Happy birthday to me!
Wow, can y’all believe it’s been a year already since Step Within: Intuitive Energetic Coaching launched? It was in June of 2020 that Within Physical Therapy permanently closed and really from the moment I handed over my keys, I began bringing Step Within to fruition. Scroll down to keep reading! If you’d rather watch a video, click to watch below!
Branding + marketing, coaching certification, further training in energetic healing, learning my client management program + software, learning social media (gasp!), legalities, insurance, home remodeling (so I’d have a legit office to work out of), and on and on – it took about 4 months to be completed and then Step Within was born!
Reflecting on this year and re-reading my earlier blog posts, I have the same view point, just now strengthened. It was certainly scary to close down a successful business and launch something new + even weirder… in a pandemic yet. But, I just knew in my gut it was what I needed to do and I just knew the greater power out there would have my back.
In an earlier blog post I said “Through it all, I worked very hard to tune to my intuition, and it became clear that the pandemic was a time for me, like many others, to make a grand pivot. A lot of significant things happened to show me the path I was to take, and I instinctively knew I no longer identified with being a physical therapist in Saskatchewan. It was almost like the world on its massive scale was going through this grand pivot, and me, on a much smaller scale, was to also make a grand pivot. I didn’t totally understand how or why or what that might look like, but I knew I needed to close WPT… I simply followed my gut and buckled my seatbelt not really knowing where the drive might take me.”
And man oh man, I’m so glad I did. Have I made nearly as much financially as I would have sticking with WPT? Nope. Do I miss some of my WPT clients dearly? Yup. Did I lose a lot of my caseload by making this pivot? Most definitely. Do a lot of people still not really understand why I closed WPT and feel it was a massive mistake? Oh, sure. There’s a ton of judgement there… and I work really hard to keep that sh*t off me. Does any of the above sway my decision at all? Not one bit. Not. One. Bit.
Earlier I also said “I’m one of the grateful ones for 2020 although it was a difficult year. Not that covid and people getting sick/ dying is something I’d advocate for, so please don’t misinterpret me. But, I’m grateful for the forced time I was made to take. Without that forced time, I wouldn’t have seen all that I don’t agree with… cannot stand for anymore… the unfairness, unjustness, inequality just simply in our health field let alone in the world. I’m grateful for the much-needed time I got to be in nature and to care for myself. I put that time to use to heal old wounds and to make a grand pivot where I severed ties with what was no longer serving me and what I couldn’t stand for anymore in my prior career. I meditated, did yoga, walked daily in Wakamow through the sunburns to windburns to frostbite, launched this new career, took upteen courses to become a Certified coach, expand on my energetic skills, and help clients on their journey to wellness as I was doing the same for myself… Right after I celebrated my 38th birthday, I knew I had to close Within Physical Therapy permanently. All my healing work led me to this decision and I know, for me, it was and is 100% what I needed to do.”
I know in my heart, my gut, my soul, that this pandemic was, in some way, some how, however orchestrated from above, a time for me to pivot, for me. A lot of what I do now is exactly the same as I what I did at WPT – it’s just me that’s changed.
People always ask me, don’t you miss being a physical therapist? And that’s a loaded question. But, in short – the answer is straight-up ‘no’. I miss absolutely nothing about the years I worked for employers and literally had to give myself a pep talk just to be able to walk in the front doors each day. I am definitely meant to be an entrepreneur. And while I respect + admire the Integrated Systems Model (ISM), and even considering holistic vs conventional physio and that I’d been working for myself in the last half of my career, the answer is still “no”. The aspects of holistic physio that I love, I’ve brought with me into Step Within and I’ve happily left everything else behind. Trying to force me back into the identity of physical therapist is like trying to squish me into an old, too tight, too restrictive, too compressive skin. A skin I’ve shed. A skin that is no longer me.
Step Within is the best fit for me and my life and where I’m at right now. Sure I miss certain things about WPT like those dream clients and having an actual store-front, but there’s a ton I do not miss. Step Within is more aligned with the authentic me and I still get to help people through coaching, guiding, science, intuition, and energy. All that I love. I would’ve never expected a pandemic would bring this pivot for me. I always saw myself retiring as a physical therapist. That I retired this career 21 years in, 20+ years too early to some, is something I’ll be forever grateful for. Even if it took a pandemic to do it.
In another earlier blog post, I said “I learned that hands-on treatment, no matter how brilliant and innovative and effective, can only take you so far if you are living with unhealthy energetic patterns, which we all are. And that if we all just stop and pause on a regular basis and tune to the knowing of our intuition, our gut instinct, then we can start to avoid being pulled into the same dynamics over and over again. And we are the only ones who can change our own energetic patterns. It takes us, working on us.” I genuinely believe, there is no healer, no Guru, no magician on this planet, that is greater than the Self. If you’re the type looking everywhere around you to find someone who can fix what ails you, I believe you’ll search forever. Look inside instead.
Re-reading another earlier post, I said “Within 10 days everything Within Physical Therapy was done and gone. The business I built by myself. Myself. And made a roaring success with the people of Moose Jaw and their word-of-mouth. Gone within 10 days. 7 years. Gone within 10 days.” On the flip side, I also said “Some battles are not worth fighting, and letting them go can show you a whole new path you were blind to because you were so stuck in proving a point. Let that sh*t go. It’s heavy. It’s useless. It doesn’t have to be your destiny to keep fighting it. It just functions to occupy you in distractions that hold you back. Become the butterfly and just fly above it all. It’s great.”
Processing, grieving, witnessing. It’s all part of the pivot. All part of the reflection. It all happened so quickly and it all went so smooth… because it was meant to. This was the reward for listening to my gut instinct and acting on it. The closing down process couldn’t have gone better.
And as I continue to build up my caseload for Step Within, I welcome with open arms whatever is in store for me. No regrets. No should of’s. Just Growth + Transformation. I have no doubt I was led to this for a reason, a reason I hope to reflect on in a blog post like this, some time soon.
Thanks for reading and being with me on my first birthday.
