I loved today’s post today Leah even the title was great.

We all know that our greatest challenges are our greatest gifts and here is a little story to share about why obstacles are disguised opportunities.

Another Important Lesson

Obstacles help us to improve ourselves.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.

Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

—Author Unknown

Speaking of overcoming obstacles, I asked OnePinky member Corrine what she is getting from being in Body Image Mastery. I loved what she had to share. Leah, please note the impact you have on women all over the world. Thank you for that.

Here are a few things that came to Corrine’s mind that she agreed to let me share.

1. Meeting Leah – my relationship with her has been an unexpected joy in my life – i look forward to our daily emails -the inspiration and comfort they bring.
2. My 30 Day Challenge – given me the drive to make working out a part of my life – YA!
3. Recognizing the importantance of being present and “releasing that which no longer serves me”

xoxo,
c

Thank you to all you Pinky’s who are on to my XO’s.

The world needs more love….As far as I am concerned the more love that goes out in the world, the more love the world can receive.There is no such thing as too much LOVE.

SO LOVE and HUGS to you all, now and always.

XO, Laura

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These words came through me.

No matter what people are up to in their lives, I hope they are happy and having fun!

Fun and Joy are our birth right.

I was meditating this morning and this feeling came over me.

I felt sad and at a loss for all the women who have been in my community and have left and for those who are in it and choose not to participate.

As the sadness washed over me this feeling of warmth and love came through.

It was there then and is right here this moment. It feels huge. The love feels really huge. I feel so grateful to have been honored to do this work.

We are connected, all of us that are choosing to be awake.

We are awake and connected and our hearts are all beating this moment. So the memory of all of you Pinky’s is as present in this moment as the feeling I had when we were connected in form.

A long time ago when I was really sad about ending therapy. It was time and yet I still felt unready to let go. My wise therapist said,  as long as you have a mind and body, you will have memory.

Our minds and our bodies remember.

That was a moment in time that will stay with me forever.

Sounds so simple and yet the impact was huge.

I will not forget that. Especially in current day moments, visualizing, thinking, wondering about all  of the amazing, dynamic, powerful women I have met through the years in this work. WOW.

How lucky am I?

So wherever you Pinky’s are, know you are loved a lot.

And for those of you who are still actively playing in the community, I hope to see your smiling faces soon.

Your job is to take care of you, however that looks for you and if reading something inspirational at onepinky.com/c can support your self-love and self-care today, then come on down.

Much Love, XO

Laura

P.S. Leah, the book Corrinne recommended sounds great. So glad you took the time to walk away… from your computer and just be. Those days/times are necessary for all of us. You are an inspiration.

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Leah,

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

-Gail Devers

I so BELIEVE in you Leah!

I am so happy to see that you loved the movie….and that Julia’s delightful relationship mirrored you and Leigh.

A little Julia Child inside information which she made public was that she was a virgin until the age of 40 and married her hubby and they spent the rest of their lives making up for all the years she had been without. (if you catch my drift!). I am so happy that they were in love and the same goes for you and Leigh (tell him hello from me) my dear.

Living in the moment for me is listening to guidance as it comes in…

I was guided to share this article I wrote last year…and hope you get some value from it, even if you have read it.

As many of you know, Oprah Winfrey recently “came clean” about her forty-pound weight gain and admitted that she was embarrassed to be over two hundred pounds again.  I have so many feelings about this, but the strongest of all is camaraderie.

Our nation has now hit a point where MOST of us are overweight.  Isn’t that an overwhelming thought?  And even those of us who DO lose weight, like Oprah, will often “reclaim” those pounds and put them back on.  So the chances are far greater that Oprah is touching a lot of hearts right now – rather than letting us down.

I would like to say that I am one of the lucky ones – losing a hundred pounds twenty two years ago and still being a hundred pounds less two decades later.  But it isn’t luck – and don’t think I never reclaimed a pound or two.  Surely I have.  But what I have been blessed to know – and what Oprah Winfrey is just discovering and proclaiming – is that PERMANENT change MUST be based and grown in self-care and self-love.  There is NOTHING else that will offer you the inspiration, the tools, and the COURAGE to continue a different way of life.

Because that’s the other thing that I (and probably all of us) share with Oprah – a lot of people count on us.  We have what seems like an endless list of family, friends, colleagues, and sometimes even strangers who look to us for an endless list of things.  Add in the mundane reality of a job, a household, and laundry – well, it is not surprising that self-care is a SKILL that has to be taught and learned.  (Teaching those skills is, in fact, my life’s work.) Quite simply, weight loss means that you must put yourself FIRST on your list, and that isn’t instinctive to most of us.  But by doing that you will be empowered to do everything else, and serve everyone else, in your world.

I have some areas where I disagree with Oprah, though; for one thing, her embarrassment.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand what she means.  As a body image mentor, I hold the space for many, many clients who have shame around their weight – but I simply wish FOR Oprah that she could begin her journey of self-care and self-love RIGHT NOW – and that means loving herself 100% (no reservations) and owning that she is perfect right now, as she is.  Needing to release the weight again actually makes her MORE accessible to the MILLIONS of men and women who face that same challenge over and over in life.  Like I said, I often feel l was one of the lucky ones.

But you know what I know?  I know that it wasn’t luck.  I lost the weight, only to realize that I still hated my life.  Can you IMAGINE how awful that was?  I had been an overweight kid – then an overweight teen – then an overweight adult.  I ALWAYS believed that when I lost the weight, my life would change.  Newsflash!  I lost the weight and then I had to CHANGE my life. So I did.  That’s where the blessing was – I recognized it and started building a pathway to self-love and self-care – and I never stopped.

I truly believe that if this dialogue about self-care and what it really MEANS in our day-to-day lives becomes one-tenth as pervasive as the dialogue around shame and self-loathing around weight and dieting and body image – that one-tenth discussion will change the trajectory of obesity and low body image in our nation.

We have an opportunity here to create a different kind of conversation.  Will you help me?  Will you sit down with your overweight friends and tell them, “I love you and think you are perfect exactly as you are.”  And then just LISTEN to their responses about their body and their weight. You will be amazed.  I am grateful and humbled to be part of this discussion.  THAT is the part that I feel lucky about.

I believe in you gorgeous, beautiful, amazing Leah….You are amazing and I have complete belief in you and your process.  Learn, Love and Let Go…

XO,

Love you, Laura

A plug… to pass on….Would you like to feel the same way I do? Take my hand, come with me and learn to love what you see in the mirror every day. Sign up for my Body Image Mastery course and be one of the first people to join my new community here: http://www.bodyimagemastery.com/community.

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