Kim (00:00.11)
kind of jump into it. Hello Alice, I'm really excited about having you on the podcast. We were just chatting off air that we don't know exactly but probably about 10 years or so ago we met, which is crazy. Yeah, we met through a mutual connection and you at the time were creating these amazing conferences and had asked me to come and speak which
alice (00:14.63)
Mm-hmm, yes, and what a glorious day it was.
Kim (00:28.014)
Of course, I said yes, and I still miss those conferences. They were amazing. And but you created a brand called BellyFit. And when I first met you and heard about what you're doing, it resonated so much with me in terms of me at the time.
I'd already been navigating pelvic health and fitness and how it was all going to and how do we move and you know, how do I guide people through movement when they've been told that they can't move or they shouldn't do this or they shouldn't do that. And your program came along and it just ticked off so many of the boxes of what I felt would be a really well-rounded practice. So
alice (00:57.83)
Mm-hmm.
Kim (01:08.602)
I would love to explore a little bit more about what brought you to creating this and we can dive into more about the specifics, but tell us a little bit about you and what led you to create BellyFit.
alice (01:16.55)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, thank you for having me. It's so good to be here. The origin story, I don't really talk about how I started it much anymore because it's been, well, it's been over 16 years. But I do think it is relevant because I think a lot of women go through stuff like what I went through. And I mean, we create what we need, right? I know you created what you have created because you yourself needed it. And then you see, oh wow,
needed as well. And for me, I was a single mom, I was on welfare, I'd been in a really abusive, horrible relationship, and then I found myself with a one-year-old all on my own. And it was super traumatizing, I was exhausted, I was dealing with addiction, I was depressed, I was angry, you know, all the things. And it was literally one of those aha moments. You kind of wake up and you
go, wow, I'm really spiraling. And for me, it was seeing how me spiraling was affecting my daughter. And so that was really the wake up call. It was like, wow, my choices are really impacting her and could significantly affect the rest of her life. And so I kind of literally picked myself up and I was really fortunate at that time that I had a background in fitness. I had already been a certified fitness instructor.
I studied yoga pretty much my whole life. Both my parents are yogis. So I was really steeped in that culture as a child. I used to do Tai Chi on the lawn with my dad when I was like five years old. There's pictures of me like naked with my, he wasn't naked, I was naked. Like on the banks of this river where I grew up, totally idyllic. And I had also been a belly dancer. I had been a professional belly dancer, performing at all these different events. So that was my background. And then I found myself in this situation.
Kim (03:01.39)
Hahaha!
alice (03:19.044)
to sort of pull all of that experience out of the vault, if you will, and start moving my body. And it was really then that I realized, wow, like, I had completely disconnected from my body. And that was where my power was. So I was disconnected from my body, I was disconnected from my power, from my intuition, from my self confidence. And as soon as I started moving my body in this sort of really intuitive organic way,
the depression started lifting, the anger started fading, the trauma started healing, my baby girl started responding positively. I attracted the love of my life into my world, who is now my husband of 14 years and my business partner. So it was this huge realization of, if I'm not empowered in my body, in my life, everything around me is gonna suffer. And so from that experience,
which is now called bellyfit. Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Kim (04:22.342)
I love it. I love it. I didn't know that part of your story. So and you've touched on a few things. So again when I first, first of all one thing I'll just say it was your voice. I remember you at the first conference we had met a little bit and we talked but you stood up and had a welcome for all of the speakers and before you were starting your event and it was kind of this sort of moody room and you had a little bit Rowan was playing this cool music of course and
alice (04:48.122)
Hehehe
alice (04:51.482)
Hehehe
Kim (04:52.142)
it was your voice and I thought god like her voice is your it's so soothing yet so powerful and I was just I was captivated and then in your practice when you're teaching you have blended in so you've talked about yoga you've talked about belly dance there's this melding this kind of melting pot of all of these different movement
alice (04:58.933)
Thank you.
alice (05:12.479)
Mm-hmm.
