It's been so amazing to connect with all of the women who've participated in the #healthyatanysize #getmoving2015 Holiday Challenge. I love hearing from you and gaining some insight as to what's on your minds and how you're transforming your relationship with your bodies! I think it's so powerful to see what can happen when we put our voices together behind a collective battle cry. In ways that I can't even share yet, people are paying attention to what the #healthyatanysize community has to say.
You all inspire and empower me to bring my "A" game, each and every day. I've written before about how I view modeling as a calling. That statement is much more than lip service for me. Truly, I'm in this to share what I've learned, and to see as many women as possible fall in love with themselves and shed all of the baggage that moving through this world as a woman of size has saddled them with. The reason I believe in this idea so strongly is that every woman who is living at a fraction of her greatness, who is dulling her shine and hunching her shoulders and trying not to be seen, is depriving us all of some wonderful, unique gift that she was put upon this earth to share. I want to do whatever I can to make sure that women live at their full amplitude, because we all miss out if you don't!
An important step in gaining access to your full amplitude is sharing your experiences with others. And really, the sharing your story thing is not just about YOU. When you hold onto your experience or your reaction to something, you experience it in isolation. No matter how uniquely grotesque we may feel our own experiences have been, there is always someone else who can find us relatable. You give those people a gift by sharing, because you're giving them something to identify with. Together, you all create something powerful as other women identify with that and apply their own experience to it. That is how an idea grows into something much greater and allows you to feel connected to other people. Not only does it make us feel less alone, but it's what creates positive change in the world.
Photo by Elina Khachaturyan, hair by Christine Poindexter.
When people unite around a central idea, like, "Our bodies are perfect exactly as they are, and we view movement as a way to show love to them rather than a means to change them in order to meet someone else's ideal," that idea becomes powerful and gains traction. It's like one big, brilliant snowball that we are rolling through the streets together. It is made more powerful each time another woman steps forward and says, "This is me, and this is where I am with this idea today," which can be done through a conversation had with a friend, a blog post, a selfie or even just hitting the "like" button on someone's post. It's about declaring, in any way available to you, that an idea resonates with you.
If you're looking for a New Year's resolution to adopt for 2016, let it be to bring your "A" game and share more about your experiences in the coming year. We have one life to live, and it is WAY too short to spend huddling in a corner, afraid to be seen for who we really are. Whatever you're clinging to in isolation, that is the thing that you most need to share with the world so that you can feel connected and empowered to live at your highest amplitude, simultaneously paving the way for someone else to do the same. During the month of January, I'll be bringing some other ladies into the #healthyatanysize community to share their stories. I'll be profiling some "Big Shots" in the Plus Size Modeling world and giving you an inside peek at how these women feel, think and act as they navigate their careers and their lives. These are the women that I look at and I think, "I want to be more like them." I hope that by sharing what they have to say, you'll feel more empowered to become the woman that you want to be, too.