#38 My lovely guest this week is Louise Viveiros, who is a movement and fitness coach and busy mum.

This interview was taken from our members spotlight show within the Let It In Academy. Louise has been with the community since my first pilot workshop in October 2017. It’s been wonderful watching her journey unfold as she shares her wins and frustrations, her deepening understanding of this work and her meditation practise and how that now plays out in her everyday life.

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About Louise: Fitness and Movement Coach. Her aim is to create strong fit women.  To expertly guide them through the transition into Motherhood and beyond. Moving away from the all or nothing, where we only celebrate aesthetic  transformations. Louise focuses on the massive transformation your body has naturally achieved – conceiving, carrying and birthing your child.

►Audio Version:

Links & Resources For Louise Viveiros:

www.louiseviveiros.com.au
@lv_fitnessmovementcoach

 

Transcript

Guy: Louise, we’re live, we did it.

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: Three minutes late with a couple of technical errors, but that’s all cool.

Louise: That’s not bad, is it?

Guy: That’s not bad, that’s not bad. I’m just going to quickly check Facebook because this is the first time we’re using the software. We should be on there now. Look at that. Yes, [inaudible 00:00:25]. Oh wow, that’s cool. Alrighty, cool.

Guy: Louise, thanks for coming on the very first member spotlight, really appreciate it.

Louise: I know, it’s very exciting.

Guy: The drill is, I mean, well, I’ve sent out enough emails so I’m just gonna get on with it and start firing questions at you, Louise. Then we’ll see how we’ll go for time. It’s five past one, so we’ll probably go for about 20 minutes and see if anyone joins us on the call.

Guy: The first question I need to ask you Louise, ’cause I actually follow you on Instagram. What is it you do? Can you share that with everyone?

Louise: I am a fitness and movement coach, as well as being a mom. I actually introduce myself most of the time as a mom, ’cause it’s a huge full-time job for me, and it’s been part of a very big transition for me. My first job is actually being a mom, and my second job is I’m a fitness and movement coach. I actually coach women, so I actually say that I coach wild hearted mothers to reconnect with body, mind, and soul after they’ve had kids. That’s what I do.

Guy: That’s beautiful, beautiful. I’m guessing that keeps you busy, right?

Louise: You’re right. Yeah.

Guy: My first question today for you is how did you hear about Let It In and what attracted you to it in the first place? ‘Cause you came to the pilot workshop in Melbourne last October.

Louise: Yeah, so I actually had been doing some work on and off with the guys at 5th Element Wellness, from a personal perspective.

Guy: Okay.

Louise: I was in the loop of what they were doing and it just came up on something that they … It literally came up on Facebook I think for me, but I kind of think it hit at the right time, because I actually looked at it and I was like, “That just sounds really weird. I don’t even know what that is.” I didn’t even understand the description of it. I was like, “That just sounds odd.”

Louise: I thought, I don’t know, but something inside me was like, “I think you should go. I think you should just do it.” It’s very different to what normally I go to. If I’m gonna invest my time, like my time’s quite precious to me around family and business. If I’m going to invest time, I tend to invest in kind of more physical kind of courses, things that I’m actually gonna gain and learn and get something I can put back into my business.

Louise: This was something quite different for me. I’d also been playing around with some meditation on the Headspace app, the sort of previous months, and so it kind of slotted in. It was like, well, maybe you need to kind of take it next level. That’s how I ended up at 5th Element. I just kind of literally wandered in the door.

Guy: Yeah, wow. What’s been your biggest motivation to look at this work in the first place? Was that just a random thing that felt right, or was there a motivation drive behind it?

Louise: More like, I can’t actually answer that, because I’m gonna go a bit woo woo here because I feel like I was drawn to it. I was just like, I was … There was this need, this wanting of something more. That’s all I can kind of describe it as. Then I just started opening these doors, and one of those doors was your workshop in Melbourne, and then the next door was actually joining the program. I just felt sort of drawn into it, but I really didn’t understand any of it.

Guy: Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. For me, it was like an itch, an internal itch I couldn’t scratch, or I just didn’t know how to take the first step to look at it. And then I kind of slowly went and kept going on these paths.

