We aren’t even going to “bikini bodies” when discussing the bathing suit selection when the summer season starts. Heat, humidity, and fun in the sun is what summer is all about, and we deserve to enjoy it as much as any man or woman, regardless of shape, size, or seniority! (Bikini Body Confidence Hacks in our next post)

Accept it, there will be pressure to leave the air conditioned comfort of your condo to join friends and family by the pool, on the beach or boat. Of all the excuses you come up with, not looking great in a bathing suit is NOT an acceptable one.

Then, now, or ever again.

So, cowgirl up! Slap on the sunscreen, don’t forget the floppy hat, sunglasses, and “attitude”.

You can thank your body, for the “attitude”, i.e. Body Confidence.

Better than a bikini, Body Confidence fits all bodies, costs nothing but time and intention, and never, ever goes out of style!

So, where can you purchase Body Confidence?

Bad news is you can’t purchase it. Some things are worth more than money!

Good news is you already have it, you just have to ask your body how to re-discover it!

For help, contact Coach Stephanie Wood

Share Tags: Body Image, stop body shaming

Bestselling author, Roxanne Gay’s guarantees a good read regardless of the subject matter. Her recent memoir, “Hunger” explores the modern overweight woman’s conflict between hiding behind dark, loose clothing, avoiding tight spots (airline seats, restaurant chairs), and all social events involving strangers.

From a recent review in “The Atlantic”: “Though her ability to reject society’s judgment of and contempt for overweight people, while being vulnerable enough to admit that she struggles with body positivity, inspires hopefulness nonetheless… At its best, it affords women, …the right to take up space they are entitled to, and to define what that means.” : www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/the-boldness-of-roxane-gays-hunger/530067/

The author’s journey reveals common conflicts we all have with our bodies, regardless of its size or shape. The facts are well-known: hunger identifies a physical need for our survival. We cannot live without satisfying that need, so where do we draw the line between sustaining a healthy weight and the over compensation that results in fat?

Roxanne’s body knew where that line was, and perhaps if she had been more in touch with her physical self, she could have avoided crossing it. Her childhood trauma began the escape into extra calories. As a successful adult, she suffers the effects of the trauma in addition to her reaction to it: unhealthy weight gain.

The combination can be deadly, not only physically but also spiritually.

The Body Knowledge System® ends the estrangement from your body, your physical self. As soon as you resume communicating with her, listening to her rather than resenting her “betrayal”, it’s an “Aha!” experience. Your body knows what’s best for both of you, and she is ready, willing, and able to help you relieve your pain and fulfill your dreams.

Just ask her.

Contact Coach Stephanie for a Free Consultation

Share Tags: Body Image, stop body shaming

The Law of Attraction is energy. The practitioner expresses positive or negative energy in words.

As the childhood rhyme says, “Sticks and Stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” According to the Law of Attraction, that is a lovely rhyme, but is not real, or true, as negative words can hurt you emotionally. Internet trolls know this very well. Their negative commentary on your personal postings damage your feelings which is their intention in the first place.

When you apply the Body Knowledge System®’s action orientation to the Law of Attraction’s emphasis on positive energy, you discover an impenetrable defense against attacks on your person for today, tomorrow and into the future.

Positivity is the essence of the Body Knowledge System®’s practice. Every move you make, every thought you think, every word you say contributes to the positive outcome you seek

In short, the Law of Attraction’s Words PLUS the Body Knowledge System®s Action = Personal SUCCESS for you!

Professional Choreographer, Dancer, Fitness Trainer, Business,  Wellness and Certified Law of Attraction Coach, Stephanie Wood developed the Body Knowledge System® for her classes and clients who were out of touch, and out of patience with their bodies.

Stephanie believes our bodies are a source of joy, information, and personal wisdom. Her professional life focuses on accessing every body’s wisdom. Our physical self provides valuable clues about self-care and our life choices. This was not an overnight discovery, rather the result of her professional experience as a dancer, choreographer, personal trainer, and fitness expert. Equipped with education, personal, and professional experience, research and perceptive observation, Stephanie created the Body Knowledge System® as the New Sustainable Solution to her clients’ challenges with their bodies.

Listening to her clients’ needs and body image concerns, she realized the traditional approach to diet and exercise was not as effective as a whole body, holistic approach. Her focus shifted from coach/teacher–client/ student relationship to having her clients befriend their bodies, so that the two worked and/or played together for their mutual benefit.

This perspective is especially important as we age.

Share Tags: stop body shaming

Enough speculation, enough living in a crouch waiting for the next nasty comment from someone you really don’t know, or if you do know them you have no reason to continue to know them; rather than un-friend them, or blocking them from access to you (probably impossible to do anyway), do nothing. Instead, focus your positive energy on yourself: what you want, how you intend to achieve it, and then take a single positive step toward that goal.

That shift in your focus from outside influence to your inner purpose will create an immediate improvement in your mood, your outlook on life.

For those of you who have accepted the Law of Attraction without experiencing immediate positive results when it concerns your degree of Body Confidence, I have a reason for this. The Law of Attraction is about energy rather than action. Certainly, you can attract what you want for yourself, or something better, by focusing on it. I believe it takes more than a mental exercise in positive energy.

