Episode 3: Defining Your Beauty: Our Body Awareness Journeys

Disclaimer: Trigger warning to those with disordered eating tendencies.

Do you enjoy being in the body you are in now? We have given other people the power to define beauty for us, yet we all have different definitions. We need to reclaim our power.

Are you feeling unhappy with your body? This episode is for you. We have been there before and know precisely what that place feels like. We've had seasons when we hated our bodies. In this episode, we will share our body awareness journeys and help one or two people.

Lili is both Latino and Asian. She was born and raised in Brazil, a body-centric country. Lili grew up extremely sensitive about her body. She vividly remembers when her mother signed her up for ballet. She felt and looked heavier than all the other children in the class, and her teacher kept pinpointing it.

That took a toll on Lili. All she wanted to do was to shed all that weight. She went on crash diets, but the weight would return as soon as she dropped the diet. In her 30s, Lili wanted to embrace a healthy lifestyle, leading her to become a gym rat. Sometimes she would go to the gym twice a day to satisfy her obsession. Also, she became restrictive with her food.

When she turned 35 and pre-menopause hit, she gained a lot of weight. Lili reverted to crash diets again. When she took Psychic classes, meditation helped her look at her body from within and look at her body with neutrality. It helped Lili not to judge other people based on their bodies.

For Shannon, in third grade, a boy touched her stomach and called her Pillsbury Dough girl. That was the beginning of her body awareness. In fifth and sixth grades, she saw her friends had boyfriends, but she didn't have one. She looked at it as a fault on her end because she was chubby.

When she hit 30, she decided it was time for consistency. Unfortunately, she was still looking for validation from outside, and always ended up invalidated, especially by the men she dated. she took a break from the dating scenes to recollect herself in every aspect. Looking back, that’s the best decision she ever made.

Key Talking Points of the Episode:

[00:54] Shannon’s experience with body awareness
[17:56] Lili’s body awareness journey
[48:45] How Lili takes care of herself
[52:23] Shannon’s photoshoot and how it has impacted her
[53:47] How Shannon takes care of herself
[59:16] How to deal with resistance

Magical Quotes from the Episode:

“Your only business is your own body.”

“When I don’t pay attention to something, it just gets bottled up and blows up.”

“I want to feel more balanced every time. My pots are balanced rather than having one burning and one that is not even boiling.”

“You cannot heal a body that you hate.”

“Positive body image doesn’t believe that your body looks good. It knows your body is good, regardless of how it looks.”

Feel free to share your body awareness stories. We cannot wait to hear them. Also, if you enjoyed this episode, feel free to leave us a review.

Resources:
School for Meditation and Healing
Photographer: Jessy Marques
Eva Fitness
Book: More Than a Body: Your Body is an Instrument, Not an Ornament

Note: This podcast is for informational and entertain

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