ļ»æOUTLINE
0:00:00 Introduction to the Erin Davis show and the topic of money, mindset, and confidence
0:00:51 Introduction of guest Emma Walken Shaw
0:01:25 Emma's background and journey - from hairdresser to life coach to yoga teacher and retreat host
0:07:44 The connection between body acceptance, money mindset, and self-worth
0:11:25 Societal messages about beauty, aging, and money for women
0:15:20 Emma's approach to managing her money mindset and finances
0:23:10 Empowering conversations with Emma's children about finances
0:31:12 Emma's upcoming "Body Love Boot Camp" program
0:38:45 The importance of intuition and self-acceptance
0:45:04 Emma's "21 Minutes of Morning Magic" daily practice
0:46:30 Where to find Emma's programs and resources
THE ERIN DAVIS SHOW
Erin Davis
Today, I have the most beautiful guest with me today. Emma Walkinshaw, who is a transformational coach, a yoga instructor, a retreat host and an author, her passion is guiding women to elevate their self awareness and self confidence, challenging the toxic diet culture and encouraging the acceptance of their authentic selves. I am really excited for this conversation. So thank you very much, Emma for joining me.
Emma Walkinshaw
Thanks, Erin, wonderful to be here.
Erin Davis
Do you want to expand on that little bio? There are some beautiful things there. You know, an author and retreat host, you just seem to be doing it all well.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yes, I I'm a lover of working with women much like yourself, and I do believe there's value in empowering women so then they can make decisions to live a life that they love, and starting to, you know, the body acceptance stuff. I guess I have been a business owner since I've been 23 my first business. I was a hairdresser in my past life, and that's where I really learnt to be a life coach, I always say. And then I realised that was real. Yeah, that was my absolute. It wasn't just an apprenticeship in hair, it was an apprenticeship in people, which was great. So I really enjoyed that. And then I had my own salon for five years.
Fast forward. I had two beautiful children and I was a contractor. I then shifted gears, and I decided I didn't want to be a hairdresser anymore, so I started to work. I went back and studied, got my training certificate and studied to be a life coach, and then got a role working with long term unemployed people. So I would run very simple soft skill courses, like first impressions, interviewing skills. Also I taught retail, like search in retail and business, and really enjoyed that. And then my husband and I decided he had a career where he'd been a solicitor, and then he went back to university and became a town planner, and said, I am going to open a business. So I thought, I'll leave training, which I'd been contracting for around six years. And in this time, I thought, Okay, I'm going to work in the town planning office with him. But the problem with that was, Erin, it's so boring. I was used to talking to people all the time, having a fatal time, and then town planning. Oh my goodness, it was incredibly quiet in the office. And, you know, we've grown the business, and we have staff now but really, so I thought, oh my gosh, I was having, like, a midlife crisis going on my whole life. Yeah, I'm like, this is not going to cut it. So anyway, I thought to myself I happen to be just listening to a, well, it was like back then, so that was nine, that was 11 years ago, so podcasts weren't as popular, but it was Hay House Radio.
So for our listeners, Louise, beautiful. Louise Hay. I was listening to Hay House Radio, and there was a transformational coach speaking called Jennifer Grace, and she said, I'm taking a group of women to India to do a little bit of yoga, some photography, and some contribution work. And you're I love working with women around their intuition. And this was one of those intuition moments. And it certainly wasn't a shout. It was a very quiet voice that said, you're going. I thought, oh my goodness, I'm going to India. So that night, I said to my husband, darling, have you ever wanted to go to India? He's like, Oh no, I think I've got some other countries on my list before India. And he said, Well, what about you? And I said, Well, it's a matter of fact today. Anyway, the long, the short of it is, six weeks later, I landed in India, joining this group of women.
So India, from that moment, really did steal my heart. And I had a very strong practice of yoga. And what I mean by strong practice, I. Don't mean I can do headstands. I was very committed and consistent. I love yoga. I love the philosophy of yoga. I love the ethos. I love all that comes with it.
So I arrived over there and had this incredible time. And while I was there, Jennifer Grace, who I went with, had said to me, what are you doing with your life? And I said, Oh, this town planning gig, it's, you know, it's horrific. I love my husband, but shape as I've you know, there's gotta be more to life than this. Anyway, I came home and she had a program that she ran, and she said, why don't you take it to Australia and run it? So I started to do that, which was all around helping women find clarity and some just really great life coaching tools and helping people kind of set a goal and finish a goal. So I started to deliver that, and then became a yoga teacher. And you, it's things that you plant little seeds in your life, don't you?
