Day 107: Annabel Fitzsimmons
“When I’m clear on what my reality is and I’m living according to that, I think I’m bringing awareness to a situation. And when you do that, you open yourself up to much more growth, I think.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Annabel, for joining us today, and before we jump into those questions, can you please introduce yourself?
Annabel Fitzsimmons: Hi there. I’m Annabel Fitzsimmons, and I’m a writer, a yoga and Pilates teacher, and I’m the creator of ClearSpace Online which is an online studio, and we offer resources to live an inspired and balanced life. But I think most importantly, I’m a wife, and I’m the proud mom of two wonderful kids; so that’s my big role.
Toni: Well thank you for that. Annabel, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you go about that?
Annabel: Well, it’s funny. I think if I reflect on it, whenever I’ve been told that I inspire someone, it usually comes out of a place or a situation where I’ve been doing something I love, and I clearly love teaching yoga and Pilates. I love connecting with the body and helping people reconnect with their bodies.
I love writing, and I love helping people through ClearSpace Online to discover or reconnect with what makes them happy. And so I would think I would say that the people I inspire are either my clients or people who read my articles and blogs and can take something away with them.
But I think in all areas of my work — whether it’s writing or teaching or providing ClearSpace offerings — I’m passionate mainly about the body, about the breath and mind, and how an awareness of that can give you such an awareness of yourself and how to go about your everyday in a happy way, in a balanced way.
I’d say those are the people I inspire, and that’s how I inspire them. But then it gets a bit tricky because, if I look at it, it’s totally cyclical because the work I do inspires me, and my clients are all a part of that. So my clients inspire me, my readers inspire me. I learn from them, and that makes me happy, so we all inspire each other. It’s like what came first, the chicken or the egg, the who or the how? I think it’s a really … it’s a two-way street, and inspiration comes back and forth. It’s a really amazing flow in the work that I do.
Toni: Well let me go back to what you said you were passionate about there. You said it’s body, breath, and mind, right?
Annabel: Yes.
Toni: So, using the tools that you use and the work that you do to work in those three areas, can you give us an example of how that might help people to explore their potential in those three areas?
Annabel: Oh, absolutely. I’m a full believer that if you allow yourself to slow down and to listen and to reconnect with yourself, you can ask yourself true questions, and you can really get down to what makes you truly happy. If you’re breathing, you can’t ignore what your body’s saying, and you can’t ignore what your mind’s saying.
If you’re breathing deeply, you inherently have an awareness of what is going on in yourself and around you, so I think in terms of exploring your own potential, if you’re connected and centered and grounded in who you are — which is all of my work is about that — it’s just reconnecting with who you are.
If you’re centered and grounded in that, then your potential is amazing because you have nowhere to go but up; or that’s what I believe, anyway. I think our bodies are constantly telling us things, whether we listen or not, and our souls are as well. Often I find that our minds get in the way of that because we spend a lot of time in our heads.
And so what I try to do with yoga and Pilates and meditation is to get people out of the mind so much, get into your body or your breath, and usually you’re able to see a little bit more clearly, I think, when you have that.
I also infuse everything with a sense of humor and lightheartedness, because I think you have to have that. You have to reflect on things like time and tragedy equals comedy. Everything has a lighthearted note in it, and I think it’s really important to find humor in your reality, whatever that may be.
Toni: Well said. I happen to agree with you on that as well. Now, when you think about inspiration, what do you need to be inspired?
Annabel: I find that this hasn’t really changed much over the years. I think back to even when I was a teenager, and my formula is pretty simple. I need a pure mix of solitude and of social time. I need time to take in, and I need time to give back. So I find that balance is I have my quiet, my peace, and my calm time which grounds me, and that’s usually solo ventures like my yoga practice or running — which I find very meditative — walking, writing.
But on the flip side, you know, I love teaching, I love the energy of a class. I love music. I love live music. I love spending time with my family, my friends, entertainment, and all sorts of adventures, you know, going out for a hike with a group of people because that energizes me. It makes me laugh, and it keeps my spirit light. The ying/yang I always find I need one and then the other.
But I think also there are two things I’m always inspired by, and that’s nature and other people’s stories, so there’s never lack of either of those in this world really.
Toni: Absolutely. What is it … when you said that you like to take it in, the solitude, and to give back, and I wrote down the word breathing. I mean, it’s the same thing, isn’t it?
Annabel: Oh look at you, you just figured that out for me, that’s great! You’re taking it in and throwing it back. Absolutely.
Toni: It was absolutely wonderful because the solitude and the social, it’s taking it in, giving it back, and it’s the breathing. I thought “Wow, that’s very consistent through the interview.”
Annabel: You just put it in a nutshell, didn’t you? I wasn’t even thinking that, clearly.
Toni: That’s awesome.
Annabel: I really like that. I’m going to steal that.
Toni: What do you … are there tools or resources that you also might reach for when you know, “I need to get out of my own way here and go look to be inspired again”? You said nature and there’s adventures, but are there tools or resources you reach for as well?
