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103: Strong Inside Out—Pivoting from OCD and Depression toward Mind-Body Alignment with Amy Clover

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Amy Clover has a powerful story to share about pivoting her mindset from one of self-flagellation and control toward acceptance and flexibility in body, mind and spirit. After battling for years with eating disorders, depression and a failed suicide attempt in a fitness industry that grew increasingly oppressive, she now teaches people how to build strength from the inside out. In her own words:

I know what it’s like to look in the mirror and hate who’s looking back, to feel like you have no control whatsoever over your mind or your life, to feel like you’re so broken that you’re beyond healing. I’ve struggled with clinical depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and eating disorders throughout my entire life. In fact, they almost killed me. I hit rock bottom in 2005 when I was hospitalized on suicide watch. 

Having my freedom stripped from me in that hospital shocked me back to life: it hit me that I’d given up. I’d never even tried to take action to feel better because I just assumed that nothing would ever work for me. With this realization fresh in my mind, I committed to working on myself from the inside out as soon as I was released. After all, the worst had already happened. I figured I had nothing else to lose.

Amy's recovery, and the mindset and methods she developed that created a true sense of freedom, are what we'll cover in this week's show, along with some of her recent business pivots. 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/amy-clover. Enjoying the show? Make my week by donating just $1 and episode at Patreon.com/pivot.

More About Amy 

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Amy Clover is a writer, coach, teacher and the force behind Strong Inside Out. Strong Inside Out is a movement devoted to helping people break free from shaming, metric-based health standards, to build individual health without scales or judgment instead. On her website, Amy openly and courageously shares her struggles with clinical depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and eating disorders—hitting rock bottom when she was hospitalized on suicide watch—and her strategies for bouncing back and keeping moving without ping ponging between extremes.

Topics We Cover

  • Pivoting her brand in 2017; 30 x 30 tour, which were crowdfunded bootcamps for suicide prevention groups

  • Wasn’t a mental health professional - pulled in different directions

  • Struggling silently, self-medicating, unhealthy relationships to (unsuccessfully) find self-worth

  • Finding empowerment through the gym, “I can and I will” mantra while at the gym

  • “Spirit sent”—the role faith plays in her life and journey

  • Mental optics: our reality is created by the way we perceive our world

  • The compulsion for control and how it gets in our way

  • Struggles with perfectionism; 2015 went back into recovery for an eating disorder

  • Two wolves - love and fear - if you ignore the “bad” wolf completely it gets very hungry and comes out with a vengeance!

  • Extremes are not great for our psyches or our behavior

  • The tough love wolf when it comes to working out: does it feel loving or punishing?

  • On ditching different prescriptions to workouts for depression vs. anxiety/stress

  • An exercise to connect with your body

Strong Inside Out with Amy Clover

Listen below or on iTunes, SoundCloud, YouTube, Overcast, Stitcher, or Google Play Music:

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