The girls with their personalized Unique Beauty Reflection Mirrors Today I was a guest speaker at the Yoga 4 Girls Week Long program.
This day camp program educates, inspires and empowers girls, ages 8-16, to deepen their unique character, cultivate self confidence, develop core life skills and implement daily self-care through an innovative journey toward self-discovery and inner peace.
Art projects, yoga poses, meditation techniques, breathing exercises, mantras, affirmations, wellness tips, self care tools, sound healing concert, dance, health lectures, movement, self-confidence skills, guest lecturers and outdoor activities.How awesome is that?!?!?
Yoga 4 Girls is facilitated by one of my very best friends, Kristen Rubis. She is a passionate advocate for women and girls and an amazing teacher, role model and friend to many. To find out more about Kristen and what she offers click here.
The purpose of my presentation was to educate and help cultivate healthy thoughts and habits around confidence, positive body-image and self-love.
I introduced myself and told the girls that most of the images of the "beautiful" and "perfect" looking women we see in the media these days are altered, aka photoshopped. I showed them this short video to demonstrate what that process looks like. I told them that our society has created an impossible standard of female beauty and reminded them that what we see is unrealistic. Real female faces and bodies are not as smooth as plastic. We have spots, lines, body hair and dimples. We have curves and belly rolls and places that jiggle. We all have features that make us different from one another and all uniquely beautiful.
Unique beauty is the differences in our facial features and body parts. It's the variety of shapes and sizes that we are. We all have unique markings on our skin and the color of of skin, eyes and hair are all different from one another.
I asked them if they thought the world would be as beautiful if we all looked the same and their response was a resounding "No...that would be so boring.....and confusing too."
I told them that eventhough I may not know them, I care about each one of them. I told them that I want each one of them to grow up loving themselves and feeling confident. Then I led them through a few activities to practice finding the unique beauty in themselves and others. They were really receptive and engaged with me the whole time - asking questions and sharing their thoughts. I'm so grateful to have been able to connect with these girls in this special way and hope that I have made a difference in their journey in some small way.
Do you have a young girl or teenager in your life? Do you have concerns about how the media can effect her in this way? How do notice her being effected by the images of women in the media that she sees? What's your approach to supporting her and having conversations about this topic?
Please share your thoughts and comments below. I'm curious to hear what you have to say. It will help me refine my Unique Beauty talks in the future.
With love and appreciation,
Sara-ann
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