A look into the WHO:
I am Lisa Verna Hibberd and I am a Licensed Massage Therapist.
Anti-climatic? Just a little. Like reading the last sentence of a novel, first. LMT's, are a dime-a-dozen. So what? What's my story? How did I get here and where am I going? Who am I, really?
I am discovering a whole new world, inside and outside of a body; mine and if you'll let me, yours too! Like many before me, and the many that will blindly come after, I was a Work-a-Holic. Addicted to stress and all the distraction it brings, I was a strategic facilities project manager. Fighting the all worthy opponents, the Deadline and his tag team partner the Budget. A battle royale 24/7. No matter what it took, I was going to conquer and be the victor. Sacrificing whatever I needed to, to do it. Until one day I broke. Violently and abruptly. In one moment of unconscious attention, I was rushing to a meeting; and in the next moment of real awareness, I was beng wheeled into emergency back surgery.
Drifting off into an anesthetized state, words echoed: 'paralyzed, quality of life, functional loss of movement and faculties'. What?!?! When I woke up, I was more awake than I have ever been.
I woke up. I could feel my leg, I could feel everything that went numb; mind, body and spirit. I woke up, in more ways than one. I never hit the morphine drip, I was so happy to feel anything, the pain was a welcome sensation. I drank a lot of water and called the nurse many times to get me to the bathroom, so I could test bladder control and, just get up. Any excuse to get up, I was out of bed within minutes of awakening.
Four years ago, I made a 5-year plan. I went back to school for massage, transitioned out of a CEO position, established a new career in wellness and finally, to teach or lecture about wellness and self care. Now to do this, I would have to drop all coping mechanisms about being in groups. To truly be all in, I’d have to fully participate. Right? To really know how someone could feel in their body, I’d have to know what it was like to be in mine. All of this, everything I wanted in my 5-year plan, is on the other side of fear. I have to be so comfortable in my body that it becomes the teaching tool for wellness, movement and function. Stand in front of people, demonstrating in my body, with my body—Ugh. I’d rather have root canal. But guess what? I will do this, all of it and more. Bring it!!
This year, I got my FMS and Yoga teaching Certificates. I went outside and participated in a kettlebell class, my body is changing and getting stronger. I am using the FMS screening model with clients to develop custom yoga sequences for private instruction. I've recently completed an NKT seminar (Neurokinetic Therapy) and just signed up for a Killing It with Kettlebells Certification for later in the year. I still have to pull this all together and complete and Ayurvedic course in this 5th year. Fear is still there. Probably will always be. I am just a little bigger than it, now.
WHO am I? Lisa Verna Hibberd, an unresolved evolution of Self. Actively, passionately participating in her own life, finally.