Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Fultz.
Taylor, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The path that brought me to where I am today is a twisty one, but it starts at the age of five when I had my first panic attack, then it winds to age six until it reaches my first attempt at sobriety at 32. It lands here at 34, where I am completely sober, free from most of my anxiety, and keeping depressive bouts to a minimum. Change first started to happen for me after I took yoga teacher training in Colorado, and I started to find appreciation for my body. As I struggled with alcohol, self-esteem issues, and depression over the next few years, I started turning to yoga and fitness as an outlet. Running is something I had always hated, but I as I looked to recovery, I found that going for runs would literally run the stress out of me, and I felt like a new person when I was finished. From there, I started finding that keeping a regular pattern of movement, meditation, honest sharing were the keys to healing. I found the more I talked about what I was going through, the more I was able to heal, and the more honest I was, the faster this healing happened. My goal now is to help other women find their healing and to destigmatize mental illness and addiction.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been the bumpiest of roads, in fact, I am not sure it was even a road at a lot of points. The things about depression and addiction is they have the ability to fully bring your life to a stop. There were many times in my 20’s where I lost jobs because I was too depressed to go in, or because I had too much anxiety to walk into the building. This happened so many times, and I never really knew what it was until I sobered up enough to take a good look at my life and why I kept repeating the same patterns over and over. I even dropped out of college the first time I went because I was too hungover to go to class and my preoccupation with partying left me little room to care about school. My self-worth was 0, and I went through a string of unhealthy relationships as I struggled to figure out my sexuality and to believe in my self-worth. I have quit almost everything I have started, and it wasn’t until I finished yoga teacher training that I really finished anything. That is why running in races so important to me now, it is a clear marker that I have actually committed to something and finished it.
My advice to any woman at any point in her journey is to believe in herself. If you cannot be your own fan, you cannot expect anyone else to be. The very fact that you are breathing is complete magic, and every breath you take is a testament to the complete divinity that is you. Own your shit, good or bad, and just know that you are perfect as you are. Be your number one fan; then you don’t have to worry about anyone else filling that spot. Believe in yourself because you are magic, and you can manifest anything that is true to you. I was 33 before I truly came alive, so just know that it is really never too late to start believing in yourself and creating the exact life that you want.
Please tell us about your work.
I am a personal trainer and yoga teacher, who helps women recover from addiction and mental illness through movement, meditation, and story-sharing. When I started on my fitness journey, it was a way to help myself move into recovery, to beat depression, and to find a better me. When I first launched my website, it was based solely on fitness programs, and then I realized that what I was actually talking about when I wrote, and what I was truly passionate about was not actually just fitness. What kept coming up for me was my struggle with alcohol, depression, and anxiety, and one day I just had an ‘aha moment’ where I knew what I had to do. I knew that talking about my struggles was the path I had to take, even though it was scary, and I fully did not want to be that vulnerable. However, this is how we heal, by sharing our journeys. So now I create online fitness programs that are catered to women in recovery or women who struggle from mental illness. The programs include Facetime or Skye sessions, customized workout plans, yoga classes, and weekly meditations. Next year I will be launching running programs for those who don’t really like to run, but also feel like they might want to run a half-marathon one day to prove to themselves that they can. Those will include fully customized ‘couch to 5k’ programs, 10k programs, and a half-marathon program. I am also currently working on launching the story-sharing portion of my site, which includes a story-sharing platform where women in recovery from addiction or mental illness will share their stories and create community, so we can start to shape the conversations around these topics. As I was once told by a great business owner “if you don’t tell your story, someone else will”, so I feel it is very important for those of us struggling to start to shape our own stories if we want to destigmatize mental illness and addiction. I am the most proud of the fact that I am trying to launch this business even though I am scared to death.
Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
The biggest barriers to female leadership right now are archaic patriarchal systems and norms. Women are systematically paid less, and often have to work harder than men to be promoted or taken seriously in business. That being said, a huge problem in the fitness industry are unrealistic beauty standards. You scroll Instagram and see thousands of fitness models with tiny waists and thin legs, and you’re like, crap, I will never be taken seriously as a trainer. But, I mean, those are all just stories we tell ourselves, and things we choose to believe, so really it is up to us to change those conversations and to break those barriers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.taylor-hayes.com
- Email: hello@taylor-hayes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorful/
Image Credit:
Elizabeth Day, Vita Mileriute
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