Balance. Freedom. Health.

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Amber sua is the founder and owner of alamy a sanctuary for holistic health and healing in Redondo Beach California she is an entrepreneur business owner Fitness expert and holistic health coach she has spent the last two decades in the fitness industry and has been an entrepreneur for the last 10 years after becoming a mother to two beautiful children severe low back pain led her to a meditation practice and a spiritual journey that called her to open all of me Amber is dedicated to sharing her experience and to inspiring others to live their best life it is her desire and intention to elevate the community Through movement meditation and mindfulness thank you so much for joining us today Amber oh I'm so happy to be here Melanie please tell us who you are and what gave you the idea and the courage to make your leap to launch all of me my name is Amber Susa and I am the owner and founder of alamy a holistic health and healing studio in redond Beach California what gave me the courage I started having really severe and debilitating low back pain and I couldn't work out working out was always the thing that helped me manage my stress and get through the tough times in life and I was here I was I couldn't move a friend of mine had started a meditation practice I had tried meditation about 20 plus years before and I absolutely hated it I I had decided it was not for me I was the intense go go go type not the relaxed Zen yoga meditating type but life has a way of inviting you to discover other parts of yourself H through pain through trauma whatever and so here I was debilitating pain desperate so I was open and I tried the Oprah windfree deac Chopra the 21-day meditation experiences and you know it started out as something I was just desperately trying to you know do to bring me some sort of relief emotionally mentally and physically and it turned out to be so much more it was profoundly life-changing it woke me up to so many other possibilities for for my life for healing I was able to heal my back when I am passionate about something that helps me I want to share it with every single person I know and so that's really what happened it's not like I be I came up with some business plan and decided to open all of me it was like life threw me a curveball out of desperation I tried meditation it changed my life so profoundly and that is what gave me the courage I love how you followed your passions and turned it into a business and isn't it amazing how we hit those Rock Bottom moments where we're like I'll try anything and sometimes the best things come out of those moments and we don't think about that as it's happening to us because it's terrifying at the time but you've built this beautiful business and life and something you're passionate about out of that moment and do you have advice for anyone that is the go-getter type how they might be able to start a meditation practice because I agree with you I think meditation is a little bit different for everyone and it's great that you found what works for you I love everything you just said people have these preconceived ideas of what their meditation practice needs to look like in order to be effective um and oftentimes that looks like being still for a really long time and having absolutely no thoughts going on right and that's not the case we all have thoughts going on all the time it cracks me up when people come to me and they say oh well I have that that like monkey mind kind of you know my thoughts are racing all the time and I say yeah join the club we all do start with two minutes slowing down taking some deep breaths and guided meditations are really helpful because if you just sit down um and try to be in silence when you've never done that before you're probably not going to get too far without going well this is terrible this is awful I hate this so if you can hear somebody else guiding you for a few minutes so that you can focus your attention on what they're saying that will help you come into the present moment and then go from there let it let it change as you continue to change isn't it amazing how sometimes we have to slow down in order to move forward and in order to speed up that is what I have found if I am feeling a nervous energy or I got to do this I gotta you know like it's coming from more of that frenetic um Force place I always know that I need to stop and breathe and pause and wait the answers come when I pause and give myself permission to just listen so far the most exciting part of it has it's introduced me to my inner voice that I can trust and I spent the majority of my life listening to everyone else's voice tell me what was the right thing to do for me that little voice that kids have kids are tuned in we lose that we disconnect from that and we get really concerned about what everybody else is doing and what everybody else thinks so meditation really reconnected me with that inner voice that I can trust if I'm confused if I'm afraid if I'm feeling indecisive if I need clarity about something the answer is always to stop just breathe and slow down and listen the ability to learn to trust ourselves is so important and you just reminded me of a moment that I had our Wi-Fi went out and so I had to go to in California it's so shut down and I was hosting a live event I couldn't do it with a mask on somewhere else so I had to find a friend's house to go to in order to do this live event I was trying to feed the kids trying to get out the door I thought I hit the microwave for 30 seconds I must have done 30 minutes cuz I ran upstairs for a minute was probably up there for 3 minutes and Elliot comes running upstairs the microwave is smoking this isn't like me to do these things but I was in that moment where I was trying to do too much and frazzled that was a moment where I just needed to slow down and just say that everything is going to be okay and we can get to where we're living our lives that way living Our Lives not necessarily almost setting the microwave on fire but to where we're in that pace of go go go it's so important just to slow down and take that time for ourselves and to honor ourselves right well absolutely and it's also well two things that I'm thinking about with that story number one it's a reset right because if we if we get up and we start our day by just like hitting the ground running without tuning in slowing down checking in breathing we're going to be on that Adrenaline Rush all day and so it's like a reset button also it's a really great opportunity in that moment to show your CH your children right like in that moment it's okay we have the time to pause for one minute we're teaching them we don't have time for that we don't have time for that we're in a hurry let's go right and they're they're getting swept up into this energy of frenzy and and so in that moment if we go oh boy Elliot like thank you this is such a good time for all of us to just take a deep breath and reset and that's what I did the microwave almost setting on fire I was like okay Melanie you're GNA take a minute and slow down and the kids were so surprised because it's not like me to up the anything on potentially on fire right so you're you're so right in that moment I was like okay there's no emergency thankfully I got to slow down gotta pause everything's going to be okay yeah what are the classes and what do you offer your clients today and how do you hope to inspire and Empower others to live their best life oh I love that I

