Page 7 - Tracy Anderson Magazine – Summer 2020

TRACY’S HIGH ROAD

And so the adventure begins.

“I want to go home.” Those were the last words that I well. While I have a lot of material for you to keep that
heard my grandmother say. My whole life I called her balance in your body, this is about a deeper root. Actu-
Nanny. Nanny and Pop-pa. They were my storybook ally much bigger than a root, and more like the trunk.
grandparents. While I certainly had a childhood filled Why do some people live long, healthy, and balanced
with magic, like all magic it had its darkness. My Nanny lives?
and Pop-pa were the ever-lasting light in that marbled re-
ality I grew up in. Looking back as a wiser adult woman, My incredible Nanny passed away at 95 years of age on
I believe their everlasting light beamed from the strong March 25th. She was a balanced, honest, loving, consis-
value they both placed on home. tent, humor-filled, and petite powerhouse. Leveled in her
beautiful reality, she believed that one’s foundation ought
For many homes, it has become just as toxic as it is to be built on seeking to understand what is good. She
beautiful. It has become a show more than a safe haven. thought you should be actively self-governed and always
Is my home big enough? Designer enough? Impressive use your voice. She refused to wear a seat belt because
enough? The toxic narrative goes on so long that it loses she said that they didn’t think hard enough about women
its purpose and becomes fully material. Home that is and their breasts. She was 4 feet, 11 inches, and she was
meant to be safe, nurturing, recycling, meaningful, and the mightiest force of certainty I have ever met in my
free can become a symbolic structure with a lost empti- life. When she first gave birth to my mom, my Pop-pa
ness that will set the flow of your life and all the relation- was back from the war and was studying at Indiana
ships that try to thrive there. Does that society-imposed University. My Nanny made a crib for my mom out
pressure equate to true pleasure? Or in some way does it of the dresser, and they lived in a tiny apartment. The
become the same pain as trying to look 20 when you’re lesson here for me, and what I hope to share with you, is
40, or think there’s any real meaning in trying to keep up that what I believe to be one of the most powerful health
with the Joneses, and now the Kardashians as well! tools in your life is not having more of anything at all. It’s
having less of everything, so you can hone in on the clar-
In creating content as a woman, expert, mom, and brand ity of who you are and what you need to place the most
with the mission to consistently create balance where important value on. More friends. More square footage.
there is imbalance in your life, I find myself wondering More clothes. More followers, likes, and posts. More
whether people know what my definition of balance sometimes makes us get so lost. We feel so less than. We
truly is. Throughout my 20 focused years in the wellness don’t see how extraordinary and enough we are and how
industry, I find the most common diagnosis is simply an our focus matters to ourselves and the people we love.
adult who is in need of my expertise because they feel Logically, we think that “appearance” must equal a “re-
overweight, out of shape, unhealthy, or out of touch with ality.” People place too much emphasis on the cause that
their bodies. They’re feeling unsexy, not good enough, the effect proves disappointing. I believe there is a strong
tired, and confused as to how they got here. What I see is connection between the way people display content
someone who has simply become denatured. They have about themselves to fit into a world of appearances that
been sucked into this vicious cycle of shelves filled with we forget to look at how we appear to ourselves.
products, foods, and lifestyles in a box that tells them
that they don’t know how to be unique. They don’t know My Nanny never had envy. I feel that from the time I
how to be themselves, and they don’t know how to be was a small child she knew the dangers of envy and she
a primal human being. They have forgotten their own squeezed it right out of me. She was the “picture perfect”
power that was given equally to all of us at birth. Nanny, from her commitment to her grandchildren,
straight down to her incomparable unmistakable choco-
It’s simply what man has done to the world to make late chip cookies and her chicken and dumpling noodles
us feel less than that we have to eliminate and restore. with mashed potatoes and gravy. She lived in between
Balance to me means getting your personal power back. two families with kids still at home, and she would let
How you think. How you process. How you move. How them refer to her as their Nanny, too. I remember how
you fuel. How you sleep at night. Knowing or not know- kind she was to all of them, and I remember it making
ing yourself. It all affects your health. When working me feel jealous, as if she might not have all that love
with the body, you want balance to go the distance. To to give and she was my Nanny. The more it made me
live a long, healthy resilient life of free movement and squirm, the more she did it. I remember her saying,
energy. That will never be available in a bottle for you. “Princess, being kind to everyone is the most important
You will need to earn it through years of treating yourself quality you can have. Remember, you aren’t better than

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