Body Talks it is the new space of Cosmopolitan Italia in which we talk, with respect, about the bodies that evolve, that we love, that we don’t like, that we want to learn to accept. A monthly column in which to read to get inspired and understand each other more: the guest of the second episode is Vanessa Villa.
A project by Margherita Meda, Digital Brand Officer of Cosmopolitan.it, Francesca Scrimizzi, Head of Digital Beauty and Beatrice Aquilini, Beauty Editor of Hearst Digital’s female hub.
When I ask her how she would explain Fight Gently to those who have never heard of it, Vanessa Villa he describes it to me as a training method that blends the karateyoga and tribal movements. Soon, however, he begins to explain to me the entire philosophical and fundamental side that is the basis of this method, and I realize how the components of mindfullness and self-consciousness are really so fundamental. Perhaps even more than those of the movement, they are extremely universal, totally human.
Almost 32 years old, Villa, as he tells me during the interview, has fused together the irreducible complexities of his personality to create a lifestyle, which is also a community. An award-winning karate champion – she won a total of six Italian titles, five team titles and one individual – she later became a teacher and coach of this martial art, and then did the same with yoga and meditation. But that’s not all: over the years he has also undertaken a career as a public figure, taking part in films such as Under the Riccione sun and to TV programs like DonnAvventuracollecting experience also among moda ed entertainment. «Fight Gently is made up of people, the majority of whom are women, who firmly believe that in life you have to fight, because life is tough, but who at the same time choose to do so with the weapons of kindness and delicacy». His community of “kind warriors”, that is, what he created on Instagram and live, is the synthesis of all aspects of himself, which speak to anyone, especially to our bodies.
With her, in fact, we dissect the themes of changeof acceptance as an act of love, of self-care even during dark moments. Like everyone, she too has lived these experiences firsthand, but with the method she created herself she managed to find her own balance similar to an inner peace, which she continues to maintain in constant activity, listening to herself and listening. Also helping anyone who wants to do the same through yes lo sport and the meditationbut also a lot awareness of what you really want for yourself, without prejudices and labels of any kind.
The relationship with the body between strength and fragility, the interview with Vanessa Villa
You are a champion of martial arts, yoga, meditation and you created your Fight Gently method. What does combining these arts mean to you?
“I do karate since I was seven years old. I won several titles at Italian level and became a master of the discipline, until at a certain point I felt the great need to change something in my life, because I didn’t feel completely happy: there was something I was missing and that something it came from within. This is how I approached it yoga and to meditation; I liked this world of kindness, understanding and listening so much that I decided to become a teacher of it here too. I also followed a path linked in a certain sense to entertainment, I was a model and then I also took part in commercials, television programs and films.
However, I felt neither just an athlete nor just a yoga teacher, nor just an entertainer; by uniting all these sides of me, I managed to become a leader of a community created by myself. Fight Gently is made up of, in fact, gentle warriors attracted by the method of training coined by me, which fuses yoga and karate, together with slightly more evasive movements, the real glue between the disciplines, which I like to call tribal movements. To all this, my podcast is also added, Fight Gently Talksin which with expert personalities of wellbeing e mindfulness we explore themes such as crystal therapy, inner journeys, female archetypes, tantra, conscious sexuality, gentle leadership and so on.”
How did you start? And how does it make you feel now?
«I started during quarantine, online: this ensured that my community spread like wildfire. We are not just digital though: when we also meet physically, in our home which is now the Milanese studio The Garden, there are always so many of us. I believe I have managed to make many people feel good and still do so, but not because I am a guru of who knows what, but because this practice brings together ancient worlds that awaken something in people that they already possess: my focus is inform people of the fact that the consciousness it can evolve with daily training both on a cognitive level, therefore listening to podcasts, reading books etc., and on a physical, mental and spiritual level. So what I do is all a team effort. It seems like it does two thousand different things, but in the end it’s always about the exact same thing, and that is, awakening consciences. And work on kindness. Ever since I understood that this was my mission, everything made me feel like I had meaning in this life. I used to think, “Okay, I’m an athlete, but is that all? I’m a yoga teacher, but what next?” I have finally taken on a role that truly felt mine in this life: I am here to “forge” gentle warriors, to do my small part in making the world a better place.”
The body is an essential element of sport. What relationship do you have with your body? How has it changed over time? What meanings were added to, or taken away from, your relationship with your body during and after pregnancy? How did you experience his change, how did you take care of him?