Speaker 1: if you just want to come in and sweat you can come in for a workout right it is Fitness and Wellness um but if you're interested in taking a deeper look into things more spiritual and how do you hope your classes and what you've created Inspire and Empower people yes I support people to be the greatest version of themselves that they were born to be and when you're looking to do that and Achieve that you have to pay attention to your body physically your mind mentally emotionally your spiritual connection so and all of these all of these modalities are meant to bring you closer to the truth of who you are I hope to inspire people to be the their best s by being a living example of someone who is constantly saying yes to my inner voice whatever that looks like I have a lot of people who join my class on Thursday nights in particular where they're just beginning this journey they're starting to wake up to the truth of who they are oftentimes that comes through physical illness it comes through bodily injury it comes through traumatic life events like divorce or job changes or whatever and these situations and experiences are all meant to help us wake up to the truth of who we are it doesn't feel like that at the time it feels like it really sucks and it's really scary my whole mission of of having Aly is to to be able to provide a space where people can come at whatever place they are on their their Journey um and have somebody else to look at and go okay I know that she's been here and she's okay and I'm an open book I share my my life experience is my teaching and and what everything that I've been through I share so that I can Inspire others so that they know that they they too can have they have the courage and the strength and you know the capacity to expand beyond what they ever thought was possible for themselves and it's so great that you can be such an inspirational guide you have built all of me and I know you built a business also before all of me is there anything that you wish you would have known when you started your business if you could turn back time that's a really interesting question because on one hand I think that every experience that I've had even the experiences that may be perceived as mistakes or failures um have been huge learning opportunities for me it's incredibly important to have people around you that will help you hold that Vision if you're starting out you know on a new adventure or wanting to take a leap or feeling called to step into to a greater version of yourself surround yourself with people that have already done that and are living proof that that it's possible and that will will help you hold your vision and Believe in Your Vision with you right because um that was not always the case for me right I definitely had people around me that thought I was crazy for wanting to take this leap and they didn't see my vision and it didn't make sense to them and that was really challenging choose a circle of people that you know will help you hold your vision and that will support you and love you and tell you that absolutely you're capable of this let me help let me support you and don't share it with the people that you know are going to say oh you know that's crazy let's be realistic who do you think you are la la la like we already have enough of that yes crap yes you know so true and sometimes it's the people that are closest to us they might not mean to but sometimes it can be those people that put those thoughts in our head that make us doubt ourselves you are so right about finding those cheerleaders in your life or the people that can bring you additional knowledge and share in Your Vision or just cheer you on yeah and I I definitely want to speak to what you just said because yes the people in your life sometimes are the closest to you and their intention is not to cause you harm their intention is to protect you and if they're afraid for you they're going to want to protect you and I totally get that and I have come to see to see that now it's not necessarily that they're trying to rate on your parade or ruin your life it's that they they're afraid and they don't see the vision but that's why meditation is so absolutely vital when you are looking to expand into the highest version of yourself because that inner voice that tells you you're meant for this you can do this that voice is is so important to hold on to to and that voice is what helps you keep the faith when you are afraid when you have self-doubt we all do right we all take leaps through the self-doubt I love that you encourage people to listen because you're right we all have it but we have to teach ourselves to listen and to hear it absolutely when I'm teaching there's so many things to look at and when you're when you're looking at expanding into the higher version of yourself and a lot of it is taking a look at and letting go of old limiting beliefs and one of those beliefs is in order to be successful you have to go go go go go the harder you work the better the more hours you work the better right like the less sleep you get the like you you must care more about what you're doing taking all of those beliefs and just flipping them you know upside down and saying that's not necessarily true I'm actually more effective when I'm just relaxing and slowing down and tuning in to what feels right and present and I'm present yes absolutely how important do you think it is that we stay in touch with our inner child and that we find ways to move our body and how do you stay in touch with yours today and how does that help you in life oh I love that question first I want to just share with this this this story of my daughter that that happened recently we were at a pool and it was a public pool tennis and pool uh club and there's tons of people and my daughter's in the pool and I'm sitting on a chair just observing everybody watching everybody and she's in the middle of the pool by herself singing and dancing her heart out like passionately like she's like like so you know big and move and I my heart is just bursting with joy as I'm watching her because what I'm noticing is I'm looking around at all the adults and I know that every single one of these adults had moments like that when they were kids of total freedom and abandonment and not worrying about what anybody else thought and just complete self-expression my son is seven years old I don't think he's going to be a dancer but you know what he loves to sing and dance it's fun for him yeah we we get away from playing we get away from giving