RSSSites To Know : Inside Out Style Blog by Imogen Lamport
January 20, 2010
I don’t buy into North America’s adulation with the winners of the fame and fortune lottery, so I particularly enjoy sites and blogs written by non-North-Americans. We hero worship celebrities and in trying to look like them, we don’t like our own looks. But it’s THEM that look crazy. We’re the ones who look normal.
Read moreProduct Review : Paula’s Choice Resist Barrier Repair Moisturizer
October 19, 2009
This article may be better titled “The Language That Sells To Women”. It is not a review in the traditional sense. I apologize if I offend, that is not my intention.
Read moreSqueeze by Tracy Effinger
August 18, 2009
She’s gorgeous, she’s powerful, and obviously doesn’t buy into the Barbie body mentality that fitness people are probably pressured with, especially if they work with celebrities.
How fascinating would it be to have lunch with this woman. Her mind thinks way beyond the surface of things. Finding the connections between seemingly separate elements is one of the great talents of female brains. It always sends a spark in me when I see it.
Growth Occurs In Recovery
August 14, 2009
No one can go from 0 to 100 instantly, nor should they. You’d miss out on the real appreciation of what 100 is all about. The fastest way to move forward may be to create some aerodynamic drag to slow ourselves down. Let success find you.
Read moreFitness Magazine July/August 2009: A Keeper
August 6, 2009
The best thing about this magazine is that it feels like it’s for the real world. It doesn’t harp on the weight loss, I-got-to-a-size-6, thing as much as the health and strength benefits. This is not an anatomy lesson or a journey beyond your outer limits. It is intended to be practical and motivating.
Read moreSites To Know : Pretty Your World
January 9, 2009
I’ve been waiting a year and a half to find Pretty Your World. I read the entire thing in 3 hours. There are other color sites out there but few hold a candle to this one because it is so much more a teaching site than a marketing site. In most cases, the marketing is only thinly veiled by an attempt to teach, but PYW is about teaching and it does so outstandingly well.
The most important image tool
You may know how much importance I place on getting your colors right to look good. The terribly overdone choice of black for evening. The ubiquitous blonde highlights. The supposedly safe charcoal gray or navy suit. They just don’t work on everyone. Ellen DeGeneres in black, Nicole Kidman in washed out blonde hair, even celebs get it wrong.
We all notice it, not just people who like color. The dress you complimented someone on but really thought didn’t look special at all. The friend who spent a fortune on a new coat and she really looks pale and washed out, but you felt you had to say something nice. The warm brown hair on women with no warmth in their skin, so the hair takes over the face.
I really like Color Me Beautiful’s first book because it was my introduction the 4 color season way to analyze people’s colors. It made the whole thing simple enough to understand. It is unbeatable as a place to begin but there were still people I couldn’t fit into the scheme. I get most confused by celebs with hair dyed the color of corn or Springs with brown hair (like Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music, who seems most often thought of as Spring). Or why some women that I’m certain are Autumns look so good in black. I’m hopeless with women of color. Ask and it shall be answered. Along came Pretty Your World.
Lora Alexander
Lora Alexander is an esthetician, a makeup artist, and a Certified Image Consultant. Color and Art are her primary interests, with close second loves of makeup, color analysis, and beauty psychology.
The 12 Season System
The system is based on a more complete 12 Season color analysis, which Lora believes to be the ONLY accurate system there is, and I absolutely agree. The 4 seasons we know are broken down to each have 3 sub-categories. You don’t begin by finding your season. Rather, you find yourself in the 6 descriptions of Deep, Clear, Light, Soft, Cool, and Warm. Secondly, you identify yourself among the 2 choices of Warm or Cool. Combining the first 6 and the last 2 gives you the 12 combinations. So you could be Deep Winter, Cool Winter, or Clear Winter. The breakdown is found on the Analyze Yourself page.
