February 3, 2025 • 35 mins
Ever wondered how movement can transform not just your body, but your entire way of living? Join us as we welcome Tara Walsh, an expert horticulturalist and outdoor enthusiast, whose life story is a testament to the power of movement.
From the physically demanding world of horticulture to her mountain biking and outdoor adventures, Tara’s journey highlights the incredible benefits of balancing high-level athletic training with mindful recovery practices. Her experience with Moving Spirit Pilates reshaped her approach to healing, teaching her the importance of listening to her body and embracing resilience.
As we chat with Tara, we unravel the art of integrating self-care into rigorous training routines. It's a shift from the "no pain, no gain" mindset to a more sustainable approach that honors the body's need for recovery. Learn how everyday rituals and mindful practices, often overlooked in favor of more intense workouts, can be transformative. By acknowledging the body's interconnected nature, Tara helps us see the value in incorporating Pilates, yoga, and other mindful activities into our lives, ensuring we enjoy the sports and hobbies we love well into our later years.
Our conversation expands beyond personal performance, revealing the profound significance of interconnectedness in our lives. By recognizing our bodies as holistic systems that mirror the natural world, Tara’s insights teach us to foster deeper connections with ourselves and our environment. We explore the necessity of staying present in a fast-paced technological era, and how embracing a holistic view can lead to more meaningful relationships and sustainable living. Let Tara’s story inspire you to integrate movement, presence, and connection into a life full of joy and purpose.
Walsh & Co Gardens and Design Ltd.
Heart of Motion Podcast host Susannah Steers is a Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist and owner of Moving Spirit Pilates in North Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about movement, about connections and about life.
Through movement teaching, speaking, and facilitating workshops, she supports people in creating movement practices that promote fitness from the inside out. She loves building community, and participating in multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Along with her friend and colleague Gillian McCormick, Susannah also co-hosts The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast – an interview based podcast dedicated to promoting the kind of conversations about health that can spark positive change in individuals, families, communities and across the globe.
Social Media Links:
Moving Spirit Pilates Instagram
Moving Spirit Pilates Facebook
Susannah Steers Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susannah Steers (00:00):
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast.
I'm Susannah Steers and I'll beyour host as we explore the
heart, soul and science ofmovement as a pathway to more
active, vibrant and connectedliving.
Nothing happens until somethingmoves, so let's get started.
In recent weeks on the podcast,we've talked about presence and
(00:21):
movement not only as strategiesfor fitness and health, but as
ways to connect more deeply toourselves and to others in
meaningful ways.
Aside from the fact that mybody loves to move, I think this
aspect of connection has been adriving force for me in my work
as a movement educator and as ahuman being.
I honestly believe thatlearning to be aware of all the
(00:44):
moving parts of our lives canhave an impact not only on the
lives we're leading, but on theworld we're living in In these
unpredictable times.
I do believe that we can make adifference if we tune out the
faff and attune ourselves towhat is really important in the
moment.
I'm sure there are a millionand eight different ways to do
(01:05):
this, but since my worldinvolves movement, that's where
I've spent a lot of timeexploring, and today I want to
introduce you to my friend andlongtime client, Tara Walsh.
Tara is a horticulturalist inNorth Vancouver and owner of
Walsh and Co Gardens.
In addition to a very physicaljob, Tara loves to work and play
(01:26):
outside in just about anyweather.
She's an athlete.
She adores mountain biking,hiking, paddleboarding, camping
all of it.
Over the years we've spent alot of time together working
through injury and pain,building strength and stamina in
new ways, figuring out patternsof movement that work for her
and those that maybe work lesswell, and exploring ways she can
(01:48):
attune to her movement whileshe's doing all the things she
loves to do so she can feelbetter doing it.
I think you're going to loveour conversation about movement,
presence and connection fromthe perspective of someone with
a pretty hardcore movementhistory.
Welcome to the podcast Tara!
Tara Walsh (02:07):
Thank you, sue, thanks for having me.
Susannah Steers (02:08):
Well, you know what I really was excited about
talking to you, because I talkto a lot of people whether it's
at work, in the studio or on thepodcast or anywhere, about
movement and fitness and all ofthat kind of thing, with varying
people have varying degrees ofinterest and engagement in the
movement of their bodies and thestate of their bodies.
(02:28):
But you are someone who movesall the time.
What is it?
How does that show up?
Tara Walsh (02:35):
So in my work.
I'm a horticulturalist and Ilove the field work so of course
I'm trying to maintain that atthe you know the stage of my
life, which is a little bit morechallenging sometimes.
So that's field work.
That's pruning ladders, movingsoil, moving trees, plants
moving, moving, moving, movingup and down stairs, in and out
of trucks.
Susannah Steers (02:55):
Heavy.
- Days it can be very, veryheavy and full on and it's
weirdly become year round aswell, which is great, and each
season has sort of differentdemands, like summer's a lot
lighter because we're notusually doing as much
installation or transplanting orthat kind of thing.
It also is in my play lifebecause I love to be outside, I
(03:19):
love to ski, I love to mountainbike paddleboard hike even
simple things like walk my dog.
I love to mountain bikepaddleboard hike, even simple
things like walk my dog, ride mybike around town to do my
errands.
It's sort of everything in mylife, personal and professional.
Most of my social life isconnected to doing things
outside that are activities, andso basically when I am injured,
(03:39):
I'm a little more experiencedto being injured now, but it's
like I'm a bit lost.
I love to move, I love to beoutside and even moving inside.
I just love to move, it's allfactors in my life.
It's interesting because a lot of us
expect that we are not going toget hurt, right, and we hope
(04:00):
that happens.
But just like anything else, ifyou're engaged in movement, if
you're engaged in things thatinvolve your body, probably at
some point you're going toexperience an injury, whether
it's a sprained ankle, whetherit's an overuse injury, whether
it's whatever you're doing.
Yeah, you can do things thatwill help you to prevent that to
(04:24):
some degree or to preventfrequency of injury or chronic
nature of injury.
But at some point in our liveswe're going to get hurt and
hopefully, if we're in goodcondition and the injury is not
too crazy severe, we can comeback from that with.
You know, really a little time,right, it just takes some time
(04:47):
to heal and kind of reorganizeour systems a little bit and get
them back moving.
So when we first met, tara hasbeen a client at Moving Spirit
Pilates for a lot of years now.
Yeah, a long time.
But when we first met you'd hada back injury.
Yeah, a long time ago.
But when we first met you'd hada back injury and I still
remember you saying you know, Ijust need a highly trained
(05:10):
athlete.
Let me just get that out of thedoor.
Tara works pretty hard andtrains pretty hard, and I knew
how important all this work boththe horticulture you know your
day job, for lack of a betterword and your movement life was
(05:30):
to you and you said to me atfirst all I want is a few
exercises to get me back ontrack, which totally makes sense
, right?
You already your body iswell-trained, you used to moving
, you're used to doing that kindof thing, so all you needed was
a little guidance and some newideas, new exercises to get you
going.
But I think you discovered aswe went along that maybe there
(05:50):
was a different way to approachit, and I'm curious about maybe
what you found in that process.
Tara Walsh (05:56):
Yeah, that's a really great question because I
still cringe when I think aboutsaying that to you.
Because I came to your studiounder duress my longtime massage
therapist insisted because yougot tired of putting me back
together from all the falls offmy mountain bike and work and
things like that and I reallywas quite I'm going to be blunt
(06:17):
I was dismissive.
I didn't understand remotelywhat the work was about and I
was trained.
I was racing at a high level inmountain biking but I was
trained in terms of drive yourbody into the ground Right.
Don't ask, just tell her whatshe's going to do.
