Miriam Esther Invitational - Est. 2022

Why did we want to do this Invitational?

This time last year I was invited to hike Mount St. Helen’s with some friends and clients. Now this was not the first time I had been asked on a summiting adventure and I was good at saying no. I use to always love challenging myself like that, but I had grown accustomed to my comfort zone the recent years, and excuses were easy to find. To my own surprise, this invitation was different and I found myself saying yes. I hated it the second I did, but it didn’t take long to be reminded of how much reward comes with embracing challenges.

I enjoy being around people who set the bar high for themselves, and these ladies did just that. If the summit view was the only reward, I’m not sure it would have been enough. It was the shared suffering with people I respect; the nerves driving up and seeing the mountain, to standing at the summit; and seeing these women succeed that made it all an experience I want to repeat.

Carol and Miriam at the Summit of Mount St. Helens.

The Miriam Esther Invitational was created to provide an opportunity for people to do just that. To push themselves along side others, to encourage and be a part of a like-minded community that prioritized health and well-being. Like grandma always said, “there is nothing wrong with a little competitive spirit among friends”, and I agree with her!

Thank you everyone who joined the challenge this January!

Get in the Arena

There is something about this side of heaven that can add chains around our neck as we walk through seasons. Whether those chains are unidentified, or willfully added to your collection, they are heavy. We talk about anxiety and depression as a society now more than ever, but instead of addressing it in many cases, we wear it as a badge of honor and often an excuse to continue walking through life with the chains we have grown accustom to. We choose the familiar discomfort only because we don’t know there are other options worth taking.

“There is nothing more valuable than friends and family that love with intention.”

The world feeds the self-centered idea that you have a right to be happy, without mentioning the cost is often a loss of good character, conduct, and relationships. It’s no wonder people are struggling. We are all hardwired for connection, as researcher and Author Brene Brown breaks down, and those connections build us up. There is nothing more valuable than friends and family that love with intention. So how can we have a high self-worth and confidence if we don’t offer anything to our relationships? When we fixate on OUR rights and needs, we fail to see the needs of others, and connections are lost.

Where can authentic connection be found?

In my experience, it’s when I am called to be in the arena and share moments of suffering that my relationships are brought to life. Where we have to remove our discomfort from the equation so we can show up for the greater good of others. I believe these moments are divine opportunities for us to not only forge our relationships in the heat of battle, but to experience the intrinsic value of putting others needs before your own.

-Miriam Long

**If you feel called to be a partner and mentor in movement with the Dare to Move mentor program, OR you are in need of someone to encourage and help you fight the fall, please contact Miriam Long @ 360-761-8001 or Sarah McDuffy @ 253-561-4885

Dare to Move.

- A movement mentorship program -

Why would anyone be interested in volunteering to exercise?

Volunteering to exercise, especially with strangers, certainly isn’t everyone’s first choice, and it wouldn’t have been mine until recently. Many people pay handsomely for gym memberships, diet programs, and coaches, yet still can’t seem to find a reason to keep moving, so why volunteer? It wasn’t until 4 years into my career, humbled by the journey’s of so many strong individuals, that I realized I may have been pulling the ladder up behind me. Any success with my fitness after my competitive years was not because I found some “sweet spot” that made it easy, it was because my clients, lively-hood, and character depended on it. The limiting factor to improving your health these days, is not access to information or tools, it’s maintaining compliancy and discipline within the parameters of the plan. When you have no performance goals or event as your carrot, then what keeps you accountable? The idea of being a fitness coach wasn’t enough for me, I started to struggle just as I was hoping to start helping others.

Not all people suffer from behavioral disorders when they eat food that pisses their body off, or fall out of a fitness routine, but I do. My husband, people, and positivity slowly felt like an enemy, until one day I saw myself. Not me, or at least not who I wanted to be, but who I was being, and I felt deep remorse. My intentions were nowhere to be found in my behavior.

When it came down to it, I had to ask the hard question, what kind of person do I want to be?

I knew I didn’t want to let my habits cause me to be more consumed with myself, than the needs of others, I had been blinded by my own feelings of frustration and guilt. A well deserved free meal and/or lazy day is one thing, but it was another for me to be ignorant to the way some habits and foods changed me into someone I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be someone capable and willing to help others, not consumed with my own lack of motivation. It wasn’t until I was close enough to stories of courage, strength, and the willingness of some people to fight, that I realized I had no good reason not to show up as much as I could. There is nothing more humbling and uplifting than walking along side someone fighting a good fight, and in order to do that, I had to be IN the arena with them, not spectating and spitting or feeling sorry for myself. I am stronger every day because they are.

“We want to share that human experience by connecting people in the community through movement.”

Being human is hard enough, don’t wait for a reason to reach-up or reach-out, moments of shared suffering bring out the fighter in all of us, and that’s enough of a reason. We want to share that human experience by connecting people in the community through movement.

If you feel called to be a partner and mentor in movement, or you are in need of someone to encourage and help you fight the fall, please contact Miriam Long @ 360-761-8001 or Sarah McDuffy @ 253-561-4885