«It has always been like the relationship an athlete has with his own body, that is, I have always seen it as a vehicle to achieve results. But not only that; also being a de facto warrior, because I do martial arts, I have always perceived my body also as a weapon and armor. With the pregnancywith the postpartum period, my body became weak, because the muscles disappeared, giving way to different roundness – I’ll tell you the truth, I liked them a lot -, so however I no longer felt my strength. I no longer felt the strength of my structure, and all this at the very moment when my body most needed to be protected; it had within it the most important thing in my life. I felt weak, I felt like I couldn’t protect my body, but then I felt a great strength inside me that made me feel that I was strong even like this. If at a specific moment you cannot work physically, you can do it in your mind.”
In your opinion, the strength and fragility of the body are two sides of the same coin. What do you mean?
«Thinking about the fact that I was creating a life I felt like a warrior and I learned to feel strong even like this. While my body didn’t communicate that message to me, it was my trained mind that sent me the signals I needed. I made peace with the change and I understood that there can be strength even in fragility and, vice versa, that even in strength there is fragility. The ephemeral nature of everything can be revealed at any moment if you do not accept that your body can be weak and strong, if you do not accept the fullness of life. And even I didn’t do it before, I didn’t accept my vulnerabilities, both physical and mental. Thanks, in fact, to my practice I have also embraced this condition that did not belong to me and now I am a warrior again like before. It could happen that I am pregnant again or maybe I will break some part of my body, in life it can happen that the body is not one hundred percent, but this does not mean that I will or should think that I am less strong.”
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How can we find strength in fragility? How can we accept the changes in our body when we can’t find the energy?
«For me the essential thing is to start from Don’t label yourself. From not putting a label on myself, for example “I’m the strong one”, or “I’m the weak one”, “I’m the one with the flesh”, “I’m the skinny one”, and so on… Let’s remove all the labels and we’re left only with “I I am”: you can be anything, you can be everything, you are potentially all things, so don’t limit yourself by putting a label on yourself. Because, precisely, as I said before, any body can be anything at any time. Say that all your life you have had a strong, healthy body; at any moment he could become weak for any reason. Or you may feel very strong in one body, but you are weak mentally and emotionally. And this does not mean well-being. Secondly, it is also important accept the multiple value of everything that belongs to us, such as life. Even life is not just beautiful or just ugly. There are many nuances that must be accepted. In addition to labels, we must then free ourselves from judgmentalso of what we give to ourselves, then of what others can give of us, and thus accept even the fragile sides. If there is fragility within us, it does not mean that there is no strength: it’s as if the two things existed, in a certain sense, in the balance of life.”
What do harmony and well-being mean to you? And awareness?
«That’s it, for me harmony e well being they mean search for balance. For me, personally, it makes me feel good to feel that there is balance, peace and serenity inside my home. When there is balance in my emotions, when there is balance in my work and in the sport I do. Everything that doesn’t make me feel good is the excess. So for me, achieving well-being means achieving balance, even if obviously it is a precariously unstable balance. It takes daily balance training. Awarenessinstead, in my opinion it means listen to each other e slow downfirst of all. Listening to yourself and listening, which does not mean giving yourself the answers that others would give you, that society would give you, but giving yourself the ones you really feel inside yourself. Therefore, awareness means being sensitive to ourselves.”
How do we know if something is right for us?
«I am lucky enough to be tuned to my wavelength, that is, to that thin line, that impalpable thing that I call soul. I know it may seem otherwise, but I’m talking about something very concrete. For me it means being able to exclude the mind, exclude the body, and tune in to that part of yourself intention. It is the most underrated thing in the world and yet it is the wisest thing in the world. If we remove everything, what others think or what is required of us by society, the body tunes in, meditating, on this internal and silent part, extremely delicate, inaccessible if there is noise. If you take that moment to reflect, to think, to ask yourself what you really want, at a certain point you will feel a force, a push that will tell you: “This is it.” It’s a bundle of energy that comes from something bigger, because you’ve connected to the source of life, to the universe.”
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I like to research and experiment, I have always done it through beauty, but above all through writing. Usually to describe myself I let my astral chart do the talking: sun in Capricorn, moon and ascendant in Aquarius. Three things about me: I grew up falling in love with literature, but I still dream of being an actress and every now and then I tell people that I am one. Favorite person: Audre Lorde.