Why High Performers Need Slow Practices To Thrive | Charlotte Hardwick

Feeling productive is easy; feeling present is harder. We sit down with Charlotte Hardwick—yoga teacher, holistic nutrition counselor, retreat leader, and founder of Flow and Nourish—to rethink wellness for people who run fast and care deeply. If your calendar is stacked and your nervous system is stuck in go mode, this conversation shows how slow, breath-led practices can become your most reliable performance tool.

Charlotte unpacks the somatics of yoga—working with the body’s inner intelligence, fascia, and nervous system—to help high achievers drop tension without losing drive. We talk about why “ease” isn’t letting off the gas but composure under tension, and how simple movements linked to breath can unlock mobility, clarity, and better stress responses. She shares how she meets clients where they are, uses props and restorative shapes to make success feel good immediately, and builds routines that people actually repeat. We also dig into what many of us are truly malnourished in: time and connection. From retreat tables to home kitchens, Charlotte’s approach centers on realistic rituals that translate into daily life.

You’ll hear practical strategies you can start today: a pen-and-paper time inventory to align energy with what matters, the “crowding out” method from integrative nutrition to add better choices instead of policing yourself, and five to fifteen minute breath-first sequences that regulate your system before work or bed. We also explore her workbook, Find A Way To Be Here, which bundles recipes, seasonal health, yoga for the nervous and lymphatic systems, meditations, and writing prompts so you can sustain momentum beyond a single class or retreat.

If you’ve turned wellness into another competition, this is your reset. Learn how to build strength through rhythm—tension and release—so your body becomes an ally, your mind finds clarity, and your habits finally stick. Subscribe, share with a high-performing friend who needs a softer gear, and leave a review to tell us which small ritual you’re starting this week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, Jeff Ford, and today I have the pleasure of sitting down with Charlotte Hardwick, founder of Flow and Nourish. And she is someone who has spent over 20 years helping people build health that actually lasts. Charlotte is a wellness expert, yoga teacher, holistic nutrition counselor, retreat leader, and she had the opportunity of being a facilitator for Blackberry Farm for 10 plus years. Her wellness practice is dedicated to helping people live with more joy, balance, and well-being. Our conversation today is about breaking the quick fix, crash diet, hustle hard version of wellness and translating that more into a sustainable, grounded, long game approach with your health. If you're someone like me who pushes hard, leads hard, and trains hard, but also wants to feel calm, clear, and energized, this conversation is going to hit home with you. Charlotte, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Thanks for having me.

What Somatic Yoga Really Means

SPEAKER_00 1:28

It's awesome that we were able to pull this off. You met one of our amazing teammates, Maria, through your yoga instruction training that you're currently taking part in. Can you tell us about how you and Maria came together? And then we'll jump into our topic on shifting from high this high performance world to a sustainable wellness approach.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yes, Maria and I are in a year-long training, just started in January, will end in December, and we are exploring the semantics of yoga.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Now, for folks out there who don't know what the semantics of yoga is, can you elaborate on that?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

You know, this is such an amazing. I mean, first of all, to have a year together with the same group is such a gift to go deeper within any topic. But the somatics of yoga is one I've been especially passionate about. It is diving deep into the soma, the the inner intelligence of the body and really figuring out how you're feeling and tapping into the fascial system, the nervous system, and um diving a little deeper not only in the training, but with our people we work with in the practice.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Wow. Now, now within this training, is it taking the approach of how we move and how we breathe to connect with the inner being?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Yes, it really is. Um we're only one month in, and even what we've learned in this one month is incredible. The yoga I teach already focuses on the nervous system. That's what I've always been so passionate about. The first training I did was in 2000, so 25 years ago. And even then, I always was interested in the work outside of the poses, the breath and the energy, the meridians in the body, the energy system of the body. And now it's everywhere. So um I feel so lucky to get to take this training and really build on what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah. With your experience of leading retreats and the nutrition side, I know we'll dig a little bit deeper. You seem like a lifelong learner to me. And that's why I wanted to focus our topic around helping high performance people optimize their their world in a way that is sustainable because in health and specifically with our member population here at Pullman Buff, these are highly successful driven people. And I relate to that a lot. I'm a if someone were to describe me, they would say I'm driven. And it can be difficult for that type of person to slow down and to connect. And I've realized as I've gotten older and being in the field of wellness, just like you, that the more we can figure out the software side of fitness, the more we can push the hardware side of it. So there's this performance trap out there. You work with a lot of thoughtful driven people as well. Do you see high performers struggle differently when it comes to wellness?

