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getting naked + spring cleaning

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Welcome to spring!

It’s definitely arrived here in NYC and I am thrilled. But I confess I got an early start because I went to LA to teach some spectacular SHRINK SESSION events.

I gotta’ say…the LA peeps know how to bring it! Check out the fogged-up mirrors!

  

  

I did more than soak up the sun and spend time connecting with friends. I also had a mind-shifting, memorable afternoon, with one of my gal pals at the Olympic Spa.

Talk about spring cleaning!

I learned 3 very important LESSONS and I want to share them with you. Sit tight, because I’m about to get naked.

Have you ever been to a Korean spa? Well here’s the scoop: women are allowed but clothing is not.

Yes, that means you are completely nekked as you move from the steam sauna, to the dry sauna, to the mugworts bath, to the cold plunge, to the Himalayan salt sauna and back again.

I’m usually pretty courageous, but I gotta’ admit…at first, I was totally self conscious. I was like, “Ya mean we just walk around totally naked…with each other?”

“Yes. Yes we do,” answered my friend, Emily.

And so we did. All of us – all different ages, shapes, and sizes.

Lesson #1

Letting yourself be completely exposed – completely seen – is vulnerability at it’s best. But when you make a decision to just roll with it, it turns into a completely freeing experience.

When you allow yourself to be seen in all your glory, without trying to hide or protect or pretend, you move into a truly empowered state.

You see that NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, has the perfect body like they show in magazines.  We all have flaws and imperfections of ALL kinds. 

We all ‘know’ this intellectually. But to experience it in the flesh (pun intended) is a comforting reminder that we are perfect in all of our imperfection, inside and out.  

Lesson #2

Time for the spring cleaning…

Let me tell you about one of the spa specialties, the akasuri scrub.  

Imagine a room filled with naked women soaking and sauna’ing. Now imagine plastic-covered massage tables lining the outside of the room.

By this time you’ve been walking around in your birthday suit for the last hour so it’s like so when you lay down on the table next to another woman it’s just like “Hey, enjoy your scrub.” High five.

Then an older Korean woman puts on her loofa gloves and get her scrub on. And I’m talking some serious scrubbin’.

Every inch of your body is exfoliated.

Between your toes. Check. Your backside. Check. Parts ya’ didn’t know ya’ had. Check and check.  

It sounds crazy and intense, and it’s definitely both of those things. But, you are really just another body moving along the conveyer belt of getting clean.

There is actually something primal about the experience. When was the last time you were cleaned, head-to-toe, by someone else? I know – strange question.

I’m guessing your answer is when you were a baby. Right? Mama bear doing her job to clean the cub. That’s it.

And that’s where LESSON #2 comes in:

We place so much importance on how our bodies look, feel, and act. But the akasuri scrub was basically, “Hey, it’s just a body and it needs cleaning.” Period. End of story.

Yes, our bodies are miracles and works of art. But there’s something wonderful in the simplicity of just getting clean.  Like you are going through a car wash.

(And doesn’t your car always drive better after it’s been washed?)

After the akasuri scrub, you feel like your skin is the SMOOTHEST it’s ever been. You also feel like you just got a tune-up.

When we step away from all the different meanings we give our bodies, it gives us a chance to free ourselves from the ideas and theories we have artificially constructed. Which means we make space for joy and ease. 

This leads us to Lesson #3:

After the scrub, I felt lighter and renewed. With the help of my Scrubber, I literally shed some skin. Which got me thinking – what else am I ready to shed? 

It’s the perfect question to ask – especially now, as we move into spring.

What can we let go of? What can we shed so that our wonderful, new, fresh lives can reemerge?  People?  Beliefs about ourselves? Activities we don’t want to do anymore?

My friend Sarah Jenks recently sent an email to a group of incredible women entrepreneurs. She asked them what they wanted to let go of. The responses were honest and refreshing.

I’ve shared some of theses ladies thoughts below as well as the mantras for April’s Shrink Session class.

(BTW Sarah has an AH-MAZING weight loss program that she is opening for enrollment soon! If you are looking to have more fun, create a good relationship with food, develop incredible relationships with your partner, parents and girlfriends, I highly recommend you check out some of the free goodies she is giving over on LIVE MORE, WEIGH LESS. It’s downright brills if you ask me.)

I want to know what you are ready to shed and say good-bye to.

Leave a comment sharing what you are LETTING GO OF, starting now.

It’s time to let go of the old, so the new can rise!