Louise: Yeah, and it’s almost like I needed this kind of very guided approach to it, as well. I’ve kind of tapped into some more woo woo things and not had very great experiences because it’s all been too ephemeral for me and I just needed something like a bit of a stepped process. I needed someone to just open this world up to me in a very kind of structured way.

Guy: Yeah, fair enough. During the nine months now you’ve been looking at this work, what I love as well-

Louise: Oh, nine months.

Guy: Watching this journey, nine months it’s been. Must be October … We’re in August now, yeah, it must be nine months. What has been the biggest surprise for you during that time?

Louise: The fact that I’ve actually stuck with the meditation the entire time. The entire time, I’ve meditated daily. I actually have made myself take days off just to see what the difference would be, and I don’t like it.

Guy: Huh, wow, okay. Where are you at now, then? Let’s imagine we could cast back in time, and you could quickly catch up with Louise from nine months ago and see her then to where you’re at now. What do you think, has there been change? What do you think the progress has been? Have you measured it? Can you measure it? What have you noticed?

Louise: I feel like I’ve probably got more questions now than I’ve ever had before. ‘Cause I think, I remember you saying even at the workshop, once you go down the rabbit hole in this stuff, it just keeps on going. But at the same time, I feel I’m opening myself up in the process to things that perhaps I was closed to in previously.

Louise: Interesting enough, I reckon for me, it kind of shifted things around. Sort of Christmas, I actually decided to make quite a change in my business. I actually kind of pulled back on my business because I didn’t feel like the harmony was quite right between life and business and everything else.

Louise: I hate using the word balance. Balance isn’t really my thing. It’s more harmony. It’s actually opened up space by physically doing like, actually going into that process of opening up that space. It’s allowed me to go on this journey with you a bit more, which has actually helped my business heaps and I’m now just as busy as I was last year, even though I didn’t want to try to be as busy. It’s almost like it’s happened without me pushing it all the time.

Louise: I’ve really taken my foot off the gas with my entire life, and what I’m finding is that things are kind of just playing out as they kind of almost need to. They’re going on their own journey without me always trying to drive them. It’s actually given me a sense of kind of relief and peace in the way I approach things and just these … We talk about it, we’ve talked about it so much. These little gaps, these little spaces that we talk about in meditation. But I feel like they’re happening in my life, like the gaps and spaces are opening up for me so I can just breathe and see things for what they are a bit more.

Louise: I think that’s probably my biggest change. It’s such a subtle shift. If I looked at one level between Louise now and Louise nine months ago, I’d be like, “Oh, it’s exactly the same.” But I can actually see those shifts, and people around me have said they reckon, like my husband reckons this massage change. I’m like, “Really, like massive? That’s a huge word.” But he thinks it’s amazing.

Guy: I always say, there’s a nugget there which I want to reiterate for everyone in a sec, but with a change, I always liken it to weight loss or something, where you don’t actually feel you’re making progress. But all of a sudden, if you have two photographs alongside each other a year apart, you’re like, “Oh my God, look how much I’ve changed.” How much of this is happening, ’cause it’s us, and we’re sort of familiar with us. We don’t know, we don’t see it, but other people can see it looking in, right?

Louise: Yeah. Totally, and there was something that happened to me last week which I tagged you on Instagram in. My computer died, I lost ten years of work. I haven’t actually backed up my laptop for six months, and my old Louise, my old self would have been freaking out massively, and the first thing that pops into my head is like, “Oh, it’s okay. You can jut do it again. It’s fine.” I was like, “Who am I? Who’s that person answering that? That isn’t my normal response.” I’m definitely way more chilled out, I reckon.

Guy: Yeah, amazing, amazing. The one thing I want to reiterate for everyone is that you’ve actually started to allow space to come into your life without expectation.

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: But the act of giving that space yourself, that almost like kindness to oneself to a degree without the pressure of putting out expectation on things, is the moment then you’re allowing other things to slowly move in.

Louise: There’s a line that Oprah Winfrey always says, and she says the greatest gift you can give yourself is space. Isn’t it, or time? Time. She always says the greatest gift that you can give yourself is time, and I think that’s what this has given me. It’s given me the gift of time and space. And I gave it to myself through meditation every day.

