Creating Your Midlife Passage Purposefully with Anna Bennett

Interview Episode with Anna Bennett

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[00:00:33] Hello and welcome to curiously wise. I'm so grateful that you've joined us here today. I have a wonderful guest in store for us. A person I love to have conversation with. We get together and have a hard time stopping our conversation. So I know this is going to be fun. I want to introduce Anna Bennett and it is a wonderful and magical person in my life and I know we're going to have a great conversation. She is the owner and [00:01:00] the wellness specialist at therapeutic massage of Williamsburg here in Williamsburg, Virginia. She is just an amazing energy. She's always upbeat and happy and it's lovely. I just adore being in her energy. I know we're going to have a good time talking today.

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[00:01:35] And I love this. She says her superpower is helping women repair old injuries that they may once again sore. She is a talented and intuitive wellness specialist with a really big heart. And I'm so happy to welcome you here with me today, Anna.

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[00:02:19] Laurin: Let's just dive in. For years, you have been a yoga instructor or a massage therapist. You have this fabulous yoga class that you have dubbed Yo Tai which is Anna's lovely combination. She invented it herself. So it's hers, but

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[00:02:36] Vince yoga or Thai massage, but just around the way to marry the two together, get these two great kids together.

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[00:03:09] But recently you've changed the focus of your intention for your business and renamed it as you've already mentioned. And so I'm really curious about that because I know over the last couple of years where we've all been at home , we've rethought our businesses and we've rethought who we want to focus on and not just our businesses, but in our lives too.

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[00:03:47] Anna: So you may not know this about me, but I actually started out as an artist.

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[00:04:38] I give them the option that if you ever felt really lazy, , don't skip your appointment, come on in and you to still a massage for that day. And like a hundred percent of my clients, three years later had switched from fitness training into massage. And I found that I just absolutely loved it. So that's how I've kind of evolved from, I guess, throwing a bunch of [00:05:00] traditional tools at people and to tapping into my former artists.

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[00:05:23] I know that something that you do too, you're trying to unravel pain and the stories that we've wrapped up and to allow people to find their vibrance and to soar again, like I said, in my bio, I think what good is a body if you can't do something with it. If you can't create beautiful memories and really just create with it.

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[00:06:00] Laurin: Yeah that's wonderful. And I just want to say that during one of the hardest parts of my life, which was the last few years of my mom's life, Anna was such a beautiful, safe place for me that the studio was.

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[00:06:33] So she's very intuitive and I loved it.

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[00:06:41] Laurin: I haven't, but my favorite aunt is constantly saying, you need to read Richard

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[00:06:46] Anna: Richard Warren. So there's a midlife crisis that we can go through where there's a midlife passage that we can take. I think the male journey and the female journey can be different, but the same in a lot of ways, but the fifties and beyond, you take the fifties, [00:07:00] but many of us are dealing with sick parents or we're dealing with the launching our children. Each decade has its unique things. And I think that the season beyond each decade has its things that it brings that we need resilience now more than ever.

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[00:07:46] Right? And, the only way we can do that is to stop and tap into it. And, so that's something I've become very passionate about as I've moved into my fifties is releasing things rather than trying to gather [00:08:00] more and being more of something, figure out what's not working anymore and drop it.

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[00:08:05] I hadn't really thought of the fifties in that vein. I'm almost 62 now in just a few days, but the fifties were a very transformative time in my life. And that's when I was really working with you. It was during that decade of my life. I think that's when I found you. And it was so helpful to have your gentle guidance and intuitive understanding of what I may have needed in any given day, but also you had built that beautiful community in your Yo Thai class, where we became friends, like checked in on each other, when classes started and hung out to hug and talk at the end. So that was a really beautiful part for me of being my fifties was to find a group of women that were just amazing. And most of them have become friends.

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[00:09:04] Yeah, I have a picture of you and you are beautiful. You are always. I just think you're glorious. Like you are like three times more beautiful now.

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[00:09:17] Anna: I'll show you this picture, but you're just beautiful then, but you're beautiful now. And I find it so exciting that we can get better.

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[00:09:45] Anna: What did that mean to you 20 years ago? If someone had said, Hey, what 62, what do you think of 62? Like what would that meant?

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[00:10:02] And now it's like, Heck no, I'm planted for another 40 years at least, , it's like I

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[00:10:38] I think not everybody obviously, but I certainly was. I mean, I cannot tell you how much stuff I've pulled out of this house in the last two years, because I just, I don't want it around, I don't want all the clutter anymore. You wouldn't know what to look behind me. This is my fun stuff.

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[00:10:54] I've noticed that too, being the artists that I was telling you that I actually am at heart. I seen your

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[00:11:05] Anna: I just enjoy it. It comes down to me. I'm not the best in the world, but I love it. I used to be scattered and something happened, something clicked and turned on for me.

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[00:11:40] And, for me, it's kind of been a different version of that. It's been, I'm coming out and synching up and it feels great. Another fantastic thing about this time of life that I think it's overlooked, we really kind of into ourselves and blocks.

