Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Annie Law. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Annie, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
As a young faithful mom from Utah County, my confidence and self esteem relied upon the acceptance of others.
Until the age of 40, I unconsciously allowed myself to function off of what someone else told me was best for me and my family. I was a good girl thru and thru and conformed in the name of acceptance. I was polite, kind, accommodating and generous to a fault. And I was my most brutal critic.
Because of all of this, my mental health suffered. Because I felt I had to “endure” this life as opposed to enjoy it, the pain I felt became normal, and I allowed myself to become a victim to my mind. My thoughts convinced me that I was a terrible person and I allowed myself to believe it. I thought that by not being able to appease everyone in my life, that that meant I was worthless.
As my self-hatred and self-deprecation increased, my passion for life diminished. The foundation I built my reality upon had crumbled. I couldn’t keep up with societal pressures and even the pressure I put upon myself.
COVID was the wakeup call I needed. At the time, I was running a CrossFit gym. I appeared to have so much confidence, but inside I was a raging hurricane. I gave so much of my time and energy away and never gave myself a second to be still. I realized that being a coach, social media director, recruiter, and everything else in-between for this gym was not serving me anymore. So, I quit.
Throughout the next year, my husband and I both realized that as amazing as the life we thought we wanted was, it actually wasn’t what we wanted at all. So, we decided to make some BIG changes. December 31st of the year 2020, we told our 3 kids (15, 12, and 9 at the time) that we were selling our home and buying an RV to travel the county for the summer! They were less than excited. But, they put forth their best attitudes and were up for the adventure… with a little coaxing and a subtle bribe to visit Disney World.
Our family of 5 went from living in a beautiful 3800 square foot home, with a huge fenced in yard, to a 200 square foot box on wheels! This RV was no prize either. It needed a massive amount of rehab-ing in order for us all to feel comfortable even sleeping in it. With extensive amounts of cigarette smoke damage from the previous owners, everything in the RV either needed to be replaced or painted over.
With the help of lots of family and friends, we worked day and night on this RV. But the majority of the work was done by yours truly. This work and preparation truly kicked my ass. I was kicking my ass in the name of my soul, in the name of my mental health and the name of the health of the relationships I had with my husband and children. With that passion, I received the massive amount of energy I needed to accomplish the task that was laid out before me.
In 23 days I accomplished the impossible and our RV (nicknamed, George) was ready to go. We loaded our family into our home for the summer with our 2 big dogs, Fred and Lola, and headed out across the United States on the adventure of a lifetime. Call us crazy, but we had never felt more alive!
To say this trip was life changing would be the biggest understatement ever. We had the unique privilege of visiting so many amazing sites, museums, and wonders. As well as connecting as a family like never before. We got to experience such a wide landscape of geography, cultures and people. Our minds were being expanded at such a rapid rate. To witness the accomplishments of so many different people taught us more about the accomplishments we, as humans, have the ability to accomplish… and in turn, what we ourselves are capable of accomplishing.
Within the walls of “George” came the vision for my company, Moment Mats. A yoga and meditation mat product line. What’s interesting though is that at the time I knew nothing of the industry of yoga mats or meditation mats. I was practicing yoga and meditated occasionally. I enjoyed it, but had surface-level knowledge of its true benefits at the time.
Because I was allowing myself to be free, a spark flipped on in my body and I was given a path to explore.
When the summer ended, we came back to our home city of Pleasant Grove and found a cute little house to rent. The kids started back at their regular schools and my husband and I tried to get back to “normal”. Except we didn’t know what “normal” was anymore. The life we had before the summer began no longer existed. We had been dropped into a completely different reality, within the only reality we had known for the past 20 years. On top of that, it seemed as if the universe decided to dump all of life onto our shoulders at one time.
As magical and incredible as our trip had been, it had also stretched us in ways we didn’t realize until we were able to stop and process. The consequence of this extension of consciousness created a glitch in our reality. When we got back to Utah, my body and brain had had enough. My mind couldn’t compute the magnitude of the shift. And with that, I short-circuited. I completely burned out and forgot how to human. My heart broke and life forced me to the ground. I had no choice but to go inward and heal.
Over the next year, I would sit on a small meditation mat I had made and go out in nature as often as possible, soaking in every ounce of sunlight the day would allow. During this time, my husband took on the load of taking care of all the things. His love for me was so unconditional and through the stillness, sunlight and love I began to hear myself and my light began to come back.
Over the next couple of years, I dove deep into my personal growth and development. I wanted to heal, so I hired coaches, therapists, micro dosed, took yoga teacher training, became reiki certified, read all I could about the nervous system, our brains, our chemistry, our anatomy, our chakras, our breath, studied meditation and eventually became certified in sound healing.
I allowed myself to reach my inner child and I let her discover, play, and make art. Sometimes it was shit and sometimes it was cool. I was allowing myself permission to exist and have space in the same city I once felt so suffocated in. It was liberating and terrifying all at the same time.
