Empowering Women with Natori || I am Good Enough

This post is partnered with Natori. But all opinions are my own.

I used to hate my body and dislike myself for a long time. The memory of my mom yelling at me saying how ugly I am and showing me her discussed face seemed to haunt me for a long time. Then I turned 13 years old, my period came and my boobs started to grow. I got yelled at for being a dirty women now. My mom was super ashamed of my body because my boobs were bigger than the average Chinese girls. She made me hunch over so I can make my boobs appear smaller. She yelled at me if she saw I was running, “Are you trying to get those men’s attention by bouncing your boobs?! You are embarrassing me!”. She even made me wear a very tight corset to push my chest flat.

I am 45 years old now and I am still working on correcting the habit of hunching over my back. Luckily, after many years of healing, I have overcome all the shame of my body and truly love myself. I understand my mom was being so abusive because that was how she was raised. I have forgiven her now because I know that is the only way I can free myself. I will not allow myself to drown in the pain. I know I am enough and I celebrate being who I am. A petite woman with a big heart and giant dream to help others become the best version of themselves.

In modern American culture, the definition of a beautiful woman has some unspoken standards influenced by magazines and television shows, things like they should be a size 2, have an hourglass figure and a D cup.  Nowadays, women are swiping through social media seeing all the perfect lives that others have. Once again, as society quickly shaped the false sense of the ideal woman and ideal life, young girls and teenagers are under the impression that they must be perfect to be good enough. They are so stressed with their body, their skin, their hair and so depressed why they are not perfect like all other girls seem like on social media.

People often ask me, how did you grow your large social media following? My answer is always Being Real. When others try to create a Perfect life on social media, I share my real life stories, the good, the bad and the ugly ones without filters. I don’t mind presenting myself without makeup sometimes, less covered up like in this post to make a point. Because being real is more powerful than being perfect.

Why? Because perfection doesn’t exist, it sets us up for failure every time. The desire to be perfect burdens many people and ironically dooms them to unhappiness. At first, we might think that trying to be perfect is desirable. But perfection suggests a state of flawlessness, without any defects. Perfectionism is an extreme form of control. Besides the need to not be flawed, defective, or have any shortcomings, another element of perfectionism is all or nothing. I must give my all isn’t really a bad thing, but when having to give your all means being perfect, and there’s no such thing as perfect, it can turn into… I may as well do nothing. At least if I do nothing, I haven’t really failed and I won’t feel embarrassed or humiliated. When someone pursues perfection it’s really a disguise for their insecurity. It becomes a statement that I’m not good enough just as I am. When we do that, we judge ourselves.

This body is all I have got for this lifetime. I have been taking care of it by eating healthy, going to the gym and getting more sleep. My body is nowhere near perfect but I am stepping out of my comfort zone to celebrate my body by showing my Natori bra. The beauty behind the Natori brand is that they design their bras for every shape, size, and stage in a woman’s life. Each Natori bra style is luxuriously crafted in its own unique way. I love the seamlessly combination of where East meets West, and life meets art featured in their products. The real thing that speaks to me about Natori is their passion to empower and educate women. They have been giving back to The Voice of Free, an organization to end human trafficking in the Philippine’s and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. They also are a force of this international organization called I Support The Girls, to give homeless woman feminine products, raise awareness and educate on homeless womans rights.

I think you all will agree that we love a brand like Natori who has a greater mission than just making money, right? What I love even more is their high quality products. My Natori Elusive Full Fit Bra has quickly became my go to bras. It’s not just supportive and comfortable, it’s also very pretty and make me feel beautiful! Today, with the great support from Natori, I make a stand to love my body, love myself and celebrate who I am as a real woman. If I can go back to the 13 year old of me, I will tell her those words: “Grace, you don’t even know how beautiful you are, your heart, your soul, your smile and your body! You are good enough, beautiful enough, brave enough and, you are enough!”

I am also asking all of you, the real women of all shapes and sizes with your unique attributes, rather than hiding your beautiful body and soul, to just celebrate who you are!

You can read all the Life After Loss series here and Living with Cancer series here and Being the Best of Me here.

Photo credit: Grace Liang/@_lettherebelight_

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|TODAY’S LINKUP PARTY:|

Grace

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