So I, I'd said when I was in India 11 years ago, I am going to bring some women here one day. So that's what I do now. That's the retreat part of my business. So I'm a yoga teacher. So I teach online now, but in between that, I actually opened a yoga studio, which I sold last year. I had it. In between all of this jazz, I had a yoga studio and pilates reformer studio for almost four years. So Yeah, I came back from India and then studied to be a yoga teacher, opened a yoga studio, then did an expansion of that yoga studio. So I had a little yoga studio, and I grew out of that, then I took on Reformer. So in four years, I had Studio One, then shut that one down and expanded it, opened a double the size, and then sold that last year. So that was an incredible journey.
So during that time, I worked with a lot of women, of course, and the one thing I noticed when I started to become a yoga teacher was that I really can't become a yoga teacher because I'm a size 14, size 14, size 16. And then, but I went ahead anyway. I got the courage up, and I went ahead anyway, and had this wonderful, beautiful, thriving business. And each time a woman would step into my yoga studio, and if it was their first time, they would all apologise for their body, and it would sound like this, oh, hi, I'm here for yoga, but I'm really not that good at it, you know, I'm here, I'm not very flexible, I'm here. I'm a little bit overweight, I'm here, I'm too short, I'm too tall, I'm too fat, I'm too skinny, I'm too this, I'm too that, and I'm old, I'm young. It was everything in between.
That's when I really started to deepen my work around empowering women with their body image as it had been, has been my story my whole life. And then that courage to keep stepping forward and really challenge beauty standards. And we just had a conversation about finances, and I feel that they are so closely aligned. Erin, I feel like we could have a conversation around ageism, beauty standards and diet culture. And let's even now put money stories of women in there, and the whole, I guess you and like I just said to you before, about when we get these visions of powerful people with money, it's men.
Erin Davis
It's never I know and it, and it really brings up those insecurities, doesn't it because of what we've had in childhood, what our past experiences have been. You know, it even goes further back than that, and they're talking epigenetics, what is passed through DNA, through our chromosomes, all of that type of thing is that trauma is being held within our bodies. And it may not even be our trauma, it's somebody else's trauma, but we're experiencing it. So I love that connection between, you know, body acceptance and money and ageing and all of those things. It's really comes back to self love and self worth. Do you agree?
Emma Walkinshaw
And like you and I also think, just when you're talking then about lineages back, what has been some of the messaging, stay young, hot and beautiful and get a rich man. What? What about be whatever you want to be, and make your own money?
We've never had that message, have we like lineage back? It's always been, oh God. And my mother used to say to me all the time, Oh, you better marry a man with money, Emma, because you like to spend. That was what she would say to me and and you know, even the other sayings that I'm thinking is too, it's easier to fall in love with a rich man than it is a poor man. You're all of this messaging which is taking a woman's power away, as you know a woman, it's almost the messaging of the diet culture, beauty industry has been, stay hot whatever you do, do not age and do not lose your looks and keep your figure, because you need to keep a man with money.
Erin Davis
Yeah. If you want to attract you and you want to keep a man with money, this is what you need. You have to have this. You have to look a certain way. You have to behave a certain way. You know you can't age. You can't get that grey hair and that wrinkly and a little bit flabby around the middle. None of that, because that's not going to keep or attract a rich man, and then that means that our whole self worth is based on these external things, this external validation, rather than the self acceptance and the self love that we have for ourselves, that we don't need any of those things. We're perfect, just the way we are, and money is that external validation? Yeah.
Emma Walkinshaw
And the story or feeding a new story to ourselves and to our daughters or and our sons is, if you want the bucks, you can make it yourself. If that's really what you want, you got this. You go for it like you can do it.
Erin Davis
You can do whatever you want. There's no limitations there. The limitations are what we put on ourselves. It's that narrow vision that we have for that big life that we can create, and we're narrowed by what society is telling us that's possible. So it's about stepping into that openness, to it, just explore and see what it is that's out there.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yes, yes. So it is. It is so closely related, it is. And then, like you also say it's, it's the mindset, and it really is the mindset around and it's not about the diet, it's not about the beauty standards. It's not about the money. It's about, and you said it before so beautifully, Erin, it's about how do I feel and what's a value to me. It's not as outside of us telling us how we should look or what we should have or shouldn't have, or what we should drive or the house we should live in. It's coming back home. And that's part of what I love about yoga. It's a real coming back home.
