Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
13 Points of Wellness with Tashya Knight
In this episode I chat with certified health coach and yoga teacher, Tashya Knight, about the 13 points of wellness that all connect and impact our physical, mental, and emotional health.
She shares how she moves beyond nutrition and movement to encourage her clients to assess their community, their hobbies, and their boundaries to make space for for what matters most in life to them.
Using lessons I’ve learned and applied to my own life I have created programs focusing on 13 points of wellness that are sure to inspire and motivate others to make the changes they desire.
I am only the guide on this journey – helping others as they work towards creating the life they want to have.
I’m using the experiences and insights that I have gained to help you realize your true potential.I hope you stick around for this journey with me!
Connect with Tashya
- Her website: www.wellness13.com
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wellness13llc/
Episode Transcript
Welcome everyone. I am here with Tasha Knight who is a certified health education specialist, a certified yoga instructor, and a health coach.
She teaches her clients to use mindfulness, yoga, and self-care practices to help them build their confidence and love themselves every day. Welcome Tasha. Hi thank you Laurie.
Thank you for having me. I’m excited Tasha because you are our first yoga expert on the show and for me personally I think yoga is so important, such an important part of being intentional about our wellness journey. So I’m really excited to hear what you’re going to talk to us today about.
So what I like to do with all of my guests first is we start with your backstory, right? Like this is your superhero origin story. I’d love to know what brought you to the place where this, you know, being a yoga teacher and health coach is how you’re helping everyone. So why don’t you tell us about that.
Well I first of all I love the idea of being a superhero so thank you for that. Oh you’re totally, all of my guests are superheroes and you guys should all be wearing capes as far as I’m concerned. I love it.
So my backstory, I am actually a former teacher so I have an education background and I, when I was teaching it, something started to stir in me that it was more than just teaching, you know, vocabulary and math facts to my students.
I really became kind of involved in them as a whole person and that journey led me to leave the traditional classroom and I started teaching more nutrition education and children’s cooking classes and that drove me to go to a health coaching training program because I wanted to learn more about nutrition.
I wanted to learn more about helping people and how to help people to get healthy and I went with the intention to gain the knowledge to help others but what actually happened was I ended up helping myself, right? And isn’t that the way that it goes?
So I started to apply, you know, the principles that I was learning, you know, really changing up the food that I eat, working on building my own wellness lifestyle and that is what led me to create a coaching program that would help people by what I had learned, right?
So I was doing my own training, applying these practices to myself and I wanted to share that with others and eventually that led me to yoga and it was actually by accident.
I happen to be practicing yoga because I felt like that was a wellness practice that I should apply to my own healing and I really enjoyed it and I loved it so much that I ended up signing up for a yoga teacher training and that was the next part of really healing myself and really enhancing my wellness journey.
So the health coaching training and the yoga teacher training really allowed me to work on myself which then allows me now to help others because I see what worked for me and they really pair beautifully. The principles of yoga really pair beautifully with the principles that I feel are important for building a wellness lifestyle and creating healthy habits.
So that’s my journey from the classroom to now coach and yoga instructor. So that’s my superhero origin story. I love it.
So a big part of what you walk your clients through when you are coaching is what you call the 13 points of wellness and this is the foundation of of your coaching program. So can you walk us through these 13 points? It actually came to me on the subway. So I’ll give you a little backstory on that.
You know I was kind of thinking about where I was going to go with my coaching and how I wanted to help others and I was sitting on the subway and I was just you know you zone out there and I was kind of thinking about what have I done? You know what have I applied to my own self because I you know I’m starting to get better. I’m definitely healing myself in different ways physically, mentally, emotionally and all of a sudden it just popped into my head wellness 13.
These 13 points like what are these things that you have done to help your own self? I ran straight home and began furiously writing them all down and I came up with these principles that I feel are really important to creating a wellness lifestyle.
So the first one is goal setting because without goals where can we go right? That’s what drives us forward and gives us the plan. So goal setting, working on our nutrition. I don’t talk about any certain type of way to be eating.
It’s all really about listening to your body and understanding what to feed your body. Drinking lots of water and the food that you’re putting in. Meal prepping, again planning ahead right? So helping to cook and be prepared so that we’re not just mindlessly snacking or just grabbing something quickly right? That we have a little bit more prepared.
