We recently connected with Steven Washington and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Steven, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
Self -care is EVERYTHING. Culturally we are taught that it is a luxury to exercise a consistent self-care practice, but it is a necessity. I believe in casting a wide net to gather self-care tools. The more tools I have in my tool box, the better. I use practices like deep breathing, meditation, mindfulness, movement, time in nature, devoted time caring for my cat, prayer, listening to my inner wisdom, eating well, staying hydrated, laughter, and being connected to people who add positive energy to my life.
When I invest time and energy into those activities it helps me show up for life in a balanced, resourced, and present way. I feel free to be more of myself which means I will be more effective in everything I do.
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 am a Movement Master, Author, and Recovery Advocate. I always like to say that I came out of my mother’s womb dancing. I was blessed with a fluency in the language of the body and dance was my first love. That love led me to study dance and theatre in high school and eventually at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. My studies prepared me for a successful 20+ year career as a professional dancer in NYC and around the world. My last 10 years of dancing were on Broadway in Disney’s The Lion King. While I climbed great heights professionally, I was managing the progressive disease of alcoholism and drug addiction. I reached a jumping off point where I could not imagine my life without drugs and alcohol, and I also could not imagine going another day with them. This created a window of opportunity for me to get sober. That was a little over 21 years ago. My sobriety led me to seeking out holistic healing practices to help me maintain my sobriety and heal wounds that kept me in the endless cycle of addiction for so long. I found, pilates, yoga, qigong, acupressure, prayer, meditation, mindfulness, therapy, journaling, hiking, art, caring for animals, community, and so much more. I immersed myself in practices because I desperately needed them. My intuition told me that part of my mission was to share healing practices with others. My gift is the ability to help people help themselves through mindful movement and hold space for them in the process. The other half of my mission is to share my story to inspire, create community, and remind others that they are not alone in their challenges and triumphs. I poured all of this into the pages of my book Recovering You: Soul Care and Mindful Movement for Overcoming Addiction and continue to do so in what I teach on social media and in SWE Studio, my membership community.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The 3 most important qualities or skills that have impacted my life are persistence, humility, and moving the body to change how I feel. Let’s look at each one. Persistence has been advantageous for me it has provided momentum to my life. When I began my recovery journey in my early thirties, I wanted to clear every toxic thing out of my life all at once. My dear friend who had long-term sobriety encouraged me to focus on one thing at a time. Alcohol and drugs were the biggest problems I was facing at the time. They trumped my cigarette addiction. I was advised to focus on the big stuff and deal with the smaller stuff later. Doing everything at once would have been overwhelming. When the time was right to quit cigarettes I would. There were bound to be false starts and that was ok. The key was to never stop quitting because eventually it would stick. I haven’t had a cigarette in over a decade. Persistence was key.
Humility is defined as a disposition to be humble: a lack of false pride. I look at humility as the ability to understand that I don’t have all the answers and others may know more than I do about certain things in life. It has been important for me to ask for help when I need it and avoid the mindset of having to do everything alone. Asking for help doesn’t mean I am weak. It means that I am human, and people need other people to survive.
When I was in active addiction I constantly sought to change the way that I felt. When difficult emotions would surface within me I would try to make myself feel better through chemicals. When I felt great I wanted to feel even better and alcohol and drugs were the way to do it. Around my 10th anniversary of sobriety I was introduced to qigong. During that time I was in graduate school and struggling with anxiety through the experience. One of the things that helped me was my qigong practice. No matter what I was feeling, movement, deep breathing, and focused intention always made me feel better. The practice helped me to self-regulate because stagnant energy within me suddenly had a force to help it circulate and rebalance. That is when I learned that moving a muscle could change a thought.
My advice to anyone who is early in their journey of change and transformation is to stay in the moment you are in. Be present. Choose to not give up. So much is gained through persistence. Humble yourself enough to accept that you don’t know everything and asking for help makes you stronger and more resilient. And lastly, move your body. Circulate the energy that has somehow become stagnant. New insights will flow and you will know what your next steps will be.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
The first thing I do when I feel overwhelmed is to check my breathing. Stress is woven into the fabric of the emotion of overwhelm. When I am stressed my breathing changes. It becomes short and choppy, my muscles tighten, my sympathetic nervous system turns on, and stress hormones are released. Taking at least 10 slow, deep breaths helps me to self-regulate and restore balance in my body and mind.
So, the next time you experience the feeling of overwhelm, stop what you are doing, take some deep breaths, and notice how you feel afterwards.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stevenwashingtonexperience.com
- Instagram: @stevenwashingtonexperience
- Facebook: Steven Washington Experience
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCELKG49gXvN7E-GY271iSHQ
- Other: TikTok @stevenwashington64
Image Credits
Tanya Mallot
