Ep. 15 -Discovering Self-Love Through Movement: The Bombooty Experience With Shawna Mox Part 1
EPISODE 15-
Discovering Self-Love Through Movement: The Bombooty Experience With Shawna Mox Part 1
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Are you ready to shake things up?
This week, we're diving into the world of Bombooty through movement, self-love, and empowerment with the incredible Shawna Mox, the creator of Bombooty.
Shawna's Bombooty classes and workshops aren't just a workout. They are an electrifying and playful journey that allows you to reconnect with your feminine energy. It's about embracing your wild, fun, and silly side, all while feeling sexy and empowered.
In this episode, we explore:
How you can find healing through movement.
The fascinating origins of twerking… That’s right, it actually has to do with ancient ceremonies and trauma release.
A dance party workout experience like no other merged with the beauty of feminine embodiment – moving in a way that feels good to you.
Shawna takes us on a captivating journey where we challenge stereotypes and explore the athletic and therapeutic benefits of twerking. We dive back into its African roots, discovering that it's not just about looking sexy but a profound tool for emotional release.
But that's not all!
Stay tuned because this is just Part 1 of our conversation.
In the second half, Shawna opens up about her experience with postpartum psychosis – a truly eye-opening and heartfelt discussion you won't want to miss.
So grab your headphones, find a comfy spot, and let's embark on this inspiring journey together!
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Website: mrs-hard.com
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Full Transcript:
Speaker 1: 0:00
Hey everyone. Today I have a very special guest, Shawna Mox. Shawna is a life coach and creator of Bombooty. Through fun and sexy movement, she invites you to connect with your body and call in your feminine energy. Shana offers in-person and virtual classes out of San Luis Obispo, california. You can also buy her twerk tutorials on her website. Yes, I said twerk tutorials. Her work goes way beyond twerking. She creates a healing experience that will fill you with the giggles and self-love. She is also offering a Bombooty instructor training starting October 5th. You can find all these details and more at bombootycom B-O-M-B-O-O-T-Ycom. I'll put a link in the show notes for you. Side note, this is part one of a two-part episode series, so keep your eyes out next week for the second half of our conversation. Let's dive in. Hi, I'm Allesanda Tolomei-Hard, aka Mrs Hard, and this is Hard Times no More, a podcast for people who are tired of struggling with boundaries, people pleasing and relationship problems. I have overcome some hard times. Within three years, I stopped drinking, my mom died of cancer and my house burnt down in a California wildfire, and those are just the highlights. I have a lot of reasons to be miserable, but I'm not. The truth is life was more challenging before these events happened. If you are tired of waiting for your circumstances to change to find happiness and peace of mind, you are in the right place. Join me, as I share the tools I use and love to transform challenges into assets and interview others about their relationship journeys. Together, let's learn how to have a happy life full of healthy, meaningful relationships and say goodbye to hard times for good. I am so excited to have you on the podcast. I'm thrilled to be here and we met recently at the Poppy and Quill retreat and I just loved the movement that you taught all of us and I had never experienced anything like what you teach people through Bomboody, and I'd love for you to tell people more about Bomboody.
Speaker 2: 2:26
Well, thank you for that reflection, because I do this all the time, I forget that it's something that people don't do. So I just I really appreciate that. Yeah, so Bomboody is a I call it a dance party workout experience, where it's really focused on creating a space for people to move in their bodies in a way that feels good. So I would also say that it's like a feminine embodiment practice, and what I mean by that is what I like to distinguish. Masculine movement versus feminine movement is really like lines versus curves, so a lot of masculine based practices would be like running, swimming, you know you're doing the same movement over and over. You're really concerned with form and you're just running the machine right. And I would say most yoga practices you're moving in really distinct planes within your body. So like forward and backward, side to side, and feminine embodiment is more of flow, it's more even like chaos, is more of a feminine energetics. So, like in my practice, we do both, but we really lean in the feminine movements. So we do a lot of hip circles, we do a lot of booty shaking. So I teach a weekly class that you know we do a lot of like okay, freestyle, you know, and my and we don't do any choreo because so it's not like Zumba in that sense, because I the real medicine in my book is getting out of our heads and into our bodies and you can eventually get there with choreo, especially if it's like easy, repeatable choreo. But there's still that process of like, oh, what is the move and am I doing it right and am I not following along with the class? So a lot of my stuff is very much like okay, now we're dipping our hips back and forth and we'll do that for like 30 seconds and then, okay, take our hips to the right. And so it's like and I always tell people at the top of class like this isn't about getting these moves right, this is really about, like, I'm going to turn the music up, music's going to be loud, you guys, and this is about being inspired by what I'm doing to find what feels good in your body and it's fun. I play music that I like to jam to and really like it was my whole interest in starting to teach dance. Party workouts came from. You know, I grew up athletic, I grew up playing sports and in gymnastics and stuff, but as a young adult I didn't have like a regular workout routine. I surfed, so when the surf was good, I was active and my body really loves being active, but I, like my mind is like, nah, I want to like be on the couch, and so I've. I've never been a gym person, I've never been one to like take up running or anything like that. So I really. But I loved going out dancing and I didn't even grow up a dancer. That's the other thing people don't sometimes know about me is like I didn't grow up dancing. I grew up in gymnastics, but I love going out and just like getting loose on the dance floor. And so I