I may not be there yet...

A picture tells a thousand words.

"I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday."

Yup, I took my shorts off and wore just my swimsuit at the beach. That's not me.  I'm not comfortable in my skin.  I see all the flaws and imperfections. Those legs, they've always seemed like tree trunks to me. They're my dad's legs, I would tell myself, but that never changes them.

The trouble with this admission is that I own a fitness studio. I spend my days teaching others about health and fitness and moving and eating well. I teach that we can become what we work for.  And yet, I work hard and I eat well, but I cannot change my shape.

Perhaps I shouldn't.

I can, however, change my opinion about it.

"To be well in my skin."

What if that were my goal? What if that was everyone's goal?

Would we have healthier communities?

I follow and recently met Trish Blackwell, which led me to listen to her 'Confidence on the Go' podcast and also to pick up her book, "Insecurity Detox".  She is a fellow fitness professional who describes her ah-ha moment and the point of accepting her body as it was.  She made an unofficial study of watching French women from a cafe seat in France. What she saw was that regardless of shape, they all appeared to be beautiful, confident, and healthy. Again, despite size and shape, what they seemed to all have in common was that they were seemingly "at ease in their skin".

For the most part, I feel pretty comfortable in my skin. I don't require any make-up or a blow drier. But when it comes to my actual skin and not my outward appearance, I do tend to cover up. My struggle with confidence is about to be stripped away as I ask myself to Be Brave with my Life.  As I ask you, and as we ask everyone who walks into our Energy Lab space, to "Be Kind. Everyone we meet is fighting a hard battle." Be kind. I am revealing my secrets, becoming vulnerable, and discovering my battle; I am ready to take it down! Whether you know it yet or not, we all have experiences in our past that have shaped us. If we are fortunate, the experiences come and go and our hearts remain open. Sometimes, however, experiences affect us so deeply that they leave scars on our hearts. These scars, called Samskaras or sanskaras (Sanskrit: संस्कार) have several context driven meanings in Indian philosophy and Indian religions. One of these is "mental impression, recollection, psychological imprint" and as discussed in Michael Singer's book, The Untethered Soul, they sit as scars on our hearts. They block us from letting experiences pass through us, and instead we weave them into our fabric and use them as excuses that become us. But we can un-do them.

I invite you to BE BRAVE WITH YOUR LIFE, and join me as we unravel life's experiences, see what our hearts are open to, where our light is shining and give yourself permission to live a happy, judgement free life. Especially, let's learn to be nice to ourselves; to be kind to others and to feel at ease in our skin. I truly believe that the more "at ease" we are with ourselves, the less room there is for dis-ease to intrude into our lives!

I'll see you on the other side! BE BRAVE WITH YOUR LIFE!, we've got places to go and I know that I am not yet my finished product! Are you?