Guy: Beautiful. For anyone watching this or listening to this now or later or whatever, that’s definitely something to consider. Even though it feels like a contradiction to what we’re trying to do in a big way, quite often, ’cause we’re so conditioned to be driving hard.

Louise: Yeah, absolutely.

Guy: Yeah. What has been the biggest motivation for you to continue the work then, since you started?

Louise: I don’t think there’s one big driver for me on this. I think there’s these little things that just happen and crop up, these little kind of you know, it’s the carrot and the stick moment, isn’t it? Something just happens, like you play around with this stuff and I remember in the early days playing around with that kind of … I’d think about trying to get a car parking space, and then there would be … I’d visualize the car parking space as I was driving to this place and there was a car parking space. And I was like, “This is weird.”

Louise: Just little things when you start allowing yourself to play with it and it’s those little moments that have kept me going because I think they’ve always been quite well timed for me. Little things will just happen and align and you’re like, “Oh, this is one of those moments.” I think those small things are the things that keep me going.

Louise: But it’s also just like I’ve loved the support of the community and the contact and the daily meditations and then exploring things and reading things and then opening myself up to … I did Kundalini yoga the other week. It was like, yeah, I wouldn’t have done that before and I’m just loving that kind of this journey of just like, “Yeah, I’ll give that a crack. I’ll try that.”

Louise: I’m doing all these things I never thought I would have done. And that’s you know, that’s just a really nice part of this journey too.

Guy: Yeah, and having that curiosity around it. What’s been your biggest challenges with this work, since you’ve been doing it?

Louise: The big fat expectation word. ‘Cause even though we talk about not having expectation and trying to let things go and all this jazz, you can kind of say all that, but actually doing it is so different. Then also for me, the trust in it. Trying to trust something that I cannot tangibly connect with at that time, I don’t understand, and trying to let myself go into something like that. I find that I feel like I’ve had a life of conditioning which has not allowed me to trust much, and that’s not trusting myself, trusting the people around me, trusting life.

Louise: That’s really coming up for me at the moment as well. There’s lots and lots of blocks around that, so yeah. It’s just, it’s quite confronting sometimes when you’re doing this kind of work. I think when you kind of come up with these big dark shadows and you’re like, “I have no idea what to do with this.”

Guy: Yeah, very … And have there been moments where you have fully trusted?

Louise: I’d love to say yeah, I think I dip a toe into trust and then it freaks me out and then I just go, “Oh no, I can’t do that.” What I do is it’s in the meditation every day that I try and practice that trust. That’s where I get my practice, and I can’t … I guess there must be moments as well that are now coming up, bubbling up in my day to day life as I go around, where I’m trusting a little bit more.

Louise: Like I mentioned my computer last week, I was like, “I trust it will be okay. It will be okay,” and it actually worked out totally fine. And I saved my hard drive, woo hoo! So yeah, it was fine, so it’s kind of … It’s early days for me on that but I think I’m yeah, the meditation gives me the confidence in those moments to trust and then I start playing around with them a little bit more in my life.

Louise: But I think, like you say, nine months feels like a long time, but I think once we start saying nine years, then I might be a bit closer to answering that a bit better. ‘Cause that’s what it is, it’s a long journey, it’s a lifetime’s work. It’s not-

Guy: It’s a process. There is no endpoint, and the sooner we come to terms with that I think the sooner we can then come to the present moment and actually enjoy the present moment and stop reaching for the external chase of certain things that when we get there, we’ll be happy. Because then all of a sudden we’ve created a disconnect and we are actually then not whole. We are not complete until we have that thing over there, and then that’s gonna keep us in that loop and then we’re always chasing.

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: But we’re so conditioned. It’s so hard to go, “You know what? I’m happy right now. Let’s just enjoy life. Let’s just be.”

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: You know, because we’ve got things going on, which is what I grapple with every day too. I’m certainly not immune to it, but that trust definitely comes over time more. And then your steps just slowly get bigger, and then you stretch that faith muscle I feel like a little bit further each time.

