Meet Mary Martin

We were lucky to catch up with Mary Martin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mary , so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

My optimism comes from believing physical, mental and spiritual challenges are a gift. When I was 33 years old, I was training for my 4th marathon. I had run Seattle and Chicago twice. I was not athletic growing up, but I had started running in college as a way to control the Freshman weight gain. I also found myself loving the strength, independence and power I felt out on the road or trails. Just me, myself and I running free. After running Chicago the second time(I ran a 3:10), I realized I was a pretty good runner. I qualified for New York Marathon and began my training to run a sub 3hour marathon. I was obsessed. Obsession is different than focus. One month before the race I fractured the neck of my femur and ended up in the ER then surgery to put my hip “back together”. I was in Graduate school for Physical Therapy and all of sudden my powerful independence stopped dead on its tracks. I was on crutches for 2 months. I had to rely on friends to get me to and from class. I felt paralyzed. If I had to run away from a bear in the forest, I was out of luck. Breaking my hip was the best thing that ever happened to me. My hip taught me to learn and grow from my choices. It nudged me, not so gently, back to the basics of movement from the ground up. I learned healing happens with intelligent movement and a belief that I could heal, one cell, one step at a time. Faith over fear leads to chasing the daylight.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I love movement. I love learning how the body works. I thrive when helping others understand how their bodies work and how they can heal an injury or excel at sport or aging. Hippocrates the father of modern medicine defines health as the human body’s ability to heal from the inside out when given the right conditions. After beginning my career as a traditional Physical Therapist and Pilates Instructor working in insurance based health care, followed by years as a private pay Therapist and Pilates based movement specialist, I have come to the conclusion that “every body” is not the same. Teaching and educating is at the core of what I do. I love working one on one and shining lights on areas in clients health that need attention. How we move from the ground up matters. The positions we spend most of our time in, matters. What we put in our “tanks”(food that we eat) matters. Breathing matters. Balance matters. Skeletal health matters. Our bodies are made of many systems that work together that create what we call human life. There are so many more things that can go wrong with our bodies that can go right.
I am currently working on a Ted Talk based on the 80/20 principle: 20% of an organization does 80% of the work. In the human body, our hands and feet are 20% of our “body” and they absolutely do 80% of the work. Not to mention they are longevity biomarkers. I am also working on a book based on Mindset/Mindshift/Mindmove towards Hippocratic Health from the inside out.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Belief that challenges are how you learn and grow. Seeds grow where they are watered. Failure is falling forward and not giving up. Trust in self and others.

Faith over fear and asking yourself, “does the benefit outweigh the risk”. Courage.

Gratitude for what I have, what I get to do and for what I have learned along the way.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

I would have to say Mindshift by Erwin McManus. I have seen Erwin speak twice over the past few years and he is a power house of purpose and inspiration.
Nuggets of wisdom I find valuable from this book are:
1. Your thoughts are the best predictor of your future. If you transform your thinking, you will transform your life and health.
2. Trust your gut(intuition) it knows things you don’t even know you know.
3. Mindshift gets to the core of how dreams and visions are built and sustained.