Ever wondered how a nomadic childhood can shape your wellness journey? Dr. Angela Walker and Dr. Sylvia Morris answer this question with wellness guru Deanna Companion. She shares how growing up moving from one place to another shaped her into a resilient, empowered, and inspiring woman. Deanna looks back on her upbringing and explores how it impacted the way she handled her unexpected path to motherhood and taught her to prioritize self-care. She also discusses how Pilates, yoga, and a positive mindset can contribute to living a healthy and fulfilling life.
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Wellness Journey: Finding Your Unique Path With Deanna Companion
Welcome back to Boss Leap. We are super excited. We have one of my favorite people. I know I say that every week because these are my people. Before we start with our guest, I have a pet peeve which is technology. I’m excited about my new laptop. I’m an Apple girl. It runs quickly. It’s moving fast. I moved all my stuff from my old laptop to a new laptop. That was cool. The adapters with all the little hole things have all changed.
I know someone listening is like, “Girl, we know this.” I’m like, “Yes, but when it happens to you and you’re within an hour of taping your podcast and you realize that you cannot get your light nor your microphone connected to your new laptop and you got to go to Target, then it’s a problem. The wonderful thing is it reminds me of how to adapt and to be more flexible. I had a patient this weekend and she said to me, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” When she said it, it hit me like a ton of bricks, so I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff today. I’m so happy to be here with you, Angela, and our wonderful guest. Do you have any technology pet peeves?
Technology Frustrations And Adapting To Change
So many and they’re too numerous to count. On your topic in terms of adapting, two things came to mind. One is whoosah. Just take a breath.
Whoosah, I’m going to rub my earlobes like Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys.
Just take a breath. The second thing is nothing is unfigureoutable.
You need to say that again for our guests.
I heard it this year. I loved the word. I love the whole idea about the word and how it fits in my life. There’s nothing that I cannot figure out. Nothing is unfigureoutable. I might not be able to figure it out but I have access to those that can figure it out. I’m not going to sweat the small stuff. I’m not going to spend time worrying about what I can’t figure out. At the moment, I am sweating the small things, but you have to take a breath because, in the grand scheme of things, we can wait five minutes for you to get your light plugged in.
In terms of IT, I am I’m not the best. I was in the class at Texas A&M where computer class became mandatory in 1991. I graduated in 1990 so I was like, “Yay, I don’t have to take it.” I’ve been paying for that ever since. You all call me the IT person, which is sad. It’s a work in progress. Nothing is unfigureoutable. We can do this thing.
We can do this. Nothing is unfigureoutable. I’m going to hold that close. Let’s go ahead and introduce our guest.
Introducing Wellness Guru Deanna Companion
We have Deanna Companion. I think of her as a wellness guru. She is a mother, a partner, a daughter, a sister, a yogi, and just a wonderful light, full of sage advice. We want to welcome our guest, Deanna Companion. Welcome to Boston Leap.
Benefits And Challenges Of Growing Up As A Nomad
Thank you. That was such a nice warm welcome. Thank you, Sylvia. I could say a lot of the same about you too.
Mutual admiration society. We’re going to go ahead and get on into some things today. Deanna, you and I have some things that cross. You grew up in Seattle or call it Seattle home.
I grew up in a lot of different places. My mom is a nomad. She doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long. I was born in Vegas. I don’t remember it, but I was born there. When I left Vegas, we moved to Telluride, Colorado. I lived in Telluride, Colorado, then I lived in New Jersey, New York, Vancouver Washington, and Seattle Washington. A lot of different places, but I went to college in Seattle. I was there for about eight years. I lived in a lot of different places. For me, when people ask where I am from, I would have to say partly Seattle and partly New York because I feel like those two places were the places where I came into myself, grew, and discovered who I am or what I want to be or all of that stuff.
Deanna, I’ve known you since probably before the pandemic. I don’t know all of these things about you so I find it fascinating to learn these bits of information as we do our interviews, Can you tell us a little bit about what you think that gave you growing up, being in multiple places?