remember thinking, oh man, if I could just have this as my workout, I'd be set. But there was nothing like that when I live and I I ended up seeing a video on Facebook, for the program is called Hot Booty Yoga and it was based out of Hawaii and it was like they were just doing like these yoga, but hip circles to like biggie Smalls, and I was like what is that? Like that's the workout class I would go to. So that was like back in 2015. Lots of evolution and growth since then, but at the at the end of the day, movement is medicine and joyful movement is medicine, and I feel like a lot of people have this relationship to working out an exercise to where they they enjoy the benefits of it but they don't actually enjoy the act of it, and so that gets that trips people up a lot of the time and so I'm really like I'm too stubborn to not enjoy the act of it. Like I, like my willpower, is not programmed to like just do the workout and then you'll feel good. So that's why this really works for me, because as soon as I get there even if I have resistance to teaching, like, like my dogs are being cute and I just want to cuddle and blah, blah, blah as soon as I get there and turn on the music, it's game on, like I'm so grateful that I'm there and I'm moving my body. So that's, that's a little snippet of what I do.
Speaker 1: 7:46
Yeah, and it was so much fun during the workshop and so energizing and so much different than anything I'd ever experienced and I loved what you talked about in regards to the history of twerking. Will you share what you shared at the retreat?
Speaker 2: 8:02
Yeah, absolutely. So. You know, as I talked about, I got started with this program called hot booty yoga, which was Kundalini yoga, fitness dance and ass shaking Like we were. We were twerking in this program and I just started doing it and kind of like got bit by like the addiction of twerking, like I just started getting crazy about it and like YouTubeing how do I do this? And and then in my journey I also got really interested in the history of twerking, like what is, what is? What are the roots of this movement? And what I learned was across many cultures there there is a hip centric movement. So if you think of like Tahitian dance has hip centric movements and like twerking specifically really has a lot of roots in African culture and so this is like thousands and thousands and thousands of years, tribes in Africa have been shaking their ass one way or another, and the modern narrative of what twerking is and who twerks and who's allowed to twerk and all and what does it mean about somebody who does twerk, is really surface level and shallow in my opinion. You know, a lot of it's like oh, twerking is just for hose or whatever. Or like I've put stuff out there and people are like I wouldn't be caught dead twerking, and I'm like why not? Like I'm actually in a DM conversation with somebody who I invited to my class I'm doing a class down in San Diego and he was like I'm not really into like booty shaking, goodness. And I was like he's like this gay dude that I know like why not Just from like a, just like from a market, you know, market research perspective? I get that there's like a lot of resistance out there and a lot of the twerk fitness programs really brand themselves on like what I would call like hot girl shit, which is like come here and like learn to move your body in a sexy way. Nothing wrong with that. It's just like an incomplete picture of what twerking is. And the history of twerking is rooted in ceremony where women would come together in circle and they would shake their ass to call in fertility, celebrate fertility, connect with Earth spirit, connect with each other, to also it also it's a way to kind of embody like body. Autonomy is also one of the flavors of it. So it's in that spirit that I share this movement and I teach this movement and I integrate it into my classes. And if you want to go shake your ass for somebody and feel hot, doing it like that's your prerogative, like I just I really stress that that's not, that's not the number one thing that we're doing here. Plus, what I say is the like the current narrative that I was speaking about. It misses the fact that twerking is insanely athletic, like the people who are masterful at twerking have legs like no other, like it's the ultimate leg day exercise in my opinion, and and it's so fun that you like trick yourself into working harder, in that sense, right. And also there's these really deep healing benefits of shaking your body. Even, like you know, there's there's, there's a company that goes into war torn countries and they teach people how to release trauma through their body and what they teach people is they shake their bodies. So maybe not specifically ass shaking, but they are. You know, they're shaking their hands, they're shaking, they're bouncing. And if you think about like when, when you see an animal that's really freaked out, like when you see a dog that's like super freaked out, it's shaking, there's the tremors, we've experienced it. Anytime where there's, like you know, high trauma thing actively happening, our bodies will respond with those like trauma shivers I call them, and what our bodies are doing in that moment is trying to release what's actively traumatizing us. And so many of us cruise through this world with a lot of you know like we're emotional beings, so we have these emotional responses to the things that go on in the world, but we're also like living full lives and we have to show up for our jobs or our families or whatever our businesses, and so we don't have time to like deal with our feelings and so many of us. They don't just go away, they just get stored in our bodies somewhere. And so the shaking and the twerking, specifically the, the like booty shaking, it's a great way. I call it the, the energetic exfoliation of our chakra system, and so it's just a great like I'll tell people at the beginning of class like, hey, we're going to have a good time, we're going to shake our ass, we're going to jiggle, we're going to giggle, it's going to be awesome. And when we lay down at the end of class or maybe on your ride home, you might experience intense emotions and just know that that's like a super normal thing and what's happening is anything that's that you're holding right now, in this moment, we're going to literally shake it up, and as we shake it up, it has to release through our system in order for it to leave. So I'm like, if this occurs to you, don't freak out, just my, my suggestion is to like all you have to do is not stuff it back down and and the medicine is happening. Right, the healing is happening.
