 Welcome to Holistic Wellness Revealed, I'm Latisha Sharpe and I'm your host today as we talk about natural progression. I'm really grateful to have Rachel Sherman with us today. She's a licensed massage therapist specializing in myofascial and cranial sacral. She's a beach volleyball coach and also a Pilates instructor and we're going to have a conversation about how this progression was natural and maybe even what was a catalyst that caused her to go from one step to the next to the next as is in all of our lives. Rachel, welcome. Thank you Tish. So good to be here. Thanks for having me. It's really great to have you. Thanks so much for taking the time today to be here and have this discussion. I really do just let's touch on on the volleyball coach. It's a beach volleyball coach and I really don't know that much about that part of your life. So can you tell me how did you get started and why did you start coaching and what's your story? Oh man volleyball has been the one consistent thing in my life. I fell in love with the game when I was I think even in middle school but I saw my big brother start playing volleyball in high school and I just thought it was the coolest thing. I wanted to do it. Me and my twin sister we would try and play with him and we hated it but we that's how it got started. That's how I fell in love with the game. I started playing high school, club, college. It's one of those sports when you fall in love with a sport you fall in love with a sport. It's my passion in life. I truly love playing the sport. I love coaching the sport. I started coaching when I was 19 years old. It was interesting. I had a break in my college education. I had played in college the first couple of years and when I took my break they needed a high school coach freshman coach position opened up and I slid right in there. So I started coaching at 19, a kid coaching kids and you know I've just been coaching ever since. So I started indoor. We didn't have a lot of beach where I came from in Indiana. So but I did start to play beach in Indiana when I moved to Arizona played a bit more beach over there and I really got into beach when I moved here about 11 years ago. Really fell in love with the game. Beach game is so different. There's a lot of strategy. There's only two players on the court. It's very mental and very physical together and it's just so such an intriguing sport is so fun to play and watch. So I started coaching beach here as well as indoor. I coached at HPU Hawaii Pacific University for six years. I got my undergraduate my graduate degree there coaching the team as an assistant coach. But then I fully have now transitioned to coaching beach at the Outrigger Canoe Club program. Oh that's awesome. We love our Outrigger Canoe Club and that is right on the beach too. So I would like to touch base. I mean it sounds to me like you've really mastered this craft of this passion in a game. It's pretty demanding physically and as you mentioned mentally and emotionally and all of the things. So what is it that you would what is it that you would say is maybe part of how you move from the playing in the coaching into your Pilates career. Yeah. So it was about five maybe six years ago now. My body you know is tired of all the years of jumping and moving and intense activities. That wasn't just a beach volleyball player or indoor rock climber. You know I was an outdoor enthusiast in the ocean all the time. So I had lower back issues and shoulder issues and I realized you know I'm not going to be able to do this the rest of my life. So I decided I needed a gentler more kind approach to taking care of my body and wellness and I learned about a woman who needed Pilates instructors and she was willing to train Pilates instructors for her new studio. So I jumped right on that opportunity and I said this is it. This is for me. I had done Pilates in the past. You know when I was younger I'd look up videos or whatever and I was in the best shape of my life when I was playing beach volleyball climbing and doing my Pilates. This is when I was younger. So it just made sense for me to go back to Pilates and connect with that now that I can't be as intense as I used to be. So it was more there wasn't actually a like a catalyst so to speak as like one major event. It was just you just sort of started feeling yourself going hmm I'm having little aches and pains and things of that nature. Yes that's exactly right. Yeah so let's talk a little bit about I want to bring up the repetitive motion because I know that in what I do with people is people will come in and they constantly like they have aches and pains or ailments and usually it's because they're doing something over and over and over again. And what would those things how do you what do you what's your take on repetitive motion and how do you help people like kind of break those patterns or if they're not in a place where they're going to stop doing something how do they remedy that so that they can keep doing the things that they love. Yeah I learned over the years a lot of it's experiential but then also I I have a lot of formal education that has confirmed these ideas for me but you're right we get into these patterns you know volleyball is a lot of overhead one sided and we go into a spiral kind of you know and a lot of things in our life are like that. And I say cross training um using your body in different ways maybe maybe not completely different like you know I actually train for a marathon one year and it completely changed my volleyball game because I'm training my slow twitch muscles now instead of my fast twitch muscles but you know changing cross training ends they weightlifting or rock climbing or something else in some yoga pilates I'm getting a different range of motion so it's not the same thing day in day out because time gravity our tendencies our physical body we get into these patterns and we just we have to do something different or even do the opposite so if I always pick up my bag with my right shoulder or with my right arm every once well not every once well but do half and half you know you find that you're in a pattern of picking it up here every other time because the other aren't you know every single thing that we do just bringing awareness to the daily things that brings up a question for me have you ever trained anybody to serve with their other their non-dominant hand not serve because that is uh you want to be the best you can with that movement but there are things that we treat that are teaching them to do ambidextrously yes absolutely yes I was thinking because a lot of times I have golfers come in and I'm like well can you just you know put your other foot forward they're like you're crazy I don't I don't know who you are and I figure maybe that'd be like surfing right if you're goofy put it all of a sudden trying to go regular I mean the pros do it but it's such a complex thing it's a it's a whole body's movement and a whole everything has to go together so to just to completely flip it is really difficult but we