Rebuilding Confidence Through Movement and Self-Discovery – Exclusive Interview with Brianna Atkins
- Brainz Magazine
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Brianna Atkins, an emerging leader in building confidence through movement and simplifying healthy habit building, transformed her life after an unexpected journey of nomadic motherhood left her questioning who she was. Fueled by her belief that mental health dictates outcomes, she developed strategies to realistically rebuild confidence, discipline, and identity. Guided by her background in social work and dance, Brianna has spent the last two years helping other women feel beautiful, strong, and confident. She’s proud to admit that experiencing mom burnout strengthened her ability to help other women–especially moms–feel empowered. Through her business, WOMANLY Health and Fitness, she supports a global community of women in building confidence through fitness, self-love, and consistency.
Brianna Atkins, Founder & Women’s Wellness Expert
What inspired you to found WOMANLY Health and Fitness?
Thanks to my own struggles with mental health in childhood, I’ve always yearned to affect positive change in the mental health of girls and young women. As a teenager, I aspired to be a therapist but, while in grad school, I learned that the role didn’t feel quite right. When a class called Consultation, Coaching, and Social Entrepreneurship asked me to draft an executive summary for a business concept, I realized that all of my strengths could be better utilized in a role that I’d have to carve out for myself. The role that allows me to best help other women avoid the loneliness I fought to become the strong, transparent, and confident version of myself I continue to nurture is being the founder of WOMANLY Health and Fitness.
What does W.O.M.A.N.L.Y stand for and what is unique about your approach to movement and nutrition?
WOMANLY stands for Work ethic, Open communication, Mental toughness, Assertiveness, Nourishment, Love, and Yield. The methods threaded through WOMANLY are unique because:
The fitness approach is
Informed by a body that knows the strength, flexibility, endurance, mobility, and artistry of a professional dancer,
Backed by the test of 2 consecutive pregnancy/postpartum journeys,
Mindful of the schedule of the average busy woman,
Dutifully focused on mental health, and
Still a safe space for women that enjoy the aesthetic benefits of exercise
The nutrition approach
Invites women to try eating more plant-based foods without condemning other dietary habits
Is mindful of moms’ ability to stay consistent if meals are kid-friendly
Promotes a permanent realistic change, not a temporary diet. Incorporates ways to repurpose leftovers
What makes WOMANLY’s approach to mental wellbeing so effective?
WOMANLY’s approach to mental well-being is informed by both social work teachings and real-life experience as a wife, mom, and aging woman. It considers the complex identity of a woman. Many women are partners, family members, friends, and moms as well as individuals with insecurities, trauma, desires, bad habits, neglected skillsets, and goals. At WOMANLY, we view self-care as a broad term that includes skill-building, acknowledging hard truths, having tough conversations, prioritizing exercise, staying in touch with your femininity, setting boundaries, reducing procrastination, and prioritizing self-awareness. WOMANLY’s methods challenge women to reflect and show up in ways that are often uncomfortable, but effective at exposing weaknesses, highlighting strengths, building confidence, and promoting growth.
Why do you focus on helping women–especially moms–build confidence through movement and plant-based nutrition?
In a world dominated by sexism, racism, ageism, and lookism, confidence isn’t something women can afford not to have. Yet, many women are taught to underachieve and made to think that, if they do succeed in academic spaces or demonstrate exceptional physical abilities, they certainly can’t also be feminine, beautiful, sensitive, sensual, or relatable. It’s harder to suppress someone’s confidence in this way when their mind is healthy and, science tells us that, a healthy mind can’t exist without a healthy body. WOMANLY focuses on confidence-building because women deserve to be empowered. WOMANLY focuses on building confidence through healthy habits like exercising and eating more plants because it’s backed by science.
How do your own experiences as a former pro dancer and mom of two inform your approach to fitness?
