Hi. I’m Nathan Schechter, the Founder of Mind Body Literacy.
I’ve worked in the health, fitness, movement and healing arts industries for close to 20 years. Some of my experiences include:
- Acting with well known celebrities as a youth
- Helping to build a start-up healthcare company
- Working in the ER of a hospital as a psychiatric counselor
- Growing up in a family where Dad was a psychiatrist and Mom was a social worker
- Working for large law firms & multinational companies
To me the two most valuable tools I’ve encountered in navigating through life and developing as a person have been
1) The use of exercise & movement as a form of training
2) Good quality relationships
I know how lonely it can feel when it seems like you don’t have the quality of collaborations that can really help you build a practical, day-to-day skill set that lets you reach your goals, and overcome the challenges, uncertainty, maybe even the entropy, obstacles and frustrations you face - and maybe your clients face as well.
I’m here to help you step into the world of exercise and movement in a way you never have before. So that you go from where you are to where you want to be. And have experiences that help you come to believe you can change your mind, body and life, and the lives of those around you.
Whether you want to learn to build strength, or become a movement ninja. Find a way to get unstuck and establish a regular training schedule, or surf the feelings, thoughts and changing energy states that get in the way of your exercise and movement.
If you’re looking to change your body composition or improve your metabolic health. Or you’re a mind body professional who wants to deepen your understanding or build your skills with exercise to help yourself or your clients or patients, I’m here to help guide you through the process.
But Don’t Take My Word For It …
Solving mind body problems is often a journey of asking questions. Even the most talented performers and skilled professionals are continually learning.
The challenges and problems we face in our bodies and minds throughout life continue to change. The woman who wants to do a cool yoga trick, has a different challenge mastering arm balances than when she’s adjusting her practice to pregnancy. It’s a different issue when she’s carrying a large toddler on a regular basis and her hip hurts. And still a different one when she’s older and wants to retain her balance and strength into old age. As we grow and change, so do the problems we encounter, and the skills and habits we want to build.
Although it’s a simple example, it shows that there is no one training that can prepare us for every possible contingency in the unforeseeable future. Even as a professional working in a mind body field, every week you run into issues that were never covered in your training. And there’s an infinite amount to know.
That’s why, as with other types of literacy (i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic) it’s helpful to have a set of core skills which allow you to figure out and solve novel problems. And it helps to be a lifelong learner.
There’s a danger of assuming only special people have the answers or ability.
In olden times people believed you needed to be a special kind of person to read: royalty, clergy or a well-to-do merchant. The secret was, of course, anyone can learn to read. Society at the time did not have the view that reading was a valuable skill for everyone, despite the fact that the skill of reading can be applied to many different types of situations, and having the skill solves many problems and makes life better.
You don’t have to obtain any particular expert or certified status to access the power of your mind and body through exercise, movement or food. And no one can ever know your inner experience, sensations, and knowledge of your body through time as well as you can. Good collaborations bring together your personal experience with a customized learning experience with someone who has skill, understanding and knowledge of “best practices.”
Despite the fact that humans have been engaged with it since the times of the Greeks and Romans (and even before), the art and science of using exercise as a form of training to create skills and solve problems is not always intuitive, simple to understand, nor easy to implement, so folks who take the time to study it deeply, practice it regularly, mentor others in it, and make it a profession and lifestyle, often wind up accruing many different pieces of paper in their own journey, and efforts to learn more about this fascinating and infinitely complex thing called the human mind and body. At least in the USA we often approach it like that. And, hey, those pieces of paper make grandma happy. Here are just a few of mine:
American College of Sports Medicine, Personal Trainer, 2014
Certified Yoga Teacher, 2005 & 2013
Former Yoga Alliance, ERYT-200 & YACEP, 2005 -2018
Upledger Institute International, Craniosacral Therapy, 2014
Shiatsu Massage, 2017
Certified Nutrition Coach, PN1-NC, Precision Nutrition, 2023