have things like where we teach them to pivot open both ways or we teach them to touch the ball with both arms right those are more simple things it's not as complex as like taking a full-on approach and swing right or or just even swing honestly but I had to be an ambidextrous at some point because I hurt my shoulder so but I'm not nearly as strong with my left as I'm bringing with my right right so when it really comes down to it like with a game or something like that when the performance is happening you want to use what what you've been trained from the beginning to do what naturally comes to you so absolutely but that's why we also train with the other the other side as well we really do and then when when we can't go to our strong side we still have an option versus not having any option right because you want to practice it somewhere right so what does let's let's move into like the mental game right I know that and we're talking about volleyball right now and repetitive motion but I feel like this is relative to all parts of our life so what kind of a mental game do you have with volleyball or with sports in general I mean with pilates with yoga with surfing with volleyball have you noticed that like how this has contributed to like say and how it contributes to the healing of an injury and both answer both questions awareness is a huge thing that I become a big proponent of when I started training in my pilates my instructor was really good at focusing on bringing awareness to all your movements I have since taken that into my beach volleyball training with my kids if you know if you're aware of your body and you make a mistake right and you're aware of what happened in that moment then you can actually think about it analyze it change it for the future have you ever coached somebody to like almost have a mantra in their head of saying like okay so just um think I know even when way back when I got into an accident or oh no here's a great example when I two times I think in my life but somebody always told me keep your head down keep your head down keep your head down right and so whenever I went to hit the ball I was like okay keep my head down keep my head down keep my head down is there anything like mentally that you try to get your your kids to do or even in pilates where it's like okay stabilize your hip or okay you know set your shoulder or your I don't know oh absolutely for sure um in every um skill like passing or bumping the ball setting the ball hitting the ball in every skill there is um techniques to keep in mind and we um what they say rep it out you know you rep out the skill you know you do you repeat that same movement over and over again so it becomes automatic so at first you're thinking about the movement but you rep it out it becomes automatic um and then definitely you've got to train um the mind um and the body so that it becomes uh automatic but then that's where the um cross training comes in uh doing other activities so then you can free up the range of motion it's not the same thing over and over again right because automatic can be good and automatic can be bad right it's good right great so um what about emotions how do emotions play a part in this game like how do say if you've got you know fear or if you're not feeling confident or you don't feel like you belong or that's that side of the emotions or you feel like you are on top of the world or like your you know how have you seen that play a part in not just not just volleyball but also in like the pilates and the healing and everything that you've gotten into how does absolutely um in sports you know the the older we get the more mature we get the more sure we are with who we are you know this is just in general life it's the same thing in athletics and sports um the younger the the player the more emotions that go they go through you know they have fear they have insecurity they you know all the things and you see it in their body language you see it in their face and every time I said you can't show that you have to um fake it till you make it it is a huge thing because if you put your head down you're gonna make a mistake you just are you've got to keep your head up even if inside you're not feeling confident huge um and then in wellness and in pilates um in healing I've seen it with myself I've seen it with others you have to believe that it's possible you can't think oh my gosh it's the end this is horrible there's a certain level of acceptance that you have to have and kindness and gentleness gentleness with yourself about where you're at um so definitely if if you go too hard at something you're bound to come to a wall right you have to be gentle you have to be open you have to be accepting of where you are and then gradually get through the the process I love that you bring up this point this point of acceptance and having grace with ourselves and um and being able to move through it as a process it's not just a one and done event with a volleyball game with a pilates practice or even with healing I know that I personally go through so many different levels with healing and it's like this it's it's the journey it's a marathon right it's not a short race so thank you for bringing that up and and I feel like with that grace and with that patience that's it brings me to another point like how do you find patience in working with if your students working with your pilates clients and you know with the people who come to you for healing with cranial sacral and and myofascial work that's a great question and that's something I've had to learn over the last number of years uh it's been quite a journey to work with people and learn people I've I've learned that you have to understand where that person is coming from what motivates them what what fears do they have um what are their expectations right and this is coaching this is pilates this is um massage this is therapy um because you have to be on the same page as your your client or your athletes you you have to you have to reach them on the level where they're at are they more um intellectual mental are they more emotional are they more um concerned about their physical um you know state and you've got to meet them there and then if I see something that I need to add in to help promote their training or their healing I try to somehow find a way to relate it to their values so coming up with that those common goals and setting that at the beginning of a training or the beginning of a coaching session or the beginning of you know a healing session uh that's key so that you know where they're wanting to go and then you know where you can serve them that's such a great point so if anybody's looking for a coach or for a Pilates instructor or someone to do work with them on a healing level that's something that if you're um if your coach or your healer your instructor don't bring that up it's important for you to be able to take charge of that and express that that's such a great point Rachel and um just I'm really grateful that you brought that up so that