The Mask We Wear with Arnita Champion

The Mask We Wear

Dr. Trevor Cates: Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. I am Dr. Trevor Cates. On today’s podcast we are talking about how to remove your mask so you can truly reveal your authentic self. Now, of course, I am talking about figuratively, not a physical mask. We are going to talk about all that in the interview today. My guest is Arnita Champion and at the youthful age of 56 years young, Arnita is a social media personality, business owner, motivational speaker, IFBB professional figure competitor athlete and certified personal trainer.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Arnita first came into the fitness spotlight as an athlete at the early age of six years old, where she graced the track with her gizelle-like speed. She continued on through high school breaking and setting records that remain to be unbroken, in the 100 meters, 100 meter hurdles, and the long shot. Arnita Champion is a fitness and wellness influencer, and she wraps her four F words, faith, fitness, food fashion, and every week Arnita motivates millions to improve their fitness lifestyle, mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Dr. Trevor Cates: She encourages her followers to settle for nothing but the best. To take ownership of who they are and know who they are. Arnita holds titles of being an IFBB pro figure competitor and FM fitness model, a world class athlete, an all American hurdler, all time, individual champion, United States, track and field elite athlete, national Pan-American champion and member of the world championship team.

Dr. Trevor Cates: And in the top eight finalists in the 84, 88, and 92 Olympic trials. She is obviously a champion and she has had her struggles too. All of this helps her motivate and inspire others. And that’s exactly what she does on today’s podcast. Today Arnita Champion explains what’s truly behind the need for people to wear a mask and hide their authentic selves, and she shares how self-love helps heal the process. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Arnita welcome to The Spa Dr. podcast. It’s so great to have you on.

Arnita Champion: Oh my gosh. It is an honor. It’s truly an honor to be on with you. I can’t explain. It’s just an honor.

Dr. Trevor Cates: It is so great to connect with you. We are talking so much about masks these days, wearing masks and there are multiple ways we can wear a mask. What we are talking about today is not so much the physical mask that people are wearing to protect against the virus, but a different kind of mask. So tell everybody why you wanted to come on and talk about this today. Why it’s so important to you.

Arnita Champion: Really it is so timely because it brings about an awareness of why and when people wear a mask and when to take them off. I found that I was really just dialoguing with some of my friends and I saw them having their mask on. I just began to look at the mask as a symbol, for keeping infections out, from keeping any type of viruses from coming in. I looked deeper and I saw that a mask can also hide things. I never got to see the smile.

Arnita Champion: I never got to see the cheeks raised. There is a hiding behind the mask that we know of, and then there is a hiding behind the mask that we really want to just keep hidden. I look at that and I challenge us to remove the mask when it’s beneficial for both parties and not just for one, or keep them on for one party.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Right. What you are talking more about is really about being authentic, being yourself and more of a symbol of a mask, not the physical mask. It is true when we wear the face mask, it is hard to tell what people’s expressions are. You are smiling with your eyes more to tell that you are happy. We are talking about being more of an authentic self, and not putting up a facade.

Arnita Champion: I look at it being authentic. What is his name? Oscar Wilde said it so clearly, and it stuck with me. It resonated with me. He said, be yourself because everyone else is taken. And I thought that, and I said, that is so true, but we are afraid to be ourselves. We are afraid to unmask or to reveal who we really are because of that, oh, it’s just you, the insecurities of the facade of who we want to be portrayed as, and once we are really ourselves, we may not be accepted.

Arnita Champion: I think that is the fear of it. That’s the fear of really unmasking and being authentic. And I would rather know who you are at face value and to accept that then to put expectations on you, that you cannot and will not ever be able to uphold.

Dr. Trevor Cates: As someone who is on social media a lot and physical appearance is important with fitness. I mean, you are absolutely beautiful. Maybe some people might think, well, that’s easy for her to say, she’s got it all.