Kim (05:16.398)
practices. So what was the purpose behind, obviously we've talked about yoga and belly fit and you can go a bit deeper in the, or not belly fit, sorry, belly dance, but what was the inspiration for creating something that was bringing together all of these practices and what are the other ones that you touch on?
alice (05:17.339)
Yeah.
alice (05:23.782)
Yeah.
alice (05:32.17)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, that is really the key. What you're talking about is exactly the key to our success, to my success as a woman being embodied and the success of the business is that.
I realized that a lot of the forms of movement that women were practicing were either too in or too young, too feminine, too masculine, too active, too passive. And I really wanted something that was in the middle. So for me, the fitness component was absolutely essential because I saw a lot of people doing movement that was really organic, intuitive, healing, you know, free form, if you will. And that's all fine.
but there's a safety and an effectiveness component that's missing in a lot of that. And being the like super structured, organized Virgo that I am, I'm like, that's awesome. And also that could be a lot better if we actually applied some of these principles of alignment and structure and really understanding the fitness component of it. And so I had done all my fitness training and so I knew the basics of what was required to make it fit in.
that. But then I had also done the belly dance and that was, I mean, that was my introduction to the feminine, to the goddess, to this way of moving that felt so, it felt so natural in my body as a woman and it really worked my body in a way that felt so incredibly fluid and organic.
but also structured and then on that side I saw, you know I was performing as a professional belly dance and I was seeing all these other women performing with me and I was in these classes and everything and that was all amazing but I could see that.
alice (07:31.01)
the benefit in the movement was in just doing the movement, but then if you tried to perform the movement, then it sort of took away a lot of the pleasure and the joy because now you're focusing on, am I doing it right? And oh my gosh, I'm on this stage and how's my costume and like the jingly janglies. And like, that's super fun. And I like, I'm a huge fan of belly dance and I follow all these belly dancers on Instagram and it's incredible. But the truth is Kim, only about like 0.5%, if that, like 0.005% of the population.
Kim (07:48.108)
I'm sorry.
alice (08:01.004)
of women can actually perform those movements, you know, to... Exactly, like you got to train and study and there's technique and there's all this stuff. However, when you take that movement and you simplify it, most women can do a hip circle, a pelvic circle, a rib cage circle, a shoulder shimmy, an angulation, a hip lift, a hip drop, right? A hip sway, like these are... our bodies are designed to do these movements. So again, my Virgo mind stepped in and was like, okay, well
Kim (08:04.906)
And I am definitely not in that category.
alice (08:30.924)
If we can just do these movements to get the benefit of them, to feel amazing, to feel sensual, to feel feminine, then we're gonna reap all these benefits without having to worry about learning complex choreography and stepping on a stage on the costumes and all of that. So that you put the fitness and the belly dance together and that is like a match made in heaven. Then you add the yoga. Now you've got this self-awareness, the breath, the connection, the alignment.
And you put all of those together and well, that's why I'm still here 16 years later. And, you know, women are just in love with what we've created because it truly is a match made in heaven.
Kim (09:13.194)
Yeah, yeah. And you add the amazing music. Like, there's great fitness programs out there, but I've always been really, really picky with music. So back when I was an instructor, like fitness instructor and teaching classes, I was always known for having, I absolutely had nothing top 40. It was very unique, obscure, weird music that nobody had ever heard of. But that...
alice (09:20.799)
I'm sorry.
alice (09:38.651)
Amazing.