Erin Davis
It's between and that's it, isn't it? It doesn't matter about that external, materialistic validation. It's all about how we feel within yourself, and if it makes us happy having a lot or having a little then that's okay, and it's so personal. And I think we get into that whole comparison space of seeing what other people have and then wanting it, but it's wanting it for the wrong reasons. It's not wanting it because it makes us happy. It's wanting it because you think you need to keep up because of the ageing culture, or the diet culture, or the body acceptance culture, all of those things are pushing us into that space of wanting to be something that we're not.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yeah, yes and coming back to like you'd mentioned earlier is even, I, I'm not sure we said anyway, your values, like coming back to your values. And I know the shift that my husband, I was going through right now. We just chatted before we hit record. We've both got children who have moved out of home, and that's a whole, another adjustment. And I've always wanted, you know, the big house and this and that was part, but at the moment, we're renovating a house. We're in an apartment, and because the children have moved out now, and I'm running retreats, I've got another retreat in India next year I run one in Byron Bay, like I do retreats. So I'm going do, I want the big house, or is it really, I think what I see in our future now is not a big house and or a big mortgage or all that jazz. I actually value now a bit more travel and freedom and a door that I can lock up and not worry about any garden. So it's a funny change, and whereas earlier in my life, it was all about getting the big house, whereas now I don't feel like it's that for me anymore. I value my value proposition now, because the kids have changed, it's more about experiences, as opposed to stuff going through a shift, which is wonderful. It's very refreshing.
Erin Davis
It's all about that season of life, isn't it, of what's important at a particular time, where you need to be, where the kids are, where the business is, what is happening. And then it's just, I suppose, tapping into that intuition of what it is that fills me up and what fulfils me, what makes me happy. Where do I want to be, and just really leaning into that space and accepting that it doesn't have to be the big house, it doesn't have to be the beautiful new car, or whatever it is. It can be a trip overseas every year, or it could be, you know, an apartment by the beach that you're renting rather than buying. So it's, it's whatever it needs to be.
So how do you really manage your money, mindset, like you've had a lot of shifts? Shift in the last few years, or probably since, you know, you stepped into that town planning space and then stepped out of it. How do you maintain your money mindset for that abundance and growth and next level of openness that you've so beautifully created?
Emma Walkinshaw
I feel being in business takes a certain nerve. It's a backbone, and it's a cast iron gut. I say because there it is sometimes flux in that I do love being very committed and consistent with my practices. And what I mean by that is having allocated bank accounts for superannuation, for tax, for, like, I'm very structured in that way, which I find just takes a lot of that stress out of it, and that's business wise, so business wise. And then personally, because I feel like our business, our company, is our company, and Bren and I both contribute to that. He has his town planning business. I have an online business. I work with women coaching business, retreat business. Our company is an eating, breathing, living, sleeping machine.
And then there is Emma and Brendan as a couple. Our personal finances, I've gotta say I am way better at my finances in my business than I am personally, without a doubt, but even personally, I have gotten a lot better in terms of being really conscious about our money. And a question was asked, I'm 48 now, my husband will be 50 soon, and our accountant asked us, and he's our accountant, financial planner. I've known him since I was five. He has been the secret to my parents' success.
My parents say they've been in business since I was 10 years of age. They're retired now, and they always say that our accountant has been one of the key people in their life that got them to where they are. And around 40, he asked my husband, I a question, he said, and it was very funny, to which we both answered. So We answered at exactly the same time. He said, How old do you want to be when you retire? And we both said at the same time, I said, 60. Brennan said, 70. And then Brennan said, and then I'll go part time, but my husband's a workaholic, and he's he's happiness and joy is town planning and doing development projects, so I know that's where he comes from, but us getting really clear about what that will even look like, I feel like I've had a very clear path and a reason why I contribute to our self managed fund and do our share like there's a reason why, and it is a long game, because this is done at 40.
I'm now 48 this is, this is the process, and I feel like that was one of the best questions, and wonderful to put those things in motion now at 40, as opposed to doing that at 55 and going where, and then freaking out, yeah? Like, so like, yeah, every decision we make comes back to our ultimate goal, and we know the number that we want at that time. So you're the house of God. We've bought an office for our town planning business. We do it, and it is very much slow. It's not slow going, but it's being committed to the goal. Russell, our accountant, said to me, my parents have done incredibly well and some wonderful things. And he said, Really, they just made the decision and stuck to the program like stuck to and that's what we've done. We've made a decision, we've stuck to the program.