ourselves permission to be free and so by tuning into the inner child we do like gain access to that part of ourselves that is free that is free and that does believe that everything is possible I mean if you ask my seven-year-old son what he wants to be when he grows up he will tell you he wants to play for the NFL he wants to be a professional football player like Tom Brady and then he wants to go on to coach there's no like followup with but it might not be practical so I have to have plan B nobody comes into this world with the thought I might not get to do what I love to do because it might not be practical that is a thought that we are given by the people in our life so by tuning into to our inner child we are able to gain access to the part of us that still believes that everything is possible and still believes that we are meant to do what we love that that's why we love it so much It comes naturally to us it's part of our makeup so we have to sift through all this other crap that we've accumulated over the years and tune into that in our child that plays that is free I love that you went back to that and Parker my daughter she loves art and there was so much art going on in her room glitter everywhere that it expanded into the garage so now she has this table that's just full of art maybe if you're listening you're someone who used to love art but doesn't do art anymore or maybe you played hockey or football and you don't do that anymore you're so right it's connecting to those things where you think wow I really used to love to do that but I don't do it anymore and it it when we make that leap to actually try it really incredible things can happen in our lives absolutely in fact that's one of the questions that I ask people when I start coaching them I asked them what are some of the things that they love to do when they were kids right what were their dreams that they had when they were kids I get people uh all the time coming to me who are they're in their job that they hate because that was the practical job to get and it was the job that they could make this amount of money and they'd have their for and and I'm not saying anything bad about that like I'm all for like making a lot of money and being really you know happy and successful and abundant but it's if you if you get too far away from who you really are and the things that you love it life is unfulfilling there's so much more than just checking the boxes yes absolutely and I tell people all the time I'm not asking you to quit your job and go become a ballerina tomorrow like I'm just saying how could you start to invite some of these things back into your life do some art take an art class even go watch a ballet yes years ago this was before kids I went to New York with my now ex-husband we saw Jersey Boys and I grew up in musical theater and I thought for sure that I would be on stage performing for my career and that's not how my life turned out and I sat there in the audience and tears streamed down my face because I was watching these performers and I was grieving and Mourning the fact that that would never be my life I was early 30s like plenty of time right plenty of time but I just said well you know that's not my life my life was either gonna do that or it's gonna do this and I guess it's doing this and I just my heart broke I mean I loved watching them but my heart broke and I thought to myself well maybe in another life and here I am and I am who knows what's going to happen with it but I'm writing a onew woman show and I am set to do a reading of it next month so who knows like I love it good for you yeah it's never too late right it's never too late to live your dreams magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy you've given us so many good ones anytime you start to feel dissatisfied in your life or focused on what's not going well stop look around and choose a couple things that are really going well in this present moment we lose joy every day because we're so focused on where we think we should be or what we don't have this morning I woke up and I thought I have this beautiful home that I get to live in we take things for granted we really take things for granted we have so many things to feel Joy about if we are mindful about paying attention to what those things are I do a gratitude thing with my kids every single day on the way to school in the morning or at night like what are three things that you're grateful for it's very simple three things that you're grateful for that'll bring you back to Joy right there bring you back to the present moment it's so simple but super empowering and also think about how many how much energy you put into worrying about things that never actually happen love is our default as a child until we get to a certain point and then all of a sudden fear becomes our default and that's how we live we live in that default of fear making choices and decisions and so how can we shift Back Into Love how can we make love be our default all this time we spend worrying and in fear when the majority of those things actually never come to pass and how much energy we've wasted so come back to as soon as you notice yourself shifting into fear bring yourself back to love and gratitude is one of the easiest and simplest ways to bring bring yourself back to love it's crazy how many Lies We believe my business is still open after having to shut down you know for Co like all the things that I played out in my mind of the worst case scenarios they didn't happen and it's actually turned out better so imagine if we walked around every day rather than worst case scenarios playing around what if we just walked around with best case scenarios playing around all the time in our mind wouldn't that be like a different world we lived in such a beautiful way to live yeah expecting the best Amber thank you so much for joining us today thank you for sharing all of your stories the story of how you felt when you watched Jersey Boys and how you've come full circle how you took something that you loved as a child and turned it into to a business and now might be even going farther and being on the stage again so inspirational empowering and inspiring can you tell our listeners how and where they can find you yes thank you Melanie I always love having conversations with you and I love what you do I really I want to thank you for all that you do and providing this opportunity for women you are amazing and your businesses that you build um that are all around supporting women are are just wonderful you have followed your heart and you courageously say yes to your inner voice thank you for that and for having these open conversations people can find me at alamy.com so it's spelled ali.com find me on Instagram at alamy Health Facebook you can email me Amber alamy.com Instagram alamore health if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheu it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil it business Consulting and the Sheil it blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave