I read an interesting post on facebook about the objectification of women and the unrealistic beauty standards projected by the media. Not having daughters, I can't say I have spent a lot of time thinking about this, certainly not as much as I would have if that had been my path. But it has stuck in my mind all day.
I was always the smart girl. School came really easy to me. I loved it. But as we all know, the pretty girls always wish someone would appreciate their brains a bit more, and well, us smart girls always wished we could be the pretty girls! But man, it looked like a lot more work than being smart.
In my teens and twenties I always wanted to look like one of the coltish Ralph Lauren models, kind of sporty but really, built like a boy. Kind of in opposition to my Marilyn Monroe-ish figure type! At one point I got down to the lowest weight that I could, stripped down and looked in the mirror. To my disappointment, I looked a bit more like one of those poor cows wandering around India, skin stretched over bone, but I still didn't look like those girls!! The frame was not the frame of a boyish physique! So I gave that up pretty quick. Scarecrow was never a fashion look!
In my thirties, I gave up the quest to look like a runway model and began to look at my assets. Work with what I had. And you know, it wasn't half bad. I learned what worked for my body around clothes and makeup, how to play up the aspects that were unique to me. I have done running clinics, walked, played sports to keep fit. But interestingly enough my brain is still stronger than what I have created out side. I realize in my fourties that although I manage the outside, my body has never really felt like it was connected to my brain. My intellect is quite disconnected from my physical expression.
I have been doing a lot of yoga and meditation, I have blogged about that before. Last night after a particularly rigorous class, I was laying in Shivasina, sweating from every pore and I had a very strange sensation. I stretched and suddenly felt for the first time like I was fully there. Inhabiting this body. I felt the connection and the reach all the way to the tips of my fingers. I shivered. Every cell of this body finally feels like mine. I am reaching up with spirit and into every cell of my being and I felt euphoric. High. In a complete state of awe.
I felt like I had come home.
What a blessing to grow into my own skin.
In love and light,
Kathryn
I was always the smart girl. School came really easy to me. I loved it. But as we all know, the pretty girls always wish someone would appreciate their brains a bit more, and well, us smart girls always wished we could be the pretty girls! But man, it looked like a lot more work than being smart.
In my teens and twenties I always wanted to look like one of the coltish Ralph Lauren models, kind of sporty but really, built like a boy. Kind of in opposition to my Marilyn Monroe-ish figure type! At one point I got down to the lowest weight that I could, stripped down and looked in the mirror. To my disappointment, I looked a bit more like one of those poor cows wandering around India, skin stretched over bone, but I still didn't look like those girls!! The frame was not the frame of a boyish physique! So I gave that up pretty quick. Scarecrow was never a fashion look!
In my thirties, I gave up the quest to look like a runway model and began to look at my assets. Work with what I had. And you know, it wasn't half bad. I learned what worked for my body around clothes and makeup, how to play up the aspects that were unique to me. I have done running clinics, walked, played sports to keep fit. But interestingly enough my brain is still stronger than what I have created out side. I realize in my fourties that although I manage the outside, my body has never really felt like it was connected to my brain. My intellect is quite disconnected from my physical expression.
I have been doing a lot of yoga and meditation, I have blogged about that before. Last night after a particularly rigorous class, I was laying in Shivasina, sweating from every pore and I had a very strange sensation. I stretched and suddenly felt for the first time like I was fully there. Inhabiting this body. I felt the connection and the reach all the way to the tips of my fingers. I shivered. Every cell of this body finally feels like mine. I am reaching up with spirit and into every cell of my being and I felt euphoric. High. In a complete state of awe.
I felt like I had come home.
What a blessing to grow into my own skin.
In love and light,
Kathryn
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