Kim (09:38.91)
So that was kind of like my signature, but it's what I, that's what I wanted as well. I couldn't stand the hearing the radio music that we hear all the time. It just, it wasn't so Rowan's music, your husband, talk a little bit about that and how he came, not a lot, a lot how he came into the picture per se, but how did it come to be that he became a partner in your business?
alice (09:42.458)
Yeah.
alice (09:48.287)
Yes.
alice (09:57.486)
Yeah, well, thank you for asking about that. Because obviously the movement piece is one part and then the music is, the belly fit doesn't happen without the music. And exercise to music is such a huge thing. And because it motivates us, it moves us, it literally keeps us going from the inside out. And so when we got together, he was like, well, he's been a DJ forever. And he, I was like, I need music for my classes because literally I was training with the YMCA and they were giving us cassette tapes to practice with, right? I was like,
Kim (10:25.367)
Yeah.
alice (10:27.72)
What is this? And I'm like, I had bought turntables and records and I was like learning to DJ And I was like, because I had been a raver, right? That was my history I'd been a raver like dancing all night to this incredible electronic music and that was the music that I wanted to dance to So then Rowan came into the picture and he was already a DJ for many years I was like, okay, I don't need to do that. He can do that So he started creating mixes for me for my classes and he's also a web developer, of course So he did all the you know
design, the graphic design, and that's when the brand of BellyFit really started coming together. And so I created the format of BellyFit, which is very much, it's very, very structured. So every BellyFit class that all of our instructors teach around the world is the same structure every time opening meditation, warm up, cardio, cool down, a bit of an isolation, then down to the floor for your dedicated strength, your stretch, and then finish with a little meditation. And it was really
alice (11:27.32)
I couldn't have breaks in between the tracks, right? It has to be one continuous journey from beginning to end. And so that's where Rowan came and was like, okay, I'm gonna create a 60 minute mix for you that is gonna facilitate that exact class structure. And so he produces all of the music, we license, well, he's not produce it, but he mixes it, we license it from musicians all around the world and then provide that to our instructors.
Kim (11:52.81)
Yeah, yeah, I love your music. I love it. It's amazing. So yeah. I wanna talk a little bit about the Lotus Lift because of course, so I've already fallen in love with you. I already can now I've got the music and I'm getting them, I'm trying to do the moves and not as fluid as you are, but then you're bringing in this Lotus Lift and I thought, okay, like she's my people.
alice (11:55.638)
Me too.
Kim (12:15.114)
Tell us a little bit about where did that, where did the Lotus Lift inspiration come from? Why did you call it that? And what does it mean in a belly fit world?
alice (12:15.379)
Where does that come from?
alice (12:24.642)
Well, yeah, that's such a great question. And I it wasn't something that I really thought about. It happened very organically, because I had been studying yoga for so long. And there was there was mula bandha, there was the roots lock the root chakra. And there's Uddiyana bandha, which I think is similar to what you guys do with the
Kim (12:44.29)
similar yet.
alice (12:54.698)
that
If a woman doesn't feel safe, that everything is going to be impacted. She's never going to be able to. It's the idea of route to rise. If you're not really firmly rooted, if you don't feel strong and confident in your base, right, we talk about this in Pilates and yoga that you have to set your base up and then expand and extend from there. Otherwise, you're going to you're going to be wobbly. You're not going to be able to. It's a metaphor for life, right? You won't be able to perform the movement properly, safely.
effectively but also you're not going to be able to expand and manifest the life that you want if you don't have a strong base. So whenever this would come up in yoga or Pilates even belly dance a lot of my instructors would talk about that base you know that Kegel and so I was aware that there was this importance of our of our pelvic floor but that was pretty much where it ended
alice (13:57.028)
look at the chakras, they often depict them as lotuses, as these beautiful mandalas that go up the seven energy chakras. And so for me, I saw this lotus at the base of the pelvis, right at the root. And so I'm thinking, okay, well, we wanna lift this, so lotus lift. And I thought, let's make it beautiful, right? Because already so many women are disconnected
that area of their body for all the reasons that you know and all the reasons that we've learned and we understand now. And so I thought, let's bring our awareness to this area of our body in a really sacred, spiritual, beautiful way. And so, Lotus Lift was born.
Kim (14:46.142)
Yeah, love it. I love it. And it was really at the time, you know, Pilates has, I would argue, I mean, you could say yoga has been around for many, many years and because of the Moolabanda, it's been talked about, but they didn't necessarily, the terminology wasn't associated necessarily with pelvic floor or kegels as we know today. So it's been around, the principles or belief has been around a long time. Pilates was probably one of the first that was starting to use the term pelvic floor and giving some cueing and imagery around that.
alice (14:48.076)
No.
alice (15:04.518)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, no.
alice (15:13.23)
Yeah.