High Performers And The Wellness Trap

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Absolutely. Um you can probably relate to this, but people with busy schedules that are running on adrenaline, running on cortisol, you know, calendar stacked. I mean, it's really hard to drop in to a slow yoga class to go from that kind of way of living and I mean that feels comfortable. And then to think, oh, I'm gonna sit down on a yoga mat and close my eyes and meditate. Um, first of all, it's not realistic. It's also not the way I teach. Um, I think a lot of people are coming more and more, the kind of people you're talking about, to craving this kind of practice because they're not feeling great. Um, and they're becoming more curious. They're seeing things, maybe high inflammatory markers in their bloodstream, in their blood work, um, high cholesterol despite having a good diet, um, high blood pressure, all these different things. I mean, maybe it's the age I'm starting to work with too, but people are more curious and open to explore slower practice. And this kind of connecting breath to movement is incredibly powerful, but I think it is the approach that we come to it with very busy-driven people to make it, as you were talking about earlier, sustainable. So they'll want to come back.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, yeah. And I think we're trending in that direction of mindfulness becoming a much bigger component of our approach when we start to plug and play routines into our life. And and so I I do connect with that a lot. And I'm wondering this performance trap problem with this persona of an individual, you know, we we're we're all different, wired differently, but there is this common thread of of push hard. Do you think it's perfectionism? Is it overscheduling that gets us in these zones, or are our identity are our identities tied to the the output that we're trying to put out on a daily basis?

Training The Nervous System With Ease

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Well, I think I mean, I know the way I was raised was to feel productive and to feel accomplished, to feel like how much can I fit into a day? Um, I mean, that's something I very much relate to. I am a really organized person and I love, I love my calendar. I I mean, I can be a little bit of the same way of what you're talking about, but I think that the benefit of this kind of practice, this slower, kind of breath-centered practice, is one where I've come to realize that it is it's the ease in my body, it is the ease in our bodies that's our real strength. And how we start to move with ease, move with that fluidity, it translates to the mind.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

And so I feel like if I can get people moving in really simple ways, connecting breath very simply, um, then they leave feeling different. They feel really good and clear, and then they'll come back. So we're able to build on that. And although you may never lose what you're talking about of wanting to feel productive and you know, accomplished and driven and all those things, you can balance it.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah, I'm I'm very much connecting with that word ease, where through a breath practice, through your teachings, you can teach people to have strength and e able to downregulate and control the nervous system a little bit more than they may have been able to do in the past.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Well, I mean, a healthy, rested body diffuses stress differently. So the classes and retreats, I mean, if you're lucky enough to go on a three-day retreat or a 45-minute class, it really doesn't matter. It's just feeling different when you leave so that your day may not change, but you react differently. And I think that's when you're we you and I were talking earlier earlier about sustainable wellness. That's what I'm interested in.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah. Well, let's let's go further into that. And I want to I want to take the pressure off for the individuals out there who who may be connecting to this state of being. In in communities like ours at Palmetto Bluff, wellness can almost turn into another competition. How do you help people take the pressure off of being healthy? I I find that a lot of the time folks are like, I have to do the cardio in strength. That's what's most important. That's what's going to make a difference in my health. What do you do to take that pressure off of that person who has that thinking?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Well, if I'm lucky enough to work with them individually, I the basis, the beginning of our work always starts with a conversation. That is so key because as I meet with them for the first time, we'll talk for 30 minutes to an hour, and I get a real sense of what their life is like, what their day is like, what their goals are, what their struggles are. And it is from our conversation that I'm able to build our practice, whether it's a yoga practice, whether it's meditation, whether it's cooking, whatever it is we're going to do together, it's so important to me that I meet them right where they are. So it doesn't become something else for them to do. It becomes actually something that feels really good to them and something that they'll look forward to coming to. And with that as the foundation, it's it's amazing, but it it falls away the sense of it, of like I say, being another thing to do, like I've got to go to this class or I've got to cook or I've got to do this, but rather more tapping into pleasure. And I don't know, it's hard to explain, but but I always see a change when we when we come at whatever it is we're doing together with that approach.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Charlotte, it seems like you in your work you very much are focused on helping individuals slow down. For someone wired for this sense of achievement that we've discussed. What actually changes with someone when they do slow down?