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: I wanted to mention the group intentions as well while I have you on. What was your first thought before we did the group intentions? ‘Cause you’ve started right from the start wherever it’s a seed, you’ve kind of been side by side as I’ve been progressing and pushing the boundaries of the work further, and obviously there’s gonna be even more people coming on board now that I’ve gone [inaudible 00:14:54]. Yeah, what was your before and after? Like, how do you find them? There’s about three questions in there.

Louise: Yeah, I mean, I didn’t really have a problem with actually doing them, but again, I was like, I had zero expectation. I had no idea. I thought that’s the best way to go in. I’m not gonna overthink it. I think you’d done a podcast on intention with Lynn McTaggart?

Guy: That’s right, yes.

Louise: [inaudible 00:15:17] podcast you got us to listen to. I think I had only listened to the podcast with her beforehand, so I sort of had a vague idea about what was gonna be going on, but then you kind of just let us through it. Yeah, it was more like I think through the process of this work, it’s allowed me to be a bit more open to okay, let’s just try this, like we’ve already said. My curiosity has opened up, which has been good.

Louise: But, I actually really enjoy the process of the feeling of giving to someone else, giving energetically to someone else and feeling … I can’t quite get my head around the fact that we can feel one another in those group intentions, but we’re nowhere near each other. We’re all over the place, like all over Australia and even internationally when it happens. You could feel everyone in the group, it’s freaky, man.

Louise: That process of that giving and I think the more, again, it’s like meditation. The more I’ve practiced with the intentions, showing up, doing them, going, “Oh okay, that wasn’t so flash today. Didn’t get anything from that.” Or having these really weird shared experiences that we’ve all talked about sometimes, and sometimes they happen and sometimes they don’t. To the last one that we did where I felt oh my God, so connected to that one. It was almost like my, I think … Was that our third? No, fourth, no-

Guy: No, that would have been our fifth.

Louise: Fifth, okay fifth time luck, fifth time lucky. I felt that one was amazing, so I think with everything, it just takes practice, doesn’t it? Like just show up, do it, try it, keep going, try it again, try it again. And then suddenly, it was like kaboom for me on the last one. It was massive.

Guy: Yeah, there’s no one time and it’s like this collective approach, it’s like exercise or trying to get fitter. It’s not just one little workout, there’s these constant chipping away, chipping away until all of a sudden, There’s a collective load at some stage where you go, “Oh my God,” ’cause your body’s in training. The nervous system’s in training and it’s getting used to feeling that energy and it starts to … And then you’re actually developing new sensory experiences to pick up that energy that we don’t entrain normally. It’s just training.

Louise: Yeah. Totally, totally.

Guy: At the end of the day.

Louise: And that’s what it feels like. That’s what it feels like, so you gotta just keep showing up, doing it.

Guy: Yeah, yeah, and what have you noticed? Last question for you as well, from a dare I say it, an emotional component. Do you notice things over this time starting to stir and come up and sometimes you get uncomfortable with the work?

Louise: Well, I keep crying. I keep crying. What’s that about? Yeah, there’s definitely been a shift in emotion. I know you feel like there’s these like … It feels like old emotion, it’s really weird. It just bubbles up and takes over and suddenly I’m crying. I’m like, “How come I’m crying? What is wrong with me? I’m happy, I’m having a good day.” But this stuff just keeps coming up.

Louise: It’s not necessarily sad, it’s just kind of I think I said, about the meditation we’re doing about at the moment, the energy centers. It’s like a feeling of relief, release, and coming home. It’s actually a great, great crying. Yeah, you made me cry.

Guy: Well, you’re not the only one this week with the energy center challenge, that’s for sure. But I think it’s important to mention that just for people, especially if you’re new to the work and if you’re not used to, especially us blokes as well, not used to kind of allowing our emotions to start to move and flow. ‘Cause we can spend so much time pretending it’s not there, but this work does stir that up. The best thing you can do is almost just step aside, observe it, and let it come through. It is a wonderful release to be having, I think.

Louise: Good, totally.

Guy: If we let it go.

Louise: It’s a bit freaky. It’s a bit freaky when it happens, ’cause you, you know-

Guy: It’s very freaky, but it’s perfectly normal. I just don’t think it’s that normal in the Western culture.