Erin Davis
That's with everything, though, isn't it? It's make the decision, stick to the plan. Yeah, to have all figured out, you just have to have the plan. And it's literally one step in front of the other. Have the end goal and then work backwards. You know, they talk about reverse engineering everything. That's exactly what it is. And you said there that you're not as good with your personal finances as you are with your company finances, but you have that luxury that the company is doing well.
It's creating the lifestyle and the retirement space that you want to be in. So what comes over into your personal accounts is yours. It's accounted for. It doesn't matter. It's you've set yourself in a position where it's okay. But I think it's really important to have that really positive, encouraging relationship with the money and how you feel about it. You know, if that was really stressing you out and making you feel out of control, then there's something that you need to do about it, but if it's not, then it's not a problem. Yeah, you've got the plan sorted, and you've got everything ticking along as it needs to, and you're following the process. So part of that is allowing for the day to day and allowing for the living and creating. Sticking to the plan means that there is capacity and abundance for the other things that you want.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yeah, that's it. And, and I guess it's just sometimes being a little bit overindulgent. And then I just reel it back in again. I go, all, we've been a little bit overindulgent the last couple of weeks. Reel it back in. You know, it's, it's not the going, instead of going out for dinner on a Friday and a Saturday night, we can go out one night, not two, not, you know, it's just kind of reeling things back in a bit, is most
Erin Davis
though, isn't it? It's having the plan and knowing what other limitations of the plan, because we've attached our heart and soul to this big goal. We've got these big feelings attached to what it is that we want at the end. And I think for women, it's really important to be able to attach a feeling of what the goal creates, rather than the goal itself. A lot of us arenā€™t driven by those smart goals, that's a very male, linear way to think about it. But instead, if you connect it back to a feeling and and what is it going to provide, what is what is that goal going to do, and how is it going to make you feel, then we're more inclined to chase it and because we're connected to it,
Emma Walkinshaw
yeah, and that's true, because I love an overseas holiday a year, aside from the retreats I run. Because, of course, I go to India, and, you know, I do, but I'm working, right? But I'm also working. I do take a bit on, but it's still, it's still incredibly wonderful. But I love an overseas holiday every year. So that's exactly right. I have a holiday account, and I will never mess with that holiday account, because I've tied that value and that feeling to it, which is Brendan and I work incredibly hard, and I will not mess with that fund. And if that means one less dinner a week, instead of going out on a Friday and a Saturday night, I'll just go out on a Friday or a Saturday night, because if that allows me not to touch my holiday account that's what I'm doing,
yeah. And I'm very Yeah. I'm very diligent around that account, because we know that that's our yay. That's our overseas trip, and we have, like, little weekends away and stuff. But that one is our Yeah, because we love to travel. So it's Yeah, yeah.
Erin Davis
And that comes back to that plan too, doesn't it? It's the plan, but, but attach that plan to a feeling of what it is going to provide. I know that when I go overseas, I am going to feel expansive and abundant and calm and connected and grounded, and that's really important to me, so I'm doing that no matter what.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yeah, yeah, and love and adventure, like we know that is our adventure.
Erin Davis
Those values are where you're connected into Yeah, that's really beautiful. I love that. So you've said that you have open and empowering conversations with your kids and your parents had those. How do you think that that has really influenced and impacted your relationship with money?
Emma Walkinshaw
I have loved that my parents have been so transparent in how they did business, personally, how they ran their whole finances and just the life that they created for themselves is nothing short of wonderful compared to what they both came from. You know, it's wonderful to have seen and taken opportunities. And Mum and Dad are quite risk takers too. Like in their early years, they bought businesses and built them up and sold them and, you know, we moved locations, you know, for a business.
So it was great to witness mum and dad. So even going into business, I feel like my husband's parents had business as well. So I feel like we were never overly attached to a thinking that you get in a role in a job and someone pays you. We, you know, there's a saying in our house, you eat what you catch. Now it is being in business, right? So get out there and get fishing. Like, that's just how it is. That was kind of how I was raised.