Arnita Champion: No, I beg to differ. I think that’s where social media has its demons so to speak, because once you are portrayed as a certain influence or a certain person, you’re afraid to come out and showcase or show your real self, because it’s more so, wow, I didn’t know she was like that. Or maybe I will unfollow her because I really don’t want to be associated with that type of person. But that’s the risk we run into.

Arnita Champion: I think the most poignant thing that I ran into is when I really voice my opinion and show who I really was as a child of God. I think I lost 400 followers within an hour. I looked at it and I said, you know that is what it is. I am just an influencer when they want me to influence them. That is the key thing that we have to look at when you really show forth your real character, those followers, they will follow you until the end. If you look back and find that you have no followers, you are not leading anyone, you are just taking a walk.

Dr. Trevor Cates: It brings up a good question of who should we be following and who really does make a difference in our lives, who impacts us. I think these have been really telling times for people that come forward either in silence or actually people that are speaking up. I am sure I had people unfollow me for some of the things that I have shared. I think we all have. I think it is important to think about who we follow? Who do you follow?

Arnita Champion: That is a great point. If everyone would actually ask themselves that question, they would find their why. And I always look at what is my why, because your why will drive you to things that you have no idea how you’re going to do it. When you have your why, you don’t have to know how, because that is what will drive you to getting up in the morning, working out, eating, right. But to address the question, who should we be following?

Arnita Champion: Those like minded individuals that have the same morals, the same character, the same tenacity. The driven motive, the driven passion of changing lives and not just looking at it and saying, it’s all about me. It’s all about how many people are following me. It’s all about me. It’s bigger than you.

Arnita Champion: I look at following those individuals that impact my life, that play a huge part that I can actually ingest it and speak it back out. When I’m following someone, I don’t want to look at it and not be able to speak it. It doesn’t give me any benefit whatsoever. Those individuals that you can actually say, I’m following you back.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Arnita, these events are such challenging times with the Corona virus and the black lives matters movement. How has this impacted you and your voice during all this time?

Arnita Champion: It has allowed me to, as this topic, to remove my mask and speak freely. To speak from the heart because I hurt and there was anger, there was bitterness, there was hatred, and I’m being very transparent because I’m human. To look at the issues that are going on in the world today, again, I encourage individuals to unmask, to take off the mask of the pretentious, I’m better.

Arnita Champion: To the mask of hiding, to the mask of, I’ll say silence, because my thing is, silence is violence because you’re hiding behind, or you refuse to aid in someone that is really being brutally attacked or brutally abused. I don’t care what color it is, but it has taught me to remove my mask without even looking at the consequences, because I know what I stand for. And I know who I am and whose I am. It has taught me to rip the mask off. But when I go outside into grocery stores, I put my mask back on.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Yeah. The physical mask to protect you and everyone else. Yeah. What is it that you have realized, I mean, has this changed the way you feel like who you represent and who you are?

Arnita Champion: I do. And again, I have to be transparent because there was a silence within me because I didn’t want to be the victim, and I’m just being real. I didn’t want to be the victim that I knew I would be. If I begin to voice what I was really feeling. I suppressed a lot of my true feelings of being black. I’m a black, African American woman.

Arnita Champion: I am looked at as a double minority, yet still I am having to work harder. I am having to prove myself when other individuals can just present something and make it happen. It is heart wrenching, it is gut wrenching to find that all of my efforts, all of my time, all of my passion for someone, one particular person, it could be one person to shut the door on everything that I have done. And it makes me realize I have to speak out because I have had multiple doors close.

Arnita Champion: I have hidden behind smiles. I have hidden behind laughter and pain and suppressed it so deep where there is a time like a volcano where you are going to erupt. And that is why I found myself having to pull over to the side of the road and park because I didn’t know what road to go, what fork in the road to go to because I was totally paralyzed with fear and uncertainty.

Dr. Trevor Cates: It is definitely challenging, but you have managed to break down that barrier though. I think it is good for sometimes, silence may be a time of inner reflection, figuring out what is really important and what we want to share with the world. Have that time for inner reflection. I think we have all had a little bit more of that being quarantined and stuck at home more. When you were able to come out of some of that silence, what are some of the things that you have been able to do after that time?