I know when I’m prepared I tend to eat a little bit better. The fourth is moving your body. You know with 30 to 60 minutes of exercise or walking or yoga, weights, whatever it is that moves you.
Just getting your body moving right? We tend to be a very sedentary culture. So getting our body moving. Number five is sleep and these are not in any particular order by the way.
They all kind of bleed together. Getting enough sleep, creating a bedtime routine so we’re shutting off our electronics right? And really getting a restful, comfortable sleep. Those are all kind of like having to do with the physical part of you and then the rest of it really has to do with our mental and emotional state and our well-being.
Knowing your worth. I work mostly with women and I think that we have a hard time knowing our worth and setting boundaries and our confidence building. I know for my own self by gaining that confidence, understanding who I am has really helped me go forward in my business and just in my life right? And being not being afraid to be who I am.
So knowing your worth is very very important to me. That’s I think one of my biggest points of wellness that I talk about. I ask clients always to write a love letter to themselves and you would be surprised that that is the hardest thing I ask them to do.
It’s a 13-week, three-month program and I’ll ask them pretty early on and some of them by the end of the program still are having difficulty writing this love letter to themselves.
You know really digging deep. So to me that’s such an important point of wellness is when we feel confident and we feel good in who we are, that allows us to develop all the rest of the other principles right? We really want to dive into being well.
So that one’s a really huge one for me. And along with knowing your worth, another point is your community and your relationships right? Like who you surround yourself with. You know your friends, your family, even in your job, your co-workers right?
Who are you speaking with every day? But it’s not just that, it’s also who you follow on social media right? Like that’s so important.
Who you’re following, what you’re listening to, what you’re taking in every day. So is that a positive connotation or negative connotation? And I’ve gone through and I’ve you know deleted accounts that I follow because I feel like it wasn’t giving me that positivity that I wanted to feel first thing in the morning or in the afternoon when I’m you know scrolling through.
I want to I want to have that positivity or that support or that confidence building.
So I believe that’s really important your community is is really up there. Another one is making time for your hobbies or your passions right? A lot of us we work work work right? And I have a very strong work ethic you know I’m running my own business so I have to right? I have to discipline myself.
But I think that we tend to like forget our hobbies or they get you know kind of pushed off or things that we were passionate about when we were younger or things that we love to go do and they kind of get put to the wayside.
So that’s really important to making sure that you’re making time for that. And along with that is your self-care which is filling your own cup. And self-care is way more than taking a bubble bath right? Right it’s taking time for yourself.
It’s shutting off your phone. It’s going in you know if you live in a house with other people going in the other room closing the door for five minutes right? Just taking your own time. And also part of your self-care is scheduling those hobbies that I talked about earlier right? So making sure that you have time to read a book if that’s what you like.
Watch a TV program. These are part of your self-care right? Making sure that you take time for yourself and being selfish about it. And selfish is not a dirty word.
Like it’s okay to be a little selfish right? And your self-care. Another point is your purpose. Are you living in your values? I find when people are not aligned with their values or aligned with who they are at their core, they tend to have the anxiety or I know for me depression comes on if I’m doing things that I’m not enjoying or not in alignment with who I am.
People don’t want to continue those activities right? If you’re working in a place that is not aligned with your values or you go do something that you’re at your core you’re like this just doesn’t feel right. So understanding your values and your purpose really gives you again that confidence to go forward in your life right?
And it builds around who you are and what you do every day in your lifestyle. Since you we already talked about me being a yoga instructor, obviously on my 13 points of wellness I have mindfulness, meditation, breath work, yoga, that mind-body connection which is so important to have.
We all have so much stress in our lives and you know that’s where self-care comes in. But also there’s also that yoga, moving your body, connecting with your breath, having that understanding, taking that meditation time. And there’s so many different forms of meditation.
I know we’re not here we don’t have the time for that. That’s another that maybe that’s another time. That’s a whole other episode.
Absolutely I agree let’s schedule that one. And my last two points of wellness are manifesting abundance. So your mindset right getting in that abundance mindset rather than that scarcity mindset that everything is you know working out, the universe has your back, you are completely abundant.
