by Anonymous
I grew up with a belief that I was not beautiful. I felt like the ugly duckling in my family. My mother and her sisters were very petite, had dark hair and brown eyes. I on the other hand was tall, had blonde hair and blue eyes and was told by many that I had a good ‘solid’ build, a word which I grew up to detest.
When I was introduced for the first time to work colleagues of my parents or people that my parents knew, it was always joked about that I couldn’t be my mother’s daughter and where did I come from, was I adopted as they couldn’t believe how physically different we were. Although I laughed along I was always ashamed by this and ashamed of my looks, height and build. I felt I could never be a woman because I wasn’t small and I didn’t look like the women in my family. I had a picture that you needed to be small and petite to be a girl or a woman and because I didn’t fit this picture I loathed how I looked. I also believed that you could only ever ask for help, show you were upset or be vulnerable if you were small and delicately framed.
When I was 11 years old I fell over and hurt my arm and toes on a school excursion to a water park. I didn’t want to show anyone I was hurt so I hardened my body to not feel the pain I was in. My friend saw the fall and the look on my face and insisted I go and get checked out by the first aid. The first aid man looked at my arm and held it roughly then said, “you’re a big strong girl, you will be okay”. I was angry with myself for showing I was weak and for asking for help. When he said this I wanted to cry, I wished that I was a ‘smaller’ girl so that it would be okay to ask for help and allow people to care for me. But I pretended I was okay and stayed at the water park and played. My friend’s mum offered me a lift home from school but I wanted to prove I was tough so I walked home. It took three days, a very swollen and blackening foot and aching wrist before I told anyone I was hurt. When I finally went to the Doctors I found out I had a broken wrist and five broken toes. Stories were then told at family dinner parties about how tough I was and how I didn’t cry even when I had broken so many bones. I was praised for being so ‘resilient’. I liked the praise so I decided that was how I would be, tough and independent, even though inside I was jealous of other girls who could show they were hurt and how they allowed people to be more gentle with them.
From young I would dress in boys clothing and I acted like a tomboy and became one of the boys proving I could be as tough if not tougher than them. As a teenager, when being a tomboy was no longer acceptable I started wearing dark baggy clothes to hide my body as it was now deeply cemented that I was not okay. Physically I had constructed a body that was tough, hard and I was holding a lot of excess weight. I can now see that this was a form of protection to push people away and not let them or myself see my fragility. There was a pride in showing I was tough and never vulnerable, in this I denied taking care of myself or honouring my fragility for many years.
I didn’t fit the pictures I had created of what it meant to be a woman or of those pictures that we are constantly flooded with in the media. I didn’t feel in any way feminine so there was no way I would even allow myself to walk into a women’s clothing shop for fear of being ridiculed by people in there. I thought they would make fun of me for wanting to dress in women’s clothing when I had a body like mine. When my friends went shopping I would stand in the store trying to be invisible and I even thought they would kick me out or ask me to leave their shop as I didn’t belong in there. I also believed that in life you could only ask for help if you were small, but if you were big then you needed to be tough and do it all on my own.
In high school I attended and boarded at an all girls school. During this time body image was extremely important for many of the girls. Though we all had different shapes, sizes, complexions and looks, no-one was free from hating certain elements of their body. People were on constant diets or get fit programs. Eating disorders, self harm and many other conditions were commonly witnessed in the school though often pushed under the rug and never openly discussed. Girls who were hospitalized for eating disorders were said to have ‘transferred schools’ even though everyone knew what was actually going on.
When I left high school I was sad because I no longer had to wear a school uniform, because although I didn’t like conforming to it, this was my one excuse to wear a dress. I denied connecting to myself as a woman all throughout my twenties, I wasn’t even aware of how much I had shut down this part of me and how ‘hardened’ I had become in my approach to getting through life.
When I first heard about Esoteric Breast Massages (EBM) I never considered I could have one as I thought it would only be for women who were actually like women. I fought myself and all the thoughts that came up around this but decided to have an EBM anyway. I was in my late twenties and with the support of the EBM this was the first time that I had allowed myself to feel my connection to myself as a woman. From here I was able to start to feel a huge part of me that I had denied accepting my whole life. It has been a very gradual learning and unfolding, getting back to how I actually feel under all the ideals and beliefs I have judged myself against. I am still in the process of becoming aware of these, accepting myself and letting go of the many pictures I have.
