Hello, fellow travelers!
The feeling I had today at the end of my lunchtime Pilates class was one of near-euphoria. This may sound extreme, and I might be exaggerating a tiny bit, but honestly, not having moved my body the way I normally do these past couple of weeks really caught up with me. I headed into that class feeling tired, foggy-brained and overwhelmed, and nearly an hour later left in an entirely different mood: invigorated, sweaty-sore, content. I just felt so much more…alive.
What’s that saying? You’re only one workout away from a good mood.
I know, breaking a sweat doesn’t always do the trick. But it more often than not does, particularly when you haven’t exercised in several days because you’ve been under the weather and work has felt like an avalanche. It’s been one of those weeks, and maybe a couple of weeks because when I started to feel a cold coming on this past Sunday, I’d been playing catch-up anyway following a bunch of work travel. This travel included spending several days an hour away from home to host what was another successful and amazing retreat weekend in the woods with beautiful women from all across the Midwest (and even Arizona!).
Which brings me to this wonderful conversation I am sharing here with you today. This live podcast recording is from the Michigan Runner Girl Winter Weekend Getaway, an event I’ve put on with my good friend Pam Carrigan each winter since 2018. One of my favorite parts of the weekend is doing this podcast—I bring in different guests each year, and this year we had two great friends of mine join us: Jackie Fiegel, a life coach and certified Pilates and yoga teacher, and Dr. Tina Metropoulos, a physician and certified yoga teacher.
I’m releasing podcast episodes here on an occasional basis, when I feel I have interesting, inspiring and insightful things to share in this audio format. As some of you know, I’ve been podcasting for a long time—many of you may remember me as the host of the Michigan Runner Girl podcast, which I started in 2015 and continued through the early part of 2023. I’ve since transitioned over to the Moving Through podcast and newsletter—the MichiganRunnerGirl.com site is still up and running, pun intended, sorry—and I’m looking forward to continuing to share stories here on Moving Through, both in audio format and of course in the newsletter, which comes out weekly-ish.
In this latest episode, we covered a lot of ground, from going through difficult times in a long-term partnership (and what it looks like to come out the other side of this pain) and parenting both young and older kids, to getting to know ourselves so that we can live the life we want the most, to finding and nurturing our female friendships, and feeling connected to others in what can feel like a strange, disconnected and divisive world.
We shared this honest and soul-filling conversation with the more than 30 women who sat with us. It was a cold weekend—frigid, really; our Saturday morning run temperatures were near zero—but there was gorgeous snow! Quite a bit of snow, which made for the most lovely afternoon and morning runs. We also snowshoed, enjoyed Pilates and yoga, and had some delicious food and drink all throughout the weekend. We even had a special guest from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, a wonderful colleague of mine, come by Friday evening to share his expertise and knowledge of our more than 13,400 miles of state-designated trails. This definitely spoke to us since we’re all about getting outside and exploring, especially on the trails. I’m continually learning so much about our trails throughout the lower and upper peninsulas.
Here are just a few images from our weekend retreat:
I hope you enjoy this episode of the Moving Through podcast, recorded live at the Ralph A. MacMullen Conference Center on the shores of Higgins Lake in northern Michigan. I know you’re going to love hearing from Tina and Jackie.
And please let me know what you think of this conversation by leaving a comment below—you all know how much I enjoy hearing from you! (You can also share a review and and subscribe to the show, wherever you listen to your podcasts.)
Thank you for being here with me today. I’ll see you back here soon!
-Heather
‘A season of becoming yourself’: a conversation with Jackie Fiegel and Tina Metropoulos