Episode #54: My Story

Tired of your body holding you back? Me too! I'm Cari Vann, and I've got a story to share. Let's talk about how the Complete Body Method can help you reclaim your freedom from pain and limitations. Sound good?

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Show Notes:

• Cari Vann opens up about her journey of overcoming pain and injuries to create the Complete Body Method. 

• She started being active at a young age but faced bullying and body shame, which led to unhealthy habits and injuries from dancing. 

• When foot issues ended her dance career, she took on a holistic approach to movement, blending different disciplines. 

• After experiencing spiritual awakenings following car accidents, she shifted her focus to listening to her body and establishing a solid foundation. This led to the development of the Complete Well Body Method, which emphasizes exercise, mind-body connection, and overall wellness. 

• Cari offers consultations to tailor the method to individual needs, helping people achieve freedom of movement and holistic well-being.

Key Takeaways:

• Overcoming pain and injury through holistic movement.

• The importance of listening to your body and establishing a strong foundation for wellness.

• The development of the Complete Well Body Method for personalized holistic wellness.

• Consultations offered to customize the method to individual needs.

Transcript:

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Better Than A Pill podcast. I'm Cari Vann and I'm so grateful to be here today with you and I'm going to be sharing in a little bit of a different manner today. I know I've been doing a lot of interviews, but I wanted to hop on today in between the interviews and share a little bit about my story as it pertains to why I have created the complete body method and what my driving force has been. 

 So I want to start off by asking a couple questions. First, are pain and other discomforts  interfering with your ability to fully enjoy life in the activities you love? How would your life change? If you could enjoy the activities you love without pain or fear of injury. 

And then I want you to imagine if your body felt strong,  Flexible, resilient, allowing you to live your best life without any physical limitations or subsequent pain. What would that be like or feel like for you?  Well, I know what it's like to struggle with pain and injury and the desire for freedom of movement that does not make things worse.

I've always been active. I like doing things like hiking, biking, swimming, and dancing. My passion for movement started at age four when my mom signed me up for a creative movement class. I think she thought I was hyperactive. At around age five, I started getting teased for being overweight. Other kids were calling me names that really hurt and caused me to feel ashamed of myself and of my body for a long time.

I was also told by a doctor that I needed to go on a diet, eat less, and exercise.  So my mom eventually signed me up. for ballet to help me get more exercise. And I really love dancing, but it wasn't a healthy environment for me on many levels. It led to unhealthy eating habits and also issues with my feet and ankles. 

Fast forward to my second year of college. My feet could not take it anymore. After lots of doctor's visits dealing with pain, I learned I was missing a joint in each foot and I was forced to quit dancing. Um,  I was even minoring in dance at the time, so stopping something that I loved was really hard.

But it pushed me to find other ways to have freedom of movement that I so desired. So movement has become a life saving force for me physically, as well as emotionally and mentally.  So my journey includes, uh, an extensive array of training and many movement disciplines and modalities, including restorative work and Pilates.

I also received undergraduate master's degrees in exercise physiology, and I've had the privilege of working at different medical centers, including the University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland, and the Duke Medical Center.  Even though I had a lot of education and extensive training, on a personal level, I was not using exercise or eating in a healthy manner.

Throughout my life journey, I struggled with overexercising, exercise addiction, as well as disordered eating that took different forms, from starvation to binging, and so on.  Due to this unbalanced approach, pushing through pain and all of the repetitive movement, I accrued numerous pains and injuries to every part of my body in addition to my feet.

Around my late 20s, I hit a pretty low bottom in my life and looking back now, I know this is where my spiritual journey began.  During this period, I also experienced two car accidents close together, and I believe God did this to get my attention because I'm really hardheaded. And I have to say it worked. 

This was a turning point for me. It forced me to slow down for the first time in a very long time. I began to do things differently. And actually the complete opposite of the way I had done before. This is where my exercising approach began, and I give God credit for this. I began to listen to my body.

I stopped telling it what to do. I stopped pushing through pain. I began to understand the value of the mind-body connection.  I also began to focus on building a strong foundation for my body in a different way than I had before. And over the next 15 to 17 years, I began to fit everything together that I was learning that I had learned in a very integrative manner and was blessed to be able to help a lot of people along the way, primarily through my work at the Duke Medical Center. 

I am grateful to God for my ability to do this work and help serve others. And once again, I give him all the credit. I did not come up with the complete well body method overnight. It was a long journey involving a lot of education, training, and years of working hands on with people. I got to see patterns.

There are key things we need to be doing in each of the pillars that aid in reducing pain and discomfort and preventing injury. I began to see how it was just as much a science as it is an art, and the combination of the pillars has been most important. But at the heart of it all is on exercising and building a foundation.

We have to start here. If we don't have a firm foundation to stand on, we can't support our mind and bodies in a way that is optimal.  So it brings me great joy to see people feeling better, enabling them not only to, you know, Achieve the freedom of movement they desire, but also to positively influence all aspects of their lives, mental, emotional, physical health relationships, and to rediscover the joy in their life and in their favorite activities. 

So if you're interested to learn specifically about how the complete body method could benefit you and your unique needs, the first step I take with everyone I work with is a consultation. This helps me to understand your individual needs, whether it's for injury prevention or addressing specific discomforts you experience while moving or exercising.

It also allows me to gain more insight.  into your situation and determine if you might be a good candidate for the Complete Well Body Method.  You can reach out directly to support a movement craft. com.  That is included in this episode as well as the link directly to a consultation call. Please let us know you are a listener of the Better Than A Pill podcast so you can receive special savings.

So I hope that this has been helpful for you today, and I will be back on in two weeks. Have a great day.