Hold on to your hat because this email may be a bit woo woo….
Over the last few years I’ve been going through a big shift.
I have gone through the menopause transition and and now at 42 I’m 4 years post menopause!
Wow right?!
I’m mainly over the physical side of things, you know the hot sweats, anxiety, low self esteem, mood swings etc
I am at a place that I am (finally) more accepting of my new post menopause body shape, energy levels and skin changes.
On a good day I have all that ^^^^. I still wobble emotionally and physically ha ha 🙂
I have spent most of my adult years worrying what I looked like on the outside.
I’ve dieted, purged, binged, starved, over exercised to try and look a certain way on the outside so that I would feel better on the inside.
Lady, let me tell you that is the wrong way round!! The thing is I knew intellectually that losing weight doesnt equal happiness. But I didn’t know another way of looking at it.
For the last 2 1/2 years I been carrying around an extra 21lbs or so. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s another dress size and it felt super uncomfortable. I have tried on a few occasionans to lose it but hell no that belly ‘aint shifting!!
The way I see it is that this weight isn’t shifting until I learn to fix the inside stuff. I’ve had to try a different approach.
You see we get more of what we focus on. Over the last few years I’ve been focusing on the weight gain, muscle loss and how I’m must be a rubbish fitness professional because ‘i should know better’.
==>>SELF BULLYING DOES NOT WORK<<==
^^^ that is a hard habit to break.
I’ve changed my focus to what things I like about myself, yes including physically. This has taken time, at one point I couldn’t look in the mirror naked without feeling so much shame.
I’ve got a coach that has taught me how to change my thinking and ‘train my brain’.
I used to worry what other people used to think about me. The great thing about being older and wiser (especially post menopause) is that I mainly don’t give a sh*t what people think about me 😉
Negitivity breeds negativity so positivity breeds………yup positivity.
My priorities are different now ……I want my body to move freely, to be pain free, to stress less, content, full of energy, sexual, vibrant, happy, happy, happy!!
Here’s the clincher……..when I have all those things ^^^^^^ I bet you a few pounds natually drop off…….
So daily I focus on what will makes me happy, what makes me feel good.
This is different for everyone, for me it’s getting out for a walk outside, doing some yoga/stretching/workout, eating foods that make me feel healthy, sharing my head stuff with friends who love and support me, quiet time/meditation/relaxation, plenty of sleep, lots of hugs (you can’t have too many hugs), being alone, being with other humans, serving my clients, being with animals, being in or near the sea, walking in the countryside, reading, writing, being there for my family and friends…..
I’m not perfect and I still have some ego 🙂 I still want to look good for me but it isn’t my main priority anymore.
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I saw this blog post the other day. It’s about a photo taken of a female Sikh who had facial hair and was wearing a turban.
She didn’t know the photo had been taken and there were a lot of negative responses to the photo.
When she found out what happened she issued this response which blew me away. This may be a bit woo woo and deep for some but I’m sure you get understand the meaning behind it.
“Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn’t know about this until one of my friends told on facebook. If the OP wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled 🙂 However, I’m not embarrased or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it’s who I am. Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying ‘mine, mine’ and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn’t important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. 🙂 So, if anyone sees me at OSU, please come up and say hello. I appreciate all of the comments here, both positive and less positive because I’ve gotten a better understanding of myself and others from this. Also, the yoga pants are quite comfortable and the Better Together tshirt is actually from Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that focuses on storytelling and engagement between different faiths. 🙂 I hope this explains everything a bit more, and I apologize for causing such confusion and uttering anything that hurt anyone.”
She did get an apology from the orginal poster and you can read the full article here
http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled