acceptance

I took for granted the effort of something so seemingly common. I had survived a serious illness. Shouldn’t everything be easy forever after?

No Straight Lines: The Path Of Living With Chronic Illness

Chronic illness and injury has taught me — is still teaching me — patience. These days are not a consolation prize for what I didn’t win, for where I didn’t or couldn’t succeed, for a better life I might have had if only…They are my life.

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I reject the insistence that a woman can’t choose what makes her feel beautiful without regard for the judgement of others.

'One Creates Oneself': On Being A Feminist Who Loves Makeup 

I reject the insistence that a woman can’t choose what makes her feel beautiful without regard for the judgement of others.

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"My spiritual practice evolves with life lessons, as does my feminism."- Lisa Factora-Borchers

Feminists Who Embrace Spirituality — And Why

In the hopes of finding a starting point to engage the complexities of the feminist spiritual experience, I interviewed feminists of different faiths: Hindu, Muslim, Judaism, and Christianity. And their thoughtful, introspective responses to my questions on the reconciliation of feminist politics and religious practice left me wanting to learn even more.

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"The body positive movement strives to put forth one idea: that all body types are valid, regardless of their shape, size, or disability." Image: Thinkstock

Your Body Positivity Needs To Include More Than Just You.

It’s pretty easy to see why people would want to rebel against [our current standard of beauty] — it’s unattainable, and even for those who manage to reach something close to it, it’s often unsustainable. However, in rebelling against the oppressive system, we run into situations where people denigrate others who happen to more closely fit the description of what we recognize as the ideal.

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You aren’t wonderful despite these things that make up who you are. You’re wonderful BECAUSE of them. Image: Thinkstock.

I Don't Want To Be Your Exception

Whether it’s your ethnicity, your religion, your sexuality, you do not deserve to be loved in spite of who you are — you deserve to be loved for who you are. Those things are a part of you, and they shouldn’t be swept under the rug or pushed to the side so someone can pick and choose the things they like about you.

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She explained that she had been caught off-guard and had been projecting her own deeply-rooted body image issues onto me. Image: Thinkstock.

Why I Defend The Person Who Rejected Me

Once I became a body positive writer and speaker, I told the story of that night on podcasts and in interviews as an example of the sort of reaction I was afraid of prior to my video about my excess skin going viral. Every time, the interviewer made a comment about how Dana was “the ugly one,” not me. And every time, I told them I didn’t want her to be vilified or insulted.

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For people who feel things deeply, just BEING is an intense experience. Image: Thinkstock.

4 Survival Tips For The Sensitive Soul

Dear Sensitive Soul: Are you having a hard time right now? Me too. I think a lot of us are.

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I’ll teach him not to fear making mistakes or be ashamed by his failures. Image: Thinkstock.

Why I'll Teach My Son To Embrace The F-Word (And It's Not What You Think!)

Growing up, I'd been taught to never think, breathe, or even utter this F-word.

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