Speaker 1: 14:27
What experiences have you heard from women who've taken your classes in terms of, like, emotional release afterwards?
Speaker 2: 14:34
Yeah. So that's a really great question. I, in my classes, we do have a moment where essentially, we do a shavasana, which is just laying down and having some reflection and stillness time, and in those moments I I've had many women cry, you know, I've, I've, I've cried, you know, just like after, like physically shaking and releasing that way, just having that trigger, the emotional release is, it is the medicine, right? I've had people tell me like, oh, I had such a great time. And then on the ride home I like all this rage about my ex came up and you know I was able to like just allow it and be with it. And then I also tell people I'm like, hey, like I know you're here to work out, but I think ultimately, what we're all here to do is feel good in our bodies and in our lives, and so just know that like the shaking and the movement stuff is another tool in your tool bag. So I'm like, next time you get mad at your partner or your boss, just just like ask for a time out, go use the restroom, get in that, get in like the handicap stall, shake your ass a little bit and like see how it changes your energy in that moment. So those are, those are kind of the ways in which people get that immediate medicine from the movement. And then I've also seen like an overtime transformation and I've experienced this for myself and it literally was the thing that got me into life coaching and transformational work to begin with because, like, over time, I was essentially practicing being in my body and connecting with my body and feeling my body, and then I was moving in ways that made me feel powerful. And then my brain was like huh, I am powerful. And then I was moving in ways that, like we're freeing and expressive and sexy. And then I was like huh, I am free to express, I am free to take up space, I am sexy, like, and these, you know, it was all these were all like these pieces of healing that were coming in with the movement and just like the confidence factor. It was like the confidence factor and then also, you know, I really used to struggle with that inner voice, especially around my body, and like it was just like this constant Are you sure you want to wear that? Or you know you have an exercise today, or are you sure you're going to want to eat that? And it just like this inner bully. That was like incessant. What did you name her? Oh, so part of her is named Sally Sorry for all the Sally's out there. I part of, yeah, part of her, but there's another one. I actually haven't named that one because by the time I got to naming my inner voices, she, that part of me, really had very little volume and that's that is like, over the longterm, like I don't deal with that voice in my head. It's not because, like my body's in better shape or like, yeah, my body, I feel good in my body and maybe it looks a little bit better because I'm taking better care of it. But that wasn't the cause of that relationship changing. The cause of it changing was literally just just being being with my body and being like, oh, it's more, it's more than what it looks like. You know, yeah, like there's value here beyond what it just looks like, like I and function, like all these functions, and it allows me to express and like. This is why, okay, I'm already on a soapbox, but I'm about to like step up on the soapbox, because the reason I'm so obsessed with sharing this practice with people is because, like I'm in a lot of personal development circles I think I shared with you. I went through an extensive life coach training program and all this stuff. I have all these colleagues who are personal development junkies like me and I feel like the embodiment piece and like our relationship to our bodies is something that gets kind of skipped over. Like a lot of personal development, our people are like still really heady in like analyzing this and behavior, changing that and creating the structure for this, which is like all valuable. But if we are not right with our bodies, if we have a disempowered relationship with our own meat suit, this is the thing we experience life through. So if that's unhealthy or if that is needing healing, I won't even say it's unhealthy. If it's needing healing, it's gonna color every experience of our life. So it really like for me it feels like this pressing, unavoidable thing that we all deal with and then a lot of us aren't even talking about it. So that's kind of why I step and I'd love to hear it, because I know you're up in this world too, so I'd love to hear with that.
