From the moment I met Brieann Boal I knew there was something special about her. She emits a light that emanates to the darkest corners of the room, and her smile is nothing short of mesmerizing. A brief chat at a blogger brunch was not nearly enough to satiate our instant connection, and so I was thrilled when I received an email from her about sampling her Wabi Sabi Wellness training that she offers around the Byron Bay/Gold Coast area. Surfing is an amazing physical practice but I've always found that training for it requires diversity in workouts and strengthening. Plus it was a great excuse to hang out with this funny, beautiful, charismatic creature :)
For weeks I met with Brieann, some days full of energy and ready to kick butt, others struggling with personal life anxieties and low energy blues. Regardless of my mood, Brieann had a workout to match from yoga to boxing to Thai massage to weights. She was nurturing when I was feeling low and inspiring when I needed a push. Every session began with how I felt on a scale of 1-10, a question I now ask myself before I start any work out. Her integrity to respect your body's ebb and flow is fundamental to her philosophy, and is my favorite part of the Wabi Sabi ethos.
I wanted to find out more about that ethos, and how Brieann curated her one-of-a-kind program, so I asked her a few questions and she was kind enough to divulge the full story behind Wabi Sabi Wellness.
What do the words "Wabi Sabi" mean to you?
Although phonetically frivolous and fun, the term is actually deeply profound and intimately tied to Zen Buddhism. Both an aesthetic and a worldview, it connotes a way of living that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence.
What does the term mean to me? In a word, inner-alchemy.
Have you ever heard of the practice of Kintsugi? When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. (cribbed from Barbara Bloom)
The way I see it, Wabi-Sabi is Kintsugi for the soul. ‘mending cracks with gold.’ Re-baptizing all your negative qualities as your favourite qualities - embracing the pock marks of your personality, the frayed edges of your inside world the rust, scars and uneven finishes of your exterior. There’s something about reframing in that way that is absolutely transcendent.
Although phonetically frivolous and fun, the term is actually deeply profound and intimately tied to Zen Buddhism. Both an aesthetic and a worldview, it connotes a way of living that finds beauty in imperfection and impermanence.
What does the term mean to me? In a word, inner-alchemy.
Have you ever heard of the practice of Kintsugi? When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. (cribbed from Barbara Bloom)
The way I see it, Wabi-Sabi is Kintsugi for the soul. ‘mending cracks with gold.’ Re-baptizing all your negative qualities as your favourite qualities - embracing the pock marks of your personality, the frayed edges of your inside world the rust, scars and uneven finishes of your exterior. There’s something about reframing in that way that is absolutely transcendent.
Tell us a bit about your method and how you came to develop this unique style of personal training? What is your favorite aspect of the WabiSabi workout?
The ‘fitness industry’ is like a bad boyfriend - more interested in how you look than how you feel and totally corrosive to your self-esteem. In spite of popular ‘fitness industry’ opinion, your body is NOT something to be controlled, dominated, reduced into parts and ‘target areas’ (that will never be toned enough!) Your body is less like a fixed hunk of meat and more like a flickering flame - a matrix of energetic interconnectivity. It pulses with molten wisdom and stories as old as stars! (truth not voodoo talk) It was present for every experience of your life and embodies emotional imprints of these events. Answers to lifelong questions are steeped in cells, tucked in the folds of tissue and buried in bone marrow. “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy’ (Nietzsche) so believe me when I say, you are so much more than your perfect abs or whatever fragment you choose to fixate on.
Clarifying the body mind connection (which is what we do in each session) allows us to access the issues in the tissues. Through this lens, our bodies are not only a tremendous resource but also a gateway to freedom. Via the body we are able to shed beliefs that no longer serve us, rewrite our nervous system and create a different reality. A new way of being – free from broken behaviour, addiction, depression, disordered eating. I know of what I speak. (for the curious catz, my bio is on the site here.
http://wabisabiwell.com/about-
The ‘fitness industry’ is like a bad boyfriend - more interested in how you look than how you feel and totally corrosive to your self-esteem. In spite of popular ‘fitness industry’ opinion, your body is NOT something to be controlled, dominated, reduced into parts and ‘target areas’ (that will never be toned enough!) Your body is less like a fixed hunk of meat and more like a flickering flame - a matrix of energetic interconnectivity. It pulses with molten wisdom and stories as old as stars! (truth not voodoo talk) It was present for every experience of your life and embodies emotional imprints of these events. Answers to lifelong questions are steeped in cells, tucked in the folds of tissue and buried in bone marrow. “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy’ (Nietzsche) so believe me when I say, you are so much more than your perfect abs or whatever fragment you choose to fixate on.