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: Or the drive, drive, drive kind of thing. Last question for you, Louise. What advice would you give someone listening to this that’s just beginning this journey?

Louise: I would say just … I was gonna say just take one step at a time, but really, I wouldn’t say that. I would say jump all in and do it. Just jump in and give it a really good crack and then come up and then look around and then maybe take it apart a little bit more. But I would jump in, fully immerse yourself in something. Try loads of the stuff out that we’re doing in the group. Come into the group more. I love the group and I love hearing people’s videos and sharing things ’cause there’s things that people say and I’m like, “Oh my god, that’s me too. I feel like that too.” You just feel collectively so much more together when people share more.

Louise: I just think just get in there and share and have your voice and let it come out and let us support you, because we’re all here. We’re all such in different places. I think the best bit about this group is we’re different ages and stages of lives. We’re totally different humans, yet we’ve all come together for a collective reason and the energy of that is beautiful. I think the more people share their experiences and ask the questions they think are really stupid and say the things that they think are really stupid, I think that’s one of the best ways. I think that vulnerability, and knowing that this is such a safe place to share those things would be one of the best things they could do.

Guy: Yeah, beautifully said. I second that. I encourage everyone as much as I can constantly to share and be vulnerable, because just that act of vulnerability is allowing this energy and this work to start to flow through you. It really is, and it’s huge. I have one more question that popped right in there, just to inspire everyone listening to this. How many times a week on average do you meditate now?

Louise: Seven.

Guy: Seven?

Louise: Yeah.

Guy: Is it worth the time and the effort that you get up to give that time to yourself, get beyond the analytical mind, get beyond the thoughts, start to observe, start to get to know your body really, really well and all your patterns and all your thoughts and all your emotions and all those fights and all those struggles? Is it worth it?

Louise: I think it … I need to do it 14 times a week, because I’m still sort of stuck. And yes, yes, I must answer that. I must actually say yes, it’s worth it. Do it. I need to now open myself up a bit more to extending to 30 or 40 minute meditations. I think I’m getting a little bit stuck in these sort of these 20 minute beauties. I reckon I need to push myself a little bit further, but if you can just start 10 minutes a day. It’s a game changer for me. It sets my head. So many of us were so busy juggling millions of things, I just couldn’t imagine not doing this.

Louise: This is like drinking water for me. It’s like essential. I have to have this every single day. Otherwise, I can’t seem … I can’t navigate my way through my day and when things come up, I’ll be off kilter if I don’t meditate.

Guy: Yeah, yeah. And from what I’ve seen, you’re reaping the rewards. From an observer, from within the group from where you started, you know, so it’s like … And we can all put that pressure on ourselves. We can all think that we’re not doing enough or being enough or [inaudible 00:23:14]. It’s awesome to have that excitement, but at the same time, there’s that just doing the work, right? You-

Louise: Yeah, absolutely, and I should actually say I don’t leap out of bed every day going, “Yes! I’m going to meditate.” Sometimes I actually hate it, and I don’t want to do it. I don’t, I’m not one of those people that … I know you say try to get yourself into a good space and actually go into your meditation with joy and energy and stuff like that, and I do endeavor to do that. However, you know, there’s some days, especially like Saturdays and Sundays. I’m just like, “Oh, God,” but they’re almost the days I need it the most because I’m yeah, crazy kids and stuff.

Louise: Yeah, yeah, it’s tough, and sometimes I can sit in meditations and think this is a pile of ass, I don’t want to be here. But it’s just showing up every single day and honoring myself in that way has been amazing for me.

Guy: Yeah, brilliant. I just want to add as well, I don’t get up every day jumping for joy, happy to go to do the meditation. But I work on it, I do work on it. And longer meditations are coming soon as well, Louise.

Louise: Awesome.

Guy: I’ll be working on them as well. And that’s it. Louise, thank you so much for coming on here and everything. You know, it’s gonna have a direct impact in helping everyone else that will listen and watch this video in the coming weeks, months, and potentially years as well.

Louise: Yay.

Guy: Thank you.

Louise: Thank you very much.

Guy: And for everything you do within the group.

Louise: Yeah, cool.

Guy: Cheers, Louise.