Day 29: Cynthia Sharp

October 29, 2009 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“…the pebbles that we pick up in life — which is the knowledge, the inspiration, the love, the connection, all the different pebbles that we carry in our pockets on a daily basis — are things that at times we pass onto others, and there’s sometimes things that we hold close to our heart and that gives us the opportunity to open our hearts to others in maybe a more deep and a larger, connecting way.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Cynthia, for agreeing to take part in this project;, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Cynthia Sharp: Absolutely.  My name is Cynthia Sharp.  I am a body bonding coach.  Body bonding coaching is something that I came up with to help and support people like myself that have a birth defect called Poland Syndrome.   What I do is I help them through the science of mind, body, and spirit connection.  I guide them to a life full of loving relationships, personal success, and most important, self love.

Toni: Well that leads us very nicely into the first question, which is in the work that you do or in everyday life, who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Cynthia: Well my main goal is to help inspire and help those that have a birth defect called Poland Syndrome — which I was also born with the same birth defect — and it’s a little bit of a rare birth defect so a lot of people haven’t heard of it.  So let me share with you a little bit about what it is first before I talk about how I inspire them.

Toni: Okay.

Cynthia: The birth defect is a birth defect … typically it is on the right side of the body although people do have it on the left side which I know of because it’s on my left side of the body.  And it’s typically one of their hands are deformed, and then they are missing their minor and major pectoralis muscles.  So what that means is, for a man, is that their chest is very uneven because they have no muscles on one side of their chest.  For a woman, it means that they are born basically with typically either one very small breast or no breast whatsoever on one side of body.  And then their hand is born with webbed fingers and sometimes some other types of deformities; like maybe it could be smaller or they could be missing some fingers.  And then there’s other things; but those are the basics about Poland Syndrome.

So what I do is that — being in the case that I was born with this particular birth defect myself — I feel that I’ve really walked the path to understand the challenges that come along with having a birth defect.  And sometimes challenges can be our greatest gifts in life, and what I like to do is help and inspire others that have the same birth defect that I do move through the process of connecting back to loving the body that they were born with, because there’s this kind of separation that happens with people that, you know, aren’t connected on a spiritual or emotional level with their body and accepting it and loving it and just thinking that it’s fantastic.

So what I try to do to inspire them is, I first … when I work with clients I try to meet them on the path where they are.  We all walk on a path a little different place — you know, some of us are at the end of the path, some of us haven’t gotten over the starting line — so I find out where they are in their path and I stand with them there, and I walk on that path together and help lead them through the process of connecting back to self.

Toni: I see; that sounds amazing.  The question is who do you inspire and then how, and you’ve answered the how which is standing with them on that path.  And when you do that, Cynthia, how do you think that helps explore their potential?

Cynthia: I think that most of us all have a different type of potential and, unfortunately for some of us, that potential is hidden not because we don’t want to show it or we try to hide it, but sometimes we’re just not aware of what that hidden potential is.  What I try to do is I help them dig deep into their feelings on how they feel about themselves to find out what their potential possibly is.  And then what we do is we expand that potential; and we expand that potential by doing many different things.

You know, there’s many different steps that they can take to expand their potential.  But what I try to do mostly is help them find their hidden potential, tap into that hidden potential, and be aware that they have potential because that sometimes is the greatest piece to moving them to, you know … finding their own potential is to tap into what they truly have and what they truly love about themselves.

Toni: And so by standing with them, you can also help unveil that potential as you’re working with them.

Cynthia: Absolutely.  You know, I think that it helps in my situation that I probably stood somewhere on that same path or that same road along my life, and so there’s a lot of connection that goes on and a lot of reflection of what helped me.  And sometimes I can share that with them to help them with their potential, help them find and kind of dig deep on what it is that they need.

Toni: When you’re working with others in this amazing work that you do, I’m sure there’s times that you look for inspiration so, Cynthia, what do you need to be inspired?  What do you seek when you know that you need to find that inspiration?

