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Demonstration Image Listing Page
Even if I don’t want to admit it for all its shallowness, there is a belief, an ugly ‘truth’ I have held in the survival part of my brain about beauty, that says to me as a woman: If I look good, I am ok.
Ugly isn’t it, this belief about ‘beauty’? With all the images, expectations and rules we are bombarded with (from young) about what it is to be a woman, is it any wonder we struggle with the confidence to feel ‘ok’ about ourselves – let alone feel unreservedly amazing, gorgeous and truly beautiful?
In these blogs, everyday women of all ages and backgrounds have written about the changes in their lives resulting from living true to themselves.
These women, and many others like them, have transformed their lives through connecting deeply with themselves and their bodies, and bringing that connection into their every day way of being.
Their stories speak for themselves ...
by Sara Harris, BHSc, Melbourne, Australia
“But knowing now the difference between what I would call living a ‘good’ life and living a ‘true’ life, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
In her blog on the Livingness, Sara shows how her drive to do was at the expense of her true potential for joy and vitality.
by Danielle, 31, Exercise Physiologist, Australia
“This has been an unfolding back to the woman that I had felt myself becoming around the age of 15, but had got side-tracked from for the 10 years that then followed.”
Danielle talks about how, as an emerging woman of 15 years of age, she felt connected to herself and was having fun getting to express herself with the clothes she wore and foods she ate. At 17 years she got derailed by what others thought of her choices that were not ‘normal’ and spent 10 years on the track of ‘what is everyone else doing?’. Only to discover there is a way back to the young woman who knew exactly what she liked to do and most importantly how to be.
"Nurturing Moments. True Self Care"
by Cherise Holt, Nurse, Brisbane
“When we honour what we feel in a moment, more moments are naturally presented to us. We find the opportunities to be truly self-nurturing and make the choices to do what feels true.
I know it has nothing to do with the activity or the ‘doing’, it feels simpler and more real than this. Self-nurturing doesn’t need to be for a special occasion or an event, to escape from my day or to reward myself in any way. Nurturing is anything we choose to lovingly do for ourselves, in any moment.
In her blog Cherise, a nurse, looks at ways to be nurturing without more ‘doing’ and how she discovered that all the things we ‘do’ can be a nurturing activity when done with the quality of connection to you in full.
Claiming What We Know About Self-Nurturing
by Jane Keep, UK
“This ‘knowing’ about nurturing can be about the self-caring choices we make during our day and the practical daily activities that can support us. It can be about what our body needs to support it, or about how to nurture and support others.”
In her blog Jane, a manager in the UK, talks about her understanding that we all innately know how to nurture ourselves but have become experts in overriding what we know. We place the demands of life above our feelings of what is needed.
Today I Sat Down - Nurturing Myself as a Woman
by Beverley Bulmer, UK
“Not compromising my body in any situation, even when applying my make-up and doing my hair! I have learned through this experience that nurturing is a gentle flow of self-care from within that then plays out as an outer experience. The key for me was to actually bother to take notice of how I was feeling and honouring that in the moment it was felt, like sitting down when my legs ached. How easy is that?”
In this blog Beverly finds the simple act of listening to what her body wanted - ‘to sit down’ - was a remarkable confirmation that our body knows exactly what is needed moment by moment if we will only listen.
The Princess and the Pea - with Socks On
by Carmel Reid, Somerset UK
“Often we have hardened in order to survive and cope with life’s knocks and bruises, not just physical but emotional and verbal as well. It is possible that in doing so, we have suppressed our natural tender ways.”
Carmel shows how we as women can override our sensitivity and tenderness and yet it is our sensitivity and tenderness that is our true power.
Re-discovering the Delicateness Within
by Adrienne Hutchins (nee Ryan), Brisbane, Australia
“There is an exquisite ‘quality’ deep within every human being that we can allow ourselves to feel, connect with and begin to nurture.”
Adrienne writes about re-discovering this exquisite ‘quality’ that lives within us all and what it is like to live connected to this.
A Letter to my 13 year old Self
by Rebecca Baldwin, 31 years, Australia
"So choose to be aware and to feel, deeply, everything that is there to feel, both the pain and the triumphs. And remember your body is your companion. Change your posture and you will change the world. Turn your shoulders out, it sounds simple, but lift your chin. By walking with grace in your step, you will change your mood in that moment.
And it is these small moments that add up. It is these small moments of illumination that strung together make the light in your days. Don’t discount the simplicity of the smallest act or intention to love. Certainly don’t discount any act of love towards yourself. And you will find there is a freedom to be had. It is not really a freedom born of rebellion, it is a simple act of return. A re-turn to yourself and to the body you have long ignored."
Rebecca shares her story like tapestry from conversations with herself from being a 13 year old girl to the woman she has become today, with such honesty and openness.
From the 13 year old girl - who was taking drugs because she was missing herself, to the 20 year old woman who starts to realise your greatest teacher in life is your body and the choices you make - to the woman in the present returning to who she is and the freedom and incredible wisdom that has come with this.
These women are but a small sample of the many women living true to themselves today, who have developed and today live The Way of The Livingness.
The result is women who are vital, deeply caring, and with a great inner-strength that comes from knowing who they are.
Read more about Women’s Health – written by Women in The Livingness.
Discover more about the benefits of real Self Care & about developing connection & gentleness with the Gentle Breath Meditation here.