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Well, the kind of yoga, as I was mentioning before, it's a more restorative approach to yoga. And I think the one universal thing that I've seen with everyone is everyone wants to feel more flexible and more fluid and more mobile in their body.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

That's how a lot of people will come to you in the initial conversation.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yes. So um again, when we're able to find a place for them to feel good in their bodies, like that's where we start. I use a lot of props and um set them up to feel the ease in their body. And again, they start feeling the ease in their mind. Is that what you're asking me?

Slowing Down To Move Better

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's almost like by slowing down, folks will experience a position or go through the practice with you, and they'll have the opportunity to get more connected to their mind.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yes. Well, like I'm saying, it has to be realistic. You know, if if so if I meet with someone and I hear about their job, you know, working a gazillion hours a week, I would never sit down with them on our first session and say, okay, we're gonna sit down and and close our eyes and meditate. You know, I would never do that because I mean that would set them up to feel the opposite of easeful, the opposite of any sense of wanting to do what they came to do. So if if I can start with them, for example, someone saying, I want to be more present, I want to feel more calm, I have found it's easy, easier to happen through the body first, like very slow, simple movements connected with breath automatically drop us right into just that landing where the mind, the body, the spirit, you know, everything kind of starts to land and soften together. And it's really simple, actually. It's just comes in the approach.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah, yeah. It's almost like through through movement versus a defined period of meditation, you you can get people into the practice more and getting more connected with with that inner being.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

And it's very cumulative.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

It's very cumulative. So just little tiny practices can build on each other, and all of a sudden you can just feel this shift.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

A compound effect to ease, huh?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

It's true. Yeah, it's true. You know, just that kind of softening and um rounding the edges out a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, we've we we've talked a lot about breath being central to the practices that you provide uh t with with individuals through through yoga and and other movement. It can be a very different mentality than go harder. So what surprises you most when the people you work with become more breath-centered?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Um what surprises me most is how much they enjoy it when they, you know, will come the first time and say, I don't know how to do this, you know, um this doesn't really make sense. You know, I want they they come at exactly what you're saying, they come at wanting to feel more calm, but with immediacy.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yeah, or oh, like get it, get it done now. I've got to get it done.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Um so again, not I'm don't want to repeat myself, but I think starting with these very what has helped me, you know, that quote, we teach what we most need to know. I think I have a such a busy mind and came to this practice with a very dysregulated nervous system myself. And I think that's been such a gift because I can use the practices that have helped me so much with others. And I think that again, that very um simple connection of breath to movement for people that do yoga, they might relate to like cat cow. You know, if anyone listening knows that, like something that simple one breath, one movement. And all of a sudden, you know, shoulders come down, face softens, breath starts to land in the body. And there's this sense of expansion where there was once contraction, whether it's mind, body, breath, and they feel a shift.

Breath First, Then The Mind Follows

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Yeah. Charlotte, I love that example of cat cow because it's oh so simple. But when it's done intentionally with breath, just absolutely changes the state. Now, your philosophy is very interesting to me. Your background is is making me more curious right now. So you've explained throughout our conversation that a lot of these tools have helped you personally. Can you tell us how you came to yoga, this breath-centered practice and this idea of nourishing your body now and teaching that to others? Give us a little bit more on your journey.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Okay. Well, I was a kindergarten teacher for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

No way. Yes. I have a kindergartner.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Oh, I love that. I taught three, four, and five-year-olds, so a little earlier than kindergarten, really. Um, and I did that for many, many years. And I found I was living in San Francisco. Yoga was very big then. It's very competitive. Um, but I found a lot of moms in my class were curious about yoga, but they were very intimidated. Um, at the same time, I was practicing yoga for um a bad back out of a bad low back from years of many different injuries and things. And I was at class every day after school and just fell in love with yoga. One of the instructors invited me, suggested I do a training. So I did. And even when I was in the middle of the training, I started teaching private yoga to all, not all, but many of the moms in my class that were intimidated. And I just from the very beginning, and it's really been the heart of everything I do with wellness, is meeting people where they are and helping them find a way to be in whatever we're doing, whether it's cooking, in this case, what you and I are talking about, yoga, and just enjoying it, um, meeting their challenges with ease. A lot of that comes with props, but finding a way to be in the practice, it feels really good. And you want to come back when it feels good.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