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[00:12:02] It's sort of a guide through that time period. And, I wish I still wish my grandmother was alive. She's been gone a long time now because I have questions that I never thought to ask her. When I was 20 it's part of why I love this idea of having these conversations on curiously wise is because I learned so much from other women who are going through the same periods of life I am and sharing with women who are maybe a little behind me in their periods of life. And I can share the wisdom that I gained from that. And, it's such a beautiful bonding and community. And service. It feels like service to be able to pass along what I've learned to others coming behind, because it's a validation for them.

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[00:12:53] Anna: life. Yeah. I love it. It's I mean, it's so excited to have met you through the Yo Thai thing that I do, but I [00:13:00] was involved with your wife's women circle for a while, and I thought that was so powerfully needed.

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[00:13:47] I don't know if this, but you, do you ever watched the golden girls? I

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[00:13:53] Anna: Billion years ago. Right. Well, the age of the characters is 50. Oh, my gosh, [00:14:00] the average age of Betty White, I think Blanche's character or that he White's character. They were paying 54 and 50 five-year-olds.

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[00:14:30] And I just think that's so exciting. Like, what are you capable of creating at 70 and at 80? When, , I don't know, 30 years ago you were just done at 65, you retired and five years later you were, , pushing up daisies. Now it's like a whole second half of life. Truly, really is your best.

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[00:15:03] And that takes your center of focus in your life. Well, I mean, my kids are 33, 32. I lose track now! And 29, they are launched. They had their own lives. They are self-sufficient. I love seeing them and, I of course keep up with them, but I don't have the day-to-day responsibility of keeping them alive kind of thing.

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[00:15:29] Laurin: Anymore. Right. So I think that there's been a lot of opportunity. I know for me. And I think it's similar for you in those fifties to step back a little bit and go, okay. I have been so busy doing for everybody else. What do I need to do for myself? And the first thing I had to do was get myself healed, get myself healthy, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

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[00:16:05] Anna: Yeah, definitely. There's nothing more rewarding. In my opinion, there's just nothing. No greater calling I think then to participate in someone else's healing.

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[00:16:23] Laurin: Well, there's that. I will say the body part of the work that you do is very much you. I've had massages with Anna. I have the sort of on the table massages and I've had the time of ability massages, which, oh my God, my favorites.

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[00:16:58] And so it [00:17:00] sort of serves a couple of purposes for me.

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[00:17:19] She's going. Yep. It's really back here. That's the problem of me now.

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[00:17:59] And [00:18:00] you hear this paradigm and in yoga, it's a mind, body connection. I really believe they're exactly the same thing. It's just, they're not different. It's it's like saying your, your left arm is different from your right. It's not it's one body. And so when I'm doing that, the osteopathic tie that I do, it's more than just stretching.

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[00:18:42] So it's very exciting in the same way that I know that yours is very fulfilling and rewarding and that it's not just getting a toolbox and going and fixing a broken wheel. It's magnificent vehicle that we're in. it's absolutely, unfathomably complicated and beautiful and [00:19:00] self-repairing, and I'm so privileged to be able to participate in that with the person who is experiencing it.

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[00:19:29] Anna: It really does. That's that's an easy joy to bring to the table, literally.

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[00:19:39] Laurin: As are those of us who receive it. So I think we've talked a lot about wisdom already, but I wanted to very specifically ask you, is there any particular wisdom that you have gained or strengthened through this process of the last couple of years and just, yeah, let's just leave it at that.

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[00:20:41] You were just a soulmate and I'm blessed to say that about other people in the practice that I've built and the people that I've found myself newly. Vibrating to new newly attracting. They're all people that are aligned with living in a certain space that is beautiful. So [00:21:00] that's the wisdom that, that I've really picked up if that makes any sense, it's connecting to what authentically lights me up and how that has actually just brought more of that into my life.

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[00:21:18] Anna: I love that, magnetizing. Whatever that is.

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[00:21:34] So. Definitely brings more of whatever you need too when you find that passion.

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[00:21:54] It's not, it's creating a very focused state of intention so that the body can bring [00:22:00] the healing that it needs, or it can bring what you want in your life, rather than just having that happen randomly. I love how it just exponentially builds on new tools and new opportunities to help people live the way they choose intentionally rather than just bouncing.

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[00:22:34] Laurin: Yeah. I love that living intentionally.

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[00:22:40] Laurin: Yeah. And it's such a gift when you can wrap your head around that and act on it.

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[00:22:55] Anna: Well, yeah, you can reverse engineer. Like what a concept. [00:23:00] I wish I'd known that when I was 20 or 30, that you start with the life you want and you work backwards to create that rather than hoping that that's going to happen to you.

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[00:23:15] Anna: That's a major thing that's changed for me at 50 is instead of. Okay. I've got to do these things and check these boxes. How do I want to live now? What's my ideal day now? What's my ideal person? What work lights me up and then figure out how to make that happen.

