paper is embodied by my passion for movement that listens for and honors the truth our bodies are always telling us. As a certified yoga coach, Body-Positive coach and Internal Family Systems (IFS) trainee, I offer you weekly body neutral yoga, pilates and barre classes, each with the intent to re-member what we do physically with who we are and how we feel energetically. I will occasionally link articles to my blog that share the thinking behind the week’s themes. Finally, I offer you footage of my dog, Alfredo, who trots & yawns through the frame with an embodied presence that is as good a guide as any.

Mission

I am fascinated by how our internal parts (fear, curiosity, joy, shame-think Inside Out ) manifest in movement, and how exercise can position us to investigate these parts with compassion, and potentially re-throne our true(est) Selves as the leaders of what we do, on and off the mat. In all of my classes, we pay attention to how our internal systems (emotions, monologues, dialogues) infuse and guide our external movements. What part of me is holding this plank? What part of me chose jump squats instead of resting? Can I get to know these parts, receive their message, and help them unclench so that calmness, connectedness, creativity, and compassion can lead my workout instead? I believe conscious movement can facilitate the correspondence among parts, harmonize our inner systems, and help us empower our true selves.

Vision

What if we listened to our embodied sensations as closely as we looked in the mirror at our form? What if, every time we cued a workout video, we confidently oscillated between external tracking (what is Martha telling me to do?) and internal scanning (Is this working for me? How can I tell? What do I need more/less of?)

I believe that our capacity to listen to the truth in our bodies is directly connected to our capacity to hear truth elsewhere: in the words of a friend, lover, a piece of writing, the heart and purpose of our own lives.

My exercise classes and meditations aim to blast apart the illusion of separation between the interior and exterior "sections" of our lives and recover the natural synergy between how our body parts move during exercise, and how our internal "parts" can activate, harmonize, and even heal through exercise.

Welcome to the multiple, connected space that is YOU. Welcome to the multiple, connected space that is INTREPID.