we can empower people to be able to take that into their own hands so many times we go into these sessions and we don't um feel like we can speak up and it's really important that we do that power back because it is our growth that is what's is it is what's happening so thank you so much for that and with the um with the cranial sacral like cranial sacral and myofascial I know for a fact that takes a long time for things to unwind how what was your training like with that were there any things that came up for you that were either um just profound do you have any profound experiences with the cranial sacral or with the myofascial work wow the big question um yeah the training was very cool is all hands on uh did the training with John F Barnes and Sedona Arizona amazing man amazing teacher and it was all hands on and he would talk us through each um procedure um and it was all just time like you have to give it time you have to be patient and he would talk us through um you know two minutes five minutes ten minutes of holding the same pose and you're just you're just sitting there you're just in it you're just present because that's how he makes you feel and it was such a good training um um profound yes I I opened up to the level that I've never experienced before in those trainings and I'm getting emotional which I don't usually but it really opened my eyes to what being gentle to you with yourself can do and letting go and releasing and we all need that we all hold and embrace um all day every day and I just want to share and like the people let them know that it's okay to let go and relax you know this is so important for all of us so yeah oh my gosh thank you so much for your vulnerability and um I I want to mention that with these tears like I spent a good portion of my life feeling like the tears that I I shed were a sign of weakness and I've learned and grown into this knowing that that's actually strength and it helps us to be able to connect with one another and um just being able to show that vulnerability shows me that you're going to be able to sit with my vulnerability you're going to be able to sit with my tears you're going to be able to create the space that's safe for me to be able to have that same release um whether there's actual emotions attached to it or not maybe it's just crying um I know I had a a mild facial experience and um all of a sudden all of these tears are coming and I did not have a lot of angst with it there wasn't sadness there wasn't fear there wasn't abandonment there wasn't anything attached to the tears they were just tears flowing and flowing and I knew that that release had to happen and you actually were the facilitator of that release and I just want to um recognize and acknowledge how grateful I am for the space that's created uh to be able to allow people to have those releases and if you don't if you're not able to be comfortable with your vulnerability you can't create that so I just want to acknowledge that in you and also to remind our viewers that this is one of those things that you want to look for in a therapist in a coach in a friend right someone who can be vulnerable with their own process and their own growth because that's really what creates the healing so mahalo mahalo Rachel for that you're welcome and and thank you for being open and vulnerable and allowing me into that space of yours it's truly a special thing right so it's that reciprocity right that reciprocity that just it happens and you know that brings me to one of the um last points even though it's a ginormous point of listening right so oh I've taught so many therapists how to do different techniques and modalities and such and the one thing that I've always taught them first and told them no matter what whether you get this technique perfect or not if you don't learn how to listen it's all for naught and um I'd like you to maybe talk a second about listening it sounds like in your cranial sacral training that's I mean maybe that's why you're great with the myofascial maybe that's why you're such a great um influence with healing in your massage and the things that you do is because you listened to such you learned how to listen it's such an early stage in the game yeah um it did start honestly with Pilates and bringing that awareness to the body awareness to your breathing how does your breathing connect to your body how does your your your extremities connect to your core I started learning that at that moment um and then after I started my Pilates I wanted to I felt drawn to put my hands on people and help them and I was like I need I need training in this I went to the myofascial training um and even there it's even more awareness and bringing awareness to others um and then after that I was like okay I have this myofascial training at Pilates training but I don't have a license to touch anybody so now I need a license to touch so I go through my massage therapy school and it it was just a very natural progression it just felt everything fell into place it was just also right and um it was a personal journey that taught me brought me to this place of awareness and gentleness and yeah I love that and I mean look at how easy that was for you to be able to say it was just a natural progression that one thing fell into place right after the other and I feel like maybe that's how we wrap this up is that when things just fall into place naturally one after the other and for us to be able to recognize that and see that as a gift and see that as a healing in our journey of life and growth then that natural progression is actually an indication that you're you're on the right track you know you're on the right track you're doing the right thing earth and sky and all of the things are rising up and basically paving your path and helping you along the way so I'm just really grateful that you took the time out today to be able to share your heart and to be able to share your journey and if people would like to contact you for any kind of work do you have a website or something that they can I do I do have a website it's called wellnesswithrachelhigh.com and it displays my story everything that I offer massage Pilates and beach volleyball training I actually do some beach volleyball workouts as well Pilates in the park so please visit me at wellnesswithrachelhigh.com and my all my contact information is there I love it thank you again thank you so so much and thanks for having me of course and we'll do it again I can't wait to see you the next time I see you need to look forward to it thank you so much to think tech so for creating this platform for us to be able to have these kinds of conversations that people are looking for in their life and if you liked what you heard today and you'd like to check out more think tech kawaii episodes on different subjects go ahead and like and subscribe and that will give you notifications so that you can get more of what you're looking for I'm tish leticia sharp and I wish you all a beautiful wonderful prosperous growth in kind of day Mahalo