And that’s not just in money right? Abundant in your friends, abundant in your family, and your joy, and your happiness. And the last one which is I feel the most important, so even though it’s last, is gratitude. Having gratitude for your life, having gratitude for who you are, having gratitude for just everything.
Just being grateful and thankful and appreciative and showing that gratitude every day in some way however you do that. That is my 13 points of wellness that I believe are very important to creating a wellness lifestyle to build up your confidence and bring you joy every day. Tasha I love those.
Can we talk about a couple of those for a minute because I feel like, so I I know a lot of health coaches, I know a lot of people in the health and wellness like business, and I don’t think that there are enough of them using you know kind of delving into the areas that you are in terms of tapping into your purpose and your values and gratitude and things like that.
I see a lot of you know fitness, nutrition, sleep, a lot of the physical stuff, but a lot of the things that you’re tapping into here are mental and emotional and they have a huge impact on your physical well-being. So one thing that you mentioned was community.
How important is that? Like you said the messages that you’re taking in, what are you absorbing from all of the people and even you know your co-workers, your family, your friends, your social media?What are the messages that you’re receiving subconsciously like you know regurgitating or internalizing for your own life? Like take a minute and think about that.
I don’t know that that a lot of people do that. No I don’t think they do because when I bring this up with clients you know I ask them you know who do you speak to or see on a daily basis? And then I ask them what accounts are you following on your social media on a daily basis? What is the message that’s being sent to you? And you know I relate it to think about if you you have an idea right?
Like you’re gonna start a business or you want to go after this other job right? And then is there someone in your life who’s like hmm do you really want to take that risk? Do you really want to do that?
Oh but then you’ll be starting at the bottom of that company or do you know enough for do that? You know unfortunately there is all of us have at least one person who does that right?And I mean it’s appreciative in a sense where you’re like oh good these are questions I should ask myself right? But at the end of the day you know we want we it’s like we want a cheering section.
Not people who are gonna be like you can do everything you know? You don’t want people to be realistic to you and have you think about those thoughts about can I actually do this?
But if that’s what you’re hearing from your community all the time maybe you need another community or maybe you need to add some other people into your community who are like no I have done this. It’s hard but you can do it right? So having people that have your back but also are gonna keep you down to earth right?
They’re gonna be realistic with you that maybe this isn’t the best time to do that or what about if you did it this way or you know yes you want people to be truthful to you but you also want people who are going to support you and lift you up. And that also goes for you know especially women right?
Like when you succeed do you turn around and pull the person behind you up or is it well I succeeded and I’m here now? So you want to have that that support group who they’re looking out for you but they’re also lifting you up so it’s a good balance.
I love that. The other thing that you mentioned that I don’t think you know has enough attention on it is hobbies. So having these activities that you’re doing that aren’t necessarily I’m gonna use air quotes here productive right?
They’re not part of your work they’re not like family time but they’re things that you do just for you that you really get you know a lot of enjoyment out of and having that space to do the things that you love to do I think there’s a lot of value there and I don’t think that enough coaches and wellness practitioners are really talking about that.
The word that that stuck out to me of what you just said in that sentence was the word productive right? Productivity. This is we think that we always have to be doing something right? We always have to be productive. We always have to be working, creating, making something and what happens is that’s how we reach burnout right? That’s a whole another episode but that’s how burnout happens right? Because we’re not taking the time.
We’re only thinking about being productive. We’re not thinking about rest. We’re not thinking about doing something else that brings us joy and work can bring us joy don’t get me wrong my work does.
Teaching yoga, coaching clients brings me joy but I love being able to sit down on a Sunday night and read a book. I love to be able to you know pour myself a really nice cup of tea on Friday evenings because I know I teach yoga Saturday morning. So Friday evenings I relax with my cup of tea.
There’s probably a book happening as well there. Clearly books is top of my hobbies. So when I do that I know I’m gonna be productive on Saturday morning right? Because now I’ve taken my time.
I’ve had my cup of tea. I’ve had my book Friday night and I know Saturday morning I’m gonna get up and teach yoga. I’m probably gonna go food shopping.
I might clean my apartment right? Like I’m gonna be productive because I allowed myself that time to recharge and I think that one of the things that I ask my clients to do actually is because now I’m a planner and I’m old-school. I actually have a paper cat you know the planner book I bought at Target. Not even my phone.