Kim (15:15.786)
In terms of other fitness, certainly still like arguably, I'm kind of trying to weave my way in there, but it's not really brought in that much to, to many fitness classes. So I, I love that it was brought into this movement and that you are doing also. So the root lock or the, sorry, the Lotus lift is a component, but then there's also, as you've talked about the different hip circles and hip drop and all the different other movements that you are
alice (15:26.119)
Yeah.
alice (15:41.559)
Mm-hmm.
Kim (15:45.134)
harnessing the power of the pelvis and our center. And as you say, if we don't feel safe, which so many people I work with do not, they don't feel safe in movement. They don't feel safe even just being upright against gravity. They have been told they can't move. Everything is sort of inaccessible for them. They're afraid of making things worse. And your program introduces something that is
alice (15:47.226)
Mm-hmm.
alice (15:54.67)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
alice (16:08.783)
Yeah.
Kim (16:12.75)
I love it's a very beautiful and the word you use feminine approach to feeling safe in your body again, which I love. Yet, it's not in a way that's, you know, if I think about, okay, I don't know what even to compare it to, but if...
alice (16:19.638)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kim (16:29.41)
The way that you describe some things, I think, you know, it would be very slow music and it would just it would kind of be boring and you absolutely there's nothing boring about what you do. It's beautiful to watch. It's amazing to feel and do. And as you've got this music that is really flippin cool and inspiring and it makes you move. That's when you have really great music, you can't help but move. It's amazing.
alice (16:35.925)
Mm-hmm.
alice (16:53.831)
Yeah.
It is a really important component. And yeah, you brought up a lot there. With regards to the music, I curate the music really intentionally. So I listen to tracks all the time, throughout the day when I'm working, we have a shared playlist on Spotify, Rowan will put tracks in the way of our belly fit playlist. And the tracks have to be, they have to have almost a trance component, right? Because I always say to my instructors, one of the first things that they learn when they're training with us is that your primary objective
is to bring women back into their bodies because we have become so disconnected for all of the reasons I'm sure all of your listeners know all the reasons that we are disconnected from our bodies and it is not getting any better like there are just so many reasons now for us to be just constantly in our heads right we're always in our heads so the music I want the music to be it has to have almost a bit of a trance component to it so that we get
that feels almost effortless. And I know that it's a tall order because a lot of women, they're like, I'm exercising, I'm working hard, but it is actually really, really effective when you're repeating these moves over and over again, not so that you get bored. We found that perfect blend of repetition and learning at the same time. So the music gets us into this trance state. And also, like I just said, I tell my instructors, we need to bring women into their bodies.
with an opening meditation. And we introduce the Lotus Lift right off the bat. So it is one of the fundamental components of the opening meditation because like I just said so many women are we're detached from our bodies. If we're detached from our general body
alice (18:42.15)
that we're detached from our pelvic floors even 10 times more than we're detached from the rest of our body for all of those reasons again there's just so much trauma around that area which you know all about. So we bring our participants into a full posture check to start we start at the feet we go to the knees we bring them all the way up so it's root to crown and then we bring our palms down to our belly we do three belly breaths and then we say let's go even deeper into the pelvic
alice (19:12.064)
and I have questioned myself over the years. I'm like, do we still need to do this? Is this still really important? And honestly, I think it's more important now than ever. And I was thinking about this and I'm like, have we always had so many issues with our pelvic floor? Do we just know about it more now because of social media? Or is our lifestyle as women actually aggravating this condition? And I feel like it's probably a little bit of both, but I mean, this is something that's gonna be a part of BellyFit. And if I was to create any other
you know, fitness program for women, it's got to be a component because, well, it's just, it's our base and we have to continue bringing our awareness there over and over and over and over again. And what I love about how we introduce it to women is that there's a joy around it. There's a lightness, there's a playfulness, and my instructors have said to me, well, you know, how do I know if my participants are doing it correctly? And I think to myself, well, how do I know if my participants are doing it correctly, right?