There are plenty of examples, using celebrities. There are excellent but not overly detailed explanations. The system is broken down in various ways, in a stepwise process, to help you find your place. There are links using Eye Color and Hair Color to help guide your choice. It is unbelievable to me that Lora began this site only 2 months ago. She’s already created THE best teaching site about personal color analysis on the internet.
A walk through PYW
I was completely amazed to see how much Lora and I have in common – like our love of Kevyn Aucoin, our belief in Paula Begoun’s work, our over-40 vintage, our season (Autumn), the fact that we colorcast people within a few minutes of meeting them (though I’m not nearly as good at it as she is), our thriftyness (but we are not cheap!) and our passion for finding beauty advice that works in the REAL world.
She doesn’t pull any punches. We are in perfect agreement when she states, in The Truth About Beauty , that the cosmetics industry lies to us day in and day out and we still can’t give them money fast enough.
Though it may be not be fair, she is also right that we are judged immediately by others and most of it is on appearance. We are not judged on whether or not we’re Gwyneth Paltrow look-alikes. We are judged on the use we’ve made of what we have. Following the “Even someone naturally beautiful…” link on that page will take you to the famous Dove billboard ad and how much artifice the beauty industry is based on. Empower yourself. Learn which products work. Learn your colors.
I love Celebrity Style because it shows celebs in their various hair color tryouts.
Just for fun, but fun it is, there are 4 pages of celebs without makeup. Would we look twice at any of those faces in the mall or pushing a grocery cart? We would not. Their 5’10”, 110 lb bodies, maybe.
How to most improve your looks
I totally get that not everyone wants the bother of makeup. Most women probably don’t. But, listen. Makeup is EASY once you know your season. Your makeup colors ARE your clothing colors. It’s all right there. Even your hair colors are in your palettes!
What I don’t understand is why a woman would not take the time to know her colors just to make good clothing choices. It totally transforms how you look. Why spend $200 or $100 or $10 on something that not only doesn’t flatter your looks, but actually detracts?
You might prefer a certain style of dress or cut of jacket and nobody could argue with your taste. But only 1 of the 3 Springs will ever look gorgeous in black. A Summer never will. You might as well paint a drab grayish foundation color on your face, darken the shadows under your eyes, and get it over with.
I know Autumn women reading this will be saying “I like ballet pink and I’m g.d. well going to wear it.” Do what you gotta do. Hopefully the pink thing doesn’t cost a lot. You will never look rich, vibrant, and powerful in pink. Wear it but not to a meeting. Or an argument. Or a 10 year reunion.
Experiment with success
Many women have some sense of what colors suit them but there’s still a lot of confusion out there. The whole topic seems intimidating. They might have a sense of their general category or some good safe basics. To find a collection of 50!! colors that would be great on YOU – now that’s a gift. You could be more adventuresome, get away from safe, and look amazing.
Where do you start? How do you find your colors when you go shopping? Well, you start here. Like everything else, you get help when you need it, even if it costs money. You send in your picture. You buy the swatch book. You take it shopping. The swatch kit on Lora’s site, and all the extras that come with it, looks fantastic.
Remember the articles on Gift Ideas 1 – 5, back in December? Well, no gift, and I mean NO gift, NONE, could come close to buying a woman her color swatches. Gift certificates are available but the surprise and gratitude of giving a woman her own colors would be worth it.
The palettes themselves aren’t at PYW – or anywhere on the internet. Lora recommends looking at the book Color Me Beautiful’s Looking Your Best for good explanations and 28-color layouts of each of the 12 Seasons, with verbal descriptions of the full 48colors for each season at the end. (The Click to LOOK doesn’t work, it’s just coming from Amazon.)
I bought this book and it’s pretty good. The best thing about it is that it explains the 12 Season system quite well, particularly how a season can crossover and borrow colors from another season. This expands your palette but in a controlled way that is understandable. There is still the hair/clothing/style advice but it’s outdated (the first version was published in 1991). Most disappointing to me was that the 28 colors are hard to see. They look like they’re painted on concrete, grainy and rough. The swatches in the original book were better. Still worth it for the explanation of the 12 Seasons if you’re into it, though.