And expecting her to givewithout proper and I say this in
(06:39):
hindsight now without properroom to care, proper maintenance
outside of you know, an amazingRMT and you diet all of that
like it was just like I'm goingto do this thing and I expected
my body to perform.
So it was quite shocking to mewhen I had my first substantial
injury in my early 40s and itwas, you know I came to see you
(07:02):
and it was like it just peeledmy mind open because that couple
of things to do at home hasturned into it's an integral
part of my life.
Now I don't like to skip myappointments because what you
taught me changed how I move,just for putting groceries away,
(07:23):
picking something, up to how Iride my mountain bike, for
however many hours.
It's completely blown the lidoff what I think of as training
and how I would even go so faras to how I engage in my body,
with my body and in my body in aday to day life, because it's
(07:44):
not, yes, yes, there's certainthings that you train me to do
and learn how to do that Ipractice, but I don't go home
and do Pilates per se or whatyou teach me.
Yes, I practice it, but Iactually, the way you've taught
me, I've integrated it andchanged how I move, just in my
day-to-day world.
Susannah Steers (08:04):
Right.
I think that, for me, is reallyone of the most important
pieces.
You talk about trainingyourself into the ground and I
don't know if maybe that was apart of what we learned as young
people in the day, as women ofa certain age.
I remember I had a shirt, likea t-shirt, that I wore proudly,
that said sweat, pain, agony onthe front and had on the back
(08:29):
love it, you know.
And there's all those things.
Pain is weakness, leaving thebody, all of those things right
which, yes, on a certain level,when you are training at a high
level of athletics or ofperformance, there is a certain
level of having to push yourselfpast your current limits.
(08:50):
But if you're training that way24-7, and that's all you know,
that's all your body experiences, then there's never any growth
because you're just drivingyourself into the ground.
So we practice Pilates together.
That's something that we do.
But I think one of the thingsthat I find interesting, both
(09:14):
with you and a lot of the peoplethat I work with, is you find
the things that are mostmeaningful for you in your body.
You start to recognize thethings that support you or
prepare you for I rememberasking you another question at
one point when you were off to arace.
What do you do after your race?
(09:35):
Do you just throw your bike inthe back of the truck and go, or
is there something that you dofor yourself at the end of the
race?
And again, this was an olderwoman speaking to a younger
woman.
So maybe you were still at astage where you could, because
we can get away with anything inyour twenties right, you can
get away with anything.
Well, I exaggerate.
(09:57):
That's not always the case, butyou can get away with a heck of
a lot and your body kind offigures it out.
But as you get older thatchanges and I find there is more
time spent now, more timenecessary on the smaller things,
the supportive things, so thatyou can do the big things.
It's not that you can't do thebig things, but you need a
(10:19):
little more love and attentionto the smaller details, the
fundamentals, the structuralsupports, and so what I love to
hear is that you're doing somestuff at home and that that's a
sort of part of your day now.
Tara Walsh (10:34):
Yeah, and it's funny because for years I avoided it
and I would say, in a way, Ioutsourced my maintenance to you
RMTs, fascial stretch people,physios.
I mean I would do what I wasdirected to a point.
Then I'm better and I wouldabandon it.
And now one of the shifts hasbeen I look forward to that time
(10:57):
on the mat at home every day,or if I feel like I'm slightly
off, most times I'm able to nipit in the bud and get on the mat
or get on the floor, do what Ineed to do, just to reset myself
.
And that's been a huge change.
And it's funny because it tiesinto that sometimes habit of
avoiding that which is best forus, because it's not a big
(11:18):
amount of time that we're askingand sometimes it can be five
minutes that I can just reset,and then I'm actually more
cognitively present as well asphysically present, right, and
it's.
It's funny how I really didn'tunderstand at the outset what
the work was about, how it isn'tjust about keeping you on your
bike.
It it has woven itself intoevery aspect of my life.
Susannah Steers (11:44):
How did you?
Because I know it's hard,especially when you're injured,
because I went through this tooright when I started doing this
kind of work.
It was like, wow, this isn't aworkout, come on, give me
something.
And it wasn't.
Yes, there were things I neededto address, but throwing a
whole bunch of muscle at itindiscriminately was not
necessarily well for me.
(12:05):
It absolutely was not the path,because that's what I'd always
done.
I'm curious, especially when,initially, it wasn't delivering
massive immediate returns, whenyou weren't feeling like, wow,
I've turned a corner.
Today, you weren't walking awayfrom the studio at the end of
the day going aha.
Tara Walsh (12:24):
Like a ride for five hours again.
Susannah Steers (12:25):
Yeah, so what kept you engaged, what kept you
interested?
Even though it was spinningyour brain around, you didn't
understand it and it felt hard.
Tara Walsh (12:44):
The physical.
Well, there's a sweetest hit ofease and connectivity that
you're like this is what it'ssupposed to feel like and I only
have I don't want to say I onlyhave to do that, because
getting to that point is likerehab is.
I understand why people chooseto not do it, um, but there's
(13:05):
this.
You hit this and I don't want.
It's not adrenaline, maybe it'sdopamine, but you hit this
sweet feeling of oh, that's it,that's what it's supposed to
feel like and that's that's thebody in its finest form of
movement.
Susannah Steers (13:21):
And what does that feel like for you?
I understand that, the hit andits ease.
What else does it?
What does it feel likephysically?
Tara Walsh (13:29):
What got me hooked about it?
There was an ease to it that Iwas not familiar with.
I, and I still, struggle withthe well, if it's not working,
just throw more at it.
But that ease is it's addictive.
It's like in terms of that'sall I got to do Then.
If I could just have to do that, then I can do this for hours,
for years, like I don't have tostop doing what I'm doing.
(13:49):
There's lots of this mindsetthat well, at some point you
need to get up mountain bikingand I'm sure at some point I
will or you know, downwinding orwhatever it is that I'm doing,
even gardening, like youcertainly adjust.
But when I have that feeling itmakes me feel like I'm going to
be doing a lot of things for avery, very long time.
If I can keep following thispath and that type of movement,
(14:13):
because it's frictionless, it'seffortless.
It feels like the most naturalthing in the world that your
body was built to do that Right.
It's all the other stuff thatwe do around it that makes that
more difficult.
Susannah Steers (14:24):
Because our bodies are built to move right,
mm-hmm.
And the sad reality of ourlives is that we're all in a
movement deficit.
The life in the Western worldthat is created for us, that it
makes it easy to get places inyour car and you're sitting at
your TV or your desk or yourcomputer or so much of the
(14:44):
things that used to be justdaily activities of living are
now so much less, and so weactually have to move more.
But that doesn't just meanthrowing everything you have at
an exercise or an activity.
It's the small little thingstoo.
There is definitely something.
(15:06):
As we age, it's a changing ofthe relationship.
As you say, when you find theright supports, you can keep
doing what you do in terms ofthe activities that you like to
do, yeah, um, and.
And so often we get to a pointwhere we say, oh, it's just, I'm
getting old and it's hard tosee that.
(15:27):
That point where people startaccepting that this is about age
seems to be getting younger, Iguess, because it's not
something.
We don't spend a lot of timetalking about movement.
We talk about all the thingsaround health, which generally
involve just muscle mass andcardiovascular health and
mobility, and it's not so muchabout how we live in our bodies.
Tara Walsh (15:48):
No, and it's also like, especially as we get older
, if I could move moreefficiently, I can move more, I
can move for longer, I don't.
It doesn't have to reduce that,and that's part of the magic of
it.
The word I keep coming back tois frictionless right.
It just feels like from apurely physics point of view,
that's how my arm or my leg orwhatever is supposed to move,
(16:12):
and it feels like when you tapinto that, it feels like you can
keep doing it forever.
Susannah Steers (16:17):
In the last episode of the podcast I talked
a lot about what seems to be athing we do around movement for
health these days, and it'sexercise, which is, you know,
physical fitness, and there are,as research evolves, different
recommendations what people do,but typically it revolves around
(16:38):
building muscle mass, andcardiovascular health seem to be
the top two, and absolutely Ido not disagree with those.
But it seems like it's either orand I don't know if that's
something that the fitnessindustry creates it's either
sort of a certain brand offitness that gets those results
and we see muscles change and wesee changes in weight and that
(16:58):
kind of thing or bodycomposition, or we see people
doing softer things which arepurely I won't say purely, but I
think a lot of people figurethey're just softer, easier,
lighter.
Maybe they're more for mentalhealth than for anything else,
and you know I include Pilates,I include yoga, I include you
know a lot of other things TaiChi in there and I don't know.
(17:22):
I think it's interesting thatwe've created, you know there
are people who do this and thereare people who do that Right,
and there are growing numbers, Ithink, of people who are
discovering that there are valueto both.
But I do find it reallyinteresting that there's sort of
still a hierarchy around whatpeople do and what people won't
(17:43):
do.
Do you notice that?
Do you see that in your world?
Tara Walsh (17:51):
Oh, absolutely, Because one.
I was guilty of it myself whenI was first "pressured into
going to Pilates.
But what I see now is where itshows up for me is I have a lot
of people saying oh, you're sofit you do all these things.
How are you still doing thesethings?
And I don't make any secretabout where I go and where I
spend my time and how lucky I amto get to work in your studio
with you and your amazing team.
But as soon as I say Pilates,you see the veil come down,
(18:18):
you're complete, it's dismissed,and I do think the work you're
doing like I've never been toPilates from anywhere else.
So I'll be honest about that,this is my experience.
But I've started to say youknow anywhere else.
So I'll be honest about that,this is my experience.
But I've started to say you knowmovement educator, that sort of
thing, and even that people aretheir eyes glaze over.
It's quite interesting, and youwere the first time it happened
was real glimpse for me intoyour world of what you're kind
(18:40):
of up against in terms ofpeople's attitudes.
That dismissiveness is.
I find it very kind of shocking, even though I myself was a bit
guilty of it, you know it'slike.
Well, I have because I didn'tunderstand and I didn't at that
point.
I hadn't had the felt sense ofwhat it's like to actually move,
like my body was meant to move.
And then, once I had thatexperience, I understood like
(19:04):
boom, you can't not see it.
Susannah Steers (19:05):
You know, we talk about going to see people
and and and the people that wesee, that, the professionals
that may support us in variousways, whether it's
physiotherapists, whether it'sPilates teachers, whether it's
doctors, whether it's yoga, youknow, like wherever fitness
instructors, wherever you go,everybody has a certain pathway
in right and everybody may havetheir pieces of the pie in terms
(19:27):
of what we, as individuals needto learn.
I think one of the things thatis most exciting for me is when
I start to see people like youwho sort of go oh, if I pay
attention to this in a differentway like I'm the common
denominator, I'm the body inwhich all of these things is
happening and I am the one who'sexperiencing this, that or the
(19:50):
other thing, and when you canreclaim your own agency.
You had said earlier yououtsourced your understanding,
and I see that everywhere.
It's something that we do.
We want the simple answer.
We want for lack of a betterword the magic pill.
We want the thing, that's likeokay, if I do that, all the rest
(20:11):
of it is solved.
And what I find fascinating iswhen I see people like you kind
of go oh, you're not going toget everything in a Pilates
studio, that's not real or evendesirable.
But there are pieces there thatI hope you can take with you
and incorporate in your worldand I know you have other
sources, whether it's being onyour bike and getting the
(20:33):
information there, or whetherit's at a stretch therapist or
wherever you're going, you'reliving your life and when you
start to pay attention to whatthe pieces are and how they all
come together inside of you andsomething like a movement
practice that may incorporatePilates or other things, is a
way to I don't know bringattention to and help you
(20:57):
integrate them in your body in away that you can use in your
life Absolutely, and I think,well, there's a combination of.
Tara Walsh (21:06):
In my experience there's a combination of things
like in the time working withyou and recovering from you know
, various injuries and justmileage.
I've always, prior to workingwith you, I've always thought
about, oh, I need to get physiofor this, or my shoulder bothers
me, or my knee or whatever.
And now I think of it in termsof the connections between the
whole chain.
It in terms of the connectionsbetween the whole chain and
(21:31):
that's been a game changer inboth recreational and my work,
in terms of how I'm going to getsomething done, or how it feels
to do that thing and then to beable to go and do it again when
you're set up, not justthinking about, oh, I have to
mind my knee.
It's like, well, if I tap inand feel that whole chain of
what's all connected to makethat action happen, you have a
natural exhale and it's almostto me, almost like meditation,
(21:51):
that calming presence that itbrings mentally and physically
and being able to bring that toa high level.
Cardio thing is also notsomething I ever, ever expected.
Like you know, a stiff climb ona mountain bike.
If I'm holding the rightposition, I'm still working, I'm
sweating, I'm doing all that,but there's a connection between
(22:13):
my mind and my body that isvery different.
Susannah Steers (22:16):
You're receiving information as well as
directing.
Tara Walsh (22:19):
And you're present in a different way, like it's
more of a whole body experience,if I can say that Like.
For me it is a very I don'twant to use the word spiritual,
but you start to have a bettersense of the mental, physical
connection.
Susannah Steers (22:35):
It's funny.
I often describe, I think, whatyou're saying.
You know, we often think of thebody as being quite linear,
right, and X does this to.
Y and these hook in and there'squite a mechanical perspective.
For me, and this has alwaysbeen my felt sense of the body
is it's more like a holograph ora hologram, that there are all
(22:56):
these things working at the sametime and sometimes one takes a
little priority.
Or, like the graphic equalizeron your stereo, you know like
it's all there, it's all in thesame container.
We like to think we cancompartmentalize the mental and
the emotional and the physicaland do that, and for a long time
I was really good atcompartmentalizing and probably
(23:18):
you were too, or I still am, ifI'm not being present.
But I think what I findinteresting about that is you
start to feel it as a whole.
So it's less about this linearthing, it as a whole.
So it's less about this linearthing.
And yeah, you can maybe processinto the track of how does my
spine support and what I'm doingwith my shoulder affect the
power in my hip and you can playwith that, because now you know
(23:40):
how to go there.
But, also, you start torecognize that I didn't get a
very good sleep last night.
That's going to change things.
How do I put that into thepuzzle?
Tara Walsh (23:49):
And.
Susannah Steers (23:50):
I'm really sad about something in my life right
now and in a way, you can lookat those things almost as
additional loads on your system,like adding weight into a
weight program.
It's adding an additional load,and so, really, then, what
we're looking at is how do wemanage that load, and is just
(24:10):
throwing more weight at it thething that we need to do, or are
we looking at a differentsolution?
Maybe your best bet that dayisn't a really hard ride.
Tara Walsh (24:19):
yeah, you know, it could be a gentler ride or a,
you know, something differentyeah, and there's a kind of a
magic freedom that comes fromallowing yourself to feel what
your body needs, and I actuallythink it makes you a better
athlete because you're moretuned in and it's that.
I don't need that today.
(24:40):
I don't need to hammer morehome, I need to, I'm off, I'm
tired.
Today, I'm going to listen tothat.
And also the whole conceptwhich was mind blowing for me
was to ask my body what she hadto give that day.
Yes, as opposed to, I have thislist, I have this ride I want to
do, or this hike or the ski,and this is how it's going to be
(25:02):
.
And then I'm not reallyenjoying it as much because I'm
not, I'm asking too much, orI've already asked too much.
The well is a little bitunderstocked.
So it's a very interesting.
