Category: Clothing

Letting go of ‘Trying to Fit In’

~ womeninlivingness

by Donna Gianniotis, Yoga Teacher, Sydney, Australia

I couldn’t help but feel the joy and the loveliness in the room at the recently held Women’s Group Presentation hosted by Natalie Benhayon in Sydney.

This led me to ponder  – I’ve been in many a room with women only, but why did this feel different?

The answer revealed itself throughout the afternoon: my conclusion being that here we were, a group of close to 100 women openly expressing in our honesty about how we live our lives. We explored various challenges that we may face living as women today, with one of the biggest of these being how we, as women, tend to want to ‘fit in’.  And how ‘fitting in’ takes us away from keeping our own personal rhythms that could truly support us and allow us a deeper connection to ourselves. Continue reading “Letting go of ‘Trying to Fit In’” →

A Swimsuit for ME

~ womeninlivingness

by Felicity

I have read many stories of reclaiming from this Women in Livingness blog, but was hesitant to offer one myself as I felt I wasn’t quite there yet; that other women were doing it, claiming it, that is – living confidently as true women. Then I had a simple but profound experience that showed me what I have let go of, and how I am more honoring of me.

Recently, I had to buy some new bathers and I felt a few long-term insecurities just sitting there under the surface. I had no intention of indulging them, but I knew they were there waiting for a chance to go on a rampage, if I allowed it.

I went to a shop and picked out a few swimsuits to try on. One felt wrong as soon as I put it on. In fact it was so wrong because it was designed to press so strongly on my body as if trying to twist my upper chest into an ideal ‘look’ according to someone else, which felt like it was controlling my shoulders in some kind of compression. It fitted ok, but that was not the point. It just felt so wrong on my body because… well, because it didn’t allow me to be me. How huge to allow myself to feel this! Continue reading “A Swimsuit for ME” →

The Things l’ve Done to Find the True Woman

~ womeninlivingness

by Jenny Ellis, Practitioner and Director: UniMed Brisbane, Australia 

I started my forays into personal growth and healing back in the late 90’s when I found myself with everything that was supposed to make me feel successful and good about myself  – good relationship, a handsome, attentive partner, good job opportunities, a nice place to live, supportive family and a lovely young son. Yet I felt far from satisfied inside, and knew it wasn’t that I had higher ideas of what life should be – since I had what I’d always thought I wanted.

I realise in retrospect that it was how I felt about myself as a woman that was my main source of dis-content – unattractive, inadequate and lacking in confidence pretty much sums it up. There was always a ‘there’ I never seemed to get to, as far as feeling good about myself for any length of time.

I was in fact, far from unattractive or inadequate, but I felt it and had great ways of covering this up. Continue reading “The Things l’ve Done to Find the True Woman” →

Permission to Wear a Dress

~ womeninlivingness

by Anonymous

I grew up with a belief that I was not beautiful. I felt like the ugly duckling in my family. My mother and her sisters were very petite, had dark hair and brown eyes. I on the other hand was tall, had blonde hair and blue eyes and was told by many that I had a good ‘solid’ build, a word which I grew up to detest.

When I was introduced for the first time to work colleagues of my parents or people that my parents knew, it was always joked about that I couldn’t be my mother’s daughter and where did I come from (“was I adopted?”) as they couldn’t believe how physically different we were. Although I laughed along I was always ashamed by this and ashamed of my looks, height and build. I felt I could never be a woman because I wasn’t small and I didn’t look like the women in my family. I had a picture that you needed to be small and petite to be a girl or a woman and because I didn’t fit this picture I loathed how I looked. I also believed that you could only ever ask for help, show you were upset or be vulnerable if you were small and delicately framed. Continue reading “Permission to Wear a Dress” →

Knowing What’s Right for Me…

~ womeninlivingness

As a child, I was comfortable in my body and had never consciously considered the question “What’s right for me?”… it was just naturally how I was. When I was 12 or 13 years old, I went through a growth spurt and became quite skinny very quickly. Around the same time I felt to start eating differently. I didn’t want meat pies, pizza, fish and chips or Macca’s (McDonald’s) on Fridays or the weekends. And I didn’t want cheesy sauces on my veggies, or chips, or cheese and bikkies for snacks during the day. There were also many meals that I didn’t feel like eating at all and wanted to skip. I began to be more aware of what was ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ and what was right for me and my body in terms of nutrition and my health.

I also began to enjoy exercise and loved my daily walk/jog around our neighborhood, exploring all the parks and secret pathways. I had felt to start this little exercise routine because I had done a fitness test in school grade 7 PE which involved a 1.5km walk/jog. This was the first test I had done and my body felt really heavy, sluggish and sore; I’d been surprised I couldn’t do it, not having ever done an endurance exercise before, only sprints in running and swimming.

My body began to change – not just the shape, but also how I felt. Continue reading “Knowing What’s Right for Me…” →

Every Beautiful Woman

~ womeninlivingness

by Dr Lyndy Summerhaze, Crabbes Creek, NSW Australia

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago. I was window-shopping outside a jewellers / china shop. There were so many beautiful and colourful objects there, but when I looked at each individual item – there were actually none that I wanted. As I was leaving, I saw a life-size cardboard cut-out of a fashion model standing there – I didn’t want that either. So I walked away from it all, down the street.

As I was walking, in the dream, I remembered something Serge Benhayon, founder of Universal Medicine, had said to us some years ago whilst demonstrating a healing modality – the Energetic Facial Release. For those who may not be familiar with this healing technique, it is a release that can help deal with and clear emotions we hold within our face, such as sadness, frustration etc. It can rejuvenate the face to reveal a person’s natural radiant beauty, and can also have a profound healing effect on the whole body. What Serge said were words to the effect of – there is not one woman in the world who isn’t beautiful when connected to herself. Continue reading “Every Beautiful Woman” →

Esoteric Women’s Health: Dressing the Way I Want to!

~ womeninlivingness

by Shannon Everest, Australia

When I was growing up, just like others I had certain experiences that really shook me up, and whilst some appeared very small and insignificant, others were quite big and significant to me. My fall-back to such experiences was to harden and take on more of a ‘boyishness’ in an effort to hide the loveliness of the young girl who was growing into a woman.

One experience I had was at the age of 13; my girlfriends and I were going out to a pizza restaurant. It was my first evening dinner out without my parents and so I was really looking forward to it. My grandmother, a great seamstress, helped me design a cute outfit – a black pleated skirt, worn with stockings, a white blouse, a little black jacket and black shoes to match. I got ready that night feeling amazing. But when I got to the restaurant I could feel and was met with jealousy and comparison from my friends, since they were dressed completely differently in brand named T-shirts and shorts. I could feel how in my outfit that I really stood out and appeared very ‘different’. Continue reading “Esoteric Women’s Health: Dressing the Way I Want to!” →