It was never that someone you, you know, get your holiday pay, your sick pay, and you go and you punch in and punch out. It was never that mentality. So I thank mum and dad for that, because it showed me I've never known any different. That's just what I've known. And then my children, my parents, have a lot of conversations with my children, because now my father has done the stock market for 20 years, and that's how they've built a lot of their wealth. That's what he's done.
He shared that my children have had shares from a very young age, they pick their own shares. Now they've both got portfolios, and they understand it, which is wonderful, and I feel like it's been great just to really we sit around and talk about money and like I shared earlier when we chatted, I open our profit and loss. I open our xero and show my children. I showed them our mortgage. I showed. Them, money in, money out. And we have conversations. I remember the first time I showed Sonny, my boy. He was only early teens. He was like, Oh my gosh, Emma, look at that money. I said, No, no, have a look at our expenses, though. Have a look at what wages we pay. And he's like, Oh, how does that work? And even, you know, Ruby wanted just to be really interested in that. And I do remember I found this interesting. I still don't know how I feel about this. Erin, I'd love your take on this. We decided to educate our children at a boys school and a girls school, and when it came to teaching finances, we'd already had lots of conversations at home. They knew what xero. They knew what they were anyway, I thought it was very interesting. The girls school, what they taught and the boys school, and thankfully, as a very conscious mother, I'd already educated my daughter and son about finances.
So Ruby, my daughter, is at her school, financially free. Financial future was the subject, and it was when she was in year eight, and they showed a documentary and a case study on a woman called Ronnie, who was a compulsive shopper that used a credit card and would go into a shop and she would not just buy the red pair of shoes. She bought me red, blue, green, orange, brown. And they showed this documentary. Then the assignment was, it was Ronnie, who was the Shopaholic, who got them into trouble with her credit card. She had to buy a gift for her daughter, and they had to come up with a strategy. Ruby's strategy was, well, I would just give Ronnie $100 cash, and she could ask her daughter three things that she would want: she could only spend cash, no credit card. And then Ruby and I were driving past Harvey Norman. This is the day Ruby's telling me this. We're driving past Harvey Norman. And Ruby said, and he see that interest free up there mum, where it says interest free. She said, Do you know what happens if you don't make your payments? So that's how Ruby was taught by the girls, then Sonny comes home, when he gets to that stage, and he says, Oh, you're never going to believe what we're doing at school. She said, We all got 100,000 and we play the stock market like, you know, it's simulated, and we play the stock market. And, you know, in the class, whoever loses their money or makes money, it's like a competition. And I thought, isn't this fascinating? My boy is given money and empowered, and told him, go for it, see how much money you can make. Yeah, and my daughter is told, wrong, bad. Don't you spend money or use a credit card? You could only use your cash. So he was taught how to make money. My daughter was told how not to spend money.
Erin Davis
Yeah, very, very, very different, isn't it? And I think that that is still like your kids are, what, 22 and 20 Yeah, 20 and 22, that is not even that long ago that they were in high school, and we're still dealing with these conversations about, well, this is what a man can do, and this is what a female can do, and this is how you can make money. And there's, you know, we talk about the gender pay gap, we go and do exactly the same job, yet a man earns more than a woman does.
And it comes back to this acceptance really. Well, that's what a man does to make money, and this is what a woman does to make money. We're doing exactly the same thing. Your kids were learning exactly the same thing, but just taught in a very different way, which then impacts their whole relationship with money. So if you hadn't had those conversations with your kids, that's the trajectory that they would be on. Yeah, but you've had the conversation. So I think it is so important that we empower our kids to learn about money, learn about making money, not just about saving because of or not spending, because you need to be able to take the risk and take the chance and create the opportunities. Like you said, it's, um, go and catch your fish, yeah. Or you eat what you can eat, what you get. Like, I think we're never going to get rich or get wealthy by working for somebody else, we need to be able to look at how we can create some wealth in other spaces. And not everyone is a business owner, but there are different ways that you can create additional income that is not wage and salary earner. So yeah, I think that is so interesting, and it just plays into that whole society ideology, doesn't it? Of all, this is what a man does, and this is what a woman does.
Emma Walkinshaw
She's pretty and thin and don't age, and he's powerful. Like, yeah, no, it's like, she can make her money. Yeah? He can make his money. We're on an even playing field here, and you can, you can catch as many fish as you want. Go for it. It's not one like it's going for it, yeah. But I think that is more the conversation that is lovely to have with our children. And I, you know, back to the kids, what they were both taught. I think it just would have been lovely if they were both taught both of those scenarios. The boys were told that. And as you know, I think both of those lessons were tremendous, but I felt like I would have loved both for both of my children.
