All my life I have been the typical ‘no fuss’ woman who ‘put my face on in 5 minutes’! Then all this changed, I felt that standing up to do my morning beauty routine just wasn’t cutting it anymore, so I decided to pull up a chair, a simple act that led to a miracle!
Unusual beauty tip you might say, but for me it has made a huge difference in how I feel about myself throughout the day.
Continue reading “Beauty Tip for Women: Ladies, Pull up a Chair!”
Last year I entered into a new relationship and settled for less than love. I knew deep down that I am worthy of love and deserve to be adored, but I chose to settle for less, because there is still a part of me that wants to be with a man, not on my own.
I feel that as women, we have been overriding our own clear signals and needing / relying on someone else’s approval for decades. We have often settled for less in a new relationship, not truly seeing we are worthy of love or claiming that we deserve to be adored for the beautiful woman that we are. This is no fault on anyone else, but our own choice for settling for less and for not loving ourselves enough to know our own worth.
Continue reading “A New Relationship – Am I Wilting or am I Blossoming”
I have a print of her here at home, and I asked her. I looked into her eyes and waited for an answer. This is what came to me:
“I am powerful in my stillness, grace and beauty. I am complete. My presence transcends time. I am every woman.”
For centuries scholars have been intrigued with her Renaissance identity. But does the truth of her fascination lie with the quality and power of the painting itself? Many people comment on how her eyes travel with them as they walk past her painting in the Louvre, or even when gazing at a print at home or in a book. Continue reading “Mona Lisa – an Inspiration for the Modern Woman”
Whilst swimming in the pool I observed a young girl injure herself whilst playing, albeit only slightly, yet the response from the adults around her was to immediately suggest she ‘get over it’, ‘harden up’ or ‘laugh it off’. And as I observed, it had me wondering…
Have many of us not been taught from an early age that being girly or delicate means that we’re just not strong or tough enough to be out there in the world?
Continue reading “Being A Delicate Woman – Is My True Strength”
Recently I realised that I was often feeling jealous and compared myself to other women, particularly my friends. If they achieved something or were doing well, got a new boyfriend, a lovely dress, anything really, I would feel small pangs of jealousy arise within my body.
In the past I have quickly pushed down these feelings of jealousy and then played the ‘nice friend’, commenting and congratulating them on whatever it is that they shared. Because the jealousy was only a small feeling, nothing too big that only lasted for a few seconds, I didn’t think I had jealousy issues. Continue reading “Jealousy: Foe or Friend?”
‘ … I just have to accept how I am and how I look …‘
These are the words from Laura May McMullan after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma (skin cancer). Laura had spent many years using sunbeds only to be hit with this diagnosis some 12 years after she stopped using them.
The above words from Laura are very poignant. After spending years of trying to change herself, look different and be what she called ‘Mahogany’ in the end she’s had to accept her natural skin colour just as it is.
Recently I was looking online at ‘vintage pictures’ for inspiration of images that I could put up in my room. What I discovered littered between sepia images of flowers, old keys, and the Eiffel tower, was quite revealing: I found articles/advertisements, similar to the one below, for women who have poor body image, advocating weight gain by saying: “Don’t think you’re “born” to be skinny and friendless”…. “If you want to look better by adding desired pounds and inches of welcome weight… try WATE-ON”, and “Men wouldn’t look at me when I was skinny”. In a nutshell these body images show skinny as the undesired body shape and the one to get rid of. Continue reading “Body Image: Vintage pictures vs Modern ideals”
I love pink. It is so naturally tender and feminine, but at some point as a girl I clocked that being dressed in pink was being branded with staying submissive, being weak, and being less. It was at times a feeling of being made to ‘look pretty’, so the focus was on the ‘girly’ appearance and not the expression of what was inside – the stark difference between pink being weak or less and actually being full of powerful, loving, radiant beauty. Continue reading “The ‘Fairer Sex’ – the Trick of ‘the Pink Treatment’”
What does it mean to be a good mother? Do your children have to live in the same house as you? And what if they don’t? Do you constantly have to be there for your children? There are so many pictures we as women, and as mothers have bought into – but are they true?
Continue reading “Can you be a Good Mother when your Children are not Living with You?”
No matter which side of the hemisphere we live in or nationality we’re from, dating and finding true love continues to be a global ache or tension. Where we live makes no difference at all and yet so many of us to a degree cling onto a belief, minor hope or big dream that by moving abroad or finding an expat, this ache will be eased and provide the love that’s missing ‘back home’. Though when this doesn’t occur, are we willing to step back and take a look at ourselves, or do we leave the country, taking the disillusioned ‘love-hope’ with us onto our next destination?