I can't see if they're doing a lotus lift or a kegel. But that's actually not the point when it comes to belly fit. The point is simply to bring their awareness down into that area of the body in the opening meditation. And then throughout the rest of the class, we are reminding them, lotus lift, lift that pelvic floor, awareness in your abdominals. We continue to cue that because we know that we can't just think, oh, I'm just gonna activate my pelvic floor and then it's gonna stay there and it's all good.
And there's also the component of relaxing it, right? We wanna be able to relax it, we wanna be able to contract it, it's that beautiful balance. So yeah, it's a really integral, integral component.
Kim (20:53.11)
Yeah, yeah. I feel like that, you know, you've started 16 years ago. And when we first met 10 years ago, I still feel like fitness was harder is better, faster, stronger, more intense. Like every single year in the fitness industry, there was something coming out that was harder than the previous year. And there was crazy names around it and then CrossFit and all like and those are all they can they all play a role.
alice (21:05.798)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kim (21:22.21)
there's benefit. At the end of the day, we want people to move and we want people to move as part of community and do what brings them joy. However, there is no instruction about pelvic floor. There's no awareness given to our core, our deep system, to the power of breath, to softening. And so I feel like your program was ahead of, I don't know if ahead of its time is the right word, but ahead of...
where it was, we needed it a long time ago. And now what's happening in fitness, at least what I have noticed is things are starting to soften. So I was at the CanFit Pro Conference this past summer. I've been going there for the past 10 years and it was harder, harder. And the last couple of years, it has been more softening, meditation, mind, body. And so I'm thinking to...
alice (21:51.33)
you
alice (22:08.582)
Peace.
Kim (22:13.546)
Like you are primed right now, even after 16 years after starting, you are primed right now, I think, to explode because more and more people are seeking that type of movement, that type of practice, something that is cool with the music, but also having us move in ways that's going to increase our mobility and our flexibility and get our heart rates up, but not all the pounding that we feel like we've always had to do to get stronger, you know?
alice (22:24.266)
Okay.
alice (22:34.732)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's I think we were ahead of our time and I Gotta pat myself on the back for sticking around for so long because I feel like you know There were many times when it when I saw those programs another one. Oh my gosh, seriously people Like can we just chill out for a minute, you know, but they still just kept coming on But I what we stuck it through and yeah, I'm definitely seeing a shift now I'll never forget gosh It must have been I want to say like seven or eight years ago
Kim (22:45.034)
Yeah.
Kim (22:54.55)
Yeah.
alice (23:07.164)
I sent her to, I can't even remember, it was a city down in the States to do a belly fit instructor training course and We always had a feedback form that everyone would fill out, you know And then my master trainers would bring the feedback forms back to me, and I remember one woman wrote This is this whole program is silly. It just feels the entire thing just feels like a warm-up It's not actually a workout and I remember thinking like Wow, and of course I went and I sort of tried to check her out on Facebook
She was fitness professional, totally into the like, let's get it, right? And totally respect that. And I was really heartbroken at the time. I had to really work through like, is she right? Is it not intense enough? Do we need to push harder? And I got through that and I was like, no.
This is what this is. And thank goodness that we are figuring it out now that intensity, not only is it not super effective, but it's actually so damaging to so many women that are already you know, adrenal fatigued and their nervous systems are all out of whack. And then you add this super high intensity, fast pounding movement. Some people don't get me wrong, of course, they're going to find some benefit in that.
do believe that in general so many of us as women we want to tap more into that softer feminine energy and yet like you said we still want to get a great workout we still want high energy so there's this balance of getting high energy without necessarily the high intensity and I think that's really where BellyFit shines because we have this amazing high energy music and we have
but we're keeping it, we're still keeping it chill, you know? And it's all about your mindset and your attitude around it. So we're not just throwing our bodies through space without any awareness, without any clear intention. We're mindful of how we're moving. And so you can actually get an even better, safer, more sustainable workout than if you're just, you know, balls to the walls and not really paying attention how you're moving your body. And so, yeah.