Have your colors done!
Still don’t believe your color analysis can be done on the internet? In a future post (once I know the date, I’ll post it in the Upcoming link on the front page of this site), Lora will do an in depth color analysis using pictures of me with makeup, without makeup, close-ups of my eyes, and pictures of my hair color when I was young. I’m off to her site to fill out the questionnaire.
Take a serious look at what you get for $89.95 on that same page.
-->I’ve been waiting a year and a half to find Pretty Your World. I read the entire thing in 3 hours. There are other color sites out there but few hold a candle to this one because it is so much more a teaching site than a marketing site. In most cases, the marketing is only thinly veiled by an attempt to teach, but PYW is about teaching and it does so outstandingly well.
Read moreThis Month In O Dec 2008 : Feed Your Right Brain
November 29, 2008
I love Oprah. Well, everyone loves Oprah.
I don’t watch the show, but then I watch no TV. I just like who she is and who she’s trying to be. I like the magazine more and more.
Those books in her book club… The fiction plots are suicidally dark. The spiritual guides seem completely without grounding, just floating around in the ether, holding on to nothing. I’ve tried wearing my tin foil hat, the one with the receivers at the ends of the antennae, but I still can’t get these Buddha-Lite books. Still, any woman with such awareness of her journey will find answers. She’s just following another of the many paths.
Right Brain matters
In this issue, Oprah is interviewing the author of the book I’m presently reading. It’s a book everyone should read if they want to be future-adapted. The book is Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind : Why Right Brainers Will Rule The Future.
Do many of us still belong to a generation that encourages our kids to be accountants, engineers, computer experts instead of cooks and bedsheet designers? I’d have to count myself in. I’m wrong and doing them harm with my 50 year old advice. Why encourage them to do jobs that machines and Asians already do faster and cheaper and that might not even exist on this continent in 15 years?
What cannot be done by anyone else, here or in Mumbai, is to add the particular stamp of creativity that is uniquely ours. It might be found in the design of the lipstick case, in the emotionally beautiful story that goes with the coat giving it meaning beyond all others, or in the story behind the computer game that gives it value beyond all others.
Right Brain practice
For those of us who are primarily Left Brainers, hope isn’t lost. To succeed in every sense of the word, we first will have to redefine “succeed”. Second, we’re going to have to learn to add some R Brain inputs to our usual L Brain output. In the book, Pink gives us six senses we can develop to get our R Brain cooking.
Every skillset is partially in the gene but can be learned and developed. If you’re not sure where opening up your R brain begins, have a look at Betty Edwards’ most fantastic books, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain and Drawing On The Artist Within. See what you can learn to see in a week. These are not books about changing how you draw, they’re about changing how you see, in a very literal sense. Begin with Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, the first book. Give yourself 7 days and nothing in your world will ever look the same to you unless you’re already an artist.
The basis of it all is that we’ve reached a point of guaranteed physical comfort. We now have the freedom to think more about what it all means. A candle isn’t light and heat anymore, it’s tranquility and uplifting fragrance. Our homes can’t hold our harvest of stuff. The pendulum is swinging away from accumulation for its own sake to owning less but having it symbolize more.
This has great implications all round. At last, we’re getting beyond what things look like. Hopefully, we’ll make the same progress where bodies and faces are concerned. Pink says that he predicts baby boomers are going to do something astonishing. There are so many of them, together with we stragglers, that our combined mental energies will find a way to give our lives reason and worth.
The new News
Every issue brings stories of how women are being empowered to look after themselves and their families, this time with making bracelets. The article on how women brought peace to Liberia, and the movie of the excellent name (Pray The Devil Back To Hell), also raises my head a little higher for all women.
