Learning Curves: Living Your Life in Full and with Style - Michele J. Weston - Hardcover - 1 ED

Living Your Life in Full and with Style The lens through which I view my body and my life has changed forever. For the last fifteen years, I have been on a journey -- the journey to find happiness with and within my bigger body. I traveled far and wide without leaving New York City. The places I visited didn't require a passport or a suitcase full of clothes. All I had with me was a mirror, my memories, and a journal. They would unravel the secret that I had for so long wanted to reveal. The search was to find my beauty and my style. What I found in the process was all this and much more. My discoveries have culminated in Learning Curves. This book documents each step I took in order to find fulfillment in the fuller figure I am now proud to own. Like most journeys, there were days of sunshine and days of rain. There were moments when I wanted to go back home, cut the journey short, and begin again at a later date. But I didn't. Because I knew that if I chose not to complete the journey, my life would continue to be marred with unhappiness and insecurity. Creating a life that would make me truly happy required letting go of the negative beliefs that had caused me pain. It was this desire that kept me searching. I have met thousands of plus-size women in the last three years through working at Mode magazine. Whether I've been commentating fashion shows across the country or at the office finding clothes for the magazine to cover, all of them inspired me to continue my journey to feel beautiful inside and out. This book is a product of their encouragement, support, and love. The experience of writing Learning Curves now gives me the opportunity to inspire every full-figured woman to find her true style. Twenty-two of the women whom I have encountered over the last ten years inspired and guided me in my journey to find self-love, self-style, and self-assurance. I know their stories will do the same for you. Some of these women are friends I have come to know well, and others are women I have met only briefly. But all have touched my life deeply. Each of them took a different leg of the journey with me because each had a unique and profound experience of the particular subject at hand. Whether one woman was learning how the past was still creating her current reality or another had learned how to be comfortable with her body, each of them reveals how she found freedom and her own style from the lessons her experiences taught her. Their stories punctuate the eight steps of this book's learning curves. These women are all big, all beautiful; some are famous, some not; they cross the divisions of age, race, and occupation. But all are extraordinary in their capacity to celebrate who they are and embrace living fully and feeling beautiful in their bodies. The eight steps that have enabled me to find my beauty and style encompass the learning curves that I invite you to take. I will be your guide, and will take you by the hand and show you every step of the way. As a big girl myself, I know what it's like to have the world slap you in the face because of your size. I have suffered the pain of being told that I couldn't fit in because of my weight and I have felt the frustration of believing that the only way I could be measured was by a number on the bathroom scale. I bought into that beauty myth. I have lived with the shadows of my own past, weighed myself morning and night, dieted and binged, been overlooked at dances, and have been ignored at times by a world that has seen beauty only on a very small scale. But not anymore. These eight steps have given me the power and the permission to feel beautiful. I wouldn't change myself for the world. Here are the eight steps, included in which are twenty-nine learning curves. Each will bring you closer to feeling and looking beautiful. Step 1 asks you to understand how your past has shaped how you see yourseWeston, Michele is the author of 'Learning Curves: Living Your Life in Full and with Style - Michele J. Weston - Hardcover - 1 ED' with ISBN 9780609605806 and ISBN 0609605801.