Speaker 1: 20:25
Yeah, I think so many of us approach our problems in a backwards way and we don't mean to Like, we focus on the exterior and we think if we can accomplish X, y, z, then we'll be satisfied. And for me, that's what kept me miserable for so long. And like, once you learn to do the internal work and once you learn to be present to your body, your reality, what's going on? And sometimes that seems so scary and our mind tells us no, don't go there, it's not safe, don't be in your body, it's not safe. And sometimes that's a coping mechanism because of past trauma where our boundaries were violated and our body was not a safe place. And what I loved about your workshop was it didn't feel like a workout, it felt so fun. And then, especially because it was all women, like you could be silly, shake your ass and you didn't have to be guarded or thinking about like, is this okay to do? And especially because we were in a group where people were excited to try it on and try new things. And so just the energy it created and the safety it created, because for some of us, like a percentage of the population especially, it's like so hard to be in our body and I believe that's partly constitutional, like something we were born with. Other people get a little bit too heavy in their body and need to move to their mind more. But I agree with what you're saying with we can focus so much on the mind and changing the mind where the solution is another layer, deeper, and I loved doing the workshop before your movement and doing movement after the heady stuff. But when I experienced that I like felt I never wanna do a soulful workshop again without movement. Afterwards it integrated the work so much more seamlessly or like it brought us into like our body, which I can't find the words to describe it, but it was just like so much more fulfilling and it resonated on a deeper level. Maybe we'll find the words later, but Well.
Speaker 2: 22:37
I wanna tag onto that, because a lot of the headiness like writing and reflecting and kind of digging in to our hearts and our minds, is like an inside out, even like meditation. It's like an inside out type of way and the movement is really an outside in type of way, and so having both of them together is just so potent and powerful. There's lots of roads to healing, right, you can meditate, you can journal, you can move your body, you can have a meaningful conversation with somebody, you can get a deep hug from somebody. There's like so many roads to healing and so layering them is always gonna be more potent. And so it's like the things that we were talking about, like, for example, disempowering voices that are inside of our head, right, and these disempowering, limiting beliefs that we have. Well, we can take that work and then we can move. We can like what if that didn't exist in your body? Like, how would you like interpretive dance?
Speaker 1: 23:48
this thing adds a modality to really integrating the like all the ahas that you get, you know, yeah, and that reminds me also of like this one time I had a back injury and I went to this acupuncturist and she was maybe the like third or fourth practitioner I'd seen trying to heal my back and she wanted me to dance into the pain. And when we have pain in our body, like physical pain, chronic pain, we're so protective of that area and sometimes it's actually better to move into that area and to release all of that hyper stabilization that's going on in the muscles. And that's also like what I felt, like that happens in the mind as well. Like we get so fixated on these layers you're talking about and like it's like integrating them in further when we have the movement and feel good, moving in a healthy way, because we don't do that so much in our day to day.
Speaker 2: 24:50
Totally. And I also just want to highlight I know I said it earlier in the conversation, but the joy factor and like I remember it a couple of years ago, it was like after I had started teaching, I was like joy is medicine and it was like this like thing that hit me upside the head where exactly that like we get so just like used to. Okay, these are the things that we have to do for our responsibilities and like we're adults now, like I have this big story that like adulting is serious and like it has to be hard and like all these you know, I shared some of that during our workshop but really like, when I can tap into joy and play and move and this dance practice has like strengthened my access to it right as opened up my access to joy and joy in my body and when I can get that energy flowing through me, like everything you know, I move into possibility, I move into more courage, because I'm like, oh yeah, I will make a phone call to that person that might want to take this instructor training. You know, when you get into the constriction thing of things, then it's like it's never going to happen, it's never going to work, and then it just like, is that self-feeding downward loop? And so just like that joy factor, you know, I have two toddlers that live with me part time and so I get to see these two and a half year olds. They dance all the time like they dance during a freaking commercial break where there's like a good jam on and it's like we were all like that. This is actually like I'm going to go so far as to say like our birthright, to like move our bodies in a joyful way. And then, you know, as we grow up and as we like start seeing, you know feeling the judgment of the world, feeling judgment of ourselves, feeling judgment of our peers. You know it's like shuts these parts down. And so so, really like part of what I feel like I bring to the table is like we're going to, we're going to get silly. Like you know, bombudy is like a sexy class, but I also I'll, I'll be like, okay, here now we're the funky chicken, and like I kind of just want to break this, like just come get silly with me, it's not that big a deal, and like don't take yourself too seriously. Exactly, and that like reverberates, you know, for for anything that we are self censoring, self constricting. You know, like going to see music, live music, and not moving our bodies, which is just like boggles my mind personally. But I get it because I've been there. You know it's like you're, you're practicing, giving yourself permission in those moments and then it's just like grease is the wheel for that permission to reverberate throughout the rest of your life All right, we're going to pause right there.
Speaker 1: 28:12
Join us next week to hear the rest of Shauna's story as she opens up about her journey with postpartum psychosis. Trust me, this woman has walked through the fire and she has an amazing story about her experience. So until next week, take care.