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embarrassment because of the dark hair that grew on her back. The gods decided it was time
to remind Julie of her wings. One day, as she stared in the mirror at herself with disdain, she
noticed that the hair on her back was the imprint of beautiful black wings.
Julie’s story forever changed the way she saw her body. The hair was no
longer a source of shame but a whimsical tale of beauty and grace. What
body shame taught her to hate she taught herself to love through the magic
of a new story. We have the power to change the narrative of body shame in
our lives. We are not bound to the tales of teasing and criticism we were
subjected to as children. The good news is we are the authors of our own
lives. Let’s make every day an ode to radical self-love.
Unapologetic Inquiry #30
As children, we loved the unconstrained power of imagination we
encountered in fairy tales. We could be an opulent princess, a cunning
wizard, a talking dog. There were no boundaries around our
possibility. Making a new story reconnects us with our unbounded
possibility. What story have you been telling yourself that is binding
your possibility? What would be possible if that story were different?
Pillar 4: Collective Compassion
Tool 9: Be in a Community
In her book The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown writes, “One of the
greatest barriers to connection is the cultural importance we place on ‘going
it alone.’ ” 12 Somehow, we’ve come to equate success with not needing
anyone. Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very
reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve
divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help.”
The truth is that we are both. Radical self-love is not a solo journey. A
complicated and multilayered amalgamation of systems, structures, and
experiences authored our body shame and built the larger social complex of
body terrorism. We cannot dismantle that system in isolation. Science has