Arnita Champion: It’s funny because you think that, Oh my gosh, I am going to reveal. I am going to come out of that silence. But you find that you have more for you than what is against you. You really have more support. You really have individuals that are saying, I hear you. I see you and ask the question, as I have to commend you where you had said, what can I do to help?

Arnita Champion: How can I play a part in supporting you instead of just saying, wow, I understand how you feel because that is the worst thing anyone could ever say. They understand how I feel, or I feel you. I think the area where it has helped me is I see that there are more individuals that are wanting to smash this pandemic, not just covid, but smash racism, smash it and do away with it, then those that want to uphold it. And that is what I found. I found that there are more in support than those that are against

Dr. Trevor Cates: That is great news. I know it still has got to be challenging to see the people that are resisting it, saying that racism is a non issue and that is a thing of the past or oblivious about it. I think it is very unfortunate but at least you do know that there are a lot of people who want to help and support, breaking this whole racism thing down and closing it up.

Arnita Champion: I think it is a mask. It is a mask that they have had on and they put multiple masks on individuals that have that type of understanding and thought process. They don’t have one mask on, they have multiple masks on that they themselves have not put on. It has been given to them or it has been put on them because we are not born with a mask. We are not born with racism.

Arnita Champion: We are taught it or it has been given to us or just, this is the way it should be by someone that has instilled it in our being. Those individuals have a lot of masks on and it is going to take a lot of the mask peeling off judgment, insecurity, anger, bitterness. We don’t know what their lives were before because hurt people, hurt people. And I truly believe that.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Do you think that there is anything that is going to help with this? A lot of it is probably time and people continuing to express and share and speak up. Anything else you think that is going to be particularly helpful in taking off the mask and people being able to speak up and truly be authentic?

Arnita Champion: I think those key things that you just mentioned being authentic and saying, this is who I am, but looking at it and saying, tell me where you feel I am wrong or teach me, educate me. I think education is key. The fear of, put it like this when I was young, I used to be so afraid of the boogeyman. So I always thought that it was underneath my bed.

Arnita Champion: My mom always said, it is not under there. It wasn’t until she sat me down and she said, what are you afraid of? You are afraid of the unknown. That’s what fear is, the unknown. Once it is exposed, we don’t fear it. Once we know that there is a storm coming, we can prepare for it. Once we know something is coming about and we are educated about it, then we can actually embrace it.

Arnita Champion: No, we are not the same. We can’t say I am like you, and you are like me. I think that is when we celebrate that diversity. Diversity is meant to celebrate, but that fear of the unknown is what’s driving individuals to remain with their mask on, the uncertainty, the insecurities. Because when people wear a mask, I think it heightened the mask that they have on. If you are insecure about your power, you become a bully.

Arnita Champion: Because you want to just overindulge in that. I don’t know how powerful I am. So I am going to indulge in having a brick wall up and just bashing out on everyone else. Every mask that we have on is exacerbated in our behavior, it is heightened. Most people don’t realize that I studied psychology in college. I know the mind, and what the mind sees the mind believes. My perception is my reality. What they are perceiving is their reality. It is just a matter of educating those individuals. This is what it is.

Dr. Trevor Cates: In your experience, in the fitness world, how has this been? How has being an African American woman in the fitness industry, has it been different for you? Do you think you have been treated differently?

Arnita Champion: I think, and I always love to be transparent. I think being African American and I am a female, the talents that I had were seen as a benefit to the other individual. Seen as a benefit to the Olympic team. My talents were seen as making them go forward as well. I have never, ever had a time where anyone has said you are black, so you can’t run. Now, I have had a time where individuals have said you are black and you are going to run last leg. Because I know you can run it.

Arnita Champion: It was used to my benefit because the anchor leg was the fastest and you will run down somebody. I have never had it to where you are black so I don’t want you to run. It was more okay, we are going to put you in because we know that you can beat that team. So it was for a benefit. I have never seen myself, even in fitness as a personal trainer, as a IFBB pro figure competitor, there were little sprinkles within it where I am not the skinny person with the curves.