It's kind of the opposite ofthe mainstream, what I perceive
as the mainstream fitnessprogram, end of things.
It's like not pushing myselfall the time, which was what I
(25:24):
only, the only thing I knew howto do, and so when you change
that, I feel like I'm.
It's a kind of a richerexperience because it's not
driven by just the mind, it's awhole physical experience of I'm
here, I'm now, this is what Ihave today, and I think that
actually I feel like that's mademe a better athlete.
Susannah Steers (25:42):
I mean, when we look at the typical training
arcs, right, if you're trainingfor a competition, you're
working towards it, you knowtowards it.
You're starting at A and yourwhole training plan is designed
to get you to your peakperformance on the day of your
competition or of your season,whatever.
That is kind of thinking intothat larger training arc,
(26:13):
because there are physicalrealities around how you're
going to build that strength toget to where you want to be at
the right time.
But what I find interesting iswhen you really start to pay
attention.
Yes, I mean, the only way youget stronger is by pushing right
.
The only way you are going togain more is by taking yourself
out of your current comfort zone.
You've got to change that right.
It's got to be something alittle bit different.
(26:33):
But again, if you're payingattention as an athlete, when
you're in your body all the time, you start to recognize when
it's the kind of fatigue that'sfatigue just because you're
doing something hard, that's new, or when it's like whoa, I'm
done, I'm just done, and itdoesn't mean you have to stop
and do nothing.
No, there are other ways youcan move your body.
(26:55):
There are other ways you can dothings.
Maybe it is just a rest day, ormaybe it's a day when you're
doing something a little bitquieter, but I find sometimes it
takes courage to give yourselfthe grace or the permission to
to take that time for yourself,because the pressures are very
(27:15):
much not in that direction.
Tara Walsh (27:18):
Yeah, and it also begs the question of like what's
driving the need for thatcompulsive working out?
What am I avoiding?
What am I not?
Why am I unable to sit withhaving a rest day, giving my
body what she needs?
Susannah Steers (27:36):
Yeah, or the food she needs, or the many,
many different pieces that go inthere.
Obviously, I am not trainingworld champion athletes and.
I'm sure they would weigh in ina different way on this, but
really I'm always moreinterested in people and, yes,
the performance.
If the performance is importantto them, I want to help them do
(27:58):
that.
But I also want to recognizethe person in there and what is
important about their livesbeyond the performance that they
seek.
Tara Walsh (28:10):
Well, and I think that ties back to your hologram
analogy, because I think in someways we're very driven for one
dimensional must have workoutand tapping into this work, you
start to feel physicallyyourself as a three dimensional,
like it's not just this onetrack of must must, feel sore
and tired and feel like I gotvery structured thing.
(28:32):
There's nothing wrong with thestructure thing, that's how you
get places, but it's alsoallowing for what else is in the
mix and I think that's wherewe're kind of like a lot of
people are maybe missing out onthat okay.
Susannah Steers (28:45):
so now I'm going to go out into the world
of woo a little bit, but this ismy world, I live in it, so I'm
going to own out into the worldof woo a little bit, but this is
my world, I live in it, so I'mgoing to own it.
We've been talking a lot aboutconnections.
Right, there's connectionsinside the body, the heart, the
muscles, the brain, the nervoussystem, the various parts of you
, your fascia, how they allconnect together emotional,
(29:05):
physical, mental health.
Those all play together.
You're a horticulturalist, youwork in the natural world and I
know for sure you seeconnections in the systems in
which you work every day.
Tara Walsh (29:20):
Oh, for sure, yeah, if you're paying attention.
Susannah Steers (29:22):
So I'm curious because I feel these whenever I
go for a walk, when, like, Ifind, the deeper I go into this
work, the more I feel thesewhenever I go for a walk.
I find the deeper I go intothis work, the more I feel
connected to everything aroundme.
So it's not just me myself andI, but the more I can sort of
feel into those things and thoseinfluences in me, I feel more
in relationship with the worldaround me, the people around me.
(29:45):
I am more excited about thenatural world.
You know I always was, but wasbut more now yeah, I don't know
is there anything you noticeabout that as you go deeper into
this kind of exploration inyour body.
Does it change anything?
Tara Walsh (30:01):
it does it because it brings a different quality of
presence, because I'm notcaught up in I do still
obviously get caught up in myagenda of like I need to get out
for a ride, I need to blow offsteam, I need to, whatever, yeah
but what it's brought is aquality of presence that has
more room for, I would say,compassion and curiosity, and a
(30:25):
quieter presence, if that makessense, where I can sort of stop
and see things or feel like I'mmore here and attuned to what
might really be going on, asopposed to what I wish was going
on or I think is going on,because, of course, I'm pretty
woo-woo myself.
I believe everything isinterconnected.
I see it at work.
Different gardens withdifferent, shall we say, care
(30:49):
practices have different feelsto them.
People's emotional reaction tothe spaces they're in, be it
interior or exterior, is a thingdepending on what's going on in
that space, also what othercreatures are inhabiting that
space.
I believe there's a lot to besaid for the interconnection of
things and I think, in order toconnect and this is just my
(31:13):
belief that in order to connectwith the exterior world, we have
to be more connected toourselves, and I think that's a
lot of what working with you hastaught me, like a lot a lot.
Susannah Steers (31:25):
You know, at first glance it can seem like a
pretty introspective andsometimes I wonder maybe it's
just the introverts of the worldwho like to think about it this
way and I you know that's it isright.
But there's, there is somethingthat deepens when you can sort
of connect and you find meaningin the things that you're
working with and then you startto see meaning in different
places and the relationshipshave greater importance when you
(31:49):
understand that they relate,you know they connect everything
.
This seems like a little smallpiece, but that little small
piece is important for the wholeand I don't know there's
something about the times we'reliving in that make me feel like
that's important.
Tara Walsh (32:04):
I think it's extremely important because,
with technology and all thisdiscussion about connected,
connected, keeping you connected, I think we're more
disconnected than we've everbeen and I think we need to
reboot and find that connection,not just to ourselves as a
species, but to our place onthis planet, to our communities,
(32:26):
to the other creatures that weshare our living space with and
plants and all of that.
Like we have this very isolatedsort of approach and we don't
exist in isolation.
Nothing on the planet exists inisolation.
Susannah Steers (32:38):
No, and we as humans seem to have this
top-down thing that it makes methink of the
compartmentalization right.
I mean, we can do it, but it'san illusion.
It doesn't actually exist inthe world this way.
Tara Walsh (32:52):
No, it's very much a human construct, and I think
that's a fantastic analogybecause, like my world is plants
, so let's take plants, forexample.
We objectify them, we see themas these pretty or ugly things
that serve us Well newsflash.
This planet's not habitablewithout them.
For us, for anything else, theyare the foundation of
(33:13):
everything and they're trying tocomplete their own life cycle
outside of what they look like,in our value system attached to
them.
And I think once we can sort ofpeel out of this if we can
maybe hopefully peel out of thistop-down mentality I think
that's going to go a long way tomaking a lot of change, because
the other beings that we sharethis world with are more than
(33:35):
human.
We have them down beneath us,but I think that they have an
understanding, in a way that wedon't understand, of how to
exist here, and it's much moreshared.
Susannah Steers (33:46):
It's much more shared.
It it again.
It makes me think of the, theindigenous worldview of all my
relations.
Right, everything is connectedto everything and you're living
not just for you now, but forseven generations in front of
you and behind you.
Tara Walsh (34:16):
And there's, I guess , a much bigger hologram.
I was talking about the body asa hologram, but scale that out
and we're all a lot moreimportant to each other than we
think we are.
Every time you inhale, you'rebringing a part of the plant
that produced oxygen throughphotosynthesis, and every time
you exhale, the plant it's, andyou can take that and expand
upon that, because that'sactually how the world works.