During this process I started to feel how much I actually wanted to connect to the woman I had denied and to start to honour and express how I actually felt instead of living with this ‘tough’ exterior. On a trip to Vietnam I asked a friend for her support with this. She was someone who inspired me by the way she looked after, cared for, honoured and expressed herself as a woman. Though she was younger than me she was a role model in this area, an area that I had denied myself. Though I was extremely embarrassed I asked her to go with me to get a dress made at the tailors. The experience was excruciating as the thoughts of self-loathing came up. The support from her during this time was really important for me. It allowed me to talk about how I was feeling and what beliefs I was holding about myself that were keeping me trapped in this idea that I couldn’t be or dress like a woman.
When the dress was made and I put it on for the first time, she asked me how I felt. I replied by saying ‘I hate myself and I feel like an elephant in a tutu’; even though I had lost a substantial amount of weight I still held the picture that I was ‘big’. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. Even though I really did want to dress in this way I was more comfortable hiding my body. I realised that because I didn’t fit the picture of ‘beauty’ that I had. I didn’t want to put any effort in as I didn’t want people to think I was trying as a part of me believed there was no hope for me.
This process helped me to take the first steps to reclaiming myself as a woman. There is still more to unfold. Stuff still comes up when I put effort into how I dress. It takes some adjusting to getting used to expressing yourself differently, whether through how you dress or behave. When at last I did start to wear dresses that I wanted to, I was uncomfortable and still wanted to hide. At work when I wore a dress for one of the first times a guy at work said “You look great, why are you so dressed up?” I was unfamiliar with how to handle the compliment and I thought I still needed an excuse to be able to wear a dress so I pretended I was going to a funeral.
At first I felt I needed to ask someone’s permission to start to dress like a woman. It was like society hadn’t allowed me because I didn’t fit the billboard of ‘beautiful’, but then I realized that I wasn’t giving myself this permission because I was so critically judging myself. It was more an issue of whether I accepted myself or not.
I realize it is not about my size, shape or looks, but I detested myself based on judging myself against the pictures I had taken on or created based on the throw away comments of others and the many images I was confronted with on a daily basis which I measured myself against.
I started to experiment with trying different clothes and learning to look after and care for my body and to not let the abusive thoughts have free rein. On my next trip to Vietnam two women in their sixties asked me to go dress shopping with them. They had been inspired by some of the changes I had started to make and they too wanted support. I was shocked by what they were going through. I never imagined that either of these women would have an issue with wearing a dress because they fitted the pictures I had of what it meant to be a woman- but they didn’t fit the pictures they had. One of the women shared that after she got married she no longer felt like she could dress up or take the time to put care into how she dressed. She used to love wearing dresses when she was in her twenties but then she stopped wearing them and now that her body was different she didn’t feel she could wear dresses anymore. Once she got past this hurdle she then had other reasons for why she couldn’t get a dress made out of a bright red fabric she loved, her reason being that ‘women my age can’t wear this colour’. When I asked her what she actually wanted she said she loved the red so she decided to get a dress made in that fabric. And, I must say she did look amazing when she wore it, she looked younger and she was radiating.
It was a great experience for me to see how this woman was holding herself back because of what she felt she had to be or dress like, I had thought by the age of 60 all your issues about body image would be gone. I viewed these women as successful and confident women, so I was surprised to see how they still held ideals and beliefs which capped them. The experience of this woman choosing the red dress then inspired me to get another dress made in a design I really wanted but was unsure whether I should wear. With the support of the practitioners at Universal Medicine I have been able to start to see the many layers and pictures I have taken on and measured and judged myself against that have aided my self-loathing. With support I am learning to reclaim what I want and learn to love and express myself as a woman more and more each day.
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for sharing what has obviously been a painful experience, as a woman. I think you and I would both be surprised if we were able to take a poll of women (at any age) who have body issues. Because we live in the bubble of our own perception, we think we are the one who is the ugly duckling and that all the rest of “the girls” have got it together or feel great about themselves. As we start to open up and talk about our actual experiences, I suspect we will find that we all have our insecurities although they may be about different aspects and for different reasons. Now we can support each other in stepping up to be more awesome women, as your blog shows us. Thanks again – for giving me lots to consider on my next shopping trip (which by the way, I normally never enjoy!). I will recall your story when I go…and take a friend along for support.
