Mia Love of ‘Real Freedom With Love’: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing
In the morning, before I rise out of bed, I do breath work for two minutes. After, I meditate for 20 minutes and then stretch….a gratitude stretch where I’m thanking all of my muscles and all of my limbs. I just appreciate my body! Now, it’s time to get moving. I have a to-do list that I write the night before and on the other side of that list, I have things that I don’t want to do. For example, Bob is going to call me with drama from the job, but guess what, he doesn’t get to talk to me until I’m fortified. That means meditation, breath work, gratitude walk or gratitude stretch, whatever you feel and putting the proper minerals in my body.
As a part of my series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mia Love.
As an educator, entrepreneur, and financial wellness advisor, Mia Love is the quintessential triple-threat. A widely recognized credit empowerment coach, mentor, and holistic practitioner with almost a decade of experience, Mia specializes in providing holistic financial wellness methods that improve both the financial health and overall well-being of her clients. Utilizing her extensive background in financial literacy and Level 3 reiki, energetic and prana healing certifications, Mia founded Real Freedom With Love (formerly The Good Credit Diva), a comprehensive credit and finance management firm, where she teaches financial stability that encourages financial assertiveness, as well as a personal evolution. Her passion for educating, healing, and teaching others is exemplified in her intensives and workshops she facilitates at various organizations, businesses, and events throughout the globe. Mia brings her warmth and wit to every engagement, as she believes that healing reduces people’s resistance to change. She counts it a privilege to watch others experience a sense of freedom and confidence in their ability to not only make money but make time for what matters most.
Thank you so much for doing this with us, our readers would love to get to know you get to know you a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness.
I got involved in fitness and wellness at a young age. Growing up in a household with multiple siblings, it was required that you stay active. We had dance classes and sports and all types of activities going on. My father has been an avid runner for as long as I can remember. So all of these were a part of what we did. Wellness and health have always been something that’s been important in my family and going into high school and college, these activities stayed a part of my routine. To be honest, I think my parents and probably my older sister, Kenya, felt that it was an outlet to be able to transfer my energy into various activities.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The most interesting story that happened to me since I started my career was really the shift from competing as an athlete to incorporating wellness into my daily life. When you are competing as an athlete you have a coach who tells you what to do. You’re also always working towards a particular goal or competition, whereas being an adult, wellness is truly up to you to ensure that you make it a priority. It’s very easy to sidestep and to get distracted into a routine that does not include wellness. You’ll quickly start seeing the result of that distracted behavior, whether it’s the way that your clothes fit or your energy level, you will know, very quickly when you’ve fallen off. There was a time where I let go of my wellness routine and I saw the results in my productivity, my thought processes and my ability to accomplish multiple tasks. You really have to make the choice between happy hour at the bar or the gym. In our current circumstance, its Zoom workouts or Zoom happy hour but the point remains. I can remember working out at lunchtime so I could make it to happy hour with my friends.
Can you share the story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or takeaway did you learn from that?
The most humorous story was not gauging the impact of a particular workout. Again, as an athlete, you generally feel like your body doesn’t have limits. However, as an adult incorporating wellness, if you don’t properly gauge your limits, you can definitely exceed them. There is a hike outside of an area where I used to live. I had done this hike in high school and as an adult (with my parents), without incident. I thought it was a good idea to take this very steep hike on a day that I had evening activities planned. It takes roughly two hours to get up this mountain and up to three hours down. Following the climb, I was slated to go to a Beyonce concert that night. My outfit was already selected including a set of three inch heels. The fatigue in my legs was REAL! But, I needed to wear that outfit. Let me tell you…I paid dearly for not planning that day properly.
Can you share with our readers, a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion on what is your unique contribution to the world of fitness?
I am an authority on fitness and wellness because I have the unique ability to recognize the intersection between fitness and wellness. Fitness is how you treat your physical body, whereas wellness is how you treat your mind, body and spirit. Being able to incorporate physical activity along with breath work, Reiki and energetic healing is the ability to get to a point of total body wellness.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped you get to where you are. Can you share the story about that?
I would have to say that it’s a group of people. My family pushed me to make sure that I am always exceeding my limits. The grounding that I received growing up made it clear that fitness is paramount. The reality that wellness (as described above) has been hugely helpful. My influences gave me the confidence to go after my Reiki certifications and step into the next levels of spiritual healing and embrace the gifts that I already had. Being able to marry the two of them together into the realm of entrepreneurship has been amazing.
Okay, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of the interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables. Eat less sugar, exercise more and get better sleep, etc. But while we know intellectually it’s often difficult to put into practice and make it a part of our daily habit. In your opinion, what are the three main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know and integrating it into our lives?
Procrastination or not being motivated and a general lack of energy. Those are the three main players. Understanding how to ground yourself is key. Grounding yourself is a form of meditating. Once we get into a meditative state we can begin to block or discharge negative energy. This should be done before we start our day. Do this first thing in the morning, therefore we fortify ourselves and we’re able to move throughout the day.
Can you please share your five non intuitive lifestyle tweaks that will dramatically improve one’s well being. Please share a story or example for each and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional, and physical health.
In the morning, before I rise out of bed, I do breath work for two minutes. After, I meditate for 20 minutes and then stretch….a gratitude stretch where I’m thanking all of my muscles and all of my limbs. I just appreciate my body! Now, it’s time to get moving. I have a to-do list that I write the night before and on the other side of that list, I have things that I don’t want to do. For example, Bob is going to call me with drama from the job, but guess what, he doesn’t get to talk to me until I’m fortified. That means meditation, breath work, gratitude walk or gratitude stretch, whatever you feel and putting the proper minerals in my body.
As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are three benefits of daily exercise?
Mental clarity, high vibrations/energy and feeling really sexy in your clothes because everything is energetic. When you’re feeling confident, you show it. Through your walk, your speech and your smile, which has become paramount in this virtual environment.
For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which three exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical. Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you. Can you share a story?
The three exercises that have been impactful in my life are:
1) Meditation — People don’t think that’s an exercise, but it’s a brain exercise.
2) Cycling — Love to do this in the morning.
3) Sauna — Sweat!
Bonus…Reading books! — One of the favorites is called Your Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. This book deals with trauma, and the lessons help us identify and release that trauma. That’s where the energy work comes in. pulling these together makes me authority in this field.
Mia Love of ‘Real Freedom With Love’: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.