My name is Christine and I'm a personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise and have received a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University. As a student of human movement as well as an enthusiastic practitioner of meditation, I have personally found a profound connection between the human body and mind. When I first decided to shift my career in to fitness, I had been bartending for 2 years and feeling the negative affects of alcohol, late nights, and the reactivity that can come from working in night life. I felt like I was going crazy. I couldn't fall asleep at night, it was hard to find energy and to focus throughout the day. The stress was causing rapid mood swings and I felt that I was on a constant roller coaster of emotion. I realized I needed to make a change. So I started meditating every day. I realized I enjoyed meditation so I started practicing yoga. I realized I enjoyed yoga so I started running more. Because I was running, I needed to pay close attention to what I was putting in my body. It was a cascade of improvements in my physical and mental state, thus improving my relationships and my performance at work. I realized this was not only something that could heal me, but it was something that I was passionate about. The better I felt, the more I wanted to offer this to other people. As I've started training clients privately in the past year and a half, I have discovered a love for functional training. I feel that exercise can improve the body aesthetically, but it also has therapeutic value especially when it comes to posture and mobility. I work with a wide range of clients, whether it is with those who are virtually sedentary due to work or with those who have sports-specific needs such as speed, balance and agility training. I have also found ways to incorporate mindfulness techniques with all of my clients through diaphragmatic breathing, body scanning, and muscle activation and release. All of this can enhance the experience of exercise, recovery, and allow for greater awareness of the body throughout the day. Exercise and mindfulness, in my opinion, don't have to be separate. In fact, I think they complement one another. I think if you can move from a place of awareness and love, you are more likely to stick to a healthy lifestyle. Transcend the body, transcend the mind. Transcend the mind, transcend the body.