alice (25:25.452)
definitely seeing a surge of interest in belly fit which is so wonderful to see because when you stick it out this long you know you kind of think I just keep thinking like but we haven't really got there yet and I'm like you know what we're getting there and so many women just give us the most amazing feedback you know we what we hear the most is this is exactly what I was looking for because they want to feel powerful they want to feel strong they want to feel like a warrior woman but also a beautiful sensual goddess at the same
Kim (25:32.863)
I know.
Kim (25:54.763)
Yes.
alice (25:55.272)
really mastered that union.
Kim (25:58.974)
Yeah, and I feel like that's where I have found benefit for myself as well, because I have, I've very much been, I'm more of the tomboy. I wouldn't call myself uber feminine. I've always been the harder fitness, you know, lift weights, run, do all the hard stuff and, um, and not, I haven't had a lot of fluidity in my life and, and I dabbled in yoga over the years and have.
alice (26:19.29)
Mm-hmm.
Kim (26:24.638)
over the past couple of definitely made a much bigger commitment to that because I, I guess it's what you're ready for at the time, but I just, yoga used to be boring for me, right? It's not hard to, so I would have been that person saying, this feels like a warmup to me, right? Back in the day. And yeah, and now it is what I crave the most is the more intentional, slow, delicious movement. And so,
alice (26:35.321)
Yeah.
alice (26:40.217)
Yeah, yeah, I understand that.
alice (26:47.79)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Kim (26:53.178)
The other population that comes to mind, the world is exploding about menopause. And this conversation has been, we've needed to have conversations around menopause for years. And finally, it's getting a voice. And this population is now seeking because they're getting the awareness about, you talked about adrenals and stress and cortisol and no more of the hard pounding. And so we need some intensity for our bones. We need some of that. But.
alice (27:14.174)
Mm-hmm.
alice (27:18.478)
Yeah.
Kim (27:20.778)
It doesn't have to be always, and we need to sort of diversify our movement a little. So have you found that any change in the people who are coming to you? Like who is your, I guess, most popular client group?
alice (27:25.862)
Mm-hmm.
alice (27:34.818)
You know that is so interesting because since the beginning belly fit has always attracted
perimenopausal and menopausal women. And in the beginning, I used to be like, why are we attracting all of these older women? Because this was 16 years ago. I'm 50 now, but I was still young now. I'm still young now. But we would attract consistently, I'd say about at least 50% of any given belly fit class was women in their late 40s, 50s, and even into their 60s. There was always a component of some 20s and 30s and 40-year-olds, but there was always a large section of older women.
now I'm one of those older women. And I would always wonder why. And I totally get it now, because it's actually, it is actually designed very well as we get into that space that you were just describing where we want things to be a little bit more gentle, but we still want to give her. So I can say that not much has changed. We are still attracting that demographic. But you know, what is interesting is that we've started to attract some of the younger ones now.
alice (28:42.592)
And I've been racking my brain to try and figure out why this is, but I really think it's because there is a surge in spirituality these days. People are seeking. We are like, give me some meaning in this world because the shit is hitting the fan on planet earth and I like, I need faith, right? So people are seeking and my daughter's 22, so she's kind of like Gen Z millennial cusp kind of.
But because of social media, because of this TikTok generation, they're sharing all of this spiritual wisdom in their way, in their beautiful, you know, 20-something way. And a part of that is connecting with the divine feminine, connecting with your inner goddess. It's a huge thing. So finally, my daughter's like, Mom, you are way ahead of your time. Like, finally she gets it. She's like, oh, Mom, you got to call this influencer. You got to tell, you got to send belly-fit videos to this woman.