Clarifying the body mind connection (which is what we do in each session) allows us to access the issues in the tissues. Through this lens, our bodies are not only a tremendous resource but also a gateway to freedom. Via the body we are able to shed beliefs that no longer serve us, rewrite our nervous system and create a different reality. A new way of being – free from broken behaviour, addiction, depression, disordered eating. I know of what I speak. (for the curious catz, my bio is on the site here.
http://wabisabiwell.com/about-
What does a session look like?
One hour of self-renewing rituals, concentrated enough to not overtake your day. However, done daily, it has the cumulative effect of shaping your mind and psyche, as much as your body. It’s a tried and true to template, derived from my own inwards travels – seeking solutions to the aforementioned.
Mindful movement, meditation, breath and energy work, chakra balancing, myofascial release and other bioenergetic techniques are married with traditional fitness favourites like core work and boxing (which are wonderful for balancing a deficient solar plexus, FYI) to bring body-mind and spirit into harmony.
Whilst other fitness models continue to march to the beat of their ‘divide-and-conquer’ drums, Wabi-Sabi warriors embrace body-mind and spirit as an integrated whole. They cultivate intuition, learn the language of the body, listen and respond in kind. You can learn more about the method here http://wabisabiwell.com/about
As for my favorite aspect? I couldn’t narrow it down to a single activity. The very act of exploring the body as a portal into presence. There is a magic to that that never grows old.
Mindful movement, meditation, breath and energy work, chakra balancing, myofascial release and other bioenergetic techniques are married with traditional fitness favourites like core work and boxing (which are wonderful for balancing a deficient solar plexus, FYI) to bring body-mind and spirit into harmony.
Whilst other fitness models continue to march to the beat of their ‘divide-and-conquer’ drums, Wabi-Sabi warriors embrace body-mind and spirit as an integrated whole. They cultivate intuition, learn the language of the body, listen and respond in kind. You can learn more about the method here http://wabisabiwell.com/about
As for my favorite aspect? I couldn’t narrow it down to a single activity. The very act of exploring the body as a portal into presence. There is a magic to that that never grows old.
What is the feeling you want your clients to walk away with after a Wabi Sabi workout?
That varies and depends on the intention they set at the start of their session. Generally, they’ll come to rest somewhere on the “awesome” end of the mood spectrum. A non-variable element/emotion however, is connection – a visceral sense of connection to their bodies, the body of the planet and source itself.
How do YOU feel after a Wabi Sabi workout with a client? Tell us about the feeling you get from doing what you do.
A mutual afterglow - carried on the wings of kinship and the invisible threads that bind us.
How could someone get their daily dose of Wabi Sabi Wellness even if they're not a Byron local?
These days, geography is irrelevant. I’ll kick off sunrise sessions here (in Byron)… Sign into someone’s living room in the U.S (for their sunset)… Land in Belgium (virtually) at 5am… Be on a yacht somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean… Then back in an Oz albeit for a session with someone from the city next door. I have Skype to thank for my time-travelling tickets. So, back to the question, if you’re not a Byron local, no worries, we can still hang. Just decide where you want to workout. Your living room, your garden, workplace, park, studio or gym? If you’re Lex, the broom cupboard… ‘Beam me up, Scottie’
Psst. If you’ve never heard of Skypercise don’t worry you’re amongst the majority. You can actually book a FREE discovery session to learn more about it HERE
That varies and depends on the intention they set at the start of their session. Generally, they’ll come to rest somewhere on the “awesome” end of the mood spectrum. A non-variable element/emotion however, is connection – a visceral sense of connection to their bodies, the body of the planet and source itself.
How do YOU feel after a Wabi Sabi workout with a client? Tell us about the feeling you get from doing what you do.
A mutual afterglow - carried on the wings of kinship and the invisible threads that bind us.
How could someone get their daily dose of Wabi Sabi Wellness even if they're not a Byron local?
These days, geography is irrelevant. I’ll kick off sunrise sessions here (in Byron)… Sign into someone’s living room in the U.S (for their sunset)… Land in Belgium (virtually) at 5am… Be on a yacht somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean… Then back in an Oz albeit for a session with someone from the city next door. I have Skype to thank for my time-travelling tickets. So, back to the question, if you’re not a Byron local, no worries, we can still hang. Just decide where you want to workout. Your living room, your garden, workplace, park, studio or gym? If you’re Lex, the broom cupboard… ‘Beam me up, Scottie’
Psst. If you’ve never heard of Skypercise don’t worry you’re amongst the majority. You can actually book a FREE discovery session to learn more about it HERE
And for those who can’t Skype in, or just want WSW on (keyboard) tap we’ve got you covered. More recently, I teamed up with client-turned-business-partner, Caitlin Nowland. The woman is a mind-body maverick and visionary in her own right, and together we’re bringing Wabi-SabiWell to the masses.
You can also join the conversation on instagram (@wabisabiwell) or facebook www.facebook.com/wabisabiwell.com. Or email me personally at brieann@wabisabiwell.com
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