Celebrating Brand New Parts of You

I did my first POLAR PLUNGE yesterday, and I'm still riding high on the thrill of it all. 

Especially because I am NOT a person who does polar plunges. 

Some people run on Dunkin'. (You'll get that reference if you life in Dunkin Donuts country.) I run on SUNSHINE and WARM WEATHER. 

But when my buddy Erika posted that she had just taken a dip in one of our local (frosty) Vermont ponds, my whole body said, YESSS I WANNA DO THAT TOO!! I was lit up from within. My eyes were wide open, my smile was beaming, and my heart was pumping with excitement! I messaged her right away, and invited myself to go with her the following day. 

The moment she said YES, LET'S DO IT, my brain said, WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU THINKING, STASIA? YOU HATE THE COLD, YOU CAN'T DO THIS. And just like that, my body shut down.

My posture slumped over, I felt dejected and stupid and wimpy, and my armpits started sweating. 

THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND. 

That initial well of excitement was fleeting. And REAL. 

It wasn't dumb or stupid or naive or fantastical. It was UNTARNISHED. 

The second my brain got hold of this swimming-in-icy-cold-water-in-December idea, it started going through old memory-files and found about a zillion of them that said STASIA HATES COLD WATER, so it did what any good brain would do, and FLOOD MY BODY WITH HATE-MEMORIES, so I'd remember what's what. That's why that lit-up-from-within feeling disappeared so quickly. 

Because I've been studying how brains works for a while now, I was able to observe this evolutionarily-advantageous-survival-instinct in action.

And because my 2024 word of the year is EXPRESSION, I knew that listening to my body's CLEAN + CLEAR excitement was the only way forward. 

So yesterday, I jumped in the car, drove to South Pond with my buddy Erika, and took a dip in the pond not once, but TWICE!! 

And guess what? 

I LOVED IT. 

I loved feeling the cold air against by naked body. I loved how AWAKE I felt as I ran into the icy waters and dipped in up to my shoulders. I loved how strong I felt as my good legs carried me out of the water. I loved standing there, wet + naked, realizing that I didn't have a single goosebump on my body. (WHAT?? I wasn't cold? Bodies are amazing!!) I loved that feeling of wanting to DO IT AGAIN. I loved DOING IT AGAIN, staying in longer this time. I loved that after our second dip, we howled together (awoooo), our voices echoing across the pond. I loved noticing how not-sticky my wet body was, as I slipped into my warm and dry clothes. I loved the feeling of my toes thawing out when I turned on the car's heater. I LOVED IT ALL. 

Since yesterday, I've replayed the experience in my head 100 times, making sure to attach EACH OF THOSE GOOD FEELINGS to this new memory, so that next time I think about jumping into cold icy waters, my brain has a new set of super-charged memories to attach to. 

In other words, I am consciously and intentionally updating my brain's memory archives. In real time! By breaking this one memory down into a dozen (or more!) mini-memories, and then attaching each of those mini-memories to a feeling, I've stacked the swimming-in-ice-cold-water-IS-PLEASURABLE memories in my favor!

How cool is that? 

This isn't just a Stasia-thing. You can do this too! 

Right now, I invite you to think of ONE THING that your body says HELL YES to, but your brain jumps in and says OH HELL NO YOU DON'T. You might know what old memories your brain is drawing on to shut down your body's hell yes, but then again, you might not. Doesn't really matter. What matters is YOU HAVE A CHOICE. You can lean into that HELL YES and collect some new data (aka: new memories). Maybe you'll do the NEW THING and hate it, and realize your brain was right all along. But MAYBE you'll do the NEW THING and LOVE IT!! If that happens (and it probably will), I invite you to break that good memory down into as many tiny-memories as you can, attach feelings to each of those tiny-memories, and LOG ALL OF THAT JUICY GOODNESS into your memory banks. (You can do that by writing about it, telling a detailed story about it, or just replaying it in your head.) 

I think it is SO COOL that I went from being a person who doesn't do polar plunges, to being a person who LOVES THEM. 

I met a whole brand new part of myself yesterday, and I love her so much. 

My question for you is... WHAT BRAND NEW PARTS OF YOU ARE READY TO BE SEEN? TO BE CELEBRATED? TO BE LOVED BY YOU.

I run Style School a few times a year. If you wanna learn how to start saying YES! and celebrating yourself, then sign up for my emails and I’ll let you know the dates for the next session, and I’ll see you in there!

xo Stasia

PS. If you've got a bestie or an aunt or a sissy or a buddy whole would benefit from learning to lean into that HELL YES and collect some new data (aka: new memories), I invite you to share this blog post with them. We are all in this together. When I heal myself, I love BOTH OF US more.