It was yoga that helped me create a new and healthy relationship with myself. It was yoga and meditation that I turned to to help me find the strength to leave an unhealthy relationship. I wasn’t good enough, skinny enough, and strong enough. It ultimately manifested with me marrying a man who constantly validated all the worst things I thought about myself. Thanks guys.īut that ugly duckling feeling never really went away. All was well in the world and I had, as my sister would say, “turned out much prettier” than everyone thought I would.
My hair grew back, I got Invisalign braces in college and thanks to HBO’s hit series Six Feet Under, funeral home families had become cool. Let’s just say, I spent a lot of my childhood being teased and crying in bathroom stalls. Nothing paints a larger target on your back as a child than being picked up from school in a hearse. To add to my awkwardness, my family owned a funeral home. My parents let me get a boy haircut in the third grade and instead of looking like my idol at the time, Mary Lou Retton, I looked like Justin Bieber. Growing up, I was an awkward looking kid with mouthful of crooked teeth because we couldn’t afford braces. Photographed by Sven Hoffmann My insecurities went deeper than my cellulite. At the end of the hour, I would hobble off the table with my lower back on fire from all of the effort it took to keep my ass skyward. On the rare occasions when I would get a massage, I would spend the entire session trying to subtly tilt my rear toward the ceiling to make everything seem rounder and smoother. I used to refuse massages because I didn’t want anyone getting a handful of my butt jiggle. I have womanly hips (easily hidden in tight-fitting luon) and cellulite on my ass that I’ve had as long as I can remember (even luon has its limitations). So while I might be able to squeeze into a size four on a good day, I am fighting an uphill battle with genetics.
My father has diabetes and so did my grandparents who both died young due to health complications. My sisters and I were raised on spam, rice and malasadas (deep fried Portuguese donuts covered in sugar). I come from a large Hawaiian family and I mean large in every sense of the word. But insecurities come in all shapes and sizes. I wear a size four-six and openly admit that my ass looks great in a pair of lululemon leggings. At 5’8”, I am aware that I am tall and slender. I certainly wasn’t always comfortable in mine.īut, before you write this off as another article from a skinny girl whining about her body image, let me concede. Let’s face it, it’s hard to celebrate others for being comfortable in their own skin, like Briohny Smyth (in her underwear-clad video that went viral) or Kathryn Budig (in her nude toesox ads), when we’re not comfortable in our own.
I learned how to accept myself and stop judging others for my own insecurities. So how did I end up in a calendar with legs spread, sporting nothing but my birthday suit? I got on my yoga mat. I now stand corrected, and upside down and ass-side up. What self-respecting woman would ever want to pose naked for public viewing? Doing ass-up yoga poses, no less? Not me. ~ Liz Arch If you had asked me a few years ago about my thoughts on posing nude, my answer would have been: Hell, no! This article was originally posted on Elephant Journal. This article and my buddy Liz make me happy.
You have such a powerful voice and have helped so many others to find theirs. “Thank you for inspiring me to start writing! Your blog, classes, life and message are a source of daily inspiration. I told Liz yesterday on the phone that in my fantasy life “The INSPIRER” is my job title. After I read this fantastic piece, I was even more touched. Liz shared with me that I inspired her to begin writing and to be vulnerable. It was truly an epic experience and life changing for both Liz And I. We had a great time together jumping on the bed and having pillow fights at the Four Seasons. Liz is ambassador to the Santa Monica store and I’m ambassador to the Beverly Hills store. In fact, last year we were roommates when Lululemon sent us, as ambassadors, to Whistler B.C.