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mj shaw

@mjshawb

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✨founder @soulfuelfitness_to
✨fitness, feminism, dance
✨advocacy, education, family

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Happy New Years. I find it helpful to look back at the end of a year. Even if it's been a tough one, there is always growth worth being grateful for. These are my biggies for 2021.⁠
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1. Getting my priorities real straight. When the stress of financial ruin looms, I had to look at what really matters. I learned I will be fine, even if my business is not.⁠
2. Leadership Training in the Pandemic School of Hard Knocks. I've been in leadership positions for the last 15 years, but I've learned more in this last than all the others combined.⁠
3. Deep appreciation for the valued people in my life, who show up and support and keep loving when the going gets rough. I couldn't have gotten through this year without you.⁠
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I have a lot more learning ahead, and that I look forward to. My focus is listening more, working on acceptance, and finding more peace in my day-to-day life. ⁠
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I encourage us all to look back and take stock. May you find goodness and clarity to help you move forward with more hope in 2022.⁠
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This photo is totally random, but I'm proud of it. Thanks to @optic_verve for always capturing magic.

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#newyear2021 #torontofitness #torontodance #torontoyoga #torontolife #torontomoms #bloordale #bloorwest #roncesvalles #junctionto #womenwholead #womeninbusiness #smallbusinessowner #womanentrepreneur #clearpriorities #lessonsinlife #leadershiplessons taken in Soul Fuel Fitness by @mjshawb

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5 years ago

Change on the horizon. A few other C-words to Call upon:

Curiosity
Creativity
Compassion
Connection
Courage

Deep breath and GO.

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#mondaymotivation #mondaymood #fallintofitness #motivationmonday #mondayvibes #mondaymorning #changemanagement taken in Soul Fuel Fitness by @mjshawb

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4 years ago

Nice new year gift! It’s an honour to be selected as one of @impactmagcanada Top Fitness Instructors 2023. Thanks to the panel and to IMPACT for recognizing years of hard work by the Canadian pros I’m in good company with. Hooray for us all!

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#impactmagazine #top10 #fitnessexpert #fitnesscoach #womenowned #womanentrepreneur #smallbusiness #torontofitness #torontolife #torontoyoga #torontopilates #blogto #fitnessmotivation #fitnessover40 taken in Canada by @mjshawb

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4 years ago

September: Took some steps, school, merry-go, reunion, maple, shoots, anniversaries, gatherings, early pumpkining. Also took some time, responsibility, accountability and care.

Happy Fall to all of you out there ❤️.

(Photos gratefully captured by others in I’m my forgetfulness) by @mjshawb

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10 days ago

🪩7 YEARS OLD TODAY🪩 Soul Fuel opened its doors to this community…

I’m not from these parts. At all. I didn’t grow up in the city, I don’t belong to any fancy groups or clubs, and I don’t live on this side of the Dundas West tracks. You feel me?

To fund Soul Fuel I wrote a business plan to get a bank loan, dumped my savings and hustled. My father moved in with us for a year to renovate the building, while I worked full-time with a newborn and my husband took pat leave. Opening Soul Fuel was a big gamble, without much soft landing if it failed.

But it didn’t. At all! Thanks to an incredibly supportive community that embraced me and my small business with open arms.

During the pandemic (6 months after opening) they came to my rescue, taking some 5000 (!?!?) online classes over 2 years to keep the business afloat.

When we reopened, they came. And they didn’t just come to workout, they brought their friends and family, came to events, fundraisers, stayed to socialize, laugh, cry, and fill this studio with the resin that makes it the third space and place that it is today.

Last year we raised $50,000 for St Joe’s with our Daneathon - we even surprised the hospital foundation! That’s the kind of thing this community is capable of.

I started the team from past contacts, but also drew from neighborhood talent, whose energy and efforts are Soul Fuel’s life force. It’s been wonderful to witness their professional growth alongside the studio’s.

Soul Fuel exceeded all my initial expectations. And that’s thanks to ALL OF YOU. I’m so deeply grateful. And I’m excited to see what’s possible for us next…

But this week, we celebrate our seventh! There will be sweet lil treats and heart warming videos all week. Thank you x infinity💜. taken in Soul Fuel Fitness by @mjshawb

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a month ago

In August I

Laughed a lot
With people I love
Took classes for me
Spent money on lawyers
Had deals fall through

Cleaned things up
Trusted my gut
Filled my cup

Worked through it
Learned from it
Got ready for it

Happy September
The back-to-it feels are real taken in Lake Ontario by @mjshawb

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a month ago

🪩30 years instructing fitness🪩 Whew, this is a landmark for me. Still learning, still growing.