So that was how I started teaching yoga, and I've done several trainings since then that I've loved.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

When you say nourish, it I I understand this is a big part of your approach. And nourish is one of those words that I think is thrown around. So I want to get your take on this. You we're you're in in the context that you use it a lot, you're talking less about food. What are people truly malnourished in today?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I think what people are the most malnourished is time. People are so busy. Um, obviously, we're in this very tech-driven world. So I think people are not only craving just time alone and more time, but time with each other. My retreats center around that. Um, time at the table, time together talking, just time for everything that feels possible for them, but they may not have time to think about at home. There's a lot of um connection in every way, shape, or form that I think people are missing in their day-to-day lives that we're able to find together on our retreats and even in an hour of class.

Charlotte’s Path To Yoga And Teaching

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah. Yeah, an hour of class. And your retreat goes very in-depth in it. Sounds like helping people organize to get more of their time back.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

That comes a lot through the writing. Um, there's some writing that we do on my retreat that allows people to feel organized when they get home so they can do what they want to do.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah. Yeah. We're all we're all after doing what we want to do and continue to do that as as we get older as well, and making sure our our bodies and our mindset allow us to stay in that zone. I understand recently that you published a book that basically summarizes your retreat. Could you share a little bit more on the book, the title, and what resources are available if someone were to pick it up?

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yes, it's called it's a work. I call it a workbook. I made the decision to not have a hard cover book, but rather a soft cover book because I wanted it to feel like a book you could splatter on and work with. Um it wouldn't feel too precious. It's called Finding a Way to Be Here. And I named it that because a friend of mine pointed out that I say that a lot in class.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

When you're teaching a yoga class, you say you say finding a way to be here.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Yeah, you know, I'll say find a way to be here. Find a way to be here that feels comfortable, where you can feel that ease in the body, and whether it's through blocks or blankets. I didn't realize how much I said it. Yeah. And she said, I love when you tell us to find a way to be here. So the book is called Find a Way to Be Here. And the answer to your question is it goes through all the elements of my work and everything that I've explored the last 20 years, each time I've moved with my husband's work, it's brought an element of um experience and education. It's a little bit different from the last place. So the first part of the book is nutrition. I went to the Integrative Institute of Nutrition in New York City. So there's a little little bit on that. I tried to make it very real because there's a lot of nutrition books out and it appreciates that. And it's it's only a couple pages. I think I got it. It down to three or four pages because I stripped it down to what really has worked for me and my clients.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, nuts and bolts.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

So there's a nutrition component. There is a seasonal health component that makes a lot of sense. There is a lot of recipes. There's breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, smoothies, broths, soups, everything. Anyone that knows me will look at this book and be like, oh, we've made that, we've made that, we've made that. It is very real. If anyone knows me and has worked with me. Um, there's a yoga part. Um, it's all about yoga for the nervous system, the lymphatic system, and the immune system. Um, there is a meditation component. There is a writing component. My um son did artwork in it, and it's all my photographs.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Wow.

What We’re Truly Malnourished In

SPEAKER_02 22:54

So it's very personal. And what prompted me to put it together, other than I wanted to feel organized and have everything together, I found so many people would come on the retreats and they would feel you could just see the light in their eyes on the retreats. They would just come to life. They'd be so excited. And just I loved everything that they would say. And then I would get a text or an email when they got home and they would say, I don't know how to do this when I get home. I can't find the paper, or what was that recipe, or what was the quote you read, or what was that we did in yoga? So I put it all in a book and they can now have the book to bring home and write in it, you know, write thoughts that come. And when we do, when we make a soup, they can put notes.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Outstanding.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

It's very, very personal.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yeah, it's it's so important that when we go through an experience like a retreat. I I used to be part of a retreat program up in North Carolina. So we would literally run a 365-day-a-year retreat program. We always found that it was easy while you were there. It was a lot harder when you go back home to your home environment. So I commend you on creating a resource that allows individuals to make it sustainable, to make it a part of their life. Yeah, to find a way to be here. And when you were saying that, gosh, I was um like, man, I gotta get to Charlotte's restorative class because I could just see my hips melting into a pose if I hear find a way to be here. So let's shift back to this idea of sustainability. And we talk a lot about uh healthy momentum, and it's one thing to get momentum going, it's another thing to sustain it. So I'm wondering from you, before we get very tactical here, kind of some tips and tricks that you might have for our listeners. What's the difference between someone out there who burns out and someone who does build sustainable movement into their life?

