What an HONOR to join Blush Podcast’s Hiwa Alaghabandian for this event at Showfields in Soho. You may remember Hiwa from her episode on Alter Your Life From Disordered To Empowered Eating & How To Give A Great BJ or my episode on her podcast Taboo Conversations with Alissa Alter aka The Amy Poehler of Vaginas. She and I connected on instagram and quickly became friends.

She has spoken at Showfields on a few occasions and invited me to join her for this particular event all about body image and navigating the holidays. Because it’s hard! It’s hard being a woman with a body and it’s hard handling the onslaught of implicit and explicit commentary on our bodies especially during a holiday season centered around eating and drinking. If you eat too much, someone says something. If you eat too little, someone says something. If you drink too much, someone says something. And if you skip the bubbly, everyone’s saying you’re pregnant. We can’t win! And even if we could, what would we be winning?

This is a topic I am so passionate about and it was incredible to partner with Hiwa who has overcome a long time eating disorder and her perspective on this. Something she shared during the event really struck me. Because of her experience any comments on her weight gain or loss is triggering. She has worked so hard to make this NOT the focus of her life that she created a clear boundary with her family and asked that no one comment on her body. Positive or negative doesn’t matter, no comments on her body.

How incredible is that? have you ever created a boundary like that in your life? How did it feel?

As the conversation evolved I invited participants to share something unique and interesting about themselves that has nothing to do with their appearance, weight, or body. People were hesitant at first, but by the end women were sharing incredible talents and skills they have that we never would have known by looking at them. I framed the question as “What is the most interesting thing about you that has nothing to do with your body/appearance/weight/etc.”

I invite you to bring this question with you to your next group gathering. I invite you to have a conversation about how you feel in your body during the holiday season? DO you feel pressure in any direction? Is there something that happens consistently that hurts you? Or makes you feel awesome? How can you celebrate yourself and the holidays in a way that aren’t centered around social and cultural expectations that were built by people who don’t know you or care about you?

Comment below and let me know how it goes!

xo