Erin Davis
Yeah, I don't think there should just be one lesson for a boy, yeah, and one lesson girl, it's, it's very much a lesson for everybody, everyone. And we've got two girls and a boy, and there is never a conversation about, well, the boy can do this and the girls can do this, or, you know, you can't do that, but you can do this. Or there's a different conversation around money for each of them. It's exactly the same conversation to everybody.
Emma Walkinshaw
That's how it should be. Particularly, yeah, yeah.
Erin Davis
So I'm really curious about your upcoming body love boot camp. Tell me about that.
Emma Walkinshaw
Oh, I'm so excited. It's my latest project. So I have ran lots of different workshops for women, but body love boot camp is really it's not about saying to a woman, don't be on a diet or don't exercise. It's got nothing to do with saying don't be healthy and let yourself go. What it is. It's the mindset you can still want to have health and wellness, but almost like the shame of carrying money stories. Let's start to question why you want to be in a smaller body if you have had a lifelong messaging skinny at all costs and you need to flog yourself, deprive yourself, under nourish yourself. This is a new way of looking at things, doing wellness in a different way. It's definitely through the home mindset. There's all sorts of different modules in there, but just looking at the beliefs and the expectations that or the silent rules that we have on yourself that we didn't even know we had. So it really goes alongside anywhere. You know, I am a lover of movement. I am a lover of nutritious food, but I don't believe in depriving ourselves, and I don't believe in having strong rules. It's about almost it's so similar to money Erin,
Erin Davis
I know I'm just thinking similar. It really comes very close, doesn't it? Because the relationship we have with money influences every relationship we have, and whether we like to admit it or not, it's the same as our body acceptance. It's relationship we have with yourself is influenced by the aging, the money, the skincare, the Instagram Stories, whatever it is. It all comes back to how we see ourselves and how we believe in ourselves, our whole self worth, and putting that self worth against a tangible thing, rather than the body acceptance or money acceptance whatever space I know, and just accepting yourself for who you are and you're okay,
Emma Walkinshaw
And even you know, thinking through beauty standards, let's say, you know, are we having fake nails, the fake eyelashes, the whatever, whatever, whatever it is. And it doesn't mean that you shouldn't have fake eyelashes or shouldn't have fake nails. That's not what I'm saying here, but am I doing it because I want to do it, or am I doing it because I think I should look a certain way? And it's saying, imagine you. You've got a financial goal, let's say, and I'll give an example of me here. I don't have fake eyelashes and I don't have fake nails, but that money that I do spend goes to my holiday account because I can't wait to get overseas again and have an adventure. So it's just coming back to that. So I'm not saying don't do that, but, but if we come back to the reason why are we doing it and even challenging, back to am I having this message that I have to be skinny at all costs? Because if I'm not, I won't attract the man, or I won't get the I won't be seen, I won't be heard. We are so much more than that, and it's just coming back to who you are. So I do a lot on the mindset of embracing, accepting, also you.
We've had such a long time where we have had the message that our body is our enemy. Our body is just not good enough. Our body is never going to be good enough. When you know it's time to shift that and say, Actually, no, my body is the loyal companion. My body is actually here in harmony with me, and we are perfectly imperfect. So that's really and you know, through my years of teaching yoga, I have been surprised and delighted so many times when a woman will come in and she will. Apologise for her body. It's not this that x, y and z, and then she gets on the mat, and she has got the most beautiful practice of yoga. She's centred. She's grounded. Her body does things that you know she should be very proud of, but we've never actually sat in that because we're so used to looking at what we're not or what's missing as to pose what we do have. So my whole body love boot camp is really about nourishing and nurturing your mindset and your soul so you can be whatever version of happy, healthy and well is to you, without toxic beauty standards and diet culture on top of that?