(34:39):
Nothing exists in isolation,not even us.
Susannah Steers (34:42):
Not even us.
Well, Tara, thank you so muchfor joining me today.
I always love talking to you.
Tara Walsh (34:50):
I know I can chat to you all day, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me.
I always love talking to you.
I know I could chat to you allday, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me, sue.
I really appreciate it.
Susannah Steers (34:55):
Where can people find your horticulture
company?
Tara Walsh (35:01):
Well, we're based on the North Shore and we do some
work in Vancouver, but we'rebasically based on the North
Shore and running around a fewtrucks with a Walsh Co logo on
them, trying to practice ourcraft at the highest possible
level.
Susannah Steers (35:14):
I'll include a link in the show notes so people
can find you, thank you.
Thank you, sue.
Thank you so much.
I'll see you soon.
See you soon, take care, okay,bye.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Subscribe and, if you love whatyou heard, leave a five-star
review and tell people what youenjoyed most.
Join me here again in a coupleof weeks, for now let's get
(35:37):
moving.
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast.
I'm Susannah Steers and I'll beyour host as we explore the
heart, soul and science ofmovement as a pathway to more
active, vibrant and connectedliving.
Nothing happens until somethingmoves, so let's get started.
In recent weeks on the podcast,we've talked about presence and
(00:21):
movement not only as strategiesfor fitness and health, but as
ways to connect more deeply toourselves and to others in
meaningful ways.
Aside from the fact that mybody loves to move, I think this
aspect of connection has been adriving force for me in my work
as a movement educator and as ahuman being.
I honestly believe thatlearning to be aware of all the
(00:44):
moving parts of our lives canhave an impact not only on the
lives we're leading, but on theworld we're living in In these
unpredictable times.
I do believe that we can make adifference if we tune out the
faff and attune ourselves towhat is really important in the
moment.
I'm sure there are a millionand eight different ways to do
(01:05):
this, but since my worldinvolves movement, that's where
I've spent a lot of timeexploring, and today I want to
introduce you to my friend andlongtime client, Tara Walsh.
Tara is a horticulturalist inNorth Vancouver and owner of
Walsh and Co Gardens.
In addition to a very physicaljob, Tara loves to work and play
(01:26):
outside in just about anyweather.
She's an athlete.
She adores mountain biking,hiking, paddleboarding, camping
all of it.
Over the years we've spent alot of time together working
through injury and pain,building strength and stamina in
new ways, figuring out patternsof movement that work for her
and those that maybe work lesswell, and exploring ways she can
(01:48):
attune to her movement whileshe's doing all the things she
loves to do so she can feelbetter doing it.
I think you're going to loveour conversation about movement,
presence and connection fromthe perspective of someone with
a pretty hardcore movementhistory.
Welcome to the podcast Tara!
Tara Walsh (02:07):
Thank you, sue, thanks for having me.
Susannah Steers (02:08):
Well, you know what I really was excited about
talking to you, because I talkto a lot of people whether it's
at work, in the studio or on thepodcast or anywhere, about
movement and fitness and all ofthat kind of thing, with varying
people have varying degrees ofinterest and engagement in the
movement of their bodies and thestate of their bodies.
(02:28):
But you are someone who movesall the time.
What is it?
How does that show up?
Tara Walsh (02:35):
So in my work.
I'm a horticulturalist and Ilove the field work so of course
I'm trying to maintain that atthe you know the stage of my
life, which is a little bit morechallenging sometimes.
So that's field work.
That's pruning ladders, movingsoil, moving trees, plants
moving, moving, moving, movingup and down stairs, in and out
of trucks.
Susannah Steers (02:55):
Heavy.
- Days it can be very, veryheavy and full on and it's
weirdly become year round aswell, which is great, and each
season has sort of differentdemands, like summer's a lot
lighter because we're notusually doing as much
installation or transplanting orthat kind of thing.
It also is in my play lifebecause I love to be outside, I
(03:19):
love to ski, I love to mountainbike paddleboard hike even
simple things like walk my dog.
I love to mountain bikepaddleboard hike, even simple
things like walk my dog, ride mybike around town to do my
errands.
It's sort of everything in mylife, personal and professional.
Most of my social life isconnected to doing things
outside that are activities, andso basically when I am injured,
(03:39):
I'm a little more experiencedto being injured now, but it's
like I'm a bit lost.
I love to move, I love to beoutside and even moving inside.
I just love to move, it's allfactors in my life.
It's interesting because a lot of us
expect that we are not going toget hurt, right, and we hope
(04:00):
that happens.
But just like anything else, ifyou're engaged in movement, if
you're engaged in things thatinvolve your body, probably at
some point you're going toexperience an injury, whether
it's a sprained ankle, whetherit's an overuse injury, whether
it's whatever you're doing.
Yeah, you can do things thatwill help you to prevent that to
(04:24):
some degree or to preventfrequency of injury or chronic
nature of injury.
But at some point in our liveswe're going to get hurt and
hopefully, if we're in goodcondition and the injury is not
too crazy severe, we can comeback from that with.
You know, really a little time,right, it just takes some time
(04:47):
to heal and kind of reorganizeour systems a little bit and get
them back moving.
So when we first met, tara hasbeen a client at Moving Spirit
Pilates for a lot of years now.
Yeah, a long time.
But when we first met you'd hada back injury.
Yeah, a long time ago.
But when we first met you'd hada back injury and I still
remember you saying you know, Ijust need a highly trained
(05:10):
athlete.
Let me just get that out of thedoor.
Tara works pretty hard andtrains pretty hard, and I knew
how important all this work boththe horticulture you know your
day job, for lack of a betterword and your movement life was
(05:30):
to you and you said to me atfirst all I want is a few
exercises to get me back ontrack, which totally makes sense
, right?
You already your body iswell-trained, you used to moving
, you're used to doing that kindof thing, so all you needed was
a little guidance and some newideas, new exercises to get you
going.
But I think you discovered aswe went along that maybe there
(05:50):
was a different way to approachit, and I'm curious about maybe
what you found in that process.
Tara Walsh (05:56):
Yeah, that's a really great question because I
still cringe when I think aboutsaying that to you.
Because I came to your studiounder duress my longtime massage
therapist insisted because yougot tired of putting me back
together from all the falls offmy mountain bike and work and
things like that and I reallywas quite I'm going to be blunt
(06:17):
I was dismissive.
I didn't understand remotelywhat the work was about and I
was trained.
I was racing at a high level inmountain biking but I was
trained in terms of drive yourbody into the ground Right.
Don't ask, just tell her whatshe's going to do.
And expecting her to givewithout proper and I say this in
(06:39):
hindsight now without properroom to care, proper maintenance
outside of you know, an amazingRMT and you diet all of that
like it was just like I'm goingto do this thing and I expected
my body to perform.
So it was quite shocking to mewhen I had my first substantial
injury in my early 40s and itwas, you know I came to see you
(07:02):
and it was like it just peeledmy mind open because that couple
of things to do at home hasturned into it's an integral
part of my life.
Now I don't like to skip myappointments because what you
taught me changed how I move,just for putting groceries away,
(07:23):
picking something, up to how Iride my mountain bike, for
however many hours.
It's completely blown the lidoff what I think of as training
and how I would even go so faras to how I engage in my body,
with my body and in my body in aday to day life, because it's
(07:44):
not, yes, yes, there's certainthings that you train me to do
and learn how to do that Ipractice, but I don't go home
and do Pilates per se or whatyou teach me.
Yes, I practice it, but Iactually, the way you've taught
me, I've integrated it andchanged how I move, just in my
day-to-day world.
Susannah Steers (08:04):
Right.
I think that, for me, is reallyone of the most important
pieces.
