Latest / The Priestess Temple Podcast / Ep 3: The Secret to Manifesting Your Dream Body Is Desire
Transcript
- Embodied By Jenna: Today, we are gonna talk about something that is near and dear to my heart, and that is desire-based wellness. Girl, I'm telling you, this is the secret sauce to manifesting your dream body. So let's get into it. First off, I wanna talk a little bit about wellness culture and perfectionism and toxic. Standards when it comes to starting a new diet, lifestyle, or wellness routine. Okay. We have all been there when we are really motivated to make a change in our life and we maybe want to start a new workout plan. Okay. And so you buy the new leggings and you get the gym membership. And you start running on the treadmill, and it's all going great for a few days, right? And then all of a sudden, by like day three, you wake up and you're feeling really sore and tired. And the thought of going into the gym just makes your skin crawl, right? And then you make yourself go and you're there and you're looking at these like disgusting weights that have who knows what germs all over them. And the thought of, Touching them literally gives you the heebie jeebies. And so you look at the weights, you look at your leggings, you look in the mirror and you're like, I'm gonna get the fuck out of here. And you leave. And then you decide to take a rest day the next day and the next day and the next day until it spirals and you realize that you forgot you even had a gym membership. And you only pull out that pair of leggings you bought for when you have a movie night and you're getting all cozy on the couch. Okay. We have all been there before. And I think this is something that we need to bring light to in order to make real sustainable positive behavior changes in our lives. Trust me, as a dietitian, people are sometimes really afraid to come talk to me because the first thing they say. When they come in for a session, is well, I don't like carrots. And I'm like, okay, well, did I tell you you had to eat fucking carrots? No, I didn't. It's just that when we think about the behavior change process, especially when it comes to health and wellness, we think about all the shit that we have to do that we really don't want to do. Give up our favorite foods, start eating vegetables that we don't like, do workouts that we hate just to fit into the ideal. Of what the perfect fit person's life would be like. Okay. Well, I'm gonna say right now to you, fuck that. That shit fucking sucks. And that's why a lot of people are afraid to see dietitians or start going to the gym. And so this is where we enter into something I like to call desire-based wellness. And desire-based wellness is the Key to sustainable behavior change because it starts with you doing the shit that you genuinely want to do. That's right, my friend. Believe it or not, you don't have to do all the things that everybody else is doing. You can actually deflect to your own internal authority and make decisions that are going to fit with your lifestyle and your current desires. To get you down the path of transformation that you so desire. So I'm going to tell you a story from my own personal life. And then I'm going to give you tips on how to implement desire-based wellness into your lifestyle so that you can start making sustainable behavior change today on the road to bad bitch embodiment. So, this is something that has been quite alive for me in recent weeks because I have joined a dance team. And as part of that dance team, every week we get a weekly workout. And so these workouts started off small and they've increased over time. But the first task that we had to do was complete 100 jumping jacks per day. Yes. That's right. I said it. A hundred jumping jacks per day. And when I first got assigned this task, I was in shock and awe and disgust. And I had to work through all of these feelings to come out on the other side of, okay, you know what? A hundred jumping jacks, it takes a minute and 20 seconds. It's not that bad. I can do it. Let me try it. So day one starts. I wake up in the morning, I do the hundred jumping jacks. I am gasping for breath. My tits are hitting me in the face. I'm jumping up and down all around and I complete the task in a minute and 20 seconds. And in our dance group, we have this little group chat where we put an exercise emoji that says to everyone else, the task has been completed. So I put in my little exercise emoji. I feel so good about myself and I go on with my day. And then the next day, and guess what? I'm supposed to do a hundred more jumping jacks. And I thought of doing these jumping jacks. And I fucking do them. Okay. I do the jumping jacks. I'm sweating. Again, my tits are hitting my face. I'm bouncing all around. I check it off the box. Day three comes. I do the jumping jacks. Cool. I still feel the same way about it. I still fucking hate it. It's not getting any easier. It's definitely not something I enjoy. And I feel like I'm just doing it to fit in with the group. And so I think I made it maybe like five days. And then it was the weekend. And I'm, you know, out and about doing my thing. And I don't do the jumping jacks. And I'm like, ⁓ shit. I didn't do them. I didn't check in the group. I'm not gonna lie. Right. But then the next day I wake up and I'm like, okay, I better do these goddamn jumping jacks. And so I film my ⁓ self on an Instagram story, right? So I film myself on an Instagram story and I'm there. I'm doing the jumping jacks in the public. I tag the dance group. I'm like in the public eye doing these jumping jacks, hoping that maybe that will help me to be more encouraged to maintain this behavior change. And I do the jumping jacks the next day. And then the day after that, I'm like, fuck it. Nope. Don't do them. And then I don't do them again. And then I don't do them again. And then I'm like feeling guilty because I'm like, wow, I just made this whole video about me doing these damn jumping jacks and I'm not doing the jumping jacks. Like, what the hell is wrong with me? Right. And so it's like sending me into this guilt and shame spiral. And I'm just like, ⁓ my God, is like my coach gonna be mad at me for not doing these jumping jacks? But then I look in the in the group chat, and out of the nine girls that I have this task to do, there's only two girls that are doing it regularly. Okay. The other seven of us said fuck it to the jumping jacks. And so it really got me thinking, right, about desire based wellness and behavior change. Because, you know. The whole jumping jack thing, it's just so not me. It's nothing that I desire to do. It's nothing that I would ever think to do in my mind and all of my wild thoughts that I think every day. I th I think a lot of crazy shit, but I would never think about doing a hundred jumping jacks. And then I thought, okay, well, the whole point of doing the