This is something I’ve been having a lot of trouble with lately. Has boiling who you are into a few words or a catch phrase every seemed daunting or completely inorganic to you like it does to me?

Recently I’ve felt torn. I’ve got this book coming out with Hay House in September called Money: A Love Story. I love teaching women about creating financial freedom. I love inspiring everyone to embrace their value so they can earn more and be of higher service in the world.

Yet I’ve co-created a team of over 3,000 wellness entrepreneurs called Team Northrup and our primary focus has been on health. I’ve taken every certification for teaching fitness under the sun (step aerobics, Nia, IntenSati, yoga, you name it.) I was raised by two physicians in a vegan macrobiotic household. I’ve read hundreds of nutrition books and tried bazillions of nutrition and fitness programs.

The innate wisdom of my body has always been my guiding compass. And taking optimal care of her has always been a top priority.

I’ve been asked to speak on health topics a lot lately. As I teach low-glycemic eating, why we need to supplement, and how to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, I feel lit up. I feel energized. I get freaking excited.

I’ve been asking myself how to best channel this passion in a bigger way than small local workshops or one on one consultations (which I still adore and will continue to do). I want to be of service on a wider scale. I want to help people feel damn good in their skin. I want to inspire women to live fully in the physical vessels they were given.

Teaching and practicing health, self care, and body love has been a huge part of my business life behind the scenes for the past twelve years. But I’ve been struggling with how to incorporate it in my online life in a way that makes sense.

A few weeks ago a solution emerged:

This new project is about the intersection between self love and healthy choices. It’s also about learning to listen to and respect our innate body wisdom.

I don’t like the fact that our culture puts so much emphasis on weight loss and how we look anymore than you do. I’ve found that when we focus on feeling good instead, everything shifts.

I’ve been craving a place where change is inspired through love for our bodies and ourselves instead of from a place of hating how we look. I’ve been craving a place to share what I’ve learned on my own body love journey (which is very much ongoing.) I’ve been craving a place to teach women how to tap into the wisdom of their bodies.

So I decided to create this place.

TheFoxyBod.com is where you’ll be able to access health and self love advice that works. I promise to only share what’s worked for me and I promise to keep the focus on feeling good. (And the great thing about feeling good is that it causes a happy side effect of looking good too!)

In January I’ll be launching a self love and health program to teach the best advice and products I’ve found to feel really good in your body. You’ll want to hop on the list at TheFoxyBod.com to be one of the first to hear about it. I’ve been marinating this one for months and it’s going to be super juicy and flavorful!

Throughout 2013 I’ll also be sharing:

• health and body love tips
• interviews with experts I love
• books that have made a difference for me and the women I work with
• lots of goodies to inspire you to feel amazing in your body

I want you to feel sexy in your body. I want you to love her and all that she does for you. I want for you to care for her and protect her ruthlessly. I want you to trust and listen to her.

If you want that too, join me at TheFoxyBod.com and get ready to fall more deeply in love with yourself and that precious body of yours.

And I’m making stock. (Yes, I have been cooking non-stop since Mike and I settled into our new home for the next five months. My inner Susie Homemaker has come out in full force. I’m just as surprised as Mike is.)

Part of my taking stock has involved going through all of my “stuff”, digital, physical, and mental, and deciding what to do with it. More on this in a future post when I tell you why I’m obsessed with Getting Things Done by David Allen. In my process of diving into my notes and bits (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate while living in a car) I found a note I’d written to myself sometime this year entitled, “Here’s what I know.” I don’t have a clue when I wrote it, but I know that when I read it it made me feel good.

Here’s hoping it makes you feel good too.

Here’s what I know…

• Doing something for the money never ends up being worth it.
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.
• You are valuable because you exist. Period. (Or, full stop if you’re British.)
• You are enough. You always have been. You always will be.
• Your place of greatest ease and joy will also be your place of greatest service.
• It’s okay to sleep for ten hours or more a night from time to time. In fact, it’s critical.
• No accomplishment or moment of recognition will ever replace feeling loved, by yourself or anyone else.
• It’s not going to turn out the way you thought. It will be better.
• You know. You always know.
• The fact that it feels good is reason enough to move every day. The fact that it will tone your ass and make your waist smaller are mere side effects.
• Organizing your life around what feels good is the single wisest choice you can make.
• There is always going to be a small part of you that wants to please your mother, even if you’re not conscious of it, and that’s okay.
• Saying yes to someone simply because you don’t want to disappoint them is not only unfair to you, it’s unfair to them.
• Sleep, water, movement, greens, and a good cry cure almost anything.
• Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. (Thanks Mom)
• Paying attention to your money is a profound act of self-love.
• It turns out that life is happening right now.
• Loving yourself more is the best place to start to solve any problem.
• You can’t judge and have an open heart at the same time.
• Nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason.
• Your body is wise beyond what you could possibly imagine. Listen to her. She will lead you home every time.
• Home is not a place.

