After struggling for over 30 years with her weight and the issues that accompany that, Amy Heilman knew that she had to find a way to transform her body and her life. Through much research and training, she believes she found the answers she was seeking. And so, she set out to share this knowledge with others as a women’s health coach.
“I became passionate about helping other women,” she says. “I can relate to what they’re going through. I’m walking the talk and I still go through my own challenges. I constantly tell women that to lead a life of transformation, to lead a life of growth and evolution, it means perpetually moving through struggle. It really requires a different approach to adversity and learning how to let adversity give us fuel rather than taking us down.”
Three years ago, she developed her own signature program, HEAL (Habit Evolution to Awaken Your Life), to assist women with transforming their own lives. “I feel that over the course of time I discovered a proven process that helped me eliminate many of my health challenges, including losing excess weight and keeping it off,” says Amy.
This process includes the 10 daily habits of Ayurveda and yoga. Ayurveda, she explains, is an ancient feminine wisdom of self-care practices that’s over 5000 years old. “What the yogis discovered thousands of years ago is that there are these 10 habits that help people do more with less effort,” she says. "They create adaptability, resilience, and vitality."
When women sign up for the three-month program, explains Amy, they learn about their anatomy and physiology so they can discover how to love and respect their bodies and break unhealthy patterns that are holding them back from creating the life and body they want. They are able to take conscious control of their time and resources, and over the course of three months, they are also coached into getting deeper rest and gaining more energy and vitality.
“The biggest key of all is that they are given a proven process,” says Amy. “It’s not a fad diet. It works.”
Ayurveda also says that all disease stems from improper digestion, so there’s a great focus on digestion, she says. “It’s basically a system of balance that says what is outside of us is also within us - so earth, air, water, fire, ether – everything that makes up the planet is also what makes up a human being. We each have our own unique constitution made up of these elements and we can use that information to make healthy choices and thrive.”
Throughout the program, participants are surrounded by a community of women who are all experiencing a similar journey and who have a shared goal. “It’s a community in which every woman is actively evolving and invested at a high level,” says Amy. “The women in the cohort back each other up and give each other support.”
The next HEAL cohort, which takes place four times per year, begins in February. “The number of women varies, but I usually don’t take more than 10 people in a cohort so that I can give the best type of coaching and support,” she says. “It’s big enough that it feels abundant and small enough that it still feels intimate.”
Amy says it’s important for her to continue sharing her knowledge because she spent so many years of her life suffering. “It was a very subtle suffering. I didn’t have a zest for life and was not feeling in control of my time, my resources, and my relationship with food. I was just letting life happen versus powerfully choosing and creating."
“My mission is to get this into the hands of more people so they will have the power to transform not only their own lives, but also transform their children’s lives, their partner’s lives and their friend’s lives. It is every person's birthright to thrive in their body and unlock their deeper purpose."
In addition to the HEAL program, Amy also runs two detoxes each year. “I do a spring detox and a fall detox and that is also based upon the wisdom of Ayurveda.”
Ayurveda is really based upon the laws of nature, she says, and she is now focusing on getting back to nature. After living in cities all her life, she and her husband, along with their cat, are moving into a tiny house in the woods in Northern Minnesota.
“Earlier I was saying how I walk the talk, and I know for sure that I wasn’t ready to do this before I started implementing the habits of Ayurveda and yoga,” says Amy. “When I started to tune into my own natural biorhythms was when I noticed that city life was not supporting my new values, and over the course of the last year I was ready to make the shift to living more in harmony with nature.”
“I want people to know that power moves like this are possible and there are ways to continue evolving to live in harmony with nature. That in itself, whether they’re in the city or the woods, will help create more rhythm in their life instead of stress and chaos. And that’s really the end goal.”
To find out more about Amy and her programs, go to https://www.amyheilman.com/.