News from the Fox(y)hole: Recent Badass Classes and Chimera Self-Defense Workshop
Hey everyone! The Badass Class in February on Self Love, the Badass Class on the Pelvic Floor for March, and the Chimera Self-Defense workshop for middle-school girls were all SO GOOD.
First I want to talk about the Badass Classes (scroll way down for more on the Self Defense Workshop)! The women in our community are wonderful storytellers and educators- and it surprises me to no end just how generous they are with their time and knowledge.
Badass Class: Self Love
This class featured five women sharing their journeys, both past and present, towards self-love. The recurring themes for the night that I picked up on were:
Adversity, trauma, and pain are ever-present in all of our stories- the scale of those is variable, but we should never discount the stories we all have to share.
Sharing is healing to yourself and others. Brene Brown says “If you don’t own your story, your story will own you”.
Learning to face challenges with grace & acceptance takes practice, but can bring a whole lot of wisdom.
Self-Love is ongoing, shifting and developing- it is not a linear process nor a finite endpoint.
Forgiveness is key for self-love to flourish: of yourself and others.
Learning how to stop negative self talk is obtainable and encouraged goal to set!
Our community is strong and fierce and willing to put the time in to make progress towards self-love and acceptance.
This night would have been nothing but for the willingness of these five women to share personal stories of their lives and answer questions from the audience. I was floored by how articulate ALL five women were- and by how little of someone’s experience we really know if we don’t give them the time and space to share it. Each speaker talked for 18 minutes (a random amount of time, I know) and could have easily shared for much longer. We’ll have to have more events like- we all have so much to learn from each other! I know I cried a fair amount, listening to the power of their stories, and I know I was far from the only one to connect emotionally to their stories.
Check out the work of the five badass speakers, they are all so talented!:
The Badass Class: Pelvic Floor
Seen here are my friends being a uterus and a bladder during the Pelvic Floor workshop. Jessica was walking us through pelvic floor anatomy. I got to be the rectum (highlight of my day!), but I had to stop being a butt so I could take this pic.
This workshop was this past weekend and was so educational and fun! Jessica Dufault, a physical therapist from Mindful Motion, taught the class and answered lots of questions (some of them very personal!). She is a very talented and empathetic presenter, and I’m so grateful she came to Foxy to share! There was A LOT of laughter and also a lot of “Aha” moments. I taught prenatal yoga for years and always emphasized Kegels. Turns out there is WAY more to this topic (and Kegels might not actually be that useful, especially since many women do them incorrectly!). In this workshop, we really just learned about the tip of the iceberg (or really the tip of the pelvic floor I suppose), and I really want to host a second class on this topic soon. Here are my takeaways from the workshop:
Our bodies are hella complex
Peezing (sneeze peeing) is not normal even though soooo many of us experience this after childbirth. PT can really help take care of this and other pelvic floor symptoms
Sucking in our bellies is messing with us…big time! Our diaphragm needs the full space to expand and recoil. So when we are engaging our belly muscles and pelvic floor muscles it doesn’t allow the breath to be as full and that just messes with us.
There are so many symptoms that can be alleviated by strengthening our pelvic floor- including jaw pain!
There are a lot of descriptors related to the pelvic floor that really should be punk or metal band names: East of the Anus, Plugging Three Holes…there were a few more that I can’t remember right now, but of course they were all related to the butt and vulva (if you went to the class and you do remember please message me and I’ll add it here!).
It’s never ever too late to educate yourself and strengthen your pelvic floor!
Chimera Self-Defense Workshop for Middle-School Girls
Our Chimera instructor showing the girls how to be assertive
and STRONG.
Finally a shout-out to the PHENOMENAL women at Rape Crisis Center for leading a Chimera self-defense class for middle-school girls. I think this was actually my favorite thing that has happened at Foxy so far!
All the girls learned a lot, and we had a lot of fun too. We spent much of the time learning how to deescalate situations before they become physical. We were taught how to avoid being meek, making excuses, and apologizing. We practiced shouting NO! over and over, just to hear our voices and practiced actually spreading out to take up our share of physical space. This was SO empowering and uplifting. The goal is to be assertive without being aggressive when possible. It’s a fine line, but an important one. We acted out a lot of scenarios over and over- both the teachers showing and then the girls practicing together, like:
what happens when a kid keeps touching you
what do you if someone asks you to dance and you don’t want to
if someone grabs your butt
if someone follows you
if someone talks to you at a bus stop and you don’t want to engage
if someone tries to kidnap you (this one was both empowering and hilarious- all the girls tried together to force the instructor into the back of her car and weren’t able to do it- she was a tiny woman and showed how hard it can be to move someone if they are putting up a lot of resistance).
Even though this workshop was specifically for middle-school girls I learned a TON. The Rape Crisis Center runs a 12 hour course for anyone over age 12 and I am definitely going to take that with my teenage daughter. And soon Foxy is going to offer a 3-hour self-defense workshop for women. But in the meantime I’m so glad that the girls got this information. It’s so important for them to know how to stand up for themselves. Girls and woman are often taught to be polite and this is why it’s important to practice these skills- we’re not responsible for other people’s feelings. We can de-escalate and get power back is dicey situations. Some of the big tips for the workshop:
Maintain steady eye contact, confidence
Tall strong posturing
Make yourself seen, don’t hide in the shadows
Confront people if they make you uncomfortable
Use powerful statements, not questions- “I need you to take a step back” not “Could you take a step back?”
We don’t need to apologize for making our needs clear
Asking them questions turns the power dynamic around
Ok, that was a lot to take in. Thanks for taking the time to read through. We have other events coming up soon! The Badass Class: Anti-racism workshop will be on April 19 and registration is open! As always, let me know if you have any Qs, or just want to say “hey”.
xoxo, Maureen