I feel good reading Oprah when I see how humans are helping humans. A surgeon and his all-woman team travel to politically dangerous Zimbabwe to correct cleft lip/palate facial deformity in children. THIS is what should be on CNN every night. It makes you feel good for the right reasons. O is becoming the magazine for the News I want to know, not the horrors they force-feed us.
Does accepting stress help control it?
What I try to come away with and hold on to is the sense of not resisting everything all the time. So the tire was flat, the bank machine ate the card, you weigh 5 lbs more than you want, the window broke, you missed lunch. Why storm and rage? Why not accept and cope? I strive to be one of those people who is inwardly very calm, as Oprah seems to be. The outside may be busy but the center is still. (Those of you who know me can stop laughing. It’s mean and I really am trying.)
In the article on dealing with holiday pressure, and as we know already, it discusses powerlessness as the most destructive type of stress. I don’t know if it’s better to fight and resist all the time or accept. Is accepting a type of resignation and a sign that hope has been lost? The nurses on the surgical team in Zimbabwe notice that the Africans are more accepting of what life brings. Is resisting vs. accepting just a cultural difference or a symbol of our indefatigable belief that things CAN be made better? There were many connected ideas in this issue.
Music and family
With Oprah, Sissy Spacek, and Suze Orman wearing metallic gold, I was glad to see that they didn’t dress Dan Pink that way. Or Dr. Phil for that matter though a Yuletide tie might have been a festive touch.
Fascinating piece by neurologist Oliver Sacks on music’s ability to break through many forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. The comprehension of music penetrates and outlives what the disease has done to the brain tissue. Sometimes, this ability that music has to shine through the darkness even persists for long periods after the music was heard. Why is this not in commonplace use, I wonder? A short article but I found it rather amazing.
The best, best line in the whole magazine is where Oprah says “ I don’t know what I love more, my bathtub or my bed”. Why, I think we might be long-lost sisters (or it just proves that all women are long-lost sisters).
Our first outing together after our reunion really should be to go shopping. We’d go to Target and Mark’s Work Wearhouse. We’d discuss the fact that if someone spends $50 on me, I’d really rather not get a bookmark no matter how pretty and functional it is (from the gift suggestion articles). And the ball of 100 hair elastics for my kids… into the vacuum and the cat, one by one, after they’d thrown it at each other a few times.
-->In this issue, Oprah is interviewing the author of the book I’m presently reading. It’s a book everyone should read if they want to be future-adapted. The book is Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind : Why Right Brainers Will Rule The Future.
Do many of us still belong to a generation that encourages our kids to be accountants, engineers, computer experts instead of cooks and bedsheet designers? I’d have to count myself in. I’m wrong and doing them harm with my 50 year old advice.
Sites To Know : stillGorgeous
November 1, 2008
Here is the website of two British women, Kathryn Hamlin and Laura Barker. Kathryn and Laura might holiday in Greece and think nothing of shopping and seeing plays in London. They use different products than we do. We’d have trouble driving each other’s cars.
The thing I love about this website is the reminder that beyond the superficial differences, women everywhere are the same. It’s especially so as we get older and develop a stronger sense of what really matters in life. We’ve coped with losses, raised children, seen our bodies change, all constants regardless of the language you speak or currency you use. They have a great balancing effect.
Kathryn (in front) and Laura, being cool on a Harley.
We’re all trying to keep our children happy, healthy, and entertained so they become happy, healthy, and successful. We’re trying to preserve our sanity and the last dollar in our wallets. We’re growing and finding ourselves as human beings and exploring the many facets of relationships. Many of us have finally seen how vital our contribution is within our families and to this planet’s wellbeing.
Kathryn and Laura’s site, like AGT, is dedicated to making the most of the mature years. They reject any notion that it’s all downhill, as do I. There is celebration here, not defeat. Hope and love for themselves and their families prevail, not resignation to superficial concerns like, oh heavens, wrinkles!