But I think I ask my clients to plan your hobbies. I know it sounds silly but we plan work right? We know what times we’re gonna be at work. We plan this so and plan this you plan that.
Plan your hobbies. Plan your self-care right? Like put them in your calendar or even in your mind if you you know if you’re not gonna write them down. But really putting that in there that you know I’m gonna go have dinner with my friend on this night because that is up seeing my friends is part of my hobbies.
Something I love to do. Having a wonderful dinner right? Put that in your calendar because you’re gonna do that and when you do you’re gonna feel really productive because you allowed yourself the time. You’re not feeling angry that you’re constantly working or constantly on.
You’ve given you’ve allowed yourself that space to take that break and to take that rest and to again prioritize yourself. I love that. So one of the things that you said that I’m wholly in agreement here with is that self-care is more than bubble bath.
It is it’s a whole slew of activities that are basically putting boundaries around your resources, your time, your energy, your space and it’s critical. Like self-care I think has gotten this reputation for being frivolous or luxurious but it’s critical. It absolutely has gotten that reputation of frivolous and this is why I said earlier selfish is not a dirty word.
Like go ahead and be selfish right? Take your time. I think that now we’re starting to understand that. I think people are starting to understand that more and more since given what’s been going on over the past couple years.
But and I think that people now are prioritizing their self-care and it is. It is more than you know a bubble bath. I completely you know that’s I always say that but you know again reading books that’s my form of self-care.
Exercise maybe that’s a form of self-care right? I love the most important word that you just said boundaries. That is the number one form of self-care. Not massage, not bubble bath, not any of that.
Boundaries right? And it’s boundaries around your time and your energy. Our energy is currency right? Energy is our currency. It really is.
We have so much every day and where we dole that out or how we dole that out depends on then how fast or quickly we get depleted and then need to recharge and get that energy again right? So where what we’re prioritizing where we’re putting that energy and who we’re giving that energy to right? So I think that that’s really important setting that boundaries. Boundaries is a form of self-care. That is what you’re doing.
You’re saying hey I need a minute whether it’s a meditation, whether it’s going to a retreat, whether it’s taking your bath, whether it’s watching a program for 30 minutes, you know watching a show, reading a book for an hour. Whatever it is that’s your boundary you set around please don’t bother me. So Sunday mornings I and I people are like wow you do that? Sunday morning I don’t even touch my phone until maybe 11 or 12 o’clock on Sundays because I’m gonna get up. I’m gonna have my meditation.
I’m going to have my journaling. I’m going to read. I’m going to make myself a breakfast.
I’m going to just be on Sunday morning and then I will touch my phone. I will get to answering a message or going on social media or whatever it is that I choose to do but I’m not doing it for that certain amount of time. I leave my phone in the bedroom.
I’m on my couch. I don’t even look at it. That’s my boundary.
That’s my self-care. I love that. I wish I had the strength to do that.
Well I will work on it. That’ll be my intention and we’re gonna talk about that in a second. Two more points that I just wanted to really just quickly go back to.
Having your clients look at their values and their purpose and think about if what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis is in alignment with those values and the things that they feel they’re led to do or like that really fill them up and if that’s hobby related, that’s community related. There’s so much spillover here into these other things where your values but you know so many people don’t stop and think okay what what do I value and I love that you take the time with your clients to say let’s let’s evaluate this. Let’s sit down and think about what is important to you.
Is it community? Is it family? It can be a bunch of things. It doesn’t have to be one or the other but where are you spending time in the areas that are important to you because when you’re out of alignment in all of those what happens?
Well that’s the thing. When you don’t feel well and I don’t mean like really sick right like unhealthy but when you feel off or you have headaches or something isn’t feeling right with you the last place we think about is our values or being in alignment right but when you’re not in alignment you’re you’re not finding the joy.
You’re not you’re not feeling right. You’re not feeling well because you’re not doing something that excites you or maybe you’re going against what you want to actually be doing. Many of us will and you know I’ve been guilty of it where you say yes to something you really wanted to say no to but you said yes and now it just doesn’t feel right.
You’re not in that place where you’re giving it your all. You’re not being productive. You’re not feeling good about it because it was against your value.
