Less Stress In Life

Turning Your Passion Into Your Business

May 12, 2021 Deb Timmerman and Barb Fletcher Season 1 Episode 9
Less Stress In Life
Turning Your Passion Into Your Business
Show Notes Transcript

Named one of the most inspirational paddlers alive by Canoe and Kayak magazine, and most inspirational outdoors person of the year in Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine, Anna is a world-renowned paddle-sports coach and trainer, and author of Yoga for Paddling, published by Falcon Guides.

Anna is the leading authority in whitewater kayaking and stand up paddle-boarding instruction for women. She's highly sought after for her unique and empowering approach to building confidence, facing fears and overcoming challenges both on and off the water.

She's an American Canoe Association Instructor Trainer Educator in whitewater kayaking, stand up paddle-boarding and SUP yoga, as well as a certified Ayurveda Wellness Counselor and yoga teacher (500 RYT).

Anna combines her experience and skill in paddling, Ayurveda and yoga to create mind, body and adventure coaching, retreats and programming for women. https://mindbodypaddle.com/

Debra Timmerman  0:01 
You're listening to Less Stress In Life. With hosts, Deb Timmerman and Barb Fletcher, we believe life with less stress and more energy is possible with the right tools, strategies and knowledge. So we bring your real conversations around the stress of relationships, money, and the daily hassles of life with guests that will inspire, challenge, entertain and motivate you to take action.

Barb Fletcher  0:27 
We're here today with Anna Leveque, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about her. She was named one of the most inspirational paddlers alive by canoe and kayak magazine, and most inspirational outdoors Person of the Year in the rodeo Ridge outdoors magazine. Anna is world renowned paddle sports coach and trainer and author of yoga for paddling, published by Falcon Guides, and is a leading authority in whitewater kayaking and stand up paddleboarding instruction for women. She's highly sought after for her unique empowering approaches to building confidence and facing fears and overcoming challenges both on and off the water. She's an American Canoe Association, instructor, trainer, educator in whitewater kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, and SUP Yoga, as well as a certified Ayurveda wellness counselor, and yoga teacher. Anna combines her experience and skills and paddling or you eat it and yoga to create Mind Body adventure coaching, retreats, and programming for women. Welcome, Anna.

Anna Leveque  1:44 
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Barb Fletcher  1:47 
We're thrilled to have you here today just to chat a little bit more about your adventures, and really, you bring a different flavor to all of what you do outside and and how you perceive that as it relates to stress. So can you tell us a little bit about how you started paddling?

Anna Leveque  2:13 
Yes, I was in university and I wanted, I needed a summer job. So I applied to work at a whitewater rafting company, which is on the route on the Rouge River actually near my where I grew up in between Ottawa and Montreal. And I didn't get to become a RAF guide or a kayaker, at first, I worked in the kitchen, which is not a glamorous job. And I got introduced to this whole new world for me at the time of whitewater kayaking, whitewater rafting. And I saw that the guides and the people who live this lifestyle of working on the river were happy, they were content, they had so much fun. They were not stressed. And to me they prioritize their lifestyle and their joy, connecting with nature over everything else, which was a different context for life for me at the time. And I went on my first rafting trip on one of my days off and I was hooked. I was hooked on this joy, on this adventure, on connecting with people and nature. And you know, I had originally thought I was going to be going to law school. And to my parents dismay at the time, I decided to pursue my passion for the outdoors. And I never turned back and then I ended up because I I get very into what I what I love. I ended up RAF guiding around the world kayaking around the world. I tried out for the Canadian National Freestyle Kayak Team, I made it. I was a five, five time member so I was I competed for Canada at the international level for five years. And then that organically grew into a business when I decided that I wanted to whitewater kayaking is a very male dominated sport and I wanted to put out the female experience that I was experiencing at the time. I felt that as female kayakers at the time were not able to really be ourselves we were held to a standard of you need to be like the guys. And so I produced the first whitewater kayaking, instructional DVD for women. This is back when DVDs were cool. And people watch them. It was back in 2003. And from there,  my sponsorship increased and I started doing tours with the video and offering kayak classes around the US and Canada, for women, and it just exploded and started growing from there.

Barb Fletcher  5:07 
What I really love about your story is that you placed fun and joy at the top of your list. And I think traditionally people say, well, I need to have a job, and then I'll have fun enjoy besides that.