I’m adaptable. I can live in any place. I can get along with any type of person or any different personality. I love change. A lot of time, people are scared of change because they don’t know what the unknown is, but I love change because it means that there’s something different about to happen. There’s some new adventure that’s going to happen. It’s not going to be stagnant.
Change means something different and some new adventure will happen. Share on XI flourished from my mom wanting to live in all these different places. My mom was a single mom. It wasn’t exactly easy for her to jump all around financially and with two kids that she was trying to raise. She wanted that for herself. She would be in one place and be like, “That’s enough of that place. Now we’re going to go somewhere else.” I just bought a house in Telluride and I’m like, “Oh,” because that means I’m going to be here for a little while.
You can always sell the house.
That’s right. I love to travel and learn about new places. It was good for me. For my brother, it depends on your personality. My brother didn’t like it. He doesn’t like change. It makes him anxious. He likes to be somewhere, be comfortable, and know his surroundings. Me and my mom are very different, but also very much alike. For me, it has been great. I’m already thinking like, “I’m in Atlanta, where is the next place? What’s next?”
I always love hearing about your mom because recently, she was thinking about moving internationally to Portugal. I had already planned my visit to your mom in Portugal because it excites me that someone who is later in life is continuing to make Boss Leaps as we would say. I think your mom is in her early 70s and is fit. I have seen photos of Deanna’s mom. She is strong and looks amazing. It certainly lights my way as we continue to age gracefully.
She’s an inspiration. She takes all my virtual classes and she’s great. She’s 72 and she can do all the things.
Along those lines, one of our questions is who has played an important role in your life? I’ve heard your mom. I know there are other people in your life. It could be your mother, someone else, or a multitude of people. Who do you feel has played an important part in your life’s journey?
Important Role Of Family, Friends, And Clients In Deanna’s Life
It’s definitely my mom. Still to this day, she is the person that I go to when I have questions or things I’m trying to decide on in life. She saw from a young age that I wanted to dance, act, sing, and all of those things. She is very important to me. Along the way, I’ve had wonderful girlfriends who were very important to me. Growing up, I didn’t have close friends because we moved so much. Once I got to college, I started making some close girlfriends. They have taught me so much about relationships. They’re who I go to for emotional support. That’s how your girlfriends are, so definitely my girlfriends.
My daughter is number one in my life at this point. Demetrius who is my partner and who is so supportive. He’s like my rock and he’s calm. I can be like, “I’m going to do this and I’m going to go there,” and he’s very calm. He’s been great. I’m very I feel very blessed. Some of my clients are very important to me. I learned from them all the time. I have some amazing intelligent clients who have done so much and doing so much.
They inspire me. They’re always so thankful to me, but I’m always so thankful for them because I learn from them all the time. I get so excited and happy when they keep getting stronger or they’ve been trying to do this exercise or something. They do it and I get so inspired by them and learn from them. I feel blessed because I feel like I have so many people in my life who are important to me and who love me and I love them back.
Deanna’s Unexpected Journey To Motherhood
Deanna, when you and I first started working together, you were on the journey to become a mother. One of the first few things that I remember you saying to me is “I’d like to have a child.” I was like, “You are already a mother.” Within two years, you were pregnant. I had nothing to do with it. Now, we have Aria who’s such a wonderful light, your daughter. Can you share with me or the audience some things that motherhood has taught you, in particular, coming to motherhood a little bit later in life?
This is an amazing story because I didn’t think that I could have kids. When I was in my 20s and 30s, people would ask me about kids and I was like, “Maybe.” I wasn’t gung-ho to have kids. I didn’t not want to have kids, but I wanted to have a child with a partner under the right set of circumstances. I grew up with a single mom and she did the best she could. She was amazing, but she struggled. She struggled financially. We were like latchkey kids.
Her dream that she wanted to do with her life to be a dancer and stuff went by the wayside. I did not want that for myself. My brother’s father was not a good father. My father was not in the picture until I found him when I was an adult. It was very important to me that if I was going to have a kid, I wanted it to be with the right partner, a good man that my daughter or son was going to grow up with a father in their life.
