Happy Mondays
Leading life and happiness coach
“I AM an experienced stripper and I am comfortable with my nakedness,” says the woman in front of me. How many women can claim that their nakedness is a source of power?
However, this is not the type of stripping that involves sequins, feather boas and flashing the flesh. Instead, for Maria Hocking, stripping and nakedness refer to losing things that you used to take for granted.
This stripping means letting go of who you thought you were and finding out who you really are. It is something she has learned through her own experiences.
“My first encounter with this feeling of nakedness began at the age of 24 when all of my hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes, fell out. Everything I believed about myself disappeared,” she recalls.
“But I eventually realised that this nakedness, although challenging, was a wonderful life opportunity – a gift enabling me to listen to the whispers of my soul.”
Following this shock Maria said she lived “high and full of purpose” until her next “stripping down” which came in the form of chronic fatigue syndrome that debilitated her for a year.
Then at the age of 38 she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, which required a massive nine-hour operation. She has since developed arthritis in the other hip. Her husband, meanwhile, has discovered he has a genetic disorder which will affect his eyesight.
However, Maria is brimming with positivity. “Losing my hair was the best thing that happened to me,” she says and adds that each challenge has created a richer perspective that lets her live with greater meaning and joy.
Her hair has grown back and hangs in thick curls around her shoulders and a whole new career as a coach, healer and trainer has emerged from her stripped down, “naked” moments.
Her book Strip Naked And Re-Dress With Happiness is a guide on how to survive and thrive through personal challenges.
It is a book that encourages you to listen to your soul, make space for joy and your dreams and to slow down and connect with who you really are and what you really want from life.
I have been picking up and putting down the book all week. I love the tips and exercises she recommends and it is all done in a wonderfully supportive and down-to-earth voice.
Her tips include allowing yourself “red light days” when you give yourself permission to stop and do something nurturing. She also suggests working out how to spot your limiting beliefs – these are often false stories you tell yourself such as “I can’t do that” – and then rewire them.
This is not a Pollyanna book of rainbows and unicorns but a lovely testament to not just life after trauma but a whole new chance of seeing wonderment and beauty we may never have realised before.
As Maria says: “My adversities have taught me life is all about attitude and that with the right attitude anything is possible.
“I love my life and every day I get to work with people to show them how to love their life, too.”