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[00:24:04] Laurin: Right. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I'm gonna come back and pull that out of the transcript. So I put it on my bulletin board and look at it every day.

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[00:24:13] I'll let my daughter do that. She's really good. I don't have the vision for me point anymore.

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[00:24:34] Anna: Oh, well, for those of you who are listening and have no idea what we're talking about is a class that is a fusion, a gentle yoga and complete head to toe thai massage with a component at the end. And this has always been my beef about traditional yoga classes in the west. We focused on the physical aspect, , stretching. And we've maybe say a couple of, if you're in that kind of class and then you're [00:25:00] done, you go get your towel and take a shower, really with the intention of yoga and preparation of the body is for you to sit and meditate.

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[00:25:30] Which is where the magic happens. And it's also a way that I would like to develop a teaching protocol to allow other massage therapists or teachers to work on multiple people at one time systematically. So I'm very excited. One of the reasons that I'm no longer working Fridays at present is so that I can develop that and bring that to more of a mass scale so people can get trained.

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[00:26:04] Laurin: I know there's at least a class full of people who are ready to go, and it's a small class too. It's a maximum of six. So it brings some intimacy to the group too.

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[00:26:17] Anna: We'll get it. I can't wait for you to be the first one in the door.

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[00:26:31] Don't think about it too hard. Just answer quick and we'll see where this goes. So who is, or was the wisest person in your life?

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[00:26:42] Laurin: Okay. Is there a nugget of her wisdom that you want to share with us? ,

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[00:26:55] My mom is me and I am her, but she's passed powerful wisdom [00:27:00] from mistakes that she's made when she was my age or younger. And, I'm in a very receptive state now that now I listen. That relationship is one I'm blessed. I talked to her every day, few times a day, and I feel completely blessed to have that seasoned wisdom that she brings to me.

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[00:27:41] Laurin: Excellent. All right. So what's your favorite self care practice?

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[00:28:09] And so that is the ultimate self care practice that, and I'm in the throws of right now. It feels wonderful. I recommend everyone do that. Figure out what you want, create your intention and work backwards.

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[00:28:26] Anna: I'm going to end on a real wound out. Are you okay with that?

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[00:28:31] Anna: That was a joke. Yeah. And this could probably end up being another 400 hour podcast. But when I was younger, I had an experience, not like a near death experience but just a very profound experience of being more than the body. I absolutely knew without a doubt that I was more than this body.

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[00:29:17] And I am not the body. And I know that it's not a belief or a faith, but it's a knowledge and an experience that is again and again, reinforced. And which is another thing that when we're talking about building our tribe and our practice, the people that I connect with the most are the ones that also know that.

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[00:30:02] Laurin: Lovely. Alright. And one last one, do you have a favorite mantra or affirmation?

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[00:30:10] Laurin: It's what supports you when you're feeling down? You just tap back into that, that knowledge, that, yeah. Question.

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[00:30:25] Laurin: Do you have a favorite mantra?

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[00:30:55] Laurin: Yeah, that's a good one. I think it's hop opo opo ono ono. It's [00:31:00] lovely. And it's a super healing kind of mantra to use.

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[00:31:13] Laurin: I'll put a link in the show notes about about what the proper name is and where you can find it.

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[00:31:29] Anna: Right.

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[00:31:33] Anna: Yeah. Jordan's really fun that way too.

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[00:31:42] What was it? The teacher taught us that the sales men of colored TVs was about this long word, one word.

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[00:31:52] Laurin: Exactly.

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[00:31:57] Laurin: Which brings us to my next question [00:32:00] which I would just love you to repeat is where can our listeners find out more information about you and therapeutic massage of Williamsburg?

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[00:32:27] I've got my phone number listed everywhere. You can text or call me it's online, my website, but I work with a very small number of people intentionally. So like to be able to focus entirely on them. Be able to take time afterwards to help support them with other things about their health that they're trying to improve.

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[00:32:49] Laurin: I think that intention,

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[00:33:01] Laurin: Beautiful. I think we have come to the end of our conversation.

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[00:33:05] Laurin: I know!

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[00:33:10] Laurin: Then I want to just take a moment to thank you, Anna, for a fabulous conversation. I knew we would have fun and I just love the wisdom that has come out of this. And I want to thank our listeners for being here with us as well. I want to just end with a wish for you and intention for you from my heart to yours.

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[00:33:40] Thank you so much for joining us today on curiously wise, I hope you found a nugget of wisdom that resonates with you, perhaps it brings comfort or strength, or simply the peace that comes from knowing you aren't alone in your experience, or perhaps it illuminates the wisdom already with this.[00:34:00]

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[00:34:22] Please head over to my website, www.heartlightjoy.com. I am Lauren Wittig. Please join me again next week for another episode of curiously wise. From my heart to yours, may your life be filled with love, light joy, and of course, curiosity.