I struggled a lot with not having a father in my life as far as my confidence and as far as the type of man that I chose for so long. They were not good because I didn’t understand how a man was supposed to treat a woman until later when my girlfriend said, “Deanna, that is not the way to be treated.” That was number one. Previous to Demetrius, I had met a man who I thought was great and wonderful. He said that he wanted to have kids. He said that just to get me. I was with him for six years, and about three or four years into it, he started to hint that he didn’t want to have kids. He didn’t say it, and I am in my late 30s at this point.
I had moved from New York to Florida to be with this man. Instead of having kids, he got me two dogs. I was feeling then that this might not work out, this might not be the man for me, not just because of that, but for other reasons also, but I ended up moving to Atlanta. He was in the fitness industry. He opened up two Orangetheory here. I figured if it doesn’t work out, I rather be single in Atlanta than Florida. I didn’t like it that much anyway except for the beach, which is my happy place.
When I got here, I met Demetrius. When I met him, I had these spirit guides or angels. I don’t know if you have them, but sometimes in pivotal times in my life, they are so loud and they speak to me. I met him at this lounge. They talked to me and they said, “This is your person. You need to be with this person. This is who you’re supposed to be with.” I was arguing with them. I was like, “Are you sure? I feel like the guy next to him is more of my type.”
If that were me, I must be like, “I’m going to ignore that. I’m going to be with the guy next to him.” How did you tune into that inner spirit?
This is not the first time it has happened and they’ve never guided me wrong. I was like, “Okay.” I ended up listening and I ended up being with this man, Demetrius. At this point, I was already in my 40s. I had told him that I wanted kids but I didn’t think it could happen because I’m at this age. I was with this man and it never happened. He was like, “I’m going to give you a baby.” I was like, “Okay.”
A year later, I had fibroids and they were bothering me. I was like, “I’m going to go get these taken care of.” I went and had an appointment and had an ultrasound. When they when they did it, they were like, “You’re pregnant.” At this point, I was five weeks pregnant. I’m going in there thinking I’m looking at fibroids and the lady is like, “You’re pregnant.” I was like, “What?”
I got pregnant at 41, I had her at 42. In my mind, I was like, “She must want to be here because I wasn’t trying this old-fashioned way. The whole time I was pregnant, I didn’t let myself believe it was going to happen. I felt her growing, kicking, and dancing, but I remember I had an emergency C-section. I had my eyes closed. They’re like, “Deanna, open your eyes. Look at your baby girl.” I heard her and when I looked up, they pulled her up over the sheet. My first thought was, “Oh my God, it’s a baby.” I was like, “This is crazy.”
I was never afraid of being a mom because I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m going to figure it out. It’s more for the labor in the pain. She wanted to be here. She is my heart, walking outside of my body every day. That’s what it feels like. Being a mom in my late 40s is amazing because I feel like I know who I am. I have the confidence in myself.
I have my own business, and so I’m setting where I’m at as far as my career. I can take time to go on field trips with her and do all the things that my mom was not able to do because she had to struggle. Because I have Demetrius and he’s an amazing Dad, it’s pretty awesome to see him be a father to her. I’m always like, “That’s what it’s like,” and to see her have that relationship with her Dad is exactly what I wanted for a child if I ever had one.
It’s great having her in my 40s. Stay in shape. Make sure that you have the physical energy because they are a bundle of pure energy. If you have your kid in your twenties, you’re still there. You have all that energy anyway, so that’s probably easier. If you have a child later in life, you have more wisdom. Hopefully, you will have more time with them, but you have to stay in shape.
From Pursuing Acting To Finding A Passion For Pilates
Your answer was packed with so many gems and pearls and beautiful words. Because we have so many questions we want to ask you, I’m going to leave it very brief of my sum up of what you said. Number one, in creating another life, it is ideal to have that perfect partner because it is difficult being on your own. I’ve seen many powerful women do it by themselves, but it’s always typically easier when you have a good partner beside you.
