Honoring Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month, a time to recognize the achievements of the women that have walked before us, to remember the obstacles that women overcame in order to achieve their goals, and to reflect upon those who sacrificed everything so our collective lives are richer today.

The Beautiful Women Project's message is simple, yet powerful: It is the sum of a woman's life experiences that makes her beautiful. It is how a woman meets her challenges and carries her experiences. As individuals, we are defined and shaped by our unique experiences. It is this personal history that makes us the women we are in our present moment.

As we reflect upon our shared history as women, it is important to take a moment and honor our personal history. A person's legacy is measured not by the great things they do, but the little things they do in great ways.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Across the country this week women and men are taking time out of their schedules to learn more about eating disorders and healthy bodies. Women's Centers, health centers, women's studies department, mentoring groups, and even book groups are taking time to bring this very important issue to the public. Eating disorders are not an individual issue, it is a family and community issue. Eating disorders are not only a medical issues for the female community, in fact, eating disorders in men are increasing at an alarming rate.

The Beautiful Women Project has a simple, yet powerful message: it is the sum of a woman's life experiences that make her beautiful. The Beautiful Women Project cannot change the fact that some determine a woman's beauty solely on her physical body. Our goal is to shift the focus from the body being the only determining factor of an individual's beauty to just a small part of what makes a person beautiful. This shift can occur. This shift needs to occur.

If there is an event going on in your area or college campus this week, check it out. Support the men and women who are doing their part to raise awareness of eating disorders across the country.

The Spirit of Doing NOTHING

There is nothing that hits the nerves of women, especially those who feel as if she they have too much to do and not enough time in the day to do it all, more than seeing a man sitting on the couch watching television or (gasp!) napping as she is cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, or keeping the kids from tearing down the house one brick at a time. The punch line is that the reason she is so aggravated by his actions - or lack of action - is because she feels like she does not have the same PRIVILEGE TO DO NOTHING.

Well, it is time to stop denying ourselves the PRIVILEGE and DO NOTHING. A college psychology professor I recently met gave this assignment to his students years ago. The assignment would take one hour, and they had to make sure that nothing would interfere with this block of time. In this hour they were to do NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. The purpose of the exercise was for them to experience what could happen if they disengaged from the whirlwind of life and re-engaged with themselves.

What an amazing idea. How often do women take an hour to do NOTHING? The answer is simple: never. There is a mind set that if we stop doing what we do, the house of cards will tumble down. Yet, there is nothing more important than taking time to do something, or in this case, nothing for ourselves. In an hour of contemplation so many amazing things can arise within; ideas can form, anxiety can ease, goals can come back into focus, or it can be time to just have peace of mind.

Find a time in your schedule and block out 1 hour of time. Make it a priority, a meeting, whatever you have to do to make it a full hour where nothing else will infringe upon this time. During the hour you may take a walk or journal, but refrain from speaking with anyone or any outside distractions. The most important element of the exercise is enjoy this one hour of doing NOTHING. Do not feel guilty for taking time out of your life to do rest, relax, and rejuvenate. Or, turn it around and make a weekly or monthly guilty pleasure, it costs you nothing but what a return on your investment!

Finding True Love Starts With Self Love

Valentine's Day is here and it is all about love. Finding A True Love. Being Loved By Another. Imagining What it Feels Like When You Finally Find THE ONE LOVE of your life.

The thing about Valentine's Day love is that all of the love comes from outside of ourselves. It comes from class mates, boyfriends, partners, spouses...even just a glance from a friendly stranger can be enough to throw us into a tizzy on Valentine's Day. There is validation when we are loved by others. Yet, the greatest, most important love any of us can experience is the love we have FOR ourselves. Self love is overlooked and undervalued. In order to accept love from outside of ourselves, from others, we must accept and love ourselves completely for who we are and where we have been in our lifetime.

There are three great truths when it comes to love:

(1) First true love is irreplaceable in one's heart.

(2) Great love is impossible to put into words, it can only be felt.

(3) Self love is the most difficult love to find, but the most important to have in your life.