It takes action!

When you add the Body Knowledge System®’s practice to the Law of Attraction you get positive results much faster than either of those methods alone.

Want proof?  Contact Coach Stephanie Wood for a conversation at NO CHARGE to you.

Share Tags: stop body shaming

Thanks to some popular, successful celebrities, Ashley Graham, Tara Banks, Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy, who look more like we do than the ultra-thin, very young women we see on screen and in magazines, a new appreciation for our bodies has replaced the harsh criticism from media pressure to conform to an unrealistic ideal.

So, where did the trolls come from?

Who gave them permission to inflict their opinions on you?

As soon as you posted your face, your body, yourself visually online you exposed your vulnerability to those who take pleasure from putting others down. Mistaken, they believe the negative energy they put into bullying you will somehow convert to positive energy propping them up.

Not so. Whether you accept the Law of Attraction or not does not change the reality of negative energy having any effect on its target, rather it always reflects on the troll who created it.

Every time a troll’s target accepts the comment as true, or worse sends a nasty barb back, it increases the effect of the original nastiness on both parties.

Instead of reacting in kind, try no reaction at all.

That does not imply agreement or acceptance, rather refusal to react at all.

It’s an eastern concept to simply step aside and allow the missile to pass you by, and it works!

Eventually, no reaction will rid you of the troll and its energy.

Not so easy, you say.

No, nothing worthwhile ever is.

The outcome you want is to stop feeling bad about yourself as your real response to the troll attack. The Law of Attraction provides one solution, the Body Knowledge System® provides a long-term solution to body shaming, and all other troll attacks.

Share Tags: stop body shaming

Facetime, Skype? When inventors added a video capability to telephones it did not take the market by storm…then. In the last century, people valued their privacy before their ability to “share” more than anyone wants to know about anyone other than themselves.

The 21st Century shifted our attention to “My Space”, then “Facebook”, and You Tube. These internet access platforms have made it impossible to hide beneath oversized clothing for those “fat” days, a baseball cap to cover bad hair days, and sunglasses to hide the saddle bags beneath saggy eye days.

Our initial reaction was to rush to diet/exercise programs, weight loss fads, expensive skin products and plastic surgery as a last resort.

Well, thankfully, the pendulum returned from the extreme to settle in the reasonable middle: acceptance.

As mature, intelligent women we embrace this reaction to total exposure. It’s the only thing that makes sense in this diverse world.

Total exposure left us vulnerable to trolls who take pleasure in putting others down to prop themselves up. Perhaps we can’t control others’ actions, but we can control our reactions.

Building Body Confidence is not only possible, it’s easy with the Body Knowledge System®. Click Here to find out how.

Share Tags: stop body shaming

Have you been asked to be in a friend’s wedding this year?

Beyond the expense of a dress, hair, makeup, gifts, parties, and travel if it’s a “destination” wedding, is the assault on your ego if you think the only reason you are included is to make the bride look good.

Ok that sounds cynical, because it is cynical—and if that’s your first reaction to the “honor” it’s not the bride’s problem, it’s yours!

It’s about your Body Confidence, or lack of it.

Time to turn the page on your self-esteem journal, because this is the one time in your life that the worse you look is a gift to your friend whose day it really is!

Your job is to frame the bride for her special moment in the spotlight.

Of course, we know all women are competitive. You don’t see the groomsmen worrying about the fit of their rented tuxes, do you? However, the bridesmaids are not in a beauty contest, as the bride has already won the day!

This may be the ONLY DAY in your adult life when body confidence is totally irrelevant! So relax, climb into that ugly, and probably expensive bridesmaid’s dress destined for the donation bag the following week, and party on!

For the other 364 days of the year, when your body confidence journal reflects your self esteem’s ups and downs, create more ups than downs with a quick call to Coach Stephanie Wood, your body confidence champion!

Share Tags: stop body shaming

Who knew that for “so many years I’d go to bed and be like, ‘Please wake up with Kate Moss’ body,” said reality star Kelly Osborne to USA Today in Tuesday’s interview for her book launch.  She continued to say, “Please wake up with all these different things that would make me accepted and fit in…and it’s so miserable.”

Photo credit: Jordan StraussInvisionAP

Those miserable feelings of not fitting in because of our appearance may be the only thing we have in common with Kelly Osborne and other celebrities who appear regularly on talk shows, podcasts, and book covers to share their body shaming stories with the rest of us.

Who knew that behind the couturier clothing, $300 haircuts, and fabulous appearances at the “in” places to be, those women we envy share moments of misery based on the false pressure to be something they aren’t: Perfect.

After many years of therapy, Kelly concludes “It’s Ok not to be perfect.” Some of us already know that and without years of therapy, because who can afford all those hours spent on some high paid professional’s couch to tell us what we already know from our body’s knowledge?

We are already flawless! Excellent in every way!

How do we know? When we communicate with our bodies, she tells us so!

All we must do is listen!

How to we listen?

We get up and move! Try it now:

• Stand up,
• Breathe in,
• Reach up,
• Breathe out,
• Step up!

There, feeling “excellent”!

If not there yet, repeat.

That’s your body knowledge in action.

For more information, contact me!

Share Tags: stop body shaming