I know being in your late 30s and 40s is more common now. We are delaying childbirth so that we can fulfill meaningful purposeful careers. What you said at the end was being fit. That certainly decreases your risk of hypertension, diabetes, and all the things that can happen to us. Unfortunately, that is a piece that gets missed when we look at celebrities and all the people who are getting pregnant late in life. Most of them have a lot of support but are also being guided with some healthy lifestyle changes and modifications.
Being one of your Pilates students and yoga students, I know your efforts in creating a healthy life for yourself. What a beautiful story. I know you’ve done so many wonderful things, and I know being a mom is number one for you. One thing I did not know about you, which hopefully, you may be able to shed some light on was the fact that you pursued some acting in your career. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
I’ve always been in dance, acting, and singing. I played the violin for many years. My mom was a dancer. My grandma was a piano player. My dad was a drummer and an opera singer, and so it’s in my genes. When I think about what I want to be when I grow up, my first is to be a performer of whatever kind. I did pursue that. I went to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. I acted professionally for about eight years and I love it. I still love it.
I think like, “How can I do a little bit of that now and get back into my artistic self?” I didn’t like the business of it. The business of it is very challenging. They call it a stay-at-it game. There are so many talented actors, singers, and dancers. It’s a hard career to break into. If you stay at it and you have talent, a lot of times, you can make it.
For me, I love it so much. When I was in New York, I had at least three jobs at any given time, and then that wasn’t on top of auditioning, which is also another job. It was a huge struggle. When I was in my mid-30s, I went on a trip to Playa del Carmen and I was standing in the ocean. The ocean and the beach are the places where I’m able to breathe and relax, but also where answers come to me a lot of times when I’m staring out.
Again, my spirit guides. I said a little prayer while I was standing in the water. I was like, “What can I do? I want to do something that’s going to make me some money but that I also love doing.” Pilates came into my head. I was like, “I can do that. I’ve done Pilates. I like Pilates. I like moving.” When I got back to my apartment in New York. I went on Craig’s List. I went to the health and wellness and there was an ad like, “Get fully certified in Pilates. Work-study available.” I was like, “I don’t even have to pay for this.”
I still acted. I acted up until five years ago. I try to do both. I try to do Pilates and fitness and do the acting. Auditioning and everything is a full-time gig. That’s why so many people who are actors wait tables or they bartend. What happens is that your agent will call you and they’ll say, “You have an audition tomorrow at 10:00 AM. This is the part. These are the lines. This is when you have to be there.” You can’t have an actual career. I couldn’t tell my clients, “Sorry, I can’t see you tomorrow.” Eventually, I had to let that go but I love what I do. This is my second love. I feel so blessed that I found something else that I love to do in life.
The Importance Of Movement For Healthy Aging
That tells us a lot. I didn’t realize that it was something that came to you. I’m going to say that the ancestors or the spirits spoke to you and directed you in the direction of Pilates. It’s wonderful that you are so in tune with the spirit within, and being able to listen, and to move forward on those words. When we think about Pilates, I know you had a hip replacement recently, can you share with our listeners what you’d like for people to know about Pilates and even yoga, especially as we age gracefully?
I got into Pilates first. It was created by Joseph Pilates.
It’s a man. It’s a human being.
Yes. His name is Joseph Pilates and he created this series of exercises. He also invented all of the apparatus or all of the machines that Pilates used in World War I to help rehabilitate veterans who were in the war. He then moved to New York and he helped dancers and also other people who needed this rehabilitation system for themselves. That’s how it started.
I got into Pilates because I got in a car accident in college. When I was doing physical therapy, they said, “You should do Pilates.” That’s how it started. Along the way, I loved it. I love movement and I love being strong. I loved teaching. I got certified in Thai Yoga Massage because I loved stretching people, and then I got certified in TRX, Redcord, strength training, and very recently, yoga.
