Wellness advocate and leader, Britt Alexandra, shares her tips for how to be a go-getter in a holistic way.

Britt is an amazing go-getter in San Francisco who leads health coaching circles, yoga and Pilates classes, and is also in school getting her doctorate in Traditional Chinese Medicine! If anyone knows about balancing the go-getter mentality holistically, it’s her. I sat down with Britt to chat about how to take care of yourself first, so that you can take care of others. We also dive into community vs. competition and how to share your platform.

Watch the video and read the transcripts below for all the go-getter inspo and wellness tips!

A Comeplum Chat with Britt Alexandra

Praise: Hey everyone! I have something so fun to share with you today. My friend Britt is here, I know her from photographing her at the Assembly and she has been my yoga teacher and my friend. She lives such an inspirational life, and so she’ll be sharing such yumminess with us today. 

Tell me a little bit more, Brit, about yourself and what you do with your time.

Britt: Yeah! So, right now I’m a full-time student of traditional Chinese medicine and I also continue to teach yoga and Pilates and so those are kind of my main focuses right now. I’m leading a retreat in April, hosting some workshops on Indian yoga and really into the elements.

Praise: She’s doing all the things to serve people, making them feel whole and well, which is such a need.

Britt: I agree, yes. Definitely, a need, especially living in a city.

Praise: Totally.

Britt: I think it’s very important to know what tools are available to you in wellness and utilize them; very, very important.

Holistic Go-Getter Tip #1: Put Your Oxygen Mask On First 

Praise: Very important, which is why I have her here in the studio just me, her, and this aloe vera plant, talking about all things. We were conversing about how I work with a lot of go-getters and I feel that I myself am a go-getter. How can we do it in a sustainable, holistic way because I tend to burn out? You have three tips for us go-getters of how to do that in a sustainable way, so let’s chat about it. What does that even mean to be a wellness practitioner and how do you take care of your own wellness while you do that?

Britt: That’s probably the biggest, hardest job that I have: taking care of myself. It’s the thing that tends to be neglected the most. The analogy that everyone knows is:

Put your oxygen mask on before someone else’s and only give when your cup is overflowing.

So really taking care of yourself. Putting yourself as number one before serving others or before doing your work, before offering what you have out into the world.

Praise: That is so necessary. I love it because I’m a visual artist; I need that analogy of “oh yeah oxygen mask first” and also that picture of a vase — I feel like when I serve my clients I want them to feel comfortable and confident. I’m building them up and I’m constantly pouring out and then sometimes I’m just drained. Instead, be an upright vase and let all the water flow in and then it just like gushes out. That is a really good way to be! I know even as you’re in school and teach yoga, even in my own job, we work for ourselves, so…

How do you find people to work with in that space because I know it can be pretty lonely?

2. View Others As Community Rather Than Competition 

Britt: Yeah, definitely. That’s something so important: community versus competition is the motto of my life right now. I think it’s important to build our community and work together, rather than feel that there is a set amount of success out there in the world. Switching the mindset from scarcity to abundance. Even with the go-getter mentality, there is plenty to go around for all of us. How can we work together in order to elevate each other? Definitely something I want to advocate in my life right now and also participate in.

Praise: Yes, I love that. I feel like that is such a theme in the conversations I’m having with a lot of people. Everyone is seeing the need to think more positively that there is enough, that I have enough, that I am enough. This is abundance we can easily share with other people. Instead of “Oh I shouldn’t compete to be able to teach at this yoga studio,” it should be “Who can I share this with? Who can I share this goodness with?”

And this is something that you also told me about as well: you’ve been a recipient of someone sharing before and now you’re paying it forward. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Britt: Absolutely! That is how to live in that state of abundance. When I first moved to San Francisco I adopted a friend who shared her resources with me. She brought me along for the ride on the cool things she was doing, the events she was going to, different jobs that she was able to have another person on… So, I was really able to get my footing moving to a brand new city. It was pretty amazing, and so I always think about that time and how blessed I was by her. I try and do the same for other people just because, why not, you know, why not share?

Praise: Oh, totally. I look back too because, I feel like I’m always in a state of need, and there’s always the right people in my life who give me what I need. Then, I’m also in phases of life where I can finally give back and share, that is huge; to give and to receive.

Britt: Exactly. A constant flux.

Praise: Yeah, the constant flow of it…

Britt: Yes, exactly.

Praise: Speaking of sharing: you do some workshops where you share some of the “five elements?”

Britt: Yeah, I’m in school for acupuncture; Chinese medicine, and I also teach yoga and Pilates. Right now I’m sharing a workshop series it’s called yin yoga so it’s a little bit slower and longer holds. It’s really working with the connective tissue of the body and also incorporating the the five elements. Each class is based around one of the elements. We’ve just done water, we did wood, we’re doing fire for Valentine’s Day, and then we do earth and metal. So each one of them has a different correspondence to the part of the Meridian system in the body. We work with different parts of the body in each class and share about the elements. It’s pretty amazing, I love doing it.

Praise: I like that, and you even mentioned before about a friend who recently moved to the city; you’re sharing that workshop with her and you said it’s a relief for you, right? To be able to partner with someone else?

3. Share Your Platform

Britt: Yes, that is my last point: how to collaborate. Not only do we need to build our communities but also, how can we share our talents with each other? Taking on that support, hosting these workshops with my friend, and she’s also my classmate in school and we’re also doing the retreat together in April. The environment feels so much more supportive, to not have to hold the space by yourself, you have that assistance and that support and it just feels really good. I want to teach with someone else forever now, it’s really fun!

Praise: That’s so good, I love this. So, how to be a go-getter in a sustainable way is to…

1. Take care of yourself before you take care of others
2. View other people not as competition but as collaboration
3. Share that platform as a community

…and then not sharing the burden with those people.

Britt: Yes, exactly, that’s it.

Praise: I think that’ll work! Thank you so much for sharing all that goodness!

Britt: You’re so welcome!

Praise: You can find more great stuff at BrittAWellness.com. 

Britt: That’s right.

Praise: She teaches also at The Pad in San Francisco and also at The Assembly, so you might have me beside you doing downward dog there. Thank you so much!

Britt: Thank you!

What an amazing chat! I’m so inspired by Britt’s ability to approach the go-getter mentality holistically, and promote a communal approach to lift one another up. Keep up with all the go-getter wellness goodness from Britt on Instagram. Learn more about her yoga retreats and Yon workshops on her website.

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