Anna Leveque  5:22 
Exactly. And I had many people tell me that that's how I should be so many people. How are you going to make money where I started living in the States after a while? How are you going to get health insurance? I heard you can't do this so many times. And yet, I kept turning to what was important to me. And somehow, somehow it has, I have made it work. And it is possible. And in fact, I have a thriving business, you know, that I have created. And so I do believe, from my own experience that it is possible, it doesn't mean that you have to make it like me that you have to make it your work and your business. But I do believe that it is an important piece of stress relief, it is an important piece - play adventure, joy is an important piece to health and well being and it it shouldn't be put off to someday, because someday is not on the calendar.

Barb Fletcher  6:30 
Deb and I both our work with a tool called heart math, and one of the things that we have learned is that when we're in alignment with our heart values, things will fall into place. And I think that's what I'm hearing you say is that, you know, those values that were deep with inside of you, you recognized what they were early on. And, and never lost sight of sight of them

Anna Leveque  6:58 
Yeah, but I love that that's a great way to put it. And I love the idea of, of aligning right with, with what's important to you to all of us to who to your listeners. And it takes courage. That's the thing that it takes a lot of courage. So people think of playing adventures like, Oh, that's just fun stuff. You know, it's not important. But actually it takes a lot of courage to put joy first. It takes a lot of courage to go on an adventure takes a lot of courage to tune out that "you can't do this. It's not possible. You need to be responsible, or this is irresponsible". It takes so much courage and courage builds confidence. And I think it's a cycle. And so actually, if you have the courage to put your joy first, then you can apply that courage to other areas of your life.

Barb Fletcher  7:59 
Speak to courage and competence because just a couple of days earlier this week I spoke I posted something that talked about courage and confidence and and you know, how they are interlaced, and people who are looking for more confidence. You know, it comes from that place of courage.

Anna Leveque  8:22 
Yes. And being vault being willing to be vulnerable, because there is no courage without vulnerability. So I think sometimes we think it should be easy. building confidence should just be a always building confidence process with no challenge. You know, I think we like that idea because we as humans like things to be easy. But the truth is that the getting uncomfortable and allowing ourselves to be challenged and vulnerable is where the growth is.

Debra Timmerman  8:53 
So your paddling came first and then your journey into Ayurveda Medicine and yoga, or was it reverse? Could you tell us about that process?

Anna Leveque  9:04 
Sure. Yeah, the the paddling came first. And then I, I, I was always interested in yoga. And when I really when I was competing at a high level, I turned to yoga to help me with my mindset, and my confidence, especially in competition, because I found it difficult for me to focus on what I needed to do, versus focus on expectations and on what other people thought of me. And still to this day, it's it's an ongoing journey. And yoga, the practice of yoga gave me a routine that I could stick to in the morning that was steady, calming. That helped me focus on what was going on with me, and I could take that to competition when I was in competition before I would go out freestyle rides, taking a deep breath, focusing. And so yes, it was about the physical as well and keeping my body healthy and flexible and strong and balanced, there was a lot about the mind. And then through yoga, I was introduced to Ayurveda. And to me, Ayurveda is all about remembering that we are nature, and that when we design or choose our lifestyle and our nourishment based on our unique constitution and the seasons, that we align with nature, because we are nature, that we become much healthier, right. And so there's more to being healthy than the typical diet and exercise that we're told, right there is being healthy as aligning with our true nature. And with the circadian rhythm, it's a lot about circadian rhythm and the light dark cycle. So that is how I got introduced to yoga and then and then Ayurveda,

Debra Timmerman  11:07 
what each of those bring to you. In terms of mindset, you talked about the ability to focus, but how did they broaden your perspective of health, I heard you say, I think, that mind, body and spirit are aligned, and they brought you to that place.

Unknown Speaker  11:28 
Well, I talk a lot about mind, body and adventure. And if our mind if my mind is healthy, meaning that I can have a relationship with reality, and what I mean by that is that I can discern between the stories, I'm telling myself about what's happening versus what's actually happening. And in whitewater kayaking, that's really important. Because when I'm kayaking, a difficult rapid if I'm simply in my head about what could go wrong, or what I'm afraid of, but that's not actually happening, then that might become a self fulfilling prophecy, or then I can't focus on what's actually in front of me take this stroke here. Stay forward, you know, and so, I think, as far as health with the yoga tuning into the present moment, and being with what, what's actually happening, and then also with Ayurveda, Ayurveda is based on the qualities of nature. And it always reminds me from a mindset perspective of what are the qualities that are happening right now, right versus, and it takes a lot of focus to focus on that, for instance, right now, it's, it's warm in my room, it's quiet, right? I feel safe, these are qualities that are surrounding me right now. And then from the mind perspective, so if the mind is calm, and joyful, and discerning, then the body then then you, you can tune into what your body actually needs, versus ignoring the body and just continuing to push through. And then vice versa, when the body is well nourished, well rested, and has enough movement, then the mind is freer. Right, so the body and the mind are connected. And, and the science is showing this, and then with the adventure, broadening the horizons, so when the body and the mind are healthy, you have more courage, right to go on adventures, and then adventure sparks joy. And the whole deal with adventure is an adventure is something you take on where you're not sure of the outcome, but you do it anyway. It's not an adventure if you know the exact outcome. And I think sometimes we try to control things too much in our lives. And having that sense of adventure sparks joy ignites spark for life. So that's how I see them all intertwined.

