Entry 1: hello and welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to the 1st entry of my wee blog. However you've found your way here, welcome and thank you for taking the time to check this out - it really does mean a lot to me! 

Now, before we kick this off, you should be aware that I have a tendency to ramble when I get passionate about something. I also make stupid (and maybe weird) jokes. 

So buckle up. 

I thought I would start this off by introducing myself and The Intentional PT and how this all came about. 

About me - I am currently heading into the final year of my physiotherapy degree (woohoo!) and couldn't be more excited about being one step closer to being able to put that knowledge into practice. 

Although, it took me a long time to figure out this is what I wanted to do... 

Through my final years of high school, I felt drawn to medicine and wanted to study to become a doctor but was told that I wasn't smart enough and that it would be really hard. So being young and lacking confidence in myself, I graduated and spent some time studying film and media. 

But surprise surprise, nothing really seemed to click for me. And honestly, I felt pretty lost. This was until I lived with some nursing students and got to hear all their stories about helping different people and I had a classic light bulb moment. 

Physio! 

I distinctly remember feeling really stupid - "How had I not realised this earlier?" - and those closest to me also shared the same thought when I told them that I was packing up and moving to Auckland to become a physiotherapist. Everyone's response was simple - "Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Why aren't you already doing that?" 

I was always extremely active in high school and loved anatomy and PE but for some bizarre reason, I had pegged physio as an "easy" and "boring" career path so I didn't even consider it when I left school. 

Boy was I wrong. 

The last 3 years of study have been intense and I wish I knew how hard it would be ahead of time, but you live and learn right. And regardless, I have loved every minute of it; I finally found that "click". 

Since starting my physio degree, my passion for exercise has honestly just snowballed. In my 2nd year, I took some short courses to become a certified personal trainer and began working with clients. I also got a job at a gym and worked with several trainers there to soak up whatever information I could. 

Finding something that I felt so passionate about felt so refreshing and honestly, this feeling has never gone away.

And even in my personal life things changed massively. I realised how much I love pushing my body and seeing what it can do. So my priorities changed. I gained 20kgs. I joined a gym that I loved. I worked with a personal trainer.

And I researched a lot. I spent hours reading and learning about nutrition, sleep, protein, women's health, exercise programming and all of the things you can do to enhance your quality of life and nurture your body. 

I basically started to create a life that I love. And I'm not finished, not even close. This is an ever-evolving journey and there is still a lot to learn. 

So yup. Here we are. 

Starting a company that I have always dreamed of creating, even if it took me a while to get there. 

So moving on to the company - what's it all about?  

The Intentional PT was created following a breakup I went through which drained my sense of faith in others and in myself. I felt lost and out of control and quickly lost interest in most of my usual hobbies.

And I'm not about to sugarcoat this and say that I instantly turned to exercise and that it made everything 100% better. No. At the end of the day, I'm a human being and I'm going to be honest with you.

There was a good chunk of time when I just stayed in bed. I didn't eat. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't go outside. I didn't even open my bloody curtains. 

At some point, a voice in my head (probably my dad's) told me "Hey, you need to do something different here". Because no matter how sh*t stuff gets, you do need to pick yourself up again at some point, even if it's really hard and not what you want to do. 

This is where exercise came in for me. Heading to the gym and exercising became the only thing that gave me a sense of enjoyment but it also reminded me of how capable I am. 

Not only was I benefitting from the endorphin release, but I had 1-2 hours each day that I could structure exactly how I wanted and dedicate it purely to myself. This quickly became the most powerful tool in my healing journey; it really felt like the only light in this period of darkness. I finally started to feel empowered and found faith in myself again. Everything still hurt but I found something that let me feel in control of my narrative again and I knew I would get through things in time. 

And because I found exercise helpful, I started eating properly again because I know how important it is to fuel your body, especially when weight lifting. 

These little changes gave me a taste for feeling somewhat good again so I started to add more things in slowly. Going for walks outside. Calling my friends. Regularly plucking my eyebrows (cos you know, self-care). 

And since then, I've just continued adding little things in that make me feel good for no other reason than they make me feel good. 

After this experience, my desire to help people and put good out into the world was kicked into overdrive. I realised how much of my healing was due to exercise but also due to the prior knowledge I had about nutrition and sleep - it was all essentially a domino effect right - and I felt like I had something really helpful to share with others. Something that could make a really positive change for people.   

So I decided to start The Intentional PT in hopes that it would help people find their own light in the dark and achieve their goals. 

I genuinely believe that exercise and movement are among the most powerful tools we can use throughout our lives. Not only can it pull us out of some really tricky patches but it can also improve our overall quality of life both mentally and physically. 

This brings me to something that I have lived by for many years now but something that has become even more important to me over the last few months and that is "what you give power to has power over you". 

If you give power to exercise and your health, you are giving power to yourself. And once you start giving power to yourself, I promise you won't look back. 

This concept flows nicely into what my values are as a trainer/human being and what encompasses this company. 

Simply put, I want to empower people through movement. I want to help people on their journey to creating a life that they absolutely love and that fulfils them. 

We all have goals and dreams, right? 

Well if you ask me, there is absolutely no reason why we can't achieve them. The biggest factor preventing people from reaching their goals and creating their dream life is themselves. And this isn't me trying to take a dig at anyone - we've all been here! We've all wanted to do something or dreamed of achieving something but thought "Oh, 'x' is stopping me" or "I can't do this because of this". 

Take the example of me wanting to become a doctor. I let others perception of me and my lack of confidence in myself stop me from pursing what I wanted. 

And ultimately, this comes back to fear. Fear of failing. Fear of hard work. Fear of disappointment. Fear of a lot of things. 

Now, I'm not going to dive into fear any more in this entry because that in itself is a lot and this is already getting quite long. It is something I want to touch on in a later entry though! 

But carrying on... 

In reality, the key to achieving our goals and dreams comes down to our intentions. Being intentional with our time and our actions, being intentional with our thoughts and beliefs, it all works towards whatever that end goal is. As you can probably guess, I chose the name very intentionally (haha). 

So as I wrap things up, I'm hoping that you now have a better sense of who I am and what I want to achieve with The Intentional PT. 

I'm hoping you can see that this is more than just a personal training company and that it is something I am really passionate about and believe in from the bottom of my heart. 

And I'm hoping that you stick around to see what we discuss next :D 

- Alex