So long, 2016, and hello, 2017. For some, the start of a new year means resolutions – a time to kick bad habits, adopt healthier lifestyles and achieve new goals. With an overload of information on diet hacks, quick fixes and fitness products galore, it can become overwhelming in the quest to take care of ourselves. Where do we start? So many people fall off the wagon mid-year, wondering how they ended up so far south from their goals. While it may feel like a lack of motivation, I think the answer lies deeper. In a society that screams at us to look a certain way or gives us the ultimate fix to our problems with a product, there’s far less of an emphasis on listening to our own bodies and being kind to ourselves. As we go into the new year, it’s absolutely vital to understand how to listen to what our bodies and hearts need in order to inform our decisions on health and wellness.
Sharpenstein Health Coaching, a privately owned life transformation studio situated in Germantown, is run by Louisville native Jessica Sharpenstein, who is devoted to helping people find balance between the pillars of life in order to move forward in their lives. “It’s about creating a community,” she says. “I mean, I want to heal the world. I do want to heal as many people as possible. I love to help people see the light to understand their life path. … We have to be in self-acceptance in order to let our light shine. I want to free them from the chains of ‘not good-enough.’”
Approaching her practice with compassion, humor and vulnerability, Sharpenstein offers a variety of ways people can take interest in their health and well-being. “Typically, people walk through my door to lose weight … so we’ll work on food and exercise, but what sets me apart is with food and exercise … it’s about self-acceptance. And looking at the entire person in regards to work, financial health, intellectual, emotional and figuring out what is off balance [is important] because that’s going to influence the food and the exercise and heal those portions so that the food and the exercise become a celebration,” she explains. Offering a wide variety of client packages including one-on-one coaching, she also teaches exercise classes and self-development workshops and performs Reiki energy healing. The dialogue between herself and the client is an open one in which the path to self-acceptance is a co-creation based on the needs of the client.
Growing up as a dancer, piano player and a lover of the arts, Sharpenstein equates her upbringing with an obsession with image: “I’ve always been obsessed with reading about health and exercise, probably from an unhealthy place on the quest to become thin.” But it is Sharpenstein’s own life experiences that inform her work today. She became fascinated from an early age with the movement of the human body and consequently pursued degrees and certifications in physiology, psychology, exercise science, nutrition work, obesity research and personal training. “It made me think about all the different ways I don’t have to be a doctor to affect health,” says Sharpenstein, also an adjunct professor at Bellarmine University in exercise science.
As innumerable individuals set New Year’s resolutions, Sharpenstein advises not thinking about the goals and motivation so much as the connections we all have between the mind, body and heart. “I want people to connect with how they’re feeling. Fuck the goals … how do you want to feel? If I want to feel freedom, then before I do anything, I’m going to ask myself, ‘How do I want to feel?’ If it’s freedom and going to the gym makes me feel free, then I’m going to do it. If it feels like punishment, then I’m going to tap out,” she reasons. By asking ourselves how we want to feel, we remove some of the shaming and the “should” self-talk. Suddenly, we are aligning with our true self – the ultimate freedom.
If we stifle parts of ourselves in any area of life – be it physical expression, sexuality, vulnerability, creativity – we shut down the parts that make us unique and beautiful. Living freely and openly is integral to health and wellness. For many LGBTQ people, denying the identity of the self for extended periods of time can be detrimental to one’s health, seeping into other parts of our lives. Many of our brothers and sisters have taken their own lives out of fear of expression, out of suppression of sexuality. It’s important to remember to listen to what our bodies and hearts want in all areas of life.
For trans people, this idea of transforming ourselves into our true, authentic being is an especially emotional one. Given our relatively progressive society, more and more people are feeling safer to follow a path toward becoming symmetrical with their gender and self-identity, including Louisville native Nicolas Bushong. This past November, the 25-year-old underwent a hysterectomy and oophorectomy in order to stop his body’s estrogen production and reduce his overall testosterone dosage to function as a male. This is his second surgery – his first being a subcutaneous mastectomy in 2013.
When I asked him how he’s recovering, he laughs. “For the most part, I feel tired because I haven’t done anything,” says Bushong, a wire technician for AT&T. He believes the surgery will ultimately make things a little easier on his body in the long run – and understandably so. The tipping of scales between estrogen and testosterone levels is exhausting. “It’s a constant effort,” he admits. “You feel like you’re going through puberty again.”
In his teenage years, Bushong felt outside of femininity and tried desperately to fit in. “I realized I didn’t know how to be a girl,” he recounts. “I would do things like stand in the corner in the hallway and watch how girls carried purses because I became self-conscious about how I was carrying my bag and that I wasn’t carrying it right and that people were going to find out that I wasn’t a normal girl.”
At age 15, Bushong took matters into his own hands and began to listen to his heart and body. With support online via chat rooms, he began to make the transition from female to male. “I knew that I was going to end up committing suicide if I did not do something,” he says. “I knew the way my mental health was, no matter what medication I tried or anything, the only way to improve my mental health was to pursue a physical transition and come out and get my name changed.”
In addition to taking testosterone, Bushong focused on building more muscle, specifically in the arm, shoulder and leg regions of the body with less emphasis on the chest, as he was binding at the time. As he sought medical attention to assess external and internal surgical procedures, he learned a valuable lesson. “In terms of taking care of yourself, if a doctor makes you uncomfortable, leave the practice immediately and find someone else. … There are a lot of other doctors,” says Bushong, who is now with his fourth endocrinologist.
Finding a place of comfort and safety is important to members of the LGBTQ community in order to address the needs of health and wellness. It’s places like Baptist Milestone that strive to welcome all types of people to the facility and ensure every individual feels safe and included. With over 270 group classes a week, Baptist Milestone has something for everyone tailored to fit their goals of personal wellness, from water classes to Zumba. “We have a wide variety of programs, so it’s not like walking into a boutique-type facility that focuses on one type of program,” says Diane Kelton, president of Baptist Milestone.
Offering one-on-one personal training, Baptist Milestone doesn’t discriminate against sexuality and identity but rather places the focus on the needs of the individual. “We’d love to help them achieve whatever their fitness goals are. If they’re looking for a facility where they want to work out and not hesitate … we have that environment,” Kelton emphasizes. “There are all kinds of populations here – and fitness levels.”
As members of the LGBTQ community, we make decisions every day to address our own well-being. We are often a prideful bunch and choose to express ourselves in ways that feel good to us, that show our true colors and demonstrate who we are in a world where being gay or being trans is not always socially acceptable. As we go forth in the new year, I challenge my friends, allies and fellow LGBTQ members to harness this vulnerability to further shape our health and wellness. Let the emphasis not be so much on conforming to ideas of who you think you should be but instead ask yourself, “How do I want to feel?” I think this question will guide us to the beauty the year of 2017 has in store for us.
For more information on an array of health and wellness topics, feel free to contact those who shared their insight with Modern Louisville.
Jessica Sharpenstein
sharpensteinhealthcoaching.com/working-with-jessica
Nicolas Bushong
502.594.0903
Baptist Milestone
502.896.3900
