I wonder some times about my life…as a child I have struggled immensely with self image and self worth and always felt that saying of what our parents taught us: “Children will be seen but not be heard” as quite the wrong way to be brought up. I think in a way that has formed my life and it took me years to discover my own voice and make up my own opinions and not just parrot/echo what the next person is saying…so much so that my youngest brother has commented on this once and said the sister he grew up with is definitely not the same person I am today…

We were bombarded with glossy magazines as teenagers on what the perfect look is, how thin your body must be to fit in with the ‘in’ crowd…I remember distinctly… we literally had ‘gangs’ at school – the cool kids I used to call them and when my parents eventually bought me a Karimore school bag to carry my books, I almost could be part of that gang, except… my style of clothing didn’t fit in…my hair wasn’t cut to their perfection and I was also the biggest nerd (go figure – now if I can be outdoors and train I’m happy!! 🙂)

I think that has definitely stuck with me almost 20 years later (giving my age away here!!!) and it’s a constant struggle till this day to say thank you when someone gives me a compliment…I usually blush and laugh it away or I just feel embarrassed because come now…the person you are describing can’t be me…that chick sounds amazingly fantastic!

However I have come to the conclusion that I am my biggest critic and simply put extremely hard on myself…and I have started to relax about self image and self worth…I still blush when someone pays me a compliment but I have learnt that people mean well and just at that moment see u as really amazing…so the best thing to say back is thank you and carry on with your life …

One of my favorite book series will always be Harry Potter and in the second book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Fawkes the Phoenix is introduced…absolutely amazing mythical creatures that are reborn from ashes…I love mythical stuff like this…(nerd alert remember). This made me realize that we as humans need to occasionally just burst ourselves in flame and bury between the ashes all the critical opinions, negative voices and harmful self inflictions and be reborn as beautiful mythical creatures out of those ashes…our scars may not be beautiful to look at but it holds a story and history that only you can relate to and which makes you unique…what does the world in any-case know about the beauty of who you are!

So maybe this is a challenge I can put out there, especially as it is International Woman’s Day today…why not showcase those beautiful scars of yours and burst into flame like the Phoenix you are and be born again beautiful and stronger!

Your opinion matter, your scars matter…time to rise up and burn brightly! Xxx