HOLY MOLY, ME OH MY! YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE!
(image of Josephine Baker found here)
Yoga For Self-Acceptance
Carolyn Gregoire Offers 5 ways the practice can heal body images issues in The Huffington Post.
Something I am very passionate about! Worth a read...
Body image anxiety -- whether it's a fixation on a facial flaw, an
obsession with calorie-counting and exercise, or general negative
feelings about your appearance -- can be all-consuming, and they can
take a serious toll on your well-being and self-esteem. When it comes to
dealing with body insecurities and negative self-talk, sometimes the
best thing can be to get out of your own head. Yoga, which is now being
offered in some schools as a stress-relieving practice, can also be an
effective way for young women to develop a positive self-image.
"Yoga allows us to start to slow down the self-critic, and start to
observe that this voices in our heads isn't necessarily the reality,"
Vyda Bielkus, co-founder of Health Yoga Life studio
in Boston, tells the Huffington Post. "To slow down and get into the
body and say 'OK, when these thoughts are coming up, there's something
actually behind the thoughts that we're observing' -- that connects us
more to our true self versus the dialogue that may be running us."
Beginning a yoga program during your high school years can help you
to start listening to the wisdom of your own inner voice, and to realize
that your voice matters, Bielkus says. Whether it's peer pressure from
your girlfriends or pressure you put on yourself, yoga can help you to
find comfort and resilience by looking within and finding your own path.
Here are five ways that a regular yoga practice can help heal body image issues and promote positive self-esteem....
Click here to read on!
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Holiday
The North East coast is stunning...and the sea is bloody cold!!!!!!
I enjoyed time with my family and the space. I love places that make you realise how tiny you and your problems are.
(photos: bamburgh castle and my cousin eve and me)
Shakespeares Sister
“I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee’s life of the poet. She died young—alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross–roads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here to–night, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh. This opportunity, as I think, it is now coming within your power to give her. For my belief is that if we live another century or so—I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individuals—and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting–room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality; and the sky. too, and the trees or whatever it may be in themselves; if we look past Milton’s bogey, for no human being should shut out the view; if we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is no arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down. Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born. As for her coming without that preparation, without that effort on our part, without that determination that when she is born again she shall find it possible to live and write her poetry, that we cannot expect, for that would he impossible. But I maintain that she would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while.”
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
The Gulabi Gang
More of this. Less of that.
| The
Gulabi Gang is an extraordinary women’s movement formed in 2006 by
Sampat Pal Devi in the Banda District of Uttar Pradesh in Northern
India. This region is one of the poorest districts in the country and is
marked by a deeply patriarchal culture, rigid caste divisions, female
illiteracy, domestic violence, child labour, child marraiges and dowry
demands. The women’s group is popularly known as Gulabi or ‘Pink’ Gang
because the members wear bright pink saris and wield bamboo sticks.
Sampat says, “We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term, we are
a gang for justice.” The Gulabi Gang was initially intended to punish oppressive husbands, fathers and brothers, and combat domestic violence and desertion. The members of the gang would accost male offenders and prevail upon them to see reason. The more serious offenders were publicly shamed when they refused to listen or relent. Sometimes the women resorted to their lathis, if the men resorted to use of force. |
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| Today, the Gulabi Gang has tens of thousands of women members, several male supporters and many successful interventions to their credit. Whether it is ensuring proper public distibution of food-grains to people below the poverty line, or disbursement of pension to elderly widows who have no birth certificate to prove their age, or preventing abuse of women and children, the Pink sisterhood is in the forefront, bringing about system changes by adopting the simplest of methods - direct action and confrontation. Although the group’s interventions are mostly on behalf of women, they are increasingly called upon by men to challenge not only male authority over women, but all human rights abuses inflicted on the weak. | |