The Workbook: Find A Way To Be Here

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Um I think again, I keep kind of going back to the same thing, but it really is the way I work. I think we have to begin with where the person is in their life. Whether I'm teaching them yoga, meditation, cooking, whatever it is, if I do not begin with where they are, they'll burn out. Um, for example, one of a really close friend of mine who we started working together. She's a close friend now. We started working together. She had a huge job, huge. And she said, I want to, you know, I want to cook for Sunday on uh every Sunday for eight. I want to prep for the week. I want to become a great cook. I'm a terrible cook, you know. And I would, I said to her, but I mean, you work 14, you know, 12, 14 hours a day. How would you have time to do this? I mean, your job, you're amazing at your job. You know, let's let's think of how we're gonna do this. So of course she's not gonna cook for eight hours on a Sunday, but I could meet her where she was, hearing about her life and and taking one little part that we could do on that Sunday. You know, say it was make two salad dressings for her to bring in to work for the salad she was gonna buy, or to make a couple of things to bring in instead of buying something at the coffee shop. Those are ways to not burn out. She enjoyed making those few things. It felt doable for her. In turn, she would do them and also noticed a great shift in her health from those very small changes. Same thing with yoga. You know, I want to do an hour and a half practice every day. That's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Especially on your own. A class would be much easier, but on your own, very unrealistic.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

You know, in this case, she is such a great example. She couldn't get to class. So we did a 15-minute routine after we got organized in the kitchen of a 30 minutes she could do on a Sunday. We did 15 minutes that she could do before bed or 15 minutes before work. Um, and once that became a foundation in her life that she enjoyed and did and felt accomplished, we added a little bit more. She was ready for more. We're friends to this day, and she was just on a retreat of mine, and her practice has come so far. And her her health has come so far, and she is not burned out. And she's she's just one of the many examples I could speak to that you've got to begin where you are, you've got to begin with something that will make you feel good, and you'll see a difference. So you'll always come back to it and then keep building.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah. Yeah. I like how you use the word foundation. When we're starting new routines, new practices, starting very small, making sure it is realistic with the season that we're in in our life. And then over time, it's a term that uh James Clear uses a lot, habit stacking.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Just ensuring that we slowly but surely add to the foundation, as you as you've shared, in a way that does progress our practice and inevitably improves our health.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

I think the way people burn out is trying to do too much at one time, doesn't fit into their life, and also following trends. You know, um, getting online, ordering 20 million things, it's all on the kitchen counter, people are so overwhelmed, they don't know what to do with it, and then they just it just sits in the corner. Yeah. Whereas if I can teach them to make a dressing or make a soup or do something very simple that they can come back to, that it makes it builds a lot of confidence.

From Burnout To Sustainable Routines

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah, that's so important in the beginning, especially taking someone who is that high achiever and helping them with the strength of creating ease in their life isn't gonna be a quick change of pace for them. It's gonna take some time to create that state. Well, Charlotte, I've I've loved, loved our time together. Let's get tactical. If you had two or three action steps for our listener today, how would you guide them to start creating more ease in their life right now?