Kathryn Hamlin.
Laura Barker.
Kathryn’s About Page is sobering. Having lost her sister to accident when she was 14 and her mother to illness at 17, effectively the entire female side of her family, she somehow survived to become a happily married mother of 4. Today, she is 45. Perhaps because she has proven herself such a survivor, life seems to be sending her for a tumble once again with her own health difficulties.
Now this woman could have given in to depression, or simply self-pity. Instead she chose to provide an understanding ear and heartfelt support to those coping with adversity. In strengthening and supporting other women, she is also empowering herself in her own life. Her website provides “an oasis of tranquility”, a place to moan a little, and to receive a virtual hug from someone who’s been there.
stillGorgeous was created in May 2007 when Kathryn and Laura decided to find a new challenge once their youngest children had started school. With no previous computer or business knowledge and after a lot of late night foraging on the internet for information, they built the website themselves. The steep learning curve has continued but it’s a journey they are still enjoying and it fits in well with their family commitments, despite a few grumbles that the home baked goods are in scarcer supply than they used to be!
At the London Premiere of Pirates, Dead Man's Chest (LB on left, friend Carrie, KH on right)
When you browse at stillGorgeous, you’ll find features on fashion, beauty, health, and travel. There are articles on homemade skin treatments, ways to save money and pass a rainy day, and recommendations for great reading or movies. They take on family issues and the working woman’s balancing feat.
Carrie's publicity board, signed by Johnny and Orlando!
The Glam Gals from Fabulous After 40 visit now and again. Deborah and JoJami are Image and Style Experts, and write one of the best sites out there showing women over 40 how to look vibrant, fashion-savvy, and age appropriate. Their latest article at stillGorgeous is all about how to look fabulous in under 10 minutes this fall.
Style Experts Deborah Boland and JoJami Tyler.
Of course, I headed straight to the articles on makeup and looked at some of the Best Cosmetics as voted by the CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women Awards). Since this is a hot button for me, I had to wonder where European women go for independent reviews of products before they buy them. They have access to the same information we do, but what do they actually use?
Most impressive is the ability to create join the sG community by creating your own social network page. It’s a lovely site where you can upload videos and photos, and find women of our age group without having to filter millions of facebook and MySpace pages.
My thoughts are very much with Kathryn right now as she copes with her health concerns. I was very happy to hear that she found so much relief from acupuncture, and this was her first treatment! Hang in there, Kathryn. You have more strength than you know. We all do.
-->Here is the website of two British women, Kathryn Hamlin and Laura Barker.The thing I love about this website is the reminder that beyond the superficial differences, women everywhere are the same. It’s especially so as we get older and develop a stronger sense of what really matters in life. We’ve coped with losses, raised children, seen our bodies change, all constants regardless of the language you speak or currency you use.
Read moreDo You Keep Your Age Secret?
October 6, 2008
Debby wrote a comment recently to an article that got a lot of heat, Why Do You Want To Look Younger? She speaks for many women (the majority?) in that she avoids telling her age.
Paula and Avis at BeautyBunch
Interestingly, I’ve been looking at the Paula’s Choice blog at Beauty Bunch lately. The site is an introduction to Paula and a few members of the Paula’s Choice team away from the office. This is not a marketing site. Topics range from travels, to pets, many of whom come to the office each day, to the TV shows they follow. It’s intriguing to meet them in their regular lives. I didn’t expect to find that Paula would be funny.
2 recent posts are especially pertinent to Debby’s comment. The first is written by Paula herself, at My Thighs Are Not My Legacy.
Avis Begoun, Paula’s sister, is the author of the second article, at Growing Old Well. Avis is a clinical psychologist who specializes in women’s issues, and seems a thoughtful, interesting woman.
I was so happy to see women rejecting the notion that aging must be a setback. Could there be a groundswell of us out there who will decline to buy into the idea that something bad is happening when we get older?