Erin Davis
I love that. That is just even when you're talking then it's, I have always been slim, and at the moment, I am the heaviest I have ever been, and I have this real thing about wanting to lose weight, but I haven't been able to. And then it just spirals everything out, and then you get, oh, well, I'll just eat that packet of chocolate bullets. Because, well, what does it matter anyway? Rather than going, Okay, I just need to accept who I am. I'm ageing. Things are changing. Things are slowing down. Maybe a shift. Maybe I need to change direction. Maybe I need to engage, which I have, with a naturopath, and start exploring some different ways and different ways of doing things, but it all comes back to that self love and acceptance,
Emma Walkinshaw
yeah, yeah. And just questioning, where is this coming from, and where did I have the idea I'm in menopause now, why am I wanting to be in the body of a 30 or a 40 year old? And I talk in body love boot camp about the stages of womanhood, which is the maiden, where our daughters are, then we move to the mother, which is the engine room of life. And we're very strong in Mother. We're carrying wood. We're carrying wood, we're carrying water and chopping wood. We are strong in the Mother phase. Then we move to Maga, M, A, G, A. Maga phase is perimenopause menopause. It's a different time of life. It's the time of transition. And in season, it's actually autumn. So the body is going to change. But what happens is society tells us, how dare you get to Maga phase, you still need to look like a mother or a maiden. I've had my time in the sun. I had my 20s, in my 30s, in my early 40s, there. I'm now almost 50. You're in Maga. You know, we we often. It's just how it is. In autumn, the leaves fall the tree changes. It doesn't look like it does in spring. Maiden, it doesn't look like it does in summer. And then we are going to get to Crone. We're going to get to wise, warmer phase, which is winter. I can't be in autumn and want to be in summer or spring. I've been there, but what I can do in autumn is love this stage of life where I get to travel with my husband and have adventures, and we get to not give a shit if I'm wearing a Daggy hat and a rashy in the water, which I would never have been my mother and maiden phase. It was the bikinis.
Okay? You know, we cannot reject where we are at. And this is the problem that I have. I'm ranting here, that we get with beauty standards and ageisms. Let's allow a woman to be gracious in whatever age and stage she is at. Do not want her to be a maiden or a mother when she's Maga or Crone. She can still be stylish and gorgeous and sensual and vivacious in her own right, but do not put that on her and tell her she needs to look like she did.
Erin Davis
Then, yeah, it's absurd, crazy, and then we attach everything of our self worth to those ridiculous standards, instead of embracing and enjoying this stage of life that we're in.
Emma Walkinshaw
And think about the money thing we're just reinforcing to those women, God forbid, because look at the rate of marriage breakup. We're just reinforcing to that woman you have to be skinny at all costs, because how you're going to get another man's bullshit? If a man is secure and in his masculine he will love that mega woman, because he's also in that phase instead of this societal beauty. You know, yeah, it's a whole nother, probably story, you know, conversation, that one. But I, you know, my work, like your work, Erin, is for our women to really start to buck the norm, which is, she can't manage money she just spends she she knows has no financial literacy. She needs to, you know, I just really want to buckle that. I think it's the Age of Aquarius, it's the new awakening. And I love it,
Erin Davis
I know. And the more women I talk to, the more I see this, the more I see smart, intelligent women sharing this message. And I really hope that my listeners enjoy these conversations, because I feel so connected and empowered when I have these conversations, because it just puts you in a different frame of mind. It brings up these thoughts. And maybe we haven't thought about something in a particular way, but it really just brings the conversation to life. And I think the more we have these conversations, it just then empowers the more information we have, the more choice we can have, the more decision making that we have, which gives us the power and
Emma Walkinshaw
conversation, yeah, it just raises the vibration. I do not want to be sitting around with women talking about the latest diet or the, you know, the latest beauty regime, boring snoring. Let's talk about the real conversations like we've had today about perhaps finances or goals and aspirations that are about expansion, not this superficial BS that is just so boring and it just pulls you away from your goals. You know, if we're spending money, and I'm not saying don't, if that's your jam, knock yourself out. But maybe it's not, because maybe you're doing the things and getting the things done and buying the things, and you're still going, oh yeah. But I, I still, I still feel the way I feel because it's it's an empty goal, it's false economy,
Erin Davis
Exactly. And it all comes back to that feeling, doesn't it? Tapping into that feeling, tapping into the intuition of what feels right, what drives me, what's my values, what lights me up, what makes me feel full and engaged, but then also grounded and connected. What are those bigger things that I want? And then how do I achieve it, whether it's the body acceptance boot camp, whether it's my financial wellness checkups, you know, whatever that needs to be to be able to make you feel fulfilled and engaged, we really have to own it and step into that space. Because when you're there, it just changes everything, which then changes every relationship you have, including the relationship with you that you have with yourself.