Your turn!

What do you know?

What can you count on no matter what?

Tell me and remind yourself. Leave a comment.

Note: This is not my bottom.

I’m a solopreneur and I make my own schedule. The other day I was talking with my coach about exercise. We were coming up with promises I could stick to in terms of moving my body several times a week. She suggested I do more cardio. I suggested I didn’t have time. She suggested I was making excuses. I agreed.

The reality is, I own my time. I’m extremely grateful for this. Many people ask me what’s the best thing about owning my own business. My answer is the best AND the worst thing about having my own business is that I have no boss. No one tells me what to do except me. It’s a beautiful thing to be in charge of my time and myself. It also sometimes really sucks . . . like when I’m feeling lazy or cranky or bratty. There are times when we all need to be told what to do. There are times when it actually is a huge relief when someone tells me what to do. I make decisions all day long and my deciding muscle is really strong. Sometimes she needs a rest. Sometimes she needs to surrender to the brilliance of another human being. (This is one of the reasons I hired a coach. Yes, I pay someone to be my boss.)

The hilarious thing about my excuse to my coach about not having time to exercise is that I said it as though someone other than me is behind the wheel. I know how importance exercise (daily, if possible) is to my overall well-being. I practice personal growth as a business-building strategy and I know how much more smoothly things go in my business life when I feel good. Exercise makes me feel good. When I feel good, I do good business. Therefore, moving my body is theoretically an important piece of my business plan.

And yet, so frequently it seems more important to clean out my inbox than to head to yoga class. I get very focused on a single task (such as writing a blog post like this one) and I deep-six the workout because in that moment my productivity, or bottom line, seems more important. It seems like I should spend as much of my time on income-generating activities as possible. After all, who am I if I’m not uber-productive and doing all the time? (This is a rhetorical question which shall most likely be answered in a future post.)

The great irony is that working my bottom in the gym actually improves my bottom line. I tout the business benefits of feeling good and making sure that one’s own cup is full before serving others because you can’t give of an empty cup. There is a part of me that knows doing a Sun Salutation instead of writing one last email actually makes me money, albeit indirectly. I do a Sun Salutation (or several along with a whole bunch of other postures, leaving me sweaty, blissed out, in my body, and stretched) and I feel better; I get on the phone with a potential team member and I sound uplifting, fun, and happy; they want to join my business to feel that way, too, and my business grows, along with my bottom line. (Plus my bottom gets a good work out too.)

What I’m saying is that there are so many things that we can do as entrepreneurs to grow our bottom line that don’t actually look like “work.” The intangibles are often the most valuable assets a business has; a brand’s attractiveness is often more energetic than palpable. And this attractiveness mostly comes from the people behind a brand. And you know what makes people happy, and therefore more attractive? Exercise. And meditating. And eating healthy food, going for walks, sitting in the sun, taking bubble baths, laughing, spending time with loved ones, laying in the grass, skinny dipping, having sex, taking naps. Are any of those “income generating”? Well, I suppose it depends on what line of work you’re in, but I know I don’t generate income directly from any of those activities (with the exception of spending time with loved ones because I genuinely do love the people I’m blessed to be in business with).

If you’re a business owner, or even if you’re not, the next time you’re looking to increase your bottom line, think outside the spreadsheet. Look to things that bring you pleasure. Research sustainable activities that release endorphins in the brain (i.e., activities besides consuming drugs, alcohol, and sugar, which is not sustainable). Add pleasure to your business plan. Work your bottom to grow your bottom line. Take a nap to increase your net worth. Have some fun to become financially free.

Your bottom or your bottom line? The answer, I think, is both.

(Thank you for reading. I wrote this post as a reminder to myself that work-related busy-ness is not necessarily next to Godliness.)

This post is part of Bindu Wiles’ 21.5.800 project.