Fit Columbia and Midlands Anchor honors local women in fitness with a monthly feature celebrating their contributions to our midlands community. These women are the best of the best in the health and wellness industry. These women are local small business owners, active in the community and have a minimum of five years experience. Our June feature is Martine Naar. Our feature is written by Angie Sellers.
Martine and I met when I helped her to prepare for pilgrimage through Spain where she would spend months walking a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James in north-west Spain. As we spent time together, I was eager to learn more about her healing knowledge and abilities. With a touch of her hands, I learned how to manage some of my painful past memories using Soul Link™. She is certified to teach Soul Link™, a healing technique developed by Gary Sinclair to either neutralize a negative emotion or enhance a positive feeling. This is a very simple process using energetic connectivity of the hands and only of the hands. Negative energy neutralization can be done on oneself or on somebody else. Martine hopes to use this training to help people suffering from PTSD, particularly veterans.
Q&A with our Fit Feature:
Why Columbia?
Martine Naar has experienced the world. She lived in Madagascar from the age of 11 years old to 18. She remembers that the Malagasy, people of Madagascar, are easy going and beautiful. As an adult she lived in France. When Martine Naar came to the United States more than 30 years ago, it was not with the intention of putting down roots: “We thought we’d be here two or three years,” recalls Martine. Now 32 years later, she is proud to call South Carolina home. When we met for lunch, she explained that she has remained in Columbia because of the pace, it's people and the warm winters. She enjoys having access to the beach and the mountains.
A Thousand Mile Walk?
When she turned 60, the universe gave her the how and when for find her next challenge, a thousand mile pilgrimage Camino de Santiago.
"Walking the Way has been a dream for many years. I first heard about the pilgrimage to Santiago in elementary school in history class. Public schools were not supposed to talk about religions; however, when I was a child most of the students were Roman Catholic. Hence, the crusades, the repression of the Cathars heresy, or the Reconquista of Spain were presented as heroic moments in the history of the world. Next to the Crusades as a heroic and pious act was the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. I remember being fascinated by these believers who left every thing they ever knew to walk for a year and sometimes more in order to get their prayers answered. Where did they find the courage? Or were they so unaware of the risks? Probably they knew some of the risks and they thought they could overcome any obstacle with prayers."
The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. Martine walked more than a thousand miles. The main difficulty with walking this far is that few of us have walked continuously for 10, 20 or 30 days. Martine found the experience incredibly meditative.
Favorite Healthy Snack?
Martine loves fruits, especially apples.
Family pets:
Martine has two four year old cats, Diego and Simba.
