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Andra Watkins's avatar

You have been a big part of my own evolution. I’m so grateful for you.

And I wish every woman could believe she is enough. I’ve struggled with this concept most of my life. It took intense EMDR therapy to reprogram myself and embrace who I am.

So now I try to tell people they matter whenever I can.

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Thibault's avatar

Thank you Andra. That's so nice of you to say. I have heard EMDR works for a lot of people.

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Uthara's avatar

This really spoke to me! I’ve been contemplating anger - and it strikes me that anger is to be honoured and is our friend. It has important things to say and seeks to protect us. Unfortunately, us woman all over the world are discouraged from expressing it in a bid to be liked/perceived as good. I wonder if there’s some sort of workbook/resource that can teach us how to access and sublimate our anger.

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Thibault's avatar

I love that thought. Actually I was thinking yesterday about a book that my friend reviewed for the LA Times called Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/auspicious-conflagrations-the-heat-of-womens-anger/. I haven't read it yet but might need to pick it up. Let me know if you read it!

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Sandra Ann Miller's avatar

Love this, Sarah. I'd like to think that we are perfectly imperfect as we are, wonderfully unique in that way. We get to celebrate ourselves and still want to improve/evolve, change/grow. We are enough, and we can still want more from and for ourselves. We even get to be mad or disappointed in ourselves, and still love us. It's wonderfully fluid, and part of the fun of being human. I wonder if staying where we don't want to be or saying Yes instead of No is part of feeling "less than" or if it's the endless politeness that women are raised to have. (Don't want to rock any boats, right?) And I wish we could separate exercise from fat-shaming/diet culture. It feels good and is so good for us (physically, mentally, emotionally). I'll admit, if I have fries a couple of days in a row, I'll want to eat lighter and move more a day or so after, and not because I'm shaming myself. That delicious gloop of oil, salt and starch (which I love deeply and will never not have) is sitting in my guts, and those guts are asking for a bit of a break. It's good to listen to what our bodies tell us we need, especially if we've been having fun with what we want. It's balance, not punishment. No shame in that. xo

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Thibault's avatar

Yes I agree we each have our own rhythms and being active can totally be fun. It's important to notice where those stop and where the self-shaming begins - which is the challenge I guess, right? Being mindful

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Sandra Ann Miller's avatar

Yes, being mindful and taking the time to get to know ourselves and to like ourselves genuinely. I love this quote from Martha Graham: “There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.” I vote for not being lost. xo

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Aug 8, 2023
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Thibault's avatar

Thank you! I will take a look

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