My thing about movement is to find something that you enjoy doing. If you hate running, don’t run. There has to be something that you enjoy doing and start there, and then try to maybe add other stuff in. As we get older, especially women, we lose about 10% muscle mass when we hit 30, every ten years. You have to do more strength training as you get older and more mobility training. We only have this one body. This is it. This is what we got, so take care of it.
I have a client that I’ve been working with and he’s been talking about his grandchildren. He can’t pick his youngest grandbaby up. Don’t necessarily always think about fitness as your goal like, “I want to do ten push-ups today.” Think about it more like what is it for your life. What in your life do you love to do that you want to continue doing and that you want to have the physical capacity to be able to continue to do? That’s what it’s all about.
Go to the airport and look beautiful.
In my opinion, the dream is for us to live our entire lives and be mobile to the very end. We’ll probably have to stop doing maybe some things. I don’t know. When people tell me they’re too old to do something, I’m like, “No.” That saying of if you don’t use it, you lose it. My thing is to just keep moving and keep doing it.
Prioritizing Self-Care As A Professional And Mom
You have fantastic clients. I’m not merely talking about myself and Angela. You have one client in particular who I usually follow in my private sessions with you. Her name is Carol. She’s 80 and she looks phenomenal. She is strong. You see the light and the energy, and whenever I see her, I am inspired to know that as I age gracefully and I can continue to adapt my body, I can look like Carol. That’s one of my goals. In the interest of time, I know you have a session coming up and we are most certainly going to have to have you back. Please tell us how you practice self-care. You give us all of this energy. You listen to people all day. You’re training people. How do you take care of yourself?
That’s a great question. I’m still working on giving myself more self-care. I have a problem saying no. I love giving to people and I love helping people. I have a daughter and a family, so it’s hard for me sometimes to get that time, but I’m getting better at it. Doing my yoga training helped me because it taught me to meditate every morning. I get up at 5:00 every morning. People are like, “What?”
I get up at 5:00 because it’s the only time when everybody is still sleeping. It’s quiet and I can go into the little studio that I have and onto my meditation pillow. I always read something from one of my yoga books and then I meditate for at least twenty minutes. I was never able to do that before I did my yoga training. Five minutes was way long for me. Yoga is about that mind-body connection. It’s about quieting my mind and getting ready for the day. That’s something that I do every day that I’ve added that’s helped so much.
Yoga is about mind-body connection. It allows you to quiet your mind and get ready for the day. Share on XI have a trainer. I have it set every Thursday that I see him. I do that because if I’m beholden to somebody like he’s expecting me and I’m paying him, I will not schedule somebody in that hour because I’m committed to somebody else, which really is I’m committing to myself. That has helped. Time blocking has helped. I look at my calendar every week and I say, “Here’s what I’m going to do next week.” I’m going to block that out and I’m not going to say yes to anybody. I’ve done that.
You’re saying yes to yourself.
Exactly. When you have your own business, you throw yourself into that, and I did. If you’re a person who is a giver and you have a busy life, it’s hard to find time for yourself, but you have to. If your glass is empty, then you have nothing to give to anybody else. I’m a work in progress but I’m trying to find more of those times for myself and self-care and travel and beach. I know Angela, the beaches are your thing too. I try to go to the beach at least once a year and be at the ocean.
How Women Can Support And Empower Each Other
You’re so inspiring to me. You always have been such a calm spirit, but the true embodiment of a healthy woman. You’re intentional about everything that you do. Your ability in your studio to guide someone who’s a novice, introduce someone, and make them fall in love with Pilates, and then doing virtual yoga, you do all the things and know how passionate you are about your family. Lastly, I want to know how other women can support women, specifically, you. I feel like some people who pour into others so much don’t ask for the support that they need. I would love to know what you think about how other women can support women who are doing great things.
Listen and show up to whatever your friends or women in your community are doing. I’d be happy for other women when they have a win. Sometimes we get competitive with one another in careers and stuff because there are not as many opportunities out there. Be happy for their win, listen to other women, and educate.
