Rooting Into What’s Real with Jennifer Sterling

04/29/20 • 55 min

#009: This week's guest is Jennifer Sterling, who lives in Manhattan with her 8 year old son. In this episode, Jennifer gets honest about her experience of being pregnant, which lasted 44 weeks and included pregnancy-long nausea and trouble gaining weight. She also describes her traumatic cesarean birth experience and shares the difficulties she faced during the postpartum period, which included flashbacks to her birth, her divorce, and a period with homelessness. She reveals what she finds rewarding and difficult about being a single mom and what she does to stay nourished. We talk about Jennifer’s work as a registered Dance/Movement Psychotherapist, how she chose the term ‘bodyful’ for her organization that supports black women living with depression, and she suggests a gentle approach for gaining access to pleasure in the body. We also discuss her book Dear Strong Black Woman which speaks to the experience of upholding the “strong black woman” ideal through powerful poetic expression. Finally, Jennifer offers wise suggestions for women who find themselves navigating motherhood and depression, or any other of life’s challenges.

Jennifer Sterling is a registered dance/movement psychotherapist and holistic nutritionist based in New York City. She is also the creator of Bodyful Healing, an organization that provides mental health support to black women living with depression. Her book Dear Strong Black Woman: Letters of Nourishment and Reflection from One Strong Black Woman to Another is available via a link in the show notes, or on Amazon.

For the links and show notes for this episode, head to: http://beingmompodcast.com/podcast/episode-009

For the links and show notes for this episode, head to: http://beingmompodcast.com/podcast/episode-009

Previous Episode

Following the Soul Yes with Erin Pace

#008: This week's guest is Erin Pace, who lives in New York City with her family, which includes her husband and their 2 year old son. In this episode, Erin shares the beautiful story of her son’s birth via surrogacy, a decision she made with her husband after several disappointing rounds of IVF which did not result in pregnancy. Erin’s 8-year story of perseverance, faith, surrender, gratitude, and love is inspiring. She even explains how she and her husband remained connected to each other along their journey together. Erin also talks about being a mom to a toddler, what she found surprising about motherhood, and her practice of all-day self care. She talks about the origins of her faith, and how that now translates into her spiritual and somatic work with women.

Erin is a sensual movement teacher, spiritual realignment guide and body reader. Her “Responsive Body Practice” combines cognitive, somatic, intuitive and spiritual tools to help women return to and stay aligned with their highest self-connection. From thriving leaders to women who might be experiencing anxiety, shame, grief, life-threatening disease, etc., she helps them keep their vessel clear and align with divinity and potential. It’s what she refers to as activating the whole holy self.

Erin holds a BFA from Syracuse University and has 30+ years of experience in various arenas of professional dance/theater, event production, company management, celebrity assistance and more. She has spent the last 11 years as an S Factor teacher, devoted to helping women become fully expressed as emotional erotic beings. The spiritual design of her work is influenced by a plethora of great thought leaders and practitioners including Paul Ferrini, Pema Chodron, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Bruce Lipton and more. www.erinpace.com

For the links and show notes for this episode, head to: http://beingmompodcast.com/podcast/episode-008

Next Episode

Planting Seeds for Truth with Liz Baghaei

#010: This week's guest is Liz Baghaei, who lives in Burbank, CA with her soon-to-be 5 year old son. In this episode, Liz shares her incredible story of becoming a single mom. She talks about her unexpected, yet healthy, pregnancy, how pregnancy positively impacted her relationship to her body, and her easy, unmedicated, doula-supported birth. Liz describes the loneliness and anxiety of her first year as a mom and what helped her stay connected to herself despite having very little support. She also tells the inspiring story of how she persevered into business ownership by breaking ground for her hot yoga school, Stretch when her son was just 7 months old. Liz gets honest about what she found surprising about motherhood, the rewarding relationship she has with her son, and what is challenging her the most as a mother right now. She also talks about how she stays grounded, what drew her to studio ownership, and how she defines authenticity. Finally, Liz explains how yoga, breath, and meditation show up in her real-life moments of anxiety and/or mothering stress.

Liz Baghaei was born in Iran and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She is the owner and lead teacher of Stretch, a high-end yoga school with authentic teaching of the therapeutic Bishnu Ghosh lineage. She has been practicing yoga for over 18 years and has been a Bikram certified teacher for over 13 years.

With her educational background in literature and communication, she created the unique opportunity to immerse herself in working with teachers through secondary education through labs and feedback. Her passion has always been how to improve the teaching of posture mechanics, operational command, conscious precise language, and energetic connection. Through this work, she realized her potential in her ability to mentor others and so began her journey to open her school.

Liz built her custom 5000 sq ft school from the ground up, and while she faced incredible struggles and obstacles along the way, she believed in this school and persevered. During this time she unexpectedly became pregnant with her only son.

What drove her to continue was that each time she stood on her mat it was evident that this was her calling. Her passion for helping her students flourished even as her challenges increased. She continues to use the same skills and techniques she teaches her students: to breathe, to lean into discomfort, to surrender, and to allow the path to unfold as it should.

For the links and show notes for this episode, head to: http://beingmompodcast.com/podcast/episode-010