Isn’t it extraordinary how we can be moulded to feel we are not what society thinks is ‘an acceptable woman’. Who tells us what is right to be as a woman anyway? Other people who have equally no idea what it is but have developed a huge bunch of beliefs and ideals around it AND the voices …we allow… inside our own heads.
If the beliefs and ideals and the voices aren’t true, what’s supporting us to think that they are? Essentially, that would be the whole world of media representation, the clothing industry, and everyone who is chasing an idea of what a woman is, as in….what goes on outside of us.
What if … by connecting to our gentle breath we actually start to feel what it is to be a woman? What if …. we feel the gentle movement of our lungs as we breath this way, the tenderness of our chest as it rises and falls? In this way, I am coming to feel what it is to be me, a woman, breath by gentle breath.
Thank you for a very exposing view of how we protect ourselves from a world trying to shape us into what we are not. It’s always a revelation to find we have the key to what it is to be a woman all along, and that key is in our own pocket.
Ariana Ray, UK
I really appreciate and understand what you’ve shared, Anonymous. I felt very much as you did in your younger years, and looked nothing like my very petite mother – although in my case I actually was adopted! However this didn’t make a difference to how I felt – big and ungainly. My Mum unfortunately reinforced the stereotype of the petite, slim woman by insisting I diet and exercise. Rather than let her know how that made me feel, I went along with her wishes but sought comfort and revenge by sneak-eating behind her back. This of course fulfilled her worst nightmare – I did put on weight, kick-starting what was to become a long cycle of yo-yo dieting and gym binges. It’s taken me a long time to find balance, and overcome the self-loathing that developed as a result. I’m only just starting to wear dresses – and close-cut clothes – again too. I also relate to the notion that as a larger woman, I couldn’t be vulnerable, though I felt this mostly as an internal pressure. Thank you for sharing this deeply personal story, it’s very healing for us all. And I love the sense that we can start to appreciate all women as they are, not how we think they should be.
Thank you for your deeply touching words of reflection, I also took on the role of the tom-boy, and felt other women would laugh at me if I wore a dress as I thought they would think I was trying to be something I was not. Now I really love to wear dresses and enjoy spending time getting ready before I go out. It is crazy that I worried other women would think I was not a woman, I am a woman and it is impossible for anyone to view me as anything but. I just had to address the ideas and beliefs I had decided were the determining factor of whether I was a woman or not.
Dear Lovely Woman,
Thank you for sharing this. It has moved me to tears. I felt saddened by how women have been so impacted by these ideals & beliefs which we have adhered to and have held us back. I felt honoured that you shared your story with us. I felt joy that you have started to connect to the beauty full woman that exists within you (as it does for all of us).
A real healing for me and us.
Wiht much love,
Sarah
Thank you so much for sharing this experience. I could relate to the feeling of wanting to be more petite. Being taller, I constantly wanted to feel smaller and more like a ‘woman’. The clothes I wore, the type of man I wanted and the way I carried myself were all tainted with this feeling of trying to hide or change something fundamentally wrong with me. So it was awesome to read that the support of the EBMs helped you to feel more that how you are naturally is okay and something to celebrate. I have had a couple of EBMs and they really have changed how I carry myself too.
What’s crazy is that I used to think that being ashamed of my body and hiding it with certain clothes was normal and not worth second guessing. It was really the EBMs that let me see that I’m actually so much more and I’m naturally really comfortable with my body. I just can’t believe that I accepted the crappy stuff I took on for so long. I guess I thought that that’s all there was.
Thank goodness there’s more, thank goodness for this amazing sharing and thank goodness for the role models out there showing there’s another way. I just loved reading your story.
I have loved reading this, thank you for sharing. It was very sweet the way you shared and observed the dress-choosing with the older friend; isn’t it an eye-opening moment for us when we can observe that another has an issue – one that we cannot see as being the case in any way what so ever… then we can turn that realisation around and see that our own issue is most likely just as unfounded and just as much a figment of our imagination as the other! From your example, I can see that because of this lovely reflection, it can often be helpful to share our vulnerabilities and insecurities rather than hide them away for fear of being judged on them. In fact they hold the potential to let another woman view herself with a different perspective. Beautiful.
Boy oh boy, what an absolutely beautiful blog in the way you express so honestly, and, in the choices you are now making which feel very inspiring. I too have once again started wearing skirts and dresses, and I absolutely love the feeling of a dress or skirt. I spent so long wearing trousers, and hiding my figure at different periods in my life. I also now enjoy wearing trousers as I feel so different in them the more I accept myself as a woman. How awesome that we can by our own choices inspire others, as you did in Vietnam. Long may that continue. With much love and appreciation for you sharing your story, thank you.