Arnita Champion: I am what they consider a mesomorph, I can put on muscle very easily, but can be seen as wow. That is abrasive. That is a lot. Where I was put aside and washed out or depleted so to speak. For an individual that was tiny, that had long hair, blue eyes. That was fair-skinned, and that looked like a Barbie doll. I didn’t look like a Barbie doll. I look more like a superhero.

Arnita Champion: I look at that and I say, you know what? I am going to embrace my body. I was fearfully and wonderfully created. I refuse to morph into something that I can’t maintain. Health and fitness for me is a lifestyle. I just turned 56, on June 6th, and I love it. Every ounce of my body, every ounce from head to toe, from the aches I get from the isms I have, but I embrace it. I embrace who I am, and fitness has been a plus and has been a benefit for me because it’s in my blood and that is my passion.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Well, and you know, self-love is an important part of removing the mask because if you don’t have that, the mask is going to stay on.

Arnita Champion: Yes. I truly believe that. In another area, what has come out of this pandemic? What has come out of this whole era? At first, I said, I have been quarantined, but it has allowed me to be quarantoned. Not only in my body, but toned in my mind, toned in my thinking. Then you are looking at it as, what do I need to do? And what have I put on the back burner that I really should have been doing?

Arnita Champion: It has allowed me a time of self reflection, self love to say, you are worth doing this. I am birthing. I think I am in the third trimester of my cookbook. Because I am vegan and I love cooking. I love it. It’s called the ingredients of a champion. Then I am looking at mentoring those individuals that have had struggles with their identity. Who have had struggles with their body, and it is called learning to fly. And that’s first love yourself and that’s fly.

Arnita Champion: Those are the acronyms. It wasn’t until a friend of mine said, do you know what your name means? And I said, Champion? No, your first name. It is Arnita. It means Eagle leader. I am infatuated. I am infatuated with Eagles. I love Eagles. I never knew that was my name. So I just don’t want to fly alone. I want to soar with other Eagles. I don’t want to just soar alone. I want to soar with my likeminded, because Eagles don’t soar with buzzards or chickens. They soar with other Eagles.

Dr. Trevor Cates: That’s beautiful. I love that. I love fly, for love yourself. That’s amazing. I love that because it’s true. You can’t fly if you don’t first love yourself.

Arnita Champion: No. I think one individual had said to me, and a lot of people are saying a lot of things that I’m taking, some with a grain of salt and others, I am saying, okay, thank you. One individual said, if you know who you are, regardless of what individuals call you, you won’t answer because you know who you are. And I thought, wow, loving yourself starts with, I can have my me time and don’t feel guilty about it.

Arnita Champion: I can say it’s all about me when I know that I need to get me right. Or I won’t be any benefit to anyone else. So that self-love is so important. It is so important where a lot of individuals may see it as being selfish. But that me time, take it. Even if it is staying a bit, an extra hour or just sitting or doing your nails, anything that makes you feel valued because it’s nothing like hating yourself when others can do that for you. You don’t need to add to that.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Absolutely. I think it’s so true that people think that this idea of self love is selfish. That it is a negative thing. Where does that come from? Why can’t we love ourselves? I understand the idea of narcissism, if you get too obsessed with yourself and you never, but that’s different. How would you explain to someone the difference between being narcissistic and self-absorbed versus self-love?

Arnita Champion: You know what it is simple. Actually, we do it every day. We build up negative things about ourselves every single day. It’s just like, if I were to say, Oh my gosh, Dr. Cates, you are beautiful. The first thing that you would say is, Oh girl, and you shut yourself down. Someone has just given you a compliment, but you don’t want to receive that self love that they are giving you so that you can take it in and look in the mirror and say, I am beautiful. When is the last time you have looked in the mirror and say, Oh, you got it going on. You are beautiful.

