Living a healthy life doesn’t need to be complicated or confusing.
Introducing Dave Fresilli. A holistic health and wellness practitioner who will help support your goals and knows theto get you there. Dave’s unique and positive approach to life keeps you moving forward with deep insight and coaching. One step at a time you can achieve the health, fitness, and wellbeing you have been wanting.
In today’s interview, I speak with Dave about his approach to health and wellness. We discuss why we typically tend to overcomplicate both our approach and our expectations of a good life.
Dave, thanks and welcome back to the Locals Guide!
Hello Shields, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of your readers in Ashland.
Dave, the past few years have been a very internal and reflective time for you. Can you please say more?
I have been in Ashland now for almost eight years. During this time I have made profound changes in working with clients and how I live my own life of health and wellness. I have simplified my approach to health and coaching my clients in the same manner. More and more I find joy in the simpler things. Going inward and recognizing the peace and stillness is where wellbeing is for all of us, and not in the external aspects of our life experience. It is perfectly wonderful to enjoy the things of life yet don’t get caught up in identifying with them. This is where we get ourselves in trouble.
Healthy living is really easy to do, how do we tend to overcomplicate things, and why?
There are only 6 basic inputs we give the body and mind on a daily basis. These are our thoughts, breathing, hydration, nutrition, exercise, and sleep. The simplicity to health and wellbeing is just optimizing these 6 components and in the process stop sabotaging our efforts with poor lifestyle habits to the contrary. We allow ourselves to be torture with mental emotional stress about how our live would be better if things just would go our way. We don’t bother to realize or admit we are doing all this to ourselves. Lastly, we just don’t know how to optimize these 6 components, and so that is where most of my coaching is centered.
Dave, something that has really set you apart in the work you do is that you are actively working to optimize your own health and quality of life. Please say more.
Like any good coach it is a matter of recognizing what isn’t working and correcting it to get the results desired. As I get older this body is definitely telling me if I am off track by giving me signs that are loud and clear. I have no choice but to listen to it and make those corrections otherwise the body suffers my ignorance and arrogance. I can’t get away with eating poorly, or getting dehydrated, or not sleep well. I have to workout much smarter, and have found deep peace in being still. All this and more have helped to unburdened this body from the accumulative stressors of daily life.
We have all heard that stress is a significant factor is mental/emotional and physical illness and dis-ease. Yet most all of us don’t truly take it seriously enough to recognize what is causing these stressors and stop committing them on ourselves. It seems ironic that we all desire to be happy and healthy but most of us are continually committing these stressors that rob us of just what we are wanting.
A simple case and point is many folks complain they are exhausted and have no energy. If they go to the doctors many would be diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, or chronic fatigue syndrome, due to a hormonal imbalance. Well, some of the main causes of these illnesses are poor lifestyle habits in the form of poor eating, sleeping, alcohol, sugar, prescription drugs, and mental emotional stress. The nervous system summates all stress into one big stress bucket we call our Physiological Stress Load. When this bucket gets full the body isn’t able to handle the overload and suffers. These stressors, in fact all stress no matter the origin, can create hormonal imbalances which leads to adrenal fatigue, thyroid imbalances and felt as chronic fatigue. We walk around exhausted and rely on over stimulating our bodies with caffeine, sugars, stimulants, and medications to get through the day. It’s like whipping a lame horse, and pretty soon it is going to collapse.
Dave will you please introduce us to the services you are providing at Personalized Wellness LLC?
I work with clients privately a minimum of one day a week in a fully integrated program of exercise nutrition and lifestyle protocols to give the body what it needs to heal itself. I also offer boot camps as a monthly commitment to participants who just want to focus on fitness, and The Easy Health Formula™a
6 –week online course, and Advanced Coaching Online.
All you need to do is call or email and we will have a conversation as to what you are looking for and what is the right fit for you.
Can you please tell us about your fitness space?
I was overwhelmed with creating a bigger and bigger space with more members until I realized that what I truly enjoyed was working with client privately in an intimate environment free from distractions of others. This way our focus and results would be optimized.
I converted my large garage into a beautiful studio with plenty of room to get everything done with no wasted space. It is a joy to work with clients in the studio, and they seem to enjoy the privacy with no distraction.
Dave, what are the key benefits of having one on one personalized attention of this kind?
It allows both the client and myself to focus on the task at hand. We have deep and confidential coaching without anyone else present and this allows the client to feel safe in expressing his or her challenges and frustrations.
It is all focused on the client, so everything discussed is personalized to how they can get better in every aspect of their lives.
Dave, how do you work with people to get past their blocks, and what types of blocks can arise for people?
The biggest block is our own self-image. The beliefs we hold of ourselves and our lives that we cling to for dear life. Yet if life itself has to conform to what we believe has to happen for our happiness and health then we are going to be constantly disappointed when it doesn’t goes according to that belief system. We end up in a constant struggle trying to make life conform to our preconditioned ideas.