Emma Walkinshaw
Yeah, you become unshakable. You go. There is no one or anything that really can push me off my path. Here I am certain in who I am.
Erin Davis
So where can our listeners find your Body Boot Camp?
Emma Walkinshaw
Yes, it is. So it's a wait list. At the moment. It is just about, or maybe by the time this podcast said, it probably will be out into the world. But I also have got a wonderful if you just want to come and meet me. I have a 21 minutes of morning magic, which has just started.
Erin Davis
I have just come into that, and I am just happening, yeah, I love it.
Emma Walkinshaw
So every because I believe that. I mean exactly what Erin is also saying is he really is that grounded. And I work with a lot of women on their intuition, really listening to that little voice in your head, which I will say, intuition, voice of wisdom. But how do we do that? So I give the how, and it's for free. So it is every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 6:30am for 21 minutes. So I go live in a private Facebook group, and I do seven minutes of yoga, just gentle yoga. Then I do seven minutes of meditation with a mantra, and I do seven minutes of flow at tricks. I'm a bit of a romantic, but it's really journaling, and I have a book that goes with it, 365 days of morning magic. So the book has a theme each day, and the idea why we start with seven minutes of yoga, because I know anyone who tries to meditate will often fall asleep, so yoga, first thing in morning, ignites the energy systems, and that's the evidence base of yoga to it really alerts us.
And then the meditation is always with the mantra to keep the mind focused. And it only has to be seven minutes. Seven minutes of meditation will change your life. And then seven minutes of flowetry, because that's when we get to hear our intuition. Often we have all of these things swirling around our head, and that just that seven minutes of putting pen to paper, because we cannot write as fast as we can think. So it slows us down. And a lot of people go, Oh, but I don't know what to journal on.
So hence, 365, days of wanting magic the book. There is a journal prompt in there every day. And when we gather, the other bit is accountability, because we can all say, oh gosh, I want to journal and I want to do meditation. But that's why everyone who shows up has an appointment with me three mornings a week, at 6:30am and then in the group the recordings there, because sometimes people have got children to get to school or they've got other things on. So a lot of people will just watch it in the evening or later on the day. But I have a lot of people show up live, and it really is quite it's amazing what can happen in 21 minutes. And I often say, if you can't carve out 21 minutes in your day, Honey, you've got to really to.
Erin Davis
Take a good look at your time, because that 21 minutes is then setting yourself up to have a beautiful day, to have a clear head, to be grounded, to think clearly, to make decisions, to just really show up as your best self. And so if you are then wanting to, you know, talk about your money, or look at what's happening in your business, or you need to deal with the kids when you're coming from that space of First, I've taken care of me, I've I've tapped into what I need for the day. It then allows you to give to other people or to other things. So I really, really love that practice, and I have, as I said, I have just started. So you will see me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays, I will be there. Um, am I okay to put the link in your for your group, in the show notes, absolutely
Emma Wilkinshaw
Everyone is welcome. Come and join and just, just try it. And if you've been the person that said, I can't meditate, I promise you, when we are sitting there together and I've given you a mantra and a little bit of breath work, you will, you will surprise yourself how quick seven minutes you go. Really. Is that seven minutes? So it is. It's a, yeah, great, simple practice, but yes, please come and join me. So I'm on Instagram, of course, www.instagram/emma_walkinshaw But Erin, you'll pop everything in the show notes. But yes, definitely come. And, yeah, come and join me. Come and check it out. Erin will be there.
Erin Davis
it's great. And then your buddy body love boot camp. All the details will be across your socials and in your group
Emma Walkinshaw
my website, www.emmawalkinshaw.com.au so you'll find me there, but Instagram's probably a great place to start. And then click in the bio and you'll see all of the other links, easy details there.
Erin Davis
Well, Emma, I absolutely loved this conversation today. As I said, I just feel so inspired and so empowered myself when I have these conversations, because it just lights a fire in my belly that we're on the right path. We're doing the right thing. We're creating awareness. We're creating a movement of empowered women who are going to take control, love themselves and know their worth.
Emma Walkinshaw
We sure are, Erin, thank you.
Erin Davis
Thank you so much for joining me. I will put all of Emma's links in the show notes, and I would really love for everybody to jump into Emma's group. Emma is the most beautiful, just connected woman, and I'm so grateful that we have met. And thank you for sharing your time with me today.
Emma Walkinshaw
Thank you, Erin likewise.