Love,
Erin

WHAT SOME INCREDIBLE WOMEN I KNOW are READY TO LET GO OF:

  • Always making other people’s stuff my responsibility, like it’s my problem to fix
  • Feeling like I should be somewhere further along than I am
  • The cultural imperative to be smarter, better, faster, more perfect than men (than white people) to be considered half as good. These are messages that helped my ancestors survive, but I’m dropping it.
  • My fear of rejection
  • I’ve carried around ideas of how I “should”…look, dress, speak (what does “smart” sound like?), have babies right now, giddy up and get re-married
  • Being abundant and loving your life if for “rich people” or people born with money
  • I’m letting go of the idea that I have to be perfect, act perfect and look perfect to be able to coach others on their health, wellness and living style.
  • I am trying to let go of censoring myself for fear of people not liking me. There is a deep fear of offending someone, if I say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I am letting go of stopping myself from being me.
  • The feeling of needing to fit in a box, act a certain way, sit up straight, don’t talk too much, don’t laugh too loud and above all, get an A+ on everything.  As an Indian woman in particular, I was always looked at as “the weird one” because I didn’t make sense to pretty much every other Indian I knew.
  • I’ve carried around the weight of having to do it all on my own. I could not ask for help, could not receive, had to look like I always had it all together, and wore this mask of extreme independence. It weighed on me, my relationships, and my business.
  • I carried around this idea that I was always late to the party.  I would always shamefully claim to be a late bloomer because I felt like I did everything so much later than everyone else.  Comparing myself against others, especially based on age, was a quick way for me to feel like I wasn’t doing something right and certainly not at the right time.
  • Having a successful career = being a workaholic
  • I think as a woman, there is often a need to maintain friendships and be nice to everyone even if you don’t feel connected or supported by those people. When you discover there are people in your life who don’t fully understand or support you, it can be quite painful and easy to get into the internal conversation that ‘something must be wrong with me.’

 

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  1. nidhi says:

    awesome post!

  2. Jenna says:

    I love this whole story & I’m excited to share:

    I AM LETTING GO OF…the idea that I am stuck! I’m never stuck, I can literally always move my body and my mind into more light and more love-so I can do that with my career and my passions and my beliefs. I’m not stuck, I’m right where I need to be and if I feel I need a shift, I’ll shift.

  3. Claudia says:

    Great blog!! The scrub sounded amazing. I am letting go of clutter this spring. I need to do some serious spring cleaning. I am letting go of anything that doesn’t make me feel sexy and alive. I am ready to be seen and am done hiding. For so long I have been putting myself on the back burner because I was afraid of being seen and the volnurability that comes with it. But i am realizing that I only get to do this life once and I want it to ROCK. :0). Thanks for the inspiration.

  4. Kymberli says:

    Hi Erin!

    The Olympic Spa is one of my most favorite places in the world! I discovered it a little while after I moved to LA. I’ve never been a “skinny” lady, but I’ve always been cool with the body God gave me. That place is like a subtle celebration of women’s bodies, and it’s amazing.

    For my Spring Cleaning, I’m letting go of the need to figure out my life right now, all at once and allow the universe to take me where it wants to go. I just got let go from my job and there’s an overwhelming fear and need to find “the perfect job”. Instead, I think I’ll find whatever job I can for now and get back to things I’m passionate about but haven’t done for fear of failure… Acting, singing, taking a hip hop class! Who knows?

    What a powerful post. Thank you for sharing!

    • Erin says:

      This is so great Kymberli. It’s amazing what rushes in when we let go. I am amazed every time.

      Here’s to not knowing + allowing Life to work her magic!

  5. Dr. Samantha says:

    Ha! I’ve been to one of those places in Washington State. This makes me want to go back. Oh, I think there is one in Queens, btw if you need another shedding any time soon.

  6. Lisa Van Ahn says:

    I’m letting go of the “old”- for me that is teaching fitness and bringing in the “new”- my self-defense and empowerment program for girls called the ‘i am initiative’.

    So scary to release what you’ve “always” done and allow space for what you hope to do and is your deepest vision and passion. I already have important meetings booked with the girl scouts organization, presentations at conferences including the 7th annual national girl bullying conference + camps and parties on the way.

    Shedding the old skin is invigorating and also leaves me feeling completely exposed. I’m trusting that I am making the right choices + moves and that I am in the right place for me.

    xoxo on Your series + Your vision and stepping out of the box to create something beautiful in everything you’ve learned that is uniquely and brilliantly YOUR OWN!

    LVA-

  7. Nicola says:

    Hey Erin,

    I have only just discovered you. In fact this is the first blog post of your’s I’ve read and wowses what a great first impression! That spa sounds amazing! I’m going to have to see if I can find a Korean Spa in my hometown, Sydney Australia.

    In terms of my Fall (yes it’s coming into winter down here) cleaning I’m letting go of my poor relationship with food in which I use food to find comfort. Instead I want to find other ways to bring sweetness and joy to my life because food just doesn’t cut it. In fact it’s totally ineffective as the instant pleasure of eating the comfort food quickly turns into guilt and self loathing.

    Thanks so much for sharing this post.

    x x

  8. I want to experience that too. It sounds liberating.

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