Dear Anonymous,
As a man, I am deeply touched by what you’ve written. It is like you’ve re-opened up a ‘new’ world to me. I cried a lot while reading your words. I feel it’s because I’ve been not allowing myself to express the natural beauty that I see and feel in all women. Your story made me aware of this. I have never ever (in this life so far:-)) realised that expressing this to a woman is indeed important. The consideration that a woman could deny herself as a beautiful woman has never come up. So from now on I will express and celebrate the natural beauty that is within every woman. Thank you so much Anonymous. This is a huge understanding, healing and support to me.
Hi Anonymous, when this blog came through I just knew I needed some time with myself, quiet time, to read this piece. So I am sitting in a favourite chair, the house is quiet and I have time to really read the blog, repeat paragraphs and re-read the whole article again. It is such a personal sharing and yet a sharing that felt like it was talking to just me. Not that my experiences are exactly the same but you have offered a story that allowed me to reflect back, think of times and situations when I too pushed through how I was feeling, toughened up and made my body hard. I don’t feel sad about this anymore, I am deeply grateful for the EBM practitioners and Natalie and Miranda Benhayon. They are woman freely wearing dresses. In fact they wear them so well and look so sexy in them that I have added a number of dresses to my wardrobe. Maybe I shall bump into you in Vietnam this year, getting our knew dresses made?
Dear Beautiful Woman,
I am deeply touched by your sharing. My formative years were the early 1970′s when Twiggy was still the role model. I was tall and large and curvy, so totally different to what was considered attractive. My girlfriends were petite and popular. I felt so uncomfortable with my very, very female body! I dressed like a girl (it was expected), but never felt lovely as I did not fit the prototype. It is lovely to feel your story, as a very girly girl I feel that my experience was not so different to you the ‘tomboy’. I aso felt a need to not show how hurt I was by not fitting the societal version of what is beautiful. I also gave up on on ever fitting that image and became toughened and hardened so as not to show the hurt. I carried an enormous amount of excess weight to hide all the hurt and protect myself. It was not until my 40′s that I learnt to care for my body and my body shape changed as I changed from within.
I have noticed that my choices in clothes have changed as I have become more honouring of myself.
Thankyou again for honouring us with your story.
Thank you for sharing your story. It’s interesting isn’t it, no matter what our body shape is, our feelings of lack of self worth or self loathing will get in the way of how we perceive ourselves. I am small, petite and have brown eyes, yet when I was a teenager I felt so lost and isolated in society as it is/was that I thought that I must be ugly – I came to believe this quite strongly. In my late twenties and thirties however I really did enjoy clothes and dressing for work – I am starting to enjoy this again after having had two children – (i got caught up in being a mother and just too tired and busy to enjoy me) yet I have never really fully honoured and appreciated myself as a woman. I have missed this part of myself and know that there are still some uncovered issues about being a woman that I have yet to address. I am beginning to come out the other side again as I start to connect to myself as a woman again rather than as a mother. It has become so clear from those that have done it/are doing it and in our sharing our stories and experiences, that the more time we take each day to enjoy, nurture and celebrate ourselves in the small things with the intention of self love, then our natural essence and beauty can’t hide anymore and so our lack of self worth and self loathing gently fades away.
Thank you, this was very brave, very honest, very inspiring to read. I am in awe….after reading this…..I felt nothing but the true qualities of a woman.
Dear Anonymous, Thank you so much for your wonderful and honest blog! I too was an ugly duckling, although I was small and dark and my mother dressed me in red velvet etc. and I was always surrounded by blue-eyed blonde beauties dressed in white organdie with blue sashes and frills. When I was about 14, for some reason unknown to me I began to feel really beautiful and this continued until I met my 2nd husband. He was an Englishman whose staple diet was bread and cheese, two things I had rarely eaten before that time. I gave my power away and joined that lunch. I got more and more bloated and had to walk around in dresses that didn’t come in too much at the waist. It was agony. Finally, at the age of 58 I met Serge Benhayon and tried gluten and dairy- free simply because it energetically felt true. I miraculously turned back into the size 8 body that i used to be many years ago. But the most important thing has been the realisation that what made me feel ugly and in agony before was actually the energy I was carrying that was ‘not me’ – deep lack of self-worth that dogged everything that I did and informed all my choices.