You talk about trainingyourself into the ground and I
don't know if maybe that was apart of what we learned as young
people in the day, as women ofa certain age.
I remember I had a shirt, likea t-shirt, that I wore proudly,
that said sweat, pain, agony onthe front and had on the back
(08:29):
love it, you know.
And there's all those things.
Pain is weakness, leaving thebody, all of those things right
which, yes, on a certain level,when you are training at a high
level of athletics or ofperformance, there is a certain
level of having to push yourselfpast your current limits.
(08:50):
But if you're training that way24-7, and that's all you know,
that's all your body experiences, then there's never any growth
because you're just drivingyourself into the ground.
So we practice Pilates together.
That's something that we do.
But I think one of the thingsthat I find interesting, both
(09:14):
with you and a lot of the peoplethat I work with, is you find
the things that are mostmeaningful for you in your body.
You start to recognize thethings that support you or
prepare you for I rememberasking you another question at
one point when you were off to arace.
What do you do after your race?
(09:35):
Do you just throw your bike inthe back of the truck and go, or
is there something that you dofor yourself at the end of the
race?
And again, this was an olderwoman speaking to a younger
woman.
So maybe you were still at astage where you could, because
we can get away with anything inyour twenties right, you can
get away with anything.
Well, I exaggerate.
(09:57):
That's not always the case, butyou can get away with a heck of
a lot and your body kind offigures it out.
But as you get older thatchanges and I find there is more
time spent now, more timenecessary on the smaller things,
the supportive things, so thatyou can do the big things.
It's not that you can't do thebig things, but you need a
(10:19):
little more love and attentionto the smaller details, the
fundamentals, the structuralsupports, and so what I love to
hear is that you're doing somestuff at home and that that's a
sort of part of your day now.
Tara Walsh (10:34):
Yeah, and it's funny because for years I avoided it
and I would say, in a way, Ioutsourced my maintenance to you
RMTs, fascial stretch people,physios.
I mean I would do what I wasdirected to a point.
Then I'm better and I wouldabandon it.
And now one of the shifts hasbeen I look forward to that time
(10:57):
on the mat at home every day,or if I feel like I'm slightly
off, most times I'm able to nipit in the bud and get on the mat
or get on the floor, do what Ineed to do, just to reset myself
.
And that's been a huge change.
And it's funny because it tiesinto that sometimes habit of
avoiding that which is best forus, because it's not a big
(11:18):
amount of time that we're askingand sometimes it can be five
minutes that I can just reset,and then I'm actually more
cognitively present as well asphysically present, right, and
it's.
It's funny how I really didn'tunderstand at the outset what
the work was about, how it isn'tjust about keeping you on your
bike.
It it has woven itself intoevery aspect of my life.
Susannah Steers (11:44):
How did you?
Because I know it's hard,especially when you're injured,
because I went through this tooright when I started doing this
kind of work.
It was like, wow, this isn't aworkout, come on, give me
something.
And it wasn't.
Yes, there were things I neededto address, but throwing a
whole bunch of muscle at itindiscriminately was not
necessarily well for me.
(12:05):
It absolutely was not the path,because that's what I'd always
done.
I'm curious, especially when,initially, it wasn't delivering
massive immediate returns, whenyou weren't feeling like, wow,
I've turned a corner.
Today, you weren't walking awayfrom the studio at the end of
the day going aha.
Tara Walsh (12:24):
Like a ride for five hours again.
Susannah Steers (12:25):
Yeah, so what kept you engaged, what kept you
interested?
Even though it was spinningyour brain around, you didn't
understand it and it felt hard.
Tara Walsh (12:44):
The physical.
Well, there's a sweetest hit ofease and connectivity that
you're like this is what it'ssupposed to feel like and I only
have I don't want to say I onlyhave to do that, because
getting to that point is likerehab is.
I understand why people chooseto not do it, um, but there's
(13:05):
this.
You hit this and I don't want.
It's not adrenaline, maybe it'sdopamine, but you hit this
sweet feeling of oh, that's it,that's what it's supposed to
feel like and that's that's thebody in its finest form of
movement.
Susannah Steers (13:21):
And what does that feel like for you?
I understand that, the hit andits ease.
What else does it?
What does it feel likephysically?
Tara Walsh (13:29):
What got me hooked about it?
There was an ease to it that Iwas not familiar with.
I, and I still, struggle withthe well, if it's not working,
just throw more at it.
But that ease is it's addictive.
It's like in terms of that'sall I got to do Then.
If I could just have to do that, then I can do this for hours,
for years, like I don't have tostop doing what I'm doing.
(13:49):
There's lots of this mindsetthat well, at some point you
need to get up mountain bikingand I'm sure at some point I
will or you know, downwinding orwhatever it is that I'm doing,
even gardening, like youcertainly adjust.
But when I have that feeling itmakes me feel like I'm going to
be doing a lot of things for avery, very long time.
If I can keep following thispath and that type of movement,
(14:13):
because it's frictionless, it'seffortless.
It feels like the most naturalthing in the world that your
body was built to do that Right.
It's all the other stuff thatwe do around it that makes that
more difficult.
Susannah Steers (14:24):
Because our bodies are built to move right,
mm-hmm.
And the sad reality of ourlives is that we're all in a
movement deficit.
The life in the Western worldthat is created for us, that it
makes it easy to get places inyour car and you're sitting at
your TV or your desk or yourcomputer or so much of the
(14:44):
things that used to be justdaily activities of living are
now so much less, and so weactually have to move more.
But that doesn't just meanthrowing everything you have at
an exercise or an activity.
It's the small little thingstoo.
There is definitely something.
(15:06):
As we age, it's a changing ofthe relationship.
As you say, when you find theright supports, you can keep
doing what you do in terms ofthe activities that you like to
do, yeah, um, and.
And so often we get to a pointwhere we say, oh, it's just, I'm
getting old and it's hard tosee that.
(15:27):
That point where people startaccepting that this is about age
seems to be getting younger, Iguess, because it's not
something.
We don't spend a lot of timetalking about movement.
We talk about all the thingsaround health, which generally
involve just muscle mass andcardiovascular health and
mobility, and it's not so muchabout how we live in our bodies.
Tara Walsh (15:48):
No, and it's also like, especially as we get older
, if I could move moreefficiently, I can move more, I
can move for longer, I don't.
It doesn't have to reduce that,and that's part of the magic of
it.
The word I keep coming back tois frictionless right.
It just feels like from apurely physics point of view,
that's how my arm or my leg orwhatever is supposed to move,
(16:12):
and it feels like when you tapinto that, it feels like you can
keep doing it forever.
Susannah Steers (16:17):
In the last episode of the podcast I talked
a lot about what seems to be athing we do around movement for
health these days, and it'sexercise, which is, you know,
physical fitness, and there are,as research evolves, different
recommendations what people do,but typically it revolves around
(16:38):
building muscle mass, andcardiovascular health seem to be
the top two, and absolutely Ido not disagree with those.
But it seems like it's either orand I don't know if that's
something that the fitnessindustry creates it's either
sort of a certain brand offitness that gets those results
and we see muscles change and wesee changes in weight and that
(16:58):
kind of thing or bodycomposition, or we see people
doing softer things which arepurely I won't say purely, but I
think a lot of people figurethey're just softer, easier,
lighter.
Maybe they're more for mentalhealth than for anything else,
and you know I include Pilates,I include yoga, I include you
know a lot of other things TaiChi in there and I don't know.
(17:22):
I think it's interesting thatwe've created, you know there
are people who do this and thereare people who do that Right,
and there are growing numbers, Ithink, of people who are
discovering that there are valueto both.
But I do find it reallyinteresting that there's sort of
still a hierarchy around whatpeople do and what people won't
(17:43):
do.