We are stronger, smarter, richer, more independent and empowered, less fearful, healthier, and more vibrant than women of our age have been at any time in history. Why in the world are we the sorriest about it too?
Is younger better?
The young take better pictures. Of that, there can be no doubt. As the inside gets richer, the veneer has taken a few nicks and scuffs.
They need less sleep. Among the top three things I’d change would be the need for 8 hours each night.
Do I care that I have lines around my eyes? Not really. How did these lines get to be so important? They have so little significance. We have so much to celebrate. Why is this what’s in our heads?
Brian Clark wrote an article about Innovation at Lateral Action, a site dedicated to achieving success through creativity and productivity. He had some things to say that are relevant to our topic, and he said them well (if you’re language-sensitive, don’t go there). In Rule Number 5, replace “khakis” with “wrinkles”. Pause for a moment at Rule Number 8 as well.
Does Your Deeper Self care?
I am not leaving this life without having been the best parent I could be. It is my highest calling. Do my children care if I have lines around my eyes? Of course not. They expect it. Someone has to be the Moms and Dads. They want us to look like we can carry the load, instead of trying to run from it.
The deepest, strongest, most meaningful bonds between human beings are ignorant of lines around eyes. Superficial relationships might have a thing about it but is that a goal worth going after? Our skin records the events that have shaped us. The lines are the map to our soul and our spirit. In the lives of the people for whom you are a blessing and a gift, how high does your skin’s elasticity rank?
Is it downhill now?
What of the notion of being “past your prime”? Hey, the hard part is behind you. You’re setting up for the best years if you let yourself enjoy them. Your voice is finally coming on strong. You have some time and some clarity. At 30, I was distracted, careful, nervous. The great real estate looks to be ahead of me, not in the rearview mirror.
There is no need to believe you should have it all figured out. Nobody does. Ever. The best that you can hope for is to have a strong guiding light. The ability to find great happiness in the simplest things is an accomplishment by itself. It’s a big part of “having it all figured out”. Not only are you not “past it”, you’re just arriving. Don’t shut the door in your own face. It took you fifty years to get here!
Can you look at the women you interact with and see those who are retreating behind an age barrier (of their own imagining) and those who are just coming into their own, who seem happier every time you meet them? That’ s not good luck or good genetics. That’s a choice to let luck happen.
Your thoughts are your choice
The more you think a certain way, the more a reality that supports that thought process will exist around you. Things will come to you a lot if you think about them a lot. You will attract a lot. Get your thoughts on the right path. Keep moving forward and adapting to something you’ve consciously decided to believe in.
Through your thoughts and your actions, better things can and will happen. It doesn’t start from a position of having sorted all the variables into their neat little slots. It’s an ongoing evolution in your own head but it begins with choice and determination that you need to energize. These won’t get done for you. The energy for the first step is your declaration to the Universe that your beliefs are about to change. You are the medium for whatever message you choose to send out so MAKE your choice. Build it yourself from the blocks on the table in front of you.
The wisdom of age
Are there are 70 year old women reading this? Have you any advice for us? I try to think about difficult decisions from the perspective of my older self looking back at my life. I’m sure I will not wish I’d spent more time at the office, had a cleaner house, or worried so much about my age. Besides, there never seems any sense in thinking about what you can’t change. The number’s only going to get bigger so we might as well come to grips with it.
Living in a material world
As the gears of your life grind forward, don’t waste your own time caring about fluff. Think about all you’ve done and all that’s part of you that wasn’t there 20 years ago. People just see us as we see ourselves. Be fifty and LOVE your life and where you are in it.
This is your moment. Live it well. Take a stand against the part of you, the concern with age, that you want to evict. Say your age like it’s a good thing. Dredge up enough pride in how far you’ve come and all you’ve learned to say the number like the achievement it is.
Feel the love, sister. It’s real and we’re all here together.
