"Empower: to give (someone) the authority or power to do something."
Un-Photoshopped Bikini Picture in the magical land of Culebra, Puerto Rico, my heaven.
Of all the buzz words I've been aware of, "empower" is my absolute favorite. I can literally spend hours on Instagram, Facebook, blogs, etc. discovering and interacting with other women whose mission is to empower each other.
On Sunday, I attended Jessie Artigue's, creator of Style & Pepper, popular Pepper Brunch. This month's theme was all about building your dream career and guest speaker Cyndie Spiegel was there to disclose all the dirty secrets on how to do so. Side note: Cyndie is absolutely stunning and has a certain compelling energy that makes you want to get to know everything about her (I can't wait to feature her on Boudoir by Tutti!). The moment she said her business goal is to "empower women, business owners and humans," I was all ears. "I want that too! That's also my dream!," I thought. Then, something really strange happened. I reworded a question I often ask myself, "What do I want to do to empower women?" and instead asked, "What am I doing to empower women?" and was left a bit disillusioned, knowing I can do more.
So, being Monday and all, I think it's a perfect time to start doing instead of wanting to do.
I'm going to start with the theme of body image since it's such a relevant and ever-so-present in our feminine minds. To you, I probably seem like a woman who:
is 100% satisfied with her body
doesn't question whether or not she needs to lose weight
looks at herself in the mirror and wonders what these jeans would fit like without these extra 10 pounds
wonders about what dietary restrictions to incorporate next in order to lose 3 pounds
etc.
The list could go on. I'm going to be completely honest with you and admit that if you have that perception of me, then I've done a wonderful job pretending life is perfect and a lousy job showing you the other half of me - the side that DOES question all those things. So now, what I DO want you to know is something that's 100% authentic - I have learned to observe and assess those lousy / doubtful feelings and turn them into something that empowers me.
This is what I mean. This is my reality:
I love my body, 90% of the time - the 10% usually falls around the time I get my period and it feels like I'm trying to move steel rods when getting out of bed. However, even in that 10%, I love being reminded of my femininity (kind of).
As a little girl, whenever I would ask my parents if I was fat, they'd say, "Nooooo, you're very strong!" To this day, whenever I question whether or not I should lose weight, I giggle, remembering that my weight is MY weight because of my strong bones! Lol
When I look at myself in the mirror and catch myself wondering about the fit of my jeans, I remember we live in the Booty Age, so yeah, BOOM!
I love food. I can't stop eating what makes me happy, and I've weighed the value of losing a couple pounds vs the value of eating a rich piece of dark chocolate, and chocolate always wins, duh.
To sum up, I want to empower you to find the grace that exists within you to LOVE YOUR BODY. Nothing is sexier than a woman who embraces her curves or lack thereof. You're a freaking beauty, dammit.
I dare you to take five minutes today to look at yourself in the mirror with minimal clothing. Really take time to look at yourself. How can you turn any negative thought into an empowering one? How does it feel to use your own power to reinvent your Truth?
Please share any feedback. As this topic is dear to my heart, I yearn for your comments!
Love you all, beauties.
Tutti