Do you notice that?
Do you see that in your world?
Tara Walsh (17:51):
Oh, absolutely, Because one.
I was guilty of it myself whenI was first "pressured into
going to Pilates.
But what I see now is where itshows up for me is I have a lot
of people saying oh, you're sofit you do all these things.
How are you still doing thesethings?
And I don't make any secretabout where I go and where I
spend my time and how lucky I amto get to work in your studio
with you and your amazing team.
But as soon as I say Pilates,you see the veil come down,
(18:18):
you're complete, it's dismissed,and I do think the work you're
doing like I've never been toPilates from anywhere else.
So I'll be honest about that,this is my experience.
But I've started to say youknow anywhere else.
So I'll be honest about that,this is my experience.
But I've started to say you knowmovement educator, that sort of
thing, and even that people aretheir eyes glaze over.
It's quite interesting, and youwere the first time it happened
was real glimpse for me intoyour world of what you're kind
(18:40):
of up against in terms ofpeople's attitudes.
That dismissiveness is.
I find it very kind of shocking, even though I myself was a bit
guilty of it, you know it'slike.
Well, I have because I didn'tunderstand and I didn't at that
point.
I hadn't had the felt sense ofwhat it's like to actually move,
like my body was meant to move.
And then, once I had thatexperience, I understood like
(19:04):
boom, you can't not see it.
Susannah Steers (19:05):
You know, we talk about going to see people
and and and the people that wesee, that, the professionals
that may support us in variousways, whether it's
physiotherapists, whether it'sPilates teachers, whether it's
doctors, whether it's yoga, youknow, like wherever fitness
instructors, wherever you go,everybody has a certain pathway
in right and everybody may havetheir pieces of the pie in terms
(19:27):
of what we, as individuals needto learn.
I think one of the things thatis most exciting for me is when
I start to see people like youwho sort of go oh, if I pay
attention to this in a differentway like I'm the common
denominator, I'm the body inwhich all of these things is
happening and I am the one who'sexperiencing this, that or the
(19:50):
other thing, and when you canreclaim your own agency.
You had said earlier yououtsourced your understanding,
and I see that everywhere.
It's something that we do.
We want the simple answer.
We want for lack of a betterword the magic pill.
We want the thing, that's likeokay, if I do that, all the rest
(20:11):
of it is solved.
And what I find fascinating iswhen I see people like you kind
of go oh, you're not going toget everything in a Pilates
studio, that's not real or evendesirable.
But there are pieces there thatI hope you can take with you
and incorporate in your worldand I know you have other
sources, whether it's being onyour bike and getting the
(20:33):
information there, or whetherit's at a stretch therapist or
wherever you're going, you'reliving your life and when you
start to pay attention to whatthe pieces are and how they all
come together inside of you andsomething like a movement
practice that may incorporatePilates or other things, is a
way to I don't know bringattention to and help you
(20:57):
integrate them in your body in away that you can use in your
life Absolutely, and I think,well, there's a combination of.
Tara Walsh (21:06):
In my experience there's a combination of things
like in the time working withyou and recovering from you know
, various injuries and justmileage.
I've always, prior to workingwith you, I've always thought
about, oh, I need to get physiofor this, or my shoulder bothers
me, or my knee or whatever.
And now I think of it in termsof the connections between the
whole chain.
It in terms of the connectionsbetween the whole chain and
(21:31):
that's been a game changer inboth recreational and my work,
in terms of how I'm going to getsomething done, or how it feels
to do that thing and then to beable to go and do it again when
you're set up, not justthinking about, oh, I have to
mind my knee.
It's like, well, if I tap inand feel that whole chain of
what's all connected to makethat action happen, you have a
natural exhale and it's almostto me, almost like meditation,
(21:51):
that calming presence that itbrings mentally and physically
and being able to bring that toa high level.
Cardio thing is also notsomething I ever, ever expected.
Like you know, a stiff climb ona mountain bike.
If I'm holding the rightposition, I'm still working, I'm
sweating, I'm doing all that,but there's a connection between
(22:13):
my mind and my body that isvery different.
Susannah Steers (22:16):
You're receiving information as well as
directing.
Tara Walsh (22:19):
And you're present in a different way, like it's
more of a whole body experience,if I can say that Like.
For me it is a very I don'twant to use the word spiritual,
but you start to have a bettersense of the mental, physical
connection.
Susannah Steers (22:35):
It's funny.
I often describe, I think, whatyou're saying.
You know, we often think of thebody as being quite linear,
right, and X does this to.
Y and these hook in and there'squite a mechanical perspective.
For me, and this has alwaysbeen my felt sense of the body
is it's more like a holograph ora hologram, that there are all
(22:56):
these things working at the sametime and sometimes one takes a
little priority.
Or, like the graphic equalizeron your stereo, you know like
it's all there, it's all in thesame container.
We like to think we cancompartmentalize the mental and
the emotional and the physicaland do that, and for a long time
I was really good atcompartmentalizing and probably
(23:18):
you were too, or I still am, ifI'm not being present.
But I think what I findinteresting about that is you
start to feel it as a whole.
So it's less about this linearthing, it as a whole.
So it's less about this linearthing.
And yeah, you can maybe processinto the track of how does my
spine support and what I'm doingwith my shoulder affect the
power in my hip and you can playwith that, because now you know
(23:40):
how to go there.
But, also, you start torecognize that I didn't get a
very good sleep last night.
That's going to change things.
How do I put that into thepuzzle?
Tara Walsh (23:49):
And.
Susannah Steers (23:50):
I'm really sad about something in my life right
now and in a way, you can lookat those things almost as
additional loads on your system,like adding weight into a
weight program.
It's adding an additional load,and so, really, then, what
we're looking at is how do wemanage that load, and is just
(24:10):
throwing more weight at it thething that we need to do, or are
we looking at a differentsolution?
Maybe your best bet that dayisn't a really hard ride.
Tara Walsh (24:19):
yeah, you know, it could be a gentler ride or a,
you know, something differentyeah, and there's a kind of a
magic freedom that comes fromallowing yourself to feel what
your body needs, and I actuallythink it makes you a better
athlete because you're moretuned in and it's that.
I don't need that today.
(24:40):
I don't need to hammer morehome, I need to, I'm off, I'm
tired.
Today, I'm going to listen tothat.
And also the whole conceptwhich was mind blowing for me
was to ask my body what she hadto give that day.
Yes, as opposed to, I have thislist, I have this ride I want to
do, or this hike or the ski,and this is how it's going to be
(25:02):
.
And then I'm not reallyenjoying it as much because I'm
not, I'm asking too much, orI've already asked too much.
The well is a little bitunderstocked.
So it's a very interesting.
It's kind of the opposite ofthe mainstream, what I perceive
as the mainstream fitnessprogram, end of things.
It's like not pushing myselfall the time, which was what I
(25:24):
only, the only thing I knew howto do, and so when you change
that, I feel like I'm.
It's a kind of a richerexperience because it's not
driven by just the mind, it's awhole physical experience of I'm
here, I'm now, this is what Ihave today, and I think that
actually I feel like that's mademe a better athlete.
Susannah Steers (25:42):
I mean, when we look at the typical training
arcs, right, if you're trainingfor a competition, you're
working towards it, you knowtowards it.
You're starting at A and yourwhole training plan is designed
to get you to your peakperformance on the day of your
competition or of your season,whatever.
That is kind of thinking intothat larger training arc,
(26:13):
because there are physicalrealities around how you're
going to build that strength toget to where you want to be at
the right time.
But what I find interesting iswhen you really start to pay
attention.
Yes, I mean, the only way youget stronger is by pushing right
.
The only way you are going togain more is by taking yourself
out of your current comfort zone.
You've got to change that right.
It's got to be something alittle bit different.