Whatever your friends or fellow women are doing, be happy for them and celebrate their wins. Share on XI love that. Listening is important. You always listen to all of your clients. You have provided me with great sage advice over the years. I have seen the transformation of my body. That physical confidence has made me more confident as a woman and a human being. For that, I thank you. Deanna, we’re going to get you out of here. Just promise to come back. Thank you, Deanna.
Thank you. This has been great.
Thank you for sharing your journey with our listeners here at Boss Leapl. Where can our listeners find you on social media?
@CompanionWellness on Instagram. That’s where you’ll find different videos and stuff of me showing different tips. @DeannaCompanion is my personal one on Instagram. I need to get on social media more but that’s where I’m at.
I will continue to encourage all of our listeners at Boss Leap to follow Deanna Companion at Companion Wellness. Please check out our website BossLeapPodcast.com. Your comments on the show, and what you’d like to see next. We will see you next time on Boss Leap.
Thank you.
Until then, may you be well.
May you be well.
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What are some take-home messages? We had so many nuggets from Deanna. Angela, what resonated most with you?
Number one, what resonates with me is the fact that we didn’t have enough time with Deanna. She has so much to share with women who are listening to this show. From the health and wellness perspective is the importance of strength and mobility. That sounds so pragmatic but it is so true. We think about exercise in terms of how we’re going to look externally.
We want to look good. It’s about health and vessels.
That’s true. In terms of living a long and healthy life, having a strong inner core, and continuing to stay mobile are so important. She certainly embodies all of that in what she teaches. The other thing, she didn’t necessarily say it, but we’ve heard it before and know it as a sentence. It’s learning to say no. It’s so hard for those of us who consider ourselves givers, and for women who have so much on their plate to be able to say no and not be selfish about it when there are things that you need to do.
I found it interesting her take on adaptability. It could be a whole nother conversation. We talked about how important it is to give children a strong and stable background. Oftentimes, we see that as being in one home living your entire life. Everybody grows up differently and there are things that you can adapt from when you have challenges like moving and making new friends. She has shown us what that can look like and growing up to be such a beautiful and multifaceted person. How about you, Sylvia?
When we think of only having one home, going to one school, and having one set of friends throughout elementary and high school, for some people, being in one place is not the best thing for them. It’s not how they are wired. I loved how she embraces change, as someone who likes change, but then like to go through change. I’m certainly inspired by that.
When she talked about finding in terms of movement and I’ve used the word movement, I picked that up from you, Angela, as opposed to exercise, find something you enjoy doing. I am not a runner, but I enjoy Pilates and have seen the evolution in my body and my strength by doing Pilates. There are machines within the studio that initially I was not excited about being on. Deanna would say, “Let’s try this.” She has a wonderful way of being quite firm, but very plus.
I would side-eye her and think, “I don’t want to do this.” She was like, “Let’s just try it. Let’s start with why.” That’s always great. Finding something you enjoy, but then also taking care of your body and having one vessel and one body, and how do we then age gracefully, and how are we adaptable as we move forward in life? Those were my take homes, and thinking about her mom as a nomad. I love the beauty of the word nomad.
I love it too. I can’t think of a better way to end this segment in terms of being adaptable and embracing change. I would love to have Deanna back again. I’m so happy that we were able to get her with her busy schedule. Thank you, Sylvia. I appreciate you as always. I love you, girl. To our audience, until next time. May you be well.
I love you too, Angela. May you be well.
Important Links
- Deanna Companion on Companion Wellness
- Companion Wellness
- Deanna Companion on Instagram
- Companion Wellness on Instagram
About Deanna Companion
I graduated with a certification in Thai Massage in 2012 from Lotus Palm School. I continue to advance my training with other practitioners from all over the world.
In addition to practicing Thai Yoga Massage, I am also a professional Pilates trainer, certified in all apparatus and with over 13 years of experience, a yoga teacher, as well as a Personal Trainer, specializing in Strength and Functional Movement training, and a Redcord Active Specialist.
I have worked with Cirque du Soleil’s “Kurios” as a traveling trainer. I currently am in private practice through Companion Wellness with a virtual platform and in person in Atlanta, GA.