Happy International Women’s Day to all your wonderful women out there… todays blog is dedicated just for you – but don’t close it fellas – this is also to share with all the women in your lives – your partners, daughters, mothers, friends…
If I could make just one big International Women’s Day wish it would be for all women out there to stop criticising their bodies, stop comparing themselves to models or actresses or anyone else and just appreciate the unique wonderfulness of their own body.
To even write those words has been a huge journey for me and I imagine that many of you will relate to what I have been through. I used to look in the mirror and see only a bum, constantly try and find clothes to cover that bum… constantly look at other women’s bums when walking behind them and see if I could assess if mine was bigger and therefore what I must look like from behind…
I used to own a set of bathroom scales and using them in the morning would be the decisive factor in whether my day would be great or shit!
I did my first diet aged 13 and never really stopped testing out my body with calorie reduction and extreme exercise until age 36…. 23 years of that rubbish!
What happened age 36? I realised that being thin was not everything, that being connected to my femaleness was far more important, that we have cycles connected to our nature, that we have the amazing ability to make children and that if we could just stop criticising ourselves for one moment the body may be able to find its calm natural rhythm to make it happen.
We are all where we are for a reason – we are at this particular point in our lives and our bodies are what they are so that we can learn and grow.
This does not mean that we may not want something to change – but when our desire for change comes from kindness and curiosity, from the ability to listen to our bodies and not tear them apart – then long lasting shifts can happen. It is then that we can let go of our pre-rehearsed stories and inner-dialogue that we have grown so attached to…. It is then that we can really take off…
So women – why not start today? Put the bathroom scales somewhere else – connect to your inner wise woman – your inner queen who knows what makes her feel good in the long term, who knows how she likes to move her body…
Stop the criticism and celebrate this body and everything it has ever done for you and everything it will still do…
We share so many amazing attributes as women… take a moment to love them!