I became aware that as I focused on my inner world and understood the importance of regulating my emotions, the more life worked in my favor. The more I went inward, the more clarity I gained and the more my confidence grew. My drive and energy levels were finally gaining momentum and I was ready to get Moment Mats up and running. I went to work, found a designer, and put the Moment Mat version 2.0 prototype together. Today, I’m in the process of manufacturing my first bulk order and Moment Mats will be available for purchase in April, 2024!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
As I’ve given myself permission to explore different paths, I’ve also used the knowledge I’ve studied over the last few years and applied it to my extensive dance background. Since the age of two, dancing has been my emotional release, my god given talent and my reason for breathing.
As I’ve stopped caring what other people might think of me and started listening to myself, I’ve been able to accomplish the things that have scared me most. Most recently, I decided to do something really scary and create a sensual dance class for women. By drawing in the practices that I’ve studied, I take women through breath work, visualizations, somatic practices, body movements and a short choreographed sensual dance, where women gain confidence in their sensuality and in themselves.
Never in my dreams would I think I would have the confidence to teach a sensual dance class. Being able to use my love of dance to help people move energy through their bodies enhances my ability to help people go inward to heal.
The combination of stillness and movement can create such a beautiful balance in our lives.
Right now as we prepare to launch our signature Meditation Moment Mat in the coming spring, our goal is to have distribution to as many retreat facilities as possible. We want to provide each of their attendees with a Moment Mat, making their retreat experience even more memorable and powerful.
By also providing yoga mats in our product line, we can extend our reach in the field of healing even more.
Our mission at Moment Mats is to enhance people’s lives by providing a practical and versatile solution for creating moments of rest, reflection, and connection. We believe in the power of taking a moment to foster meaningful connections with ourselves and those around us.
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?
Regulating my emotions is by far the most valuable skill I have attained. Without understanding how to to do this, I would still be a big blubbery mess, over sharing all the things to anyone who would listen.
I am a big feeler of emotions. My body can spiral out of control if I am not completely aware of whats going on in my nervous system.
I use to suppress my emotions and cover them up with whatever I could not to feel them. When we can’t feel our emotions, there is no way to know that anything is wrong. All we know is we don’t feel happy. And because thats normal in todays world, we just go on ignoring ourselves.
Paying attention to my needs, my own ideas, my own dreams has given me access to a whole to world. The fear of life is so much less aggressive. It’s still there, this is planet Earth after all. Nowadays though, I feel a lightness in life that wasn’t available a couple years ago. The lens I see through now is only available to me because I’ve been able to calm the chemistry within me.
As an entrepreneur, regulating your emotions is vital. Using breath techniques is the fastest and easiest way I’ve found to calm myself.
Since I’ve been able to calm my chemistry more effectively, my ability to communicate with clarity has become so much easier. It’s amazing how much a calm nervous system can affect so many different aspects of ones life. If there is anything I would recommend learning, it is how to keep the inner storm calm as much as possible.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
This was by far the most difficult question to answer. I have probably 10 different responses written out because there has been so much that has had to happen and so many people I’ve had to encounter to be here now. The friends, coaches and teachers I’ve met over the years have taught me so much and I could not be more grateful.
With that being said, it would be absurd to not name my husband as the number one person that has impacted me most in my life. Robbie and I met when we were 17 and have been together for over 26 years. I’m not going to go into great details about what we’ve had to overcome as a couple. Let’s just say that at times our marriage has been as blissful as a sunrise on a perfect summer morning, and then there’s been times its felt like a never ending marathon that neither one of us was sure we were going to be able to complete.
But as much as the ups and downs in our marriage have taught me so much, it’s my husbands wisdom and skills that have taught me so much. Robbies background in speaking, presenting and communication are all areas of knowledge that have given me so much wisdom. But beyond that, it is my husbands belief in me that has helped me overcome most everything.
The odds were not in our favor there for a while. To be honest and vulnerable about this, as hard as it is for me, I think will be very refreshing for a lot of people. To know that marriages struggle HARD and can still make it gives people hope. And on top of “making it”, you can make it so so good.
The only way we were able to get to this new paradigm was by healing ourselves and supporting each other through that process. Releasing past versions of each other and being able to see one another with fresh eyes has kept our individual visions clear. Being able to support and love another human being as deeply and intimately as Robbie and I get the pleasure of experiencing with one another is an honor and privilege.
If we had kept the constructs of who we once perceived each other to be, we would be divorced. No question. Expanding your thought of mind of another human is no easy task. Us humans like to hold on to our grudges. It isn’t until we begin the healing process and acknowledge all of the pain we’ve allowed to fester that we begin to see.
Healing isn’t easy. My hope is that everyone has someone who can hold space just as my husband did for me. That you might have friends, coaches, teachers, therapists as I did who can guide you to yourself and your light. And if that isn’t possible, that you can at least take a moment and sit with yourself, and feel the power and divinity within you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.momentmats.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momentmat/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-law-839405b0/
Image Credits
Yoga photos: Kalli Moon Photography
