When Arabella Weir’s Insecure Woman character in the ‘Fast Show’ said her ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ catchphrase it worked because it was a meaningful trope which many women ask themselves. It’s that nagging daily background music orchestrated by a misogynistic media continually propelling the ‘perfect’ woman as a flawless beauty in a size 10 dress.

Now, at a rational level, we know that this is a small percentage of all women. But that doesn’t prevent us dashing back to spin and zumba classes and tasteless bowls of salads in the wake of Christmas excess. We need to be fit and healthy, but that’s not the same as trying to be something other than ourselves.  So why do women worry and internalise such sexist thinking? Aren’t we okay as we are? What’s wrong with the magnificent diversity of shapes and sizes that women really are?

Well the  ‘make her better’ diet and beauty industries aimed almost entirely at women and designed to create and profit hugely from our mass-produced angst, wouldn’t be doing its job, if it didn’t act as a doubting echo-chamber for every woman. This includes young school girls planning their future boob jobs and Botox injections. And now that Christmas has come and gone mince pies and brandy butter and all the other stuff devoured with abandon are now out of sight and should be out of mind. Size obsessed and anxious we start another diet, resolve to drop a dress size, but lose motivation before January’s out.

Here’s the deal – when we as women start valuing ourselves for who we are, bumps, curves, warts and all we will feel more empowered, more able to shut out the bugle call to be Ms Perfect from the media and the diet industry. We could then look in the mirror and see ourselves in our magnificence rather than being thrown into ambivalence and media induced guilt for being who we are.

So if, as an intelligent, thinking woman you continually worry about your size and shape and this becomes a barrier to valuing yourself, and to the variety and diversity of your contribution, what can you do?  How can you capitalise on your brilliance?

What if there was someone working alongside you, raising your awareness of those unconscious beliefs that prevent you from accepting yourself as you are? And what if that person enabled you through life coaching, to transform your doubts and construct new avenues of possibilities? By working with you in this way, life coaching with Winning Pathways Coaching, will bring out the best in you, prod you if you flag and encourage and applaud you as you emerge, knowing and valuing who you are, ready to achieve great things.

If you are interested in life coaching with Winning Pathways Coaching, contact Claudia now here.