I’ll dig up some stories and think on anything meaningful I can impart, but maybe you have questions? Maybe you have stories that I’ve forgotten!

Bring it. I’m in the mood to share. And I’m feeling kinda proud and very grateful 💜.

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#roncesvalles #soulfuel #bloorwest #torontofitness #fitnesscareer taken in Soul Fuel Fitness by @mjshawb

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2 months ago

Back in town after 5 weeks away. Quality time with family, friends and space to get some clarity and breathe in some real joy.

It was good and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to take this precious time.

Big thanks to the Soul Fuel A-Team that kept the studio thriving and allowed me to work remotely. I’m so grateful. Now to the horizons ahead…

Wakefield Quebec
Orleans / Cumberland
Bonnechere Caves
Cottage Rental
Orillia / Barrie
Tiny and around by @mjshawb

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2 months ago

It was a good month. Heading out of the city until August to be with family and meditate outside my usual pov. Grateful for the time and those who make it possible. taken in Toronto, Ontario by @mjshawb

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3 months ago

Mexico City, 4 days with a couple of my favourite chicas and 1 day solo. Terrific city, incredibly cultured, modernity that makes Toronto look antiquated, so much to see and do, colour and sensory explosion.

But I really got it GOOD on this one. Great fodder for the new hit comedy “Gringo no hablo Español!”

Scenes include the advanced ‘no comprende’ reformer class, the $200 taco scam, the diarrhea charades at the farmacia, my city bike crumbling mid intersection, the red-eye with ex-cartel all-night-talker, my visa getting compromised (again) and no bank card working, whereby I had to sell my AirPods at the market for 100 pesos cash ($9) so that I could get my carry on out of storage…

And I did not bring home said rolley, but I did bring home a parasite. Hot tip: don’t clean your Invisalign with the tap water = petri dish.

I used to be a real adventure traveller, often alone. I love exploring new places and seeing who I am outside of my comfort zone. This time, I was a bit of a hot mess;) Or maybe I’m just 20 years older than the last time I was in Mexico City, and I’m tighter on my ‘discomfort flexibility’…

Like doing the splits, venturing outside my cushy Canadian life now takes more effort than it used to. And that’s ok. I just need more warm-up, mental preparation and electrolytes.

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#mexicocity #nohabloespañol #travelgram #girlfriends #growingup taken in Mexico City by @mjshawb

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4 months ago

It’s midlife o’clock. And this newly 48 year old is coming into her Crone years. While my energy is more valuable, it’s also more limited, so I’ve been evaluating where it will be most wisely directed in this Second Life…

I hear echos of my elders “kids today” “society now”, but I really am feeling my Gen Xness as the world moves at warp speed in a direction my paper map doesn’t go. I worry about how disconnected and distracted we are, the division and disillusionment these devices create, the movement to make us one-size-fits-all AI bots, where the preferred BFF is ChatGBT with its algorithmic ease over the friction of human dialogue and debate…

But it’s my birthday! I should probably just pacify and find my peace. Ha! Not this witch. Another feature of aging: self acceptance. I find no serenity in laying my head in the sand. In this next half I’ll be putting this powerful energy and education to good use, planting my ripe seeds to fertilize the soil I came from, ready to return to in another 48 years, hopefully richer for future growth.

To all my fellow Crones in Coming: you know who you are. It’s Our Time.

#midlifewomen #empowerment #bethechange by @mjshawb

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4 months ago

(Part 2) This world of Mother Judgment came as a surprise to me. Judging someone’s parenting felt dumb, like, what do I know about their kid or values? I’m too busy over here trying to live my own complicated life. But the judgment, it seems to me, stems from all the insecurities our mysogenist and patriarchal society piles on women.

I’ve had a lot of love and support from great friends, mothers and not, alike. But I’ve also felt very alone in my particular circumstance: older mom, parenting differently, minimal child care, no local family, being the family planner, busy business owner, starting my day at 5am so I can pick up my kid every day at 3:00pm. And still getting judged harshly while my husband gets praised, “you’re so lucky he does so much!”

I know I’m not alone. Becoming a mother opens you up to a cesspool of sexism that will regress you decades. No wonder so many women are choosing not to become mothers… a whole other reflection.

So for this Mother’s Day, I want more compassion and equality for moms. Not just on one commercially driven day, but systemically all year round. We can start by being kinder to each other and harder on the system rigged against us.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing moms out there. We are godam heroes.

@optic_verve took these a few of years ago and I still love them.

#motherhood #feminist #mothersday by @mjshawb

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5 months ago