A client comes in and states they have chronic back pain, sore knees, and digestive issues. Protocols are given such as corrective stretching, exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle adjustments that will reduce and eliminate inflammation, increase nutritional healing, etc., yet the client says its to hard to change the way they live and eat and drink. They don’t want to give up their drinking and sweets because, according to them, alcohol and food are the only things that makes them feel good; it’s the only way they can relax. What is it that is actually saying this? It is their conditioned beliefs. Yet it is just these poor habits that are causing their chronic body pain and digestive issue. So are they actually making them feel better? Of course not. What is missing is the awareness of their beliefs and what the food and alcohol is doing to their bodies.
What is the saying about insanity? “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” And Einstein’s quote, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Well, we can adjust this to say, we cannot create health and wellbeing with the same beliefs / self-image that created our illness and dysfunction. There has to be an internal shift in our perceptions. Helping client to realize why they are stuck or sabotaging helps free them of their blocks.
Dave, in your observation, what types of transitions do you see in your customers lives?
Every client progresses through transitions of deeper awareness of the effects of how they are living and how it affects their health and sense of wellbeing. They realize how the foods they usually eat zap them of energy and cause symptoms such as cloudy head, lethargy, bloating, food intolerances, allergies, weight gain, and joint pain. Clients become more aware of their posture, and how to correct it. They figure out how important sleep is to regulating their hormones and allowing the body to heal so they feel better. They feel the benefits of hydration and how to optimize it, and that breathing; something we all take for granted, is one of the most important functions to focus on to increase our health and wellbeing. Most importantly they begin to intuitively see how they have been sabotaging themselves all this time because they never questioned the truth of the beliefs they hold so dear.
How do you actualize health and wellness in your own life?
Time is taken everyday to be still, breath deeply, drink water, eat nutritious food that is best for this body, exercise well, and sleep deeply. Without creating routines but instead allowing the day to present the opportunities to do all these components.
Spending time in nature, drinking tea on the back porch in the morning, and just being still with the birds and squirrels and deer in the back yard, focusing all attention only on the action at hand whether exercising or sitting still, drinking water, eating food, breathing, or feeling the stillness within.
Most of us no matter what we are doing let the mind run wild like a dog off the leash. The body is doing one thing while the mind is running off into all different thoughts. By the end of a meal you can hardly remember what you ate.
It is about focusing your attention to the point of becoming aware. When you become aware you cannot go back to treating you body poorly or allowing your mind to live in delusion.
What are some of your favorite quotes and tips of wisdom you like to reflect on in your own life?
Joseph Campbell “ Follow Your Bliss”.
Rumi “What you seek is seeking you”, “Why do you stay in prison, when the door is so wide open?”, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
How do you work with your clients to make working out fun and easy?
Fun and easy is relative to the client’s perceptions, so I just give them time to get comfortable as the sessions go on and then in their comfort they find the fun and ease.
Dave, you are continually required to meet your clients where they are at. Please talk more about this and explain where the starting point is for each new client you take on?
The starting point for every client is dependent on their level of health, their physical abilities and challenges, and their mental / emotional state. This is why every private client goes through a very extensive assessment to know exactly where to start him or her for the best results.
How would you describe your ideal client?
Ideal clients are those who truly want to get better, healthier, more fit and are willing, even wanting to do the work. Lots of folks will say they want to feel better but in actuality are unwilling to give up their vices.
What are some of the health issues that seem common today?
There is so much that clients experience. We see common of issues of diabetes, hypertension, poor cholesterol levels, chronic low back pain, hormonal imbalances, auto immune issues, arthritis, fatigue, low libido, overweight to obese, nerve pain, menstrual issues, prostrate issues, digestive issues, postural dysfunctions causing pain, poor cognition, skin conditions, poor results in exercise, anxiety and chronic emotional stress moving into depression, and illness and disease.
Why are they so common? Because we have gotten away from how the body is meant to heal itself.
In optimizing a client’s lifestyle, the client begins to give the body what it needs to heal and just as importantly stops putting into the body what is causing the issues. There is no more big mystery to this. There are plenty of documentaries and research that has shown what is possible when the body is given the chance to heal. I just help people to become aware of what they are doing and not doing and how to optimize.
We don’t need to do this alone. You also offer a boot camp experience. What does this entail?
Boot camps are a great way for you and a few friends to have your own hour with your own private trainer. It is designed for two to four friends, two to three sessions a week. We go a month at a time so you don’t have to make a big commitment to get started. We figure out the best times for your group to meet, sessions are one hour in the studio, and everyone goes at their own pace.
Dave, what is the next step for anyone who is interested in learning more?
Setup a time to talk and we will make a plan. We will talk about your health goals, what it will entail, and how to get you started. Then you will make the best decision for you.
Dave, do you have any last thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers today?
Yes, re-read these quotes of Rumi, (below), and see them as an invitation that health and wellness are what are seeking you. Allow yourself to break free from the prison of your own self-image and habits. How to break free is to just merely seek and find all the concepts within that you are holding onto that are sabotaging health and wellbeing from being your natural expression. J
“What you seek is seeking you”, “Why do you stay in prison, when the door is so wide open?”, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Rumi
Learn More:
Dave Fresilli – Personalized Wellness LLC
802 Beach St, Ashland
www.DaveFresilli.com
541-708-2198