It was out of alignment with what you actually want to be doing. So you know we all see you know the posts about thank God it’s the weekend or up another Monday here comes this job. Well what if you woke up and you actually liked going to your job? You know what if you woke up and you actually loved what you did because you were in alignment with who you are.
Your values were represented at work. Your values were represented in who you are and what you show up and do every day and what you give to the world. Again it goes back to that energy right.
You’re giving energy to your purpose. You’re giving energy to your values so you should be in alignment with them. This is your life.
This is your no one else’s. This is your one life. So being in alignment with yourself, feeling good, knowing that you’re working in those values, that’s how you cultivate joy and happiness and wanting to get out of bed every day and wanting to be you know around others and people and doing your job and doing your work.
So I think that’s why that’s really important. I know for me when I recently had an example of this, I was in a place that was not in alignment with me and I knew it. I knew it but I kept staying and months went by and I just I kept feeling like you know this is not in alignment and eventually I made changes and I feel so much better because I did that because I was staying true to who I am and that’s what’s important.
And the last thing I want to go back to and I love that you tried to sneak this in at the end even though it’s huge. This is this is one of those things that we’re really learning a lot about every day about how gratitude, expressing gratitude, feeling gratitude, like just embodying your gratitude has physical and mental impact. It can really change how you’re feeling and like how you live.
Expressing gratitude and just acknowledging the gratitude for like you said your family, your friends, your health, where you live, what you get to do, you know all your gifts, all these things. Can you dive in a little bit about gratitude some more? Yeah gratitude is gratitude is huge and I know for years I didn’t give it enough thought. I didn’t give it credit.
You know I you know I always said thank you right that’s just you know I very kind of you know I was called Miss Manners at one of my jobs I worked at. I’m always saying please thank you but I didn’t really like think about the deep appreciation right there’s like oh thank you but when you sit in gratitude that’s a deep appreciation for your life and that again.
I know I keep bringing the words up you know bringing getting yourself into joy but that’s what it is right when you’re grateful for even the little things right like a food in your refrigerator, the cozy bed you slept in, having heat. I mean it’s I’m in New York it’s cold right now so here in Brooklyn so I’m very happy I have heat today.
So even those little things but then on the bigger level right like your family, your friends, the job you go to. When you have that gratitude and appreciation more opportunities open up for you and when I am I go back and forth with different tea that I drink but on the yogi tea they always have those little like quotes in the teabag and I’m always like oh it’s like a little positivity for in the first thing in the morning and one of them said an attitude of gratitude brings opportunity.
So when you are grateful you’re going to get more of that because again energy you’re putting that appreciation energy and that thankful energy out into the universe and then oh well here let me give you more you know right and you’re welcoming of ideas you say yes to more things.
I will tell you Lori when you asked me to do this podcast my first gut reaction was no I can’t do that and then I thought you know what yes I can and then I said thank you for giving me this opportunity to do this podcast. To go back to your point about how when you’re when you’re grateful things open up and you’re open to more
I know there’s a woo-woo side to this but there’s also a scientific like psychological you open up your your mindset and you actually are looking for things you’re looking for opportunities you see opportunities where you didn’t before and it’s it’s subconsciously because you are you’re feeling thankful and you’re recognizing that the things that are in your life are gifts.
Right because when you’re grateful now you’re positive you’re you’re looking to accept more and it does it changes your whole brain chemistry and it changes your whole mindset of I have a joyful life I have something to be grateful for I can accept this oh this is a good thing let me I don’t want to look at that in a negative way I want to look at this in a positive way and you change you definitely change that and I hear you on the woo-woo I like to say I’m half woo not full woo.
I think that’s where I am on the woo scale too like I’m a little woo because I’ve seen too many things to dismiss it but at the same time big fan of science and I know that there’s an explanation there somewhere I might not understand it but I know that there’s like a reason as to why this is happening right so like you just said it changes your brain chemistry
so we have a little bit of science here for anybody who’s like wait a second what’s what you know it does change your the way your brain is processing what’s happening and it actually just has been shown to reduce your stress hormone right so a little more science there it can change your sleep quality so when your sleep is good there’s like a trickle-down effect of all the other ways that you feel