Arnita Champion: We tend to do that. We tend to say what we don’t want, instead of saying what we do want, instead of saying, I don’t want to be late. Instead of saying, I want to be on time. We say, I don’t want to be late. I don’t want to be late. And we are linked. We have to reprogram ourselves to look at speaking the positive and speaking what we want, because we truly want to be loved. We want to be seen as valued and lifted up, which we should be.

Arnita Champion: But we have to start lifting ourselves up because when someone walks by and says, gosh, you look horrible. Really? You will accept that. I do. Instead of no I don’t. I just have my moments. I have parked a little bit, but I am doing good. I am still standing. I would say you have to start with yourself and start reprogramming, catching yourself.

Arnita Champion: When someone gives you a compliment and sees how many times you block that compliment. How many times you wash that compliment out. See how many times you actually start to say it to other people, when you first see them, Oh, you look beautiful. I just have on these baggy pants or this old rain or whatever.

Dr. Trevor Cates: You mentioned that we all just want to be loved. I think it is important to realize that we are all more lovable when we start with self love. When you have the self love and you have the self care, the self honoring people feel it, they see it. Then they are drawn to it. And you become more lovable. We are all that in our nature, we are born lovable, right? It is not like some of us are, and some of us are not. People are drawn to you when you take that time for yourself.

Arnita Champion: You are absolutely right. When people see the value that you take within yourself, they’re drawn to that. It’s like, what do you do? Well, how do you do it? What are you doing? And you can go look at another person and see that same person, not groomed, just hunched over, just really down. It is just not accepting any type of compliments. You actually say, I am going to just bypass that person. Or I don’t want any part of it. Or they got a lot going on.

Arnita Champion: It’s truly identifiable. You treat others as you would have them do unto you. And you do unto yourself, as you would have them do unto you. You wouldn’t walk outside and just throw mud all over yourself, but you will allow others to do that. And you will allow others to transform that into a switch a roo.

Arnita Champion: You will begin to say, I am just nothing. I can’t do anything. It is impossible. I can’t do it. When I am training individuals, and they say, I can’t. I say I have some cans. We are going to open up some cans right now. Can’ts are not here. It is just a matter of just rethinking the mind, whatever you tell it to do, it will do it. Listen, I am going to tell you this cute story that I told my daughter when she was being potty trained.

Arnita Champion: She said, mom, I don’t think I can use the bathroom at night. I said why? She said, because when I’m in bed, I actually see myself on the potty and I use the restroom, I potty. I thought back to myself, that’s what happened when I was young. You wet the bed because you think your mind says that you are on the potty. So you just begin to use the restroom, whatever your mind sees, your body will follow suit. That is what I believe.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Yeah. I am sure that is something that helped her overcome it. The mind is powerful. Also who we have around us is important to help inspire us. Having people like you to help inspire us to be our better selves and to take off the mask and start with self-love. I love all the messages you have shared today Arnita. Thank you so much for the Eagle leader that you are.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Can you tell everyone where they can learn more about you, how they can find you?

Arnita Champion: Yes. On my social media platform for Instagram, it is; beachamp_ifbbpro. On my Facebook it is; TheArnitaChampion. My website is www.arnitachampion.com and my YouTube, which I love that that’s where all of my workout and motivational speaking messages are. That is Arnita Champion as well. I wanted to keep it simple, Arnita Champion.

Dr. Trevor Cates: Perfect. All right. Again, Arnita thanks for coming on and sharing your inspiration. Truly appreciate it. Thank you.

Arnita Champion: Thank you. A shout out to you. Thank you so much for being willing to hear. Thank you so much.

Dr. Trevor Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Arnita Champion. To learn more about her, you can go to thespadr.com, go to the podcast page with her interview and you will find all the information and links there. While you are there, I invite you to join The Spa Dr. community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming shows and information. I also encourage you to take the skin quiz to find out what your skin personality type is and what messages your skin might be trying to tell you about your health, what you can do about it at theskinquiz.com. Also, I invite you to join The Spa Dr. on social media. We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. You can join the conversation there and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.