Nice body baby! lessons from a young one...

(http://www.courses.psu.edu/wmnst/wmnst001_atd1/BeautyMyth/3mirrors.jpg)

What do you see when you look at yourself?

I spent the earlier part of this afternoon soothing my dear daughter back into alignment. It was a very contrasty experience because it brought up a great many issues that i may have felt as a young girl, but we really did a lot of moving forward and going from deep sadness to joy (she was hysterical, and now she is sitting and singing opera to herself...you can only do that when you are in joy!)

She is a lovely young woman--sparkly, kind, a real energy ball--and astoundingly beautiful, singularly so--and i am trying not to be biased--but in this space, i can say what i want and not be seen as arrogant! lol...When she was young, she had such cute baby cheeks and baby belly, that she carried happily into young adult hood--and because no one was comparing her to anyone, because everyone told her how wonderful and beautiful she was, and accepted her for who she really was...she grew into a petite, but long torsoed healthy bodied teen--oh to have that long waist! lol with long red hair and a smear of freckles accross her translucent skin...

Lately, she has been hanging out with a group of girls that are VERY into their bodies--very into their shapes and being skinny and looking a certain way. She had never really been close to these girls, but because she had been taking a break from hanging out with her best guy friend, she listened to these girls complaining and bitching and started to take on their beliefs because she wanted to belong to the group which is what ALL girls want right?

She had never wanted that before--she had been happy to just flit through life doing her own thing--but for some reason--possibly a desire to experience the group mentality--she fell into place there...and took on their beliefs--and started to feel VERY badly about herself--because she thought she was (GASP--because it is so far from true) Fat...

There is nothing inherently wrong with being plump--I have been EVERY weight--ultra thin, curvy, pudgy and downright fat...and i always loved myself, even as i wished for things to be a bit different...here she was beating herself up because she didnt fit their beliefs related to weight...

and so, i told her the story of how as a young girl i had been a ballerina, and was never thin enough even though you could see my ribs! and because I fell for someone elses beliefs, my body lost its ability to self evaluate in a realistic way. No one tells you these things when you are young, but you will CRAVE that young body that was perfectly fine--but we all tend to fall into a trap of wishing to be what we arent, when if we truly stood up for ourselves and loved ourselves and said NO--i will be who i am, and not who you want me to be...then you would never want to be what you arent because it simply wouldnt be your truth and you wouldnt stand for that!

She realized that she was feeling BADLY because she was having a thought--and that thought was not her truth--and her inner being was telling her STRONGLY (and it always tells her things strongly) that those thoughts were not her truth...she was able to align quite easily again with knowing her lovely body was fine the way it is...she as also able to align easily with the idea that having a friend is not more important than honoring your own internal guidance...that a true friend is a person who sees you for who you really are--and is just fine with that--no matter what...

so, here is to my lovely daughter--who again reminded me that MY body is perfectly fine the way it is--and who reminded me to love myself every day because i wicked ROCK!