“I think my greatest life lesson is what my children have taught me. I’ve realized, children don’t do what you say. They watch and do what you do.”
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Toni Reece: Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project BOOMERS. I’m Toni Reece, and today I’m with June Kittay. June, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project BOOMERS.
June Kittay: Toni, thank you so much for having me on. I’m so excited to be here with you.
Toni: Thank you. We’re excited to have you here. June, take a moment and introduce yourself.
June: Thank you, Toni. As you said, my name is June Kittay. I’m a fitness professional, and I’m CEO of my own company, June Kittay Enterprises. I’ve developed a couple of fitness programs. One is called Emerging Through Movement, and the other is called Boomba Fitness, and these are my programs that I’ve designed and developed.
Toni: Thank you so much, June. Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
June: Toni, when I first looked at this question, my first thought was to go to the dictionary, and I found the definition of inspiration was ‘a divine influence a person believes qualifies her to receive and communicate a sacred revelation; the arousal of the mind to a special creativity.’
That was the definition I found in the encyclopedia. However, when I thought about it, and as I mentioned just before we started this interview, I went to see Billy Elliott. It’s a play that’s right now at the Performing Arts Center, and the very last song by Elton John is called “Electricity,” and I’d like to read you some of the words which I’ve kind of modified a little bit, taken out some of the words, but this is how it goes, and this is what I believe inspiration is.
It’s the very last song, and they asked Billy, “Billy, what does it feel like when you dance?” To me, this is what inspiration is:
Billy sings:
I can’t really explain it
I haven’t got the words.
It’s a feeling that you can’t control
It’s almost like forgetting, losing who you are
And at the same time, something makes you whole
Then there is some music playing in my ear
And I’m listening and I’m listening, and then I disappear
And then I feel a change
Like a fire deep inside
Something bursting me wide open
Impossible to hide
Suddenly I’m flying; I’m flying like a bird, like electricity
Electricity sparks inside of me, and I’m free, I’m free
I don’t know what it is
It’s hard to tell
But then I feel it move me
Like a burning deep inside
Electricity sparks inside of me
And I’m free, I’m free, oh I’m free
That’s what inspiration means to me
Toni: What a great way and a great example to define that for yourself. Thank you for sharing that with us. June, how do you put that into practice?
June: When I teach, I try to communicate this feeling that I have to my students. It’s my love, and it’s kind of my connection to music. I’ve been wrestling with my business advisors for years, who keep telling me, “June, it’s not the music. It’s you. It’s you.”
I tell them, “No, it’s not me. It’s the music that’s my inspiration.” As a matter of fact, just this morning I was at a conference and two musicians were playing and talking about the power of music to change perceptions, moods, and even help when you are working with Alzheimer’s patients.
After the presentation, I went up to speak to the musicians, because they were just off the wall – they were fantastic. One of the musicians said to me, “You know, there are so many beautiful women in this room, but I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You have an energy field around you. A glow, a light.”
I know this is the power of their music. It wasn’t me. That comment is not unusual. I hear that all the time when I’m teaching. When I’m teaching, I get lost in the music. I caution my students, as a matter of fact, to listen to their bodies, because I’m really supposed to be watching them, but I tell them, “Oohs are good, owws are bad,” because I know I’m going to forget what I’m teaching. I’m dancing. I’m bringing them along, and my students are dancing with me.
Unlike other fitness classes when you go to them, music is standardized and they have fitness moves. I choreograph each song. As a matter of fact, I spent over $800 in music from iTunes, and every song I use has a message, and it evokes a feeling. I try to emit the feeling inside me to my students. Toni, I so love what I do, you have no idea.
Toni: You can definitely hear it in your voice. It’s really wonderful, and that’s the benefit that people get from listening to these interviews as opposed to reading them. Let me ask you, June, what is your greatest life lesson?
June: There’s so many life lessons – I’m 60 years old, so I’ve learned quite a few things over the years. I think my greatest life lesson is what my children have taught me. I’ve realized, children don’t do what you say. They watch and do what you do. My former spouse and I exercised every day, all the time when my children were growing up.
By the way, I’ve been blessed with three beautiful children, and three fantastic grandchildren. My daughter, who is 33 years old, is a fitness instructor, along with being a mother, a wife, and owning her own business. My son, who is a lawyer in New York City, just completed the New York Marathon, which was 26 miles. I went to New York City. I’ll tell you, Toni, I don’t even like to drive 26 miles. My youngest son, 23, practices yoga every morning. As I said, I could have told them they had to exercise – I never said that. They just watched, and I’m so proud of them and what they have done and what they have accomplished.
Toni: There’s a bigger message here, too, in ‘do what I do and not what I say’ that is of huge value to those who are listening to this, that that life lesson can be translated into many, many instances, I would imagine, along the way.
June: That’s exactly right. I’ve heard that all my life; “Do what I say, not what I do.” I’ve always blown it off – you know what, I’ll tell you, it doesn’t work.
Toni: Absolutely. It’s interesting that your ‘do what I do’ came from fitness, which was not an intention of yours.
June: Right, exactly.
Toni: That’s fantastic. What do you want your legacy to be?
June: I think it’s very easy when I thought about it, too. I want and have instilled in my children and my grandchildren, when they get a little older, that they can be anything they want to be. They just have to want it bad enough. They have to work hard. Myself as their mother and their grandmother, will support their dreams.
I will not live with the taped recorded message that I’ve been living with my whole life. In what I’m doing, which is a fitness professional, I know I’m the best. I know I’m at 10 at what I do, but I have a voice from my childhood that plays over and over in my ear.
I hear my father saying, “June, you’re only a girl. Find a man to take care of you. You keep reaching for the stars. Stars are in the sky, and they’re untouchable. You have to be one in a million to make it, and it’s not you, honey.”
I’m sure my father was saving me from disappointment because he loved me. My parents were immigrants, so I was first generation American. He wanted me to be taken care of. He wanted me to have a good life, and so he always tried to instill that into me. Find somebody to take care of you.
I want my children and my grandchildren to know that they can take care of themselves. They just have to want it. They can be anything, anything they want to be, and I will be there backing them 100%.
Toni: What a great legacy that not only you are leaving, but you are living, and that is critical here. That’s what I’m hearing. I like the way that you’ve separated that into two areas. One is to do what you want to do, do what you love to do, and don’t let anything stop you, but hey, it’s okay to reach out for support too because I’m right here.
June: You’ve got to have that support. If you have somebody that’s constantly in the background saying, “You can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it,” eventually you’re going to say, “I can’t do it.”
I have now the support around me of people saying, “June, you can do this. You are the best.” Finally. But, still in the back of my mind I’m hearing my father, “You can’t do this. You’re only a girl.” I’m working on that really hard, Toni.
Toni: And you getting there, June. My goodness – it’s all over this interview. I am absolutely honored to have you be part of the Get Inspired! Project BOOMERS, June. Thank you so much for being part of it.
June: Thank you so much for making me sit down and actually think about this. It’s unbelievable. When I started to think about this, it was just like, “Oh my God, I can’t wait to write all this down and put it down on paper, because it really should be on paper – and on the radio, too!”
Toni: Absolutely. That’s where it’s going. Thanks a lot. Take care, June.
June: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me, Toni.
