Empowered By You

Hi Friends!

I know it has been a while, and I apologize for that.  Turns out doing at least one yoga post a week for Fitness, a photo shoot a week, videos every week, teaching two classes at the Movement a week, doing all of my privates, AND having two babies is *a bit* time consuming!!  And, not too many people comment on my posts, so I’m not sure anyone reads them??! But, I digress :)

Recently, I was honored to be invited to participate in a new campaign for an amazing company called Empowered By You – a social enterprise that repositions women’s underwear from a symbol of seduction to one of empowerment. Twenty percent of the net profits go to empower women out of poverty and into business via micro finance.  For National Women’s Month, they launched a full scale Instagram Campaign asking what empowered each person who they reached out to, because “What Empowers You, Empowers Women Everywhere.”

When they first contacted me, I actually didn’t respond to the email, because they sent sample photos, and the shirts you were meant to wear in the campaign were cropped very high, and the only other article of clothing was a pair of their underwear.  I have come a long way in terms of weight loss, body acceptance post-baby, body love for the miracles it has created, and pride in how strong I feel these days.  HOWEVER, if there were one part of my body I would choose to cover, it would be my lower belly, which was precisely what would be on display if I participated in this campaign. The more I thought about it, and thought about how I LOVE aligning with brands that give back, I LOVE the idea of empowering women who need empowerment, I knew it was something I had to do.  So, I emailed back and said yes.

Picking my word was NOT hard, when I closed my eyes and thought about what empowers me, the answer was clear as day, and simple as could be: my girls, and the love I have for them.  Love.  My word was love.  I am Empowered by LOVE.

Doing the actual photo shoot, in front of actual people (even if it was my Qinetic family), was terrifying.  But, when all was said and done, and the post was up, I was super proud of myself for doing it.  There is that saying “do one thing every day that scares you”, and I think I know why.  When you do things that scare you, and push you out of your comfort zone, when it is done, there is a rush, and it feels INCREDIBLE.  You show yourself that you are stronger / braver / more flexible / more intelligent / more capable / more fill-in-the-blank than you even knew.  That’s a pretty amazing feeling.  When is the last time you did something that scared you?

If you were to participate and pick a word, what would your word be?  I would love to know, please share in the comments below!

Love and Light,

Heidi

Xoxo