Kim (29:36.054)
Hahaha
alice (29:41.952)
She's like so excited about it, right? So all the women that have been doing bellyfit with us all through the years They're still coming and that and we still continue to attract women that are in those later years But we are seeing a bit of a resurgence in the other direction. So and all along I've always said that You're gonna see in a belly fit class You're gonna see a 20 something right beside a 70 something and they are modifying the movement to suit them And that's something that I've always been really proud about our
program is that you can modify it to suit wherever you're at in your body. And we give permission to do that at the very beginning of the class. So yeah, we're very proud to serve all demographics and maybe even the 20-somethings are going to start flocking to belly fit now.
Kim (30:31.674)
Yeah, yeah. Are you do you I know you have a presence on social media, but do you like are you starting? Are you are you on tik tok? I actually don't know. Are you on tik tok?
alice (30:40.418)
No, I haven't. I just actually hired a social media manager who is going to get us on TikTok. I don't even really know what that means to be honest. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm just feeling comfortable with Instagram. And you know, so, but I think it's an amazing platform. At first it's like, oh my God, no, I can't. Like I just, I would scroll for five minutes and feel like I wanted to just like crawl into a hole. It was just crazy. But I think it's like anything else. You curate your feed, you know, you find,
Kim (30:41.933)
I know.
alice (31:10.252)
the algorithm what you want to see and I think there's a place for belly fit on TikTok and I was talking to her about I said how do we you know are we gonna change our content if we're talking to 20 and 30 somethings or if we're talking to 40 and 50 somethings and she's like no we're not gonna change the content we're just gonna put it on different platforms where those people are I'm like oh okay awesome my man let's do it so yeah you will find us there soon hopefully
Kim (31:35.146)
And you know, I think if I'm not mistaking, TikTok started as a dance platform. Did it not? Yeah.
alice (31:41.294)
Yep. I think that was definitely one of the main focuses for sure.
Kim (31:46.834)
Yeah, and it's still I actually I don't love the platform to be honest. However, I love the potential of that platform from a business perspective. Like it is. Yeah, so but the inspiration being from dance and there still is a big component. A lot of people post cool moves with music. And so I think that's going to be a really great platform, probably one of your best ones, actually. I'm glad you're going to be there.
alice (31:54.37)
Yeah.
alice (32:06.266)
Yep. Yeah.
alice (32:13.557)
I hope so. I hope you're right Kim. We'll see. Check back in with me in a year and we'll see how we've done
Kim (32:17.01)
Yeah. Before we wrap up, I want to explore a little bit about, you've mentioned the term divine feminine. So what, for people that aren't familiar, what is, how do you define the divine feminine?
alice (32:36.426)
I don't use the term divine feminine so much. That's how a lot of the social media content is referring to it. I say sacred feminine more and the reason for that is because it feels to me like divine feminine is something sort of out there. It's sort of like...
you know, divine feminine, it's sort of, it's a very intangible, ethereal kind of context I find. So for me, I feel like sacred feminine, it resonates more with me. It's kind of, I mean, it's basically the same thing, but really what it means for me is tapping into that deep primal feminine nature that lives within us. So it's an energy, it's a vibration,
philosophy as well you know it's really
It's a feeling. And again, it is something that's hard to put into words. And this is where we've seen a huge, a huge insurgence of content about the divine feminine, the sacred feminine. There's really this sort of, there's a renaissance of the feminine going on right now, which I have to say when I first started BellyFit so many years ago, we weren't hearing embodied feminine, feminine leadership, all of these different terms that are just being thrown around constantly lately.