Thank heavens for Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon and the women’s group!
Wow this blew me away. I cried. I am deeply appreciative of your sharing.
Dear Anonymous,
I loved reading your blog and even though I grew up fitting the ideals of society in general when it came to being a woman, I certainly didn’t fit my own, which is what you’ve so honestly exposed as the real issue. What you’ve shared is probably one of the most important issues most of us face as women – accepting ourselves in full first, identifying all the false measures of what we’re supposed to be like in every way.
Thanks so much for your honesty, the change you’ve made I can relate to entirely and are very inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this so openly and honestly. I can absolutely relate to your story, as I too felt that everyone around me was taller, skinnier and prettier which kept me disconnected to the true beauty within myself – and within others. It is so very beautiful when we, as women, can come together and share our experiences and recognise the amazing support that we can be for one another. One woman’s simple story can be felt by so many, bringing about so much healing…and this is what you have done here.
Thank-you Anonymous for sharing you experience, it felt so beautiful to read that.
I was one of those women at the other end of the scale, thin and short. The boys in my grade called me ‘flatsie’ and the constant comments from everyone were, ‘you’re so tiny’, ‘there’s nothing of you’ or, ‘you’re so small, what size are you?’ I was a size 8 and still am today so I grew up feeling not womanly at all but rather like a girl pretending to be a woman. One of my daughters’ mothers made a comment that I could have been one of my daughter’s sisters, so consequently my belief was that a real woman is taller and fuller and I certainly didn’t fit that picture. I have come to now not trust what my eyes think they are seeing, but feel within me and from there I can feel the truth of me. That stillness says it all, in that presence I am woman through and through.
I agree with all the previous comments which have said it all, an awesome blog packed with honesty and healing for all, both men and women, as it breaks down long held misunderstandings and misconceptions that have led to conflict and competition between the sexes.
Dear Anonymous, thank you so much for sharing your story as you have been an “inspiration” for me, as I can relate to a lot of what you have written as I also was a tomboy as a child and then tried to hide and protect myself with excess weight also.
My two sons who are now aged 17 & 20, up to a year ago had only seen me in a dress once. But in the last year I have been wearing a dress around the house.
I am yet to leave the house in one, but with your inspiring words I can feel the day will soon arrive. Thank YOU for that.
with love & appreciation for you being you
Kirsten Roslyn
Much appreciation anonymous for the true beauty you bring in sharing your story without reserve. I feel every woman can relate to your blog whether fitting the ‘ideal’ or not of what it means to be a beautiful woman……..true acceptance of our own uniqueness as women seems to be something we all have been challenged with at some time. It is so inspiring to feel where you are now as I read your blog, and also be reminded of my own returning to me.Thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing this and the deeper awareness you have brought to us of how, as women, we have been thwarted to feel the real beauty of who we are and the fallout and damage shutting this beauty down has caused. Your honesty to share those hurts is deeply appreciated and has helped me understand more deeply the importance to love and appreciate me for all the beauty I am and to let that out. I never once felt comfortable with what I wore. The minute I stepped outside the door I wanted to be wearing someone else’s ‘look’. The permission to unleash myself and my acceptance has re-designed my wardrobe and getting dressed is finally becoming enjoyable – expressing me is finally able to happen. This would never have happened without receiving similar support which you have shared you received.
Tears came when I read how you had to bottle up the pain when you broke your wrist and fingers. Just this week I watched how girls leading cattle, have their feet trod on and their faces express instantly their pain and fragility. They were told to suck it up and carry on and praised by judges afterwards to be able to carry on. My son busted his fingers and was told to carry on. When I got to him I let him lie down and cry and hugged him. Today we are going to the doctors as they appear fractured. Thank you for expressing the real hurt you were feeling at the time of your accident and for us to get to understand and feel the importance to allow our children to cry, to feel and not to have to hold it in, toughen up and think it’s normal to stop feeling as you grow up.
Thank you, anonymous. I found this, and the comments, so moving. As a man, thank you Floris for expressing so beautifully.
Beautiful Annoymous, thank you so much for your deeply touching and very candid account. What a journey you have been on and how exciting to be discovering yourself as the beautiful, tender woman you truly are and one that is showing other women how to connect to themselves too. What an inspiring moment it was when you chose, against all your criticisms to have an EBM and begin your journey back to your true expression. It truly demonstrates the power, love and real support that the UM practitioners and the EBM practitioners offer to all of us. With much love and joy to you.
