Who told YOU that you weren't "good" enough?

Imagine witnessing someone (a man for that matter) telling an innocent young girl that she wasn’t thin or pretty enough to fulfill her dream. 

Imagine being a fifteen years old girl and having a man strap a tape measure around your hips to then tell you that you needed to be two inches smaller to be considered “good enough”. Good enough to fit the trend, the market, the standard for beauty that was in style at the time (and still is).

Imagine what that would do to a young girl's confidence, self-esteem, and identity? 

Imagine that young girl doing everything in her power to fulfill someone else’s idea of “good enough”. 

What if you knew that same girl was starving herself, lost her periods because her body was depleted, over-exercised, and disconnected from her body in a way that she started hating it?

You’d be outraged! You might even step in and defend her. You might even want to go to “that guy's” house and take a sledgehammer to his car...especially if you knew that she wasn’t the ONLY one he was delivering sick messaging to. 

What if she was YOUR daughter. 

Well, that girl was ME.

It’s not just one industry, one advertising campaign, one dumbass that is perpetuating a mindset and measuring stick for what defines beauty, it's everywhere! It’s the message coming from our society and cultural standards for beauty. 

The female body, throughout history, has been the model on which our culture has created standards based on desires and dreams...think foot binding and tightly laced wooden corsets. Yikes!

At that time, Japan was hiring “shorter”, with an emphasis on caucasian girls, for their advertising and fashion market. There was loot to be made, plus a massive opportunity for an overseas experience. I was in high school and saw a few other girls in my community have amazing experiences, successfully keep up their studies and make bank to pay for university. 

I now have a fifteen-year-old daughter that I do my best to protect, inform and empower. However, I still feel as though I am losing the “battle” sometimes. 

The battle against social media, messaging, peers, and society's standards for what defines "beauty." As much as it may be shifting slightly, there’s still so far to go to bring the pendulum back to the center. 

This is such a HUGE driving force for me and what informs the topic of my coaching programs and what MindBodyBright (glow with soul) stands for. 

Empowering women with the tools, structures, and strategies to become their own best self-caretakers is my job! To help them feel in control of their health, mindset, and happiness without having to “outsource” is what I am committed to. 

No matter what is happening on the outside (trends, others' opinions, or expectations) the source of your power, potential and divinity are withIN, not withOUT. 

This is SUCH a conversation worth having.

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Hope to see you on the inside.

XO, Paula