Cynthia: That is such a fantastic question, Toni.  And you know before this interview, I really searched to try to figure out what was the right answer, and I came up with that there isn’t any really right answer, at least when it comes to me on a personal level.  And this is the reason why … is that each individual day I may need something a little bit different to inspire me.  I have many friends and associates that do different things to inspire themselves, whether they run 5 miles or they are a member of a certain group or they maybe have a certain spiritual affiliation that they’re a member of.  And I seem to like to do a little bit of everything as far as inspiring myself.

So what does that mean?  So some days, the most important thing for me to inspire myself is to know that I need peace and quiet and alone time to recharge my batteries and to get myself back in the swing of things, so to speak.  And other days I really need to connect and be with other people and feel that energy and that synergy that kind of connects us all together.  And then at other times, it’s about getting up and just moving forward towards that path; and that can be some form of exercise or yoga, and sometimes it can be meditation.  So it’s just about knowing what it is that I need on each individual day and being open to doing whatever that is to move myself and inspire myself.

Toni: Do you look for any particular tools or resources when you know that it’s that time and, depending on that day in that moment, that you reach for certain resources than others?

Cynthia: I think my biggest resource is my inner voice, and I think that’s the resource that I have to go to and I have not … you know, when people are listening to this interview, I’m sure some of them are going to say, “Well, you know, it’s not that easy always to hear your inner voice”, or “I don’t always know when it’s calling me or sharing with me that I need to step forward and do something a certain way.”  But what I’ve really learned over the years that just to take that deep breath in that moment and listen and walk forward after I get the message.  And you know, typically the message comes very clear and very brightly.  It’s just taking that deep breath and listening, and we all get so caught up in this world.  Either we’re driving our kids to soccer or we’re driving back and forth to work; we have dinner to cook; we have, you know, all these kind of to-do lists.  And what I find is that my greatest tool is just spending a few minutes of that quiet time and listening and taking the next step after that.

Toni: How do you use that inner voice to help you explore your own potential and, in addition to that as your greatest source of inspiration, are there other tools or resources that you might use to help you explore your own potential?

Cynthia: I think that exploring your own potential is all part of that, you know, path that I’ve talked about that we walk down in life.  As a matter of fact, recently on one of my blogs I wrote this little thing that just seems to explain it so well to me.  … is that some of those just kind of jump out into this life, and we’re filled with confidence , we know which direction we want to go in; and then there are the pebble picker-uppers, and those are the people that are walking on the daily path and they are picking up pebbles along the way.

So the best way that I explore my own potential is when I pick up the pebble, whatever that may be.  So that pebble may be meeting a new person, it may be something that I’ve read, it may be something that I hear through somebody else’s inspiration, it could be an inspirational story of somebody overcoming a challenge.  Whatever that is, when I pick up that pebble, I put it in my pocket and I hold it with me, and I use that to help me reflect on what my potential is and create the best potential I can in my life.

Toni: How do you take that analogy of picking up the pebble and doing something with that, holding onto it, and putting that back to how you might use it with your ability to inspire others?  Do you think there’s a relationship between the two?

Cynthia: Oh, absolutely.  I mean, don’t you agree, Toni, that the pebbles that we pick up in life — which is the knowledge, the inspire, the love, the connection, all the different pebbles that we carry in our pockets on a daily basis — are things that at times we pass onto others, and there’s sometimes things that we hold close to our heart and that gives us the opportunity to open our hearts to others in maybe a more deep and a larger, connecting way.  But probably most important is that we don’t hold onto them, you know; we don’t hold on to that knowledge and that love and that inspiration that we get ourselves, but we’re willing to pass those along as we go along in life.  And I feel that I do that, whether I do it with my family, my children, and again of course, my clients that I love so much.

Toni: Cynthia, what I’m hearing from you is that when you talked about how you inspire others you mentioned that you stand with them, and so the picture I have in my head is you standing with them to create that awareness, but also handing them those pebbles, and I think that’s amazing.  I thank you so very, very much for your willingness to take part in this project.

Cynthia: Well, I thank you so very, very much, Toni.  And I just want to tell you that one thing that definitely inspires me is you and your project; so I think you’re a great inspiration to others, and I thank you very much for involving me.

Toni: Thank you so much, Cynthia.  It’s been a pleasure, and I hope we speak again soon.

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For more information about Cynthia Sharp:  www.bodybonding.com

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