SPEAKER_02 29:34

I would say to start very simply with pen and paper and look at where your time and energy is going and where you want it to go. That's in that's in the book.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

So inventory of their time.

unknown 29:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Here's where I'm spending my time, here's where I want it to go.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

And then I would say looking at that, where could you, either by yourself or with guidance, gradually, very carefully in a realistic way, figure out some of where you want your time and energy to be going. How could you figure that out?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Like where do you put it?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Where do you put it? Okay. And how could you put it? And there is a part in the book in the nutrition section that's called um, there's one little part, it's called crowding out. And it's a term that I learned at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition. And they taught us that instead of pulling things out of people's lives, in this case, usually food, you know, going in to help people with their nutrition, that you would never just pull things out. And instead, you would gradually help them put, you know, put more healthy things in. And it is an incredibly effective way for people to feel better in the definition of sustainable, when you were asking me that before. Um, but figuring out how could you crowd out some of the things that you know you want to put in your life, but you know you're not making time for it. How can you crowd out some of the things that are stopping you from doing that? What a great nugget. Yeah. So that's it's very simple, but it's something I start with with people. Um and then after that, making little steps. You know, if you want to cook, where can we fit that in? And and on the number two and three being cooking a little something. Um, it's the best place to feel better, starts in the kitchen. But it's again got to be realistic. And whatever movement is that you know you need, someone like you, you know, saying you avoid the softer, more restorative practices, how could that fit in? Maybe five minutes and just starting there. And I think those three things are more broad action steps, but that's okay because it's from creating those three things, we could get really specific.

Start Small: Foundations And Habit Stacking

SPEAKER_00 32:07

Yeah. No, it's a it's a great framework and it allows a different approach than those who have maybe been unsuccessful in the past to slow the process down and get very clear with not only what they want to do, but how it's gonna actually integrate fully into their life. Well, Charlotte, this has been so much fun. Uh, I know since Maria connected, you and I, that that this was a quick turnaround to get us in for a conversation. I'm so glad we did. And uh our podcast, we always like to finish things off with the same question with every single guest. And the final question I have for you today is when you hear the word wellness, what does it mean to you?

SPEAKER_02 32:58

To me, it means finding a way to be here. Um, with whatever it is you're doing, um, finding a way that feels really good. And a lot of that comes from a place of ease.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Charlotte, that's powerful. I I love how you brought wellness all the way back to finding a way to be here. And I know that's gonna stick with us today. And as as we uh wrap up here, I just want to allow you the opportunity to share where can our listeners find more out about you.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Um, flowandnourish.com.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

Easy enough.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

I live on Hilton Head, and um I do a lot of things virtually too, though.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Very cool. Yeah. Well, I know you had a healthy discussion with Kendra, and uh, we look forward to partnering with you in the future.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

I do too.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

And appreciate you so much for taking the time today.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Thank you for having me.

Three Action Steps For More Ease

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah, you're very welcome. Listeners, feel free to hang around with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week. Wow, I love these episodes where I get to personally slow down a little bit and be present with a mindfulness expert. It's uh very much a focus for our team right now to not only be sharing more conversations around mindfulness, but to be bringing more workshops and events and experiences that speak to this nature of wellness. And for me, one image kept coming to mind during my conversation with Charlotte, and that was the image of a bow and arrow. Most of us live life like the arrow. We live life forward, fast, always in motion, always chasing the next target. But here's what we forget: an arrow is only powerful because of the bow. And the bow only works because of tension and release. Think about it. If you pull the string back and never release it, it snaps. If there's no tension at all, the arrow goes nowhere. Strength, in the terms that we consistently talk about it, isn't just how much you can lift. Strength is not a consonant force. Strength can be controlled tension, held with steadiness. You probably noticed it. I I brought it up. Charlotte used the word ease a lot. And I know for high performers, ease can sound like letting off the gas. But ease isn't collapse, ease is composure under tension. Think about an archer. Shoulders relaxed, breath steady, eyes focused. There's tension in the string, but there's softness in the body. That's presence. That's finding a way to be here. Because most of us were walking around like a bow that's been pulled back all day long. Meetings, metrics, workouts, expectations, constant tension, no release, and eventually something gives. Sustainable momentum isn't about pulling harder, it's about knowing when to draw back with intention and when to release. So here's your healthy momentum for this week. Where are you holding unnecessary tension? In your body, in a relationship, in your expectations of yourself. Practice the archer's breath. Inhale through the nose, draw back, exhale, soften the shoulders, and aim with clarity, not urgency. And as always, I want you to remember something in our time together, and it's this power doesn't come from constant strain, it comes from rhythm, tension, ease, release, that's strength, that's presence, and that's how you build momentum that lasts. That brings us to the end of this week's episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to join the conversation and remember to actively participate in life.