-->Could there be a groundswell of us out there who will decline to buy into the idea that something bad is happening when we get older?
We are stronger, smarter, richer, more independent, less fearful, healthier, and more vibrant than women of our age have been at any time in history. Why in the world are we the sorriest about it too?
Hold Your Ground
September 27, 2008
Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
The mind-over-body challenge provides an ongoing simulation of asserting an intention and meeting the challenge at every workout. You have to dominate the demon that would keep you sitting on the couch. Get used to conquering demons and pretty soon, they start looking puny. Face down an obstacle every day and overcoming obstacles becomes familiar territory.
The expression “Hold Your Ground” has real meaning in movement, as well as being an analogy for strength and determination.
Literally, pull the ground
It means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it.
I bought an elliptical machine at Canadian Tire. It was $299, on sale for 119 ( yes, 119, not 199!). Seemed like a good deal, with just-warmer-than-lukewarm reviews on the CT site. I agree with the reviewers who said the stride is short. But that’s not a bad thing. This feels more like running than stair-climbing or elliptical work. My body deeply dislikes running, and my knees abhor it. This is a great way to get the huge toning and calorie burn of running without the pain. 85% of the reviewers agreed that it was worth it for the price and I concur. Watch your CT flyers, women!
If you kickbox, picture being hard to tip over and impossible to lift up. It means you have to consciously set and harden your pelvic muscles. You can’t solidify your entire body from your legs alone. It has to come from deep in your middle.
If you remember the article Where Strength Begins : Hold Your Body Together, you’ll have seen the analogy of the cross hairs of a rifle in your pelvis (spine Y axis, Earth and Water line X axis). Tighten along the crosshairs and hold the whole thing together. Don’t let it rock unless you’re in control of it.
Take a few Pilates classes. Learn how all movement begins and is empowered from your pelvis. Once you get how to do this, your limbs work smarter, not harder, because the power is coming from your core. Your limbs are then free to move with more grace and yet, more force. A powerful, rock-solid center is the origin for everything you do – in your head as well as your body. Imagine yourself hard to displace.
Here are a couple of brilliant ones with excellent instruction. Both are linked to their page at Collage Video.
Play with your feet
When only one foot meets the floor, feel the ground connecting with the entire surface of a strong, relaxed, and conscious foot. Feel your foot spread out and give your weight to it. Think about a secure, broad, comfortable foot. Have you ever really thought about how your feet connect to the ground? It’s a very calming thing to do and great for balance.
Anytime you leave the ground, land like Catwoman. We all remember the old record players in our parents’ living rooms, right? When you land, don’t let the needle skip. To do that, you have to tighten your pelvic and leg muscles before you land. Land softly, soundlessly, but securely. Much easier on the joints too.
Figuratively
Visualize these sensations as determination and resolve to get what you want. Whatever gets in the way better move because you don’t intend to. Be as steady metaphorically as you are literally.
Know the calm place in your mind that allows your body to find balance. Practice clearing your mind to make yourself secure. The inner calm that leads to mental stability will also be found faster each time you search for it. That sensation is stored in the same place in your head, whether the situation is mental or physical.
Visualize your foundation deeply rooted in the earth. I lose this when I wear heels. I feel wavering and erratic in my movements and how I think others see me. Though they can look nice if you’re standing or sitting, I seldom wear them. I expect it comes with practice but unless the shoe has a solid heel and comfortable toe, well…too often, the walk looks pinched and wobbly, not empowered. It sends the wrong message.
On the front page of the Allure magazine site, there’s a poll asking whether you feel more powerful in heels. 85% of women do! That’s interesting because they don’t look it.
Develop a strong core. Once the center is empowered, whether in movement or life, the actions that follow can be stronger, tougher, and more intense.
Gains, mental and physical, are guaranteed.
--> Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
Hold your ground means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it. The determination you need to get what you want? You own that too.
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