What are the biggest mistakes women make when trying to get fit or eat plant-based, and how do you help them overcome those? The biggest mistake I see women make when trying to get fit is overcommitting. They get a gym membership or class pass and go hard for one to six months, then stop because the routine was too hard to maintain. I see the same mistake with plant-based eating. Many women try to switch cold turkey from a meat or seafood diet and without having done much research into what kinds of foods they’ll be cooking. Women assume that eating plant-based is self-explanatory; fruits, veggies, and Beyond Meat. The truth is, when they become plant-based, many women cook with legumes and flavor palettes they’d never used and learn methods for cooking veggies they’d never heard of to maintain enough variety to make the diet sustainable. I help women bypass these mistakes by providing 10-25 minute at-home workouts and suggesting recipes that I’ve personally tried and tested.
How do you help clients balance the demands of motherhood, career, and self-care without feeling guilty?
A crucial step in eliminating mom guilt is accepting that bettering yourself also benefits your kids. When moms don’t feel selfish or in opposition to a child-centered approach, they become more receptive to the concept of self-care. Once I’ve helped moms understand why prioritizing their own wants and needs helps them show up better as a parent, another technique that’s proven to reduce mom guilt is setting a boundary for undisputed, uninterrupted time with their kids. Choosing a specific time they can always commit to spending quality time with their kids allows them to feel more free to schedule time for themselves. Times they can’t be present with their kids don’t feel as significant because they know they’re not always too busy for them. They will have their scheduled quality time.
For a woman who’s feeling stuck and tired, what are the first three steps you’d recommend to start seeing real change?
My first recommendation is always quick at-home workouts. With no travel time and little to no prep time, women can always find 10 to 25 minutes in their schedules. Much sooner than expected, they start to notice a change in energy, mood, and confidence. The second habit I usually suggest picking up is journaling. Confronting their feelings on a regular basis tends to reveal buried trauma, desires, and hard truths that keep many women stuck. My last recommendation is to make sure they still know themselves. It sounds odd, but we, as women and especially as moms, often lose ourselves. We might indulge in alone time so infrequently that we don’t know what we truly enjoy without our kids or partner. We might have put our goals on the back burner for so long that we’ve lost sight of what they are. I advise when to check in, to use a “rediscover you” guide if they don’t know where to start. Then take small steps toward doing more of what you love and becoming more of who you want to be.
What success stories from your community make you most proud, and what can others learn from them?
My most rewarding moments have come from women thanking me for creating workouts that make them feel good about themselves, help them stay consistent, remind them that working out can be fun, and convince them to work out when they otherwise wouldn’t have. Some of my favorite feedback has been:
“How is it possible to feel this good?”
“Every time I felt too tired to work out during pregnancy, your workouts would pop up, and I would say, ‘Alright, I can do this!’"
“I get bored so easily that consistency is nearly impossible, but your workouts always offer something new and fun, but hard.”
“I want to dance a bit every day and your videos make it possible.”
“After 2 years of doing your workouts, I love my mom body.”
From feedback like this, others can learn that workouts don’t have to be long to have a big impact, variety in a fitness routine can make or break consistency, and truly enjoying your workouts can make hard seasons of life easier.
How do you ensure that the habits you build with clients are sustainable and become part of their lifestyle, not just a short-term fix?
I help clients build sustainable habits by teaching them how to set realistic goals. Many women assume that small changes aren’t worthwhile because they won’t affect real change. That misconception stifles so much progress. Successfully making small changes inspires the confidence to make bigger changes and affords the time and grace to adjust without overwhelm. It’s widely accepted in the scientific community that a habit takes 30 days to build. Everyone’s threshold is a bit different, but generally speaking, adding something new to a daily routine for 30 days will be challenging, no matter what it is. Maintaining the perspective that you have a long window to accomplish long-term goals inspires patience, consistency, and ultimately growth.
If a woman reading this is ready to invest in her health and confidence, what would you say to her right now – and how can she get started with you?
I would say, first of all, congratulations on making the decision to invest in yourself! Acknowledging that you could improve in some areas and taking action isn’t easy. Next, I would say, while you have the resolve, sign up for Burnout Recovery Bootcamp. Bootcamp is the best way to familiarize yourself with a wide range of healthy habits, hold yourself accountable, gain skills needed to affect real change, eliminate some of the barriers blocking your progress, maintain support along your journey, and connect with women on a similar path. You can sign up for bootcamp or a version tailored to moms here.
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