(26:33):
But again, if you're payingattention as an athlete, when
you're in your body all the time, you start to recognize when
it's the kind of fatigue that'sfatigue just because you're
doing something hard, that's new, or when it's like whoa, I'm
done, I'm just done, and itdoesn't mean you have to stop
and do nothing.
No, there are other ways youcan move your body.
(26:55):
There are other ways you can dothings.
Maybe it is just a rest day, ormaybe it's a day when you're
doing something a little bitquieter, but I find sometimes it
takes courage to give yourselfthe grace or the permission to
to take that time for yourself,because the pressures are very
(27:15):
much not in that direction.
Tara Walsh (27:18):
Yeah, and it also begs the question of like what's
driving the need for thatcompulsive working out?
What am I avoiding?
What am I not?
Why am I unable to sit withhaving a rest day, giving my
body what she needs?
Susannah Steers (27:36):
Yeah, or the food she needs, or the many,
many different pieces that go inthere.
Obviously, I am not trainingworld champion athletes and.
I'm sure they would weigh in ina different way on this, but
really I'm always moreinterested in people and, yes,
the performance.
If the performance is importantto them, I want to help them do
(27:58):
that.
But I also want to recognizethe person in there and what is
important about their livesbeyond the performance that they
seek.
Tara Walsh (28:10):
Well, and I think that ties back to your hologram
analogy, because I think in someways we're very driven for one
dimensional must have workoutand tapping into this work, you
start to feel physicallyyourself as a three dimensional,
like it's not just this onetrack of must must, feel sore
and tired and feel like I gotvery structured thing.
(28:32):
There's nothing wrong with thestructure thing, that's how you
get places, but it's alsoallowing for what else is in the
mix and I think that's wherewe're kind of like a lot of
people are maybe missing out onthat okay.
Susannah Steers (28:45):
so now I'm going to go out into the world
of woo a little bit, but this ismy world, I live in it, so I'm
going to own out into the worldof woo a little bit, but this is
my world, I live in it, so I'mgoing to own it.
We've been talking a lot aboutconnections.
Right, there's connectionsinside the body, the heart, the
muscles, the brain, the nervoussystem, the various parts of you
, your fascia, how they allconnect together emotional,
(29:05):
physical, mental health.
Those all play together.
You're a horticulturalist, youwork in the natural world and I
know for sure you seeconnections in the systems in
which you work every day.
Tara Walsh (29:20):
Oh, for sure, yeah, if you're paying attention.
Susannah Steers (29:22):
So I'm curious because I feel these whenever I
go for a walk, when, like, Ifind, the deeper I go into this
work, the more I feel thesewhenever I go for a walk.
I find the deeper I go intothis work, the more I feel
connected to everything aroundme.
So it's not just me myself andI, but the more I can sort of
feel into those things and thoseinfluences in me, I feel more
in relationship with the worldaround me, the people around me.
(29:45):
I am more excited about thenatural world.
You know I always was, but wasbut more now yeah, I don't know
is there anything you noticeabout that as you go deeper into
this kind of exploration inyour body.
Does it change anything?
Tara Walsh (30:01):
it does it because it brings a different quality of
presence, because I'm notcaught up in I do still
obviously get caught up in myagenda of like I need to get out
for a ride, I need to blow offsteam, I need to, whatever, yeah
but what it's brought is aquality of presence that has
more room for, I would say,compassion and curiosity, and a
(30:25):
quieter presence, if that makessense, where I can sort of stop
and see things or feel like I'mmore here and attuned to what
might really be going on, asopposed to what I wish was going
on or I think is going on,because, of course, I'm pretty
woo-woo myself.
I believe everything isinterconnected.
I see it at work.
Different gardens withdifferent, shall we say, care
(30:49):
practices have different feelsto them.
People's emotional reaction tothe spaces they're in, be it
interior or exterior, is a thingdepending on what's going on in
that space, also what othercreatures are inhabiting that
space.
I believe there's a lot to besaid for the interconnection of
things and I think, in order toconnect and this is just my
(31:13):
belief that in order to connectwith the exterior world, we have
to be more connected toourselves, and I think that's a
lot of what working with you hastaught me, like a lot a lot.
Susannah Steers (31:25):
You know, at first glance it can seem like a
pretty introspective andsometimes I wonder maybe it's
just the introverts of the worldwho like to think about it this
way and I you know that's it isright.
But there's, there is somethingthat deepens when you can sort
of connect and you find meaningin the things that you're
working with and then you startto see meaning in different
places and the relationshipshave greater importance when you
(31:49):
understand that they relate,you know they connect everything
.
This seems like a little smallpiece, but that little small
piece is important for the wholeand I don't know there's
something about the times we'reliving in that make me feel like
that's important.
Tara Walsh (32:04):
I think it's extremely important because,
with technology and all thisdiscussion about connected,
connected, keeping you connected, I think we're more
disconnected than we've everbeen and I think we need to
reboot and find that connection,not just to ourselves as a
species, but to our place onthis planet, to our communities,
(32:26):
to the other creatures that weshare our living space with and
plants and all of that.
Like we have this very isolatedsort of approach and we don't
exist in isolation.
Nothing on the planet exists inisolation.
Susannah Steers (32:38):
No, and we as humans seem to have this
top-down thing that it makes methink of the
compartmentalization right.
I mean, we can do it, but it'san illusion.
It doesn't actually exist inthe world this way.
Tara Walsh (32:52):
No, it's very much a human construct, and I think
that's a fantastic analogybecause, like my world is plants
, so let's take plants, forexample.
We objectify them, we see themas these pretty or ugly things
that serve us Well newsflash.
This planet's not habitablewithout them.
For us, for anything else, theyare the foundation of
(33:13):
everything and they're trying tocomplete their own life cycle
outside of what they look like,in our value system attached to
them.
And I think once we can sort ofpeel out of this if we can
maybe hopefully peel out of thistop-down mentality I think
that's going to go a long way tomaking a lot of change, because
the other beings that we sharethis world with are more than
(33:35):
human.
We have them down beneath us,but I think that they have an
understanding, in a way that wedon't understand, of how to
exist here, and it's much moreshared.
Susannah Steers (33:46):
It's much more shared.
It it again.
It makes me think of the, theindigenous worldview of all my
relations.
Right, everything is connectedto everything and you're living
not just for you now, but forseven generations in front of
you and behind you.
Tara Walsh (34:16):
And there's, I guess , a much bigger hologram.
I was talking about the body asa hologram, but scale that out
and we're all a lot moreimportant to each other than we
think we are.
Every time you inhale, you'rebringing a part of the plant
that produced oxygen throughphotosynthesis, and every time
you exhale, the plant it's, andyou can take that and expand
upon that, because that'sactually how the world works.
(34:39):
Nothing exists in isolation,not even us.
Susannah Steers (34:42):
Not even us.
Well, Tara, thank you so muchfor joining me today.
I always love talking to you.
Tara Walsh (34:50):
I know I can chat to you all day, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me.
I always love talking to you.
I know I could chat to you allday, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me, sue.
I really appreciate it.
Susannah Steers (34:55):
Where can people find your horticulture
company?
Tara Walsh (35:01):
Well, we're based on the North Shore and we do some
work in Vancouver, but we'rebasically based on the North
Shore and running around a fewtrucks with a Walsh Co logo on
them, trying to practice ourcraft at the highest possible
level.
Susannah Steers (35:14):
I'll include a link in the show notes so people
can find you, thank you.
Thank you, sue.
Thank you so much.
I'll see you soon.
See you soon, take care, okay,bye.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Subscribe and, if you love whatyou heard, leave a five-star
review and tell people what youenjoyed most.
Join me here again in a coupleof weeks, for now let's get
(35:37):
moving.
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