Debra Timmerman  14:03 
That's a great explanation. And I'm chuckling a little bit because that what we can control is such an illusion, isn't it? We really control our thoughts, ourselves. And yet we spend so much time trying to control our environment in our world. And yeah, we really don't.

Barb Fletcher  14:24 
Yeah, absolutely. Exactly.

Anna Leveque  14:27 
And Yoga is a lot like, you know, one of the philosophies of yoga is to let go of the fruits of our action. So do the work to do the work or do the action just to do the action not to actually get an outcome. And I like that philosophy as well.

Barb Fletcher  14:42 
I think adventure is, is a term that not everybody uses. I think we we tend to be you know, our perspective is a bit more contracted as you spoke about, you know, how we're trying to control the outcome and I and I love this notion of adventure and spirit and how they how they connect to one another because, you know, I, I can feel inside of me my spirit feels excited when I'm going on an adventure and the possibilities and and you know Deb and I focus on emotions and and that feeling that's associated with with that and that's exciting

Debra Timmerman  15:30 
When you're out kayaking or doing a paddleboard, you talked about staying in the moment and using practices to be able to be connected in that present moment. What kinds of things are going through your head as you're in nature and commuing? I mean, obviously, you're paddling, especially if you're doing a rapids, you have to be focused, but what about when you're doing like stand up paddling? Are you able to maybe take in more of the surroundings?

Anna Leveque  16:06 
Yeah, it so I would say I don't know that I can take in more of the surroundings. What I like about standup paddleboarding, and I, you know, when you said that the whole what taking in nature, one of the first things that came to my mind was I run a stand up paddleboard camp for women in Barbados, and the ocean is so blue, right? It's beautiful. And when I'm paddling, sometimes I look around on a standard board I can take in more, it's more of an expanse it when I'm paddling on the ocean, at least, it's more of an expansive view, like taking in the ocean and the sky and the clouds and the sun. It's just amazing. And then, and then you might paddle. You know, turn a corner as you're paddling along the coast and the wind hits you. And then the focus is on Okay, strong paddling, strong core and not letting and it's hard, but not letting myself be like, Oh, this is so hard. This sucks, but be like just focus on strong core, okay, maybe you need to get down on your knees because the wind is too strong. Or maybe you need to start paddling prone. Because when a stand up board, that's a nice thing. You don't have to stand up the whole time you can change your position. And and it when you're standing up, you're like a big sail. So if you need to get down because of the wind, you can. So in that sense there can also be challenged when I'm surfing stand up paddleboard surfing, then it's a little more activated as similar to whitewater kayaking, where I have to read the water. I have to see where the wave is. Where's the peak? I'm turning around. Okay, I've got a paddle really fast. Now I'm on the wave. Look ahead. I mean, one of the the commonalities of what the focus is for both whitewater kayaking and stand up paddleboarding is looking where you want to go. That's so so important. You can't just stare at the nose of your board or at the bow of your kayak because if you do, you can't see where you're going. And I've always found that to be such a wonderful metaphor for life. Right? We have to look where we're going. And these these outdoor adventures mountain biking is the same rock climbing the same if you're just focused on where you are right now you have to be focused on where you are right now in the rapid but you also have to see with the outflow and where you want to end up because the river is dynamic. And one of the my favorite things to focus on with whitewater kayaking and with standup paddleboarding is this relationship with the water. And you know, I can look at a river and someone who doesn't have experience kayaking, or what we call reading water, because I can see the path. To me, the river shows me a path. And I work with the river. It's not about conquering the river. It's not about overcoming the river. It's about learning to read the water, work with the water, same thing in the ocean to get where you want to get.

Debra Timmerman  19:08 
Oh, that describes the journey to mastering stress and like and having this toolbox full of tools. So you described on the board, you can stand, you can kneel, you can be prone, all of those things and knowing when to use the appropriate tool to get you to where you want to go. That is a great description.