I think it's amazing. And for me, the sacred feminine is not something that you can really talk about. It's not something that you can describe necessarily, although I'm writing a whole book on the subject at the moment, which is very, very challenging, I have to say. For me, the sacred feminine is something that you embody. It's something that you experience. It's in the yin field of your embodiment as a woman. And I do feel that we as women are, we're naturally polarized.
alice (34:33.824)
to the Yin field. We're naturally polarized to the sacred feminine, whereas men are naturally polarized to the masculine. We all have Yin and Yang within us. They exist together, complementary. They cannot exist apart from each other. However, when I look at, I mean, I'm a philosopher. I love deep thinking. I'm constantly examining the nature of reality. And when I look at this reality that we're living in, it's very clear to me that the feminine has been denied.
oppressed, suppressed. And I'm not really talking from a feminist perspective. This is much more of a spiritual kind of philosophical perspective that the energy of the feminine has been suppressed. And now what I was just referring to is there is an uprising of the feminine happening right now, not in an overpowering dominant kind of way, but in a way that we want the feminine to now rise up to meet the masculine ultimately for this divine union. That's where the real magic
happens. So when I'm talking about the sacred feminine, this is what I'm talking about. It's about embodying this feminine yin energy and then allowing that energy, we can call it Shakti, we can call it whatever makes sense for you, but it's an embodied experience. And that's why movement is so key when we're looking at the sacred feminine, because movement is what it gets that Shakti spiraling up and we feel this elation, we feel this joy, we
pleasure in our bodies and then that infuses us as women and affects everything that we touch. So it's not being up here. This is the masculine mental realm, which obviously you and I know we are both very masculine in a lot of ways. We love using our mind. We love understanding. We love strategy, but it only serves us to a certain degree and then we have to come back down into our bodies into that yin feminine essence. And then it's
union of the mind and the body together, infused with the spirit and the heart that really takes us to those next levels. So we're just missing a couple of the pieces and I feel like that sacred feminine, it's now ready to be remembered, to be re-brought back to the stage and then when we are fully embodied in that, then I think that's, we're gonna see, we're gonna see some really big changes on planet Earth. I think it's a global movement, it's not just me, there's so many people. I'm just doing my...
alice (37:03.144)
doing our little part to contribute.
Kim (37:06.45)
You're doing an amazing part. And that was such a powerful way to wrap this up. I absolutely love everything that you just said there. And it gives me, you know, the world is heavy. The world is heavy. And I'm looking for these ways to get a little bit of hope. And that just it really, it really brought me out there a little. So thank you so much for that. So where can people find you? You've mentioned instructors around the world. So there are people who are running classes, maybe in.
alice (37:21.967)
Yeah.
Kim (37:35.898)
in fitness centers or community centers or local areas, wherever, is that true? So people can attend in person or they can join online and purchase programs. Where can people participate?
alice (37:41.102)
Yep.
alice (37:45.458)
Yes, exactly. Those are the two main places that people can find belly fit. Most of our instructors are across North America, so Canada and the States, and then several different countries in Europe. I think we're in like 30 countries right now. I've kind of lost track. But yeah, so if you're lucky enough to have a belly fit class in your area, then definitely go because it was designed to be a group experience, right? It's one thing to do belly fit on your own. It's amazing,
Kim (37:59.074)
Wow.
alice (38:15.432)
ultimate experience is when we come together. I mean women have been coming together and dancing since the very beginning to the beat of that drum, right? I mean this is this is in ourselves. It's like our cellular memory, you know? So if you can find a BellyFit class, definitely go check it out. Otherwise on our website there's a huge library of videos that you can download. We've got a YouTube channel, Instagram, but definitely BellyFit.com is the is the hub where people can find us. Yeah.
Kim (38:44.123)
Amazing and soon to be TikTok.
alice (38:46.408)
It seemed to be. Nah.
Kim (38:49.698)
Yeah, Alice, you're amazing. I could listen to you all day. And also for those of you that haven't been watching or aren't watching the video, that just, Alice has been moving this whole time. She's talking, she dances, and it just makes me wanna do the same thing. It just doesn't look quite the same.
alice (38:57.702)
I'm sorry.
alice (39:05.854)
It's not about what it looks like, Kim. It's about how it feels.
Kim (39:07.838)
Yes, exactly. Thank you for the reminder. Thank you so much. I love this conversation. I love what you're doing. I'm excited that there's this resurgence because the world needs to know more about you and BellyFit. Thank you.
alice (39:22.134)
Amazing. Thank you for having me Kim. So much fun.