This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. It brought tears to my eyes and as a man I feel like weight has been lifted from my shoulders. What we are told to think is beautiful and what is truly beautiful are often very different things. And you, Ms anonymous – are truly beautiful. Thank you for your courage in sharing your feelings.
Thank you for writing your experience and sharing it with us. As I felt the depth of honesty in your words, it was like a flower bud, opening into bloom for all to see. Beauty-full.
simply beautiful – thank you so much for sharing – i’ve got goosebumps
Wow. Thank-you so much for sharing, dear ‘anonymous’. This blog, and the comments it has inspired feel ground-breaking – shattering and exposing so much of the crushing illusion of how we are ‘supposed’ to look/be, particularly as women. I can feel threads of where I’ve denied my own true beauty in reading this – from how it took me until my 30′s to start enjoying wearing dresses and skirts (inspired by a group of women I worked with who naturally celebrated each other in this way, without ‘catty’ comparison); from how I was ‘held up’ as something to aspire to as a growing young woman, because I ‘fit’ the slim, petite ‘model’ – when in truth, I was uncomfortable about my body, tended to hide it, and struggled with comparison from others.
Your piece is so inspiring in celebrating the true beauty in every woman. I have been deeply inspired, and I have to say gob-smacked, in recent years, in witnessing this particularly in the women attending Universal Medicine events, and the Women’s Presentations – just how staggeringly beautiful women of ANY ‘shape and size’ can be, when they celebrate themselves in their OWN WAY, and step out of the crushing ‘ideals’ that say we ‘shouldn’t’ do so. And it is truly delicious to feel the inner loveliness in myself coming to be more and more of a natural expression ‘on the outer’ also – simple enjoyment and cherishing, playful and deeply yummy. None of this should ever be trivialised.
So thank-you again dear ‘anonymous’, your powerful sharing and listening to that inner voice that says ‘you know you’d like a dress in a particular style – why not give it a go!’ is deeply profound, touching and clearly something ALL women can relate to and feel more deeply where we have enchained ourselves. This blog breaks so much ground that has been ill-fully trod for aeons.
As with many other readers of your article, ‘Anonymous’, it moved me to tears. When I reflected on why this might be so, I realised it was whilst reading the bit on EBMs that I cried. I had always hated my breasts because they were small (even though I, like you, was very big) and so when I had my first EBM I hated it as I did not like my breasts to be touched (and I did not have the courage to express this to the practitioner during the session). This linked into my, at times, not liking my husband touching my breasts either (I felt they were ‘mine’, and that he felt they were his). I was able to express my dislike of the touch after the session (of course the practitioner had already felt my dislike) and she suggested I started massaging my own breasts, to support my relationship with them and to the nurturing quality in me. After some delay (my resistance was in itself enlightening), I now massage my breasts most days and I gradually started to feel comfortable doing so. This morning I felt such stillness when I was massaging them, so I was really able to feel how a woman’s breasts are her centre of stillness. One of the UniMed practitioners helped me to understand that my dislike of my breasts reflected the dislike I had of being a woman in this life (I too grew up a tomboy, played a lot of sport, was tough and independent – not ever allowing myself to be vulnerable – and I even studied a ‘male’ profession).
My gradual acceptance of myself as a woman, and allowing myself to be vulnerable and not always having to be strong and trying to get it ‘right’ (because, as another practitioner mentioned to me recently, I am actually always 10 out of 10), has been a revelation to me and also I suspect to my friends and family, such that I am slowly re-claiming not just my vulnerability, but my tenderness, joy and playfulness. The key for me has been (and still is) allowing myself to truly feel the beauty-full woman I am. This is very much a ‘work in progress’.
So, dear Anonymous, I thank you so very much for your honesty of expression and the reflection it has brought me. See you at the tailor in Vietnam!
Dear anonymous, I feel as though you have reached deep within me, and expressed all of the pain, hurt and bewilderment I have experienced as a woman.
I feel inspired by your words to give myself permission to feel and express my beauty. Your blog and the wonderful comments posted show the absurdity of the world we live in…so many beautiful women believing they are anything but beautiful, because we do not comply to the decreed, narrow, definition of ‘beauty’. This is purely crazy. Thank you for exposing this with your honesty.