acceptance

Happiness Seeker

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Gigi in My Life 2 Comments

A year ago I was in the throes of my son’s high school graduation, transitioning to being an official empty nester, as my son prepared to depart to upstate New York for college while at the same time juggling my young photography business. I’ve been thinking about time and how we can mark our lives by these little landmarks. Birth. Preschool. High School. College. Career. Marriage. Children. Repeat the cycle with your own kids and add in some unfortunate mishaps such as, death, illness, unemployment, aging parents, addiction, divorce, etc. and you have this thing called life.

I’ve learned that it is those unpredictable moments that keep life interesting- those moments when you feel literally on the edge, those moments where your heart just drops to the ground with no warning, moments where you wonder how will you go on? Like your son coming home after Thanksgiving and not returning to school, or a friend unbeknownst to you is suffering from depression and decides to check out permanently. These moments reinforce how important it is to embrace each day and live your life to the fullest.

Deleting what no longer gives you pleasure and restructuring your life to the best of your ability. Like when my son came home from school I encouraged him to take some cooking classes, which he did and as a result he catered a dinner party for 16 people a few weeks ago, discovering a passion that he did not know he had.

I’ve always been a “happiness seeker”. I don’t function well under duress, matter of fact I shut down totally, rejecting the source of madness. This started a long time ago when I was a child, my mother and father would argue most of the time, loud screaming matches and I remember going into the closet and hiding until it was over. I was also the person, who would walk off a job not knowing how I was going to pay next month rent because I was not “happy” with the situation.

I will always continue to grow as a woman as long as I am on the planet- embracing my passions, regardless of naysayers, willing to take risks, willing to change something that is not working, understanding that failure is a big part of the growth and is a good thing.

Happy Monday! I know it has been a while –

Xoxo,

Gigi

ON Bodies and Other Things

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Gigi in Beauty, Well-Being Comments Off

Breaking the 55 speed limit, has its bumps in the road- not that I’m obsessed with my body, but yes I do want to be fit and healthy and if a side benefit is a toned physique I’ll take that. So I’m on top of my workout game, which is keeping me sore on most days. Working out in a high intensity class where you are the eldest in the room will take a toll on you, but I’m doing it. I just want to keep the middle age spread at a distance, I don’t want to come face to face with it, at least not at this point, I still like body conscious clothes and want to rock them for a bit more.

So as I’m limping around this weekend, I came across this photography project called 4th trimester bodies, which is a collection of images of women and their small babies showcasing their bodies. The images are so real and raw, these mothers and their post birth soft bodies are beautiful. I started thinking about the standard of “body beauty” that women are judged by and who sets that. Like why am working my butt off to have flat abs, some sort of waist and a tight ass…all of which may be mission impossible anyway.

In my own business, I photograph a lot of women and most no matter what size or age they are will immediately zoom in on their bodies and ask if something can be tweaked with a little photoshop. I remember when I was younger, a lot younger in my 20’s I thought I was the “bomb”, now I get 20 something year-old gorgeous girls that want images photoshopped, but I guess we are living in a world where celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, and Bey are photoshopping instagram pics, so everyone has a warped sense of reality.

Then there are the diets, the juice cleanse, paleo diet, atkins, master cleanse, gluten free, HCG 500 calorie and countless others, all of which work if you follow them, it is when you go back to eating “normal” that all the weight returns sometimes even more than what you started with and now a jacked metabolism where you look at a cookie and gain weight. I personally love good food to much, which is my problem, and could never stick with any plan long term, especially the low calorie ones, where the weight comes off so fast and the consequence is a sunken in face, not good for my age demographic. So the trade off fat butt and full face or skinny butt and sunken face…I chose the first one.

So friends as difficult as it is, lets work toward acceptance and stop the self loathing–cause at the end of the day there is always going to be some one thinner, younger, tighter body etc. just be the best version of you. So I will work on loving my golden age body, and the bumps and lumps that I have earned over the half century it has been on the planet. I’ll do my workouts for my overall well being, BTW nothing feels better than a good sweaty workout- and I’ll take any cosmetic gains as well.

Happy Monday

Xoxo Gigi

Gigi @ 55

Gigi’s Meanderings around the Web #15

acceptance

Happiness Seeker

ON Bodies and Other Things

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