Stripping With A Passion

The thought of stripping never occurred to me until two years ago. It was never in my purview of things to do or activities that would give me pause to be proud of myself, but for my very first time, I was, and it felt great! There was something very liberating about stripping, about peeling away the layers. At the same time, there was something very frightening about exposing myself and my vulnerabilities. There was nowhere to hide and once it’s all been seen, what’s the point in covering up again. Accepting all that was stripped away gave way to an exhilarating freedom and a new beginning. Therein laid the crux of stripping my way…a more embolden awareness.

At a time of year when most people complicate their lives with unsustainable new year’s resolutions, loftier goals on top of lofty goals, vision boards, planners, and a myriad of how-to guides, self-help books, and journals, it begs the question, have we ever thought about doing the opposite of piling it on? With little consideration given to the added burdens we bring on ourselves from new year’s declarations, I wonder how much thought is given to the freedom that comes with taking away the pressures to declare a newly revised version of self in 30 days or less. Instead of angling to build up the ideal version of self, born out of unrealistic expectations, how about striping down to the authentic self that could be freed to live a more fulfilled life?

That’s where stripping comes in.

Instead of adding unnecessary pressures from creating elaborate resolutions, consider a downshift of sorts. Strip away the parts of ourselves we no longer need--parts of our belief systems, standards, values, and expectations--that no longer or never did serve us well. Because keeping those unnecessary parts begs the question: how long are we willing to wallow in our obsessions, prejudices, bad habits, addictions, and hang ups that were created out of a false sense of security, but that which instead created even more insecurities?

Two years ago, I started stripping like nobody’s business. As difficult as it was sometimes, I bore it all. I was as exposed as a streaker in the middle of a nationally televised football game with a filled-to-capacity stadium. I revealed the deepest parts of my innermost self to the me that wouldn’t, or couldn’t, acknowledge, let alone comfort, that part of me before.

What was about as uncomfortable as carrying an invisible 700-pound monster on my back was carrying the heaviness of a lifetime of fears in my being. For years, I reminded myself I didn’t want to live with lack, pain, anger, angst, and heartache. I wanted that monster off my back. So, overtime, I stripped away the fears and emotions of a scared little girl that sought the approval she didn’t receive growing up. I stripped away the pain, anger, and self-deprecating feelings I felt from all of the “bad” decisions I made and that I allowed others to make for me. I didn’t stop reflecting there. I questioned precepts of Western life according some preordained standard. I stripped away the identities that defined how I lived; the way I saw the world; and the choices I made. I abandoned societal and professional constructs that sought to limit my creativity and new awareness of freedom. I even stripped away the ideals of my most honored roles as daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend to reexamine how the “roles” aligned with my value/belief system. Knowing those roles contributed to my perceptions of the way I viewed the world, I stripped it all away to see who I was without the societal burdens, familiar pressures, and prefabricated responsibilities of those titles. And because they all come with a hefty price to pay from not fixing the broken perceptions of those roles and relationships I assumed, I stripped them all down so I could begin to exhale to new possibilities of redefining those roles and relationships and to open up to a new way of how I see living my life within those roles.

Now, I’m looking forward to rebuilding myself over time on my terms. Leaving yesteryear’s monster behind, I can now plan with good stuff relevant to living a fully actualized life today. Although I’m more prepared to face the ugly monster when it rears its menacing head again, I’m better prepared now to mindfully let it go whenever it surfaces. This ongoing pursuit didn’t just start two years ago and it may continue as long as I live. But what I draw strength from now, is knowing that the monster is nothing more than my self-generated fears that live inside my head. The old me would have thought the monster deserves to be squashed like a bad actor in a bad movie with a poor script about a powerfully ugly monster holding its powerless victim’s dreams, hopes, and desires hostage. The revised me sees the monster, in all its’ splendor, as my friend because it’s a part of me. My tamed friend gently informs me of a fear lurking in an unenlightened crevice of my mind that I can now caringly dismantle.

What I appreciated the most about the process -- sometimes it takes seeing things in a different way to achieve an outcome that’s positive, life changing and lasting. That was the punchline of this story: I had to keep trying until I found the right way to change the stuff that no longer served a purpose in my life. That was an individual journey that only I could pursue… Perhaps, from the courage of stripping, you too will find a way to blaze a new path.

So, I say to you all--instead of dancing like no one is watching--beginning this new year, dance like everybody in the world is watching and you just don’t give a _ _ _ _ what they think! You are embracing an evolving you.

Embrace A Passion For Life,

Dianne Harrison

Founder of Passionary

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