Dare To Evolve: A Worldwide Evolution
Today’s blog post is dedicated to my very good friend, Shane Heins, founder of Dare to Evolve. This weekend marks the first Club Evolution 2 day intensive workshop in Vancouver, held at Engineered Bodies, Strength and Conditioning in Port Moody, BC. As a Movement Coach and founder of YogaFORM, I am proud to be participating in this two day event, as well as providing the decompression YogaFORM cool down for our participants.
Shane`s mission has always been to empower people from the inside out, to use the physical sphere as a means of inward reflection and a vehicle for change. He believes; inherent within each and every one of us, resides an essence so noble, a being so gifted, that it bursts at the seams. It bursts with such brilliance as to be a beacon of light in the darkest corners of sorrow, a healing salve from the most tormenting prison of pain and unending hope in the face of grave calamity.
Dare to Evolve isn’t just a workshop designed to teach fitness enthusiasts about this new tool… called the club. It’s designed to be a vehicle for change. A tool from which you can connect with and build skills from the inside out, top to bottom, leaving you grounded, more in touch with your present self and able to overcome the obstacles that come with life’s unpredictability.
Connecting to your tool and grounding yourself were the first two key fundamentals of today’s workshop. Finding engagement with the ground allows us to firmly root. Finding activation in our “core” allows us to firmly balance and feel solid in our structure and finding flow in our movements allows us to feel connected to our body and mind. These are the principles The Club Evolution is built upon.
To pay tribute to his expertise and guidance in our industry’s movement revolution, I would like to feature some of my favorite inspirational articles from Shane Heins, which can be found at his Dare to Evolve website:
The Worldwide Shift.
We live at a time that is undergoing an immense transition from the way the world has “worked” for the last few generations: Economically, socially, technologically, and industrially. We are thus needing to redefine our place in this changing world and what the value is that we bring to it.
Which can seem insurmountable when thinking about overcoming the:
- Pain and discomfort
- Dissatisfaction
- Depression
- Sense of helplessness
- Low energy
- Frustration
- Sleeplessness
- Low self esteem
- Anger
… to name a few of the things that so many of us feel in our lives.
But there is so much information out there, it is an overwhelming prospect just to start! Where do you start?
Straight to the Heart of the Matter.
Because that is where it starts. The heart. At the core of who you are is an incredible gift to the world. One that only you can unveil. In those moments when we feel the:
- Heat in our chest
- Fire in our gut
- Intensity of inspiration
- Exhilaration of joy…
…We catch a glimpse of our gift’s potential. But only a glimpse, as it won’t stay still for long. It’s energy is so great it can’t be chained down. Our ability to harness it, however, can. Harnessing it is what happens here at Dare To Evolve.
The Missing Link.
There are two primary modalities currently at the forefront of this modern transformation wave. There is the Self-Help stream and the Fitness stream.
Self-help resources and those that teach them have exploded over the last decade, turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry. It is not uncommon to walk into a household and see various copies of self-improvement books lining the shelves (We have some on our shelf too). Much of what is shared is really good information, with a few stand-outs leading the pack. But the approach generally tends to be via addressing the mind:
- Unlocking mental blocks
- Deconstructing mis-construed perceptions
- Discovering unconscious thought patterns
- Creating a framework to re-wire it all…
These are all very good, but the main difficulty with this approach is using the very source, that is causing us difficulty in the first place, in an attempt to change it:the mind. It can be done, but can easily turn into a convoluted path.
Now yes, the leaders of this pack also speak to the need of connecting to our emotions, essentially what lies at the heart of our motivation, but there is no real systematic way to nurture this. Most importantly there is no physical practice to tie it to. Why a physical practice? Because through the movement of our body, there is movement of emotion, freeing up movement of the mind.
The Fitness industry has been slowly, but steadily, changing it’s tune over the last decade, recognizing not only our need but also our desire for more than just a shapely butt, nice legs, chiselled chest and bulging biceps. It now speaks to training for the mind, body and soul. Which is amazing right? Shouldn’t it all be about more than just the surface “features” we develop?
The trouble is, most fitness professionals don’t have a means to translate the benefits of physical training into supporting the growth and development of the mind and the soul.
The trainers know moving the body is key, without a doubt, to the whole package of evolving our entire being. Yet despite all the lingo being used about fitness to enhance “mind, body and soul”, the approach is still largely to do so by:
- Lose a ton of fat in the next 30 days
- Build the chest and arms of a superhero
- Tone up to get the shapely legs and butt everybody wants
From this also lies the risk of promoting the transformation of your physique as the source for developing your self-confidence and self worth.
To say that in achieving the ideal physique (as dictated by the industry itself) will be the source of your value in this world, may be well intentioned, but couldn’t be further from the truth.
To develop self-confidence and self worth, there needs to be more than just a shiny surface. Without the internal processes to match the external, it becomes a vicious cycle of starts and stops, of defeat, inadequacy and feeling unfulfilled. Sound familiar?
Bridging the Gap.
At Dare To Evolve, we use the platform of physical training (being grounded in what we instantly and tangibly feel as we come up against the tension and resistance generated over the years) as the vehicle for developing the innate qualities within us.
By consistently and systematically tapping into our inner qualities, nurtured through a budding intuition, we start interacting with our unique gifts regularly, gradually turning up the dial on the energy building as we harness the essence of what lies at the heart of who we are.
Harnessing the gifts that reside at the heart, we melt away from the inside out the chains and anchors that have tightened their hold on us.
Physically vibrant, driven by the very heart of motivation, we can now access with greater effectiveness and success all that the mind has to offer, as we strive to the heights of our capacity.
Dare To Evolve brings the elusive yet necessary bridge that connects the path to the immensity of our strength and power, unleashing on the world the gems of our utmost potential.
It Only Takes One…
… one you, one me, one us.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…”Do you Participate or Contribute?
“There is a fine line between Participate and Contribute.
That difference resides in the choice you make.
When we participate:
- we are there, but it does not necessitate that we be “present”.
- we need only take part, not take whole
- we are in a position to receive without having to give.
- we can do so without commitment
When we contribute:
- we invest wholeheartedly in what lies before us
- we give of ourselves honestly to exploring the process
- we step forward with the courage to share the best part of ourselves with each other
- we value all present
- we are grateful for all involved”
For more information on Dare To Evolve please click the link here.