Barb Fletcher  19:31 
Yeah, exactly. Yes. It paints a wonderful picture for us as to how we want to how we want to live. And one of the biggest challenges for many is they don't necessarily know where they want to go.

Anna Leveque  19:47 
So true. So true for myself sometimes. And I have to keep reminding myself, especially in my business or in you know, different phases of life. We it doesn't have to always be the same. And sometimes I feel like I can get stuck. Not. Yeah, stuck is one way to put it in. I think we can all experience this where we're just going along. And then all of a sudden is like, Where are we? How did I get here? And now, but instead of saying, Oh, I'm here, this sucks. And complaining, it's about Yeah. Like if I'm whitewater kayaking is like, hey, well, where do I want to go? Or if I'm on the ocean, let's refocus, where do I want to go? There's always choice.

Debra Timmerman  20:31 
Yeah, and the current will take you where the current goes, right? I mean, so it's being aware of that in the moment and being able to make those and create those choice points. So for women or guys who maybe want to get started in a hobby, like doing watersports, as a way to manage stress, what recommendations would you have for them?

Anna Leveque  20:54 
Okay, so recommendations would be it first is take some instruction. I'm a big believer in instruction. And depending on if you want to go flat water kayaking, you know, the instruction might be you know, an hour of instruction to get you started with a good instructor, whitewater kayaking, you're looking at more a day or two days, right, because it's a little more involved. Same thing with stand up paddleboarding, you want to go out and enjoy flat water on the lake, take taken our private lesson or take a group lesson. So that you, you know, part of building confidence is having some knowledge. And so being comfortable with the parts of the board and how to carry it and what life jacket to wear and, and making sure your life jacket is fit properly, always on the water, you want to have a life jacket on, right? And then how to hold the paddle and then how to engage the core, right? Because we tend to just want to as humans, we get until we get onto a craft and we think it's just arms. But paddling with your arms is very inefficient. And so you want to learn how to engage the core in in rotation so you get more of a workout. But it's not just about a workout about powering your boat your craft more efficiently. So that was a long winded way of saying instruction, rig take get some tips. And it might look like going to your local outfitter shop, you know where you might buy or rent your equipment. And they'll have, they might have a safety briefing, they'll give you some tips to get out on the water. You can you know buy yourself a board or a kayak and just go out and flat water and enjoy it. And I do think that getting some guidance ahead of time is really, really helpful and makes the experience so much more joyful. And then you can also rent equipment versus buy it right away. And then you can learn more as you continue to rent and then when you're ready to buy you have more information. Also there are clubs, paddling clubs, and checking those out in your area. And they often have day trips and they provide instruction and resources and community. I find that I enjoy going out on my own sometimes I don't go out on my own whitewater kayaking, but going out on my own on mellow water is quite peaceful and nice. And then I love the social aspect of going on adventures with friends.

Debra Timmerman  23:34 
I've only been on one whitewater rafting trip and that was in the Dominican Republic. Nice (Anna) I believe we had a skilled guide who kept me from going overboard, but it was really fun. And I would not have experienced that had I not been in that group. I'm not anxious to do that. Again. That's not my what it was, but it was a cool experience. And I do love the water. I am very blessed to live by water and it's part of I am that I'm a water sign person. You know, it's a part of who I am. And I love it. Where can folks find out and follow you Anna?

Anna Leveque  24:17 
So my website is mind bodypaddle.com. And I'm on Instagram, Anna C Leveque. On Instagram and then on Facebook. I have Anna Leveque, my personal page and then Mind Body Paddle as a business page that you can check out and I'd love to hear if folks have more questions about getting into adventures or Mind Body adventure. I would love to answer questions and so happy to do so.

Debra Timmerman  24:48  
So I follow Anna on Facebook and have for a little bit now and what I love is how she takes her adventures and applies them to daily life like when she was talking about courage. I recall a little Facebook blurb that you did about courage. And I remember that so very memorable. You're wonderful at explaining how they apply.

Anna Leveque  25:12  
Thank you.

Anna Leveque  25:14  
I appreciate that.

Barb Fletcher  25:16  
That's when those messages stick is when we can attach them to a life experience.

Debra Timmerman  25:23  
Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We are very big supporters of your work. And we hope that folks that are listening will look you up and start to have some adventure and joy in their life.

Anna Leveque  25:37  
Thank you so much for having me, Deb and Barb. I so appreciate you all. Thank you so much.

Debra Timmerman  25:46  
Less stress in life is possible. If you're new to this kind of thinking and would like to explore what's possible for you. We'd love to connect. You can reach us through our website at less stress in life.com. That's lessstressinlife.com