hundred jumping jacks is to increase my cardiovascular fitness. So that I can become a better dancer and have more endurance. So then I'm like, okay, well, let's start thinking about shit that I like to do that is going to help increase my cardiovascular endurance. And through this desire based wellness philosophy, where I stop doing shit I don't want to do, which is the jumping jacks, and I start doing shit that I want to do. Ooh, this is when things get juicy. Okay. So there's a few things that I really like to do that involve cardio. The first of which I love to walk. Like if you guys are on my Instagram at all, embodied by Jenna, I always do walk and talks. I love to be outside. I love to be in the park. And so every day when it's nice out, I go on a nice long walk. So I decided that I was going to increase the distance that I walk. That's the first thing. The second thing, I love to go in the sauna. Like I just love the heat. I love sweating. And the sauna really increases my cardiovascular endurance. And so I decided that I was going to extend my sauna sessions by a couple minutes each time so that I could increase my heart rate and increase my cardio. And then the third thing, I love pole dancing. It is my favorite. Way to work out. And so I'm like, okay, let me take an extra pole dancing class this week so I can really have the benefits of the cardiovascular activity and the dance fluidity as opposed to doing the jumping jacks. And now these three things the walking, the sauna, and the pole dancing, I can do forever. I look forward to them. It is not a task or a burden at All for me to engage in these activities. And so it is incredibly sustainable because it's something I yearn to do. I desire, I find a lot of pleasure and joy in these activities, unlike the hundred motherfucking jumping jacks. And so when we're thinking about desire based wellness, the concept seems a little Crazy to some people because we think that we need to be our own drill sergeant and make ourselves do shit that we don't want to do. Now that's not the case. I encourage you to start doing shit you want to do, but here's the deal it needs to be a little stretchy. Okay. Like you can't stay comfortable and make changes, right? So the the activities that I talked about with walking, I increase the distance I walk. So I'm going further, my legs are sore after the sauna. I increase my time in the sauna. So I am stretching and expanding my cardiovascular capacity and pole dancing. Woo! Well, you try and do a whole bunch of leg waves, okay, with a seven-inch heel on and then tell me how you feel. Right. So I'm not staying comfortable. And I think that is something we have to get very clear about when we are engaging in desire based wellness. I want you to do things that you genuinely yearn to do, but I want you to get a little bit uncomfy them because it's going to make you better at the things that you want to do. And that is very beautiful. So I want you to really deflect to your own internal authority here again. First, to discern what is going to be best for you. Because at the end of the day, right, my coach wants me to be a better dancer. And would a hundred jumping jacks perhaps make me a better dancer? Yes, if I did them every day, it would increase my cardiovascular capacity. And there's a lot of benefits to doing a hundred jumping jacks. First off, you don't need any equipment. Second off, it takes a minute and 20 seconds. ⁓ and third off, you know, it's Pretty And third off, there was the benefit of like the group camaraderie, right? So it was nice to be part of the team and engage with my coach and the other girls. So those were definitely the benefits. But when I look at the costs, it was making me fucking miserable. I felt like a loser. I felt like guilt and shame because I wasn't able to keep up with this standard that had been prescribed for me against my will. And it just wasn't sustainable, right? Because I was dreading it. And so when you engage in any activity for your health and wellness, you have to really weigh the costs and the benefits to determine if it's going to be the best course of action for you. And this is why I love working with coaches, not because I want them to tell me what to do, but rather I really like. Co-creating. And this is something I want you to take from this episode. Okay. When you hire a coach or a guide, they are a mirror. They mirror back your highest self to you. They show you the potential that lives within side of you that maybe you could not see on your own. And that, my friends, is a very beautiful thing. So I definitely recommend hiring coaches and guides to help you on your journey. But instead of making them be put on a pedestal so they're above you and you are just listening to every single thing that they say, I want you to put them down as your equal and look at it as a collaboration and a co creation process. You see, because through my coach's prescription, Of the hundred jumping jacks. I learned a lot about myself, right? I learned about what I like and what I don't like and what my capacity is. But I also was then able to increase the other activities that I enjoy. So she didn't tell me to increase my walking or my sauna or my pole dance, but these were something I did through her suggestion of the hundred jumping jacks. So, do you see what I'm saying here? It's not that you have to listen to everything that a coach or guide tells you a hundred percent. No, rather take inspiration from them as your co-creator and then tie in this concept of desire based wellness so that you can expand your capacity to do the things you love on the path towards being your biggest, baddest, bitchiest. Self. ⁓ Because when we love the activities that we are engaging in to promote our health and wellness, well, then that becomes incredibly sustainable. And sustainability is the name of the game, my friend. Because if you want to manifest your dream body, the activities that you engage in. You have to be able to do for the long term, and dare I say forever. And that, my friends, is why desire-based wellness is it. So, in summary, I want you to think about the changes that you really want to make in your life. Think about where you are currently and where you desire to go. And through this Concept of desire-based wellness, pick one thing that you really love to do and do it in a way that increases your capacity to help you expand and move towards the place that you desire to be in. Through that repetition, you'll be surprised at how much you can change your life in a very short amount of time through feeling pleasure. By honoring your desire and increasing your capacity to hold more, to do more and to be more. This was such a good conversation. And we are definitely going to talk about this on future episodes of the podcast. So, my friends, until next time, you're a bad bitch. Don't you ever forget it.