Annabel: Well, I think I was joking with you. I love going to your website. I think there’s always amazing insights there.
Reading. There’s so much out there in terms of resources for reading and inspiration. Biographies, I find, are incredible, seeing people’s life challenges and what they’ve achieved, or just even listening to people who are recording the minutia of their day, and how everyone’s life is so different and the different attitudes and perspectives that we can glean from other people in the way they live their life.
I think we’re really lucky in this day and age with the web and with Twitter exploding how it is. There’s just an infinite amount of support and inspiration out there, I think. In particular, there are some very clear things that I know I need.
Toni: And those are what you’re seeking, those are what you reach out for?
Annabel: Yeah, in terms of developing … to be the best person that I can be right now, I know that I need accountability, for sure.
Toni: Can you give us an example of that? That’s a really nice way to lead into the fourth question, which is what do you need to explore your own potential, and the first thing that you say is accountability, so what do you mean by that?
Annabel: Well, I think especially in my line of work where a lot of our philosophy in yoga is about being and being with the moment. I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the “go with the flow” and just kind of let life carry you along its path. And I think especially being an entrepreneur, as well, the challenge for me is finding the balance between allowing things to happen and going with the flow versus setting a clear goal, taking action on it, and achieving certain milestones that I would like to work towards.
So what I’ve done and put in place for that is I have an incredible network of friends and colleagues who inspire me, and we have a mutual relationship, and I meet with them monthly. We set goals with each other, and we hold each other accountable.
It’s a great momentum, because we’re sharing each other’s successes, and we’re encouraging each other, and it ends up becoming a network anyway because we refer people and build relationships outside of just our network. But it is vital for me because, being self-employed, I don’t have a big boss. I don’t have someone looking down on me saying “Okay, so when are you finishing this project and doing that?”
I’m sure you understand that you need to have milestones and you need to be able to say “Okay, by this time, I would really like to get this project finished and start anew on this one.” That’s been really, really important for me.
Toni: Are there other tools and resources that you reach for? Accountability you spoke about, which is very, very important, but are their other ways that you explore your potential as well?
Annabel: Yes. Physically, I love running, and I love setting goals for myself, whether it’s a 10K, a half marathon, or a marathon; and I find it’s really interesting when I’m training for a race, it’s always cyclical. I find that I’m in my training zone, and I find that I’m getting things done and done and done. And I do my race, and it usually coincides with some completion of a project, which is great because it’s all energy moving forward.
But then I also need downtime, so I need kind of a recovery time to just hole up and rejuvenate and take things in again. That’s where journaling comes in for me. Journaling is a really huge part of my life. It always has been. I never used to call it journaling. I just wrote, right? But now it’s journaling, it’s the lingo. It is vital to help me look at where I am very clearly, because I can’t lie to the page.
When I’m clear on what my reality is and I’m living according to that, I think I’m bringing awareness to a situation. And when you do that, you open yourself up to much more growth, I think.
Toni: How do you take that, then? What you’ve spoken about which is so really eloquent … you speak about needing … being honest and needing that recovery time and not having to go, go, go, go, go, needing that accountability, but finding the balance of going with the flow but also setting goals. How does all of that then transcend into what you do for others?
Annabel: I think if I can be living the life that I’m … I’m just trying to think how to put it eloquently. You said eloquent, and now I’m losing my eloquence. I think if I am living the way that I want to be living and I’m doing the things that I love doing, then I can create an example for those around me that it is possible to do the things that you love and surround yourself by the things that you’re passionate about, and it is possible to have balance.
Your balance maybe be skewed some months and may not be other months, but I think if you find what works for you and you’re really aware of it, then I find for myself once you find that standard, it’s really hard to not hold yourself to that standard. Because I know if I’m not writing I’m avoiding something, and I know that when I go back to the page, something big is there that I have to face.
I think it’s a blessing, because I feel very fortunate that I’ve always been able to make a career out of the work that I love and the things that I love, and I know not everyone has that luxury or opportunity or ability. So I feel very blessed for that. I do think that once you experience that, it’s very hard to go away from it.
Toni: I would agree with you. You have given a wealth of information here, Annabel, not only the perspective of who you inspire and how you go about that — I just think that was amazing, and the body, the breath, and the mind and how that can help with your potential and to move you forward — but also what you need to be inspired and to move yourself forward and really how those two are connected, which is what you said in the very beginning.
It is that ying and the yang and what does come first, but I would imagine that you come first, and then that’s the power that you give to others.
So for everything that you’ve given us today for the Get Inspired! Project, I can’t thank you enough.
Annabel: I am so, so thrilled to be a part of it, and I think what you’re doing is fantastic, Toni. And I look forward to reading many, many more and seeing where this takes you.
Toni: Well thank you. Thank you very, very much, and hopefully we will speak again soon.
Annabel: Absolutely.
Toni: Take care.
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For more information about Annabel Fitzsimmons: